The ancient city of Changsha was founded for more than 2,000 years, the city site has not changed, the old streets and ancient alleys are more than a thousand, its place names are strange, funny and elegant, both gods and shapes, antique, profound historical heritage, some exist for more than a thousand years, the people are familiar with it, and they are reluctant to change or replace.
Early, for the "Changsha Golden Line Street, from the "Lu Dong Bin point stone into gold"? After finishing the manuscript, I went to The Golden Line Street to take a few photos, passed by the West Archway, and glimpsed the newly built white archway crowned "West Archway". This is a place name that is nearly seven hundred years old.
The West Arch building originates from the Mingji Royal Palace
In 1477, Zhu Jianjun, the king of Mingji, took the throne of Changsha and reigned for 50 years. This prince, who loved to read books and love to build buildings, remodeled and expanded the Jiwang Mansion at the former site of the Tanwang Mansion, formerly known as the Imperial Palace Ping. The palace faces north and south, with Zijintai (now Bauhinia Street) as the back door, Wangfuping or Hongpailou (now Fanxi Lane) as the front door, and the east and west arches as the left and right wings. Tiren Gate, Duanli Gate, Zunyi Gate and Guangzhi Gate are the four gates of the southeast, southwest, and northwest gates of the Jiwang Mansion.
From the Simen Gate and the Octagonal Pavilion, all the way through to the Imperial Palace of the Ji King's Mansion composed of the Carrier Hall, the Round Hall and the CunXin Hall, all of which are in the palace residence, so the whole city is almost 78 out of 10 of the palace. The names of the current East Arch and west arches are all derived from the Mingji King's Mansion.
The archway on the right wing of the Jiwang Mansion is inside its West Gate Zunyi Gate, so it is called the West Arch, and the street is also called the West Arch. In the Qing Dynasty, there were still two stone pillars more than 3 meters high on the street of Xipailou facing each other, and there was a large iron cylinder weighing 150 kilograms next to it, which was a palace object. In the fifth year of Qing Tongzhi (1866), the Yungui Guild Hall was built on the East Entrance Medicine King Hall of the West Arch.
Schematic map of the mingji royal palace Source/Chen Xianshu
It was the site of Yale-China Middle School and Xiangya Hospital
In October of the 32nd year of Guangxu (1906), the Yale-China Association of the United States sent Gai Bao Nai and Xi Biyi to Changsha to lease several private houses in the West Arch Building and open the Yale-in-China University Hall, which is today's Yale-china Middle School. At the same time, American doctor Hu Mei accepted the invitation of the Yale-China Association and came to Changsha from India to establish the first Western medical hospital in Hunan, Yale-Ind Hospital, which is now Hunan Xiangya Hospital.
*Source/Chen Xianshu
Why do Changsha Yali Middle School and Hunan Xiangya Hospital indiscriminately covet the West Arch? Hu Mei's essay "The Life of an American Doctor in China" has a wonderful description of the surrounding environment of the West Arch:
To the right of the hospital is a rice shop... To our left, across the paper shop was The Blacksmith Peng and his sledgehammer, anvil, wrought iron stove and all the other carry-on utensils used as small hardware shops... In addition, there are many other shops: silversmiths, coppersmiths and goldsmiths... Go up a little from West Arch Avenue and enter Yaowang Street, where we originally planned to set up a hospital... There are other neighbors who have signs at least every eight or nine gates that say "food stores" or "liquor stores" and hosts banquets. Restaurants are everywhere, and there is a distinction between the quality of the food or the grade of the customer. You can order anything from a bowl of rice and a plate of vegetables to a table.
(Note that ⚠ Hu Mei called the West Arch "Street", and Yaowang Street and Chaozong Street, which was later expanded, were not called "Main Street".) Their leased backyard used to be a place to prepare pigs. It can be seen that the West Arch Building was a prime location, "a room is difficult to find"! ）
In 1943, No. 23 West Arch Building was built with Hunan Maternity Hospital.
The core business district of old Changsha
During the Republic of China period, there were many shops in the West Arch, mostly operating Xiabu and Southern goods. There is Dongting Spring Tea House, the earliest cinema in Changsha City, 11 Lily and ChunhuaLou Cinema, which are quite famous. West Archway, together with Taiping Street, Pozi Street, Yaowang Street, Octagonal Pavilion and Simen Gate, has become the core business district of old Changsha.
