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The cultural charm of Zhuqiao Ancient Village

author:Jintai information

Source: People's Daily - People's Daily

The cultural charm of Zhuqiao Ancient Village

Picture (1): The ancient house in Zhuqiao Village and the red pepper dried in front of the house. Photo by Xie Donglin (People's Vision) Figure (2), Figure (3), Figure (6): Plate making, engraving and binding process of engraving and printing in Jinxi County. Photo by Deng Xingdong (People's Vision) Figure (4): Tourists visit the ancient village in the drizzle. Photo (5): Ancient books preserved in the Engraving and Printing Museum in Huwan Town, Jinxi County. Photo by Deng Xingdong (People's Vision) (7): Panorama of Zhuqiao Village. Photo by Zhu Wenrong (People's Vision)

Jinxi County, Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province, is known as the "Ancient Village Museum without Walls", and the most ancient charm in the "Museum" is Zhuqiao Village. Zhuqiao Village was founded in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties, and there are 109 well-preserved ming and qing ancient buildings. From the air, the ancient village is like a giant folding fan, and the ancient houses are connected together, which is extraordinary. Walking into the ancient village, green brick tiles, stone slab alleys, misty smoke, more than 700 years of fireworks stories circulate here. In 2012, Zhuqiao Village was included in the first list of traditional Chinese villages.

It is about 10 kilometers north of Jinxi County in Fuzhou, Jiangxi, but not far away from the intersection of asphalt roads and an ancient post road. Across time and space, the past and the present meet here. In the middle of the ancient post road are three columns of bluestone slabs, flanked by wide cobblestone walkways, and the deep grooves left by unicycles on the bluestone slabs seem to tell the prosperity of ancient commerce.

Three entrance gatehouses The pond runs through the village

If you want to deeply appreciate the beauty of Zhuqiao Ancient Village, you have to pass three "passes".

Along the winding stone road, you come to the first "pass" - the main gate tower. The house-style gatehouse, in addition to being the main entrance to the village, also plays a defensive role, and in ancient times there were gun emplacements, which were guarded by special personnel. At the end of the last century, the villagers demolished the sentry and gate to facilitate transportation, but the brick and wood gatehouse is still well preserved. Touching the brick wall and looking up at the beams, time has carved deep marks on the gatehouse. For hundreds of years, generations of Zhuqiao people have gone out to go south and north, and have entered the home and contentment.

Entering from the main gatehouse, the scenery of Zhuqiao Ancient Village is chic. The houses and ancestral halls are surrounded by an open stone pond, and the ancient houses are green brick tiles, simple and elegant. From time to time, the water ripples, the shadows of the house sway, the rich ancient rhyme comes to the face, and the deep sense of age rises up unconsciously in the heart.

The water adds a charm to the ancient village of Zhuqiao. There are 8 ponds of different sizes in the village, of which 7 are arranged like the Big Dipper and seven stars, and the other square resembles a full moon, which the villagers poetically call "seven stars with the moon". The whole village is located on a gentle slope, and there are hidden canals between the ponds, which form a reliable drainage system with wide and deep sewers, "after the rain, the wet does not stick to the shoes".

Walking less than 100 meters along the side of the pond, you will reach the second "pass" - the Middle Gate Tower. It is still the pattern of surrounding houses and middle ponds, with the door opening towards the pond and the shadow of the wall between them. However, the space is smaller and the layout is slightly more compact. The pond is separated by a stone road, which leads directly to the third "gate" - the upper gate building in an "S" shape. Inside, it's a different story.

The high wall is sandwiched, the width is only about 1 meter, and the fork road is longitudinal, which can really be described as "winding path". Walking in the middle, I only feel infinitely close to the life of "dogs barking in deep alleys, chickens singing mulberry trees upside down". Inside the towering walls, there are still mysteries to explore. Many of the ancient houses in the village are mixed masonry walls, that is, large pieces of bluestone are built under the wall skirt, and sleeping bricks are built on the top. The mystery is in this bluestone wall skirt. If you see a lychee-like bluestone wall skirt, then there must be someone in this family doing business, because the reason is that "li" and "li" are homophonous; If it is a pineapple pattern wall skirt, it must be a scholar at home, and the lines and ravines are clear, which plays a role in silence, and means that "it is not easy for the book mountain to have a road"; If it is polished, then there must be someone in the family who is an official, which means "a horse and a river, a smooth step".

