Walking into the meridian, through its prosperity and beauty, a kind of inquiry from the heart quietly rises, reverberating in the northern foothills of the Qinling Mountains under the Zhongnan Mountain, like a pair of gentle hands that want to unveil the cloak of its civilization, explore the mystery of its dust for thousands of years, and count its past and present lives!
Meridian Town, located in the northern foothills of Qinling Mountains, thirteen kilometers southwest of Weiqu in Chang'an District, and about 23 kilometers from Xi'an City, is the location of the Meridian Street Office.
In ancient times, "Zi" was the north, "Noon" was the south, and the "Warring States Ce Bao Biao's Note" also recorded: "Chang'an has a meridian valley, the north mountain is the son, and the south mountain is the noon." The Tang Dynasty Yan Shigu also said: "Zi, the north is also, noon, the south is also, the words are equal to the north and south, so it is called the meridian ear." ”
The prosperity of meridian ancient town, and meridian ancient boardwalk has a deep origin, meridian ancient boardwalk was once one of the five famous passages in Qinling, from Chang'an Meridian Town in the north to Meridian Township in Hanzhong Xixiang County in the south, with a total length of nearly 700 miles, is an important north-south passage from Xi'an area through Qinling to southern Shaanxi and Sichuan in ancient times, without the prosperity of the Meridian Ancient Road, there is no prosperity of meridian ancient town.
Meridian Ancient Town was once a traffic choke point, a commercial town and a place of contention for generations of soldiers. The important geographical location determines that it must be a place with a story, meridian town, if a magical line, strings together a series of interesting historical stories, and meridian once in the past glory and splendor: the late Qin and Han disputes, Liu Bang was relegated to Hanzhong, he entered the mountain from the meridian, all the way frustrated, passing through, burning the boardwalk, hiding footprints, painfully and resolutely expressing his determination not to return to Chang'an.
During the Three Kingdoms period, when The Shu chancellor Zhuge Liang was on a crusade against the State of Wei, the general Wei Yan requested that five thousand soldiers be sent out of the mountain from Meridian Yu to secretly attack Chang'an, and Zhuge Liang thought that it was difficult to do so, preferring to go out of Qishan six times. However, a few years later, the Wei general Zhong Hui chose this dangerous path and marched south alone to capture Hanzhong.
In the last year of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, led a peasant rebel army into Chang'an and sent He Renlong to Meridian Yu to take Guannan south. In 1914, Bai Lang (commonly known as the White Wolf) led the "Citizen Thief Army" to oppose Yuan Shikai's failure, withdrew from Gansu to Guanzhong, retreated into Meridian Yu, and finally died of defeat.
In modern times, meridian also because of its superior position across the north and south, several times to welcome the Red Army in and out, flashing a string of red memories. In 1932, under the leadership of Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao, the Red Fourth Front marched into the town of Meridian, where it annihilated two enemy battalions. In July 1935, under the leadership of Xu Haidong and Wu Huanxian, the Red 25th Army marched north, passing through the town of Meridian, and executed Tang Sitong, commander of the Shaanxi Garrison Brigade, at Nandoujiao Village. In 1949, the People's Liberation Army annihilated the remnants of Hu Zongnan, who were entrenched on The Xiaowutai Mountain, liberated the mountainous area along the Chang'an Hundred Miles, and paved the way for the People's Liberation Army to march into southern Shaanxi.
The prosperity and development of the trade industry is the most luxurious coat of regional economic development, to what extent did the meridian flourish in history?
"A ride on a red dust concubine laughs, no one knows that it is a lychee coming" is a poem in the late Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu's "Passing through the Huaqing Palace", the legendary Yang Guifei likes to eat fresh lychees, Tang Ming Emperor in order to win the hearts of beautiful people, sent people to quickly transport lychees from the south to the Lishan Huaqingchi Palace, the fast horse that rides through the red dust starts from the lychee production area, all the way north, across the Qinling Mountains, from the meridian out of the mountain, through the meridian ancient town to Huaqingchi Palace! Since then, Meridian Road has also had the reputation of "Lychee Road".
The excellent geographical location and convenient transportation attracted countless merchants, and the meridian in history was once a "immigrant town". Shanxi, Henan, southern Shaanxi, and merchants around Chang'an came here to develop and settle, forming a diversified population pattern of Meridian Ancient Town, giving rise to sun, Zhang, Xiao, Tian, Niu, Wang, Gao, Ren, He and other surnames, and appeared such as Niujia Lane, Zhangjia Lane, Gaojia Lane, Sun Jia Lane, He Jia Lane, Xiao Jia Qiao Lane, Wang Jia Chang, Tian Jia Chang, Wang Jia Chang and other alley names.
The prosperity of commerce is inseparable from the prosperity of the bazaar. The official establishment of the Meridian set began in the twenty-fifth year of Ming Jiajing, when the Chang'an South Set was in Meridian Town, the North Set was in Huangliang Town, the South Set and the North Set were staggered, the South Set I, III, V, VII, and 9, and the North Set II, IV, VI, VIII, and 10 Feng Ji continued for a long time. In 1984, with the approval of the then county government, the meridian market day was set as the second, fifth and eighth days of the month, which has continued to this day.
The former Meridian Ancient Town has a city wall of more than 20 meters high, four gates in the east, west, south and north, and the moat outside the city wall is about a meter wide, making it an impregnable city at the foot of the Qinling Mountains, and the most ambiguous station at The mouth of Yukou. Before the wheel of history rolls, the ancient city is not there, its splendor is sealed in the river of light of history, flashing in the chic small buildings that stretch in the new meridian and the joy and pride of the meridian people.
