Text/Liu Yutao
In the rich and beautiful Jiaodong Peninsula, there was a folk song that circulated a long time ago: "Huangxian Fang, Qixia Grain, Penglai Net Out Of Good Girl". Among them, "Huangxian Fang" refers to the Ding family's former residence, the legendary story of its founder "Ding Million" and the modern apocalypse left by this family after more than two hundred years of wind and rain.
Ding's former residence was built in the Yongzheng period, built in the Daoguang years, and has experienced more than 200 years of ups and downs, and the Ding family built this magnificent mansion in the prosperous period. The building complex in front of you, which is symmetrically laid out in the central axis of each road, is a unified five-entry courtyard, typical of the northern hard mountain building. As the representative of the "Huangxian House", Ding's former residence is also the longest and unique Jiaodong residence in the capital city. In 1996, the State Council announced it as a national key cultural relics protection unit.
According to statistics, in the heyday, the Ding family mansion reached more than 3400 rooms, covering most of the urban areas of Huangxian County, with magnificent momentum and a unique crown. Unfortunately, as the years passed, the glory of the past has become history in the chaos of war. Today's Ding's former residence is only a part of the Ding family's "Xiyuelai" surviving part of the residence, and now there are only 55 buildings and 243 rooms, covering an area of about 15,000 square meters, less than one-tenth of its original overall scale. The old mansion is like a century old man who has experienced vicissitudes, telling the rise and fall of the owner's "Ding Million" family.
In front of us, the existing "Xiyuelai" Ding's former residence, the four courtyards are square and unified, and the building plan resembles the "Ding" character. In terms of architectural design, it can be compared with the Wangye Mansion in Beijing. Walking on the long road, I saw that the courtyard wall was high and the courtyard was deep. Ding's former residence pays attention to grandeur and sturdiness in style, mostly using pine and granite, and wood carving, stone carving, brick carving is a must of The Ding family architecture, which has been listed as a national intangible cultural heritage.
When you taste the magnificence of the remaining leaves, it is not difficult to imagine the strength of the Ding family in its heyday. According to records, Ding Yuanyi, the eleventh ancestor of the Ding family, subsequently founded eight major branches, each of which has its own name, such as "Wenlai", "Tailai", "Dongyuelai", etc., known as the eight major money bags of the Ding family. Since then, "Ding Million" has become the title of the wealthy Ding family and is famous. In the prosperous qianlong dynasty, the Ding family built 72 pawnshops throughout the country, and by the late Qing Dynasty, it had spread throughout the eleven provinces and cities of the country, and it was said that the assets were equivalent to more than 54 million taels of silver, which was equivalent to the financial income of the Qing court for two years, and it was truly rich and invincible.
According to the "Huangxian Chronicle", "Shandong Yan rich, Dewang Tui Ding Shi Yan." "The Ding family is rich in the world, but their process of creating wealth is full of legends." From the penniless restaurant "guys" to the rich and invincible "pawnshop families", the concepts of virtue-oriented, honest management, good financial management, and emphasis on education that they implement in the process of hard work are still talked about by people.
Tracing the family tree, the ancestors of the Ding family accumulated virtue for good, managed their finances well, and then embarked on a road of "Confucianism, officials, and merchants" to build a family, which is the foundation of prosperity. "How many families in ancient and modern times are nothing more than accumulating virtue The first person in heaven and earth is still reading" is the family motto of the Ding family. With the rapid development of the economy, the Ding family has put the teaching children's reading in a prominent position, built a special study room for children to learn, and paid for the employment of well-educated people to teach here. After the children have accumulated a certain degree of study, they also spend huge sums of money to send them to Beijing Guozijian or Taixue for further study. The ding family's concept of education first eventually led to a qualitative change in the family, and the well-educated Ding disciples formed a Confucian business style in business, while more children embarked on the road of learning Confucianism. To this end, the Guangxu Emperor twice issued a holy decree to commend the elder godson of the Ding clan: "Education can rejuvenate the family, and more can revitalize the country." The history of the development of the Ding family vividly confirms this law.
The Ding family attaches great importance to business ethics and credibility in business. The Ding family pawnshop insisted on not undercutting the price and not deducting the pawn at the time of collection, and also took proper care of the expired "dead pawn" in different situations. Therefore, the reputation is good, the development is fast, and it snowballs bigger and bigger. Other industries, such as grain banks and grocery stores, also led to the development of unprecedented prosperity, and attracted the attention of the Qing government, issuing "dragon tickets" to all shops of the Ding family. With the "business license" issued by the emperor, all officials and bullies did not dare to interfere with the normal operation of the store. In addition, there have been many people in the Ding family who have served as officials in the middle of the dynasty or in the localities, which has played a vital role in protecting and promoting the development and growth of the Ding family's business, and is also a positive result achieved by the Ding family's "guarantee business with shishi".
Over the past hundred years, the family's ups and downs have changed, and the ding family's property has long been scattered. However, in the surge of the tide of history, ding foyan, the fifteenth grandson of the Ding family, was a famous social activist and paleographer in the late Qing Dynasty and early Min. He served as a member of the "Provisional Government of the Republic of China", was the secretary general of the "Great President" of Li Yuanhong, and participated in the drafting of China's first constitution, the Provisional Law of the Republic of China. He wrote nearly a million words in his lifetime, and was known as the "aura of Lu". In the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, more than 100 people in the Ding family participated in the revolution, of whom 11 gave their precious lives for the success of the revolution. After liberation, a group of Ding descendants grew up to be the pillars of talent on all fronts, such as Ding Fangming, who was once the vice governor of Shandong Province, and Ding Zhao, who became a general of the republic. The fact that Ding's children can follow the trend of the times shows that wealth can be scattered in an instant, and talent is the backbone that supports the family.
Ding's former residence is part of the remains of the "Xiyuelai" branch of the "Ding Million" family, the richest man in Shandong in the Qing Dynasty, it is a typical representative of the Jiaodong residence of the Qing Dynasty, this rare "courtyard" style ancient building complex, through the vicissitudes of the wind and rain, has a long history of more than 200 years. Since then, this huge architectural complex integrating Confucian culture, architectural culture and folk culture has forever stood on the treasure land of Jiaodong Peninsula. Its existence embodies the wisdom and ingenuity of the working people and has extremely high cultural and artistic and historical value.
History is like a mirror, through which we can strongly feel the shock of history and culture, and can also reflect the foundation of Longkou's splendid culture. When the hundred years have passed and history has accumulated in red dust, it seems that every inch of ding's former residence has endless vicissitudes and past.
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