This is the village pattern of Zhuqiao Ancient Village's three entrance towers, layer by layer, and ponds through the village. This layout is closely related to the activities that the Takehashi Yu family has been living together and engaged in for hundreds of years. Yu's heavy business, men and men are out and about, leaving women, the elderly and children to guard the village, how to enhance cohesion and prevent thieves has become a daily need to focus on thinking. Whether it is the three-door arch guard, the various small traps laid for thieves, or the reduction of the distance between the building spaces, the enhancement of the affinity of the neighbors, and therefore the enhancement of the overall combat effectiveness of the outside world, all have been considered.

Towards the twilight, the scenery of the bamboo bridge at four o'clock is changeable in the morning and evening. The bamboo bridge in the early morning is soft, and the appearance of just waking up is like being reborn after hundreds of years of wind and rain; The bamboo bridge at noon is warm, the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, and the ancient village looks comfortable and dashing; The bamboo bridge in the evening is golden yellow, releasing the last beauty of the day, free and lazy; Late at night, tourists disperse, and the ancient village of Zhuqiao is quiet and quiet. And the bamboo bridge in the rain, the water is asphalted, holding up an oil-paper umbrella, is a smoke and rain in the south of the river.

Confucianism and shang also emphasize reading first

"Jia and Good Ru" is mostly used to describe Huishang, and it is also quite appropriate to apply it to the Merchants of the Yu clan of Zhuqiao. "Confucianism and Shang attach equal importance", "Chongwen emphasizes education", "Zhuqiao Village is one of the specimens with rich humanistic and historical information that attaches equal importance to agriculture, commerce and farming in traditional Chinese society" and other expositions are scattered in various literature. This can also be seen in the existing ancient architectural sites.

"Learning the unity of ancestral halls" is a unique phenomenon of Jinxi ancient villages. Merchants made money doing business outside the village, returned to the village to donate money to build houses, and often built ancestral halls and schools together. The Zhenchuan Ancestral Hall in the east of the village was built by the merchant Yu Huiqing, and it is also the place where the Zhuqiao people yanshi taught their children. The ancestral hall consists of two parts, one is the middle hall and the other is the study room on both sides. Using Lan Gui as a metaphor for future generations, he named one side of the study room "Peilan" for women to read; The other side was named "Zhi Gui" for men to read. "Peilan" and "Zhigui" mean to cultivate talents, which has far-reaching implications.

The Canglan Mountain House is the place where Mr. Private School teaches, and there is a couplet "Diligent in The Historiography of Personnel, Sitting up and Respecting the Confucian Style". The left and right compartments are also male and female libraries, in order to facilitate the lighting of the library, the courtyard has deliberately opened the patio into a vertical type. Similar to the Zhenchuan Ancestral Hall, the lintel of the house outside the courtyard is inscribed with the word "worship stone", and in particular, the word "stone" is a little more. According to legend, the owner of the house imitated the Great Calligrapher of the Northern Song Dynasty, Mi Fu, who loved stones and became a fetish, and every time he saw a stone, he would worship and call him a brother; It is also explained that the word "stone" is dotted, which means "point stone into gold".

Takehashi Yu's business, the pursuit of virtue and virtue, and the inability to forget the fundamentals, the way of indoctrination is quite special, often in the gate tower and other conspicuous places to lay out content.

In front of the main gatehouse, there are 3 ancient wells arranged in characters, square wellheads, surrounded by circular stone guardrails, and the outer circle and inner square, resembling ancient copper coins. The "Bamboo Bridge Yu Clan Genealogy" records: "Since it is Mitsui Pinri, it is also the ancestors who have planned." When the peasants saw it, they knew that there was an inherent grade of evil and righteousness; The disciples see it, know that the poor can be kept and the quality cannot be damaged; Shang Jia saw it and knew that the character of the director of dangzhong was not false. "Every time they go in and out of the village, every time they carry water and draft water, they are reminded that whether they are officials, businessmen, or farmers, they must pay attention to morality.

