Yaojia Hutong (the hutong where the photographer lived for many years)
Photo/Monday Bo Wen/Hong Candle
Authentic alley
Hutongs are a product of the Yuan Dynasty, and the Mongols call the streets and alleys of Yuan Dadu Hutongs – which is said to mean well in Mongolian. Could it be that at that time, every alley had a well (as a miniature reservoir) dug for the civilians and civilians living there to drink?
If you think about it, it is understandable that the nomadic people from the desert and grassland attach great importance to water sources; although they are not yet very accustomed to densely populated urban life, if accompanied by a well in front of their doors, they can also "drink horses in Beijing". Moreover, it was an era without running water, and the well was the root of life. You go to the oldest alleys and walk around, you can still find a few wells that have been depleted, and some of the well bars have traces of long-term wear and tear of ropes - in the face of the years, the stones are also quite fragile, and some of them are simply covered with a lid, presumably to guard against children losing their feet. Looking at these abandoned and unused wells, you will feel that it is the best annotation and memorial to the name of the hutong. At that time, the well was a social place where the residents of the deep house looked up and looked down, and they talked with their neighbors at the well, booed and asked for warmth, which could make up for the lack of closure of the courtyard - not only protecting the secret space of each family, but also providing an opportunity for neighbors to communicate. The perfect combination of hutongs and courtyards reflects the cleverness of the rulers of The Yuan Dynasty in urban construction and management. The hutongs are horizontal and vertical, and the courtyards are staggered, which looks like the result of militarized management. Without the division and dredging of hutongs, the city of Beijing became a large military camp camped by nomads. No wonder Wang Zengqi wanted to praise: "The city of Beijing is like a piece of big tofu, square and square." There are streets in the city, there are alleys. The main street and the hutong are due south and north, and due east and west. Beijingers have a strong sense of orientation. "I am afraid that the strong sense of orientation is also the inheritance of the Mongols, who generally have to identify the direction according to the sunrise and sunset when they are nomadic on the endless steppe, so as not to get lost." I even have a romantic guess (archaeologists don't necessarily pay attention to it): the reason why the courtyard has an open patio may be to facilitate the Mongols to raise horses, and horses are their personal means of transportation — equivalent to today's bicycles; even if they move to the city, they are accustomed to riding instead of riding, otherwise why should they build the hutongs so straight? The patio is a horse pen, the alley is a runway, and people and horses live together, which is a pastoral and loose way of life.
White Pagoda Temple East Sandwich Road
The well is both to drink horses and raise people, and it is no wonder that the Mongols are so grateful for this that they even name the streets and alleys they live in every day as hutongs. During the Song Dynasty, the adjective Liu Yong had this influence on the people: "Where there is well water, there are willow words." "Women washing and dressing up at the well can't help but hum the slow words of Liu Sanchang. What was the scene after the Mongols took the place and seized the country? It should be "where there is well water, there is a meta song". Guan Hanqing and Wang Shifu became popular stars. They are all natives of Beijing and have brought the yuan capital opera scene to its peak, which has become a cultural center that has attracted worldwide attention. As soon as the song came out, it was passed on by word of mouth on the territory of the empire and did not go away.
