Walking in the City·Shuicheng Rugao

"Zuo Zhuan of the Spring and Autumn Period" records, "In the past, Dr. Jia was evil, but he married a beautiful wife. He did not speak or smile for three years. He served as a royal servant in Rugao. He shot pheasants and caught them. His wife began to laugh and talk." (It has been three years since Dr. Jia married his wife, and her wife has never spoken or laughed. Dr. Jia drove her to the highlands of Dazeli to shoot pheasants. When she hit the target, his wife finally smiled and spoke.) "Rugao" means To the high ground by the water, "ru" means going; "gao" means the high ground by the water. "Commentaries on the Thirteen Classics" explains Gao as "ze". If Gao means going to Daze. Whether it’s the highlands by the water or the big swamps, they all have something to do with water.

? Rugao City, Jiangsu Province, borders the Yangtze River to the south and the Yellow Sea to the east. It used to be a swampland in history. Now it is densely covered with harbors, rivers and lakes. Tongyang Canal, Ruhai Canal and Rutai Canal run through the entire city. The river network is extremely dense, making it a veritable water city.

? Rugao’s economic strength is extraordinary. It is one of the top 100 counties and cities in the country in terms of comprehensive strength and the top 100 counties and cities in the country in terms of comprehensive county economic competitiveness. But what I like about Rugao is its water and culture.

1.

? To understand a city, you must start with its old streets. Unfortunately, many places no longer have old streets. Fortunately, they still exist in Rugao. When visiting Rugao, start from East Street.

? Location: Northeast corner of Rugao Ancient City, more than 400 meters long.

? Date of birth: Southern Song Dynasty. When water transportation was developed, East Street was the main commercial street in the city.

? Current situation: The only remaining old neighborhoods in Rugao maintain the style and characteristics of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.

? Layout and architecture: It is called a street, but it is actually two to three meters wide. Most of the existing buildings are green brick and tile houses with brick and wood structures, which are small and compact.

? There are many wooden doors on both sides of the street, followed by houses with three or four halls, some with courtyards or gardens. The existing storefronts and houses have the characteristics of the Ming, Qing, and Republic of China periods respectively, mainly in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Of course, there are also newly built antique buildings. Now, with Dongda Street as the center, including the surrounding Baisui Lane, Xiunu Lane, Wumiao Lane, Da Liu Lane, Xiao Liu Lane, Gaojia Lane, Shazhu Lane, Renren Lane, Beiwangjia Lane and other streets and lanes, it has become Jiangsu The first batch of historical and cultural districts.

? Most of these alleys are narrow, some are only 1 meter wide, and they are winding. Walking around, you will find many places worth seeing, such as Yingchun Bridge, Puzhong Bridge, Nunnery, Zhuangyuan Tomb (only the tombstone remains now), Yaowang Temple, Dongshuiguan, Ancient Well, and No. 1 House by the East River of Yingchun Bridge ( It used to be the Li Changyu Criminal Investigation Technology Museum), the Zhuangyuan Cultural Center, the Li Yu Memorial Hall, etc.

? The times are like a wild horse running wild, but the old neighborhood along East Street is like an old man who has gone through many vicissitudes and returned to peace. He lives alone in a corner of the small town and stubbornly holds on to the vicissitudes of life amid the vast transformation of the old city. And the thickness is all indescribable.

? The Jixianli folk house in the southeast corner of Rugao City, now known as Maojia Lane, is also an existing old folk house in Rugao. There are 4 households and 45 rooms built in the Ming Dynasty.

? Jixianli got its name from the Northern Song Dynasty. The Wang family lived here. From the first year of Jingyou in the Northern Song Dynasty to the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, the Wang family produced 1 number one scholar and 17 Jinshi. The villagers are proud of it and call it Jixianli. It is also known as "the golden tortoise presses the buttons and produces the offspring of great men". The famous Song Dynasty poem "Water is like waves across the eye, and mountains are like eyebrows and peaks gathering together" came from Wang Guan's writing, and Wang Guan's former residence is in Jixianli.

After the Wang family, the Mao family lived here, and there were many famous people.

During the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan named his ninth son the King of Zhennan, granted land to Rugao, and built a mansion in Jixianli. After entering the Ming Dynasty, the descendants of King Zhennan changed their Han surname to "Mao" and lived here for generations. Jixian Lane was also renamed Maojia Lane. The most famous person among the Mao family is Mao Bijiang (Maoxiang). His love story with Dong Xiaowan, a famous Qinhuai prostitute, has been sung for hundreds of years. Mao Bijiang was a writer in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, and one of the four princes in the late Ming Dynasty. After the Qing soldiers entered the pass, he lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests, and did not engage in the Qing Dynasty.

2.

? Unlike other cities, Rugao has two moats, round on the outside and square on the inside, shaped like ancient coins, forming the peculiar phenomenon of "water surrounds the city and the city is surrounded by water" landscape. This arrangement of inner and outer city rivers is unique in the history of domestic urban construction.

? The current moat in Rugao was built in the Ming Dynasty. During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, Hu Ang, the county magistrate, dug the Yudai River (today's Neicheng River) according to the city system. During the Jiajing period, in order to fight against Japanese aggression, the county magistrate Chen Yong was responsible for planning the expansion of the new city and constructing outer rivers, forming a dual-river structure inside and outside.

? The two sides of the 6-kilometer-long Shuanghuan River are covered with green grass and graceful weeping willows, providing citizens with spacious and diverse leisure and entertainment venues.

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? The Shuanghuan River runs through the cultural landscape of Rugao, including Dinghui Temple, Shuihui Garden, Fan Gongyuan, Lingwei Temple, Wenchang Pavilion, East Street Old Town, and Jixianli Many other attractions are by the water.

? Where there is water, there is a bridge. Yingchun Bridge spans the river in the inner city of East Street. It was built in the 13th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1534). It was a wooden bridge at that time. In the third year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty (1630), it was changed to a high stone bridge. In the ninth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1870), it was rebuilt and in 1925 it was changed to a masonry flat bridge. Although it is a cultural relic, it does not prevent the locals from carrying a vegetable basket and selling vegetables on the bridge. This is life.

? There are two temples in the water network of Rugao.

? The Weiling Temple on the north bank of the ancient Yan River in Rugao City is one of the three great temples in Jiangsu (the other two are Jurong Maoshan Taoist Temple and Suzhou Xuanmiao Temple). It was first built in the Han Dynasty and went through the Tang Dynasty. During the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, there were several rises and falls. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were still ten main halls, more than 200 palaces, ancestral halls, dormitories, warehouses, hospitals, pharmacies, porridge relief factories and other buildings. Most of the current buildings are more recent. Years of reconstruction.

Dinghui Zen Temple was built in the 11th year of Emperor Kaihuang’s reign in the Sui Dynasty (591). In the 35th year of Wanli’s reign in the Ming Dynasty (1607), the main hall and King Kong Hall were rebuilt, and the mountain gate was changed. Facing north, bell and drum towers, Buddhist scriptures pavilion, Zen hall, ancestral hall, Zhaitang, etc. were built one after another. The existing main building was rebuilt during the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty. The 45-meter-high octagonal and seven-story Guanyin Pagoda (pictured above) in the temple was rebuilt in recent years.

? The group of buildings opposite Dinghui Temple also has a great origin. In the 28th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1902), Sha Yuan, editor of the Imperial Academy of the Qing Dynasty, founded the Simple Normal School in Rugao, which was the first independent public normal school in the country. Its former site has been selected as a national key Cultural relic protection unit.

3,

? Only when there is water can there be a garden. The most famous tourist attraction in Rugao is the Water Painting Garden.

? The Water Painting Garden was first built during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. It was originally the ancestral property of Mao Pijiang, a litterateur in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and one of the four young masters in the late Ming Dynasty. He reorganized the old garden and took advantage of the geographical features of Rugao Pinjiang, which is close to the sea and has crisscrossing water networks. He built the garden along the creek, connecting the washing bowl pond, moon pond and large areas of water, and the towers became embellishments.

? The water network is a natural barrier for the water painting garden, which saves the cost of building a fence. It is also a rare water view. The moonlight of the lake is otherworldly. It really kills two birds with one stone. When the harvest season comes, the fish are fat and the lotuses are strong, creating a scene of abundant harvest. The garden is adjacent to the city wall in the north, using the city as a view, and half of the garden is surrounded by the city. After the snow in winter, the clear snow in Beicheng is also a scene.

? The waterscape in the garden, in the open area, the clear water is vast; in the narrow place, it is like a string of pearls.

? Mao Pijiang is talented, capable of poetry and painting. In the garden, he built the "Miaoyin Fragrant Forest", "Yimo Zhai", "Pillow Smoke Pavilion", "Hanbi Hall", "Crane Island", "Boyan Jade Pavilion", "Xiangzhong Pavilion", "Selang Slope" and "Bi Luo Lu". More than ten beautiful places have become famous gardens at home and abroad at that time. "Painters gather together", use the garden to make friends, use the garden to express aspirations, integrate poetry, literature, music, chess, calligraphy and painting into one garden, turning the water painting garden into a bookish "literati garden", also It became the hiding place of Mao Pijiang and Dong Xiaowan, one of the "Eight Beauties of Qinhuai".

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, local scholar Wang Zhiheng built a building in the Shui Hui Garden and named it Shuiming Tower after Du Fu's poem "Shui Ming Tower in the Remaining Night".

Wang Zhiheng, a salt merchant for generations, was extremely wealthy. He was good at literature and poetry, and did not seek fame. He liked to make friends with literati, and Shuiming Tower was suitable for him.

? There are many classical gardens in China, and the Water Painting Garden is undoubtedly the best. In terms of heritage, Shuihui Garden enjoys the unique reputation of Maopijiang; in terms of characteristics, Shuihui Garden is very unique in that it is designed with water as the garden. Among the many classical gardens in the south, the Water Painting Garden is called "the only copy of ancient Chinese garden architecture" by garden experts and is unique.

? The current Shuihui Garden is a large park, covering an area of ​​300,000 square meters. It consists of the old Shuihui Garden, the Shuiminglou ancient building complex, the Chinese Rupai Bonsai Garden (ancient Dan Garden), and the Nifeng Garden. It consists of Lu, Yiyuan, Rugao Longevity Museum, zoo, amusement park and other scenic spots.

4.

? With water, the city has aura. In the old alley, find a restaurant by the water to have morning tea, which has a unique atmosphere.

? Rugao is very famous for morning tea. There are many morning tea shops in the East Street area. The most famous shop is "Sihailou". If you go there late, there will be no seats. Different from Cantonese-style morning tea, Rugao morning tea mainly features a variety of staple foods, such as steamed buns, meat buns, vegetable buns, pan-fried buns, crab roe buns, wontons, egg cakes, sesame cakes, fried dough sticks, noodles, tofu... It is said that even if you eat it for a month, it will not be the same.

? Rugao is also a famous longevity town. It has been rated as one of the six longevity towns in the world by the International Society of Natural Medicine. With a population of more than one million, there are more than 10,000 people over 90 years old.

? Good Feng Shui.