Introducing the history of Guangzhou

1. Zhenhai Tower (Guangzhou Museum)

Also known as Wanghai Tower, it is commonly known as the five-story building. Located on Xiaopanlonggang in Yuexiu Mountain (Yuexiu Park), Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China, it is one of the city symbols of Guangzhou. Now it is a place dedicated to collecting and exhibiting historical cultural relics and historical materials about Guangzhou.

In the 13th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1380), Zhu Liangzu, the Marquis of Yongjia, expanded the city of Guangzhou, merged the three cities of the Song Dynasty (Zicheng, East and West cities), and opened up more than 800 feet of the north city. The city wall spanned Yuexiu Mountain, build a five-story high building on it to have a spectacular view. The building has the meaning of majestic Zhenhai territory, hence the name Zhenhai Tower.

In the history of Guangzhou City, except for Zhenhai Tower, no building has been able to maintain its position as a "city icon" for six long centuries. The "Thirteen Lines Oil Painting" collected by the Guangzhou Museum depicts the prosperous scene of the Thirteen Lines merchant ships gathering in Guangzhou during the Qing Dynasty. A red five-story high-rise building not far behind the right rear of the business building is particularly conspicuous. This is the Zhenhai Tower. There is also a foreign postcard in the collection. The main subject of the picture is the Zhenhai Tower in the Qing Dynasty.

In fact, for a long time, Zhenhai Tower has been the symbol of "Guangzhou" in the eyes of foreigners, and by extension, it is also the symbol of "China". Since the Ming Dynasty, foreign merchant ships traveling across the ocean have crossed the Lion Ocean and gone north through Humen. Along the way, they can see the Lotus Pagoda, Pazhou Pagoda and Chigang Pagoda. Driving near the outside of Guangzhou, you will see the Zhenhai Tower towering on Yuexiu Mountain, and you will know that you have arrived in Guangzhou.

For more than 600 years, Zhenhai Tower has become a battleground for military strategists due to its special geographical location. In the early Qing Dynasty, Shang Kexi's troops arrived at the gates of Guangzhou. 300 soldiers guarded the Zhenhai Tower for ten days and nights without sleep. In the end, they ran out of ammunition and food, and no one survived. Today, there is still a batch of cannons stored next to Zhenhai Tower, which are Guangzhou city defense cannons during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In 1883, when China and France were at war, Peng Yulin, the Minister of War, was ordered to go to Guangdong to supervise the army to resist the French. The five-story building was used as the headquarters of the navy and army. In 1885, when the imperial court was clamoring for peace talks, Peng Yulin wrote to the imperial court, striving to resist. But the Qing government finally chose to compromise. The depressed Peng Yulin looked up at Guangzhou City and wrote one of the most famous couplets in Guangdong: "Thousands of calamities and dangerous buildings still exist. If you ask who can pick up the sky, you will be arrogant about the past and the present; five hundred The old prince is here, making me lean on the railing and read the sword, and shed tears on the hero!"

For this couplet, some commentators said that the "old prince" in the couplet refers to Zhu Liangzu, and it was he who built the Zhenhai Tower! , now people have died and the building still exists, which can prove the vicissitudes of history. "Let me lean on the railing and read the sword, and shed tears on the hero!" It was inspired by Peng Yulin who led his troops to Guangdong for defense due to the Sino-French War. He was the main militant and opposed the peace negotiation, but in the end he had no choice but to "tears as a hero". This couplet first chants about the building and then writes about the people. It has a majestic artistic conception and can be regarded as a beautiful couplet.

According to Mr. Chen Shuyuan, the author of the article "The Old Couplet on the Name of Zhenhai Tower", when he was young, he went to Zhenhai Tower with his father and saw a wooden couplet hanging on the third floor, with the lower inscription "Gong Bao Xue Qin Peng Yulin" " (Gongbao is an official title, Xueqin is Peng's name) and other words. On the fifth floor, the words "Zhenhai Tower" written by Ruilin, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi hang on the fifth floor.

That is to say, this couplet was hanging on the third floor at that time and was written by Peng Yulin himself. Peng's handwriting was later lost, and was "replenished" by calligraphers such as Ye Gongchuo, Shen Yangong, and Wu Zixia. This couplet now hangs on the fifth floor and is written in two fonts by two calligraphers.

The Getty Center in the United States has collected a photo of the interior of Zhenhai Tower (pictured above) taken in 1900. The picture shows the two accompanying gods on the left side of the statues of Wenchang and Guandi on the top floor of Zhenhai Tower. The three characters "Zhenhai Tower" are engraved on the incense burner in front of the matching god, indicating that the photo was undoubtedly taken in Zhenhai Tower. On the pillar on the right side of the photo, the words "The majestic spirit, the sky and the sky are always hanging" in the second line of this couplet are clearly legible. In the lower line of the second line, there are clear words "Written by Peng Yulin of Hengyang". Peng Yulin's ancestral home is Hengyang, Hunan, and he was born in Anqing, Anhui.

2. Nanhai Temple

Nanhai Temple is located in Miaotou Village, Guangzhou, facing north to south, covering an area of ??30,000 square meters. It is an important site for Guangzhou’s external maritime transportation and trade in ancient China. . The temple was built in the Sui Dynasty and has a history of more than 1,400 years. Generations of sailors came here to worship the God of Poseidon before weighing anchor and after returning home. It can be said that the Nanhai Temple has witnessed this scene in Guangzhou. A thousand-year history of an important port on the Maritime Silk Road.

When I came to the Nanhai Temple, the flourishing incense and the grandeur, simplicity and elegance of the temple were as expected. What was unexpected was the "Ghost Watching Polo". On the east side of the temple, there is a clay statue of a foreigner wearing Chinese clothes. He raises his left hand to cover his eyebrows and looks into the distance. He is Daxi Sikong, a tribute envoy from ancient India. Why do we still have such a "dark-faced" foreign face in our Chinese temples?

It turns out that there is an interesting legend about this "black-faced" statue!

According to archaeological expert Huang Miaozhang, this person is a foreigner named Daxi. During the Qingli period of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty, Daxi came to China from India along the Silk Road along the merchant ship. On the way back, the ship docked at the temple pier. After Daxi Sikong went ashore to worship the God of the South China Sea, he planted two Polo tree seeds. Then he became obsessed with the beautiful scenery in the temple and was so lingering that he missed the return ship. The people on the ship Forgot about him and sailed away. He stood on the seaside for a long time, looking at the way he came from, and then he stood on the seaside.

People believed that Daxi was a friendly envoy from the Maritime Silk Road, and they were about to give him a grand burial.

Later, in order to thank Daxi for bringing the Polo tree, people erected a statue of him in the Nanhai Temple to commemorate him. They dressed him in Chinese clothes and named him Daxi Sikong. Because the statue looks at the Polo tree planted by his hand, there is also a folk saying that "ghosts look at Polo". Many people also call the Nanhai Temple the Polo Temple.

3. Tomb of King Wen of Nanyue

Also known as Tomb of King Nanyue, it is the tomb of Zhao Quan (called Zhao Hu in "Historical Records"), the second generation king of Nanyue Kingdom in the Western Han Dynasty of China. It is located on Xianggang Mountain on Jiefang North Road, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China, on the north side of China Hotel and on the west side of Yuexiu Park.

Zhao Quan is the grandson of Zhao Tuo. There is no record of who Zhao Quan's biological father is in "Historical Records" written by Sima Qian or other Chinese historical materials. The Vietnamese "Historical Records of Dayue" claims that Zhao Quan was the son of Zhao Zhongshi. [4] In the fourth year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (137 BC), the first generation of Nanyue King Zhao Tuo passed away. Since he was already a hundred years old when he died, and all his sons had died, his throne was inherited by his grandson Zhao Quan, who became the second generation King of South Vietnam.

Two years after Zhao Quan came to the throne, in 135 BC, the Minyue King Zuoying took the opportunity to launch a war against the South Vietnam Kingdom and attacked the border towns of the South Vietnam Kingdom. Not long after Zhao Huang succeeded to the throne, the people in the country were still unstable. At this time, he had to write to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, explaining the fact that Fujian and Vietnam invaded South Vietnam, and asked Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to deal with the matter. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty highly praised Zhao Quan's actions, saying that he was loyal to his duties as a vassal and did not raise troops to attack each other. He also sent two generals, Wang Hui and Han Anguo, to attack Fujian and Yue. Before the Han Dynasty's army crossed the Nanling Mountains, Yu Shan, the younger brother of the Minyue King, launched a rebellion, killed the Minyue King Zuoying, and surrendered to the Han Dynasty, so the Han Dynasty's army stopped its crusade.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty then established Yu Shan as the new King of Minyue, and sent Yan Zhu, a senior official, to the Nanyue Kingdom to inform Zhao Quan about the Minyue affairs. After Zhao Huang learned about it, he expressed his deep gratitude to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to Yan Zhu and told Yan Zhu that the South Vietnam Kingdom had just suffered an invasion from Minyue. After the matter was dealt with, he would go to the capital of the Han Dynasty to meet Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Later, Prince Zhao Yingqi was sent to follow Yan Zhu back to the Han Dynasty as a guard.

After Yan Zhu left, the ministers of the Nanyue Kingdom used Zhao Tuo’s legacy to admonish Zhao Quan, and advised Zhao Quan not to go to the capital of the Han Dynasty, lest he be detained by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. If he could not return to South Vietnam, he would be detained. It has become a situation of national subjugation. Therefore, during the next ten years when Zhao Quan ruled South Vietnam, he used illness as an excuse to not go to court to see Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

In 125 BC, Zhao Quan was seriously ill, and his son Zhao Yingqi asked Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to return to the South Vietnam Kingdom. After Zhao Quan's death, Zhao Yingqi succeeded to the throne.

Zhao Quan reigned for 12 years. He was ill for a long time, had a weak temperament, and made little achievements. Although when Minyue invaded South Vietnam, he cleverly moved Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty out and asked Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to deal with Minyue, without having to injure his vitality. However, this move also caused Minyue, which had already been vassalized by the South Vietnam Kingdom during the Zhao Tuo period, to break away from the vassal relationship with the South Vietnam Kingdom and be directly controlled by the Han Dynasty, making the South Vietnam Kingdom actually isolated.

At the same time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty found an excuse to send Yan Zhu to invite Zhao Quan to Beijing to see Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in the name of commending Zhao Quan for his loyalty to his vassal. Finally, Zhao Quan was forced to send his son Zhao Yingqi to He stayed with Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty for 10 years, which paved the way for future internal chaos in South Vietnam.

In "Historical Records", the second generation king of Nanyue Kingdom "King Nanyue Wen" has always been called Zhao Hu. After the "Nanyue King's Tomb" was excavated in 1983, the name "Zhao Huang" was found in the unearthed seal. The jade seal and the gold seal of "Emperor Wen's Seal" have been confirmed by archaeologists, confirming that "Zhao Quan" should be the real name of "Zhao Hu" recorded in "Historical Records". "Zhao Hu" may be Sima Qian's name when compiling "Historical Records" Errors that occurred at the time; it is also possible that Ban Gu's "Han Shu" was copied incorrectly in the biography, and later generations corrected the "typos" in "Historical Records" based on the "Han Shu", resulting in repeated mistakes.

However, some scholars have raised objections to the theory of clerical errors. Scholars Yu Tianchi, Qin Shengmin, Lan Riyong, Liang Xuda, Qin Cailuan and others believed in their "History of Ancient South Vietnam" that there could be no recording errors in the name of King Wen of South Vietnam. They believe that "Historical Records" records the deeds of Zhao Jiande, who reigned for the shortest period of time, in detail, so there is no accidental error in recording the name of King Wen of South Vietnam; and King Wen had frequent contacts with the Han Dynasty during his reign, so a clerical error in the name is even less likely.

They believe that Zhao Quan is the son of Zhao Tuo and the father of King Wen Zhao Hu (or Zhao Quan is the eldest grandson of Zhao Tuo and the brother of King Wen Zhao Hu). He was made the prince by Zhao Tuo and died before he ascended the throne. . Zhao Hu took the seal used by Zhao Quan into his grave as a mark of remembrance.

4. Chen Clan Ancestral Hall

During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, several Chen clan members in Guangdong proposed the construction of a province-wide Chen clan ancestral hall in Guangzhou. The Chen clan from all over the country responded enthusiastically. , donated generously.

In 1892, good news came from the capital: a young man surnamed Chen was appointed as a concubine. This is the icing on the cake for the ancestral hall under construction. The tribesmen were astonished and couldn't help being happy: the effect of building a temple was so effective! So a larger fundraising campaign began.

In 1894, the grand and exquisite Chen Clan Ancestral Hall was completed. This ancestral hall is the Chen Family Ancestral Hall, which is famous to this day; and the child surnamed Chen who was the top student in high school is called Chen Botao, a native of Fengyong, Zhongtang Town, Dongguan City. He is also one of the several advocates for the construction of the Chen Family Ancestral Hall.

Chen Botao went to school at the age of five and studied under Chen Li, a famous scholar in Guangdong history at the age of six.

As a young man, he was studious and intelligent, and could recite the Five Classics at the age of ten. One day, two of his father's friends, Fang Wenbing (one of the Four Gentlemen of Bao Gong Temple in Dongguan) and Fang Yingxi, came to visit. They drank at night and saw Bo Tao reading at night. They wrote a couplet with the title "Reading in the middle of the night and the light is dim" to ask Bo Tao to respond. Bo Tao responded, "Drinking in the middle of the night makes the moon high." After hearing this, Fang Wenbing said to Fang Yingxi, "This is a great son-in-law." Fang Yingxi immediately entered into a marriage agreement with the Chen family and betrothed his second daughter to Chen Botao.

At the age of 21, Chen Botao was selected as a scholar. At the age of 25, he won the first place in the provincial examination. The teacher Chen Li even presented a couplet to Chen Botao, encouraging him to "write as high as the top of the Luofu Ding, and Ke Di will be the number one scholar in succession." Unfortunately, these words did not "come to fruition". In the 18th year of Guangxu's reign, Chen Botao came back to take the exam and ranked first in the palace exam, that is, the number one scholar. However, in the test paper, he wrote "Xuanfu Division" instead of "Xuanwei Division", so he was ranked outside the tenth place. Fortunately, Weng Tonghe, the number one scholar in the Xianfeng Dynasty and the Minister of Household Affairs, argued for him. He was regarded as a man of great learning, so he was ranked third and became the only literary talent in Dongguan history.

After that, the 38-year-old Tanhualang Chen Botao served successively as deputy examiner of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Shandong rural examinations, school administrator of Wenyuan Pavilion, editor of Wuying Palace, chief editor of the National History Museum, and first-class constitutional editor. Consultation and other positions. Although he is not a high-ranking official, Chen Botao, who is not good at flattery by nature, can be said to be an upright person. Even under the impact of events such as the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War of 1898 and the Reform Movement of 1898, Chen Botao remained unmoved and remained calm.

The Gengzi Rebellion broke out, the Eight-Power Allied Forces captured the capital, and Guangxu and Cixi fled in panic. Chen Botao was still unmoved by the current situation. As early as 1898, he personally witnessed the humiliation of Li Hongzhang signing the "Special Treaty on Expanding the Boundary Site of Hong Kong" with the British on behalf of China and forcibly leasing 235 islands in the New Territories and Hong Kong for 99 years. After the two palaces returned to Beijing, Chen Botao joined Nanshufang, and was later sent to Japan to inspect academic affairs. After returning to China, he served as Jiangning's academic envoy. Chen Botao attached great importance to Chinese studies and traveled around to lobby and advise Chinese people at home and abroad to run schools with Chinese capital to revitalize China.

In 1906, Chen Botao assisted Duan Fang, the then governor of Liangjiang, to establish the country's first school to train overseas Chinese students in Nanjing, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties. The purpose was to train overseas Chinese students in Chinese and Mandarin. It was named after Chen Botao - ―Jinan Academy, the predecessor of today’s Jinan University in Guangzhou. Chen Botao also served as the supervisor of Jinan School as an academic envoy, personally formulating the school's charter and budget. This is evident from his deep connection with Chinese education.

Reference materials:

Ifeng.com—Did the Minister of War of the Qing Dynasty favor Zhenhai Tower?

People's Daily Online - Is there a "black-faced ghost" standing in a Chinese temple?

Baidu Encyclopedia - Zhao Wei

Baidu Encyclopedia - Tomb of King Wen of Nanyue

Baidu Encyclopedia - Chen Botao