In the ancestral hall of the "First Family in Jiangnan" in the national 4A scenic spot, the front hall and the courtyard of the worship hall have ancient cypresses planted by Song Lian, the head of the Ming Dynasty, with strong branches and thin clouds.
Walking into the Zheng Ancestral Hall, the first thing that comes into people's eyes is 5 cypress trees, which were planted by Mr. Song Lian, the founding minister of the Ming Dynasty, when he planted 11 trees, but unfortunately only 9 trees were preserved, 5 in the front hall and 4 in the worship hall. These cypress trees are 600 years old, and the largest of them is 16 meters high, with a bust of 290 centimeters and a crown width of 7 meters. When Mr. Song Lian planted these cypress trees, he hoped that the Zheng family would be as evergreen as these cypress trees, and this row of cypress trees and three ponds with "pin" characters also symbolized the meaning of "one pin dang dynasty". To explore the profound humanistic charm of these gubai plants, we must start from the introduction of the first family in Jiangnan and Mr. Song Lian.
The first in Jiangnan is located in Zhengzhai Town, 12 kilometers east of Pujiang County. The scenic spot is characterized by a rich combination of ancient family culture and Ming and Qing dynasty architecture, "Qingshan Courtyard Ancient Town, Small Bridge And Flowing Water People's Home", which is a group of unique ancient town style attractions. The first in Jiangnan is a national AAAA-level scenic spot, a national cultural relics protection unit, an education base for the construction of honest government in Zhejiang Province, and a patriotic education base in Zhejiang Province. The first one in Jiangnan, also known as Zheng Yimen, is an important site of ancient Chinese family culture that is well-known at home and abroad. The Zheng family, which lives here, is known as the Filial Piety Family. Since the Jianyan period of the Southern Song Dynasty, the fifteenth generations of the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties have lived together and eaten together for more than 360 years, and more than 3,000 people at their peak have eaten a "pot" meal. His filial piety was repeatedly praised by the imperial court, and in the eighteenth year of Hongwu (1385 AD), The Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang personally gave him the title of "The First Family in Jiangnan". Nowadays, the ancient cypress planted by Song Lian and the quaint Ming Dynasty architecture of the ancestral hall are more complementary.
Song Lian (1310-1381), also spelled Jinglian, was a native of Pujiang (now Yiwu, Zhejiang). His family was poor, but he was eager to learn since childhood, and he was trained by Wu Lai, Liu Guan, Huang and other ancient Scholars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. He studied hard all his life, "from childhood to old age, he did not go to the books for a day, and he learned everything." At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was proclaimed emperor, and Song Lian was appointed as a Confucian scholar in Jiangnan to preach the scriptures to the prince. In the history of ancient Chinese literature, Song Lian, together with Liu Ji and Gao Qi, was listed as the three great poets of the early Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang called him "the head of the founding ministers", Liu Ji praised him as "the first in today's articles", and the scholars of the Four Directions called him "Taishigong". "Send Dongyang Horse Life Order" is also one of his masterpieces. "Family celebrities shine together, and righteous teachers and teachers share a common relationship." There is a saying that song lian and the first family in Jiangnan have an indissoluble relationship: without Song Lian, there would be no first family in Jiangnan, and without the first family in Jiangnan, there would be no Song Lian, and Song Lian and the first family in Jiangnan complement each other and create each other's glory. On the one hand, Mr. Song Lian is the spirit and soul of the Zheng family, without Song Lian, the Linxi Zheng family can only be regarded as a large household in Zhejiang at best, because with Song Lian, the Zheng family can become a Jiangnan Wang clan and spread the world. On the other hand, Song Lian's Confucianism, political ideas, and life ideals were formed in the first family in Jiangnan. Song Lian taught in Yimen for 24 years in the early period, and zheng collected 80,000 volumes, so it can be said that Song Lian's career achievements are closely related to this fertile land where he lived and grew. At that time, he also married his second daughter to the ninth grandson of this family, Zheng Li (di), so he formed three feelings with this family: teacher love, friendship, and family affection, and this verdant cypress tree witnessed Song Lian's close relationship with the first family in Jiangnan.
"The master planted the ancient cypress to ascend to the heavens, and He once saw a different thought!" Towards the same fog dew and smoke, grace is endless. Several degrees of spring and winter, several vicissitudes of mulberry fields, qianqiu cultivation to read the former sages, filial piety and long pass! Excerpt from Zhejiang Forestry Network