文章来源:俞孔坚. 寻找京杭大运河[J].景观设计学, 2012(3):24-29.
中国历史教科书上的京杭大运河是清楚的:世界上里程最长的一条人工运河,是苏伊士运河的16倍、巴拿马运河的 33倍,与长城并称为中国古代的两项伟大工程,开凿至今已有近2500年的历史。
中国地图上的京杭大运河是明确的:北起北京(涿郡),南到杭州(余杭),途经北京、天津二直辖市及河北、山东、江苏、浙江四省,贯通海河、黄河、淮河、长江、钱塘江五大水系,全长约1 794km。
世界科技史上对京杭大运河的高度评价是鲜明的:人类历史上最古老的人工运河,在技术上和工程规模上,中国的大运河都是无与伦比的。
世界文化遗产视野中的京杭大运河的保护是无疑的:从技术或历史的角度来看,中国的大运河具有作为世界文化遗产的突出普遍价值。
然而,当我们用当代人的双脚走近大运河,当我们用当代科学的视角去审视大运河,当我们用当代文化遗产的标准 去评价大运河时,我们突然发现,这一看似时空分明、价值确凿的人类工程奇迹,却是如此的模糊不清,只能从文学作品和传说中感知它的身影。一位资深的联合国教科文组织文化遗产专家想了解大运河时,却发现在当代科学的英文语境中,甚至找不到一篇可以引用的关于大运河的学术性论文。关于大运河的一些基本问题摆在我们面前,诸如,如何定义京杭大运河,如何在坐标系统准确标明京杭大运河,判别哪条河道属于京杭大运河,京杭大运河有多宽,边界在哪里,哪些文物属于京杭大运河遗产,都分布在哪,有多少,它的价值到底在哪,如何确认它的价值,该如何保护……原来,作为中国大地上最为重要的文化景观,大运河在很大程度上是文学的,甚至是传说的。科学视野及当代文化遗产保护视野中的京杭大运河是模糊不清的,需要我们去寻找。
正是在这样的背景下,北京大学景观设计学研究院经过多年的预研究后,于2003年申请全国文物保护科学研究课题“中国京杭大运河整体保护研究”项目,并获得国家文物局的支持,正式开启科学寻找大运河的历程。这一研究包括历时30天、师生全程骑车考查大运河及沿线,以及此后延续近10年的重点河段的实证考查和保护规划研究。10年研究成果除了发表大量论文并协助国家文物局编制重要河段的保护规划外,还培养了40多位以大运河为研究课题的硕士及博士研究生。课题组对一些最基本而又最重要的问题进行了探讨,包括:
大运河在当代的存在状态:通过包括对大运河全程的实地考查,并用图像和文字记录,以及实测100多个不同的河道断面来解剖定格于2004年的大运河生存状态,它作为未来研究大运河的一个基本物理参照。同时,收录汇总了沿运文化遗产点,并部分考查验证。通过对生存状态的研究发现:大运河这样一条对国土生态安全和民族文化认同具有关键意义的遗产与生态廊道,目前面临着严重的威胁,如不尽快统一规划、保护、管理和建设,必将成为难以挽回的遗憾。运河及沿线的许多珍贵遗产正在消失和遭受破坏,部分古运河河道地段已被开垦耕种,有的已成为垃圾坑和排污沟,一些世界级的水工设施已遭严重毁坏;以运河为骨架的水系统和湿地系统正面临恶化,千百年的人工和自然过程使大运河与区域水系统形成了一个连续的、完整的、富有生命的生态景观网络,而在近些年的城市建设、市政基础设施建设和水利工程建设等过程中,这一生态景观网络已受到严重破坏,包括污染、截断、河道硬化渠化、水系填埋和覆盖,如不进行系统的规划和管理,大运河虽有形骸却无生命;城市扩张和急功近利的工程正在吞啮国家遗产,许多地方没有真正认识到大运河的生态与遗产价值,而是片面追求眼前利益,开展各类破坏性的工程建设,包括夹运房地产开发、粗制滥造假古董开发旅游等,严重损害了大运河遗产廊道的真实性,导致生态服务功能丧失;南水北调工程的历史机遇和挑战,是继京杭大运河开凿以来对以运河为主体形成的区域生态网络施加的又一次人工干扰,这是对运河遗产廊道保护的一次挑战,同时也是一次历史性机遇,如果明智地规划利用,会有利于运河断流和生态功能瘫痪区域系统的生态系统修复及运河遗产保护,从而实现生态与遗产廊道的建立。
大运河的完全价值观:从历史、当代与未来的视角出发,提出大运河的完全价值观,认为其具有四大基本价值:作为文化遗产的价值,起到彰显民族身份和促进文化认同的作用;作为区域城乡生产与生活的重要保障,具有输水、航运和灌溉等现实功用的价值;作为区域生态基础设施的价值,是保障国土生态安全的关键性格局;运河还具有作为潜在的休闲通道的价值,是国民身心再生和教育的战略性资源。只有用完全的价值观充分认识运河廊道,并处理好现实的功能需要以及这些价值间的相互关系,才能保护和利用好运河遗产及其相关资源,使之在当代发挥应有的作用。在此基础上提出以建设遗产廊道的方式、结合南水北调工程和东部生态安全格局及中国南北生态休闲廊道的建设,将保护与利用京杭大运河作为国家战略。任何单一的价值观(如从单一的输水功能考虑)和单一的工程措施,都将给中国大地上这一独特的文化景观和与之相联系的历史文化、生态及社会经济系统带来不可挽回的遗憾。
