Review of Pingyao China Year

This is a small town with a history of 2800 years. It preserves the most complete city wall in China today, with more than 3,000 courtyards in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was the financial center of China a hundred years ago. It has the oldest colorful Buddhist sculptures and is home to more than 40,000 people. Today, it has become the wealth of mankind.

Pingyao, an ancient county located in the middle of Shanxi Province, China. In the 1990s, this small town in the north of China attracted the world's attention.

When explaining the history of this ancient city, the time goes back to 2800 years ago. Yin Jifu, the general of the Zhou Dynasty at that time, built this ancient city to resist the invasion of nomadic people in the north. Today, on the wall of Dongcheng, we can see the temple built in Pingyao to commemorate him 600 years ago. Less than 300 meters from the east wall, there is a tomb where his clothes are said to be buried. Yin Jifu is the founder of Pingyao ancient city.

The ancient city wall is the beginning and symbol of Pingyao history. About 2,800 years ago, Zhou Dynasty, the ruler of China at that time, stationed troops in Pingyao, built houses and built defense lines with earth, which was the earliest origin of Pingyao ancient city wall.

In A.D. 1368, China entered the Ming Dynasty, and the Great Wall of Wan Li in the north was rebuilt and strengthened. At the same time, the government built city walls in many important cities. At this time, solid giant bricks and stones can be mass-produced as building materials.

In A.D. 1370, Pingyao's ancient earthen city wall was converted into a masonry city wall. This project lasted for more than ten