In ancient times when there was no running water, do you know how a city with a million people solved the water problem?
So today, we might as well take Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty as an example to take you to understand the wisdom of the ancients.
According to the literature, the area of ancient Chang'an City was 84 square kilometers, the width from east to west was 9,721 meters, and the length from north to south was 8,651 meters.
The circumference of the entire Chang'an has reached 36.7 kilometers.
As the world's first million-dollar city, it had a population of up to about 1.8 million, making it the world's first city at that time.
Let's think about it, so many people live together, and they need water to eat, drink, and drink every day, and the city's daily demand for water must be huge.
Therefore, the builders of cities should have taken the issue of water into account very early on.
In ancient times, when science and technology were not very developed, in addition to the terrain being easy to defend and difficult to attack, and there were natural hazards, water source must have been a very important consideration before the establishment of the capital.
Therefore, it is important to be close to the water source.
Chang'an is located in the Guanzhong Plain, surrounded by mountains, north of Weishui, south of Qinling.
Such a geographical environment makes Chang'an City surrounded by water on all sides, backed by mountains and rivers. There are eight main water systems around Chang'an, so there is a saying that "eight rivers surround Chang'an". Eight rivers refer to the eight rivers of Wei, Jing, Feng, Li, Wei, Zhu, Chan and Ba, which flow around Xi'an City and belong to the Yellow River water system. The Wei River is a major tributary of the Yellow River, and the remaining seven rivers flow into the Wei River.
These water systems not only nourish the land, but also provide an important living and economic foundation for the development of the city.
In addition to this, the rulers would also build aqueducts.
For example, during the Sui Dynasty, the Qingming Canal, Longshou Canal and Yongan Canal were dug. In the Tang Dynasty, the Yellow Canal and the Cao Canal were dug again.
Most of these artificially constructed water conservancy projects run north-south, and they run through the entire city of Chang'an, and then bring water from the river outside the city into the city.
Through the three major channel networks of Longshou, Qingming and Yong'an, as well as the Yellow Canal and Cao Canal built later, the water is diverted into the urban area and colludes with the Qujiang, Xingqing, Penglai and other pools in the urban area.
These clear flowing waters not only add a lot of grace to the beautiful and magnificent Chang'an, but also replenish groundwater and dilute the concentration of groundwater. The drainage system of Chang'an City in the Sui and Tang dynasties was also more complete than that of Chang'an in the Han Dynasty.
According to archaeological excavations, there are ditches on either side or one side of each avenue. For example, the shape of the ditch on Zhuquemen Street is 3.3 meters wide at the top of the ditch, 2.34 meters wide at the bottom, 2.1 meters deep on the east wall of the ditch, 1.7 meters deep on the west wall of the ditch, the section is trapezoidal with wide upper and narrow bottom, both walls of the ditch are 76 degrees of slope, and the ditch wall is very neatly repaired, without adding wooden boards or bricks, which is the situation of the street.
In general, there are drainage ditches in the square market, and there are ditches on both sides of the street in the west market in the commercial district, and the early ditches have not yet been bricked, but the walls are attached to the wooden boards, and there are wooden posts erected outside the wooden planks to prevent the collapse of the ditch wall, and these wooden planks and pillars and post holes are clearly identifiable.
Both walls of the ditch in the late period are built with rectangular bricks, and the bottom of the ditch is tiled with plain square bricks. According to a report by the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Management Commission, "In the past few years, in the east, west and north suburbs of Xi'an, it has been found that there are waterways built of Tang stone and bricks, as well as waterways connected with tile cylinders and lime, and there are iron gates between the waterways made of bricks and stones, which are different from diamond-shaped and mullion-shaped." …… It may be the sluice gate of the Imperial Palace in the Tang Dynasty".
Such a waterway may be diversion water rather than sewage discharge. Because of this, in the early Sui and Tang dynasties and even in the Kaiyuan period, the residents and even the imperial palace drank well water, and there are many records of sweet water.
Moreover, these water conservancy projects not only supply the domestic water of the whole city, but also connect with each other when the rainy season comes, playing a role in flood control and drainage.
It has a very complete water circulation system, which is also the cornerstone of Chang'an City's continuous prosperity and prosperity.
And the construction of this system, in addition to flood control and drainage, of course, water supply, and the sanitation of the whole city are very, very critical.
In addition, we want to talk about the topography of Chang'an. The topography of Chang'an is high in the southeast and low in the northwest.
Every time it rains, the rainwater can flow naturally into the river along the terrain without wasting it and not causing silting due to too much water.
So, can this water be drinkable? How did the ancients ensure that the water was clean?
In fact, you don't need to worry too much about this. In fact, the author thinks that most of the undrinkable river water today is actually the product and result of our industrial pollution.
In ancient times, there must not have been so much industrial pollution as we have now, and the Central Plains civilization was an agricultural civilization, with men and women weaving, at most it was to develop commerce, and there were so many heavy polluting industries without chemical industry and energy.
In fact, the author remembers that when I was a child, when I was crazy, I drank a lot of water in the tap pipe, and I never had diarrhea or discomfort.
In addition, the ancient Chinese discovered early on that the quality of drinking water can bring about the problem of disease. As early as the Warring States Period, in the "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period", the relationship between "drinking water hygiene" and physical health was discussed in detail, and it was determined that "sweet water is good and beautiful", and poor water quality will cause "carbuncles", "goiter", "swollen feet" and other diseases
Therefore, the ancients did not dare to be careless about the cleanliness of water quality.
In the history of drinking water in ancient China, the habit of "boiling water" also has a long history. During the Warring States period, Mencius said, "Drink soup in winter", that is, drink hot water. After the popularization of tea drinking, "boiling water" has become a trend.
This habit of drinking water will definitely play a role in high-temperature disinfection and sterilization, and under the double guarantee, the safety of water is definitely no problem.
It can be said that the water supply and drainage system of ancient Chang'an is a very large and complex network, and these facilities are all over the city. It was also one of the largest and most complex urban drainage systems in the world at the time.
It can be said that this is also one of the outstanding examples of ancient urban planning and engineering construction. Therefore, there are always so many people who like the Tang Dynasty culture and always hope to dream back to the Tang Dynasty.
I guess that's one of the reasons.
That's all for talking about today, and if you like it, you can click three times in a row.
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