Qin and Han Dynasties to Tang Dynasty
More than two thousand years ago, the West Lake was a part of Qiantang River. Due to sediment deposition, sand mouths gradually formed at the foothills of Wushan Mountain and Baoshishan Mountain in the north and south of the West Lake. After that, the two sand mouths gradually moved closer and finally became a sandbar, and an inner lake, the West Lake, was formed on the west side of the sandbar. This time is probably the Qin and Han Dynasties. Zhang Dai's Dream of the West Lake records: "The Great Stone Buddha Temple, an old historical research, Qin Shihuang swam eastward into the sea, and the cable boat was on this stone." The Great Stone Buddha Temple mentioned here, that is, under the Baoshi Mountain on the north side of the West Lake, still has the scenery of "the boat stone of Qin Shihuang".
Since the 6th year of the Great Cause of Sui Dynasty (6 10), the Jiangnan Canal has been dug, which is connected with the North Canal and connected with the five major water systems in the north and south. Convenient transportation has also promoted Hangzhou's economic development and tourism activities. The area of the West Lake in the Tang Dynasty was about 10.8 square kilometers, which was nearly twice the area of modern lakes. The west and south of the lake reach to the foot of Xishan Mountain, and the northeast extends to Wulinmen area. Pilgrims can row to the foot of the mountain and then walk up the mountain to worship Buddha. Because the water conservancy was not repaired at that time, the West Lake was sometimes flooded by heavy rain and sometimes dried up due to long drought.
In September of the second year of Jianzhong (78 1), Li Mi was transferred to Hangci history. In order to solve the problem of drinking fresh water, he creatively adopted the method of diverting water into the city. That is, dig six wells in densely populated areas such as Qiantangmen and Yongjinmen, and introduce the West Lake water into the city by "opening the yin sinus" (that is, burying tile pipes and bamboo tubes). Most of the six wells have now disappeared, and only the Xiangguojing site is in the west of Jingting Bridge on Jiefang Road. The other five wells are Xijing (originally located in the west of Guo Xiang well), Fang Jing (commonly known as Siyan well), Jinniu well (originally located in the northwest of Xijing well), Baiguijing (originally located in the west of Longxiang Bridge) and Xiaofang well (commonly known as Ada well, originally located in Qiantangmen, that is, today's Xiaoqiao area).
In October of the second year of Changqing (822), Bai Juyi was appointed as the secretariat of Hangzhou. During his tenure, Bai Xing built water conservancy projects, expanded stone culverts, dredged the West Lake, built dams and sluices to increase the lake capacity, and solved the problem of farmland irrigation between Qiantang (Hangzhou) and Haining. In fact, the dam built by Bai Juyi is near Hanshiqiao outside Qiantang Gate, which is called Baigong Dike, not modern Bai Causeway. Bai built dikes outside Qiantang Gate, built Shihan Gate and stored lakes. He also wrote "Qiantang River Gate" and carved it on the stone tablet, explaining the function of the dam and the methods of storing and protecting it. Today, the site of Baigong Dike has long since disappeared, but later generations borrowed Bai Causeway (then called "Baisha Dike") to commemorate Baigong Dike. Bai not only left behind water conservancy projects that benefited future generations, but also created a large number of West Lake poems. The most famous works are Spring Tour in Qiantang River, Spring Theme Lake and Jiangnan Memory.
Five Dynasties to Song Dynasty
The biggest influence on the West Lake in history is that Hangzhou is extremely prominent in the history of development.
Wu Yueguo and the Southern Song Dynasty. It was in these two dynasties that the West Lake was fully developed and basically shaped.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Wu Yueguo (907 ~ 960) took Hangzhou as its capital, promoted the traffic with coastal areas, and traded with Japan, Korea and other countries. At the same time, due to the worship of Buddhism by King Wu Yueguo, a large number of temples, pagodas, classic buildings and grottoes were built around the West Lake, Lingyin Temple was expanded, Zhaoqing Temple, Jingci Temple Temple, Li 'an Temple, Liu Tong Temple and Taoguang Temple were founded, and Baokui Tower, Pagoda of Six Harmonies Tower, Leifeng Tower and Baita Tower were built, which was once called the Buddhist Kingdom. Lingyin Temple, Tianzhu Temple and Qiantang River were tourist attractions at that time. Due to the geological reasons of the West Lake, the silt accumulation speed is fast, and the dredging of the West Lake has become a daily maintenance work. So, in the second year (927), Qian Liu, King of Wu Yue, ordered more than a thousand soldiers to pull the lake and dig springs to ensure the existence of the water body in the West Lake.
At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Shi, a famous poet, made great contributions to the management of the West Lake. From the Five Dynasties to the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the West Lake died for many years, and aquatic plants occupied half of the lake. In the fifth year of Yuan You (1090), Su Shi wrote "Begging for the West Lake in Hangzhou" in Song Zhezong, asserting: "If there is a West Lake in Hangzhou, people can't abandon it if they have eyebrows." In April of the same year, 200,000 migrant workers were mobilized to dredge the West Lake, and a 2.8-kilometer-long north-south lake-crossing levee with six stone arch bridges was built on it. Since then, the water surface of the West Lake has been divided into two parts, and the north and south mountains have begun to connect. Later generations named this long dike "Su Causeway" in memory of him. According to legend, Dongpo pork, a famous dish in Hangzhou, is a delicious dish that Su Dongpo gave to migrant workers for dredging. Like Bai Juyi, the great poet Su Shi also left many poems in Hangzhou, the most famous of which are Drinking Rain after Chuqing Lake and Drunk Books Looking at the Lake Building.
