Hangu Pass, Qin Pass and Wei Pass
There were three Hangu Passes in history: Qin Pass, Wei Pass and Hanguan Pass.
Qinguan and Weiguan are both located in Lingbao, Sanmenxia City, Henan Province, five kilometers apart from each other.
In ancient times, the Hangu Pass area was called Peach Grove.
Legend has it that Kuafu was thirsty after chasing the sun. Although he drank all the water from the Yellow River, Weihe River and Daze, he died of thirst in the end.
After Kuafu died, his cane became Denglin - Peach Grove.
During the Yin and Shang Dynasties, this place was called Taolinsai.
The specific year of construction of Hangu Pass, according to the introduction of the scenic spot, is the Western Zhou Dynasty in 1016 BC. After King Wu succeeded in conquering Zhou, he built the pass at Taolinsai where one man could not open the pass and no one could open it, and placed Han Guguan was guarded by heavy troops.
Later, with the continuous rise of the Qin State, Hangu Pass became Qin Hangu Pass.
According to the construction technology and building materials of more than 3,000 years ago, coupled with thousands of years of war, smoke and wind and rain erosion, besides the ruins and relics of Hangu Pass, I don’t know what treasures are left. .
In Chinese history, many important events have occurred at Qinhangu Pass.
The most familiar thing to later generations is Laozi riding a green ox across Hangu Pass and writing the 5,000-word "Tao Te Ching".
Mengchang Juntianwen, one of the famous four princes during the Warring States Period, the story of "cocks crowing and dogs stealing" that happened when he tried his best to escape back to Qi was also at Qinhangu Pass.
Shortly thereafter, a historical story similar to "Crowing Roosters and Dog Thieves" occurred at Qinhanguguan.
Prince Dan of Yan State was in a very dangerous situation when he was a hostage in Qin State. As a last resort, Prince Dan pretended to be an ordinary citizen and imitated the crow of a rooster at Qinhangu Pass in the middle of the night, causing the surrounding roosters to crow along with them, thus deceiving the city gate to open and "passing the gate with the crow of the rooster".
After Prince Dan fled back to Yan State, he directed a very famous drama in history, "Jing Ke Assassins Qin".
In addition, Shang Yang, who made important contributions to the rise of Qin due to his implementation of Shang Yang's reforms, also disguised himself as an ordinary citizen and escaped from Qin Hangu Pass here after the death of Qin Xiaogong Ying Quliang.
Although Shang Yang was eventually captured by Ying Si and returned to the Qin State, where he was tortured by being quartered with five horses, but this is a story for another day.
In addition, another very important prime minister of the Qin State, Fan Ju, also pretended to be dead after being framed and humiliated by the Wei State. With the help of Zheng Anping, he secretly entered the Qin State through Qinhan Valley Pass. , and was entrusted with important tasks by King Zhao of Qin Yingji.
Weiguan was built by Cao Cao to quickly transport food and fodder for horses during his expedition against Ma Chao. Later it became an important channel connecting the two capitals (Xi'an and Luoyang).
During the Anti-Japanese War, the main buildings in Weiguan were destroyed by the war.
After the founding of New China, when the Sanmenxia Dam, the first water conservancy project, was built, Weihanguguan was flooded by the reservoir area.
It is said that there are still remains of an ancient road and a beacon tower ruins.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see it this time.
Although Qinhangu Pass is now listed as a national AAAA-level scenic spot, it is actually quite unworthy of its name. It is more like calling it a "Taoist theme park" built on the Hangu Pass site.
Compared with the actual situation of the scenic spot, the tickets for the scenic spot can be said to be very expensive.
Ticket fee is 75, battery ticket is 20. The most important thing is that there is nothing to see. If we treat it as a park, the nearly 300 kilometers away, not to mention the time spent and the hard work of driving, really feel a bit unfair and unworthy.
There are two small excavation sites in the scenic area, with a total area of about two to three square meters: one is the city wall site, and the other is the Arrow Grotto site.
There is also a "stele commemorating the reconstruction of Taichu Palace" dating back more than 700 years.
Except for these three things that can be called genuine, all the other buildings are newly built.
The Hangu Pass Tower we see now was reconstructed based on the portrait bricks unearthed from Han tombs.
Because I don’t understand architecture, I dare not comment rashly. However, there is a nondescript black gilt artillery model displayed on the gate tower, which is really superfluous and seems to spoil the scenery.
In addition, there are ancient roads and cock-crowing platforms in the scenic area. Due to the lack of archaeological data, it is inevitable that they were built by modern people, and the visit value is extremely low.
It is said that Taoist cultural activities are held here every year, but the scale is unknown.
There are many natural stones scattered on the lawn of the scenic spot, on which are engraved the famous sayings from Laozi's "Tao Te Ching", which is in line with the historical fact that Hangu Pass is "the place where Laozi wrote the scriptures".
I don’t know if it’s because Henan has entered the summer and the weather is extremely hot and is not suitable for travel, or for some other unspeakable reason. In short, there are very few tourists in the Qinhanguguan Scenic Area, and even I am not interested in this trip. Feel sorry.
Fortunately, I went to Hanguan, which was not favored, the day before. Comparing it with Qinguan in front of me, Hanguan can be regarded as one of the biggest gains of this trip.
When I left Qinhangu Pass, I saw workers decorating the interior and exterior of a business-like building in the scenic area.
Qinhangu Pass, which has been diluted to what it is now, if we continue to invest in large-scale construction, will tourists still pay for it?
I hope I am worrying too much and worrying too much.
Next, I will tell the story about the construction of Hanguan. It is quite interesting. I am amused as I write it.