Dragon Pool

Author: Rang Guangda, Wu Shengyan (editors)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-09-01
Features: This set of illustrated books on ancient towns is our humble contribution. It includes 8 books, each featuring 100 banners and 150 photographs, along with corresponding 50,000 to 60,000 descriptive words to introduce a historic and cultural ancient town in Chongqing. We aim to achieve a balance where the realism and presence of the images can bring depth and transcendence to the text within a specific temporal and spatial framework, while the text fosters divergent thinking, allowing the visual and intuitive nature of the images to be interpreted in multiple dimensions. This goal has been largely achieved. Therefore, this series not only helps in calling for people to understand, appreciate, and protect ancient towns but also contributes to enhancing cultural awareness, promoting tourism development, and advancing urban construction. Even when a certain ancient town inevitably disappears, this series can serve as a historical record.
The BaYu region is renowned for its majestic mountains and rivers, profound history, and rich cultural heritage. From the indigenous peoples who established villages on this land around 4,000 years ago to the emergence of cities along the river in the Spring and Autumn period, and from the elevation of Gongzhou to Chongqing Fu in the eighth month of the sixteenth year of the Chunxi era of the Southern Song Dynasty (September 18, 1189), to its becoming the largest commodity trading hub in Eastern Sichuan during the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty, the establishment of market towns has evolved over time. As regional economic and social hubs, many of these towns originated during the Qin and Han dynasties, flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties, or reached their peak in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Each is an important cultural symbol of the evolution of BaYu civilization and deserves careful attention.
Disappeared ancient towns cannot be reborn, cloned, or replaced, making the remaining ones even more precious. Most of Chongqing's historic and cultural ancient towns were built near mountains and rivers, reflecting the unique architectural style of the BaYu region while absorbing cultural influences from Huguang, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. They embody the humanistic pursuit of harmonious coexistence between people and nature. From the grand selection of sites based on Feng Shui principles to the intricate components and decorations of mountain walls, ridges, eaves columns, and door lattices, almost all residential buildings, ancestral halls, guild halls, temples, theaters, enclosed doors, covered bridges, cobblestone streets, half-side streets, and wind and rain bridges are simple yet functional. The freestanding houses, suspended wooden structures, and open-air rain shelters, in particular, showcase ingenuity amidst spontaneity. The architectural art seamlessly blends with the natural environment, creating a lively and charming atmosphere.
Over the centuries, the indigenous people of multiple ethnic groups and migrants from other regions have thrived in these towns, weaving countless simple yet beautiful stories. Under the relentless pressure of modernization, they face the risk of disappearing at any moment. However, as long as they endure, the cultural lineage they carry—through architecture, history, art, and folk customs—remains visible, serving not just as a refuge for urban dwellers seeking a return to nature but as something far more meaningful.
This illustrated book, with its prose-like tone and vivid visual materials, vividly recreates the original appearance and folk customs of ancient towns, delving deeply into their ethnic transformations and historical reforms while arguing for the practical significance of their development. The cultural analysis of suspended wooden structures in ancient towns presented in this book also holds academic value.