Ganzhou Moat

Ganzhou Moat

The moat of Ganzhou, like the Fushou Ditch and the ancient city of Ganzhou, has a long history. They were important infrastructure in the ancient urban area of Ganzhou. For thousands of years, they played a significant role in warfare, developing production, and improving people's living conditions.

They have played an important role. Today, how we view, preserve, and develop ancient urban facilities

to better serve the cause of socialist modernization

is an issue worthy of attention in urban work.

The moat, also known as a city moat or moat pond, is a component of ancient urban defense engineering. In ancient times, when city walls were built, the surrounding moat was dug simultaneously. This method not only utilized local materials to solve the earthwork needs for construction but also enhanced the security of the city defenses, forming a fortified structure known as a “golden city surrounded by boiling water.” This balanced excavation technique, ensuring the earth removed was used for wall building, is a prime example of scientific large-scale earthwork engineering in ancient times.

The origins of the moat

According to records in the "Gan County Annals" and the "Ganzhou Prefecture Annals," particularly those concerning military affairs and the biography of Lu Guangchou, the moat of Ganzhou was created around the years 885–910 AD by Lu Guangchou. In the late Tang Dynasty, amid widespread peasant uprisings, in the first year of the Guangqi era (885 AD), Lu Guangchou from Nankang and Tan Quanbo captured Qianzhou (present-day Ganzhou). In the second year of the Tianfu era (902 AD), they also took control of Shaozhou (present-day Shaoguan, Guangdong). In the third year of the Kaiping era of the Later Liang Dynasty (909 AD), Lu Guangchou submitted to the Later Liang, which established the Baisheng Army to govern both Qian and Shao prefectures, with its headquarters in Qianzhou. Lu Guangchou was appointed as the Defense Commissioner of the Baisheng Army and concurrently as the Commissioner for Opening the Five Ridges. He passed away in the fifth year of Kaiping (911 AD). During his 25 years in Ganzhou, Lu Guangchou expanded the city, “extending it to the east, west, and south, digging foundations to form a moat, and encircling three sides with water.” He also constructed official residences north of the city, commonly referred to as the “Royal City” (or “Imperial City,” located on the northern section of Jianguo Road), bringing Ganzhou to a new scale of development. This layout remained intact until the liberation of Ganzhou in 1949.

The scale and evolution of the moat

The city of Ganzhou is flanked by the Zhang and Gong rivers to the east and west, “using the rivers as natural barriers,” and thus did not require a moat on those sides. The moat extended from the east gate, connecting to the Gong River, and from the south gate to the west gate, linking with the Zhang River. After its excavation, the moat underwent changes over five dynasties spanning roughly a thousand years, from the Five Dynasties period to the end of the Qing Dynasty. There were periods of war and peace. During wartime, city walls and moats were maintained and dredged, while in peaceful eras, the moats were often neglected. As a result, the moat’s form and size varied considerably over time. In the 15th year of the Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty (1536 AD), it was recorded that “the city wall spans 13 li... with moats dug on the east, south, and west sides, extending over 10 li and reaching 100 bu in length, and 4 zhang in width, with bridges crossing each of the three gates.” The 13-li city wall equates to approximately 7.49 km, which closely matches the measured 7.3 km. The southern section, from the east gate through the south gate to the west gate, is 3.65 km long. The 10-li moat, noted as 100 bu, equals 5.85 km, though the actual length is around 3.9 km, showing some discrepancy. By the 10th year of the Tongzhi era of the Qing Dynasty (1871 AD), the moat from the west gate to the south city wall measured “552 zhang in length and 13 zhang in width, with varying depths; from the south gate to Baisheng Gate (present-day east gate), it was 385 zhang long, 5 chi deep, and 14 zhang wide. The total length was 937 zhang, approximately 3 km, including 1.77 km from the west gate to the south gate, and 1.23 km from the south gate to the east gate, covering a total area of 12.87 hectares. Before the Qing Dynasty, warfare mainly involved cold weapons, so city walls and moats served important defensive roles. Under local government management, after the Republic of China was established, with the advancement of science and technology, cold weapons were phased out, and the military value of city walls and moats diminished. In the early years of the Republic, some public assets and “Lüying” military lands left over from the Qing Dynasty were sold off, and most of the moat areas were converted into “moat fields” or “moat ponds,” becoming farmland or fish ponds. In the spring of 1932, when the Red Army attacked Ganzhou, they were unable to breach the city because the Nationalist forces closed the gates and held out. To prevent another attack, “city wall repairs and moat dredging” began in the autumn of the same year, and “moat fields and ponds were reclaimed as public property.” These works were completed in 1933. After the Red Army moved north, the moat was again cultivated. By the time Ganzhou was liberated in 1949, it was no longer a complete, unobstructed moat but rather divided into fragmented patches of farmland and fish ponds.

After the liberation of Ganzhou, a comprehensive survey of the city’s topography was conducted. According to the 1951 topographic map, the total length of the moat was measured at 3,914 meters, including 2,057 meters from the east gate to the south gate.

The moat section from the south gate to the east gate runs through the hilly areas of Baiyun Mountain and Tianzhu Mountain, with steep banks and deep channels. At that time, the widest point of the water surface was 45 meters (at Nanmenkou), generally ranging between 15 and 20 meters. Most of the eastern section of the moat still passed through barren hills, wasteland, and abandoned ponds, preserving much of the moat’s original appearance. The section from the south gate to the west gate lies in a flat plain area and had been entirely cultivated. The middle of the moat formed ponds, with fields on both sides. From the south gate to the base of the Paicheng fortress at the west gate, the moat was divided into 25 segments, forming 25 fish ponds. The largest were three ponds near Nanmenkou, each about 150 meters long and 40–60 meters wide. From Paicheng to Ximenkou, a stretch of 245 meters long and 6–10 meters wide, there remained a water channel. The total area of the moat in the eastern and western sections was 10.7 hectares.

During the land reform in the suburban areas of Ganzhou, the western section of the moat ponds was allocated to farmers for use. Later, with the city’s development and the gradual formation of the new urban area outside the Xuanshou Gate, the moat was gradually repurposed as urban construction land. Starting with the development of Qingnian Road in 1956 and continuing until 1962, 550 meters of the moat were lost. Subsequently, athletic fields, civil air defense facilities, and residential buildings were constructed within the former moat area. By 1985, the remaining moat length had been reduced to 2.19 kilometers. (Editor’s note: With continued urban development and waning awareness of moat preservation, by the late 1990s, the moat had largely disappeared, becoming a memory of old Ganzhou.)

(This article is excerpted from Liu Fangyi’s “The Moat and Fushou Ditch of Ganzhou,” published in the “National Historical and Cultural City Ganzhou” anthology compiled by the Ganzhou Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. 1994)