Posterior

Author: Wang Ji
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-09-01
Features: This book is a photographic and textual series about Chongqing's ancient towns, an effort to contribute my modest share. The series comprises 8 books, with each book featuring 100 to 150 photographic images, accompanied by 50,000 to 60,000 descriptive words, to introduce a historic and cultural ancient town in Chongqing. The author strives to achieve the realism and presence of the images, ensuring that the text is rooted in a specific temporal and spatial framework while also fostering divergent thinking. The text, in turn, provides multidimensional interpretations of the visual and intuitive nature of the images. This series not only helps to call for people to understand, pay attention to, 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 record.
The BaYu region is renowned for its majestic mountains and picturesque landscapes, with a rich historical heritage. From the indigenous peoples who established villages in this land as early as 4,000 years ago to the emergence of cities along the riverbanks during the Spring and Autumn period, and from the elevation of Gongzhou to Chongqing Prefecture in the 16th year of the Chunxi era of the Southern Song Dynasty (August, 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 during the Tang and Song dynasties, or reached their peak during the Ming and Qing dynasties. None are insignificant symbols of the evolution of BaYu civilization and are highly worthy of preservation.