My hometown is in the hinterland of the North China Plain, in northeastern Henan at the junction of three provinces. Nanle County was part of Changle County in ancient times, and later Changle County was separated into Wei County. In order to avoid the taboo of his grandfather Li Guochang, Li Cunxu, Emperor Zhuangzong of the later Tang Dynasty, changed the name to Nanle because it was located in the south of the original Changle City, and it is still used today. Over the course of thousands of years of history, this fertile land has given birth to brilliant and romantic figures. In ancient times there was Cangjie, the sage who coined Chinese characters, and in Tang Dynasty astronomer Seng Yixin. In modern times there is Duanmu Mengxi, a famous calligrapher and painter, and in contemporary times there are CCTV anchor Li Ruiying, crosstalk actor Yue Yunpeng, etc.
Nanle originally had many historic sites, especially the Twelve Arches, which together with the Daming City Wall were known as the two most unique sites in the Hebei, Shandong and Henan border areas. Today, the Daming City Wall is still there, but the Nanle Archway was completely smashed and disappeared without a trace during the movement to destroy the Four Olds. A few years ago, the Nanle Cultural Relics Bureau unearthed two culverts built in the 1950s and 1960s. They were built with cultural relics stone carvings, including stone carvings of ancient archways. People's awareness of cultural relics protection back then was really disappointing.
Zhangguotun Town is located southeast of Nanle City, 12 kilometers southeast of the county. According to legend, in the early Ming Dynasty, there was an old man named Zhang Guo in the village. He had no children and was doing good deeds. He planted hundreds of acres of fruit trees at home and the fruits were ripe. Many of them were distributed to the countryside. He was known as Mr. Zhang Guo. After his death, people felt his virtue and named the village Zhangguotun. Zhangguotun Town currently has thirty administrative villages. Historic sites include the Mute Donkey Temple, Pull Down Well, Liu Xiu's desk for drying books, etc. Most of the monuments are related to the story of Wang Mang chasing Liu Xiu. It is not known whether it is true or later generations made up the story. Northeast of the Zhangguotun Town Government Office, there is Xihansengu Village, which is where I grew up.
According to the "Geographical History" written by Li Yunfeng, villages have been formed here as early as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. In the Song Dynasty, it was named Han Sengu. It was named after the Han family had lived there for a long time, with dense forests, prosperous villages and sturdy houses. In 1943, due to the large population in the village and the difficulty of the Japanese and puppet troops in distributing food, the village was divided into two villages, east and west. Our village is located in the west, so it is called Xihan Sengu. All other explanations for the name of the village are easy to say, but I disagree with the interpretation of the word "Gu" which means the houses are sturdy. There are actually many village names with the character "Gu" in the Hebei, Shandong and Henan regions. It would be unrigorous to interpret them only through literal meanings. Referring to other local records, most of the villages with the character "Gu" in their names were located on both sides of the ancient rivers. In fact, the character "Gu" was actually originally mentioned as "Ti Tu Pang", but it was later omitted in the process of spreading. The word "Gu" with the word "Gu" originally means river embankment or high ground. Then it should be that the ancestors of Hansengu Village saw that this area was a river embankment or highland, which could avoid flood disasters, so they settled here and wrote a word with a mention in the name of the village. The word "solid" next to the soil. The neighboring village of Saihangu Town probably originated from this.
Although the name of the village carries the surname Han, there is not a single family named Han in the village. Today, most of the villagers have the surname Wang, with minor surnames such as Ding, Tai, and Feng dotted among them. There is only one family with the surname Ma, who moved from other places before liberation. The reason must be related to the war. Almost every foreign invasion or even dynasty change in Chinese history was accompanied by a major population migration. In the distance, there is the Yiguan of the Jin Dynasty crossing to the south, and in the near future, Huguang of the Qing Dynasty fills in Sichuan. The wars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty left all the houses in the Central Plains empty and bones exposed in the wild. After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, there was the famous Great Immigration in the early Ming Dynasty, also known as the Hongdong Great Immigration and the Great Sophora Tree Immigration. The ancestors of our village migrated here from under the big locust tree at that time and have settled here for generations.
According to family tree records, the ancestor of the Wang surname was Prince Ling of Zhou and Prince Jin, and this was the first time the Wang surname was adopted. The ancestors of the Wang family moved from Hongdong County, Shanxi Province to Wangguo Village, Nanle County in 1404, the second year of Yongle County. The ancestor of the first mover, Wang Yi, whose courtesy name was Zicheng, has a stele base on his ancestral tomb in the southeast of Wangguo Village. In the third year of Chongzhen (1630), our ancestor Wang Cui came to Hansengu Village from Wangguo Village to settle down. The two hundred and twenty-six years in between have gone through several generations and have been lost beyond verification. I only know that the Sengu branch of Western Han Dynasty has been passed down for fifteen generations to my generation. It is said that the ancestor Wang Cui once said to the Feng Shui master when choosing the tomb that the descendants of the Wang family do not seek high officialdom, but seek luxuriant branches and leaves, and many children and good fortune. It is a pity that Wang Cui failed to fulfill his wish during his lifetime, and it was passed down to only three generations. After his death, his great-grandson Wang Xu gave birth to five sons in succession, and his descendants finally became prosperous.
Since the third year of Chongzhen's reign, my Wang family has been working and living on the land of Sengu Village in Western Han Dynasty for 390 years. By my generation, none of my cousins ??had settled in the countryside. It is said that after going to college, only winter and summer are left in my hometown, and there is no more spring and autumn. After working, only the Chinese New Year is left in my hometown. The hometown has gradually faded away. The next generation has become Zhengzhou people and has no feelings for their hometown anymore.