Touch the literary prose of Cangpo Village
Walking into Cangpo Village in Yongjia County, Zhejiang Province, many ancient buildings from the Song Dynasty, Ming and Qing Dynasties stand majestically beside the thick green shade. Each residential building retains a unique style. It takes advantage of the beauty of natural landscapes and vividly integrates the four treasures of Chinese study. The pen, inkstone, paper and ink are used in village gates, ancestral halls, houses and wooden pavilions. The ancient village is praised by experts as the Four Treasures of the Study, as it vividly reflects the surroundings, ponds and other places, and holds objects in mind.
At the entrance of Cangpo Village, what you see is the Cangpo Ximen built in the Song Dynasty. This gate has thick brackets and an ancient structure. It still looks up vigorously, just like a majestic warrior and a civil servant looking at each other. . Entering Ximen, you will see a stone arch bridge that has remained unchanged after hundreds of years of wind and rain, standing tall and spanning both sides. The deck of the arch bridge symbolizes the tiger's back and head. The two lanterns hanging on the top of the archway on the tiger's back symbolize the tiger's eyes, implying the rich humanistic color of the ancient village and the meaning of a hidden dragon and a crouching tiger.
Another small stone bridge opposite the Ximen. The arched stone bridge body places the Ximen and a long north-south street inside on different straight lines, avoiding the direct intersection of Fengshui. It is a taboo to go to the main street. According to the information: In ancient times, only the number one scholar was qualified to walk on this bridge. For hundreds of years, Cangpo people have inherited the instructions of their ancestors and dreamed of being able to walk it again. Putting aside their ambitions, today it has finally become a reality. Young men and women are Going for a walk happily highlights the status of "farming and reading culture" in the hearts of the villagers.
Cangpo Village has a long history. According to legend, in 955 AD during the Tang and Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms periods, a man named Li Cen came to this penholder from Changxi, Cangpo Village, Fujian Province to escape the troubled times. Yamashita took a fancy to this Feng Shui treasure land and settled there. It has a history of more than 1,000 years and his descendants have been descended for more than 40 generations. During the five years of Chunxi in the Southern Song Dynasty (1179), there was a consort named Li Song in the history of Cangpo Village. Li Song loved his hometown so much that he invited Li Shiri, the then national preceptor, to make a careful planning and layout for his home. It is said that after Li Shiri inspected the geographical situation of Cangpo Village, he believed that the geographical environment of Cangpo was "too hot" and there were fire hazards on all sides. Therefore, in terms of layout, attention was paid to the environmental setting of water to overcome fire. Two pools were dug in the east and west directions of the village. The east pool is a long and narrow rectangle, 147 meters long from north to south and 19 meters wide from east to west. The West Pond is rectangular in shape, 80 meters long from east to west and 35 meters wide from north to south. The sun shines brightly, and the reflection of Beacon Mountain is reflected in it, forming a static water landscape.
Most of the roads in the village are paved with cobblestones, which look refreshing, natural and beautiful. The green bamboos and green trees peeking out from the courtyard walls have a pastoral charm. Most of the houses here are in the shape of a square or a three-piece, with three, five, and nine rooms in the main room. There is a corridor with wooden columns in front of the door, a towering gatehouse, and most of the window lattice is made of bamboo, which is also an attractive scenery.
So where are the Four Treasures of the Study? How to appreciate this beautiful landscape where man and nature are one? Standing on a high place and looking up, I saw Bijia Mountain to the west of the village. Facing Bijia Mountain, the villagers paved a 300-meter-long street with square bricks and strips of stone, like the stem of a pen. It's called Pen Street. Bi Street is the main street in the village. The cemetery of the ancestors of the Li family in the Song Dynasty is located at the southwest end of the long street. It connects the village road with the tombs of the ancestors. This is also rare in ancient villages, which is enough to illustrate the respect that Cangpo people have for their ancestors. and respect. The things used to prevent fire in the village are two large pools, called inkstone pools. Next to the east and west pools, there is a stone shaped like an ink square. One end of the stone has been chipped and polished. It is said that At that time, this 4.5-meter-long stone with a cross-section of 0.5 and 0.3 meters was erected next to the pool. There are 51 and a half holes on the ink stone. According to the old people in the village, each hole on the stone represents a household. , later generations calculated from this that when graphite was erected, there were 51 and a half households in the village. Most of the houses in the entire village are built in square shapes with cobblestones, and the walls are about one person high. The layout of the building is neat and rigorous, and the roof ridges on the residential buildings are well-organized and well-proportioned, just like a large piece of paper spread out and written on. You really don’t know it without looking at it, but you can see it at a glance.
