Tourist attractions in Jiuzhou Ancient Town

Huangping Jiuzhou is a basin formed by the Yanshan orogeny. It is surrounded by mountains and has many mountains and rivers. It has a large dam and crisscrossing roads. It has a pleasant climate and abundant products. It is rich and famous throughout the country. From the Zhou and Qin Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, they were all the administrative offices of prefectures and prefectures. Due to the convenient transportation between Wushui and the Yuanjiang River, the Yangtze River and the post road from Yunnan and Guizhou to Kyoto, merchants from all dynasties gathered here and the market prospered. With the frequent entry and exit of outsiders, various cultures have also poured in, interacting and colliding with local culture, forming a melting pot of multiculturalism with rich civilization, and its architecture has also become unique.

According to historical records, before the Song Dynasty, Jiuzhou City was originally built in Tianguanzhai (more than 800 meters north of the present Jiuzhou City). It was only moved to its current address after the Song Dynasty. After more than two thousand years of vicissitudes, the original ancient city has collapsed, rotted and disappeared due to wind and rain, and has completely disappeared.

The present-day Jiuzhou ancient city was built in the sixth year of Emperor Zong Baoyou’s reign in the Song Dynasty (1258). After the Yuan Dynasty, it was destroyed and rebuilt several times. During the Wanli period of Shenzong in the Ming Dynasty (around 1571), Guo Zizhang, the governor of Guizhou at that time, wrote a memorial to establish the state and ordered Cao Jinke to supervise the construction of the state city again. The city wall is built with stone as the foundation and brick as the wall. It is built solidly and magnificently with a huge project. It has four gates, east, west, north and south. The east is called "Weichun", later changed to "Longyuan", the south is called "Qixing", and later changed to "Qing". Yun", the west was called "Qingcheng", later changed to "Dongping", the north was called "Wusheng", and later changed to "Qing'an". Each city gate has a tower placed on it. It is shaped like a resting mountain or a hanging mountain. It is built with green square bricks and has two or three floors. It is used to look out and defend against enemies. There are also four forts and five water holes, with a circumference of nine miles and three minutes and eighteen steps (4062 meters in total). Later, Li Fengchun, the state pastor, built 1,300 additional buildings in the city. In the sixth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty (1633), it was repaired again. Patrol horse roads and several city pools were built on the city wall. The dancing water flowing eastward on the north side was also used to build a moat. In 1737, the second year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty, Governor Zhang Guangsi inscribed a memorial to Zhizhou Jin Zuoji to repair the city wall, increasing the length to 4,223 meters, and building a new city gate at Xiaoximen. At this point, the city wall buildings are complete, strong and majestic, and the city appearance is neat and tidy, which is one of the few in Guizhou. The location and location of Jiuzhou Ancient City is unique. It is completely based on the ancient Chinese Feng Shui theory and standardizes the design according to the five elements of dragon, sand, water, cave and direction. It is built according to the mountain and the situation, which is both reasonable and beautiful. In the late Qing Dynasty, after several wars and fires, the beautiful city appearance was greatly reduced. During the Republic of China, water hit Laoli Dam in the west of the city. The floods broke down the river embankment and turned the bustling Laoliba street into a river beach. More than 2,000 residents were wiped out. The county magistrate Shen Lin ordered the demolition of the city walls and stones. River embankments were built and city walls began to be destroyed on a large scale. After liberation, due to the weak awareness of cultural relics protection by local leaders, they arbitrarily demolished the city wall stones to make the cornerstones of the grain depot. In 1958, during the "Great Leap Forward" to build the Liangchahe Reservoir, all the wall stones were demolished in one fell swoop. The ruins are still clearly visible.

Street Houses

The streets of Jiuzhou Ancient City have a unique style. The street network is mainly composed of the west and north directions near Wushui to facilitate drainage, and the secondary main roads are from east to west. Or north-south. The two main roads are mainly in the east and west direction, and many streets and alleys intersect, making travel in the city accessible in all directions. The streets and lanes are all paved with natural stone and cobblestones from the local river, in the shape of a fish's back. The streets are not slippery in rainy or snowy weather, and the streets are not slippery in rainy or snowy conditions. This unique style is different from other cities.

There are many streets in Jiuzhou Ancient City. The main road section from west to north is Laoliba, and after crossing Fuzhong Bridge, it is Mendongpo, West Street, Cangpo, Cross Street, and Beimen. Street and Sangong Bridge are more than 3,000 meters long. The secondary roads, from west to north, are Majia Lane, Carpenter Street, Madian Street, Guojia Lane and Beimen Street. The branch streets and lanes that connect and extend between the main and secondary roads include Xinjie, Bamboo Market, Platform, Zaoliang Market, Laiziwan, Liujia Lane, Chujia Lane, Caishen Lane, Sunjiawan, Chayuan, and Tangchong Bay. , Zhongquanxiang, becoming a vertical and horizontal network system. There are underground drainage ditches on both sides of the street, and they merge into several large drainage ditches and flow into the Wishui River. This large, well-organized drainage system is rare among ancient urban buildings and can still be used as a reference for today's urban construction.

