Guard cultural relics and monuments to preserve historical memory

Source: People's Daily

Wang Jiaping inspects the village's cultural relics and monuments. Photo by Sun Gufeng

Biography

Wang Jiaping: Born in 1954 in Yongfeng Village, Yongfeng Township, Huangshan District, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, Wang Jiaping retired from the army in 1977 and was assigned to the Yongfeng Township Cultural Station to engage in the protection of cultural heritage and cultural relics and monuments, and retired in 2014. With his efforts, a large number of cultural relics in Yongfeng Township have been preserved. In 2012, Yongfeng Village was included in the first list of traditional Chinese villages. At present, Wang Jiaping has been rehired as a cultural relics administrator of the Huangshan District Cultural Relics Management Center.

Summer is hot and cicadas are chirping. As a typical village in southern Anhui, Yongfeng Village is picturesque.

Yongfeng Township is located in the northwest of Huangshan District, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing water in the south, under the jurisdiction of 4 administrative villages, of which Yongfeng Village has the richest cultural and historical resources.

The history of Yongfeng Village can be traced back to the Taihe period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The long history has bred many historical figures. In the Yuan Dynasty, Du Guoxian, deputy envoy of the Guangdong Department of Honest Administration and Honesty, Du Guanying, a national hero who had distinguished himself in the Battle of Zhenhai in modern times, Su Chengmei, a hui merchant, and Su Jikuo, a scholar, were all from Yongfeng.

"You can't brush the paint directly, you have to clean the dust between the boards with water first." When I first saw Wang Jiaping, who was rehired as the cultural relics administrator of the Huangshan District Cultural Relics Management Center, he only thought that he was a kind old man, with gray hair, but his spirit was strong, and he always had a smile on his face. The figure is not tall, but the waist bar is straight. At this time, he was supervising the restoration of an ancient Qing Dynasty mansion in the village.

In the ancient house, the frame set up by bamboo is densely packed, and workers shuttle through it from time to time. Wang Jiaping was not idle, the carvings on the eaves and the carvings on the windows were carefully examined.

"This is an ancient mansion from the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, not too long ago, but its special feature is in the backyard, you see..." Saying, Wang Jiaping pulled the reporter, walked a few steps to the backyard, pointed to the carvings on the eaves of the second floor, and said: "This kind of two-story flower building is not common..." Talking about this, Wang Jiaping was quite excited.

"I've been guarding cultural relics all my life, and I can't stay idle." Wang Jiaping said.

Hundreds of attempts were made to discourage the destruction and resale of cultural relics

Wang Jiaping enlisted in the army in 1972. Five years later, at the age of 23, he retired from the army and came to work at the Yongfeng Township Cultural Station. In the eyes of many people, this is a good job, but Wang Jiaping is scratching his head in sorrow.

"I haven't read any books, I don't have much culture, how can I do cultural work?" Recalling this, Wang Jiaping, who was over the age of flower armor, showed a hint of shyness on his face.

What to do? Learn and do it. While studying, Wang Jiaping asked someone for advice. The gentlemen who teach in the township, the elderly people, and the seniors who manage things in various places, Wang Jiaping will come to the door to ask for advice as soon as he has time. Relying on this learning momentum, Wang Jiaping's work gradually entered the right track, and he gradually became interested in Yongfeng's history, culture, cultural relics and monuments.

"In the 1980s and 1990s, strangers often appeared in the village." Wang Jiaping recalled that it was later discovered that those people were probably tomb robbers or antique dealers.

In that era, when it was not yet rich, many villagers were very happy to hear that the "rags" in their homes could be sold for money. As a result, many villagers started the idea of all kinds of old objects in their homes.

Wang Jiaping frankly said that at that time, everyone's awareness of cultural relics protection was not strong. "What has been handed down by the ancestors must be left behind no matter what, and I don't think history can only appear in books." It is this theory that supports Wang Jiaping to do the work of cultural relics protection. "I've heard of old objects in the village's homes, and I'll pay attention to whoever often has strangers going." Wang Jiaping said.

"No way! Can't sell! This sentence became Wang Jiaping's mantra. For those "rags", Wang Jiaping quarreled with many villagers.

"It's mine, so why don't you sell it?" Whenever he encountered such a rhetorical question, Wang Jiaping always smiled and enthusiastically made friends with the villagers, pulled the family routine, and persuaded the other party to change his mind.

It was really not possible, so he bought it with his own money first, and then handed over the cultural relics to the relevant departments. "We can only persuade and painstakingly stop it." Wang Jiaping recalled that in the past 40 years, there have been hundreds of incidents of damage and resale of cultural relics that he discovered and successfully dissuaded.

Visit the elderly in the village and make every effort to restore the ancient archway group

At the mouth of Yongfeng Village, there is the Yongfeng Ancient Arch Group.

There are 5 arches in the archway group, all built by the local Su clan men in the Qing Dynasty, so it is also known as the Lingxia Su Village Arch Group. From the perspective of the structure and scale of the archway, the Lingxia Sucun Arch Group is second only to the Tangyu Arch Group, and is one of the few arches in southern Anhui.

