When I came to Peitian Village, I walked along the stone path into the village entrance. A towering stone archway stood at the crossing. The word "grace" given by Emperor Guangxu upstairs on the stone archway seemed to show the glory of this ancient village that "no matter where the civilian military commanders are, the civilian gets off the sedan chair and the military attache dismounts, they will all walk". It is said that Emperor Guangxu of Qing Dynasty gave it to Wu Bazhen, a four-product Lanling bodyguard. It echoes the memorial archway of "being kind and giving" set up by Wu Chang, the end of the village, and shows the glorious history of Peitian village's civil and military competitions and the accumulation of good deeds to help people.
After the "Enrong" stone archway, there is a "Wenwu Temple" on the right side of the road. It is said that the temple was built in the early Ming Dynasty and was called Guandi Temple at that time. It is only one floor, which is dedicated to Guan Gong, Emperor Wu. During the Qianlong period (A.D. 1779), it was changed to today's two-story Wenwu Temple, also known as Wenchang Pavilion.
Go to the temple to worship Confucius in Wen Sheng. There is a couplet that says: A teacher of all ages is a model of a hundred square meters.
Go down to the temple to worship Guan Gong, the warrior. There is a couplet saying: I will live up to Taoyuan's righteousness all my life, and I will be loyal to Shu Han for ever.
This kind of architecture with the same temple of civil and military affairs is extremely rare, and the Hakka people's character of respecting literature and martial arts is fully reflected here. Walking in Peitian, the direct feeling is the ubiquitous water. Those criss-crossing canals and ponds form a well-developed water system in Peitian.
In Peitian, the drainage system in the village is mainly composed of water pits, culverts and ponds. In the village, there are two water tunnels across the street and lanes, which run through the village and go straight to all households.
According to the memories of the elderly women in the village, the ditch water was crystal clear. They don't leave home, and they rely on this flowing ditch next to the house to wash their daily necessities.
There is a pond in front of Peitian Village, where many lotus flowers are planted. Presumably, in midsummer every year, when the lotus flowers are in full bloom, it will definitely be a beautiful scenery of "the lotus leaves are infinite and the lotus flowers are different in color".
There are more than 30 unique ancient houses and buildings in Peitian Village, one connected to the other, with scientific layout and close order. Its style includes almost all common architectural patterns. Such as "Double Burning Hall" in enclosure style, "Shengwu Tower" and "Bamboo Building" in earth building style, "Wu Family Courtyard" in Japanese style, "Dafu Di" in Tian Zi style, and "Tianhou Palace" in diaojiao building style, etc. Of course, the most striking thing is the typical building with nine halls and eighteen wells, which combines the advantages of quadrangles in the north. It is completely different from the earth building characterized by external imperial power and the enclosed house characterized by internal closure. It has no walls and holes, but is full of pleasing Yuping, illuminated walls, fish ponds and flower beds, which makes people feel that it is a beautiful manor for leisure and health.
The residential buildings in Peitian Village basically adopt the layout form of "nine halls and eighteen wells". Strictly speaking, it should be classified as "three-in-one courtyard" residential buildings in Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi. Representative buildings include "Guanting", "Jishutang" and "Shuangzhuo Hall". The largest "nine halls and eighteen wells" compound building in Peitian Village should be the first to promote the Shushu Hall. Jishutang, also known as Dafudi, is of great scale. It is far more than nine halls and eighteen wells, but has 18 halls, 24 patios and 72 rooms, covering an area of 6,900 square meters.
The square in front of Jishutang is called Waiyuping by local people, and the original moon pond and wall beside it have been destroyed. There are a pair of stone lions, stone drums and two dragon flagpoles left in the flat. In front of the door, there is a couplet "Water is like a ring of mountains and pens, and there are books and fields at home". From the couplet, we can feel the beauty of the surrounding environment of the building and the owner's pursuit of farming and reading culture. This plaque of "Three Gongrui" on the gatehouse has been hung for over 160 years.
After crossing the big courtyard, I came to the central hall with the plaques "Dafudi" and "Dengke". From these two plaques, we can see the glory and glory of the ancestors of this house.
