Shuimeiping Village, Niangniangzhai, Zhongxiang Kedian Town

Shuimeiping Village is a small village in Zhongxiang, Hubei Province. It is said that the population growth rate for hundreds of years has always hovered around 80 people. If this number is exceeded, there will be a natural equilibrium state of one being born, one dying, one walking, and one coming. What kind of village is this? With such curiosity, several of our friends met to go to Shuimeiping Village to find out.

September 6th is a weekend. The weather was fine, and a group of seven of us, led by Director Wang Qingwu, began a journey of exploration.

Wang Ju is a native of Zhongxiang. When our car, covered in dust, arrived at the foot of Huangxian Cave, there was no way to go. Wang Ju said, "To get to Shuimeiping Village, you must walk through Huangxian Cave. The journey inside the cave takes about more than an hour." After that, he led us towards Huangxian Cave.

After a while, we arrived at the entrance of the cave. At this time, a cool air hit our faces and felt cool throughout our bodies. What surprised us was that the entrance of Huangxian Cave was grand and spectacular. Wang Ju said, "This cave is 15 meters high and 24 meters wide. It is a pipe-shaped cave formed by long-term erosion of external water and groundwater."

The scenery inside the cave is strange, but the purpose of this trip is to visit Shui Moping. In order to save time, we had no time to look at the beautiful scenery around us. We just hurriedly walked forward. Because we were walking too fast, we felt out of breath after a while. Empty.

An hour later, we finally arrived at the exit of the cave, but we still had to climb nearly a hundred floors of ladders to get out of the cave.

The steep and high ladder made us gasp for breath. When we were about to climb out of the cave with great effort, our eyes suddenly lit up and everyone was shocked. They all shouted "Wow!" and saw that the semicircular hole was like a picture frame, which just framed the blue sky and white clouds in front of them, as well as the green trees, bamboos, and grass under the white clouds. Isn't this thing and this scene just a natural landscape painting? It seems to bring us into the fairyland on earth described by the ancient poet Tao Yuanming in his poem "Peach Garden". While everyone was sighing, Director Wang came over and pointed to the open space in front of me and told me, "This is the Shuimouping Village you want to visit." It was really beyond my expectation. Shuimeiping Village turned out to be so beautiful. I thought it must be a desolate and primitive village.

The world-famous village with stable population, Shui Mo Ping, appeared in front of us with such a surprise. Shuimouping Village is located between Zhongxiang Kedian Town and Niangniang Village. 80% of the villagers here have the surname Yang. They claim to be descendants of the imperial concubine Yang Yuhuan. They say that in order to avoid the war, their family hid in the mountains and forests. The Niangniang Village here is also named after Yang Yuhuan.

After crossing a small bridge, we arrived at the center of the village. Looking around, I observed that the village was not large in area and was surrounded by mountains. The land at its feet happened to be flat land in the middle of the mountains, and the houses inhabited by the mountain residents were all built at the foot of the mountains, which was higher than the flat land.

Why is this place called Shui Moping? A villager said: "When it comes to the rainy season here, the water from the surrounding mountains flows down the mountains, and this small flat land is submerged. This is the origin of the village's name."

In fact, the place Shui Moping was originally It is a lake. After hundreds of millions of years of evolution, the water flowed to nowhere and turned into a dry flat land. I remembered that when I was crossing Huangxian Cave just now, I heard the sound of running water but no water came. Wang Ju said that there was an underground river under the cave. I wonder, is it the water from the mountains that flows away from the underground river? Where does it go?

We looked around Shui Meiping and saw many tall and strong ginkgo trees in the surrounding mountains, covered with thick ginkgo fruits. The villagers said that there were probably more than 500 trees in the surrounding mountains. There are four ginkgo trees that are over a thousand years old. The mountain people here mainly rely on ginkgo, shiitake mushrooms, fungus, ganoderma, tea and herbal medicines to survive.

As we were walking and watching, suddenly a cool breeze blew from nowhere in the clear sky, and the dead leaves on the ground floated up. For some reason, I suddenly felt an inexplicable feeling of fear. Xiao Peng next to me also said the same. This feeling is very strange. I have never felt like this before in many places. Looking around, the mountains are high and the forests are dense and quiet. Where does this wind come from?

Just when we were confused, a motorcycle came from behind and stopped beside us. The people in the car asked, "Are you here to visit Shui Mo Ping?" We said, "Yes!" When we answered in the affirmative, he said enthusiastically, "It's almost noon now, why don't you come to my farm for dinner? I can tell you about the situation in our village in detail." We were overjoyed, but we were worried that we couldn't find the right person to understand the situation.

A group of us followed the host into his farmhouse. The housewife enthusiastically poured us tea, and then said, "I'm going to cook first. Can we chat while eating later?" I He replied, "Okay!" We took advantage of the host's free time to cook and wandered around his house. The house of this mountain villager is relatively spacious, with three rooms upon entering, the living room in the middle, and the bedrooms on the east and west sides, built against the mountain. There is a small courtyard in front of the house, surrounded by a wall. There is a thick ginkgo tree in the courtyard, and there are pig pens, vegetable fields, and tea gardens outside the courtyard. It can be seen that the family is relatively wealthy, with all household appliances available.

The male host said, "Everyone in our village has no worries about food and clothing, thanks to the blessings brought to us by the mountains!"

