Reflections on visiting Ding’s former residence (600)

What is worth seeing in Huangcheng is Ding’s former residence.

Ding’s former residence is located at No. 21, Huangcheng West Street, and is now a municipal museum. The former residence of the Ding family was originally built by the wealthy Ding Wanwan family in Huang County in the early Qing Dynasty. It is currently a large-scale, world-famous and well-preserved "siheyuan" style building complex in China.

Ding Wanwan is a well-known rich man in Huang County. He started his business by running pawnshops and banks. He became rich during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. After Ding became successful, he recruited skilled craftsmen from inside and outside the city to build a house in Huang County. The Ding family's mansion was large in scale, with more than 3,000 rooms in its heyday, occupying more than half of the old Huangcheng. However, judging from the only 243 houses left now, it is a Qing Dynasty mansion-style group layout, with the houses facing west and east. It is a typical northern traditional hard mountain brick and wood structure. The building complex is divided into several courtyards, and each courtyard is composed of several courtyards. They are well spaced and integrated, simple and elegant, and quite luxurious and luxurious. It can be compared with the palaces in the capital. It is a typical representative of Jiaodong courtyard-style architecture. It is called the essence of residential architectural art in the Qing Dynasty.

In 1996, the State Council announced that Ding’s former residence was a national key cultural relic protection unit. There are restored displays and Ding Foyan Memorial Hall in the former residence, with 20 exhibition rooms including living room, flower hall, bedroom, study, private school, pawn shop, sedan room, accounting room and folk customs. The most noteworthy one is Ding Foyan Memorial Hall.

Ding Foyan, a native of Songjiatuan, Chengguan, Huang County (now Longkou City), is a famous social activist, calligrapher and paleographer in modern times.

According to information, Ding Foyan was smart and studious since he was a child, and loved calligraphy. At the age of 19, he became a county student and a junior college student. After the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, he was distraught and turned to reform. He cut his own braids and mobilized his wife to relax. However, he was reprimanded by his father and ran away in anger. In 1904 (the 31st year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu), he studied at Jinan Normal School. In August 1905, he traveled east to Japan on official payment. In November of that year, he entered the accelerated course of Hosei University in Tokyo, where he was a classmate with Shen Junru. He completed his studies and returned to China in May 1907.

In 1908, he actively participated in the Shandong Mining Protection Association led by the Tongmenghui and opposed the German invasion and occupation of Shandong mining areas. In 1909 (the first year of Xuantong), he was elected as a member of the Shandong Provincial Advisory Bureau and began his political career. In October 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out. On November 5, more than 1,000 people from all walks of life in Jinan met at the Provincial Consultative Bureau to draft seven articles of Shandong's independence outline, requiring Shandong to respond to the Japanese peace, break away from the Qing court, and declare independence. Ding Foyan and others changed the independence outline into eight articles of advice to the government and submitted it to Sun Baoqi, the governor of Shandong, with a deadline of three days for a reply.

On November 7, members of the Provincial League and other revolutionaries and people from all walks of life gathered to establish the Shandong Province Federation of All walks of life, with Ding Foyan as the secretary-general. On November 13, the Shandong Province Federation of All walks of life held an independence conference, forcing Shandong Governor Sun Baoqi to declare Shandong's independence on November 13. Ding Foyan gave a speech. After the founding of the Republic of China, after the Nanjing Provisional Senate moved to Beijing in 1913, he was elected as a member of the Provisional Senate and a member of the General Affairs Committee. After the formal establishment of the Congress, he was elected as a member of the House of Representatives of the first Congress. Ding Foyan participated in the drafting of the "Tiantan Constitution" throughout the process. He edited "China Magazine" and wrote articles criticizing current affairs and opposing autocracy. He was hated by Yuan Shikai and was hailed as one of the three heroes in journalism. During the Second Revolution, he participated in the Jiangning Conference as a representative of Shandong and opposed Yuan Shikai's proclaimed emperor. In 1916, after Yuan Shikai's death, Congress was restored and he once again served as a member. On August 1 of the same year, he was appointed Secretary-General of the Presidential Palace of Li Yuanhong. He resigned on February 25, 1917. In July 1917, Congress was dissolved and Zhang Xun was restored. After visiting Sun Yat-sen in Shanghai, he went to the south to lobby, urging the restoration of Congress and continuing the constitution-making process. When the old Congress was restored in 1922, he went to the meeting again to participate in the constitution-making.

