Wan'an Guanlanmen City Wall is a cultural tourist attraction.

According to expert research, in our province, only Ganzhou City is the only well-preserved ancient city wall at the state capital level. As for the ancient city wall at the county level, only Wan'an County can be preserved intact for more than one thousand meters and more than two city gates.

The ancient city wall of Wanan, built in the Song Dynasty, is more than 1,000 meters long. It has thick walls and simple gates. It is close to the Gan River and is a provincial cultural relic protection unit. On September 6, reporters walked through the ancient city wall of Wanan, feeling its unchanging majesty through the ages, and exploring its mysterious and profound history -

It took more than 400 years from earth city wall to brick city wall

Geng Yanpeng, vice chairman of the Wan'an County CPPCC, chief editor of "Wan'an County Cultural and Historical Materials" and a member of the Jiangxi Provincial Historical Society, told reporters that the long history of the ancient city wall of Wan'an is based on the long history of Wan'an County. According to historical records, as early as the first year of Baoda in the Southern Tang Dynasty (943), Wan'an County, located at the 18 beachheads in the middle reaches of the Gan River, was known as "the road is the strategic point. If you go up, you will control the traffic and Guangdong, and if you go down, you will lead the rivers and lakes." Wan'an Town was established to overcome the dangers of water and land and to facilitate water transportation." In the fourth year of Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty (1071), Wan'an County was newly established.

Seven years later, in Wuwu, the first year of Yuanfeng in the Song Dynasty (1078), the county magistrate Zhu Junmin began to build the city. It was not until the sixth year of Yuanfeng (1083), after Hu Tianmin took over as the county magistrate, that the Wan'an Earth City Wall was completed. In the 25th year of Yihai (1155) of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty, the county magistrate Zhao Chengzhi built additional city walls and built city gates. In Jihai, the 19th year of Zhizheng in the Yuan Dynasty (135

9), Magistrate Peng Jiugao rebuilt the Tucheng, extending the Wan'an city wall for 3 miles, 1 feet high, 8 feet wide, and 4 gates. . Four years later, Captain Qian Tangnu raised the city wall by one-third and increased its width by half. But these were all earthen walls. Because they stood on the bank of the Gan River, they could not withstand the floods over the years. Therefore, parts of the city walls often collapsed, but they were rebuilt after they collapsed.

At the end of the Xin Dynasty (1511), the sixth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty, Sang Qiao, a native of Changshu, Jiangsu, took over as the magistrate of Wan'an County. He was a man of great achievements, and the next year he decided to rebuild the county wall with bricks and stones. He followed the example of Nanjing City Wall and Ji'an Prefecture City Wall's task of firing city bricks, and assigned the task of firing city bricks to various villages, unified the size and specifications, established a responsibility system, and strengthened the acceptance of bricks and stones supplied from various places. While securing the masonry materials, we invited talented people to survey and design, and organized craftsmen to construct day and night. Finally, in a short period of time, the masonry Wan'an City Wall was erected along the Gan River.

The Wanan City Wall where Sang Qiao majors is 714 feet long, 2 feet 2 feet high, and has 950 crenels. The wall with the crenellations is 1 feet wide and the bottom of the wall is 1 feet and 5 feet wide. There are 6 city gates, except for 1 gate in the southeast and north directions respectively named Weiyuan Gate, Biao Zhong Gate and Tongdu Gate. Since Wan'an City faces the Gan River in the west and the passenger and cargo transportation is busy, it is located directly on the Gan River. There are three city gates in the west, south by west and north by west, named Guanlan Gate, Wuyun Gate and Furong Gate respectively, which shows the prosperity of Wan'an in ancient times. So far, Wan'an City Wall has gone through more than 400 springs, summers, autumns and winters from earth walls to brick walls.

The city wall was repeatedly damaged by floods and wars

Geng Yanpeng said that although the bricks and stones of the Wan'an masonry city wall where Sang Qiao majored were solid, the construction was also very precise. However, due to its proximity to the Gan River, the city wall was often endangered by floods over the years. In addition, it suffered several major wars since then. Historical records record that the ancient city wall of Wan'an was repeatedly damaged.

According to the "Wan'an County Chronicle" published by Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty, a major collapse of the Wan'an earth city wall occurred from the Yuan Dynasty to the Zheng Dynasty. The reason is that the person in charge, Captain Qian Tangnu, did not take into account the fact that Wan'an County was adjacent to the river and had abundant water all year round. Instead, the machine followed the practices of other places and dug a 2-mile-long and 1-foot-deep moat outside the city. As a result, due to the floods of the Gan River and the mountains and rivers in the southeastern mountainous area, the water in the moats flooded around the city walls, causing "the city walls, towers and oars to collapse." Since then, the Wanan City Wall has collapsed many times due to flooding. Historical records record four large-scale city wall collapses in the Qing Dynasty alone.

