Qi Wen Exploring Ancient Villages (0): Gualing Village, Xintang Town

口 Niu Haijin

People from other provinces think the name of the city "Zengcheng City, Guangzhou City" is weird.

"Zengcheng City is a municipality under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou City", this sentence is also strange.

There is a city within a city, and there is a city within a city—a city within a municipality.

There is a Baicheng City in that corner of the Northeast, but it is a prefecture-level city, and its name is definitely not as weird as Zengcheng City. People call it quite seriously - Baicheng City, Jilin Province.

Let’s talk about “Zengcheng”.

Zengcheng, which was established as a county in the 6th year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 201), was subordinate to Nanhai County. Since Nanhai County originally governed 66 counties, the newly established county was one more county (county). City, so it is called "Zengcheng".

There is Xintang Town under Zengcheng. Xintang Town has five major ancient sceneries: Ningyuan Tower, Zhan Huaide Temple, Zhan Hengyun Tomb, Ancient Sea Relics, and Tianxia Scholars Temple.

Among them, Ningyuan Tower is in Gualing Village, where we are going today.

Later, not long ago, Zengcheng County was restructured into a county-level city, so it was given the strange name "Zengcheng City, Guangzhou City", which still governed Xintang Town-Gualing village.

PS: Qianqi, don’t get confused. This "Gualing Village, Xintang Town, Zengcheng City, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province" is not the "Xigualing Village, Licheng Street, Zengcheng City, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province". It is Although both are in Zengcheng City, the two villages are about 20 kilometers apart.

I knew earlier that there are eight scenic spots in Xigualing Village in Licheng Street: Yanshi Xiangyun, Longchi Yinyue, Arch Bridge Spring Waves, Qushui Wenlan, Jingchuan Bronze Drum, She Wangyang, Golden Bamboo Cold Spring, and Daling table stone.

There is only "one scene" in this Gualing Village: Ningyuan Tower.

I don’t know why there are less than eight scenes, I have to go and take a look.

A few years ago, after the eastern section of Guangyuan Expressway was opened to traffic, Gualing Village leaned on the first-class roadside directly leading to Guangzhou City.

Today we set off from Guangzhou East Railway Station and drove eastward from Guangyuan Expressway. In an hour we arrived at the intersection of Xinsha Avenue North under the viaduct.

Where is the village road in Gualing Village?

We turned around three times on Xinsha Avenue and Baishi Road. After wandering for more than ten minutes, we still couldn't find the intersection into Gualing Village. Where is it? Where is it?

Our original Chrysler Cirrus eats a lot of gas. I couldn’t bear to have it spinning around and rolling around like this, burning gas, so I asked the motorcycle guy who had been following our car to lead the way. ——He put away his cunning eyes and said resolutely: "Pick up mosquitoes, (sweat hand reaches into the car window) Be humble first!"

Just pick up the yuan, give it first. Give it first, the gas cost for finding the way for half a day has already exceeded ten yuan.

The motorcycle boy leading the way turned the motorcycle around and entered a dirt road that turned right under the viaduct.

My horse, my horse, within 10 seconds I saw the downed Gualing Village sign beside the dirt road.

Then, in 30 seconds, we drove into Gualing Village!

I immediately realized that Gualing Village is actually very easy to find. If you are coming from the direction of Guangzhou, take the Guangyuan Expressway at Xinsha Exit, turn left at the intersection, cross the viaduct overhead, and pull over. Go up, turn to the first road on the right, and that's it!

Looking back at the guy, he turned to laugh at us on the motorcycle riding back to the highway entrance.

You are so smart.

Why is Gualing Village called "Gualing"?

During the Ming Dynasty, someone discovered that the land and climate here were suitable for growing watermelons, so melon farmers came from all over to expand their fields and plant melons, set up sheds to watch melons, sell melons on camera, and continue to grow melons.

Diligence is rewarded, hard work is rewarded, and the watermelon business is good. The people of Xigua settled down and formed a village, which was called "Guoling" by the four towns.

Gualing Village was built in the early years of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty (1465 AD).

Gualing Village, which has a history of 544 years, is called Moyangdi (what does it look like).

When I came to visit today, it was so quiet and clear just for me.

The first impression is that there are a few mosquito bites and no dog barking.

The second impression is that the village is quiet and clean, half new and half ancient.

The third impression is that the river is silted and the watchtowers are stable.

Enter the village, step on the village road pavement mixed with blue bricks and granite, look at the village outline with watchtowers and ancestral halls, count about ten granite alleys, and comment on more than 200 new and ancient shops. The residential buildings are arranged unevenly in the shape of a military chessboard... there are many wonderful places.

