Chinese culture is vast and profound, and there are many things that foreigners cannot understand. For example, the "town things" that have been circulating for thousands of years have the saying of town houses and warding off evil spirits.
Those who have been to Jiayuguan have noticed that there is a "Dingcheng Brick" on the eaves of the Urn City on the west side of Jiayuguan. That brick was out of place with the clean surroundings. When I meet someone with OCD like me, I really want to take it off.
However, people say that it is the old city bricks that were placed during the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, and they have been placed for more than 600 years. That is the "town thing" can not be taken, Jiayuguan will rely on the "Dingcheng brick" town, take it will fall. So I heard the allusion of "Dingcheng Brick":
During the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, the officials who repaired Jiayuguan and supervised the construction of Jiayuguan invited a master who was good at calculation called "Yi Kaizhan", and the name was "Yi" and "Zhan", and he was a master who understood feng shui at a glance. It is said that the engineering materials calculated by this person can be done without difference. He calculated that Jiayuguan needed to use 99,999 bricks.
The construction official said that if it was finally found that there were more or fewer bricks, it would be easy to open the occupation and punish, and all the craftsmen involved would also be punished with three years of hard labor.
When Jiayuguan was built, the construction officials saw that there was an extra brick and placed it on the eaves of the West Urn City, and they wanted to use this as an excuse to punish Yi Kaizhan and the craftsmen. Why is there an extra brick? Maybe it was an extra piece, maybe someone deliberately left one piece.
However, Yi Kaizhan's words frightened the construction officials: "This last piece is called the Dingcheng Brick, take this brick, and the city will collapse." "Will the construction officials be convinced?" Of course, the saying of "town things" town houses has been believed in ancient times, and now people believe it, let alone people during the Ming Dynasty.
So, is it really useful to say that Jiayuguan "Dingcheng Brick" is it really useful? I don't know. Anyway, many rural areas now have such a custom: after the new house is built, a brick should be placed on the roof. In other rural areas, a brick should also be placed on the top of the newly raised graves.
People in some places believe that the old city bricks of the Great Wall have the effect of "town house, ward off evil spirits", and people will often steal a piece of Great Wall city brick and put it back in their yard to make "town objects".
Speaking of "town objects", there are many kinds of folk customs. For example, Buddhist Taoist portraits and ritual instruments; such as shi dangdang; such as the front mirror. These customs are actually very widespread, and many can be found in rural folk. Usually do not pay much attention to the "illuminated wall in the courtyard", "stone lion at the gate", in fact, is also the custom of "town objects", and now many people make these things, all for the sake of decoration and good looks, forgetting the original meaning.
Speaking of these things, the more noble people are, the more they believe. For example, the Cangzhou Iron Lion built by Zhou Shizong Chai Rong also has a name called "Zhenhai Roar", and you can know that it is a town object when you hear the name. For example, the old city of Beijing has the famous five major town objects, and the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth correspond to the direction of east, west, south, north and middle. The old city of Beijing had "town objects" during the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty: the Golden Silk Nanmu outside the Guangqu Gate (east), the big bell of Juesheng Temple (west), the Yandun of Yongdingmen (south), the Tongniu of the Summer Palace (north), and the Jingshan (middle).