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From the late sixth century to mid-nineteenth century  |
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589 A.D. |
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| The Prefectural Seat of Hangzhou was established
in 589 A.D. on the south side of Phoenix Hill 鳳凰山 (Fenghuangshan)
beside the Qiantang River 錢塘江 (Qiantangjiang). Until that time, the
development of the city had relied more on the hill and riverside
fields for fuel and food than on the lake. The area had been known
previously by several names. At that time, the lake was known as Qiantang
Lake. It would be another two hundred years before the name "West
Lake" came into use. With its increasing importance in providing
food and materials to the two capitals in Luoyang and Changan, the
new regional government needed improvements to the transport network.
The extension of the Grand Canal 大運河 (Dayunhe) to the Qiantang River
in 610 A.D. addressed this need. Moreover, in order to ensure its
capability of fulfilling the responsibility to provide food and materials,
Hangzhou was allowed to put a larger area under its control. The city
began to develop gradually northward, from Phoenix Hill toward West
Lake. The extent of Hangzhou City's development as shown by the location
of its city walls can be considered as resulting from these factors.
According to Wang Shilun, the walls extended to today's Qiantang Gate
錢塘門 (Qiantangmen) in the north, to Zhaoqing Temple 昭慶寺 (Zhaoqingsi)
and along the lake in the west, eastward to Yanqiao Canal 鹽橋河 (Yanqiaohe);
and southward to Fenghuang Hill. (Wang (A), 25) |
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766-799 A.D. |
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| Prefect Li Mi 李泌 ordered Six Wells 六井 to
be made in response to city residents' increasing need for drinking
and domestic water. The Six Wells were not dug wells, but small reservoirs
at the ends of pipes. Water was channeled from the lake through underground
earthen and bamboo pipes. Chen Qiaoyi argued that the creation of
the Six Wells began an ever-strengthening relationship between West
Lake and Hangzhou city. (37) Because the lake is the most reliable
and abundant water resource other than springs in the hills south
to the city, its maintenance became important. Officials in charge
of Hangzhou Prefecture were concerned with stopping the lake's natural
tendency to change into a marsh. Additional problems were created
by two human factors. One was the expansion of fields of water caltrops
grown in the lake. (Water caltrops is a uniquely Chinese vegetable.
An annual floating plant, it is grown in pools of still water about
.3m deep.) The other problem was created by powerful families who
enclosed parts of the lake for their private use. Maintaining the
lake as a dependable resource hence became the basis for official
administration of use of the lake. |
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822 A.D. |
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| Prefect Bai Juyi 白居易 submitted a Memorial
to the Emperor initiating construction of dike somewhere near the
northeast corner of the lake. The dike had two functions. One was
to control the amount of water from the lake for the irrigation of
the fields north to Hangzhou city. The other was to maintain a stable
depth of the rivers connecting to the lake in order to maintain shipping.
In the same Memorial, Bai also stated his intention to eliminate the
encroaching lakeside enclosed fields and return the area to the lake.
The fields not only reduced the capability of the lake to provide
water to city residents and paddy fields, but also escaped from taxation,
since they did not officially exist. Under his supervision, a dike
was built, and the encroaching fields were removed. Bai's efforts
further strengthened the tie between the lake and Hangzhou. Hangzhou
itself had become large enough that reference to the lake's position
in relation to itself became meaningful. From his time, the lake began
to be called West Lake, although its old name, Qiantang Lake 錢塘湖,
was still in use. [Bai Juyi's two poems] |
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890-941 A.D. |
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| Qian Liu 錢鏐 was appointed
Prefect of Hangzhou by the Tang dynasty in 887 A.D. After the fall
of Tang, he crowned himself Prince of Wuyue principality吳越 in 923
A.D. One of his major contributions was establishing the form of the
City of Hangzhou that remained basically unchanged through subsequent
dynasties. Lu Jiansan described the City's organization as follows:
a combination of palace or Prefectural Office in the south; marketplaces
or residential areas in the north; and a north-south central transportation
system consisting of a canal (Yanqiao Canal 鹽橋河) and street parallel
to it. The Yanqiao Canal 鹽橋河 cut through the center of the city, connecting
Qiantang River and the Grand Canal. Marketplaces gradually developed
along the both sides of the parallel street. Qian and his son brought
the relation between West Lake and Hangzhou to a new level. Qian himself
organized a force of one thousand men to maintain the cleanliness
and depth of the lake. His son dug a reservoir near the Yongjin Gate
湧金門 (Yongjinmen) to hold water from the lake for public use. When
the water reached a certain level, it could be channeled into Qinghu
Canal 清湖河 (Qinghuhe), and then directed south into Caishi Canal 菜市河
(Caishihe) and north into Shi Canal 市河 (Shihe). Both drained into
the Yanqiao River, maintaining its water level and commercial traffic.(30-32)
During this time, West Lake was being integrated into the water transportation
system inside the city, while its old functions as a water supply
were maintained. The east city wall was moved farther east to the
edge of Vegetable Market Canal, allowing the city to expand into the
new area. |
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11th century |
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Before Su Shi's 蘇軾 appointment
to Hangzhou as Prefect in 1069, three major dredgings of the lake
had taken place--in 1007, 1041, and 1062. In 1062, the Prefect Shen
Gou 沈遘 supervised the digging of many wells to increase the city's
water supply. Su Shi's great contributions to West Lake and Hangzhou
were his comprehensive study of the water system, and his regulation
of the use of water.