Walking through the village, there are ancestral halls with beams and brackets, private schools with brick carvings and gray sculptures, folk houses with blue bricks and black tiles, peeling and dilapidated house walls, roofs with swaying hedges, and lanes connecting streets and houses. , the ancient banyan tree with lush branches...wonderful scenes come one after another.

The widest street in the village is called "Old Street" by the villagers.

All the ancient buildings on the old street stand facing the east, including Luofeng Huanggong Temple, Aixian Huanggong Temple, Zhuangyi Huanggong Temple, Shengkuang Huanggong Temple, and Sifang Huanggong Temple. , Mingguo Huanggong Temple...it seems that there are teams lined up for review. We look to the left and walk in goose.

The main ancestral hall is the "Songgao Huanggong Ancestral Hall". Each of its subordinate ancestral halls worships ancestors of different branches of life. There are eight rooms in total, most of which have a two-entry structure.

The largest "scale" ancestral hall is undoubtedly the four-room Huanggong Temple, with a three-pronged layout.

Although these ancestral temples of the Ming and Qing dynasties have been baptized for hundreds of years, they still look simple and dignified.

By the way, I would like to remind you that young people may not know that it is called "Luofeng Huanggong Temple"... It's easy, just read them upside down: Huang Luofeng Temple, Huang Ai Xiangong Temple, Huang Zhuangyi Temple, Huang Shengkuang Temple, Huang Sifangong Temple, Huang Mingguogong Temple,..., OK?

The ancestral hall has a worm-shaped wall with Lingnan characteristics, and the carved designs on the beams demonstrate the sophisticated Cantonese carving skills.

Looking in from outside the ancestral hall door, there are still incense rising from several places.

A little further along the highway by the river, there is a small Beidi Temple, which was built during the Qianlong period.

And that watchtower next to the smelly ditch is the famous "Ningyuan Building", which is equivalent to the current height of nine floors.

Of course, what it used to guard was not the small ditch in front of it, but the water channel surrounding the village.

The former Ningyuan Building stood in a river with a depth of about five meters. The building was 21 meters high and 5.2 meters wide.

Ningyuan Tower is very different from my grandmother’s Siyi Watchtower. The building structure is large at the top and small at the bottom, and the appearance and facade are quite practical.

This watchtower has four floors and is equipped with an iron spiral staircase that can be climbed from the first floor to the fourth floor. It has four corners above the third floor, so it is called the "four-corner watchtower" by the villagers.

A small bunker is set up at each corner of the building. There is an inverted tapered hole outside the wall, about 2 meters high, which can accommodate 3 people standing at the same time holding guns and shooting.

The building is fully functional, with lookouts, machine gun ports, cannon ports and rails for moving gun carriages, as well as fresh water wells and toilets, as well as sound holes leading from the rooftop to each floor.

In the old formation (Cantonese: before, old time), the river surrounding the village can be pulled up with a suspension bridge connected to the river bank, making the watchtowers easier to defend and harder to attack.

In the middle of the first floor of the watchtower, there is a stone tablet embedded in the wall, which records the brief history of the building's construction.

In order to protect the villagers, overseas Chinese led by Huang Tianhui donated money and built the "Ningyuan Building" in 1929, hoping that the villagers of Gualing could live a peaceful and far-reaching life.

According to local officials, Ningyuan Tower is the only floating watchtower in Guangzhou, and it is the most unique and sturdy among the watchtowers discovered in Guangzhou so far.

If the "Ningyuan Tower" is the guard on the water sentry, then the "Tangyin Tower" guarding the center of the village is the imperial guard.

In 1919, bandits and soldiers from all over the country ran rampant in the four townships of Zengcheng, robbed money and bullied women. The government repeatedly banned them. Once, a group of bandits rushed into Gualing Village and kidnapped 36 overseas Chinese family members.

In 1928, the overseas Chinese in the village jointly donated money to build the Ningyuan Building on the Huwei River and the Tangyin Building in the middle of the village.

During the Anti-Japanese War, these "two watchtowers also shouldered the important task of resisting Japanese invasion. Today, clear bullet marks can still be seen on the iron windows of the two watchtowers, silently telling the history of blood and tears in resisting bandits."

Walking across a stone bridge connecting both sides of the river.

This is the "Dongan Bridge" built in the 1980s.

In ancient times, in Shuibo Gualing, villagers rowed boats every day through the criss-crossing water network to farm and herd.

After the Dong'an Bridge was built, the villagers ended the "crossing era" where they had to cross the river every day for farming since ancient times.

In the past, villagers were proud of the crystal clear water in the river.

Today, the sparkling scenery is no longer there, and the clear river bend is no longer there.

Men, women and children of all ages went to the river to catch fish and shrimps, which was once a recreational activity for the villagers.