The convenience of transportation and the prosperity of commerce and trade precipitate its profound cultural heritage.
In the old city of Meridian, there was once a city god temple with five halls, people's admiration for the city god, hidden in its endless protection of the people, meridian city god temple incense continuously, praying! At the end of the 1970s, when the Meridian Elementary School was founded, the main hall was demolished, and the wood and bricks that were removed were transported to Xiangji Temple, and the current main hall of Xiangji Temple was built. Xiangji Temple and Meridian Town echo each other, and the incense of Xiangji Temple, which watches over the meridian, should have the great wish of the Meridian City God!
Next to the Meridian City God Temple, there was originally a large opera building that was quite famous in Xi'an at that time, it is said that due to the excellent stage design of the theater building, the scientific structure, and the sound resonance effect is excellent, during the Republic of China, many famous Qin characters in Xi'an have sung in the Meridian Theater, and the literary and artistic atmosphere is very strong.
Taoist culture is an important part of the culture of Zhongnan Mountain, and the Golden Immortal Temple, as the gold medal business card of Taoist culture after the rain, is located in Meridian Yu. As one of the Taoist Quanzhen Taoist temples, the Golden Immortal Temple was built in the western Han Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, and was originally named Xuandu Tan. Later, the hermits who practiced in Zhongnan Mountain used this altar to build many Taoist temples around it, and to this day, there are still many Taoist relics around the altar, the most famous of which is the Golden Immortal Temple built by Tang Xuanzong for his sister Jinxian.
Located in the territory of Meridian, the famous Buddhist temple Baita Temple was built in the second year of taikang in the Western Jin Dynasty (281) and restored in the fourteenth year of the Sui Kai Emperor (594), called the Xiang Dojo. Because the founder of the Third Order Sect, Zen Master Shingyō, died and was buried near the temple, it was also known as the Zen Master's Pagoda Temple. It is the ancestral court of the Sui and Tang Three Orders Sect. In the sixth year of the Tang Dynasty (771), it was renamed Baita Temple. Baita Temple flourished in the Sui and Tang dynasties, with huge scale, magnificent temples, many monks, covering an area of 1,000 acres, and has the reputation of "riding a horse to close the mountain gate". The ancient ginkgo tree of the temple is 1500 years old and is known as "the first ginkgo tree in China".
Meridian's village names and place names are all deeply branded with history. Tianziyu, Baolongyu, Tang Wangzhai... Silently telling the story of its past, beautiful meridian past and present life.
Doujiao Village is a large village in the southwest of Meridian Town, divided into north and south Doujiao Village, which, together with Meridian Town, exists at the mouth of Meridian Road as the last village and the last ancient town to enter Meridian Road from Guanzhong. The superior geographical location of Doujiao Village makes it an important node on the Meridian Ancient Road and has remained for a long time as a warm-hearted station for merchants traveling from south to north.
Doujiao Village, a village that was once wrapped in the city wall and has a north and south gate, with the passage of time, in the continuous expansion, the north and south ancient city gate towers have been held as a symbol of the pride of the village, and a newly built clean cement road holds the ancient memory as an eternal memorial of the village. The stone statue of Shegong Grandpa is closely nestled in the thousand-year-old cypress, guarding the south of Doujiao Village, and has been protecting the happiness and well-being of the villagers for generations, and the beautiful legend of Shegong Grandpa Houji has been passed down by word of mouth in Meridian, becoming an enduring peaceful and comfortable gospel.
Xiaowutai and Wutai Street South Wutai echo each other, and the horizontal longyu, Tianziyu and Tangwangzhai have become an important landscape for the red memory of meridian yukou and the cultural beliefs of the ancestral hall and temple of the village.
Xiaowutai Mountain Xiataigou Village is no longer a pure ditch, it carries a deep historical imprint, with classic red tourism and characteristic farmhouses to become a rising star in the northern foothills of Qinling Mountains.
The ancient meridian has been annihilated in the vast smoke of history.
After the magnificent turn of the meridian after several storms, the major reform of dismantling counties and setting up districts, withdrawing counties and towns, the brand-new meridian street office is full of vitality, striving to move forward, pioneering and innovating, under the correct leadership of the district party committee and the district government, with the goal of building a new urban area of "strong, rich, beautiful and excellent" international metropolis, to build an "urban leisure and sightseeing paradise, the pearl ancient town of Zhongnan" as the starting point, vigorously implement infrastructure construction, accelerate the upgrading and transformation of industrial structure, adapt to local conditions and scientific planning, and strive to build "Daqinling Meridian Ancient Town" Small town construction project, a tourism, leisure, vacation and suburban modern sightseeing agriculture as the two leading industries, relying on the good ecological environment in the northern foothills of Qinling Mountains and the long history and culture of the Meridian Ancient Road, inheriting the excellent traditional architectural style of Guanzhong, carrying forward the style of Han culture and architecture, the modern ecological and cultural town will become a beautiful landscape in the northern foothills of Qinling Mountains with a beautiful posture.
About the Author
Zhang Ni, pen name Sima Yunni, a native of Sima Village, Chang'an, is currently working for the Cyberspace Administration of Chang'an District Committee, a member of the Shaanxi Photographers Association, a director of the Xi'an Photographers Association, a member of the Xi'an Writers Association, the president of the Shaanxi Qinying Society, the vice president of the Shaoling Cultural Research Society, the 11th, 12th and 13th CPPCC members of Chang'an District, and a member of the CppcC Chang'an District CPPCC.