On May 18, 2017, with a series of deafening firecrackers, Ren Jinling, the "most cattle nail household in Dongshima Village", pulled down the red cloth on the plaque, so the "Zhengzhou Tianxiang Museum" came into view. Some people came forward to congratulate Ren's family, and others laughed at them.
However, the old man Ren Jinling did not care at all, he held the horn and shouted: "Thanks to the strong support of the government and the Henan Cultural Relics Bureau, the Ren family's old residence has been preserved." I announce that starting from today, Zhengzhou Tianxiang Museum is officially established! ”
This ancient house can be preserved is also experienced many challenges, when the developer in order to demolish the old house, many times to visit, and finally even offered a sky-high price of 100 million, but Ren Jinling directly threatened: "Don't say give me 100 million, even if you give me 10 billion, I will never agree to the demolition." ”
Why did Ren Jinling not agree to the demolition of the old house? Is it really because it is too greedy?
The old house looks ordinary and has rich historical value
When it comes to the Ren family's old house, we have to first understand the family history of the next Ren family. When the Ren family was in the Qing Dynasty, it was the local famous family and the Shuxiang Mendi, and its ancestors were very prestigious in the local area, the family was full of slaves, and the field real estate was innumerable, so it is conceivable that when the Ren family ancestors built the ancestral house in that year, it also consumed several generations of manpower, material resources and financial resources.
According to Ren Jinling's description, the place where the Ren family's old residence was located was called Tianxiang Village in ancient times, and is now renamed DongmaShi Village, which was a place where merchants from the south came and went north during the Qing Dynasty, which can be described as a place where talents and wealth gather. After the ren family's original ancestor Ren Junxuan made his fortune, he spent a lot of money to buy the land in the central area of Tianxiang Village, and began to build the Ren family's ancestral home on this land in the 40th year of Qianlong.
Since the Ren family's ancestors moved here, the Ren family has begun to produce talents, and its prestige in the local area has become higher and higher, and the family is like a city. Especially in the Daoguang years of the Qing Dynasty, the director of the Ren family, Derun, was an official to the second product- the envoy of the Imperial Court Cloth Administration Department, and the Ren family can be described as extremely prosperous.
So at that time, under the auspices of Ren Derun, a large-scale expansion was carried out on the Ren family's ancestral home, so the current Ren family's old residence has been passed down from the Qianlong period to the present, and has spanned more than 200 years of history, which is really a witness and treasure of history.
And according to the professional historian field research shows that the Ren family old mansion covers a total area of about 1,000 square meters, historical records once the most brilliant time the house is a large mansion with five into, but after hundreds of years and the baptism of war, the current Ren family old house only has two courtyards left, but the interior of the building decoration is exquisite and elegant, exquisite carving, which shows the strong financial resources and prestige of the Ren family at that time.
Although there are only two courtyards left in the Ren family's old mansion now, the roofs of the two courtyards are covered with blue-gray fish scale tiles, and the front yard and the back yard are high and low, staggered, and the grandeur of this ancient house can still be felt from a distance.
And push open the door of the Ren family, the first thing that catches the eye is a carved Loushan screen, which is carved with a variety of folk auspicious birds and animals, vivid, walk over to take a closer look, you can also see the carved pattern above the engraved "Tianzi Ten Thousand Years" of the Qing Dynasty traditional characters, below the left and right are written the words of the sun and the moon.
The forecourt of the ancient mansion is mainly composed of two compartments and a front hall, and the door railings and corners are carved with exquisite patterns, and most of these carved patterns are mainly Meilan bamboo chrysanthemums, which also highlights the purity of the Ren family's generations of civil officials. Compared with the exquisite elegance of the front yard, the backyard is relatively simple and unpretentious, and the two-story green brick building, because it is uninhabited all year round, the ground and the brick ladder seem to be covered with moss.
However, the two courtyards before and after the entire old mansion are the most eye-catching two plaques hanging at the door of the two courtyards, the plaque in the front yard reads "Auxiliary Wing State Administration", which makes people look forward to it, and according to Ren Jinling, this plaque genealogy records that derun, the most accomplished head of the Ren family, during his tenure in the imperial court, for the official political achievements are remarkable, meticulous, and the people praise, so the Daoguang Emperor in order to reward him, so he personally wrote this plaque to the Ren family.
But unfortunately, after a hundred years of war and the baptism of the years, the original plaque has long been destroyed and lost, and the plaque seen today is made by the descendants of the Ren family according to the records of the ancestors to re-find the gaoren to write on behalf of the people. On the door of the backyard of the ancient house hangs the words "Hope to do it", the same gold on a black background, which is said to have been written by Ren Derun's younger brother Ren Qingxin, although it is not as prominent as the plaque in the front yard, but the words do not lose their bones.
Although the entire Ren family ancient mansion has gone through a hundred years of years and the baptism of war, it is now more solemn and simple in the urbanized buildings lined with high-rise buildings, and every carving and building in the ancient house has witnessed the rise and fall of the history of the Qing Dynasty, and is a Qing Dynasty building that is relatively well preserved in the mainland and has high historical and artistic research value.
Threatened to give 10 billion, and absolutely not demolished
After understanding the long history and culture of the Ren family's old mansion through the above, people seem to understand some reasons why Ren Jinling is resolutely reluctant to demolish the old house. And according to Ren Jinling, the Ren family's old residence has a special significance for the Ren family, it is not only the residence of the Ren family for generations, but also a symbol of the Ren family spirit and family style, and its value cannot be measured with money.
