I have just experienced the natural scenery of Jiuse Gannan, and I am thinking about going to an old city and village where I can feel the charm of the ancient times, even if it is dilapidated and incomplete. Such old streets in ancient cities have imprints left by time, traces of the passage of time, and what is even more valuable is that they carry the memory of history.
So, I thought of Dangjia Village and Hancheng, and went there.
Hancheng, a famous historical and cultural city. The place where Sima Qian, the great writer and historian of the Western Han Dynasty, was born and rested. With a history of more than 1,500 years, the city is dotted with cultural relics and historic sites, and there are as many as 29 key cultural relics protection units, including 15 national key cultural relics protection units. The well-preserved Sima Qian Temple, Confucian Temple, City God Temple, Jiulang Temple, Beiying Temple, and Dayu Temple from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, as well as old streets and lanes, ancient dwellings in Dangjia Village, Zhixiu Bridge, and Yuxiu Bridge... …
The theater building with carved beams and painted tiles in the Chenghuang Temple, the archway with cornices and brackets on the avenue in front of the temple, the lifelike brick carvings on the screen wall of Beiying Temple, and the ancient buildings of the Confucian Temple and Jiulang Temple all contain profound history and culture. It is a living teaching material for ancient architecture and sculpture art. Experts look at the door, while laymen look at the excitement. As a tourist, in addition to marveling at the grand scale of the ancient buildings and the exquisite carving art, I cannot understand the artistic attainments and historical and cultural values ??contained in it, and I cannot write it with a clumsy pen.
Walking into that ancient street is like traveling through a time and space tunnel. The stone-paved streets spread out from north to south in a slightly curved shape, and the shops built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties on both sides still retain their style. The two-story buildings of brick-wood structure, blue bricks and gray tiles are located next to each other, maintaining the original layout of the shops in front and the residences in the back. Most of the shop fronts are made of wood. Long wooden boards are assembled into upper and lower wooden troughs. They are unloaded during business hours to display the products in the store to customers, and then reassembled when closing. These old shops have ancient features and mottled paint marks that bear witness to the vicissitudes of the ancient city and allow people to touch the long history of the old city.
“The value for money is of high quality, and the goods are flawless.” Couplets with a background color and large characters in vermilion or gold are engraved on them, highlighting the business philosophy of the merchants and the strong commercial atmosphere of the ancient city, and making the ancient city reveal its profound cultural heritage. "Every cloud in the inn brings auspiciousness, and there is no fragrance in the secluded room." This pair of ancient inn couplets with neat contrasts and beautiful artistic conception made me stop and ponder for a long time. I would like to stay in the inn to soak up a little auspiciousness and take it away. The impulse of a faint fragrance. In order to find out who wrote this couplet, I searched online and found that it came from the "Sikuquanshu" compiled by the royal family in the Qing Dynasty.
Dozens of deep alleys such as Zhang Lane, Wujia Lane, Jingba Lane, Wanwan Lane, and Chaozi Lane are distributed on both sides of the street, connecting the bustling commercial streets of the ancient city with the quiet courtyard houses. Connected with ordinary residential buildings. The uneven walls on both sides of the lane and the oozing white salt stains silently tell the passing tourists about the thousand years of wind and rain that the ancient city has experienced. From the names of these ancient streets and alleys, we can see the functions, shapes, and distribution of families in the alleys back then. Most of the residents in the old lane still live in the old brick and wood structures left by their ancestors. There is a gatehouse at the door, family mottos are engraved on the central card, and brick and stone carvings are inlaid on the walls on both sides.
Shima Qian Temple is located on a hill 10 kilometers south of the city. It was built according to the situation of the mountain. From bottom to top, there are several wooden archways and gate towers built in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, with inscriptions on them: "Sima Temple of Taishi of the Han Dynasty", "Yangzhi of the High Mountains", "Sun of the Rivers and Mountains", etc., which are metaphors for Sima Qian. "Morality is as high as a mountain, and the world admires it most"; "I moved to Longmen to cultivate the sun of rivers and mountains." There are dedicated halls, dormitories, and mausoleums built in the temple; famous people from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties have engraved their tributes and chants on the stone tablets in the courtyard, hidden among the towering pines and cypresses, including many famous calligraphy works. "Although the Sima Qian Temple is small in scale, its style is as transcendent and refined as Sima Qian's personality and articles."
There is an ancient road called Sima Po under the temple. According to the stone tablet beside the road, it was first built in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It was the main road in Hexi of the Jin (Wei) Kingdom. After the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, it was the only way to Chang'an from Hancheng and surrounding areas. The existing stone strips were laid during the Northern Song Dynasty. They were originally 1,500 meters long, but are now only more than 300 meters long. After more than 300 years of rain erosion, weathering and rolling by people and vehicles, the once flat stone strips have become uneven. The clear and numerous ruts on the stone strips are evidence of the once prosperous history of this place, and they also seem to indicate the rough and tragic life of Shi Ma Qian.
Let me say a few more words here. According to folklore in Hancheng: Tong and Feng in Hancheng are both descendants of Sima Qian. At that time, Sima Qian was persecuted by the imperial court. In order to avoid the enemy's pursuit of his descendants, Sima Qian asked his two sons to return to their hometown in Hancheng and hide their names. Taking the Sima compound surname apart, the character "Si" plus one dot is the surname of the eldest son, and the character "Ma" plus two dots is the surname "Feng" of the second son. For hundreds of years, these two surnames have regarded Sima Qian as their ancestor and worshiped him together.
When you walk into Dangjia Village, the wind blowing in your face carries the atmosphere of ancient times. Ancient lanes paved with river stones, ancient courtyards, tall gatehouses, exquisite wood carvings and stone carvings on door lintels and screen walls, the elegant mounting stone in front of the door, and the solemn ancestral hall of the Dang family. These ancient buildings all tell visitors about the past of Dangjia Village. of prosperity and glory. The Jie Xiao Monument towering beside the village road, its gorgeous appearance hides a story of a woman's resentment and sadness.
Dangjia Village is called a living fossil of ancient dwellings in the northwest by relevant experts. This place has profound cultural connotation and historical accumulation, and every brick, stone, plant and tree here exudes a strong ancient atmosphere.
Hancheng is an ancient city with a long history, many cultural relics and cultural landscapes; it is a city that has many things to talk about, listen to and see. If you go there once, you will want to go there again. If you don’t go, you will regret it for the rest of your life. place.