The encounter with Jiangnan was on an autumn afternoon. The fine sunlight fell into the high archway and mottled gables. I stepped on the mottled and swaying tree shadows and stumbled into this place of the past. Nanxun is the "Home of Silk, Land of Fish and Rice, and Gang of Culture".
It seems like only one step has taken you from the wide asphalt road to the wet, mossy stone street. The modernity and modernity of the city and the simplicity and elegance of the ancient town are as natural and natural as the transition of the film lens. Smooth.
Walking along the East Street, there were only a few people along the way. It was very different from the excitement and bustle of the ancient town in my impression. There were no hawkers along the street, no bustling crowds, and some were just people standing quietly in the breeze. Shops, with mottled gray and white stone walls and half-closed wooden doors and windows, spread out vividly under the blue sky.
After crossing two stone bridges, you arrive at the Baijian Building, a residential complex standing beside the river. Baijianlou is one of the most complete residential buildings in the south of the Yangtze River. It is said that it was built by Dong Fen, the Minister of Rites in the Ming Dynasty, for the family tree of his female family members. In "Bamboo Branch Poems", "The scattered shopping malls press the stream, the long plank bridge connects the washing powder pockets, the bead curtains on the banks are rippled by the wind, and the spring waves reflect the hundreds of buildings." It refers to the "Hundred Harbors" in front of the hundreds of buildings. Or called "Hundred Rivers". It got its name because there are hundreds of buildings on both sides of the river.
The arcade-style promenade winds along the ancient canal. After walking hundreds of steps along the promenade, I arrived at Liuyin House, where I lived during this trip.
This is an old house in one of the hundreds of buildings. The top of the porch is covered with green and yellow vines. Stepping into a simple wooden door, what comes into view is a patchwork of various greens. Plants, rugged rocks, antique utensils. The afternoon sun cuts the shadows of pomegranate trees and maple trees into thin and soft pieces, and with the sound of clear water in a pool surrounded by green vegetation, the slow and rhythmic rhythm of the ancient town flows in the light and shadow. On the right side of the pool is a wooden corridor along the wall, and on the left is a high platform. A little white dog is lying on the platform basking in the sun. A myna calls out "Boss" clearly, breaking the mood. Lazy old days. Walk along the winding cobblestone path and pass through the front hall to the unique back garden.
The wing room and the garden are separated by two arched stone walls. One arch separates two adjacent wing rooms, and the other arch separates the back garden - Yiyuan. Stepping into the garden, the potted plants carefully decorated by the inn owner are either leaning against the wall and looking through the window, or hanging down the table to brush the steps. They are in different shapes and bright colors.
Under the cover of flowers, trees, mountains and rocks, a swing gives this century-old house a special charm, tranquility and tranquility. Sit in the pavilion and rest for a while or lean on the swing and sway slowly, and the fatigue of the journey will be swept away in an instant. The first chapter of Wenkang's "Heroes of Sons and Daughters" of the Qing Dynasty mentioned: "Although it is not a large garden, the pavilions, pavilions, trees and rocks are also decorated in an elegant and elegant structure." This seems to be the design of this ancient house. A true portrayal.
I live in Youlan Juli in this quiet back garden. The room is clean and elegant, and the furnishings in the room are also typical of ancient furniture, such as a large black lacquered wooden bed with carved patterns, clothes racks, washrooms, books, lamps, etc.
It’s still early to settle in the place, and walking in the warm streets is bright and quiet. What came with me to the quiet place were the white clouds rolling in the sky and the formation of wild geese hovering on the river. The weeping willows on both sides of the river gently caressed the water, and the branches of one or two trees that stretched across the river on the broken stone steps of the river bank almost reached the other bank. Development is prohibited on both sides of the river, so this area still looks the most primitive in the town. Different forms of volcano sealing walls, river port stone steps, and wooden pillars and eaves connect the buildings, and their reflections in the water form a picture of a home nestled on the water.
