View the "Shentou Village" on the satellite map, which is located at the eastern foot of Taizi Rock in Taihang Mountain, hidden in the ten thousand "folds" of the vast Taihang Mountain Range. When driving 21.05 kilometers on the tourist road from Neiqiu County, Xingtai City, Hebei Province to Bian Que Temple, the colorful mountain stone houses, Bian Que temples, a village on the mountainside, a thousand-year-old Jiulong cypress, and an ancient shop tea shed...... The scenery that appears one by one contains the ancient life of the people in the modern village. This lively ravine running east-west is the 2,000-year-old "Shentou Village".
The Ming and Qing dynasties are chic
The family heirloom gatehouse is exquisite
Shentou Village is built by the mountain, the village is surrounded by mountains on three sides in the south, west and north, the village is in the shape of a mountain, it is a belt-like settlement, there are three streets in total, and there is a stone bridge in the east, middle and west of the village. There are still nine ancient alleys in the village, and each lane is made of local materials, using local river pebbles, natural stones, stone slabs, and stone strips.
Photo by Liu Jidong, Shentou Village, Neiqiu County
Hou Sanyang, a 77-year-old man in Shentou Village, told the Banyuetan reporter that the ancient houses in Shentou Village have preserved the mountain township style and architectural pattern of the southern Hebei style of the Ming and Qing dynasties. There are shrines in the house, and there are ladders for each house.
Among them, the most distinctive building is "one Hou family, two Ning families, three into the house". This house is located at No. 193, No. 194, No. 195 of Shenyi North Street, sits in the north and faces south, three into the courtyard, the east and west sides are built houses, there is no gatehouse in the existing courtyard; the gatehouse is built in the middle of the second courtyard, the wind shield is written with the word "Fu"; the gatehouse is built in the middle of the three courtyards, the wind shield is written with the three words "and is precious", the inner side is built with a wooden shadow wall screen, the existing gatehouse passage is 18 meters long, the house is 18 rooms, it is a Hou surname and two Ning surnames 3 households live, it is the building of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.
In addition to the house, the "gatehouse" is the place where every household in Shentou Village is quite exquisite, and it is also the "façade" of the family, which directly reflects the social status and economic level of the owner. The height of the gatehouse, the brick and tile material, the painted brick carving and the relationship between the left and right neighbors are all stipulated, which should be consistent with the identity, including all kinds of gatehouses such as tiled eaves, hanging down, wind shields, and single eaves. The exquisitely carved door pier stone is connected with the house, and the main house is equipped with a hugging building, and the foundation stone of the hugging building pillar is varied.
It is located at No. 441 and No. 442, Hemu Lane, Shenyi South Street, and sits on the Guojia Gatehouse facing north in the south, with a unique shape. The wooden lintel occupies one-third of the whole gatehouse, the wood carving pattern is carved with openwork techniques to carve bats and lanterns, and the door windshield is engraved with the vigorous and powerful word "Fu"; the word "Fu" is painted with red, yellow, blue, green, white and other colors around the word Fu; there are patterns such as lotus pods, ploughing oxen, bats, pomegranates, grapes, bamboo joints, flower baskets and other patterns on the brick carved piers, implying the arrival of eight immortals, the coming of five blessings, the auspicious stars are high, the sons are blessed, the cultivation and reading of heirlooms, and the traditional ideas and concepts such as honesty and honesty are passed on.
"Shentou" is named after "Bian Que".
The temple complex has undergone repairs from generation to generation
Why did Shentou Village get its name? Liu Hongjun, a member of the village party branch, told a legendary story to the Banyuetan reporters: When Bian Que was practicing medicine in Pengshan (near Shentou Village, Nansai Township, Neiqiu County, Xingtai), because of his superb medical skills and growing fame, even the King of Qin sent people to ask him to see a doctor. The imperial physician of the Qin State made Li Li jealous of his ability, and knew that his skills were not as good as others, so he secretly sent someone to kill Bian Que. When the bad news reached Pengshan, the people were overwhelmed with grief and indignation, and Bian Que's eldest apprentice, Prince Yu, led people to Xianyang overnight, stole Bian Que's head back, buried it at the foot of Pengshan, and built a temple on the bank of the Jiulong River. Since then, Jiaojiazhuang and Wolfjiazhuang on both sides of the Jiulong River have been merged into one, and the village has been renamed "Shentou", and Pengshan has been renamed "Queshan".
