Xi’an Mule and Horse Market

As the first commercial pedestrian street in Xi’an, Luomashi Pedestrian Street has a total length of 612m, a width of 26m, an area of ??4.53hm2, a total construction area of ??250,000m2, and a business area of ??70,000m2. ㎡.

In terms of length, Luomashi Pedestrian Street is connected to Dongdajie Street in the north and Dongmou City in the south. The total length is 612m and the distance is suitable. As a pedestrian street, it basically meets people's habits and tolerance for parades and shopping. In terms of width, Luoma City does not spread horizontally, and its scope is limited. Therefore, the shape of Luoma City is a long and narrow rectangle, and the businesses of Luoma City are distributed vertically in this narrow area, with a three-dimensional layout. To make up for the horizontal layout space, in addition to the floor area, the scale of Luoma City should also consider the underground and multi-story building area, so the scale of Luoma City is larger.

The layout of Luomashi Pedestrian Street is centered on Xingzhengyuan Square and distributed along the north and south pedestrian streets.

The commercial part is divided into three categories

The first category is the storefronts arranged on the streets, which are distributed along the streets.

The first type is the shops in the Xingzhengyuan Plaza building.

The first type is the densely distributed mobile merchants in the central square and merchants in underground commercial streets.

There are one to two bank points in the pedestrian street, located in the north of the pedestrian street and on the branches of the pedestrian street.

There are also several hotels or guesthouses on the pedestrian street, all located along the street.

There are also several educational facilities in the pedestrian street, some of which are legacy from the past and some of which are newly introduced.

There is the Beilin District People's Court in the pedestrian street, which is a government agency and has had an important influence on some of the layout of the pedestrian street. 1. Luomashi originated from the Tang Dynasty and got its name from the Ming Dynasty

This street was originally the seat of the Shaofu Prison of Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty. After the end of the Tang Dynasty, it gradually became a residential lane. In the Tang Dynasty, this area was called "Erwo Fang".

In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Chang'an City had 110 private squares, among which the government specially set up two squares, "East Market" and "West Market", for commercial transactions. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, when the national destiny declined, the capital moved eastward to Luoyang. The imperial city in Chang'an City was built as a new city. The imperial city's Shaofu Prison gradually became a residential lane, which was called Taipingfang in the Yuan Dynasty. [Note 4] During the Ming Dynasty, due to the completion of Dongmen Street and the eastward movement of the Bell Tower, the commercial center originally concentrated on West Street gradually moved eastward to the business circle centered on the Bell Tower. Therefore, the Luomashi Market, which is close to the Bell Tower and connected to Dongmen Street, gradually took shape.

In 1369, Ming Dynasty general Xu Da captured Yuan Fengyuan City and immediately changed its name to "Xi'an Prefecture". This is also the first time the name "Xi'an" appears in the history of the development of the ancient capital Xi'an. In order to strengthen border defense, the Ming Dynasty made Xi'an the largest military town in the northwest region. Therefore, the city was expanded. The east wall and the north wall each extended one-third outward, forming the current scale of Xi'an City Wall. In the city, the original Tang Jingfengmen Street inherited by the Five Dynasties, Northern Song Dynasty, Jin and Yuan Dynasties was renamed Dongmen Street as the east city wall was moved outward and extended eastward to the new east gate Changle Gate. Especially in the 10th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1582), the bell tower was moved eastward from the intersection of West Street and Guangji Street to its current location, thus forming an urban pattern with the bell tower as the center and four streets radiating from the east, west, south, north, and four city gates. The Luoma Market was probably formed in the late Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty's "Xi'an Fucheng Map" records that in the 21st year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1542 AD), there were livestock trading markets everywhere. This is the earliest document discovered so far. Based on this, it is deduced that the name of this ancient street in Luoma City is ,.

Zhang Han from the Ming Dynasty had a very vivid description in Volume 4 of "Dreams in the Pine Window", "The Merchant's Notes": "To the west of the river was ancient Yongdi, which is now Shaanxi, surrounded by mountains and rivers. It is called Tianfu. Xi'an is called Huicheng, and there are many donkeys, horses, cattle and sheep in the land. Since ancient times, there have been many Jia, and they have traveled to Longshu in the west and Qilu in the east. There are many people from Qin who can do whatever they want... To this day, there are many Qin people in Jia in the northwest." In the Ming Dynasty, due to the implementation of the policy of "exchanging tea for horses" to guard the border and control foreigners, the Shaanxi border area was like the beginning of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in Guangdong today, and could enjoy some special preferential policies. For example, in the fifth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1372), Shaanxi tea was exchanged for Xifan horses. "With three million jins of Hanzhong tea, 30,000 horses can be obtained."

