All About Shanghai Chapter 16 - Historical Oddments "WHEN Shih Hwang-ti, who built the Great Wall of China (the work was started about 215 B.C. and required only ten years for completion) captured the (Yangtsze) delta, he made Shanghai a hsien district and during the Sung Dynasty (960-1127 A.D.) the name of Shanghai began to be used, the first mention being chronicled in 1075 A.D. Before the foreigners came and made it China's largest port, it was only a small fishing port enclosed by a wall (the Chinese City) to protect it against the inroads of Japanese pirates, and could boast of no more importance than being a port of call for seagoing junks and the home of a fishing fleet of about 400 junks." -Crow's Handbook for China. * Shih Hwang-ti Duke of Tsin, who built the Great Wall as a protection against Tartars after trying for ten years to overcome them (see Couling's Encyclopaedia Sinica, page 218), has been referred to as a saviour of China, the only man strong enough to unite the country, which had been rent by continual internal warfare, under one rule. He is said to have established the Ch'in Dynasty (249-206 B.C.) from which the modern name China was derived. * "Shanghai lies in the south-east corner of that portion of the Province of Kiangsu to the South of the Yangtsze. Kiangsu and portions of the neighbouring provinces of Chekiang and Anhuei form a vast plain, owing its origin to the fine silt brought down in the course of ages by the Yangtsze and deposited in the sea. The physical features of the district have, therefore, undergone enormous changes since the day when Wuhu was the head of the delta of the Yangtsze-kiang, and that river found its way to the sea by three mouths at least. Even in historic times these changes have been great. In A.D. 780 the Soochow Creek is said to have been five miles broad, and the Soochow Creek was the main stream, the Whangpoo flowing only as far as Longhwa (Lunghua), finding its way to the sea by another channel. These changes still continue: the Whangpoo is said to be at least two hundred yards narrower than it was thirty years ago, and the Soochow Creek, in the mouth of which the British fleet anchored in 1843. now affords a passage for boats only in mid-channel." - Shanghai, a Handbook for Travellers and Residents, by the Rev. C. E. Darwent, M.A., former Minister of Union Church. * "In A.D. 446 the Viceroy of Yangehow, in whose jurisdiction the place lay, was ordered by Imperial rescript to cut a canal to link up the city of Soochow with the Yangtsze. This being done seems to have marked the beginning of Shanghai's importance as an anchorage. Its sheltered position, its proximity to the important centres of Soochow, Sungkiang and Hangchow together with the gradual silting up of the nearer approaches to the first two of the above-named places, all helped little by little to make the port a favourite rendezvous for deep-water junks and a point for the transshipment of their cargoes. "In the last years of the thirteenth century, either in 1288 or in 1292, (in which latter year, it is interesting to remember, the great Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, finally quitted China) the original town together with several adjacent villages was erected by an ordinance of the great Kublai Khan, the Mongol conqueror, then Emperor of China, into a 'hsien' or city of subprefectural status. "From about this time the growing wealth of the place seems to have attracted the unwelcome attentions of Japanese pirates, and the records speak frequently of raids. It would also appear that the Japanese were not the only offenders, since later references to 'black slaves' and 'white devils' indicate that Malayan and Portuguese freebooters may have occasionally preyed upon the trade of the port. The Japanese adventurers established a pirates nest on Tsungming Island, lying in the Yangtsze directly opposite the mouth of the Whangpoo, from whence they levied a heavy tribute upon all corners. "The most serious pirate raid occurred in 1554, when the city was looted and burned, and in the following year the citizens for their protection surrounded themselves with a substantial wall. three miles in circumference (the present Chinese City)." - Gow's Guide to Shanghai (1924) * "History is not quite clear when Shanghai first came into being; a writer in the 'North China Daily News' some years ago says it was known to exist B.C. 304. Lanning in his History of Shanghai says that it was not until A.D. 960 that the name, Shanghai, had established itself........ At any rate it is proved that the site whereon the city is, was once sea and that the country for hundreds of miles around has been formed by the silt brought down by the Yangtsze river, and the fine alluvial soil thus deposited being exceptionally rich, was most suitable for settlers, the country soon developing into a prosperous agricultural and fishing district. "The earliest site in Shanghai history is the temple at the end of Bubbling Well Road, known as Ching An Ssu, which, it is claimed, dates back to 250 A.D. and owes its popularity to the famous well opposite with its mixture of carbonic acid and marsh gas." (See 'N'anking and Bubbling Well Roads" in Chapter Six: Seeing Shanghai," in All About Shanghai and Environs). The three quoted paragraphs are from Guide to Shanghai by A. G. Hickmott (1921). * "Handed down by legends, Chinese history begins about 2,500 B.C. with the reign of the three emperors, who in a remarkably short space of time brought a barbarous people to a comparatively high stage of civilization. The first of these semi-mythical rulers was Fu Hsi (or Fuhi), who instituted marriage, taught the people to fish with nets, domesticated the wild animals for their use, invented the flute and lyre and replaced former methods of communication (by means of knots tied in strings) with a kind of picture language which has been succeeded by the present Chinese ideographs. "His grave is now pointed out in Cheehow, Honan, where thousands assemble annually to do reverence to his memory. "The following emperor, Shen Nung, carried the advance of the people still further. He taught agriculture and the use of herbs as medicine, and is now known as 'The Imperial Husbandman.' The third emperor, Hwang-ti, extended the boundaries of the empire, reformed the calendar, established cities, and introduced the use of carts and boats, while his consort taught the rearing of silkworms. Foreign historians regard these three emperors as merely representative of different stages of early civilization, while the Chinese ascribe to them supernatural qualities." - Crow's Handbook for China.