"If you have money to live in Xiguan, you have the right to live in Dongshan." Xiguan, the former name of Liwan District in Guangzhou, is a collective name for the area around the west gate of Guangzhou during the Ming and Qing dynasties. At that time, Lychee Bay and Pantang were still a water town, and later, with the establishment of the Thirteen Elements, Xiguan rose rapidly and became the concentration of all the economic development of Guangzhou in that era, as well as the gathering place of rich merchants and magnates. There are import and export trade terminals, various warehouses and warehouses, and commercial institutions and foreign firms in various countries, prompting many wealthy merchants to live here.
Among them, Xiguan has "three treasures": Baoyuan Road, Baohua Road and Duobao Road. Every road and every street name here contains a lot of stories, today, we will first walk into Duobao Road to explore the treasures in Duobao Road.
The origin of the name Dobao Road
In the late Qing Dynasty, Deng Huaxi, who was born in Shunde, Guangdong, served as a political envoy in Hubei, the inspector of Anhui, and the inspector of Shanxi, and was an official to the rank of Erpin, and later resigned and returned to Guangzhou to live. After Deng Huaxi resigned and returned to Guangzhou, he established a mansion on Duobao Road in Xiguan. Because of his high prestige, the neighbors later recommended him to name the street. Because the location of Duobao Road is "Wuhua Tianbao, Renjie Diling", he named it "Duobao", also known as Duobao Street. Later, Duobao Street merged with Baoqing New Street to become "Duobao Road".
▲ Deng Huaxi
Deng Huaxi's Xiguan House
Deng Huaxi not only gave the street name "Duobao Street", but also brought the historic building Xiguan House. Deng Huaxi's former residence, also known as Deng Gong Baodi, seven bays and three deep, covering an area of nearly 1,000 square meters, is a typical Xiguan big house, but also the leader of the mansion at that time. The typical layout of the Xiguan House is the "three-bay room", the main room is dominated by the hall, and the two sides are study rooms and guest rooms, usually called "book bias", and there is an alley commonly known as "Qingyun Lane" on both sides of the book side. Completed in 2000, the Xiguan Folk Museum was built in reference to this historically famous Xiguan house. After the founding of the Republic of China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen also personally visited Deng Huaxi to ask deng Huaxi for advice on the strategy of "governing Guangdong".
▲ Deng Gong Baodi
In the 1930s, the third bay of Deng Gongbaodi's garden and other buildings were leased to the then Guangzhou Municipal Primary School as a school building, and the remaining four bays were built in the 1950s because they were too few people to live. At this point, the Deng Gong Baodi of this once-magnificent "Xiguan Mansion Gate" no longer existed. The Xiguan house, once inhabited by the rich, has now become a place for ordinary people to live and work in peace and contentment.
▲Duobao Street
Baoqing Grand Pledge
In Baoqing, Duobao Road, there is a five-story building with a height of 20 meters built in the late Qing Dynasty facing north and south, which is a typical pawnshop building with a front shop and a back warehouse. It was Baoqing Dabao, one of the six pawnshops at that time. It is also one of the commanding heights and landmark buildings of Guangzhou in the late Qing Dynasty.
▲Baoqing Grand Pledge
The so-called "big bet" is actually a pawnshop, a shop that specializes in collecting collateral and lending usury. How much you can borrow is determined by the valuation of the collateral. If it is not redeemed at maturity, the collateral is owned by the pawnshop. Because of the reason of preventing flooding, the door of the pawnshop is much higher than that of the general store, and some shops put a large screen inside the door in order not to let others see the situation in the pawnshop, nor to let acquaintances see the embarrassment of the pawnbroker. The counter of the pawnshop is also particularly high, and the objects on the counter cannot be seen from standing in front of the counter, which is to make the pawnbroker feel a sense of awe and dare not negotiate with the pawnshop. Pawn shops are generally stone warehouse facades, and on the outer wall, a large "Dang" character is written. The bottom of the shop is very tall, but the windows are high and small, the light is dim, and on the dark walls, there are some red notes, which read: "Lost tickets cannot be redeemed without guarantees", "Insects and moths bite each obey the destiny", "Antique jade anniversary is full", "The sharpshooter costume is inappropriate"...
▲Pawnshop
Taihua Building
Taihua Building, located in Duobaofang, was built in 1878 and was the study hall of Li Wentian of Guangdong during the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty. Because Li Wentian collected the famous Qin "Taishan Carved Stone" Song Tuoben and the Han "Xiyue Huashan Temple Stele", his book was named Taihua Lou. The Taishan carved stone is an inscription of the Qin Shi Huang's eastern tour at the top of Mount Tai, which has been destroyed in the ground. Only 29 characters survived when they were unearthed at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and later they were destroyed in the fire during the Qianlong period.
Li Wentian was a clean and honest official, never extravagant and ostentatious, and there were almost no carved beams and paintings in the house, only retaining the green brick masonry of the Xiguan House, warm in winter and cool in summer.
▲Taihua Building
The protagonist Li Wentian is a villager from Anshang Village, Shunde, Guangdong. During the Xianfeng period, the 26-year-old Li Wentian was awarded the Tanhua Examination, and then he was promoted to the Hanlin Academy's Bachelor's Degree, the Cabinet Bachelor's Degree, the Ceremonial Department, the Ministry of Works Waiter, and then entered the South Study Room, served as the lecturer of the Jing Feast, and served as the vice president of the main examination and the examination of Jiangnan, Sichuan, and Zhejiang Township.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Mr. Cai Yuanpei, a famous educator in China, was also a protégé of Li Wentian. In 1929, Mr. Cai Yuanpei went south to give a lecture, went to The Taihua Building of Duobaofang to meet Li Wentian's son Li Kongman and Sun Li Tangzhai and Li Quzhai and so on, and urged Li Yuanpei to go to Peking University to study, so in 1988, the Beijing Cai Yuanpei Memorial Hall was completed, Mr. Tang Zhai recalled the three generations of former friends between Li Men and Cai Yuanpei, saying that "Mr. Li Was a corporal of the ancestral door, and Yu was also a protégé of Mr. Shimen", and recalled Shimen FuShiyun: Gazing at shimen Dulangyin, ink nail spider school wall book search, at that time, he was given a lifelong life, and the white first inscription was full of tears.
▲ Li Wentian
In the third year of Guangxu, Li Wentian also assisted in the repair of Qingyuan Shijiaowei and Sanshui RoadWei, so that the Beijiang Embankment would stand unharmed in the following decades.
Duobao Road's "Cantonese Opera Stars"
In the early years of Guangxu, the merchant Liu Xuexun built a Liu Garden in Xiguan dedicated to performances, but at that time, only local and foreign wealthy merchants were received, and they were not open to the outside world. In the fifteenth year of Guangxu, Liu Xuexun built the Guangqing Theater at the foot of Xiguan Bridge (now Changhua Avenue, Duobao Road), which was the first performance venue in Guangzhou to sell tickets. At that time, the "Guangbao" published an advertisement for the hospital to invite the DeCaigui class to stage Cantonese opera, indicating the ticket price: 8 points and 4 points of silver in the male world, and 1 cent, 2 points and 4 points of silver in the female world. As soon as the hospital opened, the newly built performance venues in Guangzhou were gradually open for business. It also attracts Cantonese opera, opera performers, poets, calligraphers and painters who often gather on Duobao Road to communicate.
▲The performance advertisement of the Tianxing Grand Theater that year
Famous Cantonese opera performance artists QianLiju, Huang Buxing, He Feifan, Chu Xiuyun, Lin Xiaoqun, Lu Qiuping, Luo Jiabao and others have lived here. Many music celebrities and musical predecessors also perform and train here.
▲He Feifan
▲Yellow does not extinguish
▲Cantonese opera old photos
In 1958, the famous Cantonese opera artist Bai Jurong also donated funds to build a nursing home on Duobao Road to arrange the old age of many cantonese opera elderly people. Unfortunately, there are not many existing residences of Cantonese opera artists, and No. 77 Duobao Road is the former residence of the famous Cantonese opera performance artist and Qianliju, known as the "Hua Dan King".
▲The former residence of Senri Koma
Hongdou Cantonese opera training class
In 1986, Duobao Road also established the famous "Xiaohongdou Cantonese Opera Training Class" composed of children aged 5-10 in Guangzhou (renamed "Xiaohongdou Cantonese Opera School on Duobao Street, Liwan District, Guangzhou" in 1992). The school is the first Cantonese opera training institution in Guangzhou to be run by the street, using the spare time of primary school students to conduct training, and the teaching funds are allocated by the street office every year. In the face of the emerging new cultural impulses, the establishment of the training course has greatly improved the awareness of the younger generation of Cantonese opera (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity), enhanced their interest in Cantonese opera, and played an important role in the inheritance and innovation of Cantonese opera.
▲ Cantonese opera small actor
Duobao Road is only one of the roads that carries the historical precipitation of the old Xiguan, it has the cold color of the arcade, the traces of the stone road, the deep historical memory, the cultural innovation, and the strong taste of the city. Many of the former Xiguan houses have been covered up by the construction of the city, but as long as you walk into Xiguan and stroll through the crisscrossing strange alleys, you may appreciate the feelings that make Lao Guang nostalgic. Compared with the new area of high-rise buildings, the bricks and tiles here, coarse tea and light rice are the unique style of Xiguan.
(This article is original content, if you need to reprint, please contact this number.) The above pictures are partly from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author)