There is a famous prison in the southwest corner of Hongdong County, Shanxi Province, which is also known as "Susan Prison" because the heroine prototype Su San in the famous drama "Yutang Spring" was tried and imprisoned here. Su San's moving story adds a lot of legend to this prison.
Susan Prison
On August 4, 2021, we came to Hongdong County to visit this Ming Dynasty prison, as well as the Guandi Temple not far from the prison, the distance between the two is about 500 meters, it is said that Su San once asked for a signature here, and finally got his wish, which was passed down as a good story by posterity, so the Guandi Temple is commonly known as Su San's wish. Guandi Temple is now a national key cultural relics protection unit.
The story of "Yutang Spring" first appeared in the vernacular novel "Cautionary Tales" compiled by The Ming Dynasty Feng Menglong, Volume 24 "Yutang Spring Falls and Difficult To Meet". Later, it was adapted into a variety of plays, the most famous of which is Peking Opera, especially the sentence "Su San left Hongdong County, will come to the front of the street, did not speak in front of my heart trembling, the past gentlemen listened to my words: that one went to Nanjing, for my Sanlang to pass on the letter, the speaker Su San cut off his life, the comer became a dog and horse I should report back ..." The tune is beautiful and the singing is extremely widespread.
Su San, a person from Datong Province in the north, was formerly known as Zhou Yujie. Due to the drought in the local area for many years, there was no way to make a living, and his father Zhou Yanxiang sold it to Su Huai (also known as "Yi Wei Jin") of the Beijing Bensiyuan Lehu (brothel), and changed his surname to Su and took the flower name "Yutang Chun". Because he ranked third among the sisters of Lehu, he was called Su San. Later, he met Wang Jinglong (Wang Jinlong in the play), the third prince of Rebbe Shangshu, and vowed for life. Wang Jinglong, who was indulging in love, spent all the silver he was carrying and was driven out by the brothel bustard. Su San refused to accept the guest again, and the old bustard sold her to the horse dealer Shen Hong (i.e., Shen Yanlin) for a thousand gold. Su San was forced to follow Shen Hong back to the Shen family in Chaoyang Village, Hongdong County. Shen's wife Pi Shi was jealous of Su San and poisoned him in the face, but he did not want to kill Shen Hong by mistake. Shen's wife planted susan and bribed the county officials to convict Susan to death and imprison him on death row in Hongdong.
Wang Jinglong worked hard to make a field, and after high school, he served as a patrol in Shanxi. Hearing that Su San was in distress, he secretly visited to find out the truth, dismissed the unjust Su San from Taiyuan, and after a "three-court trial," he put an end to this unjust case.
Hongdong Prison is part of Hongdong County Ya, presided over by Yang Mao of Zhixian County, built in the second year of Ming Hongwu (1370), covering an area of more than 600 square meters, and is the only well-preserved Ming Dynasty County Ya Prison in China. In the thirty-fourth year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1696), it collapsed due to an earthquake, and was later rebuilt according to the Ming system. The prison was demolished during the Cultural Revolution and restored in 1984 in full accordance with its original size and style.
Ming Dynasty prison
The prison consists of a hall, a general prison, and a death row. The hall is where prisoners enter and leave the prison; a narrow passage divides 12 cells into two, 6 in each row, and the walls are one foot and three inches thick, each only 4 square meters. The eaves above the passage are covered with barbed wire, the net is embellished with many bells, the doors and windows are narrow, eerie, and can be called a veritable net; behind the general prison is a death row, the door has a tiger head card, the death row has no window, dark, damp, and there is no sunlight all year round, so it is also called "black prison". There are tile houses and cave houses, which are cells for heavy criminals and death row prisoners, Su San was once imprisoned in the cave room, and posterity is commonly known as "Su San Prison", the cave structure is double-layered window ledges, and the wall is three feet and three inches thick. There is a well in the prison courtyard, known as "Su Sanjing", and there is a washing stone trough next to the well. The prison wall is thick and solid, the wall is five feet and one inch thick, and the height is one foot and eight, and the wall is filled with quicksand to prevent prisoners from hitting holes and escaping, which is very strong, commonly known as the zhang eight walls.
Death row, known as Su San Prison
Well, laundry sink, eight walls
Hutou Prison is the most characteristic part of Susan Prison. The tiger's head firmly on the door is painted with the head of the fierce animal "Fox" in ancient legends, with green face and fangs, which is hideous and terrible. It is famous for its resemblance to a tiger's head, but this monster is not a tiger but a dragon. The Ming Dynasty Yang Shen's "Sheng'an Collection" says: "The dragon gave birth to nine sons, the fourth son, shaped like a tiger, powerful, and a good lawsuit in his life, so he stood at the prison gate." Folk regard the tiger head prison as "the sheep entering the tiger's mouth and not returning."
The door of the tiger head cell is only more than two feet, but the wall is more than four feet, which is very strong. Not only that, but there are also two prison doors, and between the cells is a long passage. Curiously, the door leaf of the two prison doors is opened in different directions, one to the right and the other to the left, which is said to be the standard death row door of the Ming Dynasty prison.
Tiger head cell
There is also a prison temple in the prison, and in ancient times, prisoners entering and leaving the prison had to worship the prison god. Before Su San was relieved, he knelt here and went to Taiyuan for retrial.
Prison Temple
At present, a new exhibition room has been built outside the courtyard of Susan Prison to display a wealth of physical materials related to unjust cases in Susan. According to Kao, Shen Hong, who was poisoned in the Su Sanyi case, was indeed a person, and his family lived in Chaoyang Village outside the east gate of Hongdong County, now Chengdong Village. The surname Shen Minghong, the character Yan Ling, because of the family road fell to the mouth to sell horses, earned money to visit the Yichun Courtyard in the capital. Tricking Su San into returning to Hongdong, triggering the case. People sympathize with Su San, and some people still call Chengdong Village "Su Sanjia Village".
There is a Guandi Temple on Wenmiao Street in Hongdong County, which is said to be the place where Su San made a wish. The temple was founded in the 10th year of Yuan Dade (1306), sitting north and facing south, covering an area of 1364 square meters. Along the central axis from north to south, there are buildings such as the front hall, the dedication hall, the terrace, the opera stage, and the Spring and Autumn Tower, and there are east and west corridors and bell and drum towers on both sides. The Spring and Autumn Building is also known as the Three True Pavilions, and the Pavilion-style Building on the top of the Cross Hill. The base is a cross-ticket arched crossing, and the upper, middle and lower floors are wooden buildings, and there are 8 columns inside the wall. The three floors of the building are carved with a wooden statue of Guan Gong, with a height of 1.5 meters.
Spring and Autumn Building (also known as Guan Ye Lou)
The opera stage (also known as the stage of the play), the Spring and Autumn Tower behind the stage, and the bell and drum tower on the left and right
The dedication hall, left and right are the east and west corridors
According to the final outcome of Su San, according to the "Cautionary Circular", after the case was concluded, Wang Jinglong and the officials participating in the trial dealt with the relevant personnel according to the criminal law. Then, "The Michi sent him (Su San) to Beijing to live temporarily at Wang Silversmith's residence." At the end of his one-year term, Wang Jinglong returned to Beijing and went to Dingyin Hutong, where Wang Silversmith lived, to receive Su Sancheng's relatives. Dingyin Hutong was originally located in the South Street of Dongcheng, Beijing, but it no longer exists due to urban reconstruction. The public hall for the review of Su San in that year has always existed in Fudong Street in Taiyuan, and there is a monument to the "Yutang Spring Trial Hall" in front of the lobby. It caught fire more than 20 years ago and is no longer there.