Xue's stories and legends

Wumu, located at the junction of Wuxi and Wujin counties, was once a street town in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Legend has it that it is a street in Shangtang and a street in Xiatang. There is a bridge across the canal in the town, which was built in the second year of Tang Ganfeng (667) and became the main artery of north-south communication. It is explained that during the Jiajing period, pedestrians boarded the ebony bridge and looked up to see Miss Qian Quan's dressing up in the attic of Xue Fangshan's home in Yuxiang (Wujin County) nearby, as well as playing chess, painting and calligraphy. Xue Fangshan, whose real name is Qi Ying, is a well-known local official (Jiajing Jinshi, as the governor of Zhejiang). He thought that the ebony bridge hindered his geomantic omen, so he played in the imperial court and reduced the mileage of the "23rd Bridge" from Luoshe to Henglin Canal (namely, the 3rd Bridge of Luoshe, Ebony and Henglin), calling it "13th Bridge", complaining that it was really inconvenient for people to transport grain to Beijing, and it was necessary to tear down an ebony bridge to transport grain conveniently. The five-acre bridge was demolished to Qishuyan.

The official name of the Wumu Bridge mentioned in this article is Guanwen Bridge. After returning from Zhejiang, Xue Fangshan wanted to realize his long-cherished wish as a teenager: At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, Song generals Yu Yin and Ma Shilong fought against the Yuan soldiers and died heroically in Ebony with 500 warriors. For hundreds of years, no one paid homage to them, and he was determined to build a shrine for them. After returning home, I chose to build "Zhong Er Temple to worship it, but still build a bridge on the right side of the temple, and dredge the river to pick up ships" in Shangtang, Ebony (note: the ancient canal is called Tanghe locally, and Shangtang is the north bank of the canal). "Stone is carved in the soil" during construction. According to records, in the Southern Song Dynasty, Guo Ji, the ancestor of Xue Fangshan and a great scholar of Guan Wendian, once built the Guan Wenqiao Bridge here. Fangshan was deeply surprised and decided to name the bridge "Guanwen Bridge", which is commonly known as "Xuejia Bridge" by local people. In the north of Zhong Er Temple, Xueji Temple is built. This story is recorded in detail in Xue Fangshan's book Rebuilding the Master of Song Guanwen Temple and the Monument of lord protector Ancestral Temple (genealogy volume 3, page 39). In the Ming Dynasty, Yuxiang Xue Fangshan was an official in the DPRK and could see Feng Shui. One day, I passed the village of Xie Jia in the Zhang family, and saw that it was a crab farm with good feng shui. I wanted to be an official, while Yu Xiang was a golden rooster farm, for fear of affecting my official position in the DPRK in the future. So he lied to people in Xiejia Village that although your village has good feng shui, it's a pity that the village group lacks a river. If we talk at once, there must be a big official in the village. When people in Xie Jia Village heard about it, they immediately called the villagers and talked overnight. But as soon as the river opened, the water in the river turned red, and the villagers didn't know why. Zou Yinglong, a student of Xue Fangshan, can also watch Feng Shui. One day, when he passed by Xie Jia, he saw that the land of Feng Shui had been destroyed. Only after asking the villagers what happened did they know that Xue Fangshan did it. Zou Yinglong said that this village is the hometown of crabs. When you were talking, the crab's foot was cut off and you couldn't move. If you want revenge, just build a memorial arch on the head of the golden rooster in the lane before dawn, and you can brake the golden rooster. When people in Xiejia Village heard about it, they built this archway overnight, and it was not demolished until 1956.