Walking through the corridor, you can see the leisure of the people in the ancient town on the bank of the stream, in the smile of the aunt picking wild chrysanthemums under the eaves, in the eyes of the old man fishing, in the hands of the grandma washing vegetables, in the hands of boiled water chestnuts. In the curl of smoke, all the time is stretched out, just like the fine shadows of trees trampled along the way.
“The depths of the Bixi River are extremely noisy. They draw clear water to irrigate the garden in the sun, but they laugh at the fisherman’s arrival. I wonder if it is better than Taoyuan.” In the autumn afternoon, in the narrow river, awning boats floated The boatman's oars swayed gently and slowly, crossing stone bridges that connected this shore to the other shore, history and reality. The people on the boat under the bridge and the people watching the scenery on the bridge became the scenery in their own eyes. The oars and stone steps slide through the vicissitudes of history and witness the traces of time. The squeaking sound of oars and the melodious chirping of birds startled away the long shadows of the trees and awakened the tourists who were intoxicated by the autumn charm.
As we walked and stopped, the red lanterns on the verandah lit up with orange lights from time to time, illuminating the withered and yellow wormwood growing out of the broken tiles, and illuminating the green and wet steps by the river. , also according to the figures roaming by the river. I stopped in front of the bookstore next to the river and sat by the window, isolated from the footsteps on the bluestone street. The sound of water on the riverside was gurgling, accompanied by the aroma of coffee. I unfolded a book and read two books quietly. When I was young, my worries disappeared.
After walking out of the bookstore, the pedestrians on the street became even sparser. Walk quickly in the shadow of the lights and return to your residence. After a simple wash, I planned to find a few pages of paper to make some notes, and unexpectedly found several guest books. In fact, they were more guest books than collections of stories and graffiti papers. Turning through the pages, they record what they have seen, heard, and felt by visitors who have lived in this house, or they are children's graffiti, or they are the sad or happy stories of a lonely person. Every traveler with a story quietly expresses his or her heart in words while staying deep in a foreign land by the waterside.
I am reading strangers’ stories, as if they are also telling my own story.
On the second day, we headed south along the Guxun River and roamed around iconic tourist attractions such as Zhang Shiming’s old house, Liu’s Ladder, Xiaolian Village, and Jiaye Hall Library. The tall mottled walls, the gate guarded by stone lions, and the knee-high threshold all reflect the prosperity of merchants and the richness of history.
Zhang Shiming's old house faces the ancient Xun River. It was built by Zhang Hengheng, the grandson of Zhang Songxian, one of the Four Elephants of Nanxun. He was fond of stones in his life, so he was named "Shi Ming". The courtyard has 150 rooms in various styles and Chinese and Western styles. There are fire-proof and anti-theft two-stack and three-stack Hui-style horse head walls, as well as a Western-style building with a private Western dance hall; there are exquisite brick carvings, wood carvings, stone carvings, as well as dust-free stained glass, magenta bricks, fireplaces and Collins Iron Pillar can be called a model of combining Chinese and Western styles.
Opposite the old residence of Zhang Shiming across the river is Liu's Ladder. The whole building consists of three parts: south, middle and north. It takes the halls, halls and buildings of traditional Confucian cultural ideas as the main body, and integrates the Western European Roman style, which is tall and magnificent. The beams, corridors, floor-to-ceiling windows, and floor windows reflect the family's taste. Roman stone columns, red bricks, exquisite brick carvings on the facade, iron railings, and shutters all reflect the Baroque style.
This is not only a silk trade center where wealthy businessmen gather, but also the residence of the rich and powerful; it has not only emerged from the wealthy businessmen in the late Qing Dynasty who were known as the "Four Elephants and Eight Cows", but also emerged from the "Jiuli Three Pavilions". "Shili Liangshu" is a great cultural scholar. Wealth and culture are perfectly integrated here.