The houses on both sides of the street are all seal-shaped buildings separated by high firewalls. The residential houses are all brick and wood structure courtyards, with flying eaves and corners, like spring swallows spreading their wings. The houses are connected in rows, separated by high brick walls, which are 1-2 meters beyond the houses. The top of the wall is mostly a double-slope, double-eaves, horse-head gable, and phoenixes and dragons are painted on conspicuous places on the outside of the walls, which is lifelike. Flying is not only good at preventing fire and theft, but also very beautiful. The courtyard is equipped with a sun dam, hall, bedrooms, granary, kitchen, well, sun building, toilet, etc., and is fully functional, making it a typical example of Jiangnan folk residences.

There are also double pavilions on both sides of the front door of the house facing the street, which are used for commercial operations. They are arranged in a patchwork and the city appearance is neat. The depth of the Yinzi House varies depending on the terrain and financial resources. Generally, there are 1-2 entrances, and more often there are 3-4 entrances. The courtyard is in the middle, with square stone paving, and the two-sided room is spacious and natural, refined and elegant, exquisite and simple. The sun shines on the courtyard and the moon falls on the deep well, forming the unique courtyard scenery of Jiuzhou ancient city. Among them, the houses of wealthy merchants were mostly built to be tall, majestic and magnificent, with large materials, exquisite carvings, ingenious structures and extraordinary momentum. The bedrooms are elegantly decorated, with calligraphy, paintings, chess and piano in the halls, exquisite carvings on doors, windows, corridors, and unique gardens. There are more than 2,000 houses in the city, with natural and reasonable layout, neat and elegant appearance.

(1) The Lu family’s house

The typical example of residential architecture is the Qingchuan house of the wealthy businessman Lu family. The house is located in the middle of West Street and borders West Street to the north. It is adjacent to Majia Lane in the south. There are nine patios in the house, and the building covers an area of ​​more than 1,200 square meters. It is a seal-shaped closed building with high firewall. There are five main buildings and many wing buildings in the Yin Yuan. The main buildings are arranged along the north and south axes. Except for the one facing the street which is used as a business building, the rest are all in the Tongseal Courtyard. There is a high, thick and solid wall in front of the second main building from the north, connected by a stone door. Every two main rooms in the courtyard have a pavilion with eaves overhanging the top of the mountain. They are all made of large and high-quality wood, forming a courtyard courtyard with a large scale and numerous stone doors. On the stone strips of the door, there are inscribed couplets such as "Reading the books of sages will make you enlightened by etiquette; doing benevolent and righteous deeds will lead you far". The doors, windows, and corridors are exquisitely carved; the halls and rooms are decorated with calligraphy, painting, music, and chess; the hooks and tiles are specially made; the eaves of the walls are printed on the ridges, and the dragons and phoenixes are cast and lifelike; they are full of the rich traditional architectural flavor of Bashu, Hunan, and Hubei.

(2) Zhu’s Residence

Zhu’s Residence (10 photos)

(First built in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty), located in the north of Xiajie Street, West Street On the other side, Zhu's residence is located opposite Tianhou Temple on Xixia Street, covering an area of ​​893 square meters. It consists of a street shop, a wing room, an upper room and three mountain screen walls on the east and west sides. Its architectural carving craftsmanship is exquisite, its shape is beautiful, its knife skills are skillful, and its lines are smooth. It is the best in architectural carving. In the main room above the entrance hall, the lintel of the main door is carved with "Two Phoenixes Chaoyang" and a horse riding flower teeth. The windows on both sides are carved with auspicious patterns such as "Fishing Vertebrae Farming and Reading", "Five Blessings at the Door", "Eight Immortals Celebrating Birthday", "Qin, Chess, Calligraphy and Painting". The carving craftsmanship is outstanding, and the flowers, birds and figures are exquisite. On the brick wall on the west side of the courtyard, there is a relief sculpture of flowers, and exquisite patterns such as "Fish Leaping over the Dragon Gate" and "Fish Leaping over the Dragon Gate" are engraved on the fire-fighting stone water tank below. The rockery is weird, the vines are climbing, the flowers are gorgeous, and the rare trees are cleverly planted. It is simply a miniature wonderland, which is amazing to look at.

(3) Dayuanfa"

Dayuanfa" (10 photos)

It was built during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty and is located on the south side of West Street Middle Street , covering an area of ​​1195 square meters, facing south to north and arranged along the vertical axis. The whole group of buildings has one floor and one bottom, with 6 main buildings and 8 wing rooms. Build a partition wall behind the third main house from the north (leaving a doorway). It is divided into two seal rooms, front and rear (north and south). The front (north) Yinzi House has three main buildings and four wing rooms; the back (south) Yinzi House has three main rooms and four wing rooms. The whole group of buildings is large in scale, rigorous in layout, ingenious in design, exquisite in carvings, and unique.

