How did Shiqi get its name "Iron City"?
Category: Culture/Art>> Historical Topics
Analysis:
Why is Shiqi called Tiecheng
Shaoxing Twenty-Two in the Southern Song Dynasty In 1152 AD, the imperial court ordered Xiangshan to be established as a county.
The first major event after the establishment of the county was to build a somewhat decent county town for this island that used to rely on fishing and salt industry.
Where is the best location for the county seat? Of course, it is a location with a relatively developed economy, relatively concentrated residents, a certain scale, and better development prospects.
Among the 10 townships in Xiangshan County, Chang'an Township (today's Xiangzhou, Zhuhai City) benefited from fishing and salt, and was developed earlier. The famous Jindou Salt Field is one of the top ten salt fields in the South China Sea, and it has made great profits. Feng (the resources of the original Jibai Silver Mine have been gradually depleted due to years of excavation. Although gold and crystal veins were later discovered nearby, the reserves were not large and the grade was very low, so there was not much mining value). However, it is difficult to become a central city just as a fishing and salt producing area.
In fact, the only ones that can be considered are Fengle Township (today's Sanxiang) and Renhou Township (today's Shiqi). Most of the rest were recently established, and even the beaches that were just added from other counties are simply lacking. competitiveness.
The first place to choose is Fengle Township, which is today's Qiaotou, Pinglan, and Wushi areas. There is a vast plain with nearly a thousand households. It is a necessary place for land transportation from north to south of Xiangshan Island, and is also close to the harbor exits of Haotan (today's Tangjia) and Haojing'ao (today's Macao).
Another option is Renhouli (today's Shiqi) in Renhou Township. It is also a broad plain with nearly a thousand households. It is the hub of water and land transportation from north to south in the county, and is also the gateway to Guangzhou. Overland departure point. The three heroes of the Chen family in this township, Chen Tianlun, Chen Tianjue, and Chen Tianxu, are very prestigious. Chen Tianjue is the current village official and is acting as the county magistrate of the newly established Xiangshan County.
Chen Tianjue invited villagers and elders to discuss, but representatives from Fengle Township and Renhou Township held different opinions and couldn't agree. Chen Tianjue is from Renhou, so it is inconvenient to say too much at the moment. He had been a Beijing official and was accustomed to looking at problems with a broad vision and long-term perspective. He knew in his heart that the county seat was located on the back of the mountain and facing the water (at this time, the sea area between Xiangshan County and Nanhai County had gradually turned into land, which was later Shunde, and Shiqihai had evolved into Qijiang), and it had actually become a hub of communication with the state capital. Renhou Township is certainly much more advantageous than Fengle Township, which lacks the benefit of water transportation. In order to end the endless debate, he used one of the oldest but most effective "magic weapons", which is the theory of Kanyu (Feng Shui). He told the squires that there is an old saying: "The most important thing is the most valuable soil." We can weigh the soil in two places and choose where to build the city where the soil is heavier! Everyone unanimously agreed.
According to legend, Chen Tianjue played a trick beforehand. He secretly sent someone to mix iron sand into the soil samples in Renhou Township. The next "weighing of soil" was of course that the soil mixed with iron sand should be heavier. So it was agreed to build the city in Renhouli, Renhou Township. This incident later spread, and people turned it into a favorite story, and the newly completed county seat was nicknamed "Iron City". ——The above is the famous "Weighing the Earth" legend.
Yao Xiaozi, the magistrate of Dongguan County who originally governed Xiangshan, was very supportive of the city's construction. He personally came forward and mobilized Liu Bicong, a school captain from Xiangshan who was the deputy general of Yongzhou, to donate a large area of his ancestral land (today's Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall) located in the center of the future county to build the county government. At the same time, Chen Tianjue hired five people, Liang Xifu and his son, a famous architectural family in Quyong Township, Renhouli, to take charge of city construction affairs. They chose an auspicious day to break ground and start construction. The construction was completed in the 24th year of Shaoxing (1154), two years after the establishment of Xiangshan County. The temporary county government located in Shanchang (today's Xiangzhou, Zhuhai) where Xiangshan Village is located was officially moved to Tiecheng from this time on.