Ancient town? Qingyan

Huang Wenya

From Guiyang southbound, you can take a bus through Huaxi, the "Pearl of the Plateau", and see the vast rice fields, winding green hills and clear rivers in turn. Going further south for more than 20 kilometers, you can see the lush Lion Mountain, which looks like two lions are facing each other. It is the main peak of Qingyan Town, hence the name Qingyan Town.

At its southern foot, it is an ancient city building standing on a cliff, with resplendent glazed tiles, double eaves shaped like flying wings, majestic gates, and buildings dotted below; Ancient buildings with the same blue-tiled wood structure on the north and south sides are arranged in rows on both sides of bluestone steps and streets, dotted with beautifully carved white stone archways, which are simple and elegant, quiet and quiet; On the east and west sides, there are many modern buildings and highways running through them.

The name of Qingyan is said to be because Qingyan was everywhere in the early years. Ming Hongzhi's "New Records of Guizhou Illustrations" contains: "Elegant, five miles south of Zhi Zhi, under the avant-garde of Guizhou." Qing Daoguang's "Guiyang Fuzhi" also recorded: "Qingyan Castle, under the elegance". Elegant is lion mountain now. This mountain is far from Pyongyang, and there are thousands of hectares of fertile land under it. A stone wall winds from the direction of national highway 20 1, blocking the ancient post road coming out of the battery. Towering towers stand tall, and there is the word "Dingguangmen" in the book, which shows that this ancient post road, which reaches Dingfanzhou (now Huishui County) and Guang Shun County (now Changshun County) in the south, has been the main throat of Qiannan to Guangxi since ancient times.

When you enter Qingyan from Dingguangmen, you enter a world of blue and white stones, and what kind of "stone city" is in front of you. Stone is the skeleton of Qingyan, and Qingyan is its body skeleton. According to historical records, tomorrow, in the second year and the seventh year of the apocalypse, An Bangyan, a company in Xuanwei, Guizhou, rebelled. It was impossible to encircle Qingyan twice for several months, and Shi Dakai failed to attack Qingyan during Xianfeng period of Qing Dynasty. Qingyan relies on such a solid stone frame. Qingyan people rely on the help of stones to maintain peace, and with the help of stones, they have built many stone buildings, stone walls, stone streets, stone courtyards, stone archways, stone sculptures and stone counters, just like a stone culture museum.

Paving the floor with bluestone and building walls with white stone are the biggest features of Qingyan ancient town. The white stone of Qingyan is called "White Stone", which is as white as brocade, with distinct texture and the shape of overlapping yarns. Not far from Dingguangmen, there is a century-old Zhao Lilun Square, which is a representative of platinum architecture. There are also the deep and winding back streets, narrow alleys, and the courtyard walls of houses on both sides, just like the push-ups of hundreds of pounds of stones in the natural state, layer by layer until there are thousands of layers. Each layer seems to contain valuable information of historical changes like geological information, which makes people feel beautiful and endless vicissitudes.

There are 8 archways in Shiban Street, and there are still 3 "Zhao Baisui Square", "Zhao Ethic Baisui Square" and "Zhou Daughter-in-law Liu Jiexiao Square".

Zhao's Centennial Square is located on the rock beside the white grave outside the north gate of the town. It was built in June of 19th year of Qing Daoguang (1839). It is in the form of four pillars, three rooms and four roofs on the third floor. It is 9.5 meters high and 9 meters wide. The four pillars are supported by drums in the north and south, with a horizontal plaque in the middle. In the north, there is a facade of "big leaves and auspiciousness" given by Daoguang. There are various patterns of flowers and plants embossed on the beams and columns, and five trapezoidal stone benches are installed at the upper end. In the middle of the stone bench, there is a "dragon claw picture" engraved with the "imperial edict" plaque. Every pillar of the stone workshop is engraved with couplets praising Zhao. On the top of the stone workshop, "two claws with shells".

Zhao Nationality Centennial Square is located in Guangmen, Dingnan Town. It is 9.5 meters high and 9 meters wide, with four pillars and three rooms, three floors and four roofs, facing south. Its four-column "drum-hugging stone" is unconventional, not "drum-hugging" but a stone lion. The lion has its tail up and its head down. Liu Haili, an art master, saw these stone lions and thought they were rare works of art. Generally speaking, he said, most stone lions are squatting, although they lack flexibility. Careful observation shows that 4 pairs of 8 stone lions are symmetrical. The middle two pairs of lions are 0.65m in height and 1.95m in length, while the rear two pairs of females are 0.65m in height and 1.69m in length. It is rare in China that the lion plays the role of treasure and the lioness protects the young, which echoes and sets each other off. There is an empty sculpture "Two Dragons Grab the Treasure" on the beam in the middle of the archway. The whole stone workshop is also carved with many exquisite patterns such as "prismatic figure", "double claw figure" and "figure relief".