1 127, after the Southern Song Dynasty made Lin 'an its capital, Hangzhou became the political, economic and cultural center of the whole country, with rapid population growth and economic prosperity, and entered the heyday of development. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Wu wrote in Liang Lumeng: "The customs of Lin 'an are extravagant in four seasons, and there is almost no virtual day to enjoy. There are lovely lakes in the west and rivers and tides in the east, all of which are absolutely beautiful. "Tourists in Hangzhou, in addition to pilgrims, add envoys, businessmen, monks from all over the world, students who take exams in Beijing, and domestic businessmen who come to Hangzhou for trade every year. The scenery of the West Lake began to be widely known. At that time, the boating trip in the West Lake was extremely prosperous. According to ancient books, "there are no fewer than 100 ships in the lake", "all of them are exquisitely built, with carved columns and arches, and they walk like the ground". Lin Sheng, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, vividly described the grand occasion in his poem Lin 'an House. In addition, the poet Yang Wanli once wrote the poem "Seeing Lin Zifang off at dawn in Jingci Temple", praising the beautiful scenery of the West Lake.
Yuan dynasty to Qing dynasty
In the Yuan Dynasty, the West Lake was still a "golden cave" for singing and dancing. Volume 23 of History of the Yuan Dynasty records that in two years (1309), "Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Hangzhou Inn made people pass by more than 2,200 places in half a year, among which lions, leopards, crows and storks such as Sang Wu and Baohe Ding stayed for 20 days and 7 days, and people and animals ate more than 3,000 kilograms." Businessmen and travelers from western regions and western European countries are coming to Hangzhou more and more. The most famous Italian traveler Kyle Poirot praised Hangzhou as "the most beautiful and luxurious city in the world" in his travel notes. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, after the "Ten Scenes of West Lake" in the Southern Song Dynasty, there was also the "Ten Scenes of Qiantang", and the scope of the tour was expanded compared with that in the Song Dynasty. During the period from Yuan Shizu to Yuan Dynasty, the West Lake was once dredged into a releasing pond, and some lakes gradually piled up into mulberry gardens. However, by the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the West Lake was neglected, and rich and powerful people surrounded the lake to cultivate land, which made the West Lake increasingly barren and most of the lakes were silted up into fields.
It was not until the reign of Xuande and Zhengtong in the Ming Dynasty (1426 ~ 1449) that Hangzhou began to regain its prosperity, and local officials began to pay attention to the West Lake. In the sixteenth year of Hongzhi (three years, namely 1508), Yang broke through the great resistance of enriching the people and, with the support of the governor, invited him to dredge the West Lake, which was funded by the Ministry of Industry. According to The Journey to the West's book in the Ming Dynasty, "In February that year, ... was a servant 152 days, a husband of 6.7 million yuan, and a direct silver of 23607, and as a result, the West Lake was demolished by 348 1 mu ..." The dredging project made all the areas from the west of Su Causeway to Hongchun Bridge and Maojiabu flooded. In addition to widening the Su Causeway, dredged sludge also accumulated in the west of Lihu Lake, which was later Yang Gongdi.
In the thirty-fifth year of Wanli (1607), Nie Xintang was ordered by Qiantang County to build an annular long dike from south to west outside the Zhou Xiaoying discharge pond in the lake, forming a unique landscape. In 39 years, Yang Wanli continued to build Wailing, and in 48 years, it was well managed. There are three small stone pagodas outside the pool, which are called Sanchi.
In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong visited Hangzhou many times to promote the renovation and construction of the West Lake. Kangxi visited Hangzhou five times and wrote an inscription for the "Ten Scenes of West Lake" formed in the Southern Song Dynasty. Local officials built pavilions and monuments for the inscriptions, and fixed viewing positions for undetermined scenic spots such as "Twin Peaks in the Cloud" and "Autumn Moon in Pinghu". During Yongzheng period, "Eighteen Scenes of West Lake" was also introduced, which further expanded the sightseeing scope of Hangzhou. Qianlong visited Hangzhou for six times and wrote poems for "Ten Scenes of West Lake". He also wrote the book "Eight Scenes of Longjing", which made the scenery of Longjing in remote mountainous areas attract tourists' attention. During the Qianlong period, brothers Zhai Hao and Zhai Han of Hangzhou co-authored A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of Lakes and Mountains, which recorded that the number of scenic spots in the West Lake increased to 10 16, which was the earliest guide book in Hangzhou. The East and West Embankments of Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace, a royal garden in Beijing, were built during the Qianlong period, and they were also modeled after the Sixth Bridge of West Lake Su Causeway.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the West Lake experienced several times of dredging, and the dredged lake mud accumulated two islands in the lake: Huxinting and Zhou Xiaoying.
During the Yongzheng period, the area of West Lake was still 7.54 square kilometers, but the beach was more than 20 hectares. After large-scale dredging, the area is wide from the west of Xishan Road to Hongchun Bridge, Maojiabu, Wuguitan and Chishanbu in modern times. In the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), Li Wei, the governor of Zhejiang Province, used 42,742 silver to open up the West Lake Road, and built stone dams in Jinsha Port, Chishanbu, Dingjiashan and Maojiabu to store and discharge sand water into the lake. In the fifth year of Jiaqing (1800), the governor of Zhejiang Province set out to dredge the West Lake and build water conservancy projects. Later, Ruan Yuan, Governor of Zhejiang Province, presided over the construction of mound with dredged soil (Ruan Gong Dun). At this point, the outline of the modern West Lake has been formed. Tongzhi for three years (1864), founded the West Lake Dredging Bureau and appointed Qiantang Dingbing as the principal.