West Arch (left) and Yaowang Street (right), Santai Street (directly in front of the picture), sanxing Street intersection
After the founding of New China, three residential buildings were built, including the Xiangjiang Hotel Headquarters, Changsha County Transport Company, Air Traffic Control Station, Xinsheng Restaurant and other units.
In 1957, the Yaowang Street, West Arch Building and Wuyi Road Neighborhood Committee of the West Arch Office of Changsha West District were placed under the jurisdiction of the Ruyi Street Street Office.
The West Arch was originally Mashi Street, but after 1960 it was converted into asphalt or cement pavement. In 1971, it was merged with Yaowang Street, collectively known as the West Arch. In the 1981 Census of Geographical Names, the Residents' Committee of the West Arch Building had 11 resident groups, 581 households, and 1384 residents. At present, the West Archway, from the junction of Santai Street and Sanxing Street in the east to Taiping Street in the west, is 193 meters long and 7 meters wide.
West Arch Street today
"Go to Dongting Spring Sit Tea House"
I was born and raised in the west district of old Changsha, living in Inverted Boot Lane, Attending Santai Street Primary School, Yaowang Street and Xipailou No. 47 Street Canteen for dinner. When he was eight years old, he went with his mother to the Changsha Hat Factory on West Long Street every Sunday to work overtime or wash clothes, and take a hot bath. When passing through the West Arch, you can also eat a large meat bun in dongting spring, fragrant and dripping with oil.
Photograph of the author with his mother at the age of three years ago 70 years ago (the author's mother is still alive and is ninety-nine years old)
When I was a little older, I asked my mother to buy two, one for my mother to eat, and she only gently bit the skin of the bun and said: I don't like to eat buns. I really can't eat two buns, I only eat meat filling, the bun skin is handed over to my mother to eat, when I naively thought that adults did not like to eat buns, until I grew up to be a father, I deeply felt the connotation of "poor parents' hearts in the world".
The old shadow of dongting spring tea house
Dongting Spring Tea House is located at No. 84, North Wing, West Arch Building, along Mashi Road, not far from Taiping Street, directly opposite JiangningLi Lane, a small two-story building with red old-style brick and wood structure. There is a big tree at the door, sitting north to south, resting on the top of the mountain, the window is round arch type, wooden fan lattice, the internal space is exquisite, two entrances before and after, the second floor wooden staircase, wooden floor. Together with the Deyuan Garden at the entrance of the road, the Dahuazhai in the Octagonal Pavilion and the Xusongquan Tea House in Laozhaobi, it is known as the four major teahouses in Changsha.
At that time, there was no night market in Changsha, and the tea house opened at about four o'clock in the morning, and many foreigners came to the tea house to wash their faces, wipe their teeth, and drink morning tea. Politicians and educators like to patronize Deyuan, business people are accustomed to gathering in Dahuazhai to talk about business, craftsmen like to go to Xusongquan to exchange skills, and shop owners, brokers and ordinary citizens love to meet in Dongting Spring. Mostly men, very few women involved. In the mornings of old Changsha, it is always brewed in a cup of pickled tea.
At the end of the 1950s, my father was transferred back to Changsha, and almost every Sunday he got up early in the morning with his brothers, my second uncle, seventh uncle, and eighth uncle, to sit in the tea house in Dongting Spring. Occasionally I have been, into the entrance hall to eat noodles, meat noodles taste good, but not as good as "Yang Yuxing's noodles - more brands", but the oil cake is sweet and crunchy, oily but not greasy. On the east side of the first floor is a white case room to the north, and to the right of the entrance door is a dark and shiny wooden staircase, and next to the ladder is a takeaway counter.