At the same time, Ren Jinling's children also introduced: "The Ren family's old house is the harbor of our soul, no matter how far we go and how hard we work outside, as long as we remember the ancestral training of the old house, we can encourage ourselves to continue to be a down-to-earth person and work diligently and sincerely." ”
They also said: "Although we have not had the glory and prominence of our ancestors, we always believe that this old house is a precious spiritual wealth left by our ancestors to future generations, and we should not sell the inheritance of our ancestors in exchange for superior living conditions." ”
Therefore, in a sense, the Ren family's old mansion is a kind of faith in the hearts of the ren family's descendants, and in order to protect the Ren family's old mansion, Ren Jinling and his family have made great efforts and sacrifices. Ren Jinling said that because of the superior geographical location of Dongshima Village, it became a golden land that many developers rushed to develop.
In 2007, many of the original old houses and buildings around him were also demolished one after another driven by the interests of developers, and his family was no exception, the developers took turns to send people to their homes to constantly persuade him to agree to sell the ancestral house, and many neighbors around him also came to persuade him to let him stop being so stubborn, but he has always been tough, that is, not to sell.
In the end, the developer saw that he could not take the land of ren's family for a long time, and thought that Ren Jinling was not satisfied with the conditions they gave, so after many internal discussions among the developers, he directly offered Ren Jinling a sky-high price of 100 million yuan to buy the land of the Ren family. But in the face of the temptation of sky-high prices, Ren Jinling remained indifferent and directly threatened: "Don't say give me 100 million, even if you give me 10 billion, I will never sell my ancestral home." ”
At that time, many people did not understand and even ridicule Ren Jinling, but later when interviewed by reporters, Ren Jinling also said: "At that time, threatening to sell 10 billion yuan was just a temporary angry words, because he never thought of selling his ancestral home." I can't let it die in my hands for money, so that I can still have some face to face my ancestors. ”
In this way, because of the Ren family's long-term persistence, the developer did not continue to entangle with Ren Jinling, and the Ren family's old mansion also escaped the disaster of demolition, but what the Ren Jinling family never expected was that the most difficult thing was still behind, in order to protect the Ren family's old mansion in the surrounding ruins was the most severe challenge they were about to face.
Overcoming many difficulties, the old mansion has finally become a museum
With the start of the urban planning and construction project of Dongmashi Village, all the villagers who originally lived in this village received the demolition money and moved to the new resettlement houses one after another. The entire Village of Dongmashi was reduced to rubble by a large bulldozer, and the Ren family's old mansion became the only remaining house within a hundred miles, as if it were an isolated island.
And because there are large construction sites around, this also brings great challenges to the life of the Ren Jinling family, living in the middle of a large construction site every day, dusty and noisy. However, these difficulties can be overcome by the Ren Jinling family, and the biggest challenge is that the construction team at that time dug up the circuits and water pipes of the entire area in order to build a house, so that the only Ren Jinling family living in the area was short of water and electricity.
As Jinling was never frightened by the difficulties in front of him, he lit candles at night or prepared the torches and table lamps for charging in advance without electricity, and without water he dug a well in his yard.
In this way, Ren Jinling persevered on this isolated island. However, according to Ren Jinling's recollection, he could endure and overcome the inconveniences and difficulties of life, but what worried him most was that he found that because of the people on the construction site, the quality was uneven, resulting in many of the roofs and periphery of his home, and some carved tiles and bricks, often disappeared inexplicably.
This worried Ren Jinling, so after thinking about it, he came up with the idea of building some glass-like protective covers around these carved doors and windows, which could not only protect these cultural relics well, but also prevent others from taking the sheep by the hand.
However, Ren Jinling's idea is good, but it will take a lot of money to build this protective cover, and it is indeed difficult for their family's current economic situation. Just when Ren Jinling was at a loss, his son suggested to him: "Dad, we may wish to try to apply with the local government and the Cultural Relics Bureau, our family's ancestral home is also the mainland's historical and cultural heritage, if you can get the help of the government and experts, I believe that the Ren family's old house will be better preserved in the future." ”
Ren Jinling listened to his son's words and suddenly realized, so in the following time, he began to run around the local government and cultural bureau, and it was also under his unremitting efforts that many experts in archaeological history and cultural relics of the Henan Cultural Relics Bureau went to the Ren family's old residence for field investigation.
In 2009, in the end, the emperor did not pay off, the Ren family old house received financial support from the government, and experts carried out professional maintenance and protection of the Ren family old house. This touched Ren Jinling very much, he wanted to Ren family old house is not only the root of Ren family, but also it is also a precious historical and cultural heritage of the country. If it can only be seen by the Ren family, it is indeed a pity. Therefore, Ren Jinling decided to apply sincerely with the government after careful consideration, hoping to turn the Ren family's old residence into a local museum and let more people go to understand China's long and splendid history and culture.
For Ren Jinling's application, the relevant government departments finally agreed to the application in 2017 after repeated research and approval. Ren Jinling received the notice from the Cultural Relics Bureau and was overjoyed, so he began to prepare for the transformation of the old house into a museum, and even listed nearly a thousand old objects handed down from his ancestors in the museum.
After everything was ready, under the witness of government staff and onlookers, the "Zhengzhou Tianxiang Museum" was officially established, with Jinling as the director and narrator of the museum, his wife in charge of logistics and health, and his children would come over as volunteer docents when they had time.
epilogue
Nowadays, under the persistence of Ren Jinling day after day, "Zhengzhou Tianxiang Museum" has become a pure land in the bustling city to understand Chinese history and culture, and has also attracted countless experts and students who love history to visit and study. As we all know, in the rapid construction and development of urbanization, the contradiction between ancient residences and urban construction is inevitable, but we must not forget our roots in order to blindly pursue fast-paced urban development, and at this point, Ren Jinling's approach is worthy of our admiration and learning.