In the first year of Yuankang (AD 29 1 year), the geographical general of the Northern Song Dynasty, "Lanling, Bi, Qi, Hexiang and Five Counties in the East China Sea were established as Lanling County and City." There is Lanling County in history. Iraq is now Yicheng. Lanling County is in Yucheng, and Lanling County is still in Lanling. County and county coexist, each with a different residence. The name of Lanling County comes from Lanling County under its jurisdiction. According to textual research, the place name of Lanling should appear between 3 19 BC and 3 12 BC, about 2320 years ago, which should be related to the time when Qu Yuan, a doctor of Chu State, was left-handed in Chu Huaiwang.
In 3 19 BC, Qu Yuan was a left disciple of Chu Huaiwang. He "entered the DPRK to discuss state affairs with Wang Tu and give orders; When you go out, you will meet distinguished guests and interact with princes. " He is also in charge of Chu's internal affairs and diplomacy, and he is deeply trusted and has temporary weight. In autumn, in order to unite Lian Heng to attack the State of Qin, Qu Yuan first sent an envoy to Qi to the east. In 3 14 BC, Qu was demoted to a disciple and became a doctor. Before 3 12, in order to ease the confrontation between Chu and Qi for hegemony, Chu Huaiwang used Qu Yuan to defect to Qi again, and Qi and Chu resumed diplomatic relations. At this time, Chu occupied the sub-city of the northeast border town for more than 60 years. In the era of meaningless war in the Spring and Autumn Period, the Zhou royal family declined, and the princes dominated, and whoever occupied the territory was the master. The second room is a place name corresponding to Qufu, the official office of Lu State, with a strong Lu color. If Chu wants to establish an administrative organization in the old land of Lu, it must abolish the "second house" left over from the dictatorship of the Third Ring Road of Lu and let the adherents of Lu accept the rule of Chu. They believe that it is necessary to use Confucianism to govern the native land of Lu, and to take Chu-Han politics as a symbol. Quyuan, a politician, is duty-bound to draw up a new place name full of ideals of the times.
During the Warring States period, there were bonfires everywhere, and many princes competed for hegemony. Qu Yuan traveled eastward from Chu (now Jinan City, jiangling county, Hubei Province) to Qi State and the River of No Return, and went to Hangou Huaisi to draw water. Sechiyi is located in Shuijun, an important town in the northeast of Chu, and it is the only place where Qu Yuan makes Qi Zi Chu. As an important minister in charge of civil affairs and foreign affairs, Qu Yuan paid great attention to the towns in the northeast border, and it was during this period that the second house reform was named Lanling. In 255 BC, Xunzi (buried somewhere in southern Shandong after his death) was appointed as the order of Lanling, which was 64 years after the Chu people occupied Lanling 127 and Qu Yuan appointed Qi Yi in the autumn of 3 19 BC. The place names of Lanling have a long history. Why did Chu choose the word "Lanling" to name it? There is no doubt that the traditional explanation is named because the highlands around Lanling are covered with orchids. Huanghuai Valley is one of the most economically and culturally developed areas in the pre-Qin period, with a mild and humid climate, rich vegetation, orchids and vast forests. Due to the changes of climate and ecology, it is difficult to find the trace of Beilan in Huanghuai today.
The Chu people's use of "Lanling" as a geographical place name should be the embodiment of Qu Yuan's feudal concept of governing the country, with an ideal color and a romantic flavor of the king. Orchid is a kind of herb in the corner of the mountain. In the pre-Qin period, the fragrance of orchids in nature was praised by ancestors as the fragrance of kings. In myths and legends, the word "Lan" created by Cang Xie is like a beautiful painting, with green grass in front of the door, and the word "Cambodia" with an invitation on the door reflected by the bright moon. Kong Yuzi: "Orchids are the fragrance of kings, and today they interact with many grasses." "Being with good people is like going into Cymbidium's room. If you don't smell it for a long time, you will adapt. " He compared Lan to the embodiment of ideal personality, which showed Lan's elegant and noble character, not kitsch, "not fragrant without talent, not changing for poverty". Zuo Qiuming, a small fruit sage, said that "Orchid has a national fragrance" and promoted Orchid to the noble character of a gentleman, while Mencius promoted the virtue of a gentleman to the ideal of "kingly way" and built a paradise of kingly way in the realm of Confucianism. During the reign of Qu Yuan, orchids were advocated in the ruling and opposition parties of Chu State, and orchids were widely planted in the palace. Chu Huaiwang named his son Zilan. In Li Sao, Nine Songs and Nine Chapters, Qu Yuan compared Lan to a beauty, a gentleman and a saint.
Mencius is more than 30 years older than Qu Yuan. When Qu Yuan made Qi, Mencius served as a master of Confucianism in Xia Xue Palace, Linzi, the capital of Qi, and was full of peaches and plums. Qu Yuan came all the way to Qi, joined hands with Qi to fight against Qin, visited Qi's monarch and ministers, visited Jixia Academy, talked about Taoism to Mencius, a Confucian master, and sought a general plan for governing the country. Qu Yuan's trip to the State of Qi is bound to have a brand-new understanding and interpretation of Mencius' theory of "ruling the country by kingly way", and the establishment of a kingly paradise in Chu is also the ideal pursued by Qu Yuan. "Lan" means "King", while "Ling" originally means highland, which means "Promised Land". Chu people were named after "Lanling" in order to establish a "king's paradise" of Chu in southern Shandong. We think there is a more accurate metaphor, which means "holy land". In ancient times, great thinkers were called "gentlemen" and "saints", while feudal emperors were called "kings" and "saints". Therefore, the "king" of the word "Lan" is "holy" and "Lan Ling" is "holy land". Xunzi was an out-and-out Confucian. He served as an official of Lanling twice and died in Sri Lanka. He is called the post-saint. 800 years after Qu Yuan, Qi Liang in the Southern Dynasties claimed to be the descendants of Emperor Xiao, and even regarded Lanling as the sacred place where ancestors originated.
Among Chinese and foreign place names, many places are called "holy places". Judging from the existing domestic place names, we think that only the word "Lanling" is used. Although the name "Shangri-La" also means holy land and pure land, it is a transliteration word in the history of modern literature. The meaning of "holy land" of "Lanling" is rare in the history of ancient place names culture in China. We thank the Chu people for creating a place name, Lanling, which is full of king romance under our feet. We also found that the descendants of Qu Yuan's hometown named a river in Zigui (now Quyuan Town, Zigui County, Hubei Province) as Lanlingxi to commemorate this cultural saint and let the water of the holy land flow forever in their homeland.