Therefore, Shaanxi merchants took Shaanxi as the center and traveled to the northwest and southwest, transporting tea to Longqing, selling salt to Huaichuan, transporting cloth to Suhu, and selling cigarettes to Jiangsu and Zhejiang. They were known as the "Shaanxi merchant gang." [Note 6] Especially mules. The horse trade, according to "Ma Bu Sheng: An Overview of the Governor's Matters" in Volume 10 of "Ming Chen Xiu Yi", during the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty, merchants from Shaanxi and Henan sold mules and horses. There were about tens of thousands of them every year, all passing through Tongguan, and then to Henan. , Shandong area sales.

2. From the Qing Dynasty to the founding of New China

According to the "Xianning County Chronicle" of Xi'an Prefecture in the first year of Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1662): "There was a grain market in the city, which is now located at the four gate archway. ;…Mule and Horse City, east of the Dioshui River; [Note 5] Sheep City, east of the county;…Mutou City, Fangban City, east of Kaiyuan Temple; Porcelain City, Whip City, and Bamboo Fence City, in front of the Drum Tower;… ..." Later, the "Xianning County Zhizhi East Road Map" dated to the 39th year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1774) even marked the street name of "Luoma City".

By the 19th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1893), in the "Map of Xi'an Prefecture of the Qing Dynasty" surveyed and mapped by the Zhonghuan Map, Luoma City was already known as "Luoma City Street". At that time, Luomashi Street ran north-south, connecting Dongmen Street in the north and Dongmoushi Street in the south. It was more than 360 meters long and more than 30 meters wide. There were wooden stakes for tying livestock on both sides of the street, and there were also mule and horse shops in the distance. Passengers and merchants were raising their animals 13

In 1900 (the so-called Gengzi Year, the 26th year of Guangxu), the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing. Bodies lay across the streets of the capital, and the flames of the Old Summer Palace soared into the sky. At this time, the tyrant Cixi hurriedly took Emperor Guangxu hostage and detoured to Shanxi via Rehe, and fled westward to Xi'an on October 19, 1900. He moved into the Governor's Yamen at Beiyuan Gate (today's Xi'an Municipal Government). It was an era of drought and locust disasters, and there were more than 3 million hungry people in Shaanxi. The red land is thousands of miles away, and people die of hunger everywhere. This "compassionate" "Lafayette" pretended to be hypocritical and "loved the people like his own children" and ordered a porridge bureau to be set up in the "Yuchi Palace" to serve food. Each person only had one ladle of millet porridge per day. This is the only place in the huge city of Xi'an, so it is crowded with people and bustling with people, crowding the narrow alleys. Hungry people often spend a whole day scrambling for a ladle of gruel, amidst the noise. In this way, the evil-hearted officials in charge not only directly deducted grain, but also mixed lime into the pot in order to save fuel and line their own pockets. On the surface, the pot was seen bubbling, but the actual pot was not boiling. This caused many hungry people Hungry people suffered from vomiting and diarrhea after drinking porridge, and gastrointestinal ulcers, leading to perforation. Many people were in unbearable pain and dehydration, and watched one by one die!

The former Nanliuxiang Primary School on the northeast side of the commercial pedestrian street (It has been demolished and rebuilt and incorporated into the overall building.) In the late Qing Dynasty, people called it Yuchi Palace. It was the residence of Yuchi Jingde, the founder of the Tang Dynasty. At that time, there was a great year's famine in Shaanxi, and Empress Dowager Cixi once gave up food here.

