Qiaoxi Village Qiaoxi Village: A Generation of Kings Retired from the Mountain Forest

On the morning of entering Qiaoxi Village, the clouds were a little thick, and the thick clouds were pressed on the mountain, and the distance embedded with the ravine was blurred into a dark blue. The car has been driving into the mountains, and there is a stream by the side of the road. It is said that before liberation, people called this stream "Koukou Stream", because when the road was not repaired, the road into the village was extremely steep and almost vertical, and every time you climbed it, you had to use your hands and feet, like kowtowing once.

The village is far away, the scenery is getting purer and purer, the stream is getting narrower and narrower, and there are rolling stones everywhere. Ginger flowers on both sides of the river and between stones are spreading. In May and June, ginger flowers are in full bloom, and you can see that the stream is dotted with delicate white flowers and the flowers are overflowing.

Zhu Xinhui, the village chief, stood at the entrance of the village and pointed to a cluster of trees on the stream, saying that Qiaoxi Village had been built for more than 500 years, but this cluster of trees had a history of thousands of years, and the locals called it "colorful forest". There are five tree species here, namely Phoebe bournei, Ebony, Duchenne cherry, Cymbidium and Schima superba, among which there are three Phoebe bournei and one other tree species. After Schima superba died, the villagers replanted an ordinary tree. There are four schools in Qianqiao West Village, and one of them is located here, which means "five children enter the subject".

Once, Qiaoxi Village was a primeval forest surrounded by mountains, with Wu Zhifeng in the east, Li Ding in the south, Yi 'anzhai in the west, Luxiu Peak in the north, and the east-west stream passing through the mountains. Upstream, into the jungle, the terrain is complex, easy to defend but difficult to attack. Hong Xiuquan's ancestral home is Jiaying, and there is an ancient village head in Yi 'an village. It was once chosen as the garrison by Taiping Army.

During the War of Liberation, China's * * * column in the border region of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi and China's * * * Guangdong prefectural party committee successively stationed in the village, and China's * * * Meipu Yan Song Armed Forces team often participated in this activity. Usually, when the enemy comes, the troops disperse into the mountains and disappear immediately. The mountain forest is the cover, which is most suitable for guerrilla warfare. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Wan Liangong, the eighth ancestor of Zhu family in Qiaoxi village, came here to set up a foundation. He lives in a small thatched cottage not far from the stream. After Wan Lian got married, she multiplied to the thirteenth birthday celebration, and her family began to improve. He built a new house and had four sons, and each of them was married. Since then, Zhu's population has become more and more prosperous.

Therefore, guarding the Qing Palace is of extraordinary significance to Zhu's descendants. The house where he lived was transformed into an ancestral temple: Shouqing Palace. The lobby of Shouqing Temple is called "Peiguo Hall". Zhu Xinhui said that any family of the Zhu family would name it "Peiguotang".

Because Zhu thought their ancestor was Zhuan Xu, the son of the Yellow Emperor, he began to live in this area of Henan. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the grandson of Zhuan Xu VIII was sealed in Judy, and Zou State (present-day Shandong) was established, with Zhuan as his surname. In forty years, Zhu was destroyed by Chu. In order to avoid disaster, later generations changed their surname to Zhu and moved to Peiguo Township (now Suixi County, Anhui Province). In the future, descendants from all over the world will remember this surname from Guo Pei.

Usually, the ancestral temple is only cleaned occasionally. On holidays, villagers gather in the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors. Hakka people have the custom of adding ding on lanterns, because in Hakka dialect, "ding" and "lamp" are homophonic. Every year on the Lantern Festival, families who added men the year before will hang a paper lamp on the beam of the ancestral temple to show good luck. When we went, a colorful lantern was painted on the beam. Zhu Xinhui said that he hung it for his little grandson this year. Putting the words Ming Dynasty and Zhu family together is a set of symbols that evoke people's imagination. Fengyang Zhujia is the tallest Jishan building in Ming Dynasty. It took ten years from the building of 1902 to its completion. This is the witness of Zhu's descendants who "fought the world with their bare hands and took a belt to Nanyang" and then glorified their ancestors. At the end of Ming Dynasty, the peasant uprising, the invasion of Qing soldiers, and the clan suffered unprecedented catastrophe.

