Picture of Jingzhou Ancient City, Hubei Province

In central and southern Hubei, in the hinterland of Jianghan Plain and on the bank of the Yangtze River, there is an ancient city named Jingzhou. Speaking of Jingzhou, few friends don't know the name. Friends who have seen Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms or the TV series Romance of the Three Kingdoms and History of the Three Kingdoms all know the popular stories of the Three Kingdoms, such as "Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou" and "Guan Yu lost Jingzhou".

jingzhou yangtze river bridge

jingzhou yangtze river bridge

Standing in Wanshouta Park in Shashi, I took this photo of Jingzhou Yangtze River Bridge.

The bridge in the sunset is really breathtaking, and it represents a milestone in the history of bridge construction in China.

Jingzhou Yangtze River Bridge consists of nine parts: North Shore Approach Bridge, Jingzhou Dike Bridge, North Shore Beach Bridge, North Branch Navigation Bridge, Sanbazhou Bridge, South Branch Navigation Bridge, South Shore Beach Bridge, Jingnan Gandhi Bridge and South Bank Approach Bridge, with a total length of 4,397.6 meters, a deck width of 24.5 meters, four lanes in both directions and a daily traffic capacity of more than 20,000 vehicles. Its complex structure combines various forms of long-span bridges at home and abroad, and it is known as "China Bridge Architecture Museum". The navigation hole bridge at the North Branch is a PC cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 500 meters, ranking second in the world and first in Asia. Sanbazhou continuous beam bridge has a main span of 150m and a continuous length of 1 100m, which is the longest continuous beam bridge in China at present.

Jingzhou Jingzhou, also known as Jiangling City, was founded in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and is one of the birthplaces of Chu culture. Jingzhou is one of the first national historical and cultural cities announced by the State Council. Jingzhou ancient city has always been a battleground for military strategists, and it is located in a traffic fortress connecting east, west, north and south. We can see her importance from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Cao Wei's eyes are greedy, Sun Wu's heart is itchy, and Liu Bei's mouth is coveted, a greasy "fat".

According to the data, the ancient city of Jingzhou has a total area of 4.6 square kilometers and is divided into three floors. There is a water city outside, a brick city in the middle and a earthen city inside. Jingzhou city has been destroyed and built repeatedly. The present Jingzhou ancient city was built for the last time in the third year of Qing Shunzhi (1646), and it has been built and preserved according to the original site. Accurately speaking, the ancient city of Jingzhou today is "Qing Jingzhou".

Mottled marks on the walls of Jingzhou. I studied in Jingzhou for four years, and Jingzhou is my second hometown. Back here, there is a feeling of "going home". Although the street renovation and house renovation in the past 30 years can't be compared, there is still an indescribable intimacy between the streets of the ancient city.

I wandered around the ancient city all day. After visiting Zhang's former residence and Guandi Temple, visit the south gate. I have been looking for traces of that year between the new looks of the ancient city, and I seem to find a little feeling when I get to the south gate. My aunt selling sugar cane at the door and the smoky snack bar when cooking all have my familiar shadows.

The time-honored snack bar walked into Wengcheng, South Gate, which was quite lively and prosperous. I don't know if the overpass in Beijing is like this. Street vendors, shoe repairers, fortune tellers, motorcycles, cars and pedestrians shuttled on the stone road in Wengcheng.

Nowadays, the barbershops in big cities in Wengcheng have been changed into "beauty salons", with fashionable names and luxurious decoration, all of which use electric clippers and hair dryers. Such street haircuts are rare. A bench or a simple recliner, a simple haircut tool. If I hadn't just had my hair cut, I would appreciate the barber's exquisite craftsmanship in this warm sunshine.

An old and traditional hairstyle. On sunny days, the sunset will be beautiful. I have been sitting under the "Dragon Column" in the square outside the East Gate, waiting for the sun to set. Accompanied by me is a lovely brown puppy. When I took his picture, "Handsome Boy" immediately turned his head, and the shelf was bigger than the movie star now.

The sun sets slowly from the east gate and hides behind the battlements. Thick purplish red clouds are curved and surrounded by golden light in the middle of transparent blue.

Outside the "Dragon Column" gate of the square, there are tourists everywhere. Many foreign tourists and local residents had a good time.

