Civilizational Canons · LC11

Infrastructure

Walls fortifying frontiers, grand canals unifying veins: utilizing the consolidated will of a grand governance to expand and structure human habitat and survival spaces.

Infrastructure focuses on roads, passes, rivers, and water systems that connect regions and shape settlement and governance. Li Bai's Hard Road to Shu evokes the challenges of mountain travel; Qu Yuan's Crossing the River and Liu Zongyuan's Autumn Floods turn to waterways and their force; Wang Wei's Mission to the Frontier traces routes and frontier passes.

Representative works

Tang · Li Bai · Old-Style SongsThe Hard Road to ShuAh, alas, how perilous and towering! The road to Shu is harder than climbing to the cerulean blue sky!LR10064Zhou · Qu Yuan · Chu ElegiesSongs of Chu · She Jiang (Crossing the River)So long as my soul is upright and true, what harm is there in distant banishment!LR10039Zhou · Zhuangzi · Pre-Qin MastersZhuangzi: Autumn FloodsYou cannot speak of the ocean to a well frog, for it is confined by space; you cannot speak of ice to a summer insect, for it is bound by time; you cannot speak of the Dao to a narrow scholar, for he is shackled by doctrines.LR10102Tang · Wang Wei · Regulated OctavesMission to the FrontierAcross the vast desert a lone column of smoke rises straight; over the long river the setting sun hangs round.LR10058

Read by dynasty

Zhou

1046–256 BCE4 works
  1. Songs of Chu · She Jiang (Crossing the River)Qu Yuan · Chu ElegiesSo long as my soul is upright and true, what harm is there in distant banishment!
  2. Zhuangzi: Autumn FloodsZhuangzi · Pre-Qin MastersYou cannot speak of the ocean to a well frog, for it is confined by space; you cannot speak of ice to a summer insect, for it is bound by time; you cannot speak of the Dao to a narrow scholar, for he is shackled by doctrines.
  3. Nine Declarations · Crossing the RiverQu Yuan · Chu ElegiesFrom youth I delighted in this wondrous attire, unfading even as old age arrives. Girding a gleaming long sword, wearing a lofty cloud-cutting cap. Draped in radiant pearls and bearing precious gems. The world is turbid and understands me not, yet I soar high without looking back!
  4. Yu the Great Tames the FloodMencius · IdiomsYu the Great channels the floods, passing his own door three times without entering; selfless public service.

Han

202 BCE – 220 CE2 works
  1. Book of Han: Biography of Zhang Qian (Opening the Western Regions)Ban Gu · Historical NarrativeZhang Qian broke virgin ground, opening the Western Regions for the first time—the monumental deeds of the Marquis of Bowang are inscribed forever in history.
  2. Two Capitals · Western Capital Rhapsody · ExcerptBan Gu · Grand Han RhapsodiesThe Western Capital of Han lay in Yongzhou, truly named Chang'an. To its left rose the formidable hazards of Xiaohan and Taolin Pass; to its right the steep escarpments of Long and Shu. The Great River flowed along its south, the Yellow River circled its north. This is truly the thousand-li impregnable fortress, the Celestial Empire's Land of Abundance.

Tang

618–9074 works
  1. Mission to the FrontierWang Wei · Regulated OctavesAcross the vast desert a lone column of smoke rises straight; over the long river the setting sun hangs round.
  2. The Hard Road to ShuLi Bai · Old-Style SongsAh, alas, how perilous and towering! The road to Shu is harder than climbing to the cerulean blue sky!
  3. Army Life: Part IVWang Changling · Regulated QuatrainsThrough a hundred battles in yellow sands, our golden armors wear thin; until we defeat Loulan, we shall never return.
  4. Preface to the Great Tang Records on the Western RegionsXuanzang · Letters & PrefacesTraveling alone through remote realms, crossing shifting sands and snow-bound passes across 138 kingdoms to illuminate the grand horizon of a golden age.

Qing

1636–19122 works
  1. Everlasting Longing: A Stretch of Mountains, a Stretch of RiversNalan Xingde · Short LyricsA stretch of mountains, a stretch of rivers, heading toward the far side of Shanhai Pass; deep into night gleam a thousand camp tent lamps. A watch of wind, a watch of snow, clamoring and shattering the homesick heart so dreams cannot form—in my homeland there is no such sound.
  2. Commentary on the Comprehensive Mirror: Qin Shi HuangWang Fuzhi · Essays & MemorialsThe system of prefectures and counties has endured for two thousand years without alteration, bringing peace to past and present alike; this historical trend of momentum—how could it prevail were it not grounded in universal principle?