Editor’s note: Xidi is at the foot of the beautiful Huangshan Mountain. It is an ancient village as famous as Hongcun and also has the reputation of "World Cultural Heritage". Let's appreciate "Fengya Xidi" and feel its charm. charm.
Xidi is an ancient village as famous as Hongcun and also has the reputation of "World Cultural Heritage". At the foot of the scenic Huangshan Mountain, eight kilometers east of Guyi County.
Xidi was called Xichuan in ancient times, also known as Xixi. Because it is located to the west of the original Huizhou Prefecture, there was an ancient post or pavilion before the Northern Song Dynasty. There were two streams leading to it, and the water flowed westward, so it was called Xidi. .
Xidi is surrounded by mountains and lush forests. It is bounded by Yangmeiling in the east, Lugong Mountain in the south, Tugong Mountain in the west, and Songshu Mountain in the north. Two streams pass through the village from the north and east of the village and converge at Huiyuan Bridge in the south of the village. They are both broad and flowing, and both flow westward. The natural environment and beautiful mountains and rivers can be called the paradise of Taoyuan. Since ancient times, it has been known as "people's home in Peach Blossom Spring".
Xidi Village is an ancient village where descendants of the Hu surname live together based on clan blood relations. This ancient inn became a famous village because of the unique vision of its founder, Hu Shiliang. Hu Shiliang lived in Kaoshui Village, Wuyuan, Huizhou (today's Jiangxi Province). In the first year of Emperor Huangyou of the Northern Song Dynasty (1049), he traveled from Wuyuan to Jinling on his way to the west. He saw that the mountains here are as dark as black, surrounded by peaks, and they are like a tiger squatting forward, which is strange. If a rhinoceros looks at the moon, it will be very happy. Based on the theory of Feng Shui, we came to the conclusion that "a boat sailing westward will bring good luck and good fortune", and "water flowing eastward to the west will bring you no worries about food and clothing", so we selected the mountain shape with the wonders of "a horse gushing over the spring and a rhinoceros looking at the moon". It is a place for Hu family to settle down and live.
Sunrise and sunset, spring and winter, wind and rain, and vicissitudes of time. After nearly a thousand years of development and construction by Hu's descendants, Xidi Village has become a larger village in Yi County. During the Qianjia period of the Qing Dynasty, the most prosperous period, there were more than 600 houses in Xidi, with 99 alleys, more than 90 wells, 34 ancestral halls, and 13 archways. Qian Ding?.
The wheel of history has rushed into the 21st century. Today, Xidi Village still preserves 124 complete ancient houses and 3 ancestral halls from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, all of which have been listed as provincial cultural relics protection units. . The complete ancient village prototype and a large number of ground cultural relics, sophisticated architectural culture and art, and the original natural environment are harmoniously unified, making Xidi a typical representative of ancient villages in southern Anhui, and it is a world cultural heritage site together with neighboring Hongcun. In 2000, Xidi Village was included in the World Cultural Heritage Protection List by UNESCO.
When we arrived in Xidi, we were greeted by a tall and majestic archway at the entrance of the village. It looks like a weather-beaten "historical old man", standing under the hot autumn sun, as if telling the people passing by about the ups and downs of Xidi over the past few hundred years?
According to "Xidi" According to the Genealogy of the Renpai of the Hu Family in the Dimingjing Dynasty, Hu Changyi in the Mingjing Dynasty was the son of Li Ye, Emperor Zhaozong of the Tang Dynasty. In 897 AD, Emperor Zhaozong made Concubine He the queen. In March 904 AD, Emperor Zhaozong of the Tang Dynasty was forced by Zhu Quanzhong to give birth to his son on the way to Luoyang via Shaanzhou, Henan Province. Because Zhu Quanzhong regained military power and feared an accident, Li Ye deliberately hid the prince among the people. It happened that Hu San from Wuyuan was working as a local official in Shaanzhou, and was entrusted with bringing the prince back to Wuyuan to Kaochuan, where he built a hut to live in seclusion and raised the prince. The surname of Li was changed to Hu and he was named Changyi. From April to August of this year, Zhu Quanzhong massacred more than 200 members of Zhaozong Li Ye's family, except Changyi, who had moved south to Wuyuan and survived. Taking the surname Hu from his adoptive father Hu San, he was actually the ancestor of Ming Jing Hu, the crown prince of the Tang Dynasty.