3. Since the founding of New China

It was renamed Gongnong Street in 1966 and restored its original name in 1972. After the 1950s, under the new situation, in order to survive and develop, some shops suddenly targeted the hotel industry. Between 1952 and 1953, 24 hotels sprung up one after another. Among them, except for the four better hotels such as Guangming, Zhonghe Gong, Huimin, and New Times, the rest, such as Yimin, Tongxin, Desheng, Xingji, and Wuyi, are all small hotels. However, the charges for these small inns with simple equipment are very low. One person in the general shop only charges 20 cents per night, and the room for two people ranges from 80 cents to 1 yuan. They are very suitable for working people to stay. Especially around May Day and National Day every year, citizens from all over the world gather in Xi'an to watch the ceremony. Therefore, every hotel is full, and the "corridors" and "aisles" are full of people at night. People come and go every day, showing a happy and lively atmosphere during the festival.

After the public-private partnership in 1956, the Xi'an Welfare Company (now the City Service Tourism Co., Ltd.) made comprehensive overall arrangements for the hotel industry in Luoma City. First, it established the "New Era Hotel" and "Renyi Hotel". The "East Asia Hotel Building" was rebuilt on the basis of the "East Asia Hotel", and the "Xingji" and "Baodefu Inn" were merged into the "Farmers Hotel". (Today's Hua'ao Restaurant) "May Day" and "Yujia Inn" were merged into "Labor Hotel".

(Demolished in 2001) Later, the Municipal Cultural Bureau also built a small theater (today’s Xi’an Cultural and Art Service Center Building) on ??the address of “Tongxing” and “Deyi Store”. Due to its small scale, it is only suitable for some general small theater groups. The performance was performed here, and all the remaining ten or so inns were cancelled.

In the 1980s, the clarion call for reform sounded, and self-employed people from all walks of life flocked to Luoma City to pan for gold. Neat and orderly mobile business houses lined both sides of the street. , residents here also renovated their street-facing houses and rented them out to self-employed businesses. This market sells high, medium and low-end clothing, with a full range of designs and colors. The business is booming and the market is active.

In the 1990s, a tall archway was erected at the north entrance of Luoma City to "Luoma City Clothing Street"

In the summer of 2007, Luoma City officially It was renovated and opened into the first commercial pedestrian street in Xi'an, with a business area of ??more than 70,000 square meters. There is a real snow skating rink, a 5-star cinema and other entertainment venues, making it one of the important commercial shopping centers in Xi'an. 1. Sanyishe

The Luomashi Livestock Trading Market is located on the south side of Sanyishe (now Xi'an Youth Qinqiang Art Troupe). It was established in the 23rd year of the Republic of China (1934) and has been 71 years old. years of history. Covering an area of ??about 500 square meters, citizens from both urban and rural areas traded mules and horses here every day. Later, this trading market continued to trade mules and horses, and the space became too small, so it was moved to Xiguan Shaomen in the late 1930s.

2. Mao’s Teahouse

To the east of the trading market, there is a well-known “Mao’s Teahouse” with several tea tables at the door for customers to drink tea. , many of the citizens who come here to buy and sell mules and horses are guests of this teahouse. While drinking tea, they hold the numbers in their sleeves and bargain (using their fingers to express the price of the mules and horses) until the business is concluded. . In addition, there is a chess court in front of the Maojia Teahouse, and people play chess here every day. Mr. Liu Daoping (a celebrity in the chess world before and after liberation) once said in the selection of "Speaking of the Ancient Road and the Present": The Maojia Teahouse was founded by the old owner Mao Youlin in 1870. It was opened around the same time (during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty), and a plate of jujube chess pieces was also made and placed in front of the door to entertain tea guests. Therefore, famous chess players from all over the city often gathered in Mao's teahouse to play chess skills. The second-generation shop owner Mao Zhenhai loved chess even more. Therefore, famous chess players such as Zhao Shuanzhu, Wang Xinmin, Mi Dongshang, Yin Heting, Liu Daoping, Wang Yuping, Xie Huicheng and other chess players in the 1930s often visited Mao's teahouse. Here you can play chess games, exchange chess skills, and make friends with chess. The whole street of Luoma City is composed of five alleys. From north to south, these five alleys are "Shuiche Alley, Rizi Alley, (changed to Xiliu Alley after liberation) Mawangmiao Alley, Daijia Alley, and Huijia Alley." Except for the traffic in Rizi Lane, which can be connected in all directions, the rest are all dead-end alleys.