Three points are particularly noteworthy. (West Lake Gazetteer,
51-58) First, in order to ensure navigability of Yanqiao Canal, Su
Shi built a water gate at its converging point with Maoshan Canal
茅山河 (Maoshanhe) to control water levels. To explain his idea, some
understanding of the function of Maoshan Canal is needed. It lay east
of Yanqiao Canal, connecting the Qiantang River and the Grand Canal,
and ran through Hangzhou City. One of its functions seems to have
been to reduce the threat from the river and sea tides by directing
high flows of water into the Grand Canal. The tides carried tremendous
amount of silt. If the tides flowed freely into Yangqiao through Maoshan,
both would fill with sediment simultaneously. It made sense to establish
a water gate at the converging point, closing it when tides were high
to direct the silty water into Maoshan, and leaving Yanqiao clear.
After most of the silt had settled, the water gate was reopened so
Yanqiao could receive silt-free water. Fewer people lived along Maoshan
than along Yanqiao, making dredging to remove silt less difficult
there, and inconveniencing fewer people. Su's plan assigned a different
function to each canal. As result, the goals of flood control and
maintenance of the transport system could be fulfilled at the same
time.
Secondly, to stabilize the amount of water in Yanqiao Canal, Su
designed a channel to connect Yanqiao to the reservoir where the water
from the lake was stored. The canal passed through Qingbo Gate 清波門
(Qingbomen) and Yongjin Gate. The point of connection was at the upper
part of Yanqiao, which ensured a level of water high enough for navigation.
As a consequence of the new channel, Su also rearranged the water
system inside the city. Previously, the lake water was led to Qinghu
Canal 清湖河 and directed north into the Grand Canal through the Yuhang
Gate 餘杭門 (Yuhangmen). Benefit from the lake was therefore confined
to the northwestern part of the city. Because of Su's efforts, many
more people could benefit from the lake, not only for water for drinking
and domestic use, but also for fire fighting. The risk of devastating
fires became one of the major concerns of residents of a dense city
built primarily of wood.
Thirdly, after dredging the lake and making a dike of the sediments,
Su marked a portion of lake and let people to plant water caltrops
within the delineated area. Unlike his predecessors, Su allowed people
to make living out of cultivating water caltrops. Instead of setting
a group of guards to stop people's appropriation of the lake for private
use, Su entrusted those who had permission to plant water caltrops
with the responsibility of preventing the lake from becoming a marsh.
He made a public announcement that the permission would be taken away
from any person in whose field reeds were found growing among the
water caltrops. The permission would then be conferred upon the person
who reported the neglect to the authority. Naturally, those who had
the permission did not want to lose it, and those who wanted to gain
permission would keep their eyes open. Su effectively made all the
people guardians of the lake. [maps of Hangzhou] and [Su Shi's poems]
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1129-1279 A.D. |
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Hangzhou was chosen to be the capital of
the Southern Song Dynasty in 1129. This choice was made more on the
basis of economic considerations than on political concerns. Among
the cities in the area that the dynasty controlled, Hangzhou was the
most prosperous prefecture in both economic and cultural terms. It
had the capacity to provide dependable supplies of all sorts of goods
to the bureaucracy and the imperial household. The area surrounding
Hangzhou had been highly productive since the late tenth century.
