The original ecological ancient town in 2000, "Little Shanghai by the Qingyi River", has a preservation rate of 70% of wooden houses

Hi, I am Xijiang Yueyu. I like to be alone, reading and walking in a daze. Let's go to the mountains, rivers, countryside, fireworks markets, experience the vivid colors and fragrances of the world of mortals, and feel the same or different life styles.

"Seven mountains, half water, half fields, one road and one manor." Just like other ancient towns in Western Sichuan, Mucheng Ancient Town is also located near mountains and rivers. The mountain is called Daqi Mountain, known as "the first mountain in Jiajiang", and the water is the Qingyi River, known as the "Jade Belt of Western Sichuan".

Mucheng is located in Jiajiang County, Leshan City, on the ancient Jiayang Post Road. Jiayang Ancient Post Road, also called Wuchi Road, is a water and land trade road from Jiazhou to Ya'an, and is the southern Silk Road and an important section of the Ancient Tea Horse Road.

"Nan'an Jiuye" records: "Mucheng was the first place where Nan'an County was established. In 310 BC, the Qin attacked Danli and captured the royal city of Danli, which is now Mucheng Town in Jiajiang County. Then. Nan'an County was established. "If calculated according to this record, Mucheng Ancient Town has a history of more than 2,000 years.

Nan'an County went through the Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, and Jin, and was abolished as a county in 479~520 of the Southern (Dynasty) Qi Dynasty. In the first year of Wude in Tang Dynasty, the imperial court re-established Nan'an County.

There are two theories about the origin of Mucheng’s name: The first one is that outside Mucheng Town is the Qingyi River, and the Wuchi Ancient Post Road passes through here. Mucheng has a land and water dock, which is a distribution center for local specialties and foreign commodities. , there was a businessman who sold wood. The wood sank here three times, so it was named "Wood Sinking".

Relatively speaking, the second statement is more true. It is recorded in "Jiading Prefecture Chronicles" and "Jiajiang County Chronicles": After Zhang Xianzhong occupied Sichuan, in the third year of Dashun (1646) In the first month of the first month, general Liu Wenxiu was sent to lead the "Daxi" army from Danling and Hongya down the Jiajiang River to attack Nan'an Town. Zhou Dingchang, the deputy general of the Ming Army at that time, built a wooden wall here as a city wall and led his troops to defend it. Liu Wenxiu built a pontoon bridge on the Qingyi River. Zhou Dingchang selected his soldiers who were good at water and good at swimming to swim into the water and cut the ropes connecting the pontoon bridge with knives, so that the "Daxi" army could not cross the river and had to return without success. Nan'an turned danger into safety. , so it was renamed Mucheng, which has been used to this day.

I heard from local elders that there used to be three water terminals outside Mucheng Town. Tea and mountain products from Ya'an, silk, salt and grain from Jiazhou, local paper and tea from Jiajiang, etc., most of them passed through Qingyi. Jiangshui Road and Jiayang Ancient Post Road transport it back and forth to Chongqing, Yibin, Ya'an, Xikang and even the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.

The development of commerce will inevitably bring about economic prosperity. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Mucheng, a water and land wharf, and boats on the Qingyi River, chants were heard one after another, bells jingled on the five-foot ancient post road, and caravans There is an endless stream of visitors, and it is known as "Little Shanghai by the Qingyi River".

Many wealthy merchants stopped here and built residential and commercial buildings. Residential buildings include Zhangjia Courtyard, Zhang Family Garden, Shijia Courtyard, etc.; temple buildings include Daming Temple, Dongyue Temple, Sanyuan Palace, General Mansion, Wusheng Palace, Fahua Temple, Gaomiaozi, etc. It is a pity that many ancient buildings have been destroyed and are gone.

The Zhang Family Courtyard, which locals use to call Zouma Zhuanjiaolou (the seat of the Yuanmu Town Government), covers an area of ??800 square meters and has 48 rooms. Zhang Shaoting is in the handmade paper business. This handmade paper is not the paper towels we use now, but rice paper for writing.

Jiajiang is the "hometown of bamboo paper for thousands of years" and has inherited the traditional "bamboo paper" craft of the Jin Dynasty. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jiajiang's handmade bamboo paper was used as "tribute paper" by the imperial court and was used for The "Wen Wei paper" used in the imperial examination is equivalent to the special test paper used in the college entrance examination. During the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the production scale of Jiajiang Paper Industry reached its peak, and some businessmen engaged in paper production and trafficking made a lot of money.

The Zouma corner building is currently the most complete preserved one. It has blue tiles, board walls, cantilevered beams, cornices, and bucket structures. It is a typical residential style in Western Sichuan. Some of the carved window lattice has been damaged, but the exquisite carvings can still be seen on the stone piers under the pillars. It is said that all the wood for the corner building was put down from Ya'an through the Qingyi River.

There is also a large courtyard on Mucheng Town, owned by another large family named Zhang. It is a traditional quadrangle courtyard, divided into two front and rear courtyards, with stone pavement, white walls and green tiles. Because the garden is full of flowers and trees, and to distinguish it from the Zhang Family Courtyard, it is called Zhang Family Garden.

With the disappearance of the transportation functions of the Qingyi River and the Ancient Tea Horse Road, the noisy and prosperous old scenery of Mucheng has long since disappeared. Now in the back streets of Mucheng, most wooden houses are gated by iron generals and stone blocks. Weeds grow in the gaps, but occasionally a few tourists from far away linger here to feel sorry for themselves. It's hard to see young people in the town, and other streets are quiet and deserted.

According to statistical data, the preservation rate of wooden houses in Mucheng Town is about 70%, which is considered a well-preserved ancient town in Sichuan. However, it is said that this kind of Qing Dynasty architecture does not have much conservation value. This may be the reason why some ancient towns do not protect and repair them, and some ancient towns demolish and rebuild antique buildings.

The ancient banyan outside Daming Temple is still tall and straight, with luxuriant branches and leaves. For hundreds of years, it has been silently watching everything here, protecting the people and the soil and water here.