用“国家遗产与生态廊道”概念界定大运河:通过对历史过程的梳理,阐释运河在各历史时期演变进程中构成要素的功能与相互关系,是科学界定大运河遗产廊道构成的重要途径。大运河遗产廊道由自然生态系统、文化遗产系统与廊道支持系统三大部分构成:作为大运河发生背景,与大运河生态功能维护相关的湿地、林地、农田等区域景观和环境要素构成大运河廊道重要的自然生态系统;与大运河“漕运”功能相关的河道、水源、水利与航运工程设施等水利工程遗产,与历史相关的古建筑、古遗址、运河聚落等运河相关物质文化遗产及戏曲歌舞、民俗传说等非物质文化遗产,与空间相关的其他非运河类物质与非物质文化遗产构成廊道重要的文化遗产系统;游憩道、解说系统、公共服务设施构成廊道重要的支持系统。这三者是沿运地区可持续发展所不可或缺的基础性自然资产、文化资产和社会资产。整合构成集生态与遗产保护、休闲游憩、审美启智与教育为一体的大运河遗产廊道。
大运河保护的方法论:建立国家文化遗产与生态廊道,作为中国生态基础设施的核心骨架来保护和利用大运河,是大运河保护的基本方法论。生态基础设施是城市所依赖的自然系统,是城市及其居民能持续地获得自然服务的基础,它不仅包括传统的城市绿地系统的概念,而是更广泛地包含一切能提供自然服务的城市绿地系统、森林生态系统、农田系统及自然保护地系统。如同城市的市政基础设施一样,区域和城市的生态基础设施需要有前瞻性,更需要突破城市规划的既定边界。以京杭大运河为骨架和主体形成的,包括支流和湖泊、池塘、沼泽等湿地在内的运河区域生态网络长期参与和影响河域的生态演化进程,已经成为区域生态的重要组成部分,具有重要的景观生态学及区域生态战略意义。在经济高速增长、快速城市化和南水北调工程建设背景下,这一生态网络面临着巨大的挑战和广阔的机遇。在这样巨大的机遇和挑战面前,建立大运河区域生态基础设施,对中国东部广大地区获得健康的生态服务、对中国东部城市带的可持续 发展、对遗产廊道本身的保护以及未来居民的休闲和教育需求的提供,都具有非常重要的战略意义。
这些研究只是初步的、基础性的,更深入和广泛的科学研究亟待开展。可以肯定的是,以当代科学和文化遗产保护视野来认识大运河,必将为我们展现出真实而完整的大运河的世界独一无二魅力。
在进行科学研究的同时,一系列旨在保护与恢复大运河的景观工程也在兴起。与单纯的研究相比,这些景观工程成为中国社会、经济和政治的力量角逐的焦点:对于唯利是图的开发商来说,运河边的房子是个时尚的卖点,运河文化可以被免费而高雅地消费,趋之如骛;对于地方领导而言,运河景观廊道是叫得响的政绩,既可以创造GDP,也可以获得广泛的民心,何乐而不为;而对于国家和人民来说,大运河遗产廊道的建立是历史记忆的修复,关乎民族认同和国家身份。在这些力量的角逐中,景观设计师被推到了大运河保护与修复的前台。如何在真实性与完整性的遗产保护与恢复原则下,创造性地重现大运河景观风采,并赋予其当代的经济、社会、生态和文化意义,是一项极富有挑战的任务。因此,功兮过兮,对纵跨中国东部的大运河的保护与修复,是中国景观设计学和景观设计行业难以推脱的一份责任。
Looking for the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal
From Chinese history textbooks, the importance of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is clear: it is the world's longest canal — it is 16 times the length of the Suez Canal and 33 times that of Panama Canal. It rivals the Great Wall as one of the two greatest man-made wonders in ancient China; it has a history of almost 2,500 years.