The glittering symbol of Jingzhou ancient city-the stainless steel sculpture "golden phoenix Fei" was covered with a golden glow under the gorgeous sunset glow. Magnificent golden phoenix, as the designer thought, soars above the bright sun set off by colorful clouds.

It is said that Liu Bei married his wife, Mrs. Sun, broke Jingzhou and killed Guan Yu. This tower with too many mysterious stories is dignified and serene, simple and elegant, magnificent, filled with an unspeakable solemnity and mystery.

Beautiful Jingzhou city

[Wanshou Tower]

wanshou tower

Standing almost anywhere in Jingzhou and looking in the direction of Jingjiang levee, you can see a towering pagoda-"Wanshou Pagoda", which stands on the high levee. When I was studying in Jingzhou, this was the place where my classmates and I often went. At that time, it was not a park, there was no fence, and there was no admission. I have sat on the ground not far from the tower many times to draw watercolor sketches, but those watercolor sketches have long since disappeared.

Whenever I come here in the future, I will come to the Yangtze River levee and look up at the "Wanshou Tower". This time, it will be the same. This pagoda has a long history. According to legend, when the seventh Liao King of the Ming Dynasty gave Jingzhou a gift, it was built on the orders of his first mother Mao in order to pray for the longevity of Jiajing Emperor, and it also meant to lock up the rivers in the town and keep Hongbao safe.

"Wanshou Pagoda" was built in the 27th year of Jiajing (1548) and took about four years to complete. The tower is more than 40 meters high, with eight sides and seven floors, and is of masonry structure. But if you count the number of pagodas in the first photo, you will wonder why there are only six. It turns out that the riverbed of the Yangtze River is heightening year by year, and the levee is also heightening, so the tower body slowly descends below the levee surface, with the deepest reaching 7 meters, which is more than one layer above the ground. I sincerely pray that the pagoda will not continue to become shorter and become an "underground pagoda".

There is a stone tablet on the tower door at the bottom of the inner Buddha statue, and the word "Wanshou Tower" is written in regular script. At the gate of the pagoda, there is a Buddha statue in cassock. The faint light at the top of the cave looks like a halo above the Buddha's head in the lens. There is a statue of Hercules embedded in every corner of the tower. Their legs crouched slightly, their hands propped up their knees, and they tried their best to support the towering pagoda day and night.

Statue of Hercules

Each floor of the tower is decorated with 87 carved white marble Buddha statues, and the inner and outer walls of the tower are inlaid with 2347 embossed Buddha bricks, decorative bricks and figure bricks. Brick-carved Buddha statues sit or stand, each with its own charm. According to legend, these Buddha statues were enshrined by Emperor Jiajing, so they have local characteristics.

The tower is hollow with built-in stone steps, which can spiral up to each floor. There are four doors on each floor, facing the gate or overlooking the river and the city wall. Very beautiful. I just haven't been there. At school, it's not that the park tower can't open. Now that the tower door is open, I can't bear to spend money.

Looking up at the side of the Wanshou Tower at the top of the tower, there is such a stone tablet that reads: "Guanyin Rock Head". "Rock" is also a rock protruding from a river or Koishiyama. Guanyinyan, known as "the first stone mountain in the Yangtze River", extends more than 200 meters into the river, supporting the river surface, protecting the embankment and resolving the dangerous situation in Jingjiang.

Guanyin [Guandi Temple]

Guandi temple plaque

When it comes to "Guan Yu", almost no one in China knows everything, whether in the city or in the countryside. Everyone's mind immediately comes up with a red-faced general Shu riding a red hare and holding a dragon crescent moon blade, and he will think of legendary historical stories such as "killing Hua Xiong with warm wine", "going to the meeting with a single knife", "driving the seven armies" and "scraping the bones to cure poison".

The vicissitudes of life have changed greatly, but the worship of Guandi has not diminished. "There are Confucian temples in the county and Wu temples in the village" is no exaggeration. At present, there are statues of Guan Yu in front of many restaurants and companies, offering fruit and lighting incense sticks, which have become the "God of Wealth" and "God of National Protection" in people's minds. According to statistics, there are more than 30,000 Guandi temples in China.

I always think that the Guandi Temple at the south gate of Jingzhou is the most authentic, because Guan Yu has worked in Jingxiang County, the governor of Jingzhou Ancient City, for more than ten years. Guandi Temple itself is the base of Guan Yu's "Guanfu" when he was guarding Jingzhou, and it is also the place where Guan Yu's descendants inherited Jiangling. According to the records in Jingzhou Fuzhi, Guanfu building is magnificent, with a total area of about 50 mu.

