Aerial photography of Ruian Castle
Fortress building
The angle of a quadrilateral
Ruian Castle, commonly known as "Wang Tuan Bao Zi", is located in Santao Village, Sanli Town, 3.5 kilometers southwest of Minqin County. In 2006, it was rated as a national key cultural relics protection unit. It is the most complete preserved treasure house-style residential building in northwest China and the representative of residential building in Hexi Corridor.
Spring and Autumn Writing Style of Ruian Castle Completion Speech
Ruian Castle is a must-see spot for Minqin tourism, because it is the masterpiece of quadrangles in Hexi Corridor. Not many of these houses can be preserved, and the most complete one is Ruian Castle.
Ruian Castle, built in 1938, is the private estate of Wang Qingyun, the former local security captain of Kuomintang and a rich gentleman in Minqin County. Covering an area of more than 5,000 square meters, it has 8 courtyards and 140 high-rise tile house.
Its architectural layout is unique, with a central gate and a symmetrical central axis. The three courtyards are stacked by three gates located on the central axis, showing the style of front, middle and backyard. The first gate is placed on the central axis of the front outer wall of Bao Zhuang, and it is arch-shaped, with a height of about10.8m and a width of 9.2m. It is made of stone and brick, with wooden doors and doors covered with iron and riveted with iron rivets. Inside and outside the gate, there is a brick carving banner on the back of the eyebrow, with "Ruian Castle" engraved on the outside and "Ruian Castle Completion News" engraved on the inside.
The inaugural speech of Ruian Castle was inscribed by local gentry and juren Lu Dianyuan. His speech said: "Du Gongbu Cloud has vast buildings, which have greatly protected the poor in the world, and the old people are happy with their feelings. Today, Ruiting is building a house. People see the scale and think of the name. It is said that Ruiting is in charge of Ren Baoan, and a family is a city and a country, so it is nominally closed.
Reading this passage always feels a little spring and autumn brushwork. Wang Qingyun in the group seat may not understand it, but it is very useful. Minqin people directly call it "Wang Tuan Bao Zi", probably because the owner of the house is "a man riding on a man's head" in Cang Kejia's poem, so this is a joking name.
Ruian Castle, facing south, is 92.25 meters long and 54.6 meters wide, covering an area of more than 5,000 square meters. There are more than 140 buildings in the castle. The overall layout contains the emphasis on "one product, one product" and "the phoenix spreads its wings alone", but it is also the only one of these landlord estates.
The horizontal front yard in Rui 'an City is the word "one", the middle court and the left and right backyards are the word "goods", the Baomen, the north and south civil and military turrets, and the front and rear inner yards are just the word "dang", and the buildings with the word "Chao" are hidden, only the small yards of "day" and "month" can be seen at a glance. The north and south walls are high and short, which is called "Phoenix spreads its wings alone", which means to show its beauty without flying away.
It is ridiculous that a local rich man in a remote county is so painstakingly pursuing fame and fortune.
A fortress where killing machines are hidden.
Entering the fort gate is the front yard, and there is a long tunnel along the central axis of the fort gate to divide the front yard and the intermediate court into two parts. The front yard is about 50 meters wide and 26 meters deep, and there are more than 30 flat-topped civil structures on both sides of the door. The Intermediate People's Court is shallow, about 50 meters wide and about 13 meters deep. It is surrounded by east and west wings and a small monastery courtyard.
The backyard is the main activity place for the Wang Qingyun family. The Intermediate People's Court and the backyard are separated by the third door on the central axis, which keeps outsiders out of the entrance guard.
The third door is slightly smaller, with the words "Blessed Heaven's Library" engraved on the front and two ridges. The front is the rest of the mountain and the back is the roof. There is a patio on the roof, and there are ear doors on both sides leading to the backyard. The backyard is divided into East House and Westinghouse by five rolling sheds built on the central axis. The East House and Westinghouse are connected by a hall and surrounded by cloisters, which is simple and elegant.
Between the ancestral temple and the Buddhist temple, there is a pavilion in the single corridor, called Shuangxi Building, or Embroidery Building, which was probably Miss Wang's residence at that time.