The starting point of the main street is the center of the village. The Li Family Ancestral Hall is at the starting point of Bi Street and on the east side of the entrance to the village.
There seems to be a little more "surname" on the side of the plaque on the Li family's ancestral hall. This is not a clerical error. Some villagers told us that there were several families with non-Li surnames in the village at that time. From here we can see that the ancient village did not mean to be xenophobic at that time. The village accepted people with other surnames to live in it, highlighting the harmonious coexistence. .
According to ancient architectural customs, ancestral halls are not close to temples. But back then, Mr. Li didn't care about this. Renji Temple is located on the east side of the ancestral hall. The Nanxi Folk Museum is the Renji Temple of that year. Renji Temple was built in 1055 by Li Bojun, the tenth ancestor of the Li family. The owner of the temple is not Guanyin, Guan Gong, or the ancestor of his clan, but a character from folklore named Zhou Chu. In Shishuoxinyu, there is an account of a man named Zhou Chu who roamed the countryside when he was young and was hated by his neighbors. Later, Zhou Chu changed his evil ways and returned to righteousness, eliminating great harm for the villagers in the village, and finally died on the battlefield. He was a model for people of all ages to educate young people to change their evil ways and become good. This shows the deeper meaning of building a temple. Temples in other places are generally built in a rigid and solemn way, but Li paid great attention to the creation of artistic atmosphere and beauty during construction. Looking up at the temple, he suddenly felt that it was a kind of cultural education. .
In front of Renji Temple, there are three ancient cypresses, which are 815 years old. It is said that Li Xizhai, the ninth generation ancestor of the Li family, was the one who personally planted the ancient cypresses. He not only encouraged villagers to plant trees and beautify their homes, but also issued a ban: "Anyone who ties a cow to a tree will immediately kill the cow without mercy." Once, unfortunately, a long-term worker tied his cow to a cypress tree. When Li Xizhai found out, he killed his own cow without any reason, which alarmed the whole village. From then on, no one harmed the green trees. Li Xizhai lost a cow, but in exchange for the ancient cypress, which was evergreen and graceful, the people in the village were convinced, and this rule has remained unchanged for thousands of years. When you walk into Cangpo Village and see the lush old trees, you can feel the long and ancient atmosphere, and it is rich.
The Songdi Pavilion and Wangxiong Hall in the village are two very distinctive ancient buildings in Cangpo Village. It is said that they were built in 1128 by Li Qiushan, the seventh ancestor of the Cangpo Li family, and his younger brother Li It was built after Jiamu was separated. At that time, his elder brother Li Qiushan moved to Fangdai's village on the other side of the river. However, the two brothers had a deep love for each other and continued to communicate frequently after their separation. They often talked about it late at night, and when they broke up, they had to send each other to the entrance of the village until one of them arrived safely. On the other side, when they raised the lanterns in their hands to show peace, the two brothers turned around and went home. Later, the two brothers agreed to build a pavilion in Cangpo Village and Fangdai Village respectively. The pavilion faced north and the pavilion faced south. The two pavilions were separated by a river of water. These were the moving pavilion for sending off brothers and looking at brothers. The shape of the pavilion is unique, especially the draped eaves. The curved eaves are sufficiently curved to look grand and bold, and the corners of the eaves are flying and very gentle. The pavilions are open on all sides, with wind blowing from all directions, and they face each other from a distance, expressing endless friendship. Gazing at the pavilion, you will naturally think a lot. This is also very educational for people today, especially how to deal with and communicate with blood relatives in life.
In addition to the traditional culture and art traditions of architecture, greening, and Buddhism in the village, the ancient Yongkun Opera is the folk art treasure of Cangpo Village. Mr. Yu Zhengfei, the former famous Beijing-Kunming drama artist in my country, once said: " Nan Kun and North Kun are not as good as Yong Kun." Yong Kun refers to the folk art of Kun Opera in Yongjia area. Here, the endangered Yongkun art is once again valued, which reflects the profound cultural heritage. Here, every New Year and festival, the ancient singing tunes of Yongkun will be heard on the ancient stage, attracting guests from all over the world.
Walking in this residential courtyard with beautiful Ming and Qing architecture and touching the scenery everywhere, in addition to seeing the scenic spots in the village, the warm hospitality of the villagers also makes people want to leave. Sitting in a local restaurant in the village, you can taste the rice wine made by the villagers, as well as wild vegetables, local chickens, local ducks, etc., and you will feel a strong fragrance and a different kind of wild interest and beauty.
Sitting in the ancient teahouse, sipping a cup of green tea specially made by the villagers, letting the breeze blow slowly, you will feel that you have been immersed in a beautiful green, and at the same time, you are lucky enough to absorb the literary spirit of the "Four Treasures of the Study". Extremely excited.