Suzhou and Hangzhou were once praised as a paradise by the ancients. Why are Nanjing and Yangzhou not paradise?

The beautiful land in the south of the Yangtze River, Jinling Empire, is realistic. There is heaven, Suzhou and Hangzhou. The true meaning of this sentence may be quite different from the understanding of many people in modern times. This sentence comes from Wu Junzhi of Fan Chengda in Song Dynasty. Infertility is actually a range, a big geographical concept, roughly equivalent to southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang and Shanghai. In a narrow sense, it is generally understood as Taihu Lake Basin or Jiangnan. Having said that, I'm afraid many people understand that Suzhou and Hangzhou originally meant not only Suzhou and Hangzhou, but actually the long and narrow Jiangnan area represented by Suzhou and Hangzhou. In other words, it actually includes Changzhou, Wuxi and Shanghai in Jiangsu, as well as Huzhou and Jiaxing. Because Suzhou and Hangzhou are prominent cities, the literary rhetoric method represented by them and referring to the whole by part is called metonymy.

In fact, this sentence itself is not an either-or opposition. After all, it is only used to praise the prosperity of Jiangnan, and it does not deny other regions. Since Wu Dong's time, the political center of southern China has been Nanjing except Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty. As far as China is concerned, Nanjing's political, historical and cultural accumulation can be compared with other three ancient capitals: Beijing, Xi and Luoyang. Before the decline of the Canal, Yangzhou was the gateway city of north-south traffic, and its economic prosperity was absolutely no less than that of Jiangsu and Hangzhou. In terms of self-confidence, these two cities don't need such a statement to describe themselves. There are countless ancient famous sentences in these two places, so don't worry about a proverb.

Personally, I think Yangzhou is very good now, a medium-sized city, beautiful, livable and comfortable. Therefore, if the family is not rich and there is surplus grain in the warehouse, don't panic; People are not at the dinner table, but there are poems in their stomachs; The city is small, healthy and happy! The pure land that literati and poor people yearn for! Nanjing is the hometown of nobles, with three religions and nine products! The difference lies in identity and status. The so-called heaven is in people's hearts. Isn't Nanjing a paradise in prosperity?