Therefore, Shentou Village has always retained the temple group of worship Bian Que for thousands of years. The whole temple complex covers an area of about 82,000 square meters, with mountains and rivers at its back, negative yin and yang, high in the north and low in the south. There are 27 original single buildings in the Bian Que temple group, namely the Huisheng Bridge, the Bridge Tower, the Mountain Gate, the Offering Palace, the Bian Que Palace, the Sleeping Palace, the Front Hall of the Back Soil, the Theater Building, the Back Earth Rear Palace, the West Wing of the Central Axis, the West Wing of the Tablet Tower, the Hundred Sons Palace, the West Wing Room, and the East Side of the Medicine King Palace, the Jade Emperor Palace, the Old Mother Palace, the Old Monarch Palace, etc. There are 15 existing buildings.
Photo by Liu Jidong, Bian Que Temple Mountain Gate, Shentou Village, Neiqiu County
"For thousands of years, the people here have been good at accepting, absorbing and integrating a variety of cultures, so that different cultures such as Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism have taken root in Shentou Village, and accepted the fireworks of the world together, forming a unique scene of 'temples everywhere and incense' in ancient villages. He Lianfen, the former chairman of the Neiqiu County Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said.
In May 2006, Bian Que Temple was included in the sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council, in December 2012, Shentou Village was included in the first batch of Chinese traditional village list, and in July 2020, Shentou Village was included in the second batch of national rural tourism key village list by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
"Shentou Village receives more than 200,000 tourists every year, driving more than 350 villagers to eat 'tourist meals' at their doorsteps. Dong Yali, a member of the propaganda committee of Nansai Township, said.
Hanging on the mountainside "a village"
Away from the hustle and bustle into a "paradise"
Shentou Village consists of two natural villages, "Shentou" and "Yijiazhuang". A village is located in Shentou Village, Xiqueshan Mountainside Taiziwa, about 1000 meters above sea level, backed by the main peak of Queshan Lotus Peak, north, west and south surrounded by mountains, east is Taiziwa Canyon cliff, the mountain is steep and dangerous. The current resident is surnamed Liu, who moved here from Shentou Village in the Qing Dynasty and has been passed down to the seventh generation.
"They are a kind and simple family, and they often provide convenience for people who go up the mountain. Because of the steep terrain and distance from the village, there is only one family, so it is called 'a village'. Liu Hongjun said.
A village is also known as a village, and there is only one village in a village. This particular village is located between steep cliffs.
"For their living needs, male villagers have retained many self-sufficient rural production and living skills: hunting, carpentry, pioneer farming, livestock and poultry breeding, medicine collection, medicinal herb cultivation, fruit tree planting, forest management, self-made production tools, hand-woven wattle baskets, etc. And the housewife and daughter of this family can not only go to the field to farm, but also make cloth shoes, embroidered insoles, and baskets. Liu Yinshan, the head of a village, said.
The reporter walked along the mountain road in a village and found that there were relics in the village such as the third Buddha hall of Longxing Temple, the prince building, the prince cave, and the spinning flower cave. Between the Prince Building and the Longxing Temple, there are two east and west two north-house bungalows with three rooms each, which are the houses of the Liu family for three generations and five people, constituting a landscape of temples in the village, villages in temples, staggered temples and villages, and integrated villages and temples.
Because the incense of Bian Que Temple is prosperous, in the long history, pilgrims from all over the world have built more than ten small temples such as Guanyin, Lao Mu, Mountain God, Guan Gong and so on around Longxing Temple, which has also created a family guarding more than a dozen temples of folk belief wonders.
Source: Half Moon Talk