Fuel came from the southern hills, grains from northern fields, vegetables
from eastern gardens, and water from West Lake. Hangzhou had ready
access to the supplies necessary to maintain the Court in appropriate
style. The choice of Hangzhou as capital attracted more wealth to
the area, encouraging imperial and wealthy people to locate their
new mansions among the old monasteries. Consequently, the landscape
of West Lake changed with the construction of a wide variety of buildings.
Human activities became more diverse as economy grew. Restaurants,
places of entertainment, and stores mushroomed inside the city along
the Yanqiao Canal and outside the city around the lake. This development
made irreversible the change in the City's spatial arrangement from
separation of marketplaces from residential areas into a mixture of
the two uses. The City expanded eastward again to include Caishi Canal,
which provided additional transportation capacity in the city.
Moreover, Hangzhou's prosperity attracted tourism. Ordinary people
could spend money and time enjoying the lake like literati, and could
work for profits by serving them. From this context, "Ten Scenes
of West Lake" 西湖十景 emerged into cultural memory, first in the
form of painting, and then in poetry, prose, and as travel guides.
Tourism at that time was generally limited to a single day trip. The
farthest point people could reach on foot in one day was Linyin Temple
靈隱寺 (Lingyinsi). Well-to-do people with connections to a temple would
be welcome to stay overnight, but most people were limited to sites
within a day's walk. People usually set off early in the morning,
and returned to the city in late afternoon. Pilgrims from other prefectures
could find lodging outside Wulin Gate武林門 (Wulinmen) where there was
a marketplace. This area was near the North Custom (a local taxation
point), and had been prosperous since the tenth century. But its prosperity
was strengthened by tourism. Later, the area was called "Night
Market of the North Custom" 北關夜市, and became one of the ten scenes
of the Yuan dynasty. [Yuan ten scenes]
The memory of the capital of Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng 開封,
their old home, did not fade from the minds of officials and painters.
Reminders of Kaifeng were imposed on Hangzhou. Many Hangzhou districts
were named after those in Kaifeng. Memories of the appearance of north
China also survived in paintings of the Ten Scenes of Hangzhou that
show the southern Scenes with mountains in the shapes of northern
mountains. Instead of seeing the differences between mountains in
north and south China, the painters patronized by court adjusted the
latter to their memory of the former. In the process, they established
a conventional style of painting attractive to their Imperial patrons
and their colleagues. (Miyazaki, 205-206) It is true that the circulation
of these paintings was limited primarily to the Imperial circle, and
that the representation style laden with the memory of north China
was not followed in later times. However, it is also true that these
paintings initiated a subject of painting that inspired painters beyond
the Imperial court. [Ye Xiaoyan's paintings] |
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Late Thirteenth Century to the End of
Fifteenth Century |
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| During this period, West Lake was poorly
maintained. No account of dredging work could be found, leaving the
natural process of transformation into marshland unchecked. Appropriation
of the lake for private use was not unusual. The extent of the lake
decreased dramatically, compromising its ability to provide water
to maintain sufficient depth in the city's navigable canals. It seems
that the relationship between the lake and Hangzhou was correspondingly
reduced. Two pieces of evidence indicate this change. First, the South
Custom (another local taxation point) of Hangzhou on the Qiantang
River had been as prosperous as the North Custom until the late thirteenth
century. However, by the mid-fourteenth century, the South Custom
was almost completely abandoned. (Tan, 17) Secondly, the Ten Scenes
recognized at this time were no longer focused on West Lake, but extended
to a wider area, including "Sunrise on Ge Hill" 葛嶺朝暾 and
"Autumn Tides of Qiantang River." 浙江秋濤 |
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1508 A.D. |
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Yang Mengying 楊孟瑛 initiated a major project
to regulate the use of West Lake and its relationship with Hangzhou.
Before him, Wu Wenyuan 吳文元 in the early fifteenth century, Su Yuanzhen
孫原真 in 1456, and Liu Fu 劉敷 in 1483, proposed to improve West Lake,
but their proposals either went unheard, or failed to deal with the
core problems. So it was left to Yang to perform a comprehensive restoration
of West Lake after more than two hundred years of neglect.
