The Si ma Bridge outside the North Gate of Chengdu is a place with a lot of stories. According to legend, Sima Xiangru, a great talent of the Han Dynasty, went north to Chang'an, passed through the Shengxian Bridge in the north of the city, inscribed on the bridge pillar, and described himself as a zhizhi of tongxian, saying: "Do not ride on a high cart and ride a horse, but Ruxia also!" Later generations used the metaphor of "inscription bridge pillar" to have ambitions for the name of merit, and also omitted "inscription bridge" or "inscription pillar". Shengxian Bridge was thus renamed "Donkey Horse Bridge".
▲Street view near the old imperial city
Further north, to the new capital, there is Yang Shen, who ranks first among the three talents of the Ming Dynasty, he took the examination at the age of 21, originally the main examination has listed his Hongwen at the top of the volume, it is already a matter of certainty, who expected the illuminated candle flower to burn the examination paper, so the name fell to Sun Mountain, and shi also died. However, Yang Shen's chest is full of splendid embroidery, and he must "exhaust the heroes in the waves". At the age of twenty-four, he went to take the temple examination again, and this time the emperor did not pay off, he was elected as a champion, and he also received a position as an editor of the Hanlin Academy, which was the highest honor for the readers at that time.
During the Qing Dynasty, Sichuan produced many famous scholars, such as the Suining poet Zhang Chuanshan and the poet theorist; the Deyang opera theorist Li Tiaoyuan; and later, the more senior Luo Chengjun, breaking the heavenly famine in the Qing Dynasty where no Sichuan people took the crown of Wen Zhuangyuan. After Luo Chengjun became famous, he settled in Chengdu. In the south of Wenmiao South Street, before 2001, there was an inconspicuous alley called Luo SauceYuan Street, originally called "Luo Zhuangyuan Street", which was named after Luo Chengjun. But in his later years, Luo Chenghua lived in the streets and alleys north of the Imperial City, and now that neighborhood no longer exists.
▲ Luo Chengjun
Luo Zhuangyuan's early life is related to several colleges in Chengdu, he entered Chengdu Jinjiang Academy at the age of 9, and entered the Zunjing Academy at the age of 14 for further study. In the nineteenth year of Guangxu (1893), the third sichuan township examination, the twenty-first year of Guangxu jinshi, this time the temple test Guangxu Emperor personally came to the scene. The chief examiner Xu Tong, seeing That Luo Chenghua's words were different, the sentences were simple, and the arguments were incisive, especially in the answer sheet, "The Lord is worried about the humiliation of the subjects, the Lord insults the subjects to death" is in line with the current politics, just when the Guangxu Emperor was deposed by Lafayette, and Kang Youwei went to Maicheng, he was touched by the Guangxu Emperor and hand-picked him as a champion. In his early years, he studied hard, gained meritorious fame, entered the army in middle age, and re-taught and re-taught until he was old. And because he was the only "champion" in Sichuan in the Qing Dynasty, he was quite influential in the forest of sichuan township gentry.
Luo Zhuangyuan was honest and self-disciplined all his life, attached great importance to education, and often said: "There is nothing in the world as difficult to eat, and only reading is high in the world." He served as the history of Shanxi Tixue, and after the Xinhai Revolution, he served as the speaker of the Sichuan Parliament and the superintendent of the Fund-raising Bureau, and Liang Qichao praised: "There is an addiction to running a school in the Zhuangyuan Public School. "It's a pertinent statement. In 1916, he became the president of Sichuan Higher Education School, the predecessor of Sichuan University. He was a man of integrity, and even the provincial governor Chen Mi awarded him 4,000 oceans, and he ran a number of schools, but his life was as poor as a wash. In the summer of 1926, he died of illness in the former residence of Chengdu Beimen, and the coffin passed through the city, passed through Longquan, and was sent back to Zizhong for burial. This is one of the humanistic story scenes of Chengdu's North Gate, what a great shore! In the past hundred years, no one in Sichuan has enjoyed this honor.
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Edit: South Beauvan
Proofreader: Wang Yang Li Shengli
Producer: Mao Shengwen
Review: Tang Yuanbo