The 1,794-kilometer Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is also clear on the map of China: starting from Beijing (known as Zhuojun in ancient times) and ending in Hangzhou (Yuhang), the canal runs through two major cities, Beijing and Tianjin, as well as four provinces, namely, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and also connecting five major river systems of Haihe, Yellow, Huaihe, Yangtze and Qiantang.
According to history of the world’s science and technology, the importance of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is also clear: being the oldest canal in human history, China's Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is exceptional in terms of its pioneering technology and engineering scale.
There is no doubt that the protection of the Grand Canal is paramount: because of its universal value as world cultural heritage from the technical and historical perspective.
However, when we now in fact walk close to the Grand Canal, when we now look at it through modern, scientific eyes and evaluate it with the standards of modern cultural heritage, we suddenly find it in a time warp. This engineering marvel, which is so clear and evidently of value, is now so blurred. We can just trace it from literature and folklore. When a respected UNESCO world cultural heritage specialist tried to know more about the Grand Canal, he could not even find a citable, modern sciences academic paper in the English. Even the basic information regarding the canal was unclear. Questions, such as the definition of the Grand Canal, its positions in the coordinate system, the identification of its river channels, its width and boundary, its historical relics, their distributions, quantities, values, the way to identify their values, and the way to protect them, etc., which are right in front of us. It turns out the Grand Canal, the most important cultural landscape on the Chinese territory, exists largely as a literary or even mythical motif. While in the realm of sciences, or in the field of modern cultural heritage protection, the Grand Canal is very vague, indicating that there is much work to be done.
Given this, after years of pre-study, the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture of Peking University decided to apply in 2003 for a research grant, as one of the national research projects for the protection of China's cultural heritage, with the research project titled: the Overall Protection of China's Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The support from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage kicked off the analysis process of the Grand Canal. It took the professors and students 30 days to carry out a whole-course on-site survey on bicycles, and following which, nearly 10 years to conduct field investigations on key places and research on protection and planning. During these 10 years, besides having published a large number of papers and helping the State Administration of Cultural Heritage to formulate the protective planning for key places, they trained more than 40 masters and doctoral students who are devoted to the research of the Grand Canal. The work examined the most fundamental yet extremely important issues, which include:
The existing conditions of the contemporary Grand Canal: with the field survey of the whole canal, images and texts, and more than 100 cross-sections of the canal, the ecological conditions of the canal are frozen in 2004 to serve as a fundamental physical reference for future research. At the same time, spots of cultural heritage along the canal were partly collected and examined. Research of its ecological conditions indicate that, the Grand Canal, the heritage and ecological corridor that is of such importance in terms of national ecological security and cultural identity, faces grave challenges. Without timely and unified planning, protection, management and construction, regrets will be inevitable. Many precious heritages on and along the canal are disappearing or being destroyed, some parts of the canal has been reclaimed for farmland, some other parts have been turned into dump pits and pollution discharge ditches. Some world-class hydraulic structures have been severely damaged. The water and wetland systems that rely on the framework of the Grand Canal are facing degradation. In the past centuries, the artificial and natural processes had turned the canal into a continuous, holistic and living ecological landscape network. However, such network has been seriously damaged by urban development, municipal infrastructure building and the construction of hydraulic projects in recent years in the forms of pollution, cutting off, hardening and channelization, as well as landfill and covering of water systems. Without systematic planning and management, the soul of the Grand Canal will be taken away, leaving only the carcass behind. National heritage is being swallowed by urban expansion and projects eagering for quick benefits. In many places, the ecological and heritage value of the canal is not really understood, and in the pursuit of quick profits, damaging projects are allowed to proceed such as housing development and replicated objects are fabricated for tourist purposes. All this reduces the authenticity of the canal as a heritage corridor, as well as leading to a loss of its ecological service functions. The launch of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project brings both opportunity and challenge. It will be another human interference in the regional ecological network that takes the Grand Canal as the framework and main body, which could be a threat to the protection of the heritage corridor. At the same time, it could also be a historic opportunity that will, if wisely planned and utilized, be helpful for the ecological restoration for the cut-off sections and ecologically paralyzed areas of the canal, heritage protection, and the establishment of the ecological and heritage corridor.