On the one hand, the floods were so fierce that the city wall about 100 meters from Pantai Beach to Guanlan Gate collapsed; on the other hand, due to the Taiping Tian-fighting here for several years, there were several fierce battles with the Qing government officers and soldiers inside and outside the city. The city walls were blown down. The reconstruction of the Wanan City Wall in the fourth year of Xianfeng Period in the Qing Dynasty should be the largest since Sangqiao built the masonry city wall.

A huge flood in the Yimao year (1915) during the Republic of China endangered the Wanan city wall, and the damaged city wall could not be repaired.

The brick inscriptions of the Ming and Qing Dynasties record a long history

Geng Yanpeng introduced that there are nearly ten kinds of brick inscriptions from the Ming and Qing Dynasties on the Wan'an City Wall. Brick inscriptions record history.

The most original standard green bricks were fired in the seventh year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty. The specifications are 35 to 39 centimeters long and 18 to 20 centimeters wide. Due to the establishment of a responsibility system, the bricks fired in each place are inscribed with the names of the foreman, kiln owner, etc. In the middle is "

In the seventh year of Zhengde, Wananti was transferred to the county magistrate Sangqiao", but some only The words "Wan'an County, Ji'an Prefecture" are printed on it, which shows that the impressions used by each kiln are different. The specifications of Qing Dynasty bricks are generally smaller than those of Ming Dynasty bricks. The bricks made in the "fourth year of Xianfeng" should have been fired in one or two kilns, because it can be identified from the inscriptions on the bricks.

Geng Yanpeng said that he had inspected the ancient city wall of Wan'an many times and found on some brick inscriptions that during the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, there were "Liu", "Xiao" and other simplified Chinese characters similar to today's simplified Chinese characters, such as in many places There is the name "Potter Liu Tonghai". Nearly 20 characters were originally supposed to be printed on the small brick. The traditional Chinese character "Liu" had many strokes, making it difficult to carve and even more difficult to print, so the person who carved the characters used a simple "Liu" character. It can be seen that the ancients were using simple characters more than 490 years ago.

The Furong Gate was blocked and reopened

There is another city gate to the north of the main west gate, facing the Gan River, called the Furong Gate. Standing on Furong Gate, the reporter saw that the peaks of Furong Mountain across the river looked like a beautiful pen stand. Geng Yanpeng said that when Furong Gate was first built, it was intended to exaggerate the literary style. Wan'an produced many Jinshi candidates during the Ming Dynasty, and there were six named ministers. But in the third year of Emperor Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1

664), for some unknown reason, Hu Shu, the county magistrate, blocked the beautiful Furong Gate while repairing the city wall. This not only makes it inconvenient for people to enter and exit, but the locals also feel that it blocks Wan'an's literary style.

When I walked to Furong Gate, I always felt like a scholar with his pen resting on his pen stand. Now Hu Zhixian blocked the city gate, and people angrily asked him why he wanted to go against the Wan'an literati, and he was deliberately cunning. Damage other people's bright future. In the ninth year of Kangxi's reign (1670), the magistrate of Hu County removed bricks and earth, rebuilt the Furong Gate, and wrote poems to make up for it. Hu Zhixian wrote nine poems in one breath. In addition to praising the eight scenic spots in Wan'an, he also wrote a seven-rhyme poem for the reconstruction of Furong Gate.

Large-scale reconstruction to restore the majesty of the ancient city wall

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the cadres and masses of Wanan have always had a strong awareness of the protection of the ancient city wall of Wanan, and their voices have been loud, and the local government has also attached great importance to it. In 1997, the county party committee and government secured funds to build protective embankments on the Gan River. During the construction, not only the county protective embankment was built with high quality, but also the road along the river was widened and the ancient city wall Guanlan Gate was rebuilt.

In early 2006, the Wan'an County Party Committee and County Government decided to spend 2 million yuan to repair the ancient city wall. Xu Zunqing, deputy director of the county's Bureau of Culture and Broadcasting, said that this large-scale repair follows the principle of "repairing the old as before", trying to restore the original historical appearance and reproduce the original style of the ancient city wall. The county invited well-known experts from inside and outside the province to provide guidance and formulate a restoration plan. The plan focuses on maintaining the original style, structural form, material texture and craftsmanship, comprehensively repairing the internal and external walls, repairing the battlements, towers and gate openings, thoroughly cleaning up the inside and outside of the city wall and its surrounding environment, and removing the dirt from the ancient city wall that has been in disrepair for a long time , re-showing the majesty of the ancient city wall to the world. The maintenance work was completed in late September 2006.