When Changyi was 21 years old, he was ranked first in the Ming Dynasty Economics and was named on the gold medal list. His adoptive father Hu San took out the prince's royal robe and told him his true life experience. When he learned about his life and history, he decided not to be an official for the rest of his life, but farmed and studied in the countryside, lectured in academies, nostalgic for the past in deep valleys, socialized in remote places, and felt comfortable on high platforms. He became a famous scholar who lived in seclusion among caves and valleys.
Hu Changyi passed down to the third generation Wensheng, and he had ten sons, divided into ten cadres. The fifth generation Hu Shiliang came from Lingji of the Ren faction, also known as the "Ten Dayan Sect". Hu Shiliang was the first person to move to Xidi and became the ancestor of the Hu surname in Xidi Village. This opened a new chapter for the Hu family to live together in Xidi.
Since then, the Hu family of the Ming Dynasty has thrived here and has been passed down from generation to generation. The mountains and rivers have left the footprints and figures of their ancestors’ hard work for generations.
The tour guide introduced to us: This majestic stone archway was built to commemorate Hu Wenguang, the governor of Xidi. Hu Wenguang passed the imperial examination in the 34th year of Jiajing reign in the Ming Dynasty (1555). He once served as the magistrate of Wanzai County, and later served as the official history officer of the Prince of Jingzhou. In the sixth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1578), the emperor granted permission to Hu Wenguang's folks to build this merit arch here. It is a "loft style", so it is also called "archway". It is divided into five floors, with a total height of more than 12 meters and a width of nearly 10 meters. It is a single structure with four columns, three bays and five floors. The whole structure is made of hard and soft materials mined from the mountains near Xidi. , finely textured "Yixian" blue marble is carefully carved. The whole square is supported by four square stone pillars. The base is four rectangular pillars. The two middle pillars are carved with unusual four prostrate stone lions on the east and west sides. The shape is lifelike and lifelike.
The exquisite and simple archway attracts my attention like a magnet. My focused eyes slowly move and scan from the bottom of the archway upwards. On the first floor of the archway, there is a thick moon beam with relief carvings on it. The large forehead square is carved with a picture of five lions playing with a ball. The forehead squares on both sides are carved with various auspicious patterns such as unicorns, cranes, phoenixes, and running deers. The beams and columns are supported by stone arches and carved stone windows are embedded in them. The west beam on the second floor is engraved with the words "Jiaozhou Governor", and the east beam is engraved with the words "Jingfan Prime Minister" in double-hook regular script, which is powerful and powerful. In the middle of the third floor, there is a plaque with the word "Enrong". The flower board is carved with deer, crane, tiger, leopard, etc., and is lined with reliefs of coiled dragons on both sides. The left and right sides and top of each floor of the entire archway are all decorated with flowing eaves and horns, and the ridge is decorated with a turtle-snout beast, which means "dominating"; the tin silk fish whiskers are free and curved, making it more prominent in the blue sky. There are also circular hollow flower wings between the brackets, as well as statues of civil servants, military generals and the Eight Immortals, which are lifelike. The east and west sides of the main building are engraved with the words "Hu Wenguang, the doctor of Teng Jiajing Jimao Kechao" and "Hu Wenguang, the doctor of Teng Jiajing Yimao Ke Fengzhi". Although it has been exposed to wind, sun, snow and rain for hundreds of years, it is still clearly visible, highlighting and witnessing the glory of Xidi.
When we walked into Xidi Village, we seemed to have entered a sacred ancient temple. The streets and alleys are criss-crossed, some are straight and some are curved, some are wide and some are narrow, and the layout is clever. Many alleys have ancient paths with green moss and can only accommodate one person. Looking up at the sky, there is only a thin line, which can be called a scene. The ancient houses are scattered in different heights, simple and elegant, with white walls and black tiles, and convex ridges and eaves. Green moss grows between the green tiles on the eaves, highlighting its antiquity. The mottled walls retain traces of wind and rain erosion, losing their old brightness. The door cover and stone window are exquisitely carved, just like the finishing touch. Open the door of a family's house at will, and you will see another scenery in the courtyard. The courtyard is like a garden, with flowers, trees, bonsai and stone carvings forming an eye-catching picture. It fully demonstrates the taste of its owner and reflects its elegant temperament like a leisurely cloud and a wild crane. Entering the hall, it is a closed world. There are no windows on the four walls, the light is dim, and there is only a small patio above, absorbing the righteousness of heaven and earth. The abrupt and colorful horse-head wall, the elegant and free-spirited small building facing the street, are clear and harmonious with the outline of the blue sky, flowing with the rhythmic beauty of Huizhou architecture, and showing the unique art of the ancient villages in southern Anhui to guests from all directions in an extremely chic way. Charm.
