Founded in the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty (1374), The Ancient Village of Siqian in Zhongxin Town, Lianping County has been more than 600 years old, and its Dragon House architectural style is very distinctive, with about 1,000 rooms in the house, which can accommodate more than 1,700 people at the same time.
Bird's eye view of The new house in Murakami. Courtesy of respondents
There are other valuable ancient buildings in Siqian Village. The third national cultural relics census found that there were 5 immovable cultural relics in Siqian Village, including 1 provincial cultural relics protection unit, 1 municipal cultural relics protection unit, and 3 county-level cultural relics protection units, and all traditional buildings accounted for 40% of the total construction area of the village. In 2019, Siqian Village was identified as a "Traditional Chinese Ancient Village".
Siqian Ancient Village in Siqian Village, covers an area of 25,000 square meters, mostly mud bricks, black tiles, fir structures, corridors, corridors are all paved with cobblestone, the entire ancient walled dragon house only has two entrances and exits of the upper gate and the lower gate, both gates are red hole doors, the hole height is 2.8 meters, the door width is 1.8 meters, and the door wall thickness is 1.3 meters. There are two round holes "Longan" on the left and right of the upper end of the gate.
The new house laneway and the two sides of the house in the village of Seizen. Courtesy of respondents
On either side of the gate there are two more rooms (a place for more people to rest). Houses in the immediate vicinity of more houses are a little lower than those of the houses. Entering the gate, three stone sills are crossed, and at the bottom of the foot is the cobblestone paved Dayu Ping (a place where repairmen, carpenters, and freighters from the countryside go from house to house). After walking through Dayu Ping, you will come to the second gate, which is a square double-leaf wooden door, and the marble piers on the left and right of the door frame are inlaid. On each side of the second gate is a hall (a place used by the people of each house to gather and keep public property). Step over the marble sill of the pier of the second gate, enter the oval yuping paved with cobblestones, step on a stone step across the open hole door, and see the square cobblestone platform, over the stone platform, you will enter the ancestral hall. The ancestral hall is divided into four entrances, from east to west, one into the lower hall, two into the middle hall, three into the upper hall, four into the back hall, one into the higher than the other.
The halls and houses of the ancestral halls are either rooms for the clan to organize red and white celebrations and dinners; or the ceremonial rooms for worshipping the ancestors; or the shou houses, for the elderly in the village to store shoumu; or the dark houses, for temporarily parking the remains of deceased ancestors. 5 flower lantern beams are hung on the ceiling of the upper hall and the middle hall of the ancestral hall for hanging flower lanterns and celebrating happy events. The ancestral hall can set up 80 eight immortal tables at the same time, and can accommodate more than 600 people to dine together.
Bird's eye view of the new house under the village of Sajimae. Courtesy of respondents
Behind the ancestral hall is a residence, which is built along the left, right and rear sides of the ancestral hall, and is raised in turn. Each dwelling is built horizontally, with a longitudinal roadway connecting the transverse dwellings. The layout of the households on the side of the alley is uniform, with the bath well in front and the bedroom in the back. Most of the houses are two-storey, and the upper and lower floors are connected by light wooden or bamboo ladders.
The roadways are made of cobblestones in the shape of a turtle's back, and the large and narrow lanes are connected to each other to form an intricate road network. Wander the quiet alleys and reminisce about the prosperity of the past, and you have to admire the wisdom and ancient civilization of the ancestors.
After the vicissitudes, although the ancient buildings of Siqianzhai are dilapidated, most of them are well preserved. In recent years, the three ancestral halls in the village have been repaired as old, and she has solemnly dominated the customs of the villagers' lives.
The 2017 Zhongxin Lantern Festival is a grand event. Photo by Jiang Caihu
The flower viewing lantern can best reflect the simple feelings of the villagers in Siqian and the ancestral hall who are constantly related to each other and respect the ancestors.
Siqian Village is the base for the inheritance of the Zhongxin chandelier custom, and every year from the third day of the first month to the eighteenth day of the first month, a variety of flower lanterns and chandelier customs attract a large number of tourists to come to see.
According to records, in the eighth year of yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (1730), there was already a custom of faithful flower lanterns and chandeliers. Zhongxin lantern is a unique folk plastic art in the traditional Lantern lantern customs, which integrates painting, paper cutting, calligraphy, couplets, poetry, weaving and other folk cultures, and the style is very different from that of foreign flower lanterns, which is famous and is a unique artistic treasure of Lianping.