My father first took the takeaway counter on the right side of the building downstairs, and bought a sugar and meat bun with a dime and two or two food stamps and handed it to me. After going up to the second floor and taking a seat on the bench by the side of the table by the window on the south side, don immediately came to say hello, took off the robe towel on his shoulder and wiped the table sharply, and asked: As usual? My father nodded in agreement. Four teacups, a plate of peanut rice, and a plate of hemp were set on the table. After my uncle arrived, the eighth uncle snapped his fingers, a large copper pot mixed four teacups with boiling water, and the clear and bright young leaves tumbled back and forth in the boiling water, slowly unfolding, floating and sinking, and finally falling into the bottom of the cup, the tea smell...
At this time, the tea guests are full of seats, talking and laughing, the smoke is full, and the sound is noisy, but the tea guests are leisurely and at ease. My uncle asked me if my grades were good? While gently blowing the tea leaves floating on the top of the teacup with his mouth, after taking a few slow sips, he drank it all again, so that the hall could refill the water.
After three cups of tea, two plates of steaming buns are served to the table, and the adults take a sugar meat bun, peel off the thin skin at the bottom of the bun, and then put in a few peanuts and rice, stack it and gently press and pinch flatten, and send it to the mouth, called "double bag press" or "old clam with beads". I learned to be an adult, and it seems to taste better than a single meat bun, the oil is whirring, sweet and dense, fragrant, and it will not "just be the bun lying on the back".
A brief presence in the neighborhood committee public canteen
No. 47, South Wing of the West Archway, two heavy wooden doors with two tiger head rings hanging under the door of the tall stone library, often open and closed, enter the door: the middle bluestone brick passage is two meters wide, three meters long, the two-meter square patio on the east and west sides is bright and transparent, the middle hall house is spacious and clean, there are four rooms on the east and west sides; there is a well and toilet at the south end, and there is a communal kitchen; the right is a wooden staircase to the second floor, all of which are wooden floors, wooden fences and wooden partitions.
This house was once the residence of a large family, and now it is a large courtyard where more than a dozen residents live. During the people's commune period, there was a public canteen of the neighborhood committee, and when it came to eating, the people in the courtyard were boiling, it was not lively, and the food tasted good, especially the rice was delicious and fragrant, and it seemed that it could still be eaten. But the good times were not long, and it did not take long for the canteen to be disbanded, probably not to achieve the effect of "the canteen is well run, and the work is energetic". I can only go to the Yaowang Street public canteen to take a meal, every month 9 yuan for food expenses, food rations of 27 catties, can only eat a half full.
Li Yiyi of Lize Academy on Huohou Street also lives on Building 47, and I often come to play in Lily Lane opposite his house, such as Zhou Linfu of Jinxian Street, Zhou Zhiwei of Gaojing Street, Liu Xinde of Sanwang Street, and Tan Dexuan of Hongjiajing.
Lily Lane, the former seat of the Western District Public Security Bureau
Lily Lane is only 51 meters long and 2 meters wide, with a southbound entrance to the West Archway, a narrow aisle to Tongxu Paradise in the north, and a collective shopping mall (Xinsheng Village) to the west to Taiping Street and Gaojing Street. On the west side of Lily Lane is a dilapidated two-storey wooden house, the first second floor is inhabited by Fa Xiao Yi Changzhi, and his house's lanai is facing No. 47.
On the east side of Lily Lane, there is a top of an air raid shelter, about two to three meters high, with a slope of 30 degrees, all cement surface, no trees and handrails, and we play here to catch the bandits or go to the top before anyone else.
The entrance to the air raid shelter is in the backyard of the residents in the north wing of the West Arch Building, the cave is dark, five fingers are not visible, eerie, we dare not go in. It is said that after the Wenxi fire, a wealthy merchant dug to protect his life and property when the Japanese devils bombed Changsha, but the rich merchant did not know where to go, leaving many strange legends for the cave (the air raid shelter still exists, but the entrance to the cave was blocked by debris and not sealed).
Lily Lane to the east is the former West District Public Security Bureau station, south in and out of the West Archway, the wide lane can only be one-way in and out of the three-wheeled motorcycle, the car has to enter and exit Taiping Street and Wuyi West Road from its northbound collective shopping mall.
The collective shopping mall, also known as Xinsheng Village, starts from Wuyi West Road in the north and ends at Taiping Street in the west, with a length of 154 meters and an average width of 4.5 meters, and the length and width are not much different from the West Archway. At that time, there were many shops here, there were many homes, known as the backyard of Daping Street and West Arch, and now it is a residential area, and a dormitory building near Lily Lane in the south has a sign "Public Security Bureau Dormitory Idle People Do Not Enter".
