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Land Measuring and Taxes
Since Song and Yuan dynasties, there exist two types of land in Jiangnan: national officially owned land and civilian owned land. Farmers cultivated officially owned land bearing rather heavy rent. To change such irrational condition, people asked for re-measurement of land. In 33rd year of Emperor Jiajing in Ming Dynasty (1554), re-measurement of land was carried out in Wuxi County. Although the movement w...
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Rice Marcket and Cloth Dock
As early as in Yuan Dynasty, Wuxi had become the centralized area for the close counties to hand in tribute grain. There were some granaries built along the canal bank, such as Yifeng granary and Fengji granary at that time. In Ming Dynasty, rice of Wuxi could be comparable to silks of Suzhou and Hangzhou, salt of Huaiyang region, porcelain of Fuliang and lacqer of Wenzhou. In early Qing Dynasty, quantity o...
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Bronze Moveable-type Printing
In Song Dynasty, Bi Sheng invented clay movable-type printing. After that, there came books of movable-type printing made of wood and tin. In Ming Dynasty, copper type printing was widely used, of which, copper type printing books of Hua’s and An’s family in Wuxi were most famous, especially Huitong Printing House of Hua Sui and Guipo Printing House of An Guo with a long-standing reputation. In the 3rd year...
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Donglin Academy
After middle Ming Dynasty, commodity economy and workshop handicraft industry in Jiangnan further was developed. In some developed industrial and commercial cities, merchants, workshop owners, handicraft workers as well as other urban citizens began to form a new group of power in the society, which brought new content to the social contradictions and battles in that period. As a canal city with prosperous ...
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Magic Earth
Intellectual creativity of Wuxi people can be reflected through different kinds of carriers. However, what is most impressive is art works made of clay: Yixing Zisha pottery and Wuxi colored sculpture. The most common material in the world is fashioned by smart Wuxi people into wonderful works with various shapes, to both refined and popular tastes. Yixing Zisha pottery, with its simplicity and purity, has ...
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Holy Land of Erhu (a musical instrument)
Every time we hear plaintive sound of Erhu (a musical instrument) at night, we always think of A’bing and his musical piece Two Springs Reflect the Moon as well as Liu Tianhua, founder of modern playing of Erhu. These two Erhu players were both from Wuxi; as a result, it is natural that we consider Wuxi as a holy land of Erhu inChina. Made use of strong points and skills of others, A’bin reflected his feeli...
