One

I thought that the most exciting project in Chinese history was not the Great Wall, but Dujiangyan.

Of course, the Great Wall is also very great, no matter how Meng Jiang's women wept bitterly, standing far away, this suffering nation actually used manpower to build a barrier of thousands of miles between the wild mountains and deserts, leaving a kind of pride of human willpower for the planet we live on. The Great Wall has no taste in the Badaling area, but in Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia, the strong cold wind is whistling among the intermittent ruins of the wall, and the faint sunset and desolate wilderness dissolve into one, making people devote themselves to the great palpitation of history, time, and nation, and the feeling is much deeper.

But just a few decades before Qin Shi Huang ordered the Great Wall to be built, a remarkable project had already been completed on the Sichuan Plain. On the surface, it is far less ambitious than the Great Wall, but it is destined to benefit the millennium. If the Great Wall occupies a vast space, then it really occupies a long time. The social function of the Great Wall has long since been abolished, and it still provides a bubbling stream of water to countless people. With it, the Sichuan Plain, which is characterized by drought and floods, has become a country of abundance, and whenever our nation has a major disaster, the country of abundance always calmly provides shelter and nourishment. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that it has permanently irrigated the Chinese nation.

With it, there is the eloquence of Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei, and the Sichuan Xinghuazhang of Li Bai, Du Fu, and Lu You. To put it closer, with it, China in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression had a relatively stable rear.

Its water flow is not as abrupt as the Great Wall, but is subtly infiltrated and extended, and the distance extended is not shorter than that of the Great Wall. The civilization of the Great Wall is a rigid sculpture, and its civilization is a flexible life. The Great Wall is waiting to be repaired, but it is in a humble corner, like a country mother who never shows off and asks for nothing, only knowing how to contribute. A check of the resume, the Great Wall is still only its descendants.

It is Dujiangyan.

Two

Before I went to Dujiangyan, I thought it was just a water conservancy project and would not have much value for sightseeing. I've even seen Gezhouba, what else can it do? It's just that if you want to go to Qingcheng Mountain to play, you have to pass by Guan County, which is nearby, so take a look. Therefore, when I got off the bus in Guan County, I was lazy, my steps were scattered, I was wandering around the street, and I only thought about Qingcheng Mountain.

Seven turns and eight turns, from the simple street market into a lush place. The face gradually felt moisturized, and the eyes became clearer, and there was no one to guide the way, only to go to a more moisturized and clearer place. Suddenly, something unusual began to appear between heaven and earth, a faint commotion, a sound that was not too loud but must have been very loud, filling the periphery. Like a precursor to an earthquake, like a tsunami approaching, like a landslide imminent, there is an inexplicable tension all over my body, and I am so nervous that I am anxious to cling to it. I don't know whether I walked by myself or was sucked by it, and finally I was suddenly startled, I was already standing in front of Fulongguan, in front of me, the rapids were mighty, and the earthquake trembled.

Even if you stand on a reef by the sea, you don't have such a strong sense of water as here. The sea water is a gathering of grace and generosity, and the gathering is too deep and too deep, and it is vast, making people forget that it is real water, water that can be held and held. The water here is different, and it is not too much to say, but the strands are all refreshed, and together they compete with the power of galloping, and they are enthusiastic about the hustle and bustle of life. This kind of competition is very regular, rushing, encountering the water dike in the center of the river, brushing the ground and cutting it into two, rushing out, the two streams of water hit a dam respectively, immediately obediently turned around and changed direction, and then hit another dam, so it was adjusted according to the instructions of the dambuilder...... Perhaps the water was a little annoyed with its own docileness, and suddenly sprang wild, and roared violently, but the more it did, the more it showed a more magnificent taminess. It has roared to the point of invigoration, and not a drop of water has been splashed in the wrong direction. In the midst of the gloom, a thousand-year-old ambush war continues. The water is here, and after enough hardship, it is also in the limelight, just like a large number of marathon runners who have overcome various obstacles, putting the strongest life into order, expectation, and public eye. Look at the clouds, see the fog, see the sunrise, have their own resorts, to see the water, don't forget Dujiangyan.

Three

All of this is first of all thanks to Li Bing, who is so far away that he can't see the shadow.