After crossing the patio and going up the steps, enter the hall. The central hall is integrated into a whole, carved with beams and painted with buildings, and the scene is huge. Here, the host is a place for banquets and weddings. There are master bedrooms on both sides of the hall, which are divided into front and back rooms. Another patio enters the back hall, which is the inner house of the owner's life. What is very different from the outer hall is that the decoration here is simple and elegant, and the space scale is cordial and pleasant. There is a rectangular patio behind the back hall and in front of the wall, with bonsai plants. The silence here forms an obvious contrast with the noise in the front hall.
Exquisitely carved quaint furniture in the hall.
The most unique thing about Jishutang is the floor in the hall. An expert once came here to inspect and saw the unique floor in the hall of Jishutang. He was very puzzled and asked its owner, did you lay the floor before building this house? They mistakenly think that this kind of stone-like floor is paved with a whole piece of slate. Actually, it is not. It is made of sand, stones, mud and other building materials. It is similar to today's cement mortar. After years of rolling and polishing, it has become extremely hard, forming the slate-like ground we see today. This unusual architectural form embodies the ingenuity and superb skills of Hakka people.
In Peitian ancient buildings, the commonly used architectural decoration methods such as wood carving, brick carving, stone carving, gray sculpture, clay sculpture, colored painting, lacquer painting, tile cutting, etc. are also eight immortals crossing the sea, showing their respective abilities. The more exquisite and complex the pattern and the more elaborate the craft, the more status the owner has. Xuanhe is the transportation hub from Guting Prefecture to Liancheng and Yong 'an, and Peitian Village in Xuanhe Township becomes the connection point of Tinglian Road. There was a post station here in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the post station is located in today's Guanting. Guanting is also one of the representative buildings of Peitian's nine halls and eighteen wells. The house covers an area of 5,900 square meters, and it is a horizontal house with five entrances and a symmetrical central axis layout. It was founded in Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty and has a history of more than 300 years. There is a fence, a half moon pond and a rain terrace in front of the official hall. The blue brick firewall around the house is simple and heavy. In front of the gatehouse, two stone lions and drums are sitting in danger, and the stone masts stand upright, and the walls are round and round, and the moon is clear and blue.
Peitian is also one of the starting points of the Red Army's Long March. In those days, the Red Army held an important military meeting in Peitian's official hall. Commander-in-Chief Zhu De and Peng Dehuai attended the meeting. After the meeting, the Red Army's anti-Japanese advance team embarked on the road of the Long March.
Menlu has a double screen. After passing through Menlu, it enters a big courtyard with a pair of stone flagpoles. After entering the inner door with the words "Fighting Mountains and Grasping Mountains", it is the front hall, followed by the middle hall, the hall and the back hall. The opening hall of the central hall and the left and right wing rooms used to hold thousands of books. The back hall is a two-story pavilion, the downstairs hall is a clan chamber, and the upstairs hall is a library pavilion. The village center of Peitian Village is an ancient street about 2000 meters long. There are more than 20 ancestral halls in the west of the street, and more than 30 houses and post offices in the east of the street. The winding ancient streets are connected with the deep alleys, connecting the scattered residential buildings into one. There were 37 shops at the peak of the ancient street, and 23 shops are still well preserved today.
The three-way intersection in the middle of Peitian ancient street has a beautiful corner, which has become a major landscape of Peitian, and it is a must-see for photographers to go to Peitian. Occasionally, there are works made of this scene, and the news of winning the prize in the film competition came. In the middle of Peitian Ancient Street, there is a few rafters that are not very impressive. At the front door, there is a couplet, which reads: "Mojing Villa", and the couplet says: "Half an acre of inkstone field is full of millet; Count the rafters in Sang Ma. " Compared with the elegance of "Jinshi", this "hoeing villa" is more grassroots.
Most people first noticed this "villa", and they can't help wondering, isn't the villa the patent of the rich people in the city now? Isn't it imported? Didn't the country ban the construction of single-family villas after repeated orders? How did it appear in this remote village hundreds of years ago?