Villagers said that since the construction of bleaching, dyeing and electroplating factories on the upper reaches of the river in the mid-1980s, Qinghe's fishing and entertainment countryside has been gone forever.

Standing on the stone bridge, looking at the lychee forest on the other side that has been flourishing for more than a hundred years, I suddenly feel a sense of joy:

The lychee forests are often filled with leaves; It's not over yet ("Climbing the Three Floors and a Couplet with Wang Zhongyan" by Xu Ji, Song Dynasty).

On the east side of the river, dormant dragon boats are parked in each of the two tributaries.

It is said that every year before the Dragon Boat Festival, the village will "rise the dragon" and row the dragon boats along the river. After the strong men practice a few times, they will start a competition with the dragon boats from each village.

"Dragon boat racing" is a big event in the Lingnan water town, so there are detailed records of the dragon boats in the village in the village history.

Before liberation, there were three dragon boats in the village.

After liberation, three new dragon boats were built.

The dragon boats usually park in the mud pond on the shore waiting for battle.

Every year on the first day of May before the Dragon Boat Festival is a festival for the whole village - dragon boat racing.

In the past few days, our village will have dragon boat competitions with other villages. Inviting other villages to visit is called "inviting the scenery", and visiting other villages is called "taking advantage of the scenery".

On the day of the "Scenery Recruitment", the villagers draped themselves in red and green on the front gate of the village as if celebrating the New Year. Colorful flags were flying along both sides of the river, and gongs and drums were noisy. People from both inside and outside the village came from all directions to the shore to watch the dragon boats. Performance.

Gualing Village has three treasures - an ancient village from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the only water watchtower in Guangzhou, and Guazhou Primary School that was built in the same period as the Revolution of 1911.

During the years when Guazhou Primary School was established, Lin Sen, Sun Ke, Yu Youren and other important officials and generals of the Republic of China had inscriptions and calligraphy for it.

This is a cultural relic of great historical and cultural value in the village. Unfortunately, no one teaches it, and "many things (Cantonese: many things) have been lost."

Gualing Village is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese in Xintang Town.

Around 1856 AD, some local villagers took a three-masted ship to make a living overseas and join the gold rush in America;

In the 1930s and 1940s, even more A large number of villagers "went to Japan" (hiding from the Japanese army) to make a living in New Zealand and other places in the southern hemisphere.

Therefore, although there are only more than 600 people in the village, there are 2,000 overseas Chinese living abroad.

Most of the overseas Chinese in Gualing have settled in New Zealand and Australia, with a small number in the United States and Canada.

"Among these overseas Chinese, there are Huang Guomin, who followed Sun Yat-sen's revolution and served as county magistrate of Zengcheng County, Huang Chaoxi, who was elected secretary-general of the New Zealand-China Friendship Association, and some who served as overseas Chinese leaders in San Francisco, the United States. Huang Yuzhi, as well as outstanding scientists, educators, entrepreneurs..., they are full of patriotism and hometown love, and have long-term support for the running of schools and construction in their hometown, adding a stronger humanistic color to the small melon ridge" ("Zengcheng Literature and History" 》Volume 5, 2009).

The above-mentioned Huang Guomin was an expatriate in Gualing Village who had interacted with Sun Yat-sen. Huang Guomin was one of the five outstanding figures in Xintang Town during the Republic of China.

At that time, Huang Guomin grew up with his father and brother in New Zealand. When he was young, he was influenced by Dr. Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary thoughts. After becoming a member of the Kuomintang, he changed his original name from Huang Xiqin to Huang Guomin, mobilizing overseas Chinese to actively participate in the anti-imperialist and anti-Qing dynasties. Exercise (good boy!).

Due to his outstanding performance, he was ordered by Sun Yat-sen to serve as the head of the Chinese Kuomintang branch in Wellington, New Zealand in 1914. He also mobilized 427 Chinese people in New Zealand to donate money to support the "struggle against Yuan" and continued to fight for Support the democratic revolution and make contributions (become a revolutionary cadre).

When Sun Yat-sen took office as the interim president, Huang Guomin was called back to the country to participate in the political establishment work. He was the first county magistrate of Zengcheng County, Guangdong Province (the first local official, Guangzong Yaozuha).

After Huang Guomin returned to China, he brought "Zengcheng New Year Fruit" from his hometown to pay Sun Yat-sen a New Year greeting (gosh, don't bring too much, as too much is a bribe).

In the year of the Revolution of 1911, Huang Guomin also actively supported his brother in establishing Guazhou Primary School in Gualing Village and establishing a new type of education in his hometown (that's pretty much it).

