The New Year is approaching, and at around 1 p.m. on the 25th day of the Lunar New Year, I went to my hometown of Wenshang to visit my uncle, aunt, mother-in-law, eldest sister and other relatives.
Driving out of the county seat, I told my wife that there is still a cultural relic left in Guocang Town, north of Guocheng Town, to beautify Cui’s home. According to legend, it was a turret built by the Japanese during the Anti-Japanese War. It is worth a visit.
Although Beautify Cuijiayuan is only three to four miles away from the village where I was born, I have heard of its name for a long time but never seen it in person, and I have always felt regretful. Today we have found a place where we can, so we have to go and pay our respects.
I remember when I was a child, my grandfather told me such a story about beautifying Cui’s home, and I still remember it vividly. The story is about a year during the Anti-Japanese War, when Grandpa had a dispute with Young Master Cui, who beautified Cui's homeland. The cause was that Master Cui got jealous because of his gambling losses and beat Grandpa's uncle. At that time, my grandfather, who was in his prime of life and had learned the Shaolin Xiaohong boxing, gave Master Cui a hard lesson.
This led to the two families agreeing to fight, and when a bloody scene was about to occur, thanks to a respected elder gentleman from Cuijia's home, he came forward. After asking about the situation, he not only did not protect his shortcomings, but also resorted to family methods. He also beat the young master who had done something wrong.
Mr. Cui also had a strong temper. Less than three days after getting married, he said goodbye to his bride and ran away in anger. He has not been seen since for decades. The bride, who had been childless for decades, waited eagerly for her husband to return, but she never received any news from him. But she just struggled in the village, always looking at the village entrance with her little feet in mind, firmly believing that he would come back.
When I remember, she was already a grandma in her fifties and sixties, living with her nephew’s family; more than ten years after I started working, she was already a grandma in her eighties and nineties, still living in the village. Waiting hard and enduring.
I don’t know who told her after the change that the young master of the Cui family went to Taiwan before liberation, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were connected with each other, and even the murderous Kuomintang county captain Gao Tingfu was back. , I’m afraid he’s almost there too. Grandma Cui, who had almost run out of hope, started to have hope again. She would say to everyone she met, "He will be back soon." However, her husband did not come back either, but he seemed to have disappeared from the world.
As time flies, Grandma Cui’s grandmother has grown from a young girl with black hair to a pale head. And my grandfather also regretted and felt guilty all his life. He said to me more than once when I was a child, "I'm sorry for my sister-in-law of the Cui family. It's all my fault that I fought with the young master of the Cui family when I was young and ran away from home, which made my sister-in-law lonely at such a young age." I will be a widow for the rest of my life." When he spoke, my grandfather's eyes were full of tears.
Growing up, I was always close to the Cui family’s grandma, who also cared and loved me very much.
Later, perhaps because Grandma Cui’s hope was completely shattered, a man in his 80s or 90s committed suicide. When I heard about it, I was very sad and sad for a while...
My wife and I arrived at the Beautification Village at 4:30 in the afternoon. In fact, it is no longer a village. The whole village after the reconstruction of the old village has been moved to a new village on the outskirts of the city. Only what people call the so-called "gun tower" is left. Standing in the wheat field.
As I got closer, I suddenly realized that this was not just a "gun tower", but a typical Ming Dynasty three-story building with brick and wood structure. On the front wall of the hall, a new bronze plaque was nailed "Guocang Cuijialou Wenshang County Historical Building", and beside the back wall stood a cultural heritage monument "Cuijiatang Tower Shandong Province Cultural Relics Protection Unit". Looking at the lonely hall in front of me, the appearance of the Cui family's grandmother appeared in front of my eyes...
Ninety percent of the villagers in Beautification Village have the surname Cui, and the Cui family has been the local family for hundreds of years. A famous family.
According to the Cui family genealogy, they first came from the Cui family in Qinghe, Hebei during the Han and Tang Dynasties. One of them lived in Tianjin Wei and beautified the Cui family compound in Cui's homeland. 1368) became a military general and was granted the title of Marquis (posthumous title of nobility), stationed in the Liangshan area to ensure peace.
Cui Zheng, the fifth generation ancestor, moved to Machang Street, Wenshang County during the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, purchased land and built a farm near Tanzhuang; Cui Meicun, the sixth generation ancestor, named the farm after himself for "beautification", and also purchased a yellow farm near the Xiaowen River. His surname was Tanglou, and he began to carry out large-scale civil engineering and construction of courtyards and buildings, as well as the construction of villa Cuijiayuan and Zhaoxing Cuijia Courtyard. When Cui, the eighth generation of the Cui family, married Zhu Yiren, the daughter of King Anqiu, the descendant of the Minglu king, the Cui family transformed from a military general who was the hero of the founding of the Zhu Ming Dynasty to a royal relative. The Cui family's children became officials and generals, and became a party. A wealthy family with a distinguished status.
