Sangzhi
Sangzhi Ancient Town is a small town built against the hills by the Lishui River. Its original site, Wayaogang, was a tile-making place. In the Western Han it belonged to Chong County. In the Ming dynasty, a thousand-household official named Li Qiao first built an earthen wall over 300 zhang long. In 1729, after the replacement of native rule, Anfu County was established, later renamed Sangzhi County, when magistrate Lian Jiying oversaw construction.
This article is compiled from the original travel notes on the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com); it is a record of trips from earlier years. Time-sensitive information such as ticket prices, schedules, and accommodation prices is subject to the latest announcements from scenic areas and transportation authorities; the itinerary ideas and attraction introductions still have reference value.
Sangzhi Ancient City is a small town built against the mountains by the Lishui River. Its original site was called Wayao Gang, a place for making tile kilns. During the Western Han, this area belonged to Chong County. In the Ming Dynasty, a thousand-household official named Li Qiao first built an earthen city more than 300 zhang long. In the seventh year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty, after the replacement of native officials with appointed officials, Anfu County was established, and only later was it renamed Sangzhi County. At that time, a county magistrate named Lian Jiying presided over the construction of a stone city with a circumference of more than 3 li and built three city gates, so that Sangzhi finally had a proper county seat. Today those ancient city walls and gates are long gone, and only in some thick earthen places against the mountains can one occasionally find traces of the foundations of the ancient city.
Today's Sangzhi county seat is built in a rather fashionable way, with colored bricks laid on the ground and rows of brand-new private and public buildings standing along the streets, and its area has expanded many times over. If tourists want to understand the history of this place, they need only find some materials about Sangzhi and study them, and they will discover that this place, Sangzhi, is very rich in cultural history and tourist attractions.
The most mysterious and little-known history of Sangzhi is the history of its Tusi.
The Tusi of Sangzhi lasted for as long as 800 years. The earliest Tusi was the Shixizhou Military and Civil Pacification Office, established in the fourth year of Kaibao in the Song Dynasty (971). Its leader was Xiang Kewu, who was granted this post only after establishing merit by order of the emperor to carry out a punitive expedition. The office of Shixizhou was built in Shangdong, which is the seat of today's Shangdongjie Township government.
The ninth-generation pacification commissioner after Xiang Kewu, Xiang Shijin, married Peng Zhuying, daughter of the Yongshun Tusi, and had three sons named Zhongjue, Zhongxian, and Zhonggui. After Xiang Shijin's death, with court approval, the three sons separately inherited their father's post, and the territory was divided into upper, middle, and lower Dong, each managed by its own Tusi. The upper Dong Tusi office remained at Shangdong Street; the middle Dong established its office at Yanjingtang in Changlinggang, Shangdong Township; and the lower Dong established its office at Tianjia Village, Lianghekou Township.
Another ancestor of the Tusi in Sangzhi was Xiang Sisheng, originally the eldest son of Xiang Xiufa, lord of Panlong Cave in Bashu. In the third year of Jingyan in the Song Dynasty (1278), he was ordered to come to Sangzhi to suppress the Miao, and because of his merit was granted the post of military and civil pacification commissioner of Huguang Sangzhi and other places. Xiang Sisheng built an old Tusi city in Sangzhi at what is now Guanwuchang, Chapankou, Shataiping Township. When his grandson Xiang Zhongshan was in office, he also built the old Tusi city office at Jiujie Village, Lianghekou Township. The last Tusi king of this line was Xiang Guodong, and in the later period of his rule the Tusi city had already moved to Xinjie Village, Chenjiahe Township. Xiang Guodong had an internal attendant minister named Tang Zongsheng, who rebelled three times and stirred up internal turmoil. The court finally ended the disputes among the Tusi through the replacement of native officials with appointed officials and resettled Xiang Guodong in Henan as a commoner. During Xiang Guodong's time as Tusi king, he frequently clashed with the Rongmei Pacification Office of Hubei. After years of conflict, the two Tusi kings met in the second year of Yongzheng at the Great Rock House in what is now Wudaoshui Township, decided to form an alliance and make peace, and each inscribed four characters on the great rock wall as a memento. Xiang Guodong inscribed the four characters "Shan Gao Shui Chang" (High Mountains, Long Rivers), and the Rongmei Tusi king wrote the four characters "Yi Si Wan Nian" (Remember This for Ten Thousand Years). The two Tusi kings left behind a much-told tale of friendly alliance in history, but these large characters were blown up in 1973 during road construction, and only the Great Rock House still remains.