In fact, the villa originated in China and existed in China since ancient times. In ancient times, it was called a different business and a different museum. Refers to the residence used to enjoy life outside the house, which is the second residence rather than the first residence. What needs to be explained here is that Peitian people are pragmatic and not luxurious. This "hoe villa" is a different way, but it is a previous "vocational education college", which is an enlightenment theoretical and practical education place for learning farming and planting skills. Knee-tolerant residence is the smallest and exquisite building in Peitian ancient folk houses. Although the scale is small, it has a deep cultural connotation. Some people say this is the earliest girls' school. Girls and young women of their own race not only learn culture, etiquette and needlework here, but also "talk about romance", that is, they can practice physiological knowledge related to marriage and childbirth. The plaque with the four characters "Talk about the wind and the moon" is embedded in the moss stone wall on the front of the hall, which is full of ancient meaning and makes people daydream.
The most beautiful "Dushuofu" in ancient villages has been burned in the sea of fire, leaving only its ruins still in its original style. On the left side of the "Dushuofu", there is a "Yanqing Hall", which is the general ancestral hall of the Wu family in Peitian. It was built in the Ming Dynasty and expanded in the twenty-seventh year of Qianlong (1762), more than 600 years ago. It is a well-preserved typical Ming Dynasty building, which integrates the national architectural art of China and Hakka culture.
The gate of Yanqing Hall is not opposite to the lobby, but in the southeast of the mansion. You must pass an inner door before you see the stage, the middle hall and the upper hall. The structure of this gate is similar to that of Beijing quadrangle. The hall can accommodate hundreds of people to worship their ancestors for dining. Originally, there were more than 40 plaques with carved dragons and painted colors, and academic gold medals. During the "Cultural Revolution" period, they were abandoned as "four old ones", and now only the plaque of "Jiao Teng Feng Qi" was erected in the twelfth year of Yongzheng (1734). In addition, there is a tablet (remnant), shrine, spectrum case, photo box, stone incense burner, etc. carved in Yang Dynasty in the hall, silently telling the glory of that year.
Yanqing Hall and Stage are important places for Peitian villagers to worship their ancestors. If you are lucky enough to catch up with the festival, you can also enjoy local traditional drama performances here. If it is a normal weekend, there is also a local Hakka folk song and dance performance specially prepared for tourists at around 3 pm. The time is not long, but it is also special. Don't miss it. The Wujia Courtyard is located on the left side of Shuangzhuo Hall, which is the central area of Peitian. It is also a typical building type with nine halls and eighteen wells. Six courtyards deep. It has reception capacity and is a good place to stay, eat and rest in Peitian. There are also tea sea, tea table and wooden sofa for making tea in the hall, so it must be very emotional to sit in the hall for tea and chat at night.
The Wu Courtyard, originally not called the Wu Courtyard, is called the burning hall. Founded in the late Qing Dynasty, the main body was completed in the early Republic of China. Covering an area of 1200 square meters, with brick and wood structure. By 2004, it was in a state of crumbling and crumbling. Later, a visionary business person spent a lot of money to renovate it. Build guest houses and canteens to receive visiting tourists. Jinshi is the best-preserved residential building in Peitian and the ancestral home of Wu Bazhen. The gate is a three-in-one door, which means "the right time, the right place and the harmony of people". The courtyard behind the entrance hall is exquisite and elegant, and it is quite elegant for literati to enjoy tea and paintings, and the style of piano and poetry. On the forehead of the main entrance, there is a Jinshi plaque of "Bang Yuan", which is "the eighth Wu Jinshi in palace examination's top three, and the bodyguard of Lanling". This plaque of Bang Yuan in the house was hung up after Wu Jinshi in his high school. In the main hall, a plaque reads "Wu Ben Hall", with dignified characters. Behind the gate, there is a precious slogan left by the Peng Dehuai Department of the Red Army-Oriental Army. It is also a strong evidence of this dusty history.
Looking at these large-scale courtyard buildings in Peitian, we are all amazed. This is really a place with talented people and outstanding people. However, what interests me most, impresses me deeply, and makes me sigh most are those Gu Xiang.
Adjacent to each big house in Peitian, there is a passage with a width of one or two meters, which is a deep roadway. Thick high walls on both sides, like a canyon in the sky, have no end in sight. And those mosses, those stripes, those spots, record the vicissitudes of time. The ground is paved with dense pebbles, like a heavy history book.