In a small county, there are 141 dragon bridges of Ming and Qing Dynasties. Many ancient bridges are still in Dilong Tiantou.

Lu County was called Jiangyang in ancient times. The Yangtze River and Tuojiang River converged in the south of the county. The territory is densely covered with streams and rivers and has vast waters. Jiuqu River, Maxi River, Longxi River, Laixi River, Daluxi River and other The tributaries run through the entire county, which is known as the "Land of Fish and Rice in Southern Sichuan".

Lu County is densely populated with ancient bridges from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Many ancient bridges are carved with stone dragons, hence the name "Dragon Bridge". To this day, there are still 141 dragon bridges spanning the streams and rivers of Lu County, like ancient meridians, connecting villages and towns.

The dragons on Luxian Dragon Bridge are all carved on the piers without exception. The construction period lasted from the early Ming Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, especially during the Jiajing and Wanli years of the Ming Dynasty and the Kangxi, Qianlong and Jiaqing years of the Qing Dynasty. Most of them were Built on the ancient post road, they are basically distributed in a three-mile pattern. The longest bridge, Shiyatan Dragon Bridge, is about 100 meters long, and the shortest one is only about 1 meter; the most carved dragons are 6, the least is only 1, and the most common one is 83 dragons with two carved dragons. .

Luo Zhewen, the late leader of the ancient architecture expert group of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and a famous architect, believed that although dragon bridges are widely distributed in China, the number of dragon bridges in Lu County and their well-preserved quality are not only unique. Bashu is unique in the country and can be called one of the wonders of ancient bridge architecture.

Many ancient bridges are still standing in Dilong Tiantou today

The Luxian Dragon Bridge in history is not unknown, and its exquisite works even attracted the attention of Emperor Qianlong. One day in the forty-third year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1778), a messenger rushed from the capital to Luzhou City on Yongning Road without stopping, and brought an edict with only 23 words. The edict is not about military and state affairs, but about the Dragon Bridge in Lu County: the Longnao Bridge on the Jiuqu River ninety miles north of Luzhou on Yongning Road shall be protected.

Borneo Bridge is located in Fuji Town, Lu County, where the Jiuqu River makes a big bend and flows into the Tuojiang River from north to south. The ancient bridge was built in the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. It is 54 meters long and 1.9 meters wide. It has twelve piers and thirteen holes, together with fourteen piers on both sides of the berth. It is a typical stone pier and stone beam bridge.

Ancient Chinese stone beam bridges mostly used mortise and tenon structures, with lime or glutinous rice slurry bonded and filled. Over time, the mortar peeled off, affecting the service life of the ancient bridge. Diterocarpa Bridge has a unique approach. The craftsmen use hard blue sandstone and use the weight of the stone to build the bridge. It is estimated that the total weight of the bridge body exceeds 400 tons, making it an impregnable bridge on the gentle Jiuqu River.

I have always had a question: What is so special about Diterocarpus that prompted Emperor Qianlong, who was far away in the capital, to issue an imperial edict to protect it? When I saw Diterocarpus Bridge for the first time, I found that the answer was right in front of me:

On the eight bridge piers in the middle, four giant dragons are located in the center. There are also blue lions and white elephants carved on both sides of the bridge. Both ends of the bridge are engraved with a squatting unicorn. The green lion is smiling with its feet on the hydrangea; the white elephant has a curved proboscis and is drinking from the river; the unicorn holds a ribbon in one mouth and spits out a jade book in its mouth, with angry eyes wide open and majestic; four giant dragons stand side by side, with their heads held high, Stepping on the auspicious clouds, I want to fly and move, just like rolling in the clouds. The seventh pier is engraved with the word "king" on the top of the dragon, and has a rolling orb in its mouth.

Villagers told me that in summer, the Jiuqu River swells, the torrent hits the faucet, and the ball makes a "whirring" sound, like the roar of the Dragon King, resounding throughout the world.