Zhou's daughter-in-law, Liu Defang, is located just outside the south gate of the county seat, more than 300 meters away from Dingguangmen. It was built in the eighth year of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty (1869). It has four pillars, three rooms, three floors and four roofs, 9.5 meters high and 9 meters wide. It sits facing south, and its four pillars are protected by drums. In the middle of the beam is an exquisite empty sculpture "Two Dragons Grab the Treasure". The horizontal plaque on it is "Zhou's daughter-in-law Liu Jiexiao Square". There is a relief "Lotus Picture" on the beam above the plaque, a "Jade Dragon Picture" carved in the middle of the back stone and a vertical plaque embedded in it, and a relief "Vase Picture" on the left and right stools, both on the north and south sides. The east and west beams are broken, and now they are sealed with stones. There are several ancient books, vases, birthday pictures, neat calligraphy and five couplets in the whole stone workshop, which are rich in content. These cultural relics and flawless jade articles with a history of more than 100 years add antique luster to Qingyan ancient town.

After hundreds of years, temples, pavilions, palaces and shrines are characterized by carved beams and painted buildings, cornices and walls, exquisite decoration and exquisite workmanship without extravagance. The stone pillar foundations of all buildings are the most distinctive, with various forms and vivid patterns, totaling more than 30 kinds. The vase shapes are long and short, with four corners, six corners, eight corners, columns and drums, which shows the artistic level of stone carving in Guizhou. The Doumu Pavilion (also known as Xiang Ying Temple), which was rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty, is one of the representatives.

Xiang Ying Temple, also known as Doumu Pavilion, is located at the foot of Huangjiapo, the south street of Zhencheng. Doumu Pavilion is the main building of the whole temple, located at the highest place in the whole temple, with 10 multi-stage stone steps, reaching the base in front of the pavilion. The pavilion is built on the platform, with two floors, and the building is simple. There are four pillars in the middle of the lower floor, which are large and excessive and solid in material. The stone foundation under the column is about two stories high, which is more than one foot higher than other stone foundations in the city. The stone foundation is round, which increases stability with the shape of the stone pillars. There are four pillars in the middle of the second floor, which is the focus of this floor. The four pillars do not penetrate from the bottom to the second floor, but stand on the lower beam, with unique shapes; Similar to the pillars of Wenchang Pavilion in the city. Guanyin temple is a bucket building with sloping eaves and resting on the top of the mountain, which is composed of wooden structures suspended from the top of the mountain. The whole temple covers an area of 2000 square meters and sits west to east. Because of its long history and representativeness, this temple is the only one officially opened in Huaxi District. It was designated as a town cultural relic protection unit on 1986 and a municipal cultural relic protection unit on 1995. From the mid-1990s to the beginning of this century, the government allocated 2.8 million yuan to repair the hatchback of the main hall and rebuild the Three Palaces.

Among the temple buildings in Qingyan, the architectural features of Ciyun Temple and Shoufo Temple are remarkable. The stone pillar foundation of Ciyun Temple is the fine stone pillar foundation of Guiyang. The first Buddhist temple is famous for stone carving and wood carving. There is a white brocade stone pillar in the temple, which is 1 m high. The pillars are carved into diamonds, which are extremely delicate. In addition, the relief "Panlong Stone" on the right side of the main hall and the woodcarving "Erlong Play Pearl" of Liang Heng in the theater are exquisite architectural accessories.

Wanshou Palace, also known as Jiangxi Guild Hall, is located at No.3 Zhenxi Street, covering an area of 2,000 square meters. It was built in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. Jiaqing was rebuilt in three years (1798). The architectural feature of Wanshou Palace is hard-topped structure, and the study is suspended-topped structure, which consists of main hall, attached hall, hatchback, theater and living room. Theater is the most distinctive building in the complex, with two pavilions and three rooms, 9 meters deep, a stage in the middle, about 8 meters wide, and theaters and lounges on both sides. The three-dimensional structure is supported by four beams and columns, and the column base is octagonal lapis lazuli with different patterns. Total tower height13m. There are wood carvings on the purlin of the platform mouth, which are reliefs of figures' flower patterns. The sculptor is exquisite and ingenious. There are also dozens of wooden relief and carved figures on the horizontal purlin of the left and right theaters, and the hanging pier on the eaves of the theater is also called "support". The hollowed-out woodcarving "Two Lions for Heroes" is a rare woodcarving handicraft. The front paws of two lions supported the pillars, and their eyes were wide and lifelike.