Brick Tower Alley
On the southwest side of the T-shaped intersection of Xisi South Avenue in present-day Beijing, there is a brick tower hutong. The name of the brick tower hutong was popular during the Yuan Dynasty. This is indeed a 700-year-old alley. It gets its name from the fact that there is a seven-level blue-gray octagonal brick tower at the east entrance of the hutong. The six characters of "Yuan Wansong Old Man Pagoda" can still be recognized on the stone forehead of the mountain gate. Guta had witnessed the golden age of this hutong: the capital city of the Yuan Dynasty was the center of northern miscellaneous opera, and it was the central area of opera activities (that is, the area called "Goku", "Washe" in the history books), which can be called "the center of the center". The luxurious point of the hook is equipped with a stage, a theater room (backstage), a waist shed (stand) and a god tower, which can accommodate thousands of people, and the liveliness is no less than the 10,000-person stadium where Hong Kong and Taiwan singers "walk the cave" today. Even if it is simple, it is estimated that it is not inferior to the karaoke dance halls in the streets and alleys today. The people of the Yuan Dynasty loved to watch miscellaneous dramas, just as the eight flags of the Later Qing Dynasty loved to watch Beijing opera, and they could watch the doorway, and those who could not watch could also watch the hilarity. In the area of the Gou Yuan, gongs and drums are played on stage, performing the joys and sorrows of the world, which is enough to stir up emotions, so that the audience under the stage lingers - it is said that the song will not disperse at the end, and there will be kabuki with heavy makeup to throw hydrangeas and winks at the stage according to the trunk, and the willing will be hooked. I don't know if Guan Hanqing has appeared on stage in Brick Tower Hutong, but Brick Tower Hutong must have staged the opera he created, "Dou E'er Grievance" or something. I once made a special trip to the alley, and I wondered: How could this narrow alley hold so many writers, actors, organists, musicians and audiences of different identities in those years, the emperor will meet the cloth people, will collide on this sheep's gut trail? It's just that I forgot to look up whether there was a well in the depths of the alley that once contained a pulse of love. Brick Tower Hutong, in the Yuan Dynasty equivalent to the showbiz circle in Beijing, I wonder if there were "cave heads", agents, media reporters, or similar figures at that time? Until the Qing Dynasty, it was still a place where qujia musicians lived, "Lu Yan fluttered the ground, and the song blew boiling in the sky." Jin Zhang's young man, riding a knot, spending gold like earth, can't get rid of the tiles of The Fenjing. (Quoted from Qing Ren Zhenjun's "Heavenly Occasional News") But this is already the return of its golden age. The gate court was changed, and the Yuanqu was also replaced by Peking Opera.
Lu Xun's former residence
Brick Tower Hutong No. 61 (now No. 84) is one of the former residences of Lu Xun. After he moved out of Badaowan, he changed to Brick Tower Hutong, and wrote novels such as "Blessing", "On the Restaurant", "Soap" and other novels in the low north room, and also wrote a "Historical Outline of Chinese Novels". Brick Tower Alley, will remember his blessing. Lu Xun's position in the history of literature is certainly heavier than that of Guan Hanqing—although they are ancient and modern. He would not add to the taiping world, he polished his throwing gun, his dagger and his shouts on the green brick tower deep in the alley. The tower is both a whetstone and a witness to the master. Lu Xun is a literal assassin hiding in a dark alley and lying down to taste courage.
East Factory Alley
East Factory Hutong West Exit
Due to the historical accumulation and cultural content of Brick Tower Hutong, I personally want to name it No. 1 Hutong in Beijing. Because there are only a few ancient alleys like this that have maintained their names since the Yuan Dynasty. Hutong Hutong, if still called the old name of the Yuan Dynasty (or the name of the milk), seems to be the most authentic and qualified. Many of the allusive hutong names were mostly given during the Ming and Qing dynasties. For example, the East Factory Hutong on the west side of the north section of Wangfujing Street was named after the Ming Dynasty Yongle Eighteenth Year East Factory Office, which can be called the first royal secret service agency in Chinese history, and was directly commanded by eunuchs, setting up prisons, xingchang punishments, and bloody rain - the name of this hutong because of the word East Factory, so that people today still have a creepy feeling when reading it, and they are eager to take a detour, thinking that the evil debts are too heavy and the ghosts are not scattered. Another example is the "Foreign Ministry Street" on the east side of Dongdan Di North Road, which was once called Shi Daren Hutong, and more than 500 years ago there was the residence of General Shi Heng of the Zhongguo Gong during the Tianshun period of the Ming Dynasty. "Lord Shi" once led the Janissaries into the imperial city, supported Emperor Yingzong to launch the "Restoration of the Southern Palace" (also known as the "Change of the Gate" and deposed Emperor Jing, a palace coup that made Shi Heng famous and powerful. This mansion was rewarded by the emperor more luxurious than the ordinary prince's palace. Unfortunately, a few years later, it was taken back by the royal family - Shi Heng was raided and died in prison for showing signs of "rebellion". "Shi Daren" became a "villain", but the name of Shi Daren Hutong has always been called down. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, a new state guest house of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was built in Shiheng(skuai) (equivalent to a state guesthouse for receiving foreign envoys). Yuan Shikai ascended to the throne of the Provisional President of the Republic of China and worked here. On August 24, 1912, Sun Yat-sen came to Beijing and stayed in the Yingbin Building - this is also a welcome gesture made by Yuan Shikai on the surface...
