The history and characteristics of ancient buildings in Jining City

The remains and characteristics of Jining’s historical buildings:?

Jining’s historical buildings can be roughly divided into ancient commercial and residential buildings, government buildings, temple buildings, and churches and mansions from the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. The ancient architecture is inseparable from the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

The original Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal meandered through a large bend from Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, which are thousands of miles away from Jining. It passed through the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Liao, Jin and early Yuan Dynasties. 646 years. Until the founding of the People's Republic of China, Kublai Khan appointed the famous scientist Guo Shoujing to "improve all roads and canals" and reopen the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Guo Shoujing lived up to expectations and adopted Wenshang Renma Zhizhen's suggestion: cut the bend and straighten it, move the canal eastward, and change it to Jining. In the 29th year of Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty (1292), the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal starting from Jishuitan in Beijing in the north and Gongchen Bridge in Hangzhou in the south was completed. The total length at that time was 1816 kilometers. This was another great project in the history of our country. From this, Jining's fate began to be closely connected with the canal.

The eastward movement of the canal is undoubtedly the beginning of Jining's prosperity. The ancient city of Ren, which was originally closed, became a prosperous city where "boats and cars come to the four thoroughfares, and merchants gather in the five capitals". By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Jining had become one of the 33 famous large-scale commercial cities in the country along with Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Yangzhou, and gained the reputation of "Little Suzhou in Jiangbei".

The reason why it has such a good name. Not only does it resemble Suzhou in terms of its highly prosperous commercial trade and handicraft workshops, but it is also quite similar in appearance. In addition to the urban area of ??Jining, there are Xihe River, Fuhe River, Yuehe River and the Grand Canal passing through the urban area. There are also ponds such as Nanchi, Bingjiao, Hanlin, and Lotus, which make the entire city of Jining crisscrossed with rivers and ponds. In addition to having many similarities with the Jiangnan water towns, the Jiangnan characteristics of the residential buildings are also quite obvious. ?

1. Commercial houses

Although business is prosperous, most of the people doing business here are from Jiangnan, and there are not many local business people. This may be because Jining is located in the hometown of Confucius and Mencius. For the sake of it. Therefore, on both sides of the ancient canal that passes through the city, there are many handmade workshops and shops similar to Suzhou. It has the largest Suzhou-style ancient commercial street building complex in northern China.

What best embodies the style of Jining’s residential areas is Zhugan Alley and the streets connected to it. The nickname “Jiangbei Little Suzhou” also refers to this area.

The buildings in Zhugan Lane have unique charm, and most of them are wind-window attic-style buildings. Below is the pavilion, which is a fully open panel facade. The upper part is usually the dormitory of clerks and apprentices. The structures of the buildings in Zhugan Lane have been continuously improved by southern craftsmen and renovated by northern masons for hundreds of years, and they combine the styles of the north and the south. Most of the houses are in the hard-mounted style common in the north, and there are also hanging-mountain styles, but there are not many of them. The eaves facing the street are larger, but there are no overhangs. Some have front porches upstairs, and some have awnings extending from the floor to the street. From the layout point of view, the buildings are built along the river, and the streets also curve with the river, advancing and retreating, winding and scattered; from the elevation, the buildings are connected to each other, and the heights are staggered. The whole is a rich and Diverse building complex.

The ancient commercial and residential buildings in Zhugan Lane fully embody the characteristics of the organic combination of architectural styles from the north and south of China. Although they are not as reserved as the courtyards in the north, nor as soft as the pink walls and cornices in the south of the Yangtze River, they still have the lightness of the southern residences. , and the stability of northern architecture. These old buildings still existed until the 1990s, but due to the reconstruction of the old city, they are now hard to find. ?

2. Official residences

In addition, there are many government offices in Jining. Since Jining is located in the middle section of the Grand Canal, it is an important transportation hub and flood and drought dock for the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. Through the canal, you can reach the Yangtze River and Huaihe River in the south, and the Gyeongsang Province in the north. It is an important place for north-south transmission and has a special geographical location. Therefore, the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties all focused on the canal management in the Jining section. They regarded the management and maintenance of the Jining river course as the key to connecting the Grand Canal. They constantly sent senior officials, ministers and famous water conservancy experts to Jining to open offices to manage the canal. , build additional water conservancy facilities such as gates and dams, and supervise water transportation. According to research, in the Yuan Dynasty, the Capital Water Supervisor established his office in Jining, which was the beginning of the central government's transportation agency stationed in Jining. In the Ming Dynasty, Jining had the Prime Minister, Governor-General, Ministry of Rivers, General Cao-cum-River, Governor-cum-River, etc., referred to as the Governor-General of the River. The river governor's palace rank is the second rank, but there are many first-rank officials who serve. They are all appointed by the imperial court. It is the highest administrative agency for the canal. It is a ministry-level agency directly under the imperial court specially established in addition to the six major ministries of the imperial court.