There is a wooden ladder in the embroidery building. We bowed our heads and climbed to the third floor, from which we went north directly to the Xiaoyao Palace above the castle wall. Xiaoyao Palace is located on the fort wall at the end of the central axis of Bao Zhuang. It is surrounded by corridors on three sides, resting on the top of the mountain with a single eaves, echoing the front of the fort gate building. You can have a panoramic view of Ryan Castle from Xiaoyao Palace.
In addition to the gatehouse and Xiaoyao Palace, there are Wenlou, Wulou, Yueting, Watchtower, House Patrol, Happy Valley Road and Female Wall. The Wenlou, built in the southeast corner of the fort wall, echoes the Wulou in the northeast corner.
The most interesting thing is that Ruian Castle puts the military defense function in a prominent position. The wall is 300 meters long, 12 meters high, 2.5 meters wide at the top and 7 meters wide at the bottom. There is a racetrack on the city wall, and a female wall with a height of 2.2 meters and a thickness of 0.5 meters on the outer edge of the city wall. The patrol room and the female wall are covered with shooting holes, which is the main defense facility. The shooting hole is cleverly designed, and the two holes are combined together.
In the northwest corner and northeast corner, the patrol room downstairs and the sentry upstairs have more practical functions of military defense, especially in the extended part of the sentry, there are crushing holes. In case of foreign attack, it is estimated that bricks and stones will be thrown from the holes to prevent bandits from invading.
For the attacker, Ruian Castle is like a fortress with dense organs, which hides layers of obstacles. However, after all, in the vast desert, everyone is poor and you are rich, so there is no peace!
The epitome of old life.
The architects employed by Wang Qingyun are unusual. It is said that this man graduated from the architecture department of Waseda University, and his design concept and vision are naturally beyond the reach of ordinary craftsmen.
For rammed earth external walls, arched gates and houses with civil structures, there are many changes in the forms of exposed roofs, such as resting mountains, hard mountains, rolling sheds, flat roofs, light roofs and crowded points, which make people dizzying. The annual precipitation in Minqin is about 200 mm, but the evaporation is above 2000 mm. The wall of Rui 'an Castle is rammed according to local conditions. Fort wall with wide bottom and narrow top is the most common residential building form in Hexi Corridor.
The tall and closed wall of Ruian Castle brings a sense of security, but also brings a series of contradictions such as ventilation, lighting and psychological oppression. Therefore, clever architects designed the "patio" unique to Huizhou architecture within this high wall as a ventilation vent for lighting and ventilation, which also implied the geomantic stress of gathering water for wealth.
Ruian Castle's display of Hexi folk culture also attracts tourists' attention. Looking at the wall hangings and furnishings of various houses in Ruian Castle, time seems to have gone back more than 70 years ago.
It is understood that this place is basically restored according to the life scenes of the masters of past dynasties, and its collections are mostly folk collections, so that tourists can feel the customs of Hexi in the past. There is a long table in the living room of Ruian Castle, with plush chairs on the wide table, upright closet and various paintings and calligraphy hanging on the wall; Wing to the fundus is a common brick Datong kang in Hexi people. The kang is covered with wool felt and embroidered blanket, and the kang table snuggles up to the kang heart. The kang has a crooked head, and the kang has crooked ends. Bright silks and satins are packed in patterns, and glass frames are hung on the wall. The patterns are mostly flower and bird figures. The window lattice is very common in large families in the south because of its unique design, interwoven holes and ingenious patterns.
Chefs, warehouses and display cabinets are mostly agricultural tools and appliances used in daily life. These old objects have long since disappeared from our sight. It's very enjoyable to see so many objects in Ruian Castle and understand the epitome of old life.
The whole Bao Zhuang in Ruian Castle integrates military defense, daily life, sightseeing and garden art, which not only provides reference for the study of ancient residential buildings in China, but also becomes famous through film and television works. The film "Knight Rider" was filmed here, and the large-scale documentary "Looking for a Gun in Ruian Castle" was broadcast on CCTV Science and Education Channel, showing the ups and downs of Ruian Castle, the only national cultural relics protection unit in Minqin County, for 70 years.