The main components of the Yongfeng Ancient Arch Group are made of local white linen stone, of which the dragon gate fang, inscription plate and flower board are made of bluestone. The thick columns are flat and polished, without carving, and are all engraved with symmetrical Yang wen Yang Lian. The moiré pattern is outlined on the forehead and moon beam, and the finch, plaque and cornice are decorated with patterns.

"You see that one, called the four-pillar three-door soaring style..." Introducing the cultural relics in the village, Wang Jiaping gushed endlessly.

The Yongfeng Ancient Arch group was destroyed for various reasons, and Wang Jiaping has always wanted to rebuild it. "This is the wish of many villagers, including me." Wang Jiaping said with a smile, "Now, the country's laws and regulations are becoming more and more perfect, and the government is paying more and more attention, and we should increase the intensity of restoration, so as to better protect cultural relics." ”

In addition to that, there is another reason. "Many of the old people in the village who know the history of cultural relics are old, and some of them are no longer there. Without their descriptions and memories of the artifacts before they were destroyed, they really can't be repaired in the future. Wang Jiaping said worriedly.

Therefore, since 2009, Wang Jiaping has visited the elderly in the village one by one to learn more about the history of the archway group. "At that time, I also deliberately found a young man, he would use the computer, we looked up the pictures of the archway from the Internet for the old people in the village to compare and recall." Wang Jiaping said.

In the 1960s, in order to build a reservoir, Yongfeng Township demolished the stone from the archway group to build an irrigation ditch. Fortunately, the reservoir is still there, and Wang Jiaping found the old man who had worked on the construction site and asked about the specific location of the irrigation ditch. At the same time, he also found experts from the water conservancy department to consult the amount of earth needed to be excavated to salvage the stone and the budget for funds. "Later, 375 parts of the archway group were fished out of the ditch, which was almost 2/3 of the stone in that ditch." Wang Jiaping said.

In addition, Wang Jiaping also found a lot of abandoned stone in the village. "One of the moon beams of the archway has been discarded on the side of the road. Decades have passed, and it has become a stone slab for villagers to wash their clothes. Wang Jiaping said, "Fortunately, I found it, otherwise there would not be a complete moon beam in the archway group." At present, other moon beams are based on this piece of restoration. ”

In this way, Wang Jiaping worked for more than 5 years, until 2015, when the Yongfeng Ancient Arch Group was finally restored.

Not only the Yongfeng Ancient Arch Group, but also in the restoration process of important cultural relics such as the old site of Yucai Primary School and the Su Ancestral Hall, Wang Jiaping has undertaken a lot of work. "I caught up with the good times." Wang Jiaping said, "At present, the whole society attaches great importance to traditional culture and cultural relics and monuments, and my work is very valuable. ”

Proficient in local history and culture, to help rural revitalization

"Yongfeng people say yongfeng things, today, Teacher Wang said to take us to the primary school he studied." Teacher Wang, what is the name of the school? ”

"Yucai Elementary School."

Dressed properly, clean and tidy, standing in front of the camera, facing the reporters who came to interview, Wang Jiaping talked.

After Yongfeng Village was selected into the first list of traditional Chinese villages, seizing the opportunity of rural revitalization, Yongfeng Township used its rich historical and cultural resources to engage in rural tourism. But everything that is related to history and culture, Wang Jiaping can be said to be omniscient, like a "tourism ambassador" of Yongfeng Township.

In recent years, the Huangshan District government has increased investment, invested more than 50 million yuan, improved the infrastructure construction of ancient villages, restored the ancient bluestone slab road, Half Moon Pond, barrage, ancestral hall square and the original village drainage system, built the pastoral scenery belt on both sides of the Suxi River, started greening, lighting and hardening projects, built ecological parking lots and other infrastructure, repaired the Su Ancestral Hall, Xifan Hall, Wufu Temple, and key cultural relics such as Su family private school, Haining School, and Xixian Bridge on the verge of collapse.

Taking this opportunity, Yongfeng Township vigorously developed rural experience tours such as hiking ancient trails, agricultural experience, photography sketching, and study of Traditional Chinese studies. In recent years, Yongfeng Township has received more than 10,000 tourists every year, and its tourism income has exceeded 10 million yuan.

These changes, Wang Jiaping saw in his eyes and was happy in his heart. "There are 42 ancient houses in the Qing Dynasty in the township, 3 provincial security units, and 5 municipal security units." Wang Jiaping said, "For example, fire inspections, safety inspections, regular door-to-door visits, etc., are all within the scope of my work. (Reporter Xu Jing)

■ Reporter's Note

Protect every cultural relic around you

Wang Jiaping is not highly educated, but has worked in a cultural position for more than 40 years. He is down-to-earth and continuously learning, and has long recognized the importance of historical inheritance and cultural relics protection, and he practices it.

What is even more valuable is that Wang Jiaping has always adhered to the concept in his heart when the villagers' awareness of cultural relics protection is not strong. From the beginning of guarding every cultural relic around him to completing every cultural relics restoration work, the idea of "not letting history only appear in books" is simple and sincere, which makes him always adhere to the road of grass-roots cultural protection.

Today's Yongfeng Township, many of the remaining cultural relics and monuments are called cultural relics treasures. The admiration of villagers and tourists is a compliment to Wang Jiaping for many years.

People's Daily ( July 13, 2022, Edition 06)