Besides the two main lines of Tusi kings in Sangzhi, there was also the local chief Liao Yan, who built a castle in Liaocheng, today's Baishi Township, Sangzhi, called "Baidi City." In the southwest corner of Jianjiapo Township, Sangzhi, the two cities of Edi and Tiangang were also once built, by the local chief Tang Zhong and the Miao king Shang Edi. In Ruchaoqi Township, Sangzhi, there are also the remains of the office built by the Tusi Deng Junzhong. Most of the ancient castles in these places have been destroyed, and only some ruins remain.
Sangzhi is the hometown of Marshal He Long. Being world-famous as a red revolutionary base area is another distinctive feature of this county.
From the 1920s to the 1930s, a large group of revolutionaries led by He Long fought bloody battles on this land, leaving behind many revolutionary sites. These include Bamaoxi, where He Long rose up with two kitchen knives; Hongjiaguan, He Long's birthplace and former residence; the Soviet government in Sangzhi county seat; Meijiashan, where He Long commanded battles; Chixi River, the battlefield where Xiang Ziyun was crushingly defeated; and Liujiaping, the departure point of the Red Second Front Army's Long March. Most of the sites and relics in these places are well preserved. Many martyrs who made revolution together with He Long are also very famous in the historical records, such as Wang Bingnan, He Jinzhai, He Ying, Gu Jiting, He Dunwu, He Mangu, He Guiru, Peng Yushan, Yu Yuanxue, Gu Qingyun, Gu Youlian, Gu Yaowu, and Tang Fulin. In addition, other figures such as Chen Botao, Chen Munong, Chen Youwei, Chen Musu, Chen Tunan, Chen Cexun, Yu Guangkui, Gu Zhuangyou, Gu Meiqiao, Gu Yuying, Li Chonghua, Chen Shi, and He Sanwei were also famous local figures. Some served as high officials of the Kuomintang, or were negative figures of the Communist Party. The lives of some of these people were very complex, and some had both merits and faults; these phenomena are also quite worthy of historical study.
In Xiangxi, Sangzhi is also a minority region mainly inhabited by Tujia, Bai, and Miao people. Among these, several Bai townships are unique in the whole province. The Bai people originated in Dali; why did they multiply and settle in Sangzhi, Hunan? There was a long migration process in between. According to relevant research, in 1253 Kublai Khan and the great general Uriyangkhadai led troops on a distant campaign and captured the Dali Kingdom. In 1258, Uriyangkhadai led his army from Yunnan and Guangxi straight to Tanzhou and Ezhou of the Southern Song. At departure, he conscripted more than twenty thousand "Cunbai Army" troops in Yunnan, most of whom were Bai people. After reaching Ezhou in 1259, due to internal strife, Kublai Khan ordered the "Cunbai Army" disbanded. Some of these people returned to Yunnan, while others drifted into the Yangtze River basin. The ancestors of the Sangzhi Bai people, Gu Junwan, Zhong Qianyi, Wang Pengkai, and others, traveled from the Yangtze River across Dongting and then along the Lishui River to the area of Furongqiao, Mahekou, and Maidiping in Sangzhi. The Gu Clan Genealogy records: "Lord Junwan, from Jiangxi traced the Yangtze upstream, crossed Dongting, wandered through Jin and Li, then settled at Tianmen Mountain, climbing vines and following the heights, reaching its uttermost peaks, singing with generous sorrow, possessing lofty aspirations." At that time the Furongqiao area was sparsely populated. When the Bai people came here, they "stuck grass as markers and pointed with fingers as boundaries," and each surname occupied a territory, hence the saying "the Gu family's chisel rock, the Wang family's overturned-pot rock, the Zhong family's lion rock, the Xiong family's fish rock." The Zhong ancestral hall once had two couplets. One was: "From Dianchi Lake, extending the lineage, flying geese and dancing cranes bequeathed afar; settling in Chu heaven, glorifying ancestral models, high mountains and flowing waters prolong the generations." The other was: "Originating from