Further west of the north wing of the West Archway, there is an unnamed broken head alley, which contains a hotel and several wooden houses.
The West Archway and nearby streets and alleys in the 1986 map
When he was young, he was ignorant and did not know Jia Taifu Temple
In the middle of the south wing of the West Arch, there is a long and roundabout lane called Taipingli (Lane), formerly known as Xinshengli, called "Yuanning Path" in the Republic of China period, starting from the West Arch in the north and ending in Taifuli in the south, with a length of 125 meters and a width of 3.1 meters.
The south wing of the West Archway is further west, the Jiangning Lane (Lane) opposite the Dongting Spring Tea House, the north from the West Arch, the south ends in Taipingli, 105 meters long, and the width is 4 meters. Jiangningli runs parallel to Taipingli from north to south, and at the intersection of Taifu Li, there is a public toilet around the corner, and there are two scenic lines in the morning and evening: in the early morning, nearby residents line up to go to the toilet, pour toilets and urinals; in the evening, some men and children, shirtless, carry buckets of water into the toilet to bathe.
Taifu Li (Lane) is named after the former residence of Jia Yi Jia Taifu, once known as Fusheng Street Santiao Lane, from Taiping Street in the west to Taiping Li in the north, with a length of 136 meters and an average width of 4.8 meters. After the Wenxi fire, the former residence was destroyed, and only the Taifu Hall, the ancient well, the stone bed and the shrine remained. The one-legged stone bed in the original house was unknown during the Cultural Revolution. The original shrine is dedicated to a wooden sculpture depicting a seated statue of Jin Jiayi, which was stolen in 1979.
Not far in front of the temple, there are one or two wells on the south side of Taifu Li, whose mouth is wide and wide, shaped like a pot, and the water is extremely pure, which is said to have been chiseled by Jia Yi, and it is called Changhuai Well because of Du Fu's poem "I don't see the dilapidated place of the Ding King, and the Changhuai Jia Fu Well is still there".
When I was young, I played in the air raid shelter with black sweat, often went to the well to wash my hands and feet, dry my mouth and drink two sips, only to feel sweet and cool. Zhou Linfu took us more than 20 meters east to a temple, when it was a hard time in 1960, the temple keeper fed a pig and often went to the Zhou family's No. 18 mansion to fetch swill water.
When he was young, he was ignorant and did not know that this was the Jia Taifu Ancestral Hall. It was not until the early 1970s that a Japanese delegation came to visit, and the Pozi Street Office organized the residents of the Golden Line Street and Taiping Street Neighborhood Committees to clean the temples, and Zhou Linfu took us to participate, that we learned that the temple located on the border of Taiping Street and the West Arch building had an unusual origin.
*Source: Hunan City Memory
A hundred centuries ago, high-nosed foreign doctors and nurses greeted patients in front of Yale-in-China Hospital; Chinese students dressed in student clothes and holding books entered the Yale-in-China University Hall; half a century ago or a year ago, foreigners and countrymen who had just disembarked from the ship, people who picked up rivers and sold them, or wore robes and short sleeves and cloth shoes, or straw hats and straw shoes and shirtless shorts, walking slowly, excitedly or in a hurry on the mashi road...
Today, a hundred years later, the newly renovated Taiping Old Street is close to the site of the West Archway of zunyimen in the Mingji Domain, but now it has almost become a "cat and dog street".
The only remaining Dongting Spring Tea House in old Changsha is a door to the bird, the first floor only sells flour, occasionally a few retired elderly people come to drink tea can only be on the first floor, the second floor has been used for him...
The old staircase of the Dongting Spring Tea House
Inexplicable feelings of sadness and loss arise.
Resources:
1. Compilation of Geographical Names Data in The Western District of Changsha;
2. "Range Rover of Changsha Geographical Names and Monuments";
3. "The Memory of a City - Changsha in the Old Map"
END
*This article is published exclusively by CityMemory, author | Changming Xie, Editor | clearly. Photographic images not indicated in the text are provided by the author.