It is said that in the Gualing Village Committee, there is first-hand information about the interactions between Huang Guomin and Sun Yat-sen, such as the appointment of the "Commission Chief of the Tenth Route Army Headquarters of the Overseas Chinese Army" The memorial letter, the condolence letter sent by the Presidential Palace when Mrs. Huang Guomin passed away, etc. (valuable cultural relics).

In the alley next to Tangyin Tower, there is a row of houses that are neither Chinese nor Western.

On Ma Shi Street, the ancient wooden doors are either damaged or old. The former residence of Huang Guomin stands next to the alley. Although it is still in good condition, it has been in disrepair for many years and has been ruined. People can only use it to decorate the doors and windows. In the European-style round-arched building, imagine the grandeur and glory of the Huang Mansion in those days.

Some villagers said that a mirror given to Huang Guomin by Sun Yat-sen was still kept in the former residence of Huang Mansion.

It is both a mirror and time - the cherries have fallen and gone back to spring, the butterflies are turning into golden powder and flying; After leaving, I hope that the remaining tobacco will be in the doldrums; I will leisurely search for the old music of Yusheng ("Ruihe Xianling" by Kang Yu of the Song Dynasty).

I checked the village collective economic income of Gualing Village in 2006. The income this year was 260,000 yuan, and the per capita income of villagers was 4,160 yuan - the annual collective economic income could not afford to build a house. Decent club.

The main source of village collective economic income is the rental of shops and fish ponds, and the main source of villagers’ income is migrant work - it seems that the whole village has not yet found a source of prosperity.

There are 12 private enterprises in the village, most of which are textile supporting enterprises - Xintang Town is the manufacturing center of denim clothing in China, and the villagers of Gualing get a piece of the pie.

The specialty agriculture in the village is banana. There are five or six large-scale growers with a planting area of ??400 acres. The output in 2006 was 400 tons, with an annual output value of RMB 480,000. The per capita annual income of growers is 3,700 yuan. ——I feel a little sorry for the years of reform and opening up.

The good news is that the village has now achieved "six connections", including cement roads, electricity, water, telephones, cable TV, and buses and buses. .

The good prediction is that Gualing Village will be "supported" by Zengcheng City and Xintang Town to carry out the creation of "beautiful countryside", carry out reasonable planning and layout of the whole village, and carry out comprehensive renovation and beautification Greenery.

Good projects are to build "Riverside Park" in Hexi, "Litchi Park" in Hedong, and "Yuxu Palace Square" in the village.

The good future is that Gualing Village will have a completely new look.

If so, I will come again.

In the title of this article, "Guazhou Ningyuan Tower can be climbed", I stole the seven rules of a politician and thinker, taking the word "Guazhou" and the famous ancient building "Ningyuan Tower" in Gualing Village. "Pieced together.

Wang Anshi, the prime minister of the Northern Song Dynasty who was overthrown by the conservatives of the imperial court, wrote the sentence "Boarding in Guazhou" during his ups and downs: Jingkou Guazhou is separated by water, and Zhongshan is only separated by several mountains; the spring breeze is green again on the south bank of the river, and the moon is bright When will you take care of me?

This was written by Wang Anshi on his way home when he was dismissed as prime minister for the first time. He was later dismissed for the second time.

Wang Shi expresses his ambition: "When will the bright moon shine on me?" (!), haha, he still wants to return to the dynasty to reform, he still wants to revive and reform...

Stop, don't talk about the country Yes, remember the original intention: we came to see the countryside, so the scenery is beautiful, so are the butterflies and mandarin ducks.

The sunset is infinitely beautiful, Li Shangyin sighed, but it’s just near dusk.

Office workers in the city must eventually leave no matter how nice the countryside is.

Tomorrow, Monday, 9:00, return to the hustle and bustle of the world of Tianhe North Road, the intrigues and the love of art.

But when we say goodbye to the ancient village, farmhouse entertainment is a must. I heard that Xintang Town is famous for its "fish buns" everywhere.

Fish buns are made by scraping the meat from the dace fish, beating it repeatedly until it is transparent, and pressing it into thin slices to form a fish bun. Adding lean meat and other fillings, it is sweet and smooth in the mouth.

There are also Zengcheng Choi Sum and Silk Miao Chicken Rice that I have never eaten before. You must try them.

The dish is served, "Bu Shuzi" by Wang Guan of the Northern Song Dynasty:

The water is like the waves in the eyes, and the mountains are like the gathering of eyebrows and peaks. If you want to ask pedestrians where to go, the eyebrows and eyes are full of beauty; just start sending. When spring returns, I will send you back again; if you catch spring in the south of the Yangtze River, you will live with spring.

"Want to live in harmony with spring", not yellow, but very white.

Today’s composition begins with my visit to an ancient village.

2009-04-12

/lews/gbyt/index.html ?Visit the ancient village