Interesting Talk about Ziyang | There are more than 300 villages in one county. Why Anyue became the "Kingdom of Ancient Villages"
When you walk into Anyue County, Ziyang City, you can see place names with "zhai" everywhere, and most of them are derived from the name of ancient villages.
According to statistics, there are more than 300 ancient villages in Anyue County. The oldest ancient village can be traced back to more than 1,000 years ago. Today, some ancient villages only have ruins, but there are still dozens of them. The ancient villages are well-preserved and have high cultural relic value. Some people praised that "each village has endless stories, and each village is like a book." Due to the large number of ancient villages and its long history, Anyue is also known as the "Kingdom of Ancient Villages".
Why does this county, located in the hilly area of the Sichuan Basin, have so many ancient villages? The answer to this question must be found in history.
Anyue got its name from "living in the mountains". In the fourth year of Jiande in the Northern Zhou Dynasty (AD 575), Puzhou and Anyue County were founded, and the prefecture and county governed the same city. This place is located at the throat of Bashu and is a battleground for military strategists. The famous general Cheng Yaojin once stationed here. In the age of war, local officials and squires who wanted to "live in peace in the mountains" relied on mountains to build villages, and the stone villages that were easy to defend and difficult to attack also became their refuge.
"Anyue Ancient Village Preface" records that the functions of Anyue Village are as follows: first, to avoid war, it was built by the gentry with money and neighbors' efforts; second, to block the world, built by Temples were built by raising funds; third, they were built by the government to station troops and defend territory; fourth, they were built by wealthy gentry to protect property and occupy geomantic treasures.
According to expert research, the ancient village that began in the Tang Dynasty mainly served the function of military defense. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the newly built ancient villages mainly played the role of preventing bandits and protecting wealth. During the Republic of China, many ancient villages became garrison points for various armed forces. Later, these ancient villages were gradually converted into residential buildings, temples or tourist attractions, and they remain today.
Nowadays, famous ancient villages such as Qianfo Village, Yaojiazhai and Wangjiazhai have attracted many tourists, but there are still many ancient villages in Anyue that are "kept in boudoir", waiting for the world to visit and explore them. story.