According to the traditional custom of faithfulness, every year on the ninth day of the first lunar month, when a boy is born in the local family, they should hang flower lanterns in the ancestral hall to celebrate to inform the ancestors and villagers. The faithful chandelier ceremony has a lantern rope, lamp selection, lantern greeting, lantern (chandelier), lantern viewing, lantern transformation, warm lamp and other procedures, during which there are gongs and drums, dragon and lion dances, ancestor worship, drinking lantern wine and other lively scenes. With the evolution of customs, the connotation of the faithful flower lantern is extended, symbolizing the prosperity of hundreds of industries and abundant food and clothing.
In recent years, Zhongxin Lantern has been included in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list, Zhongxin chandelier custom has been included in the provincial intangible cultural heritage list, and Lianping has been rated as "the hometown of Hakka lantern art in Guangdong Province".
Since the first Zhongxin Lantern Festival was held in 1999, Lianping has successfully held more than ten Lantern Festivals. For more than 20 years, the content and form of the Zhongxin Lantern Cultural Festival have become more and more abundant, and the popularity and influence of Zhongxin Lantern have been increasing.
Scene of the 2017 Faithful Lantern Festival. Photo by Jiang Caihu
The stone stele on the wall of the Siqian Village Ancestral Hall is engraved with the words "One Thick Ethics, Two Noble King's Laws, Three Emergencies, Four And Townships, Five Diligent Benye, Six Mo Fei, Seven Weeks of Poverty, Eight Sacrifices." This is the Family Discipline of the Wu Family in Siqian Village, which has been passed down for hundreds of years. It spreads the essence of Chinese culture and morality, condenses the spiritual soul of Hakka culture, and conforms to the core values of socialism. Siqian Village has thus become a demonstration base for the dissemination of family training culture in Heyuan City.
The culture of faithful lanterns has a long history, and the picture shows local elders presiding over the ancient chandelier ceremony according to tradition. Photo by Xie Xin
Every year, the Wu clan people hold family training and family rules inheritance activities at the ancestral hall. In recent years, Siqian Village has introduced the culture of family training into the campus, held an opening ceremony at the beginning of the primary school, carried out recitation of family training competitions and family training essay collection activities, compiled the counseling materials for learning and inheriting family training into a pamphlet, distributed to all households, and carried out activities such as "scholar training, Ming village covenant, strong culture, tree new style" and moral model selection and commendation in the whole village, creating a strong atmosphere of actively inheriting the family training culture, advocating moral models, and striving to be a good person in front of the division. In 2015, the Yarui family in Siqian Village won the honor of "Most Beautiful Family" in China. In recent years, Siqian Village has won the honorary titles of "National Democratic Rule of Law Demonstration Village", "National Rural Governance Demonstration Village" and "National Civilized Village".
At the Zhongxin Lantern Festival, local children held a ceremony to inherit the culture of home training. Photo by Xie Xin
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Both the upper and lower houses are expanded dwellings
During the light years of the Qing Dynasty, the population of Guzhai increased, and Wu Zhenyu, the 93rd grandson of the Wu clan, expanded the village, because the expanded house was built in the upstream of the siqian ancient village, so it was named "Shangxin House". On the new house is the Walled Dragon House, sitting west to east, five halls three horizontal two-walled dragon layout, civil brick and tile construction, hard hilltop, horizontal house hanging top, gray tile surface, barrier tile as a ridge, wall shelf load-bearing, green brick wall foot, mud brick wall, wall thickness of up to 70 cm, the surface of the plaster, the whole dragon house with cobblestone paving. The shangxin house covers an area of 3,000 square meters, and the total area of 4,500 square meters together with Yuping and ponds.
During the Qing Dynasty, the population of Guzhai increased again, and the 95th grandson of the Wu clan expanded the village house again, and this time the expanded village house was located under the Upper New House, so it was named "Lower New House". The next new house is still a dragon house, sitting west to east, three halls, three horizontal and one dragon layout, civil brick and tile construction, hard hilltop, horizontal house hanging hilltop, gray tile surface, barrier tile as a ridge, wall shelving bearing, green brick wall foot, mud brick wall, surface batch mortar, the whole dragon house paved with cobblestone. The building covers an area of 2,500 square meters, and the total area of 3,000 square meters together with Yuping and ponds.
[All-media reporter] Jiang Caihu
[Correspondent] Liu Mengsha Yuan Yi
【Author】 Jiang Caihu
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client