His attention was concentrated on three main matters: irrigation,
transportation, and domestic water supply. His strategy to achieve
the goal of regulating the use of the lake relied on three important
administrative policies. First, he defined the lake as property belonging
to the public. It was therefore legitimate to demand return to public
use of areas illegally appropriated by private interests. Second,
he ordered those who had made profits from illegal appropriation of
the lake to accept his offer of compensation. He provided them with
abandoned fields inside the city that previously had belonged to monasteries.
Third, he did not allow private interests to pay tax on the basis
of approximation. He demanded precision. Occupiers could no longer
argue that their profits from the lake were less than those from paddy
fields in order to reduce their taxes. Under Yang's administration,
taxes had to be strictly determined according to the amount of profit.
Therefore, the lake was no longer able to yield extra profits by providing
an opportunity to escape taxation. This policy made acceptance of
Yang's offer of land in the city very attractive, in fact, imperative.
(West Lake Gazetteer, 47-48 and 58)
Yang had ensured that once again the lake would serve the demands
for irrigation, transportation, and domestic water supply. An additional
benefit was the impact of the project on the landscape of West Lake.
Yang widened the dike of Su Shi, which had been long eroded by the
waves, and built up another dike in the Inner Lake 裡湖 (Lihu). Moreover,
he restored the three vase-shaped towers in the lake, which had initially
been established by Su Shi as marks delineating an area where planting
water caltrops was forbidden. Because of Yang's efforts, West Lake
retained some old features along the dike of Su Shi, and its beauty
was restored. |
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18th and 19th centuries |
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West Lake experienced several periods of
repair and improvement in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Provision of domestic water became less important than water supplies
for irrigation and transportation. Domestic water supply was becoming
decentralized, with an increasing number of wells located conveniently
throughout the city. Water for irrigation was essential to maintain
the productivity of the paddy fields around the city. Efficient water
transportation was essential for commerce, and especially for the
salt trade. Both were not merely local, but also affairs of national
importance.
n particular, salt transportation made the water system around Hangzhou
a national concern. Consequently, a special administrator in charge
of the Grand Canal whose power extended beyond Prefecture boundaries
was established. Under his supervision, Hangzhou Prefecture was required
to maintain its part of the Grand Canal and to prevent siltation.
In order to achieve this goal, officials relied on the strategy that
Su Shi had designed: integrating Caishi Canal and Yangqiao Canal into
the system of the Grand Canal, and letting the minor three canals
in the city lead lake water into Caishi and Yangqiao Canals when needed.
(West Lake Gazetteer, 58-67)
Hangzhou's and West Lake's national significance was clearly expressed
in another way. Emperor Kangxi visited Hangzhou five times (first
in 1689, and last in 1707), and Emperor Qianlong six times (first
in 1751, and last in 1784). Their visits were not just to enjoy the
beauty of West Lake. They wanted to demonstrate their Imperial authority
to the people of the region as well. Kangxi renamed the Ten Scenes,
and wrote in his own hand all the new names to "confer"
the scenes. Prefects were quick to build pavilions in order to shelter
the Imperial calligraphies. Scenes that had previously been considered
to consist of a group of features that could be viewed from a variety
of locations were now considered to be a single view from a specific
point. Qianlong recognized several new scenes in the West Lake area,
and wrote another set of Imperial calligraphies to confer the new
scenes. He demonstrated his power in an even more explicit way. At
his command, a group of structures was built in Isolated Hill as his
Imperial Abode on Tour. For Kangxi's visit, an Abode on Tour had also
been established, but he did not stress its importance as a show of
Imperial power. (Wang (B), 95-99)
In the mid-nineteenth century, Hangzhou suffered from Taiping uprising.
The loss of population and property could not be precisely determined.
However, in the hope of preventing an uprising from happening again,
a military garrison was established at Hangzhou. Even the dredging
of the lake became a responsibility of the military. It was one of
four tasks placed under the direction of Jiang Yili 蔣益澧 The others
were: raising funds for military operations; seeking and arresting
armed bandits; and building up dams along the riverbanks. (West Lake
Gazetteer, 48) |
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