In China, the dragon is the national totem, and the green lion, white elephant, and unicorn are the auspicious animals loved by the people. It is the first time in the history of bridges that these four auspicious animals are gathered together on a bridge. The carvings of ancient Chinese bridges pay attention to "carved railings and jade inlays". Patterns and auspicious animals are carved on the railings, but they are always unable to get rid of the shackles of the railings. It is rare to see such a flamboyant work. From this point of view, Dionysus Bridge is an outlier. Perhaps this is its value - Borneo Bridge has got rid of the monotonous condition of beam bridges. It is an epoch-making work in the history of bridge architecture and pioneered the artistic architectural style of beam bridges.

There are still villagers visiting Diterocarpus Bridge today

Among the many dragon bridges in Lu County, Kuqiaozi is the one that most resembles Dipteropterygium Bridge. At four o'clock every afternoon, the Kuqiaozi Bridge crosses the tributary of the Laixi River in Fuji Town. The two dragon heads and beards are elegant and vivid. The bridge is not high, and the dragon heads are close to the water, as if swimming in the water. Villagers or tourists who occasionally come here will praise when they get off the boat: When was this bridge built? The dragon carving is so beautiful!

There is a local legend about the origin of Kuqiaozi Longqiao. Before the bridge was built, the villagers had to wade through the water, which was a miserable experience. A scholar saw that it was difficult for the villagers to pass, so he donated money to build the bridge. It took several years and was not completed. The scholar had lost all his money, so he had to beg everywhere to raise money. Years later the bridge was finally completed. The villagers felt the hardship that the scholar had to endure in building the bridge, so they named the bridge "Kuqiaozi". Villagers told me that there used to be a stele pavilion beside the bridge, engraved with the names of those who donated money to build the bridge. I remember there were also the words "three picks of soybeans" and "two buckets of rice". Unfortunately, those stele inscriptions engraved with Longqiao's life experience have long since In previous catastrophes, they were paved with stone roads and built into pig pens.

During the Ming Dynasty, there were few wars in Sichuan, and the people's families were quite prosperous, and they were particularly enthusiastic about building roads and bridges. This was also the background for the large number of dragon bridges in Luxian County.

Kuqiaozi Bridge

|Crocodile Mouth, Pig Butt|

On the contrary, Shuanglong Bridge in Daozi Village, Yunjin Town seems to be the work of two local craftsmen. One of the two stone dragons is a relief sculpture with an ancient meaning and is quite similar to the Feng Shui Bridge; the other is a round sculpture. The dragon has a flat upper jaw, a round lower jaw, big eyes, a wide nose, and a tongue in its mouth. It looks so naive. It looks more like a toad. Dragon bridges in the Qing Dynasty generally only carved the dragon head and tail, ignoring the dragon body. Some dragon bridges even only have the dragon head but no dragon tail. The images of dragons are also varied and strange.

The White Crane Bridge on the Maxi River in Pilu Town has a dragon with a total length of 3 meters, and its mouth reaches 1.5 meters, shaped like a crocodile;

The Longdeng Bridge on the Heilongjiang River in Fangdong Town , the dragon head is high, the horns are upright, and it has the momentum of flying into the clouds and mist. It is a rare masterpiece of the Dragon Bridge in the Qing Dynasty, but the dragon tail is a huge pig butt;

The dragon bridge on the Laixi River in Niutan Town On Spider Bridge, the dragon has no scales and is as smooth as a snake;

In addition, the dragon on Waba Bridge looks like a dog, and the dragon on Guanyin Bridge has a fish tail. Those mythical beasts that originally dived into the abyss and soared through the nine heavens, in the hands of local craftsmen, stepped down from the altar and became farm pigs, dogs, snakes, toads, and fish in the water, faithfully recording the evolution of dragons among the people.