While walking around looking at the flowers, I didn’t have time to appreciate the exquisiteness of the carved beams and painted buildings and seriously appreciate the legendary stories of wealthy merchants. I was lucky enough to catch two performances by the Partridge Creek: a song "" in the small theater The Yue opera "First Encounter in the Garden" is deep, meaningful, lingering and gentle; on the waterside stage of Xiaolianzhuang, women dressed in green leaves and red lotus dance clothes danced by the stream with graceful, fresh and moving postures.
After the performance, we went to Xiaolian Village for a walk. Liu Yong's private garden, the first of the "Four Symbols" in Nanxun, is composed of three parts: the outer garden, the inner garden and the Liu family temple. It is famous as a "garden within a garden". "Jiangnan Garden Chronicles" records that "Since the Southern Song Dynasty, the prosperity of gardens has been mainly attributed to the four states. They are Hu, Hang, Su, and Yang, and Huzhou and Hangzhou are especially popular. During the Song Dynasty, gardens in the south of the Yangtze River were concentrated in Wuxing. Wuxing gardens, Gongnan It is actually located in Nanxun, with five gardens in one town, and they are all giant structures, which are the only ones seen in the south of the Yangtze River. "The main body of Xiaolian Village is a ten-acre lotus pond, with pavilions, winding bridges and corridors surrounding the pond. week. The bridge is lined with ancient trees and vines.
The Jiaye Hall Library is adjacent to Xiaolianzhuang across the river. The library is nestled in the garden. There is a garden outside the building. In the garden there are ponds, pavilions, rockeries, towering ancient trees, and thick shade. . The library is a brick and wood structure, facing south. The main hall at the back is the "Jiaye Hall"; a nine-dragon plaque with "Qinruo Jiaye" hangs high in the middle. The 52 well-built houses are all warehouses for collecting books. Each library has a solid floor, neat bookshelves, and many long floor-to-ceiling windows for ventilation and lighting. The downstairs windows are decorated with the seal characters "Jiaye Hall Library", which is ingenious and unique.
After visiting all the attractions, I felt hungry. Quicken your pace and go back to Baijianlou to taste Grandma's "three bowls of tea". In fact, we were here yesterday, but my grandma accompanied her daughter’s friend from Shanghai to the town and she didn’t get to know her. As a gourmet guest, how could you give up so easily? It’s worth the hard work for the legendary “Nanxun Three Bowls of Tea” which is first sweet, then salty and then bitter. In fact, this is indeed the case. My grandma prepared a small table (actually a wide wooden stool) and a small bench for me. They were placed on the stone slabs on the shore. They said they could watch the scenery, which was exactly what I wanted. I could enjoy the breeze at the same time. Enjoy the beautiful view of the willow trees while tasting the sweetness and lightness of the tea. The first Feng Xun soup is similar to brewed glutinous rice crispy rice, sweet and soft; the second smoked bean tea is equipped with smoked green beans, osmanthus, orange peel, carrot shreds, sesame seeds, etc., with a salty and mellow aroma. The third course was green tea. Since I hadn’t eaten yet and I was the only one, it didn’t have any special features, so I followed my aunt’s suggestion and changed it to a snack. Savor the sweet and salty taste in a cup, listen to the gurgling water of the ancient canal, listen to the stories of bricks and tiles, and count the time in this water town passing by, it is like dreaming back thousands of years. Occasionally, tourists pass by, and the people, tables, chairs, plates, bowls and tea by the river become the scenery in their lenses.
In addition to tea, there are also the double-poured noodles from Zhuangyuanlou, Ding Lianfang’s Qianzhang Bao, Xiuhuajin, which becomes stale within ten miles of Nanxun, the orange-red cake and Dingsheng cake from the century-old store “Wild Water Chestnut”... all Planting authentic water town snacks and side dishes has turned the visual journey into a gourmet journey.
Here, there is no sensuality of the ten-mile foreign market, no row upon row of shops and noisy street hawking, but only the leisure of washing away the heavy lead and the appropriate shades.
Dama Jiangnan, I am waiting for you in the lazy autumn time of Nanxun, waiting for you to tell a touching old story!
(The old article from two years ago made me miss the Jiangnan water town and really wanted to go out for a walk.
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