What is the difference between Chengdu and Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Wuhan? What is the difference between a thousand-year-old capital and a new city? What does a city really look like?
The answer lies in the humble street names.
Like a family that has been passed down through the ages, the small details of eating, wearing, and living can reflect its heritage. The essence of a city is reflected in the humble street names. Behind a small street is a big story.
There are many old streets in Chengdu with very personal names, such as Palladium Street, which has been selected as one of the "50 Coolest City Blocks in the World". Palladium Street is a famous internet celebrity street in the Taikoo Li precinct. But few people know that the history of this street is almost on par with the Daci Temple, which was built in the Wei and Jin dynasties.
Palladium Street (Image from the Internet)
The name of Palladium Street has undergone four different ways of writing before and after. Located in Dongsheng Community, the street sign of Palladium Street is written as "Palladium Street", while the traffic sign at the intersection is written as "Palladium Street", and some of the street numbers are used as "Bell Palladium Street", and some are "Boring Street", and there are all kinds of things. So what is the name of this street?
It turned out that the "Palladium" was a weapon specially invented for the sake of anti-Japanese war. At that time, the monks of Daci Temple made good use of weapons called "palladium". Hence the name "Palladium Street". "Huayang County Chronicle" once had a record of "Palladium Street", but it was mistakenly written as "Party Pickpocket Street", and this miswritten error has been passed down.
How to use this weapon (picture from the Internet)
By the way, the pronunciation of Palladium Street is also strange, some people are accustomed to reading half of the dang ba", some read as "dang pa", according to the pinyin on the street sign is "tang ba".
If the name "Palladium Street" may be confused when you see it, then there are traces of seeing the two names of Jie (Jie) Ren Lu and Ling Qiao (Ke) Road. The reason why these two roads are put together is because they are both related to the Sichuan writer Li Jieren.
In fact, if you look at the names of these two roads, you will know that they were named in honor of Mr. Li Jieren. The former residence of Mr. Li Jieren is also near these two roads. The former residence of Li Jieren was built because of its house "Lingjiao" weir pond, so it was named "Lingjiao". This is also the origin of the name of Lingqiao Road.
The former residence of Li Jieren is in the "Dongmen City Well" next to the Sichuan Division, and it is worth a visit in his leisure time
Who are the people of Li Jie?
Li Jieren is one of the literary masters with world influence in modern China, an important French literary translator in modern China, the "founding ancestor" of the new literary long historical novel, and the author of the "Great River Trilogy", "Backwaters", "Before the Storm", and "Big Wave". Among them, "Backwater Breeze" was published, which was a sensation. He was called "the first person after Lu Xun and Mao Dun" by Ba Jin, and was praised by his peer Guo Moruo as "China's Zola".
I think Mr. Li Jieren would rather be called "China's Bria Savoran" than the long list of titles above. (Legendary French gourmet, author of The Philosopher in the Kitchen).
Mr. Li Jieren is a Sichuan writer I like very much
Mr. Lee is a well-known writer and a well-known foodie. He is not only the top writer in the world of gastronomy, but also the top foodie in the world of literature. According to incomplete statistics, the content of food in Li Jieren's works exceeds 300,000 words, accounting for one-twentieth of his works. From the Red Cauldron Hotel in Tianhui Town, the shark fin mat in Zhengxing Garden, to the vinegar fish and fresh drunken shrimp in The Pillow River Building, from warm duck, live water fish, meat eight bowls, Chen Ma Po tofu to Kung Pao chicken, husband and wife lung slices, called flower chicken...
In Li Jieren's works, there are often several pages describing a delicacy. This kind of unbridled depiction of food makes it impossible to read his works late at night, and often they are not allowed to go to eat when they see half of them.
If you take a closer look, you'll see that there are plenty of streets in Chengdu that are named after temples. Fayun'an Road, Hakuba Temple Street, Rulai'an Street, Lengjia'an Street, Hongwa Temple Street, Wenshu Monastery Street, Fanyin Temple Street, Hongmiaozi Street... Just write seven or eight, why is that?
(Image from the Internet)
Since ancient times, there have been many myths and stories in the Bashu region, from "silkworm bush fish kaiguo" to "Du Yu descended from the sky", from "Wangdihua Juan" to "Wuding Kaishan", myths and stories have almost run through thousands of years of local history of Bashu. The Bashu region has been an important birthplace of Taoism since the Warring States period. In terms of Buddhism, Chengdu probably became the center of Chinese Buddhism around the Tang Dynasty.
Taoist temples are still hidden among the famous mountains, and the result of the rise of Buddhism is that Chengdu is full of major temples. Daci Temple, Zhaojue Temple, Wenshu Monastery, and many famous temples are towering over Chengdu. According to the naming rules commonly known as chengdu street conventions, the streets next to the temple are naturally named after the temple.
The name of the temple inevitably has several strange characters, such as Yinghua temple street and Lengjia'an street.
There was originally a Buddhist temple built during the Qing Yongzheng period on Lengga'an Street called Lengjia'an. Lengka-an was so small that it was demolished without knowing when. In addition, there was originally a Lengya-an Middle School, which was later merged into the Qingyang Experimental Middle School.
Hello students of Qingyang Experimental Middle School (picture from the Internet)
There is not much to say about Lengian Street, but the pronunciation of the name is very interesting. Lengjia'an is generally pronounced "Lin Qing'an" (pronounced) in the mouth of the old Chengdu, and also pronounced as "Shu Jia'an" (pronounced), but according to the phonetic pronunciation on the street sign, it is indeed "leng qie an". After consulting some sources, the name of Lengya'an is taken from the Buddhist scripture "Lengya Sutra", and the word "Jia" in buddhist scriptures is pronounced as qie. This is the same as the Chengdu people's habit of pronouncing the well-known brine restaurant "Pan Piao Shi" as "pan can si" (the "Piao" character in the middle of "Pan Pi City" is pronounced as "sun, a sound")
Pan Piao City's brine dishes have always been my favorite, but now the marinade pot helmet is not as delicious as before, pouring the marinade is too salty (picture from the Internet)
As for the word "ying" (ying, two sounds) in the street name of Yinghuasi Street, it looks very similar to the word "Ying" at first glance, fortunately, the pronunciation of the two words is the same.
Finally, let's talk about a street that has been repeatedly misnamed several times, Huangmen Street.
The character 黉 (pronounced hong, 二声) in Huangmen Street, which in ancient times meant school, is now less commonly used. The meaning of "Huangmen" Wangwen Shengyi is the meaning of the school gate, and also refers to the school in general, and there is a compliment of "Huangmen teaching well". The name of Huangmen Street is still because of the "Ancient School" on Guoxue Lane at that time. The street in front of the Cungu Academy is called Huangmen Street according to ancient practice.
The old Chengdu people used to pronounce it "yellow" (sound), and for a time some street signs and bus stop signs in Chengdu were written as "Gongmen Street", and the first word became the spring "spring". This incident also caused a wave of correction in the newspapers at that time.
Many street names in Chengdu contain strange characters, and behind these strange words are interesting stories. Do you know where there are interesting street names?
【Dialect 18 036】
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