Hanshui culture

Hanshui culture
Hanshui culture

汉水文化

 

“The Hanjiang River stretches and twists for thousands of miles, divided into nine tributaries like nine entrenching dragons,” wrote famous Chinese poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty(618-907) in one of his poems. The Hanjiang River, also known as the Hanshui River, was called Mianshui in ancient times, and was regarded as one of the four major rivers in China, namely “Jiang, He, Huai, Han,” the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, the Huaihe River, and the Hanjiang River. Another famous poet Wang Wei, who also lived in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem that “the Hanjiang River flows through the frontier of the state of Chu, and merges with three major rivers around Hunan, starting from Jingmen Mountain to connect nine tributaries of the Yangtze River.” From his poem, it is clear that the Hanjiang River flows through the Chu frontier and then enters Sanxiang successively. Finally, it collects nine tributaries in Jingmen and joins the Yangtze River.
　　

For thousands of years, people living along the Hanjiang River have created Hanshui culture with rich spiritual and material connotations through their hard work and amazing wisdom.
　　
Hanshui culture refers to the sum of material and spiritual wealth created by all people ever lived in the Hanshui Valley during their social and historical practice. It is a regional culture with strong local characteristics, which integrates many multi-lateral cultures, including Bashu culture, Jingchu culture, Central Plain culture, and Qin culture. It has made valuable contributions to the traditional Chinese culture.
　　
The origin of civilization on the banks of the Hanjiang River is not accidental. Hundreds of millions of years ago, through the orogeny of the Himalayas and the Yanshan Mountains, nine mountain beams rose on the watershed between the Hanjiang River basin and the Yangtze River. Then it formed a landscape where nine streams, nine plains and nine lakes are located in a symmetrical manner, creating a blessed place. The world’s largest, most diverse and most widely distributed oryctocoenosis with both dinosaur and egg fossils in coexistence, and the relics of “Yunxian Man” the earliest ancient human in Asia, are all fully interpreted by the land of the Hanjiang River Basin, showing the vitality and tenacity of life and the wonderful continuity of civilization.

The spark of the origin of Chinese civilization, is shining brightly especially in the shimmering Hanjiang River. There are many legends here, including the goddess Nuwa killing a giant turtle and using its four legs to support the sky, Yin Jifu from the Western Zhou Dynasty compiling the Book of Songs, Qu Yuan from the Warring States wring the great work of the Songs of Chu, the Chinese mythology Legend of Darkness filling the blank before Pangu separating the heaven from the earth. Also, more ancient songs, plays, festivals, and customs have been all inherited to the contemporary time.
　　
Hanshui culture is harmoniously profound and flexible, inclusive and original , and mellow and masculine. Nowadays, the Hanshui culture still influences and promotes the Chinese civilization to inherit from the history and open up the future, and plays an irreplaceable contribution to the construction of a harmonious socialist society.

 

 

汉水文化
　　
　　现如今，汉水文化以其厚重与灵动、兼容和独创、醇厚与阳刚的和谐统一，仍然辐射和推动着今天的中华文明赓继历史，开辟未来，为建设社会主义和谐社会发挥着无可替代的贡献。

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