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Street (Shek Da Daren Hutong)
There is a bow string alley in genbei street of the Eastern Imperial City, which is not famous, but there is a half-acre garden that attracts literati and scholars- this is a private garden designed and built by Li Yu in the Qing Junior High School. Li Kasa-ong is naturally a big deal. Half Mu Garden is famous for Li Yu, and Bow String Hutong is famous for Half Mu Garden – after all, many hutongs in Beijing are famous for people, whether this person is the owner of the hutong? Still a guest. People and things are the underlying themes of the hutong.
Bowstring Alley
Iron Lion Alley
Like brick tower hutong, Tieshi Hutong (now known as Zhang Zizhong Road) is also the elder of Beijing hutongs. It is named after a pair of iron lions – and this iron lion was cast during the reign of Emperor Chengzong of the Yuan Dynasty. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, they became the objects of the town house in front of the gate of Tian Qifu, the father of Chongzhen's favorite concubine Tian Guifei, and witnessed the long-sleeved good dance of Tian Yuanyuan's beloved concubine Chen Yuanyuan. This pursuit of Chen Yuanyuan, Wu Sangui had repeatedly entered and exited in front of the eyes of the iron lion. Li Zicheng's general Liu Zongmin again occupied the Tianfu and detained Chen Yuanyuan... All this confused the dazzling iron lions, unable to understand what these macho and beautiful women were performing like marquees. It can be said that the bell-like eyeballs of the iron lion are filled with a whole story of the demise of the Ming Dynasty. And that's just the beginning. Many years later, a general named Feng Yuxiang staged a coup d'état and used the house as a cell for his political enemy Cao Kun. In 1924, Feng Yuxiang, as the commander-in-chief of the Nationalist Army, invited Sun Yat-sen to preside over the grand plan, and this place was set up as Sun Yat-sen's pavilion. On March 12, 1925, Sun Yat-sen died here, and signed and left three wills, including the "Prime Minister's Will", "Testament to the Soviet Union", and "Family Will". At the east entrance of Tieshi Hutong, there is also the fifth son of Yongzheng and the prince's palace, which became the Admiralty of the Beiyang Government and the "provisional government" of Duan Qirui after the Republic of China - the "March 18" massacre occurred in front of the door. During the Japanese occupation of Peiping, this was the headquarters of its North China Garrison. Strolling along the Iron Lion Hutong, you can see a series of "key cultural relics protection unit" signs nailed to the wall (as well as the Qing Dynasty and the Jing Princess Mansion, etc.), as if traveling through a time and space tunnel. This short alley contains a long and fickle history. Examples of hutongs, like the people and things that happened in hutongs, are too numerous to mention. Beijing City is a large open-air museum, and the hutong is its most open and lifelike exhibit.
Qianliang Alley
Iron Lion Hutong belongs to a relatively wide hutong, and there are also extremely "pocket-sized" hutongs, such as ear and eye hutongs, which is a very vivid name. There is also Qianshi Hutong, the narrowest lot is only 0.4 meters, the widest place is only 0.8 meters, it is said that the Ming and Qing dynasties were a very prosperous financial market - it is really hard to believe that the bank will open here. At least today, cash trucks can't get in.
Zhu Babao Hutong, which no longer exists
In the twentieth century (especially after liberation), hutongs changed their names and surnames, and fewer and fewer hutongs could maintain their original names. For example, the Pig Babao Hutong near Xinjiekou was changed to Zhu Babao Hutong, the Big Dumb Hutong was changed to Dayabao Hutong, the Wang Widow Hutong was changed to Wang Guangfu Hutong, and the Yangwei Hutong was changed to Xiaoyang Yibin Hutong... Is it really necessary to change? This is tantamount to making the old man and the old lady put on the flower pants that don't fit. After the change, perhaps the pronunciation of the characters is better in meaning, but it also destroys the original slang style. Great custom is the elegance. Anyway, I still hope to be able to call the name of the hutong as crisply as the ancients did. I still prefer the rustic hutongs in the soil, the original hutongs.
Black sesame alley
After Hainan along the hutongs
South LuoguXiang
West Grinding Yard Alley