"Ruyi" on Ruyi Bridge

The first time I had an impression of Ruyi Bridge was in the WeChat circle of friends. A photographer friend took a picture of the ancient bridge across the river. In the picture, a simple peasant walks on the bridge, his backpack is full of all kinds of daily necessities bought from the market town, and his face is full of satisfied smiles. Under the bridge, a group of twisted ducks are standing on the water flapping their wings, and their open flat mouths seem to make people hear their calls. This cry is the endless soul of this river. It also made this century-old bridge lose its vitality in all kinds of hardened roads. This is the Ruyi Bridge on the Chi Jia River in Guiwan Village, Wengong Town.

The real contact with Ruyi Bridge is in the Spring Festival this year. I heard that Ruyi Bridge is not far from grandma's house. I want to see it when I leave my relatives and friends. After lunch, I invited Xiao Xia, walked a cement road, climbed an abandoned mountain road and crossed a bamboo forest. Under the guidance of local villagers, after a few hurdles, you will see the wishful bridge in reality. Compared with the photos, the Ruyi Bridge in reality is more simple and Cang Sang. Two faucets face upstream and two dragon tails face downstream. The head and tail of the dragon are covered with stone flowers. The faucet looks more like a snake head, although its mouth is engraved with a dragon ball, which is a simple type of faucet decoration in the old bridge I have seen in Renshou. It always makes people laugh, and I think the design of the faucet is quite interesting. Whether the craftsman who built this faucet intentionally or unintentionally, it left an interesting imagination space for future generations.

There are two stone tablets on the north bank of the bridge. The high side indicates the county-level protection level of the bridge, and the low side indicates the construction time of the bridge. If you don't care about walking, the short side is easy to be missed. Hidden in the grass, the monument is short. At first glance, I thought it was a scribbled new monument, but it was actually an old monument eroded by years. Just because it stands in the shade all the year round and lacks some wind and frost, it is impossible to see how many years it has been completed. The surface of the monument is mottled, and the word "Ruyi Bridge" in the middle is clear at a glance. The first word in the inscription is not obvious because of the damage of the tablet surface, but from the second word and the overall reading, it is likely to be the word "Tong", which means that Guihuayue was founded in the twelfth year of Tongzhi. In other words, this bridge was built in August of the 12th year of Tongzhi (1873), with a history of 149 years. At first glance, the bridge seems to be relatively simple in design and construction, but when you think about it, it is more than that. It is said that the transportation and placement of dozens of tons of stones on the bridge deck is a difficult problem today. How did the ancients do it?

Imagine how the ancients built bridges at that time. First, design the drawings, arrange the position and size of the bridge, carefully calculate the quantity and size of the materials used for the pier and bridge deck, and choose a quarry with better stones not far from here. The work has started, maybe a month, maybe two months. The stone of the bridge deck of the pier has been made, and the tenon size is consistent with the width of the bridge deck. The carving of the dragon tail is coming to an end. Let's wait a few more days and let the masons have a rest. On the rest day, let some relaxed masters prepare the wood needed for "walking barrels". Taking barrels is a common way to transport large-scale materials in ancient villages. A local old man who is nearly ninety years old described the mode of barrel transportation to me. First, put the cylindrical wood on the ground matching the weight of the transported goods. The material and size of wood are also certain. As for what to pay attention to, it depends on the material and weight of the goods to be transported. But one thing is certain, that is, wood must be a round trunk, because it can replace the function of wooden car wheels, but it is also a constantly changing "wooden car". After a few days' rest, if you can lift the stone manually, you don't have to bother to "walk the bucket", because the efficiency of "walking the bucket" on the winding path is very slow, and you can only use it if you can't move it manually. There are only two stones left on the deck of the quarry. There are dozens of tons each. It is estimated that when I was a child, I played a game similar to "walking the bucket". We roll around on cylindrical pens or other round things, and we get pleasure from it, but we don't understand its physics and science. The ancients invented "barrel walking" with its physicality, but this kind of barrel walking is not a game, and there are many unknown variables and dangers behind it. Because the log is not fixed at all, it is a manual cycle to complete the work of the wheel. If you are not careful, things will fall over and people will fall down due to various situations such as uneven or narrow roads. Things are heavy, but people are as weak as ants It is not difficult to imagine how the ancients carried two huge stones all the way to the river bank.

The foundation stones on both sides of the river are laid, the piers are placed, the tenons are measured, and the bridge deck is laid after it is safe. The bridge deck fell slowly in the applause of the villagers, which was very suitable. The arrangement of the dragon's head and the dragon's tail is also proceeding in an orderly way. The stone tablet that has been carved has been set by an old gentleman who has been in a private school for several years. "Ruyi Bridge" was completed with cheers and firecrackers.

Let's take a look at this "Ruyi Bridge" again today! The bridge is stable, the deck is fixed and the faucet is high. Hundreds of years have passed, how many people on both sides of the strait have come and gone? People are constantly growing up from this bridge, from white hair to white hair. "Things are wrong" is the time interpretation of the passage of time by every generation of people who pass by here. The bridge is still the same as before, but the running water is not the running water of that year. Only the willows on both sides of the river are still standing and the birds are still singing. 100 years ago, there must have been an ancient man standing in the same position as me, silently watching the bridge, quietly listening to the sound from the river, looking at the distant sky, thinking about the past and the future.

According to the people on the south bank of the bridge, crossing this bridge is the shortest way for them to reach Wengongchang, which is nearly half of the newly built cement road. Therefore, under the condition that hardened roads connect every village, the old bridge still has its excitement on the market day. There is an ordinary life of "slow train and slow horse" and a very ordinary rural scenery in the excitement, but it is in this ordinary life that a comfortable and practical life is hidden.

Author: Ye Min