"There is heaven above, and Suzhou and Hangzhou below." Since ancient times, Suzhou and Hangzhou have been called the "Twin Stars" of the south of the Yangtze River.

　　Before the Southern Dynasties, influential and prestigious cities were mainly distributed in the Central Plains.

According to "Historical Records" and "Hanshu" and other records, there were 13 large cities called "metropolis" in the Han Dynasty, namely Chang'an, Luoyang, Handan, Linzi, Nanyang, Chengdu, Xianyang, Tao, Suiyang, Yingchuan, and Panyu. , Hefei, and Shouchun.

　　At this time, the level of urbanization in the Jiangnan area was relatively low, and many large cities were still in their infancy.

But relatively speaking, Suzhou was known as "Jiangdong City" in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and it was further developed during the Six Dynasties.

　　The name "Hangzhou" began in the Sui Dynasty.

The economy and commerce of Hangzhou in the Tang Dynasty prospered day by day, becoming one of the important economic centers of the country.

Hangzhou was called "Shangzhou" in the Tang Dynasty, mainly because of "its large tax revenue".

　　There is a poem written by Bai Juyi, which is quite meaningful: "Qingxi (Huzhou) is very remote, and Maoyuan (Suzhou) is too prosperous. Only this Qiantang County is full of leisure and busyness."

　　During the period of Wu and Yue, Hangzhou had "luxurious houses, with more than 100,000 houses built".

Su Dongpo once said: "Wuyue is thousands of miles away, with hundreds of thousands of armour, cast mountains and cook seas, like rhinoceros, pearls and jade, the wealth of armor is in the world."

　　"The land has beautiful lakes and mountains, the first state in the southeast" are two lines of poems presented by Song Renzong to Mei Zhi, the prefect of Hangzhou.

Of course, this is not pure poetic language, but has a solid foundation to support.

　　As Mr. Tan Qixiang said: "Although the territory of the Wuyue regime is small, due to the long-term absence of military disasters in the territory and the development of the agricultural economy, the prosperity of Hangzhou surpassed that of Suzhou, Yangzhou and other states. In the Northern Song Dynasty, it was already known as the first city in the southeast." By the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou was worthy of the title of "Number One in the Southeast" in terms of urban population, economic development level, and social impact.

　　During the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou became the capital, with a denser population and a more prosperous market.

For example, with the development of the commodity economy, large-scale workshops were established in the handicraft industries such as shipbuilding, ceramics, textiles, printing, and papermaking in Lin'an City.

Professional bazaars and businesses are scattered all over the city and beyond.

　　During this period, in the canal in the north of the city, boats from the river and Huaihe River were connected by masts and sculls, day and night; in the south of the city, there were ships traveling to and from Taizhou, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Quanzhou, as well as sailing to Japan, Korea and Southeast Asian countries. , There are many masts.

　　At this time, Hangzhou's status as a city was at its peak, and it was called the six metropolises together with Beijing, Luoyang, Nanjing, Kaifeng, and Xi'an.

　　During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Suzhou regained the atmosphere of the prosperous Tang Dynasty that "Su is the largest among the states in the south of the Yangtze River". It is not only a regional market in the south of the Yangtze River, but also has the scale of the national market.

　　Suzhou was not a first-level administrative district in the strict sense during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but geographically located in the heart of the south of the Yangtze River, it was also recognized as a regional central city.

　　Western scholar Skinner believes: "Eastern and Western scholars agree that at least before the 16th century, Suzhou has become the richest, most urbanized and most advanced economic and cultural center in the Middle Ages. And it has always been integrated and integrated as a central big city. Dominated the area until the 19th century."

　　In short, in the history of the development of ancient Chinese cities, Suzhou and Hangzhou were both influential and uniquely attractive cities, making great contributions to the survival and development of the Chinese nation as well as the exchanges and mutual learning of human civilizations.

(Author: Liu Shilin, Dean and Professor of Urban Science Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Director of the Advisory Committee of Suzhou Shihu Think Tank)

　　(Source: Jiefang Daily, December 6, 2022, page 11)