Gutang

Gutang

Gutang

Gutang was once a bustling market town of considerable renown. While the county towns under the jurisdiction of Jiujiang Prefecture had populations of only a few thousand, this place was already crowded with shops and boasted a population exceeding ten thousand. In the early 20th century, it was known as Gutang City, and its prominence was clearly marked on tourist maps from the 1930s. Today, its official name is: Gutang Village, Gutang Town, Lushan District, Jiujiang. Aside from local officials, few outsiders ever come here. Slanting sunlight filters through ancient willows, a cluster of village homes, a couple of fishing boats, accompanied by the lonely sound of waves crashing…

However, amid the desolate beaches and wild ferries of this peninsula, there stand several tall Western-style buildings forming a compound of over 2,000 square meters—this was the customs house once controlled by foreigners. Behind the customs house, on the old fortress, the ruins of ancient cannons still remain. Along the path from the customs house to the lakeside lighthouse, the ground is littered with thick layers of broken bricks and tiles… All of these seem to bear witness to the former prosperity and grandeur of Gutang.

Gutang City flourished in 1723 and was destroyed in 1938 by the bombs of the Japanese army. Truly, its rise was swift, and its fall was just as sudden. Yet its history of rise and fall is not only a page in the segmented history of inland waterway transport on Poyang Lake, but also a chronicle of the humiliation and suffering of our nation in modern times.

Before the advent of modern railways and maritime shipping, Poyang Lake was a vital transportation route connecting north and south China, linked to the ancient post roads that led north to the capital and south to Guangzhou. Boats came and went incessantly on the lake. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, with the sprouting of capitalism and the development of commerce, taxes from waterborne freight became an important source of national fiscal revenue. In the first year of the Jingtai era of the Ming Dynasty (1450 AD), the imperial court began establishing tax collection agencies in Jiujiang.

Jiujiang Customs House. Because Jiujiang was dozens of miles away from the confluence of Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River, the location of the Jiujiang Customs House could not control vessels entering or exiting Poyang Lake from the lower reaches of the Yangtze. As a result, another checkpoint had to be set up in Hukou County at the lake-river junction to prevent tax revenue losses. However, although Hukou County boasts the renowned Stone Bell Mountain, it has no harbor where merchant ships can dock. There, cliffs rise sheer, winds are fierce, and waves are high—ships have nowhere to anchor. To pay their taxes, many tragic shipwrecks and loss of life occurred, inevitably leading to lost tax revenue. This regrettable situation, referred to as “the miscalculation at Hukou,” remained unresolved until the fall of the Ming Dynasty. It wasn’t until the first year of the Yongzheng era of the Qing Dynasty (1723 AD) that the Jiangxi Provincial Governor Pei Du proposed establishing a sub-customs at Gutang, at the border between Xingzi and Jiujiang counties, finally solving this centuries-old problem. From then on, this desolate little fishing village began to thrive, gaining docks, post stations, guildhalls, taverns, teahouses, singing halls, and brothels to accommodate the merchants and boatmen passing through.

However, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, both the Jiujiang Customs House and the later-established Gutang sub-customs had limited staff, so Gutang’s prosperity had not yet reached a significant scale. The upsurge in Gutang’s prosperity began after the end of the Second Opium War, when British and French invaders began to encroach upon Jiujiang. The 1858 Treaty of Tianjin between China and Britain, and between China and France, designated Jiujiang as a treaty port, allowing foreigners, foreign ships, and foreign goods to run rampant inland. In 1861, under coercion by Britain and France, the Jiujiang Customs was established to replace the original Jiujiang Customs House. Within the customs, the Taxation Department controlled by foreigners held administrative and economic authority, with all senior positions occupied by foreigners from Britain, France, Russia, the United States, Japan, and other countries, while Chinese were relegated to low-level roles such as clerks, sailors, cooks, and night watchmen.

In 1901, coveting the substantial tax revenues of the Gutang sub-customs, British invaders once again forced the Qing government to place Gutang under the jurisdiction of the Jiujiang Customs. Although the then Jiangxi Provincial Governor was extremely reluctant, the weak Qing government still tried its best to meet the invaders’ demands. Thus, Gutang became a customs zone for foreigners. On the customs island west of Dagu Mountain, Western-style buildings appeared, and the imposing cannons on the fortress hill behind the customs house kept watch over the Poyang Lake outlet. A torrent of silver flowed into the Gutang Customs controlled by foreigners, most of which was used to compensate the invaders as indemnities owed by the Qing government. Around this time, the British missionary John Livingstone bought the lease to Kuling on Mount Lu and began constructing a large number of villas. The arrogant foreign officers of the Gutang Customs, every year, would have themselves carried by Chinese rickshaw pullers along this road to the resorts on Mount Lu for vacation and summer retreat… Gutang thus became bustling, with masts and sails densely clustered, merchants crowding in, travelers coming from north and south, goods shipped up and down the river, foreign sailors from ocean liners coming ashore to visit brothels and drink, and tourists ascending the mountain for holidays… It became a widely known market town, with hundreds of businesses at its peak and a population of nearly twenty thousand.

In 1929, the Chinese government regained control of the Jiujiang and Gutang Customs, and in 1931, national customs (permanent customs) were abolished. But the newly thriving Gutang City remained glittering with wealth and as bustling as ever—until the sounds of war from the invading Japanese army began.

On the morning of July 23, 1938, the Japanese Navy’s landing forces, under the cover of aircraft and naval gunfire, stormed the beaches of Gutang in an attempt to outflank and surround Jiujiang. The defending Chinese 190th Division engaged the invaders in fierce battle. After two days and nights of bloody combat, at noon on July 25, our poorly equipped defenders were forced to retreat. Gutang fell into enemy hands, and along with its prosperity, its dance halls and theaters, it was reduced to ruins amidst the Japanese bombardment.

Since then, the once-prominent Gutang City disappeared from the map. For various reasons, it had no hope of rising again. To this day, only the ruins of the ancient fortress on the mountain and the dilapidated customs buildings below remain, overgrown with withered grass and riddled with bullet holes—the once lively market town has gradually been forgotten.

Perhaps people should visit Gutang, tread on the rubble of the island, take a look at the old customs building marked as a “Jiangxi Provincial Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit,” then climb up to the ancient fortress and gaze into the distance. Facing the vast and desolate waves of Poyang Lake, you may deeply sense something.