Compiled by Professor Li Houqiang, Secretary of the Committee of Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences of CPC, and Professor Yao Leye, Vice President of Sichuan University, "Sichuan Rivers Record" was recently published by Sichuan Ethnic Publishing House. It is a comprehensive work on the nature, history, and development of Sichuan rivers, and is the result of a major project of Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences.
In recent years, Professor Li Houqiang has carried out investigations and studies on the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and other large and small rivers that flow through Sichuan. He believes that rivers are the source of civilization, and to establish a biography for rivers is to establish a biography for civilization; to establish a biography for Bashu Rivers is to establish a biography for the Bashu culture. Bashu culture is an important part of Chinese culture, and it is also a culture born with water. It takes the river civilization as its main line, and takes the Minjiang River system, Tuojiang River system, Jialingjiang River system, and Yalongjiang River system as cultural corridors, forming a fan-shaped radial cultural channel, closely connecting the civilization on the basin and around the basin, making the Bashu civilization a natural community .
According to statistics, Sichuan has 1,409 rivers with an area of more than 100 square kilometers, so it is known as the "province of a thousand rivers".
"Sichuan Rivers Record" has a reasonable structure and detailed information. Compiling a record for Bashu rivers is a great event for the Bashu academic circle. It is of certain value and significance for promoting the healthy management of Sichuan rivers, people's awareness of environmental protection, and the effective implementation of the "River Chief System" and providing information support and scientific decision-making services to practice the concept of ecological civilization in Sichuan. Chengdu Urban River Research Association participated in the compilation of the book.
There are 14 chapters in "Sichuan Rivers Record". The first chapter "Thousands of Rivers Converge in Sichuan" summarizes the appearance of Sichuan rivers and the symbiotic relationship between Sichuan culture and Sichuan rivers. The following chapters introduce the water system composition, physical geography, human geography, historical culture, existing environmental problems and governance measures of rivers like Minjiang, Daduhe, Qingyijiang, Tuojiang, Jialingjiang, Fujiang, Qujiang, Yalongjiang, Anninghe, Jinshajiang, and the Yellow River in Sichuan section respectively. Chapter Thirteen focuses on "Sichuan Lakes", Chapter Fourteen "Dying Rivers" recalls the rivers that have disappeared due to urban construction and other reasons in the process of modernization.
In Professor Li Houqiang's view, Bashu River and Bashu culture are inextricably linked. Most of the Bashu Rivers originate in the Western Sichuan Plateau. The Minjiang, Daduhe, Jinshajiang, Yalongjiang, Anninghe, Lancangjiang, and Nujiang, together with Tuojiang and Jialingjiang in the basin, have formed large river valleys from north to south, which provides a large channel extending in all directions for people's migration and economic and cultural exchanges, that is the "ethnic corridor".The various ethnic groups in the southwest are mainly distributed between these river valley channels. It is through these "ethnic corridors" that the Bashu culture and the cultures of all ethnic groups in the southwest can be in contact with each other, and cultures can exchanges and influence with each other. The Central Plain culture has also spread to the cultures of all ethnic groups in the southwest through these "ethnic corridors" . Therefore, to compile a record of Bashu rivers is an in-depth excavation and combing of Bashu culture.
Translated by Zhou Mengjiao