Author: Ye Shuming
Guangzhou people have always been less concerned about names, and although many people have lived by the Six Pulse Canal for generations, he may not be able to answer when asked what kind of canal it is. This is the character of Guangzhou people, in order to be convenient, prefer to give some boring but easy to remember names, such as "big pit canal", "big water ditch" and the like, you ask him where he lives, he will say "I live in the big pit canal side". Until now, I have not changed this habit, saying "sixty-three floors", many Guangzhou people know where to say, but if you ask them what is the official name of "sixty-three floors"? I believe that many people can't answer it.
"Three Family Lane" author Ouyang Shan
But there are exceptions. Guangzhou people are serious about place names, but also very "shocking", I remember when I was a child, I often heard adults argue about where the three lanes in "Three Family Lanes" are. Even newspapers often publish discussion articles. People are so enthusiastic about looking for Sanjia Lane, and now Guangzhou people over the age of fifty may remember it (those under the age of fifty may not even have read "Sanjia Lane"). The last time I saw a discussion in the media about the location of Sanjia Lane was in the early 1990s, when there were people discussing this issue for decades.
I remembered that a few years ago, Shunchang, Fujian Province, announced that they had discovered the joint tomb of Sun Wukong and his brother, proving that Sun Wukong was a Fujian Shunchang monkey. But before that, I heard that Sun Wukong was a Jiangsu monkey, his hometown was in Lianyungang, and later I heard that Shanxi Lou Fu also had someone verify that Sun Wukong was a Shanxi monkey, and then I heard that Suizhou in Hubei and Guazhou in Gansu also joined the dispute over Sun Wukong's origin. I thought that the games looking for the prototype of the novel were more or less similar, competing for tourism resources.
But Guangzhou people looking for Sanjia Lane has nothing to do with tourism. In the 60s, even if you found a sanjia alley, it would not increase the number of tourists, nor could it circle up to sell tickets. I always thought that "Three Houses Alley" was a novel, and the novel was fiction. But I didn't expect that someone really examined it, there are four three lanes in Guangzhou, one in Bailing Road, one in Haizhu South Road Sanfuqian Street, one in Hongqiao Street, and one in Wan'anli, Dezheng North Road. In 1931, the government felt that the duplicate name was too much, and renamed Sanjia Lane on Bailing Road to Sanchun Lane, Hongqiao Street to Sansheng Lane, Wan'an Li to Sanguang Lane (this was the most ugly change), and only Sanjia Lane was retained in front of Sanfu.
《Three Lanes》
Sansheng Lane was demolished during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and later a new building was built and incorporated into The Zhang family; Sanguang Lane was also demolished when dongfeng middle road was widened; Sanjia Lane in front of Sanfu, which was merged into Sanfu Qianjie in 1982, no longer exists. I have never intersected with these three alleys, so I have no impression, but the Three Spring Lanes on Lark Road do know it. Because I used to live across from Sanchun Lane, the alley seemed to be a neighborhood committee, and my grandmother moved a stool to the alley every night after dinner. However, the alley has now been demolished and high-rise buildings have been built.
Generally people believe that the closest to the prototype of "Sanjia Lane" is probably Sanchun Lane on Bailing Road. In the book, Ouyang Shan provides three geographical characteristics of Sanjia Lane: one is in the area of the west gate of the northwest corner of Guangzhou, the second is that the south of Sanjia Lane is Doufu Lane (originally in the southern section of Haizhu North Road, which has been demolished), the third is the original subordinate street, and the fourth is that Zhou Bing often goes to the general front and plays with Guangxiao Temple. Among the four three lanes, it seems that only Sanchun Lane is most in line with these characteristics.
However, Ouyang Shan deliberately made a "XuanXuan" here, saying that Sanjia Lane is on the west side of Guantang Street, which is the northern section of today's Haizhu North Road. During the Qing Dynasty, it was the territory of the Han army with white flags. There are many subordinate streets and flag people's large houses in the west of Guangzhou City, which are the places where the flag people of the Qing Dynasty concentrated, and the specific distribution is as follows:
Zhengbai Banner was in the area from Ivory Street to Xihao Street (now Haizhu Middle Road) and Shishu Street. The yellow flag is on Velvet Street, along Baiwei Street to Bigong Lane. Zhenghong Flag is south of Dashi Street (present-day Huifu West Road) to the area of Wanhongyuan (present-day Guanlu Road). The Zhenglan Banner was west of the Zuodu Tongdu Office, along the area of Jinshili (present-day Jinli) to Dali Lane. Yellow flags are placed around Dade Street (present-day Dade Road) to Shishu Street (present-day Shishu Road). The white flag is north of Dashi Street, along Yuhuafang to the east of ZuoDu Tong bureau (now the outpatient department of Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital). The red flag started from Yuntaili, including Xuegong Street, Guangta Street (now Guangta Road), the northern section of Sweetwater Lane, the northern section of Xianlin Lane, and the northern section of Jinshili (present-day Jinshili) to Xinghua Lane. The blue flag starts from the south of Guangta Street and the intersection of Xianyang Street, along the southern section of Paper Street (now Paper Road) to the area of Baisha Lane.
The above are the main distribution locations, but the later period is not very strict. For example, Guantang Street is the settlement of the Han army with the white flag. The Han army was not Manchu, but mainly Han Chinese. At the north end of Guantang Street, there is an alley called "Beichenggen", and a friend asked me, Guangzhou people are not happy to call it "Chenggen", but Beijingers are happy to call it so, "Chenggener", and also play a tongue. Why does Guangzhou have this place name? I guess it was the Han Army Bannerman on Guantang Street who called it out.
Ouyang Shan's former residence in Meihua Village
Since Ouyang Shan said that Sanjia Lane is on the west side of Guantang Street, so serious readers are interested in examining it, this time looking for it, in the west side of Guantang Street did not find Sanjia Lane, but between Panfu Heng Street and Haizhu North Road, found a "Bajia Lane", it is indeed on the west side of Guantang Street, but counted, a total of six households and three houses, 11 house numbers, and the novel is not quite right.
In fact, in 1959, Ouyang Shan himself had already solved the mystery himself, saying that there were sanjia lanes, but not in Guantang Street, but on Bailing Road, which was completely different from the sanjia lanes described in the novel. This explanation seems to be a bit ambiguous, only that there are three lanes in Guangzhou (in fact, this does not need Ouyang Shan to say that everyone knows), but it is different from the novel. Which of the three lanes in the novel is based on? It's still vague, so it's been decades since people tried to verify it.
However, things have changed, the years are merciless, and the generation that was enthusiastic about finding Sanjia Lane has gradually aged, and today no one will examine the prototype of Sanjia Lane. First, the times have changed, people's reading interest has also changed, "Three Lanes" is difficult to set off a reading boom in Luoyang paper expensive, second, the changes in Guangzhou's urban area are too great, many old streets and alleys have disappeared, and there is no way to investigate. This topic, which once caused heated discussion in Guangzhou, has finally disappeared into the depths of the time tunnel.
Read this article, taste the past of Guangzhou:
Two feng shui towers in Guangzhou
Guangzhou on the water: mountains are bones, water is blood
Lark Road used to be an art nest
Renmin Road: Waiting for the sun's day