Gongs, temples and nunneries

In the old days, there were many temples, temples and nunneries in Jiuzhou. They were called "nine palaces, eight temples, three nunneries, four pavilions and five halls", but in fact they were outside the city. There are nearly fifty large and small temples, palaces, pavilions and ancestral temples, which are the most famous in Guizhou. "Nine Palaces" refers to Wanshou Palace, Wantian Palace, Tianhou Palace, Renshou Palace, Wenchang Palace, King Yu Palace, Chongfu Palace, etc.; "Eight Temples" refers to Confucius Temple, City God Temple, Black Temple, Guandi Temple, Erlang Temple, Wuxian Temple, Mazu Temple, etc.; "three nunnery" refers to Putuo nunnery, Guangchang nunnery, Zhuang nunnery; "four pavilions" refers to Changgeng Pavilion, Kuixing Pavilion, Yuhuang Pavilion, etc. "Nine Palaces" is the product of the integration of Hunan-Hubei architecture, Bashu architecture and local ethnic folk architectural craftsmanship under specific social and historical conditions. It is quite large-scale and distinctive. Its architectural features are that it is surrounded by high wind and fire walls and covers an area of ​​more than a thousand square meters. It has an archway, front door, front chamber, front hall, courtyard dam or stage theater building, main hall, side halls, etc. Most of the halls are a mixed structure with single eaves, hard top, raised beams and buckets. The layout of the whole palace (pavilion) is rigorous, and the production skills of brackets and carvings are exquisite. The construction and treatment of each palace are very different and unique. All kinds of theater organizations that come to Jiuzhou use guild halls or temples to perform. Wanshou Palace, Renshou Palace, Sichuan Guild Hall, etc. can accommodate 700-900 spectators. The stage of Chenghuang Temple is an open-air theater with a capacity of 1,000 people.

The "eight temples, three nunneries, and four pavilions" are typical Buddhist, Taoist, and Catholic buildings with exquisite craftsmanship, grandeur, grandeur, solemnity, and awe. There are many bronze and clay sculptures of ghosts and gods inside the temple, which are lifelike and lifelike.

The rise of temples in Jiuzhou can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. According to the Records of Huangping Prefecture in Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty, Baoxiang Temple in the eastern suburbs is the "Ancient Temple of Li Tang"; Baozhu Temple in Cenhua (1 km north of the city) is a Buddhist temple in the Song Dynasty; Fuzhiyuan in the city is a Taoist temple in the Yuan Dynasty; Qinpo (city) The Taiping Temple (1 km northeast) was built in the early Ming Dynasty; the Taoist Yuxu Mansion on the top of Gutai Mountain was already famous during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, and people came to visit it incessantly. Later, Buddhism and Taoism gathered here , "Gutai Wonderland" ranked first among the "Sixteen Scenic Spots in Jiuzhou". In the Ming Dynasty, the temples and pavilions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in Jiuzhou gradually flourished, and reached their peak in the Qing Dynasty. In the nearly three hundred years of the Qing Dynasty, the ancient city of Jiuzhou not only had numerous temples, but also with the development of the commercial economy, businessmen and gentry from other provinces poured in, and correspondingly a number of town halls were built as a gathering place for fellow townsmen. The guild halls built in Jiuzhou include Fujian guild hall (Tianhou Palace), Jiangxi Linjiang guild hall (Renshou Palace), Sichuan guild hall (Wantian Palace), Jiangxi guild hall (Wanshou Palace), Jiangnan guild hall, Lianghu guild hall, and Yunnan guild hall. Among them, the Jiangxi Guild Hall is rare in Guizhou for its large scale and exquisite carvings. Jiuzhou suffered from wars many times in history, and these temples and palaces were repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. In the fifth year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty (1855), the whole city was burned down. In the Guangxu generation, it was basically restored and beautifully constructed, fully embodying the traditional architectural art of southern my country. , there is a folk song from time to time: "It looks like a temple from a distance, but it looks like an eternal symbol up close. I can't afford it in its entirety. Some people want to tear it apart." Here we select a few typical temples and pavilions for the readers’ enjoyment.

Main ancient buildings on North Street:

Guangchang Temple, Zhigui Temple, Chenghuang Temple, Tiandi Temple, Huoshen Temple, Wu Temple, Dousha, Jiangnan Guild Hall, Yangsi Temple , Black Temple, Erlang Temple, Crystal Temple, etc.

The main ancient buildings on South Street:

Xuanyuan Temple, Meige Temple, Yuwang Palace, Zhangye Temple, Caishen Temple, Chongsheng Temple, Luban Temple, Tuzhu Temple, Wanshou Palace , Guanyin Temple, Wuxian Temple, Kuige, Confucian Temple, Jade Emperor Temple, Zushi Temple, Sun Bin Temple, Laojun Temple, etc.

Main ancient buildings in the suburbs:

Dongyue Temple, Nanyue Temple, Longwang Pavilion, Gutai Mountain Temple, Baoxiang Temple, Baozhu Temple, Taiping Temple, Guiyuan Temple, etc.