Guandi Temple was built in Hongwu of Ming Dynasty in 29 years, rebuilt in Qianlong of Qing Dynasty in 53 years, and destroyed by Japanese invasion of China. The current Guandi Temple was rebuilt by the local government on the site of the ancient Guandi Temple in 1987. It consists of temple buildings such as Yimen, Daxiong Hall and Sanyi Hall.

Guandi temple scenery

At the main entrance of the temple, the incense sticks that people have just lit are burning and the smoke is curling up. Above the main entrance hangs a huge plaque of Megatron China given by Emperor Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty. In the center of the hall is a big statue of Guan Yu who reads the Spring and Autumn Period at night. It has a golden appearance, heavy armor, long beard and majestic existence. The design and construction techniques of this sculpture are excellent. Unfortunately, the staff are not allowed to take photos of Guan.

Through the main hall, standing at the back door, in the middle of the front yard, are two towering ginkgo trees. This temple has been destroyed many times, but these two ancient trees survived strongly. Under the steps of Sanyitang is a stone statue of Guan Yu's horizontal knife. It is said that this stone statue was carefully carved in three Guandi temples in China and donated by overseas Chinese. For some unknown reason, Guan Yu's statue wore a big red silk flower on his chest.

On the plaque above the main entrance of Sanyitang, four characters "Loyalty and Righteousness Qian Qiu" are written. A couplet hanging on the beams and columns on both sides made an incisive evaluation of Guan Yu's life: "Born in Xiezhou, he joined the army in Zhuozhou and guarded Jingzhou, and his fame spread throughout his life"; "Loyal to Shu, release Wei, break up with Wu, and Jin Ou can't win three points." There are statues of Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei in the hall, with yellow cloaks on their shoulders, hands on their knees and eyes looking straight up, which reproduces the scene of three sworn brothers discussing the plan of "restoring the Han Dynasty".

After visiting all the halls, I stayed in front of the statue of Guan Gong for a long time. Looking up, the blue sky and white clouds, the hall with cornices and corners, and the vigorous and tall ancient trees all seem to silently tell people the legendary story of the ancient hero Guan Yu.

Shentian dashuzhang former residence

Zhang former residence

Classmate Sanqing came to the hostel early in the morning and asked me what I was going to do. If you want to take some photos in the ancient city of Jingzhou, I will say to Sanqing, then you can stroll around the ancient city, and you can put me anywhere in the east gate. So Sanqing sent me to the entrance of the new East Gate wall. I got off the bus and looked up. Standing in front of me is a towering "Jiangling Monument Garden" stone monument building. Looking inside, there is an antique courtyard in the distance, and the door reads "Zhang's former residence" in gold letters. After visiting Zhang's former residence for a long time, I really realized the taste of "finding a place to shoot without blowing off dust". If you make couplets, I will definitely add a horizontal couplet, "I am very lucky".

Zhang has two official residences, one is located in Hufang Bridge in Xuanwu District (by the way, Xuanwu District is gone and just merged into Xicheng District). As the saying goes, "tea leaves are cold", what's more, Zhang was later labeled as "historical counter-revolutionary" by the "student emperor". "Property" and "confiscation" are certain. Its official residence changed hands several times and was finally transferred to Zeng Guofan, becoming the "Huguang Guild Hall". It is said that after the success of the Revolution of 1911, Dr. Sun Yat-sen visited Huguang Hall many times, where he presided over the inaugural meeting of the Kuomintang, and finally turned it into a "Peking Opera Museum", which was regarded as "making the best use of everything".

Entering the first courtyard of the gate, there is "Taiyue Hall" on the front and "Taishiju" on the left. In the sixth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, Zhang left Beijing for his hometown to bury his father. "Taishifu" belongs to Zhang.

The lantern Taiyue Hall in the yard is more like Zhang Taiyan Memorial Hall in a sense. There are couplets on both sides of the door. "A man is the emperor, and his shoulders can bear the burden of the world." There is a plaque above the door, which says, "One phase through the ages." In the main hall, Li Zhi, a great scholar in Ming Dynasty, evaluated Zhang with the four characters of "the talent of prime minister". The four walls are full of the life stories of Jingzhou prodigy. He entered politics for the first time, took three annual leave, rose step by step, made great achievements repeatedly, and was determined to reform.