Zhu Xinhui pointed to the mountain facing Shouqing Temple and told us that two green hills shaped like "gold" overlap. Zhu Xinhui said that the ancestors thought it was a "birthday peak", which meant endless life and Zhu's ambition to be emperor again one day.

The huge Ming dynasty royal family, hundreds of thousands of Fengyang Zhu family, were mostly slaughtered by the peasant army when Li Zicheng entered Beijing; The other part, martyrdom when resisting the Qing army. At that time, a group of members of the royal family were captured by Li Zicheng to Beijing, including Prince Zhu Cilang, the third son of Chongzhen, Zhu Cijiong, Zhu Ciying, Zhu Cunshu, Zhu Qiugui and others. After the Qing army captured Beijing, this part of the captured royal family disappeared and their whereabouts were unknown, which has always been a historical mystery.

According to legend, the Prince followed Li Shichun (edited by imperial academy in the late Ming Dynasty and taught by the East Palace) from Jiaying (now Meizhou) to take refuge in his hometown of Meizhou. In order to avoid people's eyes and ears, the prince cut his hair and became a monk and lived in Lingguang Temple in Yin Na, Meizhou for the rest of his life. Later, he died of old age in the mountains and was honored as a "Prince Bodhisattva" by the local people.

At that time, the story was told from Zhu Xinhui's mouth, leaving only a synopsis, but he insisted that the place where the prince lived must be the main hall of Lingguang Temple.

In the main hall of "Shi 'anju", the red lacquer beams are arranged closely, close to the roof and slightly lower, and the red lacquer beams are hung in the air before and after. The first painting is a bamboo branch of a crane, which has a golden word "rich and auspicious"; There are two beams at the back, the next one is carved with golden dragon, and the next one is painted with golden eight diagrams in the middle.

This is the ancestral home inherited by the eldest son of Zhu XVII. Zhu Xinhui said that dare to carve dragons on the flat beams proved that Zhu's ancestors were indeed related to the royal family. Qiaoxi Village is the most aristocratic village I have ever seen in Meizhou, Guangdong. Although I have long heard about the Hakka people's intentions towards architecture, it is commendable that, like Qiaoxi Village, after the destruction of war and various political movements, the architecture, especially the exquisite carvings and paintings inside, is still preserved in large quantities.

The reason is not that the damage is not thorough enough, and the damage caused by time is the same everywhere, but that its resources are vast and even the most essential part does not exist, because its own extravagance still makes people find clues in the remaining bookshelves.

Those beautifully decorated bronze palace lanterns, the legend of eunuchs writing plaques (although this matter can't stand scrutiny logically), the beams actually depicting Jinlong, and the camphor wood wallboard really painted with gold powder all suggest that people are strengthening the confirmation of the legend: Is Zhu's ancestor really a Ming Dynasty royal family?

On the day we went, the weather was surprisingly good. Sunlight broke through the clouds and white clouds spread out in the clear blue sky. The plants in Shan Ye are saturated in color and rich in green, which surround the buildings in the Qing Dynasty in Qiaoxi Village, showing more and more white walls.

The ancient buildings are distributed on the ridge, and the village chief led me to climb all the way. It's quiet around, and people only feel the sunshine. Occasionally, some villagers came back from the mountain with a bundle of firewood, and they just quietly said hello when passing by.

Someone keeps bees behind the house, and bees come in and out around the hive from time to time. The village chief said that the land here is located in the scenic spot of Yannanfei Tea Farm Resort in Yangyan Town, Meixian District, Meizhou City, and now most of them are contracted to grow tea in the tea garden. In addition to charging a fixed fee every year, villagers have extra income from working in tea gardens.

