Behind the "Kaiping Diaolou", there is a historical story belonging to the "Jinshan Guest", which is bitter and beautiful

In the history of Jiangmen, there are several generations of people who, for the sake of a bright future, embarked on a journey to the end of the world composed of tears and sweat, left their hometowns and became overseas Chinese one by one. Overseas Chinese have experienced despair, realized dreams and glory in a foreign country, and brought back some advanced foreign culture, making Jiangmen a famous "hometown of overseas Chinese."

I have lived in Jiangmen for nearly four years, and I occasionally visit some scenic spots. I was lucky enough to witness the "Kaiping Diaolou" influenced by overseas Chinese culture. Kaiping Diaolou, located in Kaiping under the jurisdiction of Jiangmen, is a building produced by Chinese traditional culture actively absorbing foreign culture. It is a multi-story tower-style building that integrates defense, residence and Chinese and Western architectural art. It is a combination of Chinese and Western folk houses, with ancient Greek , ancient Rome and Islamic styles.

Next, let’s talk about “Kaiping Diaolou”!

As a famous scenic spot in Jiangmen, the most suitable tourist season for Kaiping Diaolou is from April to June, or from September to October. In this season, when you travel near Kaiping Diaolou, you will see a peaceful pastoral scenery, with bright spring scenery and a gentle breeze blowing up layers of "bamboo seas". The pond next to the bamboo forest has waves of small ripples, and fish are playing in the water. This is a unique scene in the Jiangnan water town, but there is nothing special about it.

However, when you look up and into the distance, you will see towers standing in the fields and among thousands of flowers, with ancient Greek, ancient Roman and Islamic styles. , this is surprising.

On June 28, 2007, "Kaiping Diaolou and Ancient Villages" applied for a World Cultural Heritage project, and it was approved at the 31st World Heritage Conference in New Zealand, and was officially included in the "World Heritage List". It became China’s 35th world heritage site, and China thus gave birth to its first overseas Chinese culture world heritage project.

In its heyday, there were nearly 3,000 Kaiping watchtowers, and 1,833 are now in existence. These watchtowers are divided according to their functions and can be divided into Julou (built solely by local wealthy people and used for daily living), Watchtowers (built at village entrances, river banks and other places for early warning) and Zhonglou (built jointly by villagers, Used to temporarily avoid bandits or floods); watchtowers are divided according to building materials and are divided into reinforced cement buildings, blue brick buildings, mud buildings, stone buildings, etc. Among them, reinforced cement buildings are the hardest, while blue brick buildings are both hard and beautiful. All in one.

Kaiping Diaolou can be said to be a miracle of Chinese vernacular architecture. It is an excellent building that combines Chinese and Western elements. Behind it is a bitter and beautiful historical story.

The so-called "diaolou" is a building that combines the shape of a defensive fortress with a building. It appeared in the Han Dynasty and was widely used in rural areas. However, the story of Kaiping Diaolou must start from the Ming Dynasty.

Now, if we look at the map of Jiangmen Wuyi area, we can see a special geographical location of Kaiping. Kaiping is located at the junction of Xinhui, Taishan, Enping and Xinxing counties. In history, all junctions must be chaotic. "The mountains are high and the emperor is far away." The court's policies and officers and soldiers can't reach them at all, and naturally they can't control them. Therefore, since the Ming Dynasty, Kaiping has become a place of "four disregards", with rampant bandits and chaotic social security; and due to its low-lying terrain and numerous rivers, floods occur frequently every time there are typhoons and rains.

Due to various reasons, the local people were forced to build watchtowers in the village to protect themselves. During the Jiajing period, in order to protect his family and ensure the safety of life and property of the villagers, the Guan family of Sanmenli Village in Kaiping built a large-scale shelter, the Yinglong Tower, which is the oldest existing watchtower in Kaiping.

Yinglong Tower has a simple and unsophisticated shape, not beautiful, but it is extremely strong. Yinglong Tower faces south and covers an area of ​​152 square meters. There is a floor-to-ceiling tower at each corner of the building with small windows on all sides. In the local area, I heard from the older generation that the Yinglong Tower has protected them for generations and escaped several floods and bandits. People call it the "life-saving tower".

In the late Ming Dynasty, the situation of official pressure and popular rebellion became more and more serious. In order to strengthen local security, local officials encouraged landlords to set up local armed forces and form strongholds to protect themselves. Therefore, during the Chongzhen period, the Guan family built another "Ruiyun Tower".

In 1848, a large number of gold mines were discovered in Northern California. Then, the "gold rush" began in 1849. With the construction of the Pacific Railway, news of recruiting Chinese workers also spread to China, and people rushed to pan for gold. In Kaiping, some young people embarked on a "gold rush" journey for a bright future. These people have a unique name - "Jinshan Guests".

However, after nearly three or four months of wandering, the Jinshan tourists who arrived in the United States discovered that the reality was not what they imagined. In order to search for gold and build railways, they traveled to remote mountainous areas for a long time. They did the most difficult and tiring work, and their lives were extremely difficult.

However, Huangtian paid off. With the long-term efforts of Jinshanke, they gradually established a firm foothold in the United States, Canada and other places.