The value of the Grand Canal in its entirety: the value of the Grand Canal in its entirety considers it from the perspective of its past, present and future. Four basic values have been identified: the value of cultural heritage in highlighting national identity and promoting cultural recognition; the practical value of water diversion, navigation and irrigation that makes the canal important safeguard for regional urban and rural productions and lives; the value of potential recreation belt that is also an important strategic resource for national physical and psychological regeneration and education. Only when the canal corridor is fully understood in this complete sense, and only when the interactive relationship between practical functions and these values are well handled, can the canal heritage and related resources be well protected and utilized, and the roles of the canal be well played in modern times. Based on this complete vision, the protection and utilization of the canal as a national strategy is proposed to take the form of building heritage corridor and combine the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, the ecological safety layout of east China and the construction of south-north ecological recreation corridor in China. Any single-purpose project (such as the single consideration of water diversion function) or single engineering measures will cause irrecoverable damage upon such unique cultural landscape on the Chinese territory, as well as the related historical culture, ecology and socio-economic system.
Definition of the Grand Canal using the concept of national heritage and ecological corridor: it is the important means of scientifically defining the heritage corridor of the Grand Canal by examining the historical processes and explaining the roles of function and interrelation the canal has played throughout the historical phases. The heritage corridor of the Grand Canal consists of natural ecosystem, cultural heritage system and corridor supporting system. The important natural ecosystem constitutes wetlands, woodlands, farmlands and other regional landscape and environmental elements that are related to the maintenance of the canal's ecological functions and serve as the surrounding environment of the canal. The important cultural heritage system constitutes the river channels, water sources, water conservancy projects and navigation facilities that are serve the waterway transportation function, tangible cultural heritage items such as historical buildings, relics and settlements along the canal, intangible cultural heritage such as dramas, songs, dances, customs and folktales. The other system that is important to the canal, though may not be directly related to the canal but are spatially linked includes things such as leisure walkways, explanation system and public service facilities. These three systems are the fundamental to the natural, cultural and social assets, and are indispensable for the sustainable development of the region along the canal. The heritage corridor of the Grand Canal should not developed without integrating ecological and heritage protection, recreation and rest, beauty appreciation, enlightenment and education.
Methodology for protecting the Grand Canal: the fundamental methodology for protecting the canal is to establish a national cultural heritage and ecological corridor and to protect and utilize the canal as the core framework of the ecological infrastructure in China. Ecological infrastructure is the natural system which cities rely on, and the basis for cities and their residents to continuously receive natural services. It includes not only the conventional concept of urban green space system, but also the forest ecosystem, farmland system and natural reserve system that also provide natural services. Like the municipal infrastructure in cities, foresight is needed for the ecological infrastructure in regional and urban areas to break off the existing boundaries defined by the urban planning. The regional ecological network, which takes the Grand Canal as its framework as well as its main body, including its tributaries, lakes, ponds, swamps and wetlands, has long been engaged in and influencing the ecological evolution process of the river areas. It has become an important part of the regional ecology, and possesses significant importance of landscape ecology and regional ecological strategy. With fast economic growth, rapid urbanization and the construction of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, such ecological network faces enormous challenges as well as immense opportunities. Facing the huge opportunities and challenges, the construction of ecological infrastructure in the area of the Grand Canal will have a significant and strategic importance for securing healthy ecological services in the vast land of east China, the sustainable development of the city belt in east China, the protection of the heritage corridor itself, whilst fulfilling the recreational and educational demands of future residents.
This research is only just beginning, but they are essential. More in-depth and extensive scientific research is needed. What can be sure is that, when we look at the Grand Canal from the perspectives of modern science and cultural heritage protection, we see a canal that is unique in the world, true and complete.
While scientific research is being conducted, a series of landscape projects are also emerging to protect and restore the Grand Canal. Compared to research, these landscape projects will become sites of contest for China's social, economic and political forces. For greedy developers, houses along the canal will be a fashionable selling point, and the canal culture can be elegantly and freely consumed and pursued. For the local governments, canal landscape corridor will be their remarkable political achievements, such projects can generate huge GDP, and are supported by the public. And for the country and the people, the establishment of the heritage corridor of the Grand Canal means the repair of historical memories, enhancing national identity. In the competition of these forces, landscape architects are pushed to the foreground in protecting and restoring the Grand Canal. It will be extremely challenging to, while sticking to the principle of heritage protection and restoration that focuses on authenticity and completeness, creatively restore the landscape splendor of the canal and reflect the modern economic, social, ecological and cultural significance. Therefore, whether success or failure, it is the unshakable responsibility of the science and industry of landscape architecture in China to protect and restore the Grand Canal that stretches throughout the eastern part of the country.