On the ground directly in front of the Zhongmen Tower, a large "Ben" character paved with bluestone slabs continues to attract tourists to stop. This, the root also. This arrangement is intended to remind future generations not to forget the original. At the same time, the builder deliberately built the middle gate tower low, even if he was a high official outside, he had to get off his horse and walk into the village. The descendants of the Yu clan also followed the teachings and succeeded in their careers abroad, returning to the village or building ancestral halls, temples, roads, or donating funds for education. On the left side of the door, there is a "Xizi Furnace" embedded in the wall, and the Yu clan of Zhuqiao respects the zizi paper, which is not allowed to be discarded and trampled at will, and all misprinted books or discarded paper must be uniformly burned in the Xizi furnace.

Fireworks still exist, inheriting new life

The genealogy records: "The villagers cultivate and read fishing and hunting, work at sunrise, rest at sunset... The above three hundred fireworks are like a small city. "In ancient times, the Takehashi Yu clan lived a stable and peaceful life here.

At present, there are still more than 900 people living in Zhuqiao Village, and although the young people in the village have also built rows of new homes nearby, many villagers still live in the ancient village. "The house needs to be supported", which is also the reason why most of the ancient buildings in the village can be well preserved.

At noon, the village is full of cooking smoke, and the faint fragrance of burning firewood permeates the smell of home. By the pond, the dustpan is filled with chili cakes and dried eggplants dried by the villagers, adding a bright color to the ancient village. The village is bustling with tourists, singing and laughing, and the ancient village seems to show unlimited vitality.

Mrs. Zhou Qingyun, 72 years old this year, married to Zhuqiao Village for more than 50 years, is full of affection for every grass, tree, brick and tile in the village, she and her wife have repeatedly refused the invitation of their children to take them to live in the city. "I prefer this ancient smell in the village." Entering the second old house, or the structure of the old house, the entrance is a spacious hall, the left and right sides are the living room, kitchen, miscellaneous rooms, clean and tidy, simple and elegant.

In 2005, the local government launched the repair of Zhuqiao Ancient Village, and before that, Zhuqiao villagers can be said to have been "peach blossom people" for many years. "Although the villagers know something about the ancient village, they don't realize that the Zhuqiao Village where they have been living is also an ancient village." Huang Xiaomei, director of the village women's department, said that until the government took protective measures, the villagers realized that they had been living in the "baby".

The villagers have a sense of protection, and they have heard that they will take the new development path of ancient village tourism in the future, and their enthusiasm is high. Holding a dustpan flattened burden, every household roared to clean up the silt in the 8-square pond. If the domestic labor force works outside the home, they will also pay for someone to do the work. In less than a month, the pond cleaning work was completed, and the eight ponds were recreated in Zhuqiao Ancient Village. With water, there is aura, and the ancient village has a new look.

In 2014, Jinxi established the "one village, one file" system, supervision mechanism, regular scheduling mechanism, accountability mechanism and special care mechanism of "one member protecting one cultural relic" and "one member managing and protecting one ancient village", and equipped each traditional village with cultural security personnel to implement special "one-to-one" protection. In 2018, the China Cultural Relics Conservation Foundation signed a cooperation agreement with the Jinxi County People's Government to launch the "Save the Old House Action" to jointly protect, inherit and utilize the excellent cultural relics and cultural heritage of Jinxi County. Jinxi County has also set up a special institution "Old House Office" to create a first-class team of craftsmen to carry out maintenance and repair, mobilize the enthusiasm of villagers, and spontaneously repair and protect the old houses.

The beauty of Bamboo Bridge lies not only in its architecture, but also in the human fireworks and culture accumulated by the Yu clan of Bamboo Bridge for more than 700 years.

■ Excursion tips

The layout of Zhuqiao Ancient Village is just like a giant fan. After entering Zhuqiao Ancient Village, along the bluestone slab road, you can visit the main gate tower, the middle gate tower, the upper door building, the eight lanes, the ten lanes and other series of Ming and Qing dynasty ancient buildings.

Zhuqiao Ancient Village also has tea bars, book bars, coffee bars and other leisure and entertainment venues. Tourists can walk around and take a break, drink tea, read a book, drink a cup of coffee, listen to music, enjoy the unique scenery of the ancient village, and feel the slow life of the ancient village. If you have enough time, you can also go to the surrounding ancient villages, Dafang Dutch Creative Village, Digital Tour Mat Ancient Village, Lufang Village, the founder of Xinxue Lu Jiuyuan Hometown Lufang Village and other ancient villages with different styles, which are very close to Zhuqiao Ancient Village, all of which only take about 5 minutes by car.

People's Daily ( 2022-08-15 14th edition)

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