At this time, in order to take care of their families, Jinshan guests began to remit their hard-earned money back to their hometowns. By the early 20th century, the Wuyi area of ​​Jiangmen had become the hometown of overseas Chinese, and the lives of overseas Chinese family members had also been improved, which also laid a solid economic foundation for the rise of Kaiping Diaolou.

During the Republic of China, society was in turmoil. The "Four No Matters" policy in Kaiping made public security even more chaotic. Bandits were rampant, and the wealthy overseas Chinese led to them being killed.

Between 1912 and 1926, in just 14 years, bandits hijacked schools in Kaiping eight times and kidnapped more than a hundred teachers and students.

However, one night in 1922, things took a turn.

In December of that year, many gangsters wanted to hijack Kaiping Middle School in Chikan area. They were discovered by the searchlights of the Yingcun watchtower. Personnel from the four township corps promptly intercepted and successfully rescued the principal. and 17 students.

This incident caused a sensation throughout the county. Chinese overseas also heard the news and were very happy, thinking that the watchtowers built could prevent bandits. Therefore, the overseas Chinese who did not want to be "fat" in the eyes of the gangsters began to fight back against the "barbarism".

The overseas Chinese began to work hard outside, save money on food and clothing, and raise funds to send back to their hometowns, allowing the villagers to build watchtowers for self-protection. Moreover, due to the shortage of design talents in the country, many overseas Chinese hired people to design the blueprints of the watchtowers in their countries of residence and sent them back to their hometowns. This also created Kaiping watchtowers with various styles and artistic characteristics.

As a result, since the 20th century, many bunkers have been built on Kaiping's 1,659 square kilometers of land.

Later, in order to ensure the safety of their families and protect their property from loss, when the overseas Chinese returned to their hometowns to build new houses, they also built their new houses into various watchtower-style buildings. This also created It marked the explosive development of Kaiping Diaolou during the Republic of China.

Among them, the show-off mentality of some overseas Chinese has also made the watchtowers originally used for defense become extremely beautiful, and they have brought together foreign architectural art of different periods and styles, such as ancient Greece. Colonnades, ancient Roman columns, arches and vaults, European medieval Gothic pointed arches and Islamic style arches, European castle components, arcades in Portuguese architecture, Renaissance and 17th century European Baroque-style buildings, etc. With artistic characteristics.

There is such a record in "Kaiping Mingbao": Yu (interviewer) took advantage of Longtang City and saw a red Cambodian sticker posted on the door of He's Ancestral Temple. He looked at it before walking and read the following: : The author of the post is the Longtang Lianbao Hall. Due to the fierce atmosphere of banditry, it is unreasonable to attack and rob people everywhere. We are aware of this and have held a meeting to discuss the plan for public security. The public will discuss it. The hall property was sold, and watchtowers were built to protect the place..." It can be seen from this that the original intention of watchtowers is to defend and resist bandits.

Therefore, in Kaiping, as a defensive "haven" "The watchtowers are generally four or five stories high, with the highest reaching nine stories. Some watchtowers are not usually inhabited, and only when gangsters come, they will go in and take shelter. Therefore, most of the indoor spaces are narrow, and in order to save money, there are many wooden floors between floors.

Around the walls, there are windows with downward openings and iron plate windows; on the roof, in order to provide accurate warning, there are protruding square or round corner fortresses with There are shooting holes.

In the watchtower, the door is the only way in and out. The door panel is made of thick steel plates. There are usually three or four locks inside the door, and there are iron gates outside the door. There is a small opening above the door, which is very strong.

In that turbulent era, the overseas Chinese in Kaiping built watchtowers with industrious hands to protect themselves. Diaolou can protect the family, but it cannot accompany them.

The status of overseas Chinese in that era was very low, and the money they earned could not support the expenses of living in a foreign country, so the local overseas Chinese in Kaiping were often separated from their families. The two places could not see each other twice a year.

During the years of separation, the contact between overseas Chinese and their families could only rely on letters from home. In the local archives in Kaiping, about the overseas Chinese. There are hundreds of letters home. Therefore, in order to be able to reunite with their families, overseas Chinese usually returned to China to develop their lives.

As a result, many overseas Chinese began to pay attention to the aesthetics of watchtowers and began to build them. Many exquisite watchtowers were built, which in today’s terms are just villas.

By this time, the watchtowers were not only used for defense, but also a symbol of the owner’s status and status, and also a symbol of the overseas Chinese. They have a strong sense of nostalgia. Having the funds to build a building means that the overseas Chinese do not have to wander again and can be reunited with their families.

The overseas Chinese began to pay attention to the appearance of the watchtowers, which made the watchtowers during the Republic of China beautiful. It is beautiful and has the characteristics of art. Because of this, today, we are lucky enough to witness a miracle of Chinese vernacular architecture.

In the watchtowers in Kaiping, the relatives of overseas Chinese sent a letter to the family. , "My little daughter has learned to speak", "Did you receive the letter I sent yesterday", "My parents are very concerned about it".

This letter from home also tells the story of the locals in Kaiping who have been away from each other for a long time. This is a bitter history, but it has also created the miracle of Chinese vernacular architecture.

Under this indestructible watchtower, there is not only the love of local people for their families, but also the deep nostalgia of Jinshan guests.

Xiaopi

Reference materials: "Kaiping Diaolou and Villages", "Kaiping County Chronicles", "Kaiping Mingbao"