There are several gardens in Zhang's former residence, in front of which is the "West Garden". The park is lush, tree-lined, with small bridges and flowing water, pavilions and a rare waterwheel. Although it is not as big as the imperial garden of the Forbidden City, it is really quiet and comfortable.

Through the north gate of Xiyuan, this is the "Zhang Wenzhong Temple". When Zhang was alive, he built ten Deqing source temples to worship his ancestors. Later, it was changed from Zhang's great-grandson to "public temple". There is a couplet engraved at the door. "A thousand years have passed, and the first day is hard to be alone." It is said that this is how many years later Emperor Kangxi commented and affirmed Zhang's words.

In the ancestral hall, there are statues one after another. Just then, a few tourists came. They lit incense and kowtowed. The decoration of the staff is more like a Taoist in a Taoist temple. Every time a pilgrim knocks on his head, he knocks on the jar with the word "Buddha" written on it and says a blessing. Tastes like a Buddhist temple.

There are several gardens in the former residence. This is the white turtle that Grandpa Zhang dreamed of, but there is a record in Turtle Pond one year: "My great-grandfather was pregnant with Ge Gongcheng, and on the night of a teacher's birthday, he dreamed that he fell into the water tank on the moon, and his hair would glow and become a white turtle, which would float on the water. Once upon a time there was a teacher who should have a good moon. " One step away, the story is very different. What is right and wrong? But it seems that Zhang does have a nickname.

Speaking of tour guides, you can really invite them to visit your former residence, which I learned later. When visiting Taiyue Temple, a female tour guide explained. I thought it was free, so I followed her closely and asked many questions. At the beginning, she also treated me as a guest and answered me warmly and seriously. Her guests walked slowly, and when they arrived at the door of the ancestral hall, only she and I were left. I have been asking questions. She felt something was wrong and asked, "Where's your friend?" I didn't react, to be honest, "I came alone, I don't have any friends!" " Suddenly, dark clouds covered her face and she left.

Conclusion: Jingzhou, an ancient city with thousands of years' history, has witnessed too much history and carried too many mysterious stories. No wonder even the old teacher in Zhang Jiuling sighed in "Climbing Jingzhou Tower": "How big the sky is and how narrow the river is. The building is 100 feet high, and the bar is in the west corner. You can go and see it when you have time, in the wilderness near your old capital. In retrospect, I want to be a hero. The ancient mountains and rivers are here, but today we have come to the county seat and the urban area. Although northern Xinjiang entered Zheng, it was far away. Several generations spread to Jing, when the enemy Shaanxi. Middle-earth has nothing to worry about. Yi Three Gorges, Guanlianghuo Five Lakes. Peace is no different. Don't talk about your husband. From Kinmen, come and join Ambassador Zhu. Finally in the forest, or in Sang Yu. Stupid as a tomb, not as stupid as Ningwu. I'm going to Nanpu today. I want to bring a wild goose and a pair of wild geese. "

White turtle

[travel guide]

Tickets: 20 yuan, the ancient city wall; Jingzhou Museum is free. The opening time is 9:00- 17:30, and the closing time is 15: 30, and it is closed every Monday.

Transportation: There is a direct train to Jingzhou, and you can also transfer or train in Yichang and Wuhan. Yichang long-distance bus station has more than 10 trains to Jingzhou at 6: 40-10 every day; Wuhan Hanyang Bus Terminal and fujiapo Coach Station have more than ten trains to Jingzhou every day, which is very convenient. After arriving in Jingzhou, take the buses 18 and 16 to the east gate and the new north gate, and take the bus 15 to the east gate and the new south gate. Take buses 14, 19, 2 1, 33,10/to Jingzhou Museum.

keep

Food and drink: food is common, and fish is important. No fish can cook and no fish can be polite. Fish cake meatballs are traditional dishes, characterized by eating fish instead of eating fish. Fish smells of meat and fish. "Dragon and phoenix match" is a traditional famous dish in ancient Jingzhou. Cooking with eels and chicken heads has a history of 1000 years. Legend has it that Zhuge Liang invented it to congratulate Liu Bei on his return from Wudong to marry his wife, and it is still the custom of serving this dish at Jingzhou wedding banquet.