Another source of income for villagers is beekeeping. Qiaoxi Village has superior natural environment and no pollution. There are many fruit trees around it, whether wild or planted artificially, which are suitable for beekeeping. The "bee head" weighs 0.3 to 0.5 Jin per needle, once every seven days or so, and can be scooped four times a month. A kilo of honey is sold to 8 yuan, and large farmers can receive more than 300 kilos of honey a year.

Listening to the village chief talk about these simple daily necessities, I feel that the royal family used to be rich, ostentatious, unattainable and disastrous, so far away from today. The building in the west of Qiaoxi is the last elegant bearing precipitated by history, but the building is empty. The gable building is a two-story rammed barbell room with blue bricks, white walls and blue tiles. There are seven bars in this barbell house. "Seven Articles" refers to the seven roofs of a house on a macro level.

There are three entrances in the front and back, with a quadrangle in the middle, which are connected by cloisters, and the house expands to the hatchback.

The architectural style is traditional, but the details are permeated with the emerging western style in the late Qing Dynasty, such as the design of hollow brick carved flower windows, such as the open space in front of the house, raising the foundation and enclosing it with turquoise glazed vase-shaped railings as the courtyard.

Jishan Building is now managed by Zhu Tifa and Chen Ronghua, who live in it. They are relatives of the owner of Jishan Building. Aunt Chen said that relatives as far away as Indonesia also came back to visit this ancestral home.

A century ago, many Jiaying (now Meizhou) people crossed the ocean, either to make a living or to take refuge, "fighting the world with both hands and going to Nanyang together." They scrimped and saved and tried their best to send them back to their hometown.

The five Zhu brothers of the 17th Qiaoxi Village were also a few elements in the early overseas Chinese tide. They started from scratch, but they turned their attention to their compatriots who worked hard in a foreign land.

Aunt Chen said that it was originally six brothers, but unfortunately the fifth brother died young. Among the five brothers, the eldest brother is the owner of Shihe and Zudeju, and the other four brothers raised funds to build this fine building.

Jishanlou took ten years from 1902 (the 28th year of Guangxu) to its completion. When the new house moved in, the second brother was already dead. So the mirror sent by my nephew hangs in the middle of the lobby, depicting the three stars of Fu Lushou in the middle. On the top left, there are only three characters for the recipient: Qiu Qin, Lao Si Zhixiang, Lao Liu Zhixun.

What we are concerned about is how the two brothers completed their primitive accumulation and were able to build a house with such a huge project. Aunt Chen said that in Indonesia, the five brothers started as "water passengers" and ran between their hometown and overseas to send letters and money to other overseas Chinese and get paid for them. Later, when the business got bigger, they opened stores everywhere. In the early years, these shops were a combination of post offices and banks.

According to the index, the Zhu brothers have three stores in Indonesia, one in Hong Kong, one in Guangzhou and one in Meizhou. After making a fortune, the five brothers returned to their hometown in splendor. They built a new house to pay homage to their ancestors.

Seven-pole house with a structure of 680 square meters.

Climb a flight of stone steps, with the courtyard door facing southeast. Village head Zhu Xinhui said, I remember when I was a child, there was an iron fence outside the door, 1958, which was found and used for steelmaking. On both sides of the stone ladder, there are two ponds on the left and right. In the past, goldfish were raised in the left pond and carp were raised in the right pond. Now pine trees are planted. There are two stone lions at the top of the ladder, both of whose heads have been knocked off. Zhu Xinhui said that the design of the pool is to educate future generations and know the rules; And there is a pool to store water, which can prevent fire.

On the front of Jishan Building, two stone pillars stand under the eaves in front of the door, which is quite western. Zhu Xinhui said that the pillars in the past were all carved dragons and painted phoenixes, but they were all knocked out later. The role of the column is to support an iron raft shoulder-high.

