Author: Wang Xuan
Huiyuan Arch in Luxiang Ancient Village
I remember that when I was in elementary and middle school, the school often required students to fill in their resumes, and there was a column called "Place of Origin". At first, I didn't understand the meaning of "place of origin", but my grandmother and father told me that "place of origin" means "hometown", and I should fill in "Wu County, Jiangsu" in the column of "place of origin".
I was born and raised in Xuzhou, and I hardly left Xuzhou before I went to college, and I had no concept of "hometown" and "Wu County, Jiangsu". My grandmother and father often said that our hometown is in Dongting Mountain on the edge of Taihu Lake, where the mountains and rivers are beautiful, and the melons and fruits are fragrant, just like the flower and fruit mountain where Sun Wukong lived in "Journey to the West". Therefore, in my young heart, I developed a mysterious sense and longing for my hometown, hoping to one day go to my hometown to see.
The Flower Arch of Luxiang Ancient Village
This wish was not realized until many years later. In the summer of 1985, just after graduating from college, I went alone and excited to pay homage to my ancestral hometown. Although I can't understand the soft language of Wu Nong in my hometown of Wu County, and it is difficult to communicate with the locals, when I stepped on the land of my hometown Dongting Mountain and walked into the ancestral home courtyard of Luxiang Ancient Village, I did not have the slightest sense of strangeness, but like a wanderer returning from afar, the joy and excitement of returning home spontaneously. The first time I stayed in my hometown for only two days, it left a very warm impression on me.
Wenning Lane and Tanhua Arch in Luxiang Ancient Village
Since then, home is no longer an empty, abstract concept, but a hot land of dreams, and I am eager to return to her arms again. After more than 20 years, in August 2013 I finally began to visit the roots again. Before I set off, I did some homework carefully. The first is to inquire about the geography, history, humanities and other information about the hometown of Wu County from the Internet, and the second is to learn from my father the basic information of our branch of the Wang family and the life of my father in my hometown. My hometown has become more and more vivid, vivid and vivid in my heart. I am proud of my hometown and proud of being the 15th grandson of The Ming Dynasty Yipin official, a university scholar, a Hubu Shangshu, and a popular "Prime Minister" Wang Jun.
Xieyuan Arch in Luxiang Ancient Village
The second time I went back to my hometown Dongshan Luxiang for about 4 days. I deliberately chose to live in the study in the ancestral old mansion, which at that time no longer belonged to our royal family, and was converted into a homestay by its new owner. On a midsummer night, in the study room of Gushan Village, I, a descendant of Wang Jun, happily engaged in a spiritual dialogue with my ancestors across time and space.
The ancient well of YudaiQuan in Luxiang Village
I worshipped my grandfather's grave, visited the ancestral home of the ancestor Wang Jun and the Wang Family Ancestral Hall, wandered in the Purple Stone Street and the 6 alleys connected to it, enjoyed the lake and mountain colors, and frequently pressed the camera shutter, as if I wanted to imprint every brick, tile, grass and tree on the East Mountain in my heart.
Luxiang Ancient Village
I looked up at Moli Peak and Taihu Lake, and my heart repeatedly said: Hometown, Wu County (now Wuzhong District, Suzhou), Dongting Mountain, Dongshan, Luxiang! The ancestral hometown, the ancestral hall of the Wang family, the old house of the great-grandfather's wedding! You are the root of my tree of life, I will always remember this land, I will come again! Again! Again!
His wife and daughter walked on PurpleStone Street in Lu Lane
Addendum: This article was written in April 2019. In June this year, I once again returned to Suzhou Dongshan Luxiang, the ancestral hometown of Si Zi Nianzi, and went with my wife and daughter, and our family of three chose to live in Luxiang Huaide Hall, which has special significance for us. When we stepped on the bluestone slab road of the ancient village of Landing Lane and admired the flowing water of the small bridge, I told my daughter about my knowledge of the old house in my hometown by the way, trying to transmit the consciousness of "roots" to my daughter.
My wife and I are in the Wang Family Ancestral Hall in Lu Lane
The daughter searched for roots in Lu Lane and asked her ancestors