Huijia Lane

"Huijia Lane" is only fifty meters long. Only one family named Wang lives in the lane, and the five brothers live in the front and back yards. In the mid-1930s, after Jiyi Society (the predecessor of Shangyou Society) split from Sanyi Society, the gate of the theater was located in this alley. As a result, there were two Qin Opera theaters in Luoma City, but less than one. In 2000, Jiyishe moved its gate to Dongmu City. (Today’s gate of Shangyou Society)

Daijia Alley

Daijia Alley is about 70 meters long. There are ten courtyards in total, and Fuxing Taiyin lives at No. 9 Lu Xiushan, the deputy manager of the company, is approachable and approachable. He often drinks tea at Zhao's teahouse across the alley, and can also have a few words with the lower class citizens. Mr. Yu Futian lived in No. 3. He set up a cigarette stall at the entrance of the alley and lived a decent life. The old gentleman has a "unique skill", which can cure many difficult surgical diseases, such as sore legs, herpes, breast carbuncle and unknown swelling and poisoning. . Especially people in Luoma City don't get any money for medical treatment. He is not a specialist, but he has cured countless people's illnesses. It's a pity that the old man passed away too early and the "secret recipe" has not been passed down.

After liberation, the student class of Shangyou Society lived at No. 5 in the alley, and many actors below "Shang Ziyi" were trained here.

Su Yumin, the president of "Sanyi Society" (first prize in Shaanxi Provincial Performance in 1956), also lived in this alley for a while. Later, the famous actor Li Aiyun (first prize in Shaanxi Provincial Performance in 1956, national first-class actor) and his husband Wei Jun, the famous composer of the Second Tune Opera Troupe, also lived in this alley.

At the entrance of Daijia Alley, there is a Zhaojia car shop. (There are also Yujia and Wangjia car shops at the north entrance of the street. In the early 1950s, these three shops all switched to the hotel industry.) This kind of car looks like a TV The car He Shen rides in the TV series "Iron Teeth Bronze Teeth Ji Xiaolan" is the same, except that the car in Luomashi is much more luxurious than the car He Shen rides in. For example, a car used for a wedding is very particular. The car must have a bright material car cover (car cover) on the outside, good cushions on the inside, and curtains for the family members to sit in. In addition, the wheels must be washed and dry. Clean. In the 1930s and 1940s, apart from foreign cars, the only high-quality means of transportation in Xi'an was cars.

To the north of the car shop, there is a "Zhengdeyuan" foreign car rental shop. There are eight or nine "foreign cars" (rickshaws) specially rented by the poor people in poverty. They rent them from the shop every morning. After the car is taken away (you must find a warranty before taking the car away), you will come back to hand over the car in the evening, and the rental fee for the day must be paid in full, and no credit is allowed.

Adjacent to the north of "Zhengdeyuan" is "Mawang Temple Alley", so named because it worships "Mawang God". The alley is about 70 meters long and can only accommodate one carriage. Less than ten families live in the alley. The "Mawang Temple" is in the middle of the alley. Every year from the 17th to the 19th of the sixth lunar month, the West Wutai Bodhisattva Shrine is held. During the meeting, the "Mawang Temple" was also open to the public for three days for worship by faithful men and women. In addition, there is a "Bronze Society" organized by the masses in Luoma City. (A percussion instrument composed of gongs, drums, cymbals, cloud gongs, etc.) During the temple fair, nearly a hundred temples in the city have to worship. After entering the temple, the music starts, (bronze music has three chapters), and then one person When opening a hymn poem, (with a certain flat tone), it should be praised by whatever god. For example, in the praise of the emperor Guan Sheng, "the Han Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, the King, the Qing Dynasty, the Great Emperor, Confucianism, Buddhism, Buddhism and Taoism, the Heavenly Lord". Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva praises "Putuo Mountain with Purple Bamboo in the South China Sea, Willows in the Jade Vase to save the suffering, Great Mercy and Great Compassion sitting on the lotus platform, the light of the Buddha shines all over the people in peace." The lyrics sung include "Buddha's High Tone", "Guan Laoye's Peach and Apricot Blossom", Yao Wang's poem "Chang'an City", as well as "The Eight Immortals", "Zhongnan Mountain", "Sprouting in the Sky", "Five Clouds Climbing into the Sky", " "Colorful Flower Prodigal", and dozens of other songs and lyrics. In this way, I have to visit all the temples in the city.