In the Qing Dynasty, most of the transportation agencies followed the Ming system. According to research, water transportation stopped from the early Qing Dynasty to the 28th year of Guangxu. During this period, the imperial court appointed 119 people as governors of rivers. There were 101 people in the country, and nearly half of them were first-class officials. Lin Zexu also served as an official here. Since the imperial court established the highest administrative agency and the highest military agency for governing transportation in Jining, which had numerous agencies at all levels and types under it, it is said that Jining has "seventy-two yamen" and "more government offices than other counties." .

Many of the officials in Jining are from Jiangnan. Forty-seven governors of the rivers alone are from Jiangnan. Most of their residences and official residences either inherited the architectural pattern of Jiangnan folk houses, or were directly influenced by Jiangnan. The influence of the architectural style of residential buildings has, to a large extent, given the urban construction of Jining a Jiangnan style. Of course, these government offices no longer exist, but vague imprints can still be found in Jining’s street names. ?

3. Temples

The canal not only brought commercial residential buildings and government buildings with Jiangnan characteristics to Jining, but also religious buildings. Such as Dongda Temple and Dabei Temple. Dongdai Temple at the end of Zhugan Lane is a mosque with a long history. Because the temple gate faces the west bank of the ancient canal, it is commonly known as "Shunhe Dongdai Temple". It was built in the Ming Dynasty and rebuilt during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. "The majesty of the wooden mosques ranks first in the country." It is a Chinese palace-style Islamic building complex and one of the representative works of Chinese Islamic architecture. In 2006, Jining Dongda Temple, as an ancient building from the Ming to Qing Dynasties, was approved by the State Council to be included in the sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units. Dabei Temple is a nunnery with a long history that was built during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. The temple is located on the south bank of the river at the gate of the ancient canal. ?

4. Church

After the Opium War, with the escalation of the invasion of Western colonial forces and the strong intervention of Western culture, China's traditional culture declined rapidly. In the inner city of Jining This is also fully reflected in Lincheng City, which has many churches. The decline of the national destiny and the blockage of the canal caused the gradual decline of Jining's traditional commercial culture. However, this was and is now the northernmost city that can be reached by the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. Naturally, it attracted the attention of Western colonists. The church was an important means for them to carry out colonial rule and cultural penetration. There are five churches in the urban area of ??Jining, among the most among the cities along the canal north of the Huaihe River. Among them, the Daizhuang Church is the largest. Daizhuang Catholic Church is located in the north of Jining City. The location of the church was originally the private garden of Li Shu, a wealthy gentleman in the early Qing Dynasty, named "Pin Garden". The main building, the waterside pavilion, is of Xieshan style with flying eaves and five couplets. The pavilion is of hexagonal shape and has a pointed roof. There is a curved bridge over the water and a rockery in the east. It is surrounded by water on three sides and is quite typical of Suzhou gardens. In the first year of Xuantong, the descendants of Li Shu sold the garden to the German missionary An Zhitai and the Austrian missionary Joseph Joseph, and it has been used by the Catholic Church since then. ?

The entire building complex has more than 1,000 buildings and halls, divided into two major courtyards. The east courtyard is the convent of the Holy Spirit Congregation, and the west courtyard is the site of the Chinese Society of Holy Words. It covers a total area of ??more than 400 acres. . The cathedral is the main building of the church, with other buildings distributed around it. The church is majestic and solemn, a Gothic building. There are 18 round solid stone pillars arranged in two rows in the temple, which reflects the tallness and spaciousness of the church. There are paintings of gods on the roof and walls, and the windows have stained glass patterns. Most of the buildings of Daizhuang Catholic Church are now well preserved and are a combination of Chinese and Western architecture of great research value. ?

5. Private residence

The Lu family residence was built in the late Qing Dynasty and was the private residence of the businessman Lu Jingzhi. Now there are only two courtyards left, with a construction area of ??1401.6 square meters. When you first enter the courtyard, there are three halls, three upper rooms, and three east and west wing rooms, all of which are hard-mounted-style buildings. There are passages on both sides of the main house leading to the backyard. The second entrance to the courtyard is the hall courtyard. There are 5 rooms on the second floor of the hall and 5 rooms on the lower floor. It is a hard-mounted building with double eaves. There is a corridor in the front and a building in the back. The roof is covered with gray terracotta tiles. There are small stairwells at the east and west ends of the hall. Xia. There are three rooms upstairs and three rooms downstairs in the east and west, which are coordinated and harmonious with the main hall. There is a garden at the back. The Lu Family Residence was grand in scale, exquisite in architecture, and rich in traditional style. It ranked first among private residences in Jining City at that time and is a textbook for studying private residences in the late Qing Dynasty. The existing historical building from the early Republic of China in Jining is the Panjia Building. The Pan Family Building is the largest private residence in Jining built in the 1920s. It was the private residence of warlord Pan Hongjun.

The above types of buildings constitute Jining’s ancient architectural remains, which are few but have outstanding features; modern buildings have the characteristics of relatively complete preservation and high value.