After a while, the hostess put delicious meals on the table. We ate pure farm food, drank his home-brewed rice wine, and started chatting. The hostess said: "Our family's surname is also Yang, and you have heard about the strange phenomena in this village. To be honest, we don't want to talk about it. We feel annoyed when we talk about it. In fact, we discovered this phenomenon by accident. In 1986, the guesthouse When the town secretary looked at the census table, he found that the population of Shuimeiping Village had not changed in the past ten years. He was surprised, so he went to Shuimeiping Village in person to investigate. What surprised him was that the village had remained the same since the founding of the People's Republic of China. There are 81 people and 19 households. The population has remained unchanged for fifty years, so he conducted an investigation and obtained the following information (for fear of disturbing other people’s lives, the real names are omitted in the following cases)

A villager. His ten-year-old daughter passed away, and his wife gave birth to a son that year. His wife passed away in 1985, and his son married a daughter-in-law in 1974. The villagers thought that there were two new children in the village. This time, the number of people could be exceeded. Unexpectedly, not long after, two young men died suddenly in the village. One was plowing and the other fell to death while riding a motorcycle.

In the spring of 1975, the water level was low. A man in his forties was buried alive when the villagers were digging a hole to drain the water into Huangxian Cave. A few days later, a man who was resting in a mud house after lunch was suddenly buried alive. The house was crushed to death. In that year, two people moved from outside the mountain. In 1987, a villager's wife gave birth to a child, but no one died. The villagers were secretly thankful that they did not expect it to happen soon. During the Lunar New Year, his wife died of appendicitis without timely treatment. In October 1988, a woman with a foreign surname married into the village. Strangely, the population of the village did not decrease until she became pregnant. Although she was happy, the woman died at the same time during childbirth. The population remained at 78. In 1997, another villager passed away. This year, the village had no fertility quota and was not prepared to accept him. People from outside the mountains. The villagers may be able to break this strange phenomenon. Unexpectedly, within half a year, a girl who was married to the outside of the mountains came back due to divorce.

In May 1998, a girl from the village came back. The mother-in-law of the Wubao household passed away, but unexpectedly in the second half of the year, a villager married a daughter-in-law from outside the mountain, and the population became equal again.

Speaking of this, the head of the household said: "This phenomenon does not happen in our village. There are not many people left, and the thought of such a thing scares me. If you say this is a coincidence, how can there be such a strange coincidence? The population of neighboring villages has increased several times in the past fifty years, but our village has not grown. If it were not for the careful secretary, perhaps this mystery would not have been discovered until now. After this incident was spread, many experts and scholars came here to investigate, but they could not find the reason. "I asked the host, "When I came here, I heard someone say that the actual population of the village has been exceeded? "The head of the household said, "Yes, that's just in the household registration book. In fact, none of the additional people live in the village. For example, my two children moved outside the mountains after they got married. We are all afraid that bad luck will happen to our children. Therefore, the current population of the village is still 79. "

We were all silent after hearing this. This phenomenon is really puzzling. Is it the mysterious power of nature or a natural coincidence? What is the certainty hidden in it? To be honest, from the outside, this village has beautiful scenery and fresh air. The villagers are all tall, strong and prosperous. The only difference is that the temperature here is five degrees Celsius lower than outside the mountains, and the plants mature later. There are many strange winds here and the wind direction is unpredictable. It exists all year round. When did the population of this village form? Has it been like this since ancient times? Or is it a strange phenomenon in recent hundreds or decades? , there is another place with such an unsolvable mystery, which is the "Neiming Pond" in front of Zhong Xiang's mausoleum. It has a history of 490 years, but the water in the pond has never fallen due to drought, nor has it overflowed due to floods. Pool.

Hubei Zhongxiang has a history of more than 2,700 years. This place is indeed a mysterious place with outstanding people. There are world cultural heritage sites such as mausoleums and royal buildings, as well as Chu who was born here. National song and dance artist Mo Chounu, and Song Yu, who is also known as the "ancestor of Ci Fu" with Qu Yuan, etc. Zhongxiang is still the second longest-lived town in the country.

When our visit ended, We found that the sun had hidden behind the clouds and the rain had wet the ground. We bought a disposable raincoat from the head of the household, and under the leadership of Wang Ju, we braved the wind and rain and embarked on the journey back.

Niangniangzhai is the only way for us to return. We have to climb more than a thousand steps to cross Niangniangzhai. It was raining and the road was slippery. We carefully supported each other forward, but suddenly Wang Ju slipped and fell to the ground. , his face suddenly changed color in pain. Fortunately, his arm was not broken. Fortunately, I felt very guilty, because he suffered this pain because of my visit.

The wind stopped and the rain stopped, the sun showed its smiling face again, and some unknown flowers shook with dew, blooming with beautiful faces. We took off our raincoats and accelerated our pace.

At this time, I saw that everywhere in Niangniang Village, there were layers of green bricks and broken tiles, as well as large stone plates for rice milling weighed down by dust. I think this must have been the residence of ancient people hundreds of years ago! Facing the mountains, I seemed to see children playing happily in the village, mountain people farming, and heard the crow of roosters and cattle and sheep. But the village in front of them was already deserted. Why did the villagers move out of the mountains? My inquiry turned into a breeze and drifted into the distance in this quiet mountain village.

Go down to the bottom of the mountain. The sun has faded into the mountains and forests. Looking back at the mountains full of greenery, and thinking about the big words "Three Realms", "Enlightenment" and "Xunshi" that I saw on the roadside in the mountains, I seem to have some insights. Where are the "three realms" of man? The answers can only be found in the twists and turns of the road. Isn’t it said that “people are outside the Three Realms, but their hearts are within the Five Elements”? Only by realizing the true meaning of being a human being can we not live in this world in vain.

Visiting the mysterious village of Shui Moping, although the answer to its mystery has not been solved, I think that the earth itself is an unsolved mystery. A mysterious earth, a mysterious world, and a mysterious human being. Even though the world is changing every day, the sun still rises and sets, and time will not go back. But what about human youth? Once you leave, you will never return! I believe that these mysteries of the world will one day be unveiled.