We walked through the streets and alleys of Xidi, just like wandering in the beautiful lines of poetry. The garden-like courtyards hide the arduous history of entrepreneurship of Xidi people; the buildings of different heights tell the bitter stories of Huizhou merchants and Confucian scholars. The high gables are clearly the backbone of the Xidi ancestors, who carried the glory of the Huizhou merchants in the past; the slowly flowing stream is clearly their sweat swirling and shining; the path has been polished by the years. The bluestone slabs are clearly the solid footprints left by them from generation to generation; the elegantly carved plaques and couplets are clearly precious relics of their profound village culture and patriarchal system?
Xidi Village The most exciting attraction is the village’s ancestral hall, the Jing’ai Hall. It can be said that it is the specimen and epitome of the patriarchal society of old China.
? When it comes to important events, the most important thing is the temple. Without a temple, there is no clan, and without a clan, there is no ancestor. ?In ancient times. In order to unite the support of the family, consolidate the unity of the villagers with a unified blood relationship, and effectively manage the clan and village affairs, each clan has a set of management methods and measures. Building an ancestral hall is one of the most important measures. Therefore, the Hu family in Xidi built many ancestral halls. ?Jingai Hall? is currently the largest and best-preserved Hu family ancestral hall remaining in the village.
Jingai Hall is located in the center of Xidi Village. It was built in the 28th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1600). It has a depth of 62 meters and a span of 30 meters. It covers an area of ??more than 1,900 square meters and has 40 tall ginkgo trees. Columns and 48 thick beams and beams hold up the roof of the hall, which is composed of a gatehouse, a patio, a verandah, a hall, a sacrificial hall, and wing rooms, etc. It is majestic and spacious. There are clear streams winding around the front and back of the ancestral hall, and the waves are shining. You can tell at a glance that this is the "Feng Shui ditch" built by Huizhou people when they built houses and temples. Unchanged for thousands of years, passed down from generation to generation. Standing in front of the door and looking up, the front eaves are raised and flying in the sky. There are dark fences on both sides of the hall, with the plaque "Jing Ai Tang" hanging high on the upper railing, and four gold plaques "Tian En Chong Mu", "Shang Guo Lin Lang", "Fourth Generation Cheng En", and "Sheng Dynasty Handsome". Entering the main hall is the place where the Hu clan members worship. The hall is spacious and spacious, with majestic beams and columns and regular steps. There are two six-meter-high bluestone square pillars in the lower courtyard, which are symmetrical to the ten large ginkgo wood pillars in the upper courtyard, which is really eye-catching. The brackets surrounding the patio are stacked on top of each other, creating a solemn and spectacular look. There are three portraits of the ancestors of the Hu family hanging in the back hall. On the incense table in front of the portraits, cigarette smoke curls around them, making them extremely solemn and solemn. Hanging above the Xiangtang door is an extraordinarily large word "filial piety", which is said to have been written by Zhu Xi, a philosopher of the Southern Song Dynasty. As the tour guide explained, our eyes moved slowly along the strokes of the word "filial piety" and tasted it carefully. The upper part of the character "filial piety" resembles the image of a young man with his back raised, respecting the elderly and loving the young, and the back of his face resembles the image of a monkey's head. Those who deliberately respect the elderly and love the young are filial, and those who are disobedient and unfilial are like monkeys. The writing of the words is vivid, the images are vivid, the explanations are clever, and it is thought-provoking. The more you look at it, the more simple, elegant and shining the word "filial piety" becomes. I remember that Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty said: "Those who know filial piety are the most virtuous!" This means that understanding filial piety is the foundation of all virtues, which means that filial piety comes first among all virtues. Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty once said: "Filial piety governs the world." The word "filial piety" has laid the foundation for thousands of years of feudal ethical relationships and social order. To this day, "filial piety" is still an ethical and patriarchal concept that people follow.
With great interest, I spent a whole afternoon exploring Xidi Village like a maze. When we walked out of the village, we saw that the sun was setting in the west, and there were a few orange-red clouds floating in the distant sky behind the green mountains. At this time, Xidi is immersed in the mist of the prosperous age, and is enveloped in a peaceful time?
Author: Tian Qili
Public account: Oriental Prose Magazine
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