《楚式营建学之二|楚国为何没有著名的水利工程专家》
这一篇讨论一个看似简单、却指向楚文明深层结构的问题: 为何楚国拥有庞大的水系,却没有像郑国、李冰那样“被记名”的水利专家? 本文并非从“缺席的姓名”出发,而是从系统的存在方式去重新观察楚式营建: 湿地文明的工程往往“长”出来,而不是“筑”出来; 《参不韦》《汤在啻门》《恒先》《凡物流形》呈现的思想结构, 映照出楚人处理世界的方式:位・序・用; 纪南城、芍陂、鄂君启金节展现的,是一个能自行运作的营建系统; 而名字的沉静,与其说是“未被记载”,不如说是材料与叙事的断裂。 因此,本篇提出: 楚国不是没有工程师,而是工程本身不以个人划界; 楚式营建不是“英雄叙事”,而是一种系统性的文明语法。 本文尝试让那些沉入湿地、尘土与史轴偏差中的姓名, 在系统浮现的地方,重新归位。 This chapter addresses a question that appears simple yet reveals the deeper architecture of Chu civilization: Why did Chu—despite its vast water networks—leave behind so few “named” hydraulic experts, unlike Zheng Guo or Li Bing? The investigation here does not begin with the absence of names, but with the presence of a system. In a wetland civilization, infrastructures often grow rather than impose themselves. The Chu bamboo manuscripts — Shen Buhui, Tang zai Chimen, Hengxian, Fan Wuliuxing — outline a way of thinking structured by Position · Sequence · Function (Wei · Xu · Yong). Archaeological evidence from Jinan City, the Shaobei reservoir, and the E’jun Qi tallies reveals a highly integrated, self-operating water system. The silence of personal names reflects not a lack of capability, but gaps in material survival and historical transmission. Thus, this chapter proposes that Chu did not lack engineers; rather, engineering in Chu was not framed through individual authorship. Chu geotechnics was never a hero narrative— it was a systemic grammar of civilization. This text seeks to bring back into visibility those names and structures that once sank quietly into water, soil, and the asymmetry of historical record.
