Does anyone know the origin of the place name "Liu Xiang" in Taiyuan?

Liuxiang, located in the commercial downtown area of ??Taiyuan city center, is a shopping district. It is a commercial pedestrian street in the style of "Wangfujing" and "Causeway Bay" in Taiyuan. It is also the most prosperous commercial street with a long history in Taiyuan City. Old Street, with a business history of more than 300 years, has the largest night market in North China, with a daily flow of more than 200,000 people. When foreigners go on a business trip to Taiyuan City, they must take a walk in Liuxiang to experience the legacy of Shanxi merchants.

Speaking of Liuxiang, it is one of the streets that is well-known and unknown to everyone in Taiyuan. It is prosperous, with all kinds of department stores and shops lined up one after another; it is lively, with so many people walking around in an endless stream; it is so old that no one can tell exactly which dynasty it was born in. Which generation. As for why this street is called Liuxiang? It seems to have become a mystery, and the truth is difficult to find. However, in the mouths of Laoliuxiang people, there is such a story passed down from generation to generation:

According to legend, Zhu Hongwu, the founder of the Ming Dynasty’s imperial foundation, Ming Taizu, during the Northern Expedition to destroy the Yuan Dynasty, The wave of arms was directed at Taiyuan, the military fortress of the Yuan army. The Yuan army stationed in Taiyuan relied on the geographical advantage of Taiyuan City's high ground and deep pond to wait for work and hold on until death. Chang Yuchun, the general of the Western Expedition of the Ming Dynasty, disguised himself as a woodcutter and went undercover in Taiyuan City in order to learn the details of defending the enemy. Unexpectedly, the matter was not kept secret, and Chang Yuchun's whereabouts were discovered by Yuan army spies. When he just crossed Qiaotou Street outside the east gate of Taiyuan City and sneaked into Chaoxi Gate, he was ambushed by the Yuan army on all sides. In desperation, General Chang cut his way through a bloody road, turned into an alley at the base of the city wall, and got into a dilapidated courtyard in the north of the alley.

In this dilapidated courtyard, there lived only an elderly widow named Liu who was in her sixties. Her husband was massacred by Yuan soldiers in his early years, and her son was captured by Yuan soldiers and never returned. Therefore, she hated the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty. Seeing that the woodcutter was being chased by Yuan soldiers, she felt sympathy and hid Chang Yuchun in the firewood pile in the backyard. The pursuers broke into the courtyard to search, but Liu pretended to be deaf and mute and coaxed them away.

After General Chang Da was rescued, he deeply thanked the old man for saving his life. When leaving, he picked off a willow branch from the tree in the courtyard, handed it to Ms. Liu and said, "Old mother, there will be a war here soon. In order to prevent you from being exposed to war again, please stick it on the street door. After the Ming Dynasty army saw Willow Branch, they would protect it with all their strength." Within a few days, the Ming Dynasty army indeed invaded Taiyuan. Seeing that the war was about to break out, Ms. Liu was afraid that her neighbors would not be able to escape the war, so she went from house to house and told her neighbors to take willow branches and put them at the front of their doors. Because Chang Yuchun had a deep understanding of the enemy situation in the city, he arranged for internal agents to sit in and investigate, and the Ming army cooperated with internal and external forces to quickly capture Taiyuan City. The soldiers of the Ming army who invaded the city, according to General Chang's order, saw the courtyard with willow branches on the door, so they took extra care to protect it, and Qiu did not do anything wrong.

After the war, in order to thank the Liu family and commemorate the recovery of Taiyuan, the neighbors planted the willow branches at the front of the door on the street in front of the door. These willow branches will take root, sprout, sprout, and sprout green. The willow branches inserted into the streets and lanes have grown into small willows, big willows and old willows over time. From spring to summer, from summer to autumn, this inconspicuous alley is shaded by green willows, with smokey branches, cool and comfortable. As a result, a beautiful street name "Liu Xiang" came to the land of Taiyuan.

Legends often reveal history. According to local chronicles, Liuxiang was not a bustling street at first, but a street alley with dilapidated courtyards, inhabited by poor and weather-beaten citizens. It was the great flood in the middle period of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty that flooded the shopping streets and alleys in the south of the city and Nanguan City. Merchants gradually moved to Liuxiang and Qiaotou Street, turning this secluded and depressed alley. It has become a bustling city where shops are connected and merchants gather. Especially in the more than 20 years after the Revolution of 1911, the commodity trade in Liuxiang developed rapidly and became the commercial center of Taiyuan at that time. Five major silk and satin shops such as "Dalongxiang" and "Qingji" compete here; shoe shops such as "Daxingmao", "Zhicheng", "Welfare Sheng", "Qinghuayuan" and "Luhuaxin" compete here ; "Zhonghua", "Zhongde", "Shuntianli" and other medicine shops compete here; "Henglongyuan", "Dongfang Deyong", "Jinyihao", "Sanhexing", "Sanyi" Vegetable shops, teahouses, snack shops, and fruit shops such as "Yong" and "Daoxiang Village" made their fortunes here. The prestigious "Zhengda Hotel" and "Jinlong Hotel" built new Western-style buildings here, cooked Chinese and Western dishes, and operated luxury hotels. Many dignitaries stayed here for recreation.

The abnormal development and rapid expansion of Liuxiang Commercial Market has attracted many merchants from Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Hebei. The "Huataihou" clothing industry operated by Tianjin businessman Huang Houfu in Henan opened "Huataihou" in Taiyuan in Liuxiang; the famous "Lerentang" drugstore in Tianjin established a "Lerentang" branch in Liuxiang; Hebei The two Jia brothers raised funds and opened a "Shuanghexi" food store in a corner of Willow Alley;... In a short time, a Willow Alley turned into a commercial bustle with every inch of land at a premium, with forty or fifty shops gathered together.

From the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, the Japanese invading army trampled on Taiyuan. The shops in Liuxiang closed down one after another, and most of the merchants went bankrupt. This situation concealed the depression. It was difficult to recover until the eve of the liberation of Taiyuan. The vitality of the past.

It was the birth of New China that saved Liuxiang, a commercial and commercial city in Taiyuan that was on the verge of extinction, and made the ancient Liuxiang full of vitality again.

Especially since the 1980s, old businesses have recovered rapidly, new stores have increased rapidly, the products are abundant, the types are complete, and the transaction volume is huge, exceeding any historical period.

Ask the Tanghuai tree in the north of the lane. You have experienced more than a thousand years of vicissitudes. Ask the bright willow tree by the lane, have you experienced hundreds of years of hardships, have you ever seen the prosperous age now? Tell it to every Chinese and foreign tourist who sets foot in Liuxiang!