On the Lianjiang River in She County, my childhood hometown, there are three large stone bridges built in the Ming Dynasty - Taiping Bridge, Wannian Bridge and Ziyang Bridge.
The three bridges are also collectively known as the Ancient She San Bridge. The Ancient She San Bridge is like a rainbow lying on the waves, spanning the Lianjiang River. There is a folk saying that "it is not as high as the Ziyang Bridge and not as long as the Taiping Bridge." It has the reputation of "Nothing is as strong as the Ten Thousand Years Bridge".
Ziyang Bridge is located about 150 meters downstream of Yuliang Dam in the south of Huizhou City. The northern end of the bridge is Xin'anguan, which is the first pass in Huizhou. It is named because it is located at the foothills of Ziyang Mountain. The bridge is also known as " "Shoumin Bridge", Ziyang Bridge was built during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty and was rebuilt in the late Qing Dynasty.
The bridge has a total length of 140 meters, eight piers and nine holes, and a width of 10 meters. In order to facilitate the shipping needs of Huizhou along the Xin'an River to Hangzhou for carrying goods, the bridge is built 14 meters high. Ships passing by must not lower their sail masts. Passing under the bridge, it is currently the highest bridge in She County.
The Yuliang Dam 150 meters upstream from the bridge is where Xiaodi and I often fish. We cut a small piece of bamboo as a pole, used cotton thread as fishing line, bent a hook with a pin, used rice grains as bait, tied the line, hooked the bait, and threw it into the clear stream. The water is crystal clear, and you can clearly see schools of fish. Watching the fish vying for food and swallowing the hook, you immediately lift the hook and catch a lively crucian carp. One after another, great fishing!
We don’t need to bring a fishing basket. We can fold a slender willow stick on the shore and pass it through the fish’s mouth, and we can catch one or two kilograms every time. At that time, almost no one fished. Only our two brothers and Wang Taige, the son of teacher Wang Shixu from Anhui Normal University, also went with us. This is a delicacy on our sister-in-law’s table. This fishing method can only be used on Yuliang Dam, because the water here is too clear! There are so many fish here! I still remember the fun of fishing at Ziyangqiao Yuliang Dam.
Taiping Bridge, located in the west of She County, used to be the only bridge for Wuyuan, Qimen, Yixian, Xiuning and other counties to enter She County, which is governed by Huizhou Prefecture. It was built in the Ming Dynasty and is the only existing bridge in Anhui Province. The longest ancient stone arch bridge in China, it is 268 meters long, 7.1 meters wide and 13 meters high. It has 16 bridge holes and spans the blue waves of Lianjiang River.
I remember that there were several huge acorn trees on the hill west of the bridge, covered with acorns like millet. My friends and I often go there in groups to pick acorns. When we come back, we insert a matchstick into the big head to make a small snail and play, one, two, three! Rub your thumb and forefinger vigorously at the same time, and the snail will spin quickly on the glass plate or smooth table. Whoever spins the snail the longest will be the winner. More than sixty years have passed, and those acorn trees must have grown into towering trees. Do the children still go there to pick acorns to make snails?
The Wannian Bridge is built on the Lianjiang River outside the north gate of Shexian County, closest to Dooshan Street where we live. It used to be the main road leading to Taiping and Anqing, the provincial capital. Built in the first year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1573), the bridge has nine holes, 150 meters long and 10 meters high.
When the bridge was completed, Wang Daokun, Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of War in the Ming Dynasty and a native of Shexian County, wrote a poem: "The emperor left the area to the east of Wuxi River and drove the stone bridge to make a profit. The land is located in Sanfu County of Jintang, and the sky is The backbone remains the same for thousands of years. The jagged stone shape resembles a black magpie, and the white rainbow still remains on the misty river. The lotus flowers look like monkeys. It can be seen that the name of the bridge means to be eternal. desire.
The clear stream under the bridge is where we played in the water when we were children. The water here is not deep. Every summer, a group of us friends bathe and swim naked here. Xiaodi and I first learned our good water skills here. The children, who were of average water nature, all crawled like a dog, beating with their legs and crawling with both hands, making a splashing sound in the water and splashing white waves in the water. The water quality is good, and the fish pricks up fiercely, like white catfish burrowing back and forth in the clear bottom of the water.
Sometimes I picked up a blue brick and asked a child to throw it into the distance. With a command, "Plop! Plop!" they all dived into the water to see who could grab the brick first. No one is as strong as Xiao Di in this regard, and nine times out of ten, he is always the first to get his hands on it. The middle current hits the water under the Wannian Bridge. This is our childhood water park.
It is not as high as the Ziyang Bridge, not as long as the Taiping Bridge, and not as strong as the Wannian Bridge. Sanshiqiao in Shexian County is our childhood paradise.
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