The overall building of Wanshou Palace has not changed much from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, and has always maintained its original characteristics. From 1950s to 1970s, it was severely damaged by people, especially the woodcarving works of art on buildings, most of which were destroyed. But the main building of Wanshou Palace was preserved. In order to restore the original appearance of the building, the local government allocated special funds to set aside land for the repair and reconstruction of Wanshou Palace.

Wenchang Pavilion, located at East Street 143, is a bucket-type hard-top brick-wood courtyard building, facing south, covering an area of 800 square meters. It consists of attic, main hall, front hall (an entrance) and hatchback. There are two stone jars carved with giant stones in the courtyard, in which there are figures and flowers in relief, which are basically well preserved.

Zhao Yijiong's former residence is located at Zhao Zhuangyuan Street 1. Built in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, it is a wooden structure, a bucket on the top of the mountain and a quadrangle building. Located in the south and north, it covers an area of more than 1000 meters. After a hundred years of wind and rain, the whole building is well preserved. The woodcarving door and window artworks entering the right wing belong to fine folk arts and crafts. The 37-character "Hundred Days Map" in the Champion House has been preserved as it is. There are also two wells called Lingshui, which are important tourist attractions of Qingyan.

The foundation of the column is a stone under the house column, which is used to prevent the wooden column from rotting due to moisture or rain tide. There are many kinds of stone pillars in Qingyan architecture. In the buildings such as Wanshou Palace, Ciyun Temple, Xiang Ying Temple and Shoufo Temple, there are still more than 100 stone pillars with different shapes. Its shapes are round, drum-shaped, bottle-shaped, altar-shaped, melon-shaped, lotus-shaped, gourd-shaped, square, hexagonal, octagonal, below the upper circle, above the lower circle, and the combination of several bottles and drums. The stone pillars in different temples and different parts have different patterns and sizes, making them dazzling stone carving museums and stone pillars. Some people use bats to represent wealth, deer to represent wealth, longevity to represent longevity, and magpies to represent happiness. There are also many common deformation patterns such as Wanshou, which retain the tradition of Central Plains culture. On the ruins of an ancient temple, there is a head carved on a pillar, which looks like a Goruda bird and a mask of Nuo opera. Full of regional culture. The characteristics of the stone pillars of Qingyan are unique, and some of them are particularly high. The eaves column adopts high column foundation, which is obviously waterproof. Qingyan has some eaves columns, which have almost become stone eaves columns, which are very rich in local characteristics. In order to prevent the monotony of these column bases, double bottles are often used to overlap. There are also overlapping Mount Sumi or other shapes.

Most of the buildings in Qingyan Town are paved with stones, the walls are paved with slate, and the roof is paved with stones, just like a world of stones. Ordinary stones, in the hands of Qingyan people, become colorful patterns, such as building walls with stones, including horizontal masonry, vertical masonry, oblique masonry and various special techniques that combine masonry methods. Flat masonry is related to the "bionics" of vertical masonry, because in some places the rocks themselves are generated horizontally. Other water-bearing rocks are squeezed out in the process of "building mountains and transporting water" Besides being influenced by "bionics", the oblique masonry method obviously injects human wisdom. In particular, the upper and lower floors reflect the practice of oblique masonry, creating an artistic effect like the word "human". Some folks believe that rows of herringbone stone walls represent herringbone bones. Here, it not only means "more than one year", but also reflects the reproductive worship and vividly reflects the ancient fishing and hunting life.

Double-eaved building is the most widely used architectural form in residential buildings. This building can only be seen on the four main roads of Qingyan in the ancient town. In other words, only commercial shops are such buildings, and there are few or no alleys. The advantage of double-eaves building is that the doors and windows have high space, good lighting and are not affected by partial rain. In addition, the utilization rate of their space (second floor) is improved. Moreover, the whole building is not only beautiful and atmospheric, but also saves building materials, which fully embodies the traditional virtue of the people in the ancient town of diligence and housekeeping.

In the 600-year history, Qingyan has left various historical figures, tombs and other historical and cultural sites. For example, the site of "Qingyan Religious Plan" that shocked China and foreign countries in Xi 'an in the same year, the site of "Red Army Operational Command" and "Red Army Tomb" during the Second Revolutionary Civil War. Famous historical figures, including the former residence of the old man in Pinggang during the Revolution of 1911, Mr. Zhou, the father of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Ms. Yang Zhende, Deng's mother, and Lao Zheqing, his father, were successively placed in Qingyan Daditang and Nanjie by Guiyang Traffic Station of the Eighth Route Army.