Tian Mountain, settling at Yugui, righteousness yielded the scripture hall, envying Maidi; rooted in Dian land, returning to Huilong, virtue shone upon kindred spirits, leaning on Wenshan." The Gu ancestral hall also had a couplet: "Our ancestors, seeing and hearing much, praised and inherited the classics, transmitting them for a thousand li; our Benzhu is efficacious and responsive, sitting steadily on the leaky boat to ferry all beings." The Wang family temple had a couplet saying: "Rising from western Dian, lodging in Jiangxi, tracing the Yangtze, crossing Dongting, wandering through Jin and Li, settling in Ciyi, establishing a thousand-year enterprise, never to be replaced; arriving in southern Chu, hiding from calamity, planting grass markers, opening fields, striving to settle, thinking of broad benefit, the clan spread into eight branches, long shining over the wilds." The content of these couplets also confirms that the Sangzhi Bai people migrated from Yunnan. The Bai people have multiplied in Sangzhi for generations and have a history of more than 700 years. Their descendants all call themselves "Minjia people," and in language, clothing, customs, and other aspects they still retain many characteristics of the Bai people of Dali, Yunnan. In 1984, after repeated investigations by experts sent by the Hunan Provincial Ethnic Affairs Commission, a document formally confirmed the Bai identity of more than 100,000 people in Sangzhi County, and at the same time approved the establishment of seven townships as Bai townships: Furongqiao, Maidiping, Mahekou, Liujiaping, Ruitapu, Hongjiaguan, and Zhuyeping.
The Lishui River, which originates within Sangzhi's territory, has several tributaries. Around these tributaries there are many remarkable sights. For example, going upstream along the southern source of the Lishui, one passes through townships such as Lianghekou, Chenjiahe, Xinjie, Shanghexi, Liaojia Village, and Shangdong Street. Most of the seats of these townships have beautiful and splendid scenery. Going upstream along the northern source of the Lishui, one passes through Liangshuikou, Shataiping, Bamaoxi, Wudaoshui, Badagongshan, and other places, where the scenery is even more beautiful. The Seven-Eye Spring and Chajiao Stream in Wudaoshui are quite enchanting. Badagongshan is famous for its primitive secondary forest, and Doupeng Mountain, at an elevation of 2,003 meters, is the highest mountain in the province, with an extremely spectacular momentum. There are also stretches of ancient trees, each several arm-spans thick, which are also very rare both within and outside the province.
Another major tributary of the Lishui, the Loushui, flows through Ruchaoqi, Tunhu, and other places within Sangzhi before entering the Jiangya Reservoir. The scenery along the river is also quite wonderful, and this river is currently being developed as a tourist scenic area. East of the Sangzhi county seat, there is also a small tributary called the Youshui, which passes through Ruitapu, Liujiaping, Furongqiao, and Mahekou to the Shuangquan Reservoir. The scenery of several townships along the way is picturesque, among which the dinosaur excavation site at Furongqiao and the Red Second Front Army Long March Monument at Liujiaping are especially famous.
From the Sangzhi county seat, going downstream along the Lishui, one passes through the two townships of Chixi and Lifuta. Chixi River has open terrain, beautiful mountains, and winding peaks and waters. Within Lifuta there is the famous underground landscape of Jiutian Cave, as well as the ancient town of Kuzhu River, with a long bluestone street of more than 500 meters. These two places allow one both to view mountains and enjoy waters, while also experiencing simple folk customs. After the Lishui reaches Kuzhu River Town, going further downstream enters the Maoyan River rafting area within Yongding's territory. In short, as a supplement to Zhangjiajie's core scenic area, the various scenic spots of Sangzhi County are in fact all very worth visiting.