Ancient Plank Road of Daning River

Ancient Plank Road of Daning River - Introduction

On the western bank of Longmen Gorge in Wushan, there are countless regular and foursquare stone holes. They are relics of Ancient Plank Road of Daning River. Most of the stone holes are foursquare. The diameters of the holes are about 20 centimeters, and they are about 30 centimeters deep. The upper and lower eyelets crisscross, forming a headstand of the word "pin". The wood is inserted into the two upper holes, on which the planks lay. Wood pillars were inserted into the lower holes in order to support the planks, making a triangle carriage, which formed the plank road for people and animals to walk on. The ancient plank road takes Daning River as the main part, stretching from the mouth of Longmen Gorge, through Wuxi, to Zhenping of Shanxi, Xi county of Hubei and Chengkou of Chongqing. The Ancient Plank Road of Daning River is about 400 kilometers, longer than plank road of Jian'ge. And it ranks the first place of the vestige of Chinese ancient blank road.

Ancient Plank Road of Daning River - Functions

The relic of Ancient Plank Road of Daning River was divided into two parts: the northern upper part and the southern lower part. And its boundary is the mouth of Houxi Stream of Lingchang ancient town. According to the analysis of the historical materials, the northern upper part of the ancient plank road was used to transport salt, while the other part is used to transport the salt spring from the piedmont of Baoyuan Mountain or the boiled salt from Da Changba or downtown of Wushan. "Wuxi xian zhi" records: the southern lower part stretches from Lingchang, facing south of the right bank of Daling Stream, to the mouth of Longmen Gorge in Wushan.The total length was about 270 li (a Chinese unit of length). There exists about 6800 holes in the cliff.

Ancient Plank Road of Daning River – a Great Mystery

Comparing with the ancient plank road of Three Gorges in Yangtze River, Ancient Plank Road of Daning River surpasses it, although they both belong to the Three Gorges. Before the Three Gorges Dam began to store water, people could see the vestige of Daning River's ancient blank road from the cliff of the west bank of Less Three Gorges. It is thought as the vestige, while actually there is only left the holes to support the horizontal wood. Except the main part of the lower Lingchang Stream, there are similar holes of blank road along the branches facing the north. The eastern part approaches Zhuxi, Hubei. The northern part connects to Zhenping, Shanxi. Whlie people can get to Chengkou through the western part. Therefore, the net of about several thousand miles' ancient plank road formed and its scale is surprising.

We can guess the net of the blank road has so grand scale that it played an important role in the communications of politics, economy, culture and military affairs. However, it has great scale, but there was no recording about the building time, and man by checking the historical records. Therefore, a grand project worthy of recording becomes a mystery forever.

Ancient Plank Road of Daning River – Legend, a Difficult Work

There is no recording in the historiography, but there is legend in the non-governmental circles. There is a famous legend about the holes of the Ancient Plank Road of Daning River, in the cliff of Daling Stream. Lu Ban and Guanyin (a Bodhisattva) saw that the civilians had a hard life and decided to do some good deed for them. The two competed. Luban would build a road along the cliff one night while Guanyin would make 100 embroidered shoes. Who finishes first will be the winner. Lu Ban knocked the cliff with his angle square, and knocked a hole every 5 feet, so his speed was very fast. Before the dawn, Guanyin went to see the pace of Lu Ban, and found that he wound finish soon. She was afraid of failing, so she learned to sing as chicken. Lu Ban thought the dawn approached and he failed, so he stopped and a row of long ordered holes were left in the cliff. Although it is a legend, it reflects the simplest wish and viewpoint if the common people. It is hard to imagine that it is made by common people. But it is people who did create it.