Exploration of Western Suburb Sites
Xijiao Village, located in the western suburbs of shishi city, had more than 200 households at the beginning of liberation, and now it has grown to more than 600 households with more than 3,000 people. It can be regarded as a big village in Shishi manor. (Houdaogou in the north, Xinxing Road in the south, Shitai Railway in the east and Liu Ying Village in the west). Today's pattern is almost the same as before, except that the earth walls and tile houses have been demolished and high-rise buildings have been built. Walking into this village, it is long from east to west and narrow from north to south, and a "Xijiao Street" runs through the village.
According to the old people in the village, although the village used to be small, there were many temples. The shadow wall of every household in the village is used as a gatekeeper to ward off evil spirits. In addition to the "land god", there are five gods, namely, heaven and earth god, mother god, god of wealth, kitchen god and Buddha. If the courtyard goes straight into a street, it is necessary to embed a big brick on the wall and engrave "Mount Tai Shi Gandang". There is also a shrine on the wall for the old man to rush the street, saying that the street he faces is an arrow shot by a demon and will be filled by Mount Tai and the old man.
Westbound along the street, there are more than a dozen temples on both sides of the road, such as Longwang Temple, Guanyin Bodhisattva Temple, Lushi Family Temple, Zhenwu Temple, Songzi Old Mother Temple, Guandi Temple, Wudao Temple, Quanmiao Temple, laojunmiao, Laozu Temple, Huanggu Temple, Wuxiantang Temple and Sanguan Temple. It can be said that all kinds of immortals gather and dominate people's life, food, clothing, housing and transportation. For example, praying for the dragon king can bring showers to alleviate the drought; Guanyin bodhisattva saves the suffering; Give birth to children and send them to their mothers; When people die, the soul will go to another world. There are five lords in charge of the underworld. Therefore, the dutiful sons should report to the Fifth Master first and go to the Five Temples to burn paper and kowtow every night. If they don't report to the temple, the dead will become wild ghosts and wander around suffering. These are all hypothetical theories. There are not only a large number of temples in the western suburbs, but also some temples with high scale and modeling technology. For example, Longwang Temple and Sanguan Temple have historical records in Huolu County. (Longwang Temple Note: Xijiao Village, 30 miles east of Zhengdong Road in Huolu County, is an ancient Longwang Temple, which can be traced back to its establishment. -
The temple is located at the east entrance of Xijiao Village, and there is about one temple. The main room is three east halls, with tile eaves, roof and four walls embossed with flying dragons, painted with colorful paintings such as "Water Control in Kowloon" and "Good weather". There are wooden dragon king gods of different shapes on the altar, each about three feet high. The temple gate faces west, and there is a screen wall in front of it. Every year, when the villagers get a bumper harvest, they donate a lot of money to the Dragon King and burn incense and worship to show their gratitude and wishes. In dry and rainy years, villagers must burn incense and kowtow and pray for rain from the Dragon King. A 96-year-old man in the village told us that 1942 was a drought year. It didn't rain for more than half a year, and all the crops died of drought. People are eager to ask for rain. When there was no rain for many times, when the young people got angry, they simply moved the Dragon King out of the temple and marched in the scorching sun. The implication is to let the high dragon king taste the taste of drought The old man said that the Dragon King would be very busy every year of drought. Not only will the villagers burn incense to worship, but villagers who don't have the Dragon King Temple around them will also come to the western suburbs to "steal the Dragon King", bring it back to the village to worship, and then take the initiative to send it back afterwards, so no one in the village is anxious to find the Dragon King. Longwang Temple and Sanguan Temple are one east and one west, which are irrelevant. But Mr. Feng Shui actually spun a story, saying that if the screen wall in front of Longwang Temple in the east of the village is higher than that in front of Sanguan Temple, people in the west of the village will be poor. On the contrary, the shadow wall of Sanguan Temple in the west of the village is higher than that in front of Longwang Temple, and the people in the east of the village will be poor. People want to be rich and are afraid of being poor, which leads to a protracted struggle in the history of Xijiao Village. The villagers went to the west of the village to steal the screen brick of Sanguan Temple, and the villagers went to the east to steal the screen brick in front of Longwang Temple. That's it. You peel it, I peel it. Finally, the shadow wall in front of the two temples was made into broken walls until it was leveled and stripped. Now there is no screen wall in front of Longwang Temple and Sanguan Temple.
After liberation, the temples in Xijiao Village were all abolished in the movement of "Breaking the Four Old Houses". Temples have become history, and the remains are gradually blurred with the continuous development of villages in the city, making it difficult to trace back. However, "people with a will" still care about the lost "spiritual territory". On traditional festivals, men, women and children will dress up and go to nearby villages with temples to catch temple fairs, burn incense and worship, and pray for a bumper harvest, national prosperity and people's peace.