In 1922, the Zhili warlord Cao Kun wanted to remove Li Yuanhong as president and replace him. Cao Kun borrowed a huge sum of 5 million yuan from a foreign bank and bribed members of Congress with 5,000 yuan to vote for him. At that time, the monthly salary of a member of Congress was 320 yuan, and the profit of one vote exceeded the annual income. Ding Foyan sternly refused the bribe, resigned angrily, and returned to his hometown with his family. During the Spring Festival, he wrote a couplet and posted it on his door: He was already unknown at the age of forty, and will be half a hundred by this day; Five thousand yuan is a pity, it will not be worth a penny from now on. The couplet deeply satirized Cao Kun's vote-buying behavior, which led to the author's imprisonment. Ding Foyan was in jail, but he still wrote vigorously to denounce Cao Kun. This is unique among the eight hundred members.

Ding Foyan, who had always been upright, hated evil as much as he hated evil, and dared to speak out, retired to his hometown after being released from prison. Since then, he has not been involved in political disputes or talked about revolution, and has buried himself in ancient books on broken monuments. The obtained tortoise shells, Yi tripods, spring seals, pottery jade, and rubbings were no less than seven or eight thousand kinds. They studied them with great concentration and achieved extremely profound achievements. There are works such as "Shuowen Gu Zhen bubu", "Shuowen Shuo", "Shuowen Juewei", "Return to the Cangshi Shulin", "The First Interpretation of the Ancient Seal", "The First Interpretation of the Ancient Tao", "Shuowen Radical Qiming" and so on.

Staying away from politics and bloody killings is a wise move to protect yourself. China has lost a powerful social activist and gained a paleographer.

After lunch, I rode my bicycle westward along the S264 provincial road to Longkou Port.

I originally planned to take a boat across the sea to Dalian at Longkou Port. When I arrived at Longkou Port, I didn’t expect that the passenger transport in Longkou Port had been suspended for many years. The gate of the port passenger terminal was locked, and there was a small square in front of the passenger terminal. There was no one in the sky. You can see from the window of the passenger terminal that the house is full of things and seems to have been converted into a warehouse for storing supplies.

The plan to cross the sea from Longkou Port to Dalian became a soap bubble and burst.

At Longkou Port, I contacted Song Guo by phone.

Songguo is my friend for more than 40 years. He moved to Longkou from Heilongjiang. He told me that he now lives in Nanshan Donghai Tourist Resort and asked me to have dinner at his house.

I rode back to Huangcheng, washed up at the guest house, and rode my bicycle leisurely to Song Guo's house. Fortunately, we just passed by Nanshan Donghai Tourist Resort in the morning, so we are familiar with the road.

At 17:00, when I arrived at the gate of Donghai Tourist Resort, Pinecone was already there to greet me.

The Songguo family is in a building in the community, with three bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room, and it is beautifully decorated. The old friends were extremely cordial when we met, and there seemed to be endless things to talk about. We chatted while eating at the dinner table, drinking white wine and beer. We recalled some past events from the past and some of our current relatives and friends. Later, Song Guo enumerated the advantages of moving to Longkou, such as green trees and flowers everywhere in front and behind the house, fresh air, no pollution, warm climate, no hot summer and severe cold, cheap prices, the lowest housing prices in the country, and fresh fruits and vegetables in all seasons, for example ------All in all, he thinks Longkou is a good place to spend time after retirement.

I also feel that Longkou is indeed a good place for retirement as Song Guo said, but it also has some unsatisfactory aspects. Firstly, Songguo has lived in the house for more than two years and has not yet obtained the property ownership certificate. It seems that the property still has many problems and it will be difficult to sell the house in the future; secondly, although Longkou is not too cold in winter, the temperature is In subzero temperatures, heating is required, but these sea-view houses do not have central heating. Instead, the owners have to solve the winter heating problem by themselves. Some owners have to go back to their hometowns in winter. Thirdly, the occupancy rate is too low, which is a serious problem. With the occupancy rate reaching 10%, the community buildings are deserted and the market at the door is not very prosperous.

Despite some unsatisfactory results, I am still very interested in moving to Longkou.