Pengpu Town: A River and a Temple, Past and Present
In one line
The only "town" in Zhabei. Its name comes from a river, and the river's name comes from a general of two thousand years ago — a general invited in to serve as "god of the tide", with the task of suppressing the floods of Suzhou Creek.
This story is the passage of greatest "folk imagination" in the whole book.
Where it is
Pengpu town lies in the north-west of the district (today the north of Jing'an District), bordering Putuo District and Baoshan District on the west, and covers about 7.35 km² (as before abolition) — the largest township-level administrative area in Zhabei.
Where the name comes from: the Hegemon's Tide and King Peng Yue
Step one: a restless river
Suzhou Creek (the Wusong River) flows in from the west, and by what is now Pengpu there was a tributary running north–south, about 7 km long (some sources say 7.4 km, others 7.745 km — the gazetteers differ slightly).
The river's problem was this: the moment the tide rose, it flooded.
In the Song and Yuan, because the bed of the Wusong River (today's Suzhou Creek) silted up, every tide overflowed and brought disaster, afflicting the whole area.
Step two: the common people's solution
The ancients' way of explaining it was charming:
Legend held that the god of the tide was Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King of Western Chu, in another form, and so the common people called this kind of tide the "Hegemon's Tide".
Since it was a "hegemon" making the trouble, someone more powerful than the hegemon had to be brought in to subdue it. Who?
Peng Yue, King of Liang under the Western Han, was a fierce general under Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of Han, and won great distinction in the Chu–Han contention. So in 1299 the monk Dening built the Peng Yue Temple by the river (also called the "Pengwang Temple"), enshrining Peng Yue to subdue the god of the tide.
A famous general of the early Han, set against the incarnation of a Western Chu hegemon. This was a "duel of kings" spanning a thousand years — and the battlefield was the mouth of a village by Suzhou Creek.
Step three: the river and the town both became "Pengpu"
From then on the river was called the Pengyue Creek, or Penggong Creek, abbreviated to Pengpu.
River → temple → town → new village → sub-district → town. A chain of place names was formed.
(For the documentary basis of the Pengyue Creek: China National Radio's "Zoumating, Qiujiang, Taopu … this is how Shanghai's waterways got their names!", the Kuaidong Baike entry for "Pengyue Creek", and the Baidu Baike entry for "Pengpu District".)
A long institutional history
As an administrative unit, "Pengpu" is older than "Zhabei District".
| Time | Institution |
|---|---|
| Third year of Dade, Yuan (1299) | The Pengwang Temple is built, and a Pengpu town (market town) gradually forms |
| Ming | Farmers already settled along the Pengyue Creek |
| Thirteenth year of Daoguang, Qing (1833) | A Pengpu chang is set up (an office for famine relief and gruel) |
| Twelfth year of Daoguang, Qing (1838, one account) | A town is founded, named Pengwangmiao town, popularly "Miaotou", later renamed Pengpu town |
| Late Qing | Becomes one of the four great towns of Baoshan. Less than half a li north to south, yet with fifteen or sixteen shops and a population of 1,000 |
| Third year of Xuantong, Qing (1910) | The chang becomes a township; formal institution begins here |
| 1928 | Pengpu township is transferred from Baoshan County into the Special Municipality of Shanghai and reorganised as Pengpu District, becoming one of China's first district-level administrative bodies, alongside the old Zhabei |
| 1927 | Brought into the Shanghai urban area |
| 1932 | The temple is destroyed in the "28 January" incident, and the town declines |
| After that | The institution changes several times — township, commune, town; at its largest the rural area was about 32 km² |
| Sep 1992 | Pengpu township (Tangnan and Longtan villages) of Baoshan District is transferred into Zhabei District; Pengpu township is abolished and Pengpu town established |
A detail: the Pengwang Temple became a primary school
After the liberation of Shanghai, the place gradually revived, and the surviving main hall of the temple was rebuilt as Pengpu Primary School.
A Yuan-dynasty temple to the god of the tide ended up as a primary school. That is probably the most interesting "change of function" on this land.
A "coincidence": Pengpu Xincun is not in Pengpu town
One point worth flagging, easily confused (the Baidu Baike entry for Pengpu Xincun says so expressly):
Although Pengpu Xincun is named after "Pengpu", it is not within the former Pengpu town; it takes its name from the Pengyue Creek.
In other words, Pengpu town and Pengpu Xincun sub-district are two different administrative units that merely share the name "Pengpu", brought by a river.
Pengpu town today
| Dimension | Present state |
|---|---|
| Institution | The only town in Jing'an District (13 sub-districts + 1 town) |
| Area | About 7.35 km² |
| Main river | Pengyue Creek (flows through Putuo and Jing'an; the northern stretch is in western Jing'an) |
| Industry | The Shibei high-technology service park and other industrial clusters |
| Housing | Large numbers of commercial flats such as Gelin Chuntian, plus a big dairy company and other producers |
The Pengyue Creek
The Pengyue Creek is a fairly important waterway in north Shanghai: it starts at Zoumating in the north, runs through Pengpu town, and enters Suzhou Creek at Tanziwan, about 7 km long. Its name comes from the Peng Yue Temple (also called the "Pengwang Temple") on its east bank.
It was once an important inland waterway linking Baoshan and the north-west outskirts of Shanghai (today navigation is restricted), and together with its tributaries it forms the drainage system of the area.
A river whose mission was to "suppress the floods" ended up as the city's storm-drainage system. That function is in fact the same as the purpose of the temple built in 1299 — only the petitioning of gods has become the laying of pipes.
A set of figures
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Area | About 7.35 km² (as before abolition) |
| Registered population (2021, Jing'an basis) | About 106,000 |
| Administrative code | 310106100 |
| Institution | The only town in Jing'an District |
What to see here today
- The Pengyue Creek: walk a stretch of bank and look at this "river of the tide god";
- Gelin Chuntian and other estates: what a modern residential area of Pengpu town looks like;
- Towards the former site of the Pengwang Temple (today around Pengpu Primary School): a place where a monument has become a school;
- The Shibei Hi-Tech park (partly within Pengpu town): a result of Zhabei's industrial transformation.
Sources: the derivation of the name and the institutional lineage follow the Baidu Baike entries for "Pengpu District", "Pengpu Xincun" and "Pengpu town" and the Kuaidong Baike entry for "Pengyue Creek" (class C, cross-checked against the Boya place-name directory's "Origins of the place names of the sub-districts and towns of Jing'an District"); the derivation of the waterway name follows China National Radio's "This is how Shanghai's waterways got their names!"; the administrative adjustments follow Shanghai local gazetteers and reports from China National Radio. The full bibliography is in Appendix 4.