Longdong Bridge spans the Kanxi River in Jianghe River, Yunlong Town. It is 15 meters long and 1.6 meters wide. It is carved with 4 stone dragons. The dragon heads are submerged in the water, and only the nose and eyes are exposed out of the water. The soaking caused a layer of dark green moss to attach to the faucet, and snails had already crawled all over the faucet unscrupulously.

Longdong Bridge in Kanxi, Jianghe Town, Yunlong Town

In the early morning, village women wash clothes in groups on the bridge. They splash water to clean the bridge deck, and then half-squat on the head and tail of the dragon. Rubbing clothes on the bridge, Longqiao has become a country dock.

I was born in the south of the Yangtze River. My hometown of Yangzhou is full of rivers and ancient bridges. In order to facilitate navigation, the bridges are mainly arch bridges. Even the smallest flat-beam bridges stand high on the water. On the contrary, Lu County All Dragon Bridges are flat beam bridges, most of which are close to the water. Once the bridge is built, it will also mean that shipping will be blocked. In this way, wouldn’t the ancients tie themselves up? Once when I took a boat to the countryside, I talked about this topic with the boat boss, Lao Chen. He told me that over the years, the river has accumulated a lot of sand, the river bed has been rising, and the river water has naturally risen. In the past, Longqiao could actually pass some small fishing boats, but larger motor boats were stretched. Many rivers in the hilly areas of Sichuan are seasonal rivers. The water rises in summer and dries up in winter. Most of them are not navigable. In the past, Sichuan people relied on manpower or chicken buses to travel. The impact of the Dragon Bridge on navigation was not obvious.

Lao Chen’s words suddenly made me realize that the Luxian Dragon Bridge is mainly a flat-beam bridge, which should be a choice based on local conditions. Apart from the inconvenience to navigation, the low flat-beam bridge actually has many advantages: 1. Summer floods in Sichuan are fierce and can easily destroy bridges. There are no railings on girder bridges, and floods can easily pass over low bridges, which is commonly known as "overflow bridges." Secondly, this saves materials and reduces the cost of bridge construction. Third, there are people who carry water, sharpen knives, wash clothes, and fish on the Dragon Bridge, which are closely related to the work of the villagers. A Dragon Bridge is actually the center of the village. Such a bridge is simply unimaginable in the Jiangnan water town.

Longdeng Bridge in Fangdong Town

Jinlong Bridge

|Dragon dances to pray for water, Longqiao controls water|

In Lu County, I discovered an interesting phenomenon. There are dragon bridges built over small rivers in many villages. For example, the Bodao Bridge in Daozi Village, Yunjin Town, is only 2 meters long. The shortest dragon bridge is only about 1 meter long, but the bridge piers still have dragon heads carved on them. Why did the ancients go to great lengths to build bridges and carve dragons when it is clear that two stone slabs can pass? What is the meaning behind the dragon?

Longdong Bridge in Kanxi, Jianghe River, Yunlong Town

The prosperity of Dragon Bridge may come from the fanatical dragon worship among the people. There are still more than 500 place names related to dragons in Lu County. For example, Fulong Mountain, Qilong'ao, Wanglong Mountain, Lailong Mountain, Shilongtan, Longwangou, etc. have been circulating some unique dragon dances since ancient times, and the waterwheel dragon is the most unique.

As the name suggests, the waterwheel dragon is related to the waterwheel. In fact, the waterwheel dragon is composed of common agricultural tools from beginning to end: the dragon head is the basket used by Sichuan people to carry children, and the lower jaw is used to hold rice. The dragon's eye is a cow's mouth cage to prevent cattle from stealing crops, the dragon's beard is a raincoat, the dragon's tooth is a saw sickle for harvesting rice, the dragon's tail is a fishing pole, and the dragon's body is made of thick pieces of water. The car leaves are connected together. The members are eight gray-haired old men over fifty years old. They told me at the top of their lungs that waterwheels existed thousands of years ago. Every year when the weather was dry in spring and summer, the ancients made backpacks from one house and raincoats from that house. , his family took out poles and formed a waterwheel dragon to dance and pray for rain.