Sichuan was fortunate, and China was fortunate, and in 251 B.C. there was an unremarkable appointment: Li Bing was appointed as the commander of Shu.

Since then, the practice of Chinese officialdom for thousands of years has been to select batches of persistent scholars as bureaucrats who have nothing to specialize in, but Li Bing has become a practical scientist because of his official position. In Li Bing's view, the meaning of politics is to reason, to eliminate disasters, to nourish, and to nourish, and what it wants to implement is both concrete and simple. He learned a simple truth that even a child could understand: since Sichuan's greatest problem was drought and flood, the ruler of Sichuan must become a hydraulic scientist.

Not long ago, I received a business card from a very accomplished mayor with the title of "civil engineer" printed on it, and I immediately thought of Li Bing.

There is no evidence of Li Bing's political talent, but because of him, China has also had a kind of political program that is clear and pure.

He is the county guard, holding a long shovel in his hand, standing by the surging river, completing the original shape of the word "Shou". For thousands of years, the long gong has been repeatedly debated with the golden scepter and jade seal, the iron halberd and the steel hammer. He failed, and after all, he won again.

He began to ask people to draw a map of the water system. This map can echo today's disarmament data and lunar routes.

He certainly didn't learn about water conservancy anywhere. However, after several years of hard work, he summed up the three-character scripture of water control ("deep beach, low weir") and eight-character mantra ("meet the bay and cut off the corner, and draw the heart when you are right"), which were still the benchmark of water conservancy projects until the 20th century. This bit of his knowledge is forever dripping with steam, and then the thick classics that he doesn't know how many years have long since dried and are too crunchy to read.

He did not expect that his strategy of controlling the water would soon be replaced by a strategy to control people; He did not expect that the fertile soil he wanted to irrigate would become a battlefield from time to time, and most of the rice on the fertile soil would be used as military rations. He only knew that if this race wanted not to become extinct, it must have clear springs and rice grain.

He is a fool and a wise man. He is clumsy and clever. With the thinking of an old farmer in the field, he entered into the most clear anthropological thinking.

He left no biographical information, only a dam that was hard to be tied up for people to guess. People come here again and again: Who is this? Died 2,000 years ago, but still directing the waters. Standing in front of Jiang Xin's sentry box, the shouts, exhortations, and comforts of "you go this way, he go that way" are in my ears. No one has lived so long.

Qin Shi Huang's order to build the Great Wall was majestic, brutal, and cruel; His instructions to build a dam are wise, merciful, and transparent.

What kind of starting point there is, what kind of continuation there is. The Great Wall is half bold and half pompous, for generations, and this is generally the case. To this day, the Great Wall is often used as a pomp. Dujiangyan was clear from the beginning, and as a result, its history always showed an extraordinary style. When Li Bing was alive, he had already considered the continuation of his career, and ordered his son to be three stone men, and he was in the middle of the river to measure the water level. Four hundred years after Li Bing's death, perhaps the three stone figures were missing, and the Han Dynasty water officials rebuilt the "Three Divine Stone Figures" with a height of three meters to measure the water level. One of these "three gods and stone people" is the statue of Li Bing. This Han Dynasty water official must have inherited the great soul of Li Bing, and dared to put his respected ancestor in the river to measure the water. He understands Li Bing's intentions, and only there is the most suitable position for him. This design was successfully implemented without opposition, and it can only be said that Dujiangyan has shed a unique spiritual world for itself.

The stone statue was finally buried by the mud of the years, and when it was unearthed in the seventies of this century, there was a stone statue with a mutilated head and a long gong in his hand. Some people say that this is Li Bing's son. Even if it's not, I still see him as Li Bing's son. A modern writer was moved to see this statue, "smiling without mud, with a broken neck and a long gong in his hand", and the writer asked the modern officialdom Gon Zhugong: Where should we stand alive or dead?

The excavated stone statue is now on display in Fulongguan. People paid their respects to them silently amid the roaring sound of the water. Here I suddenly developed a certain optimism about Chinese history. As long as Dujiangyan does not collapse, Li Bing's spirit will not dissipate, and Li Bing's son will reproduce from generation to generation. The roaring river is the last words of the most holy and good.