During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the Cui Family Courtyard, which beautified Cui’s home, had already been formed, including the hall building, the east building (also called the "wowo building"), the west building, as well as the foyer, east and west living rooms, and passing halls. It covers an area of ??more than 20 acres and has hundreds of houses.
When Cui Guangwen, the 18th generation of the Cui family, ranked first in the martial arts competition in the Qing Dynasty in high school (Jie Yuan), the Cuijiatang Building in Cui's home was renamed "Juren Building", also called "Zhuangyuan Building", and was occupied by the eldest descendants of the Cui family for generations. . At that time, the golden plaque on the tall gate of the Cui Family Courtyard was gilded and sealed according to the imperial edict written by Emperor Kangxi. Whenever there are officials and other officials passing by the Cui Family Courtyard, all military officers and civil servants must dismount from their horses and all civil servants must get off their sedan chairs. Anyone who enters the Cui Family Courtyard must perform three bows and nine kowtows before the host can receive them.
As for the origin of the name of the east building "Wowo Building" built in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, there is a popular story among the people: During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a year of famine. Countless people died of starvation. The head of the Cui Family Courtyard in Beihua Village sympathized with the poor villagers, so he recruited workers in the name of building buildings, and provided three meals a day for the workers to eat as they pleased. At night, the lamps were deliberately left unlit so that craftsmen and others could quietly take the nests home. In this special way, they helped the neighbors and saved the lives of many people in the surrounding area. The villagers expressed their gratitude to the owner of the Cui Family Courtyard for his charity and kindness, so they nicknamed the east building he built "Wowo Building".
Since the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, the Cui family has lived in the Cui family compound in Cui's homeland for five or six hundred years. They have a mellow family tradition, farming and studying, and there are many people who have passed the imperial examination. There are many people who have made great contributions to our country. Descendants of the Cui family are generally kind-hearted and friendly to their neighbors, and they still have a good reputation among the people.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Cui family moved out of the Cui Family Courtyard during the land reform and handed over the courtyard to the Farmers' Association as a sub-warehouse of the County Grain Bureau. The houses in the Cui Family Courtyard were also It was converted into a warehouse. It was returned to the village collective in 1980 (the ownership belonged to the village collective). Due to the resettlement of villagers to build houses, the ancient buildings were demolished one after another, and the "Wowo Building" was also demolished. The west building was demolished in the autumn of 1985 during the village planning and road construction. When the village office building was built in 1992, ancient buildings such as the entrance hall, east and west living rooms, halls, gatehouses, and flagpole fields on the left front of the hall were demolished. So far, except for the Cui Family Building, all the ancient buildings in the Cui Family Courtyard have disappeared. , what a pity.
Next to the gate of the Cui family courtyard, an ancient tree with a diameter of more than 3 meters and which is said to be "Tanghuai" was also cut down in the 1990s. The plaque on the gate of the Cui Family Courtyard in Cuijiayuan, written by Emperor Kangxi himself, was planed out during the Cultural Revolution and used as a table tennis chopping board and placed in the brigade office; Emperor Kangxi’s imperial decree was made of silk, as well as the official robes unearthed from Cui’s ancestral tomb. Come to clean the diesel engine; cultural relics such as Fengguan Xiapei, Official Cap Chaozhu, Shangchao Wat Board and other cultural relics are also missing...
When I first came to Beautify Village, the setting sun was obscured by floating clouds and cast wisps of orange-red light. However, it was only a light. Tea time has completely disappeared. Suddenly the sky became overcast and the light dimmed.
At that time, although the temperature was minus 3 degrees Celsius, the same as in the city, it felt much colder than in the city. Downstairs of Cui's house on the edge of a field that had become very empty, I looked at him carefully, and suddenly felt an inexplicable loneliness and melancholy in my heart.
The Cui Family Courtyard in Cuijiayuan can no longer regain its former glory. Only the Cui Family Courtyard alone in the rising dusk and under the gloomy sky, like a lonely old man in his twilight years, speaks silently. The beautiful past of the Cui Family Courtyard that beautifies Cui’s home.
In the dusk and mist, the street lamps are lit one after another. My wife and I reluctantly said goodbye to the towering Cui family building in the wheat field. We were speechless and walked silently.
In front of my eyes, the shadows of the kind-hearted but lonely Cui family grandmother and the lonely Cui family building were alternately reflected in front of my eyes. I couldn't help but sigh softly and imperceptibly.
The Xiaowen River in the May-Nine season has not frozen. It flows quietly in the river bed one mile south of the Beautification Village. It meanders from the northwest to the southwest day and night... …
Jining, Friday, January 28, 2022