Nowadays, the good reputation of “Spring City” has been known in the whole world. And this will be quite familiar for students who are studying in China. But when was the reputation of “Spring City” born? And who gave this reputation to Kunming? I suppose that these two questions may be unknown even for students who have been learning Chinese in China for a long time.
Dating back to the history, some people think that this reputation was born in 1970s and the appearance of Spring City Evening makes this reputation of “Spring City” much popular. Many people who are learning Chinese in China guess that the reputation of “Spring City” has appeared in 1960s. According to the relevant materials, newspaper in the early years of the Republic of China after the Revolution of 1911has had this reputation.
Later, someone pointed out that the name of “Spring City” was appeared in 《野园歌》the earliest written by a Kunming person named Wang Sixun. The verse from the poem says “浮云渺忽春城隈”. Some students who are learning Chinese in China may ask who Wang Sixun is. He was one of the successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations in the 45th year of Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty (1706) and used to be the assistant teacher of Imperial Academy. According to this, the name of “Spring City” has had more than 300 years’ history. However, he’s not the first person who gave Kunming the reputation of “Spring City”.
The history of this good reputation has been as long as 450 years. This really surprised the students who are learning Chinese in China, for they never knew that even one city of China has such a long history. The first person who gave the reputation to Kunming is Yang Shen. He was the famous Number One Scholar at that time. When he first came to Kunming, he felt quite upset, for leaving his relatives and friends and being disappointed to his official career. Fortunately, a Kunming person named Mao Yi regarded Yang Shen as his beloved relative. One day Mao took a boat with Yang Shen to travel around. When they arrived at Yun Jin Bridge (now De Sheng Bridge), Yang Shen got inspiration and wrote an article to express his feeling about the phenomenon that the weather in Kunming is like spring all the year round. Yang watched the steaming dock and warming river, smelled the fragrance of green water plants and listened to the sound of rowing quants together with songs, he felt that it was like a painting and seemed that it was still in spring. Actually it was in cold winter at that time. People who study in China must know that Beijing at that time will be freezing. When Yang thought about this and compared Kunming with the capital Beijing, Yang wrote “天气常如二三月，花枝不断四时春。”
If this was a coincidence for Yang to catch the feature of the weather in Kunming, the word “Spring City” he used in his poem 《春望三绝》after he lived in Yunnan for several years should be a deliberate product. And this could be considered as the formal name for “Spring City”. This poem was written before the Lantern Festival of Kunming. Before this festival when all kinds of flowers withered, if you were not in Kunming where flowers kept coming out and spring stopped here all the year round, you might not see the beautiful scenery that flowers were covering bridge. For people who are learning Chinese in China, have you come here and seen this special scenery yet?
Some student who are learning Chinese in China may ask that why the first person who gave the reputation of “Spring City” to Kunming were not the local scholars who were more familiar with the environment of Kunming, but a newcomer from outside of Yunnan.
In addition to the intellect of this Number One Scholar, it may because that the novelty of this newcomer’s surroundings of Kunming made him compare the capital and Kunming helped it.