Talking about the "bad deeds" and interesting things of childhood, Zhu Xinhui got excited. He pointed to the eaves and showed us painted pottery Kirin and Aquarius on the walls. There are wood carvings and phoenix peony flowers painted under the beam, and there are a left and a right arhat stepping on Kirin carved on it. Two golden kylins glared at each other, very fierce.

Zhu Xinhui said that at that time, some painted pottery figures went up to the second floor and reached out from the hollowed-out window lattice to take them down to play.

After the muddy doorplates were cleaned during the Cultural Revolution, the words "Jishanlou" were vigorous and powerful, and the couplets on the wooden plaques on both sides were destroyed. "Following the ambition to tell stories, being kind to others and caring for others" is now written on red paper and posted in the original position of the couplet.

Inside, the square yard is very quiet. Masonry walls are full of modernity, carved wooden doors and windows, wooden corridors and columns on the second floor are antique. There are painted landscapes or figures on the wall above the door or window, Zhu Tifa said, which was painted by a master specially invited from Guangzhou at that time. In the past, there were eight scenic spots in Yangcheng, professional bathing days helped, Shimen came back to light, and there were more than a thousand river races. It was amazing that the prosperity of Guangzhou was reappeared in a small village in Meizhou.

In the middle of Yougong Hall, Aunt Chen said that this hall number expresses the importance that several brothers attach to brotherhood, and mutual affection and respect are the basis for maintaining brotherhood.

Now there are only a few halls, plaques and mirrors, and there are two court mirrors on both sides. In the past, it was not so empty here. Aunt Chen said that there used to be a lot of foreign furniture, including a shiny haha mirror and a singing western clock. This 680-square-meter seven-bar house cost 6.5438+0.2 million silver.

In the main hall on the second floor, the resplendent Zhuzi Family Instructions is carved with two sides of camphor wood wallboard. The gold-plated wood carving under the door frame is still glittering, and the flowers, birds, insects and fish painted on the wall near the roof are lifelike. Unfortunately, the handwriting on one of the walls was completely scraped off during the Cultural Revolution. Behind the wallboard, there are pictures of birds and full-page aphorisms. Here is the research, male left and female right, giving male grandchildren the same educational opportunities as female grandchildren.

Exploration of Zhu's refuge in the late Ming Dynasty.

Before liberation, there lived families named Chen, Xu, Lai and Du. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu hid in the forest in order to avoid the punishment of Jiuzu. Later, when the situation calmed down, he gradually moved to Yanzhou Dam in the sun, and then moved to Changjiao Village. Zhu moved here in the eighth year of Qing Dynasty. At that time, neighbor Chen married Du's daughter. Before moving, Wan Lian, the eighth ancestor, found that Du was a neighbor, so Chen introduced her sister to Wan Lian. Since then, Zhu Chenshi has a tradition of marriage from generation to generation. Later, Zhu He became the main population of Qiaoxi Village, but other surnames gradually moved out of here. The dream of visiting the village really pays attention to everything.

According to the topography, the pattern of Qiaoxi Village has been handed down by many people. Zhu Xinhui, the village chief, introduced endlessly. Let's not delve into whether these similar imaginations are reasonable, but listen with the mentality of listening to stories.

The first pattern is "Crows fall into the ocean and the sun sets", which means that two dark stones, like two crows, come out of nowhere by the stream in the village.

The second pattern is "Xianxia swimming in the water and looking at the Yangtze River". Wan Liangong's tomb, the ancestor of Zhu family in the west of Qiaoxi, is on the mountain, with fish ponds, shrimps in the pond and rivers in the west. The "Yangtze River" here refers to a very long river, which is the local Meijiang River.

The third pattern is "Snails Spit Meat at Shuikou", which is about the location of the village. If you only see the water coming and can't see the water going, you just keep the money and can't flow away.

The fourth pattern is "The Lady under the Umbrella is in the center", and the Jinding Mountain on which the buildings in Qiaoxi Village are built is umbrella-shaped, which is interpreted as the shape and symbol of sheltering future generations.