In Lutijian Village, 20 kilometers northeast of Dai County, Xinzhou, Shanxi, there is a Yang Zhongwu Temple, commonly known as the Yang Family Ancestral Hall. It was built by the descendants of Yang Ye to worship the Yang Ye couple and the heroes of the Yang family. .
The Yang Zhongwu Temple covers an area of ??12,000 square meters. There are three altars on the opposite side of the temple, with a plaque inscribed "Songde Tower" on it. There are 24 steps built in front of the Tiaotang door, and there are A pair of stone lions squat about two feet apart. There are three doors to the ancestral hall, each with a huge plaque with gold characters hanging on the front eaves. In the middle is written "Yishi General", on the left is "Yitang Zhongyi", and on the right is "Three Jin Good Generals". On the lintel is a large plaque with a dragon blue background and three gold characters "Zhongwu Temple" on it. ("Zhongwu" was the posthumous title given to Yang Ye by Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty after his death in battle). There is a wooden plaque hanging high on the inside of the ancestral door, which contains ten imperial edicts from the Emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty regarding the Yang family. Among them, one is a gift to Lieutenant Yang Ye as a Zhongshu Ling, one is a seal of oath of founding of Yang Yanlang, and six are edicts to Yang Yanlang. Write an imperial edict to Yang Zongbao and Yang Wenguang.
In the backyard, there are five main halls, with the inscription "Zhongxun Shimei" written on the forehead. There is a wooden couplet with gold characters on the double pillars in front of the corridor: "The great achievements are on the frontier, and the bravery of thousands of troops is called invincible; the majestic and heroic wind is left in the ancient fortress, and the prestige is worn by the Great Wall for generations." There are stone steles since the Yuan Dynasty on both sides of the corridor. There is a plaque hanging on the front eaves of the main hall with the word "Imperial Construction" written on it. In the main hall, there is a niche in the middle with statues of Yang Ye and Taijun She. Seeing the weather-beaten, old and strong look of the statue makes people awe-inspiring. On the left and right sides, there are statues of the eight sons of Yang Linggong and 20 famous generals of the Yang family in the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, all of whom are majestic and majestic in appearance.
In Lutijian Village, in addition to the Yang Zhongwu Temple, there is also a very precious historical scroll of the Yang clan. This historical scroll is 2.7 feet long and 1.3 feet wide, and is made of plain silk. The scroll contains an imperial edict from Huang Ling, four biographies of famous generals and officials of the Yang clan, five portraits, five tributes, and a total of fifteen pieces. It contains portraits, biographies, biographies of famous officials and generals of the Yang family, as well as other people's praises for them.
Yang Zhongwu Temple is currently the most complete ancestral temple in China. The main reason why these precious cultural relics and files are well preserved is because more than half of the people living in Lutijian Village are from the Yang family. Descendants. Their belief in life is not only to preserve the relics and relics of the Yang family intact, but also to allow future generations to clearly understand the spirit of the Yang family that their ancestors fought on the battlefield.
Why did the descendants of the Yang family choose to build such a large Yang family ancestral hall in Lutijian Village? Dai County was called Daizhou in ancient times and was closely connected to Yanmen Pass. It was an important border defense area for the Han people to prevent foreign invasion. Therefore, the Yang family has been stationed on this land for a long time and has continued the family lineage here for generations to this day.
There is also a story circulating about the relationship between the Yang family and Luti Stream. In front of the main hall of Yang Zhongwu Temple, there is a strange stone. This strange stone is placed on a stone base 4 feet high and two feet wide. It looks like an exquisite and clear Taihu stone. There is a sika deer with an arrow carved on the stone, and the words "Taiding first year" are engraved next to it. This is the famous deer hoof stone.
According to legend, in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, Yang Ye’s thirteenth grandson Yang You and his younger brother Yang Shan led their troops to station in Liushu Village (to the east of today’s county). One day they went out hunting and discovered a A giant sika deer. Yang You shot an arrow into the deer's hoof, and the deer fled with the arrow. The two men galloped in pursuit. When they reached Lianzhuang (today's Lutijian Village), the giant deer touched the ground with its head and disappeared. The Yang brothers thought it was strange, so they ordered their soldiers to dig three feet into the ground and found a stone with a giant deer carved on it. At that time, people believed that deer and Lu had the same pronunciation, which was a good omen, so they moved their troops here and renamed Lianzhuang Lutijian. Later, because there were deep streams on the left and right of the village, it was renamed Lutijian. Since this incident, the Yang family has had an inexplicable connection with Luti Stream.
After visiting Yang Zhongwu Temple, there is Yang Qilang’s Tomb 3 kilometers away. It is an independent building, but inside it is a large courtyard with three houses and a In the cemetery, there are clay statues of Qi Lang Yang Yanxing and Qi Lang's wife Du Jin'e in the two dedication halls. There is a stone tomb in the cemetery, and a tombstone from the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, with the inscription "Song Dynasty presented brave general Yanxing Yang Gongshen Tomb".