Located at the junction of Guangdong Province and Fujian Province, the Chaoshan region has incubated a splendid Chaoshan culture thousands of years ago. As we all know, the Chaoshan people are famous for loving hugging groups, so much so that they have formed a relatively closed circle and it is difficult to accept foreign cultures.
However, it is strange to say that the Chaoshan people, who are not convinced by anyone, admire the two outsiders. Not only to admire, but also to worship them as gods and set up a shrine to commemorate them.
These two people are the Tang Dynasty poet Han Yu and the Song Dynasty literary scholar Wen Tianxiang.
Han Yu was a native of Heyang, Henan (present-day Mengzhou, Henan), born in 768. Han Yu was an advocate of the Tang Dynasty Ancient Literature Movement, and was revered by posterity as the head of the "Eight Greats of the Tang and Song Dynasties", enjoying the reputation of "Giant Duke of Articles" and "Hundred Dynasties Wenzong". So, what is the relationship between Hanyu and the Chaoshan region?
In 819, Emperor Xianzong of Tang sent emissaries to Fengxiang to welcome the bones of the Buddha into the palace. At that time, Han Yu was an official and a servant of the bureaucracy. Among the literati, Han Yu's officials were also relatively large. However, Han Yu's mouth was very "annoying", liked to "talk nonsense" in the imperial court, and was repeatedly reprimanded to other places. This time, he still did not accept the lesson, and also put on a "Table of Buddha Bones", denouncing the Buddha's untrustworthiness and requesting that the Buddha's bones be "thrown into the water and fire, never the fundamentals, the doubts of the world, and the confusion of future generations."
Tang Xianzong was furious and wanted to kill Han Yu. Fortunately, Thanks to Pei Du, Cui Qun and others, even the imperial relatives felt that the punishment for killing Han Yu was too heavy, and interceded for him. As a result, Tang Xianzong relegated Han Yu to the history of Chaozhou.
During the Tang Dynasty, Chaozhou was still a barbaric land, full of poisonous miasma, and the officials who were denigrated to Chaozhou were almost never returned. Therefore, Han Yu's heart was desperate, and when he reached Lantianguan in Shaanxi Province, he wrote a seven-law poem "Left To Languan to Show His Nephew Sun Xiang":
"A letter of pilgrimage to the Ninth Heaven, the sunset of the Chaoyang Road eight thousand." Originally, the Holy Pilgrimage eliminated the maladministration and dared to decay and regret the years. Where is the Yunheng Qinling home? Snow and blue are not moving forward. Knowing that Ruyuan should be intentional, so as to collect my bones by the river. ”
In this seven laws, Han Yu was full of pessimism and instructed his nephew Han Xiang to collect the body for himself.
After Han Yu arrived in Chaozhou, he quickly gave Tang Xianzong a copy of the "Chaozhou Thorn History Thank You Table" and confessed his mistake to him. Of course, during the long time of waiting for Tang Xianzong's reply, Han Yu was not idle. He opened schools in Chaozhou to cultivate talents and bring Central Plains culture to the remote land of Chaozhou.
At the same time, Han Yu built water conservancy in Chaozhou, redeemed slaves, hunted and expelled crocodiles, and did a lot of practical things to benefit the people's livelihood of the country and the people.
Although Han Yu lived in Chaozhou for only 8 months, leaving Chaozhou in the spring of 820 and transferring to Yuan Prefecture (present-day Yichun, Jiangxi), he brought the Culture of the Central Plains to the Chaoshan region and the practical things he did for the people's livelihood in the Chaoshan region, which made the people of Chaoshan deeply feel deeply. The people of Chaoshan worship him as a god and erect a shrine to commemorate him.
Not only that, the Chaoshan people also call the place where HanYu sacrifices crocodiles "HanPu", the ferry port is called "HanDu", the big river is called "HanJiang", and the mountain across the river is called "Hanshan", which is called "the mountain is also surnamed Han, and the water is also surnamed Han".
After talking about Han Yu, let's talk about Wen Tianxiang.
Wen Tianxiang was a native of Luling, Jizhou, Jiangxi (present-day Futian Town, Qingyuan District, Ji'an, Jiangxi), born in 1236. Wen Tianxiang was an outstanding literary scholar at the age of 20, and also wrote an ancient poem that "who has not died since ancient times, leave Dan heart to take care of Khan Qing". Wen Tianxiang's officials did a bigger job, and the officials were the prime minister.
What is the relationship between Wen Tianxiang and the Chaoshan region?
In 1278, Wen Tianxiang assisted the young Song Duanzong, who failed in his attack on Jiangxi and had to retreat to Guangdong. In November of that year, Wen Tianxiang and others entered Chaoyang in the Chaoshan region. In December, when Wen Tianxiang was at Wupoling in Haifeng, the army of Zhang Hongfan, a member of the Yuan army, suddenly appeared. After a fierce battle, Wen Tianxiang was defeated and captured, and was imprisoned on the ship. In 1279, when Wen Tianxiang was passing through the Lingling Ocean by boat, he composed the famous passage "Crossing the Zero Ding Yang", showing his indomitable heart.
In a few words, Wen Tianxiang spent only 2 months in total in the Chaoshan area. During these 2 months, Wen Tianxiang defeated the Chaozhou thieves Chen Yi and Liu Xing, drove Chen Yi away, captured and killed Liu Xing, and eliminated a major scourge for the Chaoshan people.
More importantly, when Wen Tianxiang faced the powerful Yuan army and was repeatedly defeated, the Chaoshan people still followed in his footsteps and fought fiercely for the survival of Chinese civilization. They were comrades in the trenches.
In that year, when Wen Tianxiang was at the Chaoyang Sea Gate, he once climbed lotus peak, looked at the traces of song duanzong boats wandering on the sea, and carved the word "Zhongnan" on a stone under the peak, indicating his determination to follow the monarch to the south. At present, the "Zhongnan" stone stele is still preserved under the Lotus Peak for tourists to hang.
The people of Chaoshan were grateful for Wen Tianxiang's loyalty, and built the "Zhongxian Ancestral Hall" and "Danxin Pavilion" in Haimen, and erected a "Wengong Stone Statue" to commemorate him. In addition, after Wen Tianxiang's heroic sacrifice, many ancestral halls commemorating Wen Tianxiang were built throughout the Chaoshan region. For more than 700 years, the incense in these ancestral halls has never been interrupted.
[References: Han Yu, Wen Tianxiang, etc.]