Zijie - a once mysterious village
Author | Feng Yihan
On March 11, 2022, at the invitation of my book friend Fashali, I drove to his village, Zijie Village. The village is located on the south bank of the Baita Reservoir, on the east side of the Linjiu Highway, on the west bank of the Slightly Water (Sitou Stone River). In the river, there is the water name Longwan, which was once washed into a deep pool by turbulent currents, and the riverbed was filled with stones swept by another flash flood. However, the east side of this river is a steep cliff, named", "Great Dragon Cliff", "Little Dragon Cliff", "Mara Cliff", and further north, a more steep cliff, a more peculiar cliff on the cliff, a cave with three holes next to each other, called the Beacon Cave. In that year, as soon as there was a warning, the beacon was lit on the Haifu Mountain ten miles to the north; the beacon fire was lit at the entrance of this beacon cave, and the Wang Xiang Mountain on the north side of the Shifotang Village in the southwest lit the beacon again, and the ancients transmitted the warning information in this way... In this way, only Zijian Village, which is located on the slope of Linjiu Road, is a village with beautiful mountains and clear waters.
The name of the village in Zijie has a history, and I listened to the ninety-three-year-old Tian Xiuying: In that year (the third year of Qing Tongzhi, 1864), Zeng Guofan, the minister of Qincha, led an army to Shandong to attack the Twist Army. A "Banner Army" was defeated at Zichuan. The two brothers Zhang De and Zhang Hui fled and hid in the mountain stream on the north side of Longya Guozi Mountain, and there were stone weir houses built of all stone for temporary shelter. Then dig a stone cave (a hole dug deep under the long stone slab) for hiding. It is said that the local residents had good deeds in those days, and from time to time cooking smoke rose in the mountain stream of The Distant Kingdom. Knowing that outsiders were coming to live, they met to inquire, with the intention of driving away. Zhang De and Zhang Hui calmly sat down for tea and said to a few fifteen or sixteen-year-old children: "Climb a tree and fold a few dry sticks to cook tea on a fire!" "Children should fly up the tall branches, grasp the branches with both hands, and kick off the stems with their feet. Frightened, the people shook their heads and spat out their tongues, knowing that they were people with extraordinary skills, so they did not dare to provoke trouble. Later, the Zhang brothers invited the Zichuan compatriots Fa, Tan and Yue brothers to live.
One day, two evil young men caught birds and entered this mountain stream, and he saw that there were no men in these families, only one young woman was cooking on a fire, and this evil young man was plotting against him, who expected that this young woman would draw an iron whip from the firewood, and as soon as she jumped on the roof of the small house, yang the iron whip and shouted: "Did you two gangsters see it?" I alone can beat you both to death! The men of the family are planting fields on the slope of the mountain, and if they hear the news and come, are you two still alive? The two men hugged their heads and flew away. On another occasion, a flash flood broke out, destroying the wooden bridge that these families relied on to cross the river. Several people hurried over the mountain to find bridge wood, and when they saw a group of Song Zhuang people about to salvage a wooden pole that was drowning in the water, Zhang De shouted: "That's the wooden purlin we used to build the bridge!" The Song zhuang people said: "This is a pole rushing from our river", Zhang De said: "Can the river still wash wood from downstream upstream?" The Song Zhuang people said, "What evidence is there for saying that this wooden pole belongs to you?" Zhang Deteng made a "swallow three copy water" move, stepped on the water and took a wooden pole, picked up the axe and cut a few axe marks on the wooden pole, and drank: 'The wooden pole I use for building the bridge, this is the mark, you send me back!' You can't do without one! Zhang De then jumped to the river and flew away. Song Zhuangren was stunned, "This gang of Zichuan accent people are probably from bandits!" We don't dare to mess with him! So the Songzhuang people sent these wooden poles back to their original places and stacked them on the river where the bridge was built. Since then, Yeyuan has passed on the tradition of Shunkou Yu'er: "It is better to cross the Jiujiang Estuary than to walk from Zijian.".
In the Qing dynasty, this group of Zichuan people also relented in behavior, only to expose them as fugitives from the anti-Qing rebels. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, these people had no scruples, and the locals gradually learned about their origins. In the middle of this mountain stream, they built only three small huts. And these people not only have martial arts skills, they build more "dry" stones in the embankment weir built on this hillside, build slopes inside, and the terraces are not destroyed; Tan surnamed carpenters are still ancestral carpenters, good at making gangs, that is, when it rains, their buckets are not cracked, "Tan jia gang zi is famous far and wide." Such a strong person can also split the mountains and fields, and the locals dare not dare to do so. In this way, the small mountain village was surrounded by nearly 100 acres of land, and the mountainous land of Weizi Mountain and Guozi Cliff were cultivated by them; to the west, it was occupied across the river to the side of the road. This gang has become a powerful clan.
After the liberation of the whole country, these people in Guozijian were also accustomed to the local customs of Linqu, made relatives and friends, and became Linqu people. In 1974, the head of The Temple Head Commune, in view of the fact that the three-bay hut where the gang lived was too simple, formed a resolution that the villagers should move away from the mountain stream and rebuild the village on the east side of Linjiu Road on the west bank of the river.
Elder Tian Xiuying said: "There are several village names: "Zhijie, Zhikai, Zhijie, Zijie, Zijian, zhijie." By 1988, the new village had all been relocated, and the Linqu Gazetteer marked the village as Zijie.
Tan Xiuming, the son of the elderly Tian Xiuying and a peasant entrepreneur, guided us to interview her mother, Tian Xiuying, because the old man had the back of his ear, and he also helped to explain. She lost her mother at the age of seven, became a child bride at the age of 12, and went to Kanto with the Tan family. ... She went through vicissitudes, but she lived to the age of 93, still in good spirits, it was he who listened to the old man tell about the past of Zijian, with a good memory, the elderly can still tell the story of the family treasures. His daughter-in-law hosted a banquet for us. This Yue clan is the descendant of the Zi ethnic group at that time, and the Zijie villagers have formed a tradition - the Zi people in this village are mostly in-laws. Moreover, the Zichuan accent has been passed down to modern times. Even today's famous dental doctor Fa Xia Ming, he still speaks fluent Zichuan dialect. However, the descendants of the Zhang brothers, who first came to Occupy Zijian, have moved to Pengjiazhuang and Gaojiazhuang.
According to Fa xiali's "Fa Family Tree", Longya is the highest peak in the region and an important pass of the Great Wall of Qi - Ziguan, under which there are streams, known as Zijian. Tan Xiuming accompanied me to climb the former site of Zijian Village, an octogenarian car, and then turned south to climb Weizi Mountain, I walked up to the stone barrier "Weizi" to show my fitness, I thought: What year did this stone fence come from? Climbing the top of the Weizi Mountain overlooking Linqu City, Wen You used a high-level camera to pull Linqu City in front of him.
I call Fa Xia Ming a literary friend, and I live up to my name. He sang "Ma Dabao is drunk" on The Weizi Mountain, which I, an old qualified literati, really praised. Fashali went on to say that this small village in Zijie can pull out a song team; it can perform a play. Village cadre Yue Chonghai attaches great importance to culture, which will make your old Feng Yu good...
Xiaozhuang is not a big story! On this trip, I only had a cursory understanding of this once mysterious village. In fact, the people of Zijie Village name the village with the word "Zi", which means that these Zi people have not forgotten their hometown in Zichuan 150 years ago. A few years ago, Fashali was recommended by his people to edit the "Zijie Village Chronicle" and "Fa Clan Genealogy", which is enough to prove their nostalgia for blood thicker than water.
Book friend Fa Xia Li wrote Zijie Village to thank me, for the filler words "Butterfly Love Flower Sense Eighty Feng Lao Cai Wrote Zi Jie": Bamboo Path Lotus Pond Car, around the mountains, Zijian ancestors. Careful interviews are frequently noted, and the octogenarian is passionate. Then go up the Dragon Cliff without help, sigh Shao Guang, people are more than cang pine. The spring breeze is unattended, and the spread of the epidemic is strictly prevented.
2022.3.14 Revised Draft (Photo/ Fasali, Zhang Liang)
Feng Yihan (1944-1), pen name Yihan, is a member of the Chinese Dramatists Association, a national second-level screenwriter, a member of the Chinese Poetry Society, a member of the China Yuelian Society, and a director of the Chinese Calligraphers and Painters Association.