History of Zhangjiawan, Tongzhou District, Beijing
Since Liao and Jin Dynasties, Yanjing (now Beijing) has become the political center, and Zhangjiawan area has a prosperous economy and developed humanities. With the Jin Dynasty building the capital city, soldiers and grain were transported through the southeast river, and ships were built on the banks of Lushui River to cut the Song Dynasty. Like Tongzhou, Zhangjiawan's position is more important. The name of Zhangjiawan began in the Yuan Dynasty. In the 16th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1279), most of Beijing (now Beijing) suffered from the plague of locusts and was short of food. Zhang Xuan and others "built 60 gondolas and transported 46,000 meters of stones from the sea to Beijing" and returned to the north of Luhe River. Because it stopped here, it was named "Zhangjiawan". In the 27th year of Yuan Dynasty (1290), the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was fully opened. In the 30th year of Yuan Dynasty (1293), the Tonghui River dug by Guo Shoujing entered the Luhe River in Zhangjiawan, and the river-sea traffic became the lifeblood to maintain the rule of Yuan Dynasty. This form also makes Zhangjiawan an important wharf and material distribution center before Tongzhou.
In the sixth year of Yongle (1406), large-scale construction began in Beijing, and the transportation of building materials and grain suddenly became busy. At this time, Tonghui River is shallow and astringent, and Zhangjiawan becomes the destination of canal water transportation. The grain and a large amount of materials transported by water to Zhangjiawan are temporarily stored here and then transported to Beijing. In Zhangjiawan, the imperial court has a customs clearance department, a patrol inspection department, a publicity department, a lifting department, a brick factory, a slate factory and an iron anchor factory. There are many merchants' department stores in the north and south of Zhangjiawan, and the traffic is busy every day, and the business service industry is increasingly prosperous. The surrounding storage areas gradually formed settlements, and today's Huangmuchang and Brick Factory villages are named after them. In order to ensure safety, the government appointed a garrison and 500 soldiers to guard it.
By the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese pirates and the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty had long been the confidants of the imperial court. The imperial court feared that Japanese pirates would invade Zhangjiawan northward along the canal. In order to defend the lifeline of water transport, the Ming court approved the petition of Liu Junji, the prefect of Shuntian, that "building a city is easy to defend and help", and ordered Guo Rulin of Shuntian and Ouyang Yu to build Zhangjiawan City.
After the seventh year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty (147 1), all the grain was transported here, and all the southern provinces arrived in Tongzhou, and the number of canal tankers increased greatly. In the seventh year of Jiajing (1528), Wuzhong repaired Tonghui River, and changed the channel below Pujimen from Tongzhou North to Luhe River. The wharf at the northern end of the canal moved northward to Tuerba, Tongzhou, and Zhangjiawan became a commercial and passenger terminal, which is still prosperous. Judges and supervisors were set up in the Qing Dynasty. In the thirty-fourth year of Kangxi (1695), Liuhe Shuima Post, which was originally located in Tongzhou, merged with Zhangjiawan and He Yi, and all the dignitaries and merchants traveling along the canal passed through Zhangjiawan. There are 30 merchants and 3 pawnshops in the city, including the pawnshop opened by Cao Xueqin, the author of A Dream of Red Mansions.
According to various literature and historical data, Zhangjiawan was more prosperous than Tongzhou in the middle and early Ming Dynasty. Because almost all building materials are used to build the Beijing City, the Forbidden City, the Ming Tombs and so on. They are all shipped from southern provinces and transported from Zhangjiawan; From the officials of the emperor in Beijing to the soldiers and civilians, the daily living expenses also depend on carrying donkeys and camels from Zhangjiawan pier to Beijing, and even building stone dams in Mingjiajing. The grain being exchanged for Beijing no longer passes through Zhangjiawan, but white grain, salt, imperial wood and so on. The royal family still needs to transport it to Zhangjiawan or store it. In addition, most of all kinds of tourists who come and go to Beijing transship here, so there are mixed people all day, which promotes the prosperity of small town business activities and inn catering and other service industries.
According to the records of the Ming Dynasty, during the Yongle period, the imperial court built many collapsed houses in Zhangjiawan for the need of grain transportation and rented them to merchants as warehouses. According to the "History of Beijing" written by Peking University in 1985, it was recorded in the Ming Dynasty that "during the Wanli period, Zongshen gave the shops in Chongwenmen and Zhangjiawan to his brother Wang Lu and the third son of the emperor, Axe King, where he collected both store rent and business tax, and invited businessmen to rest and sell goods in batches ..." So even the emperors of the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to this bustling treasure. During the Qianlong period, after Cao Xueqin's best friend Duncheng took a boat to Xianghe, he wrote an article "Journey to Villa in the Woods", which was written when he passed through Zhangjiawan, listened to the gentle voice of the boatman Wu Ge and watched the goods piled up on the shore. Zhangjiawan and Cao Xueqin
Over the past hundred years, Dream of Red Mansions has flourished, with various schools, writings throughout the ages, and each leading the way. However, Cao Xueqin's date of death and burial place have been debated endlessly, and there is no conclusion. 1968 The Stone Carving of Cao Xueqin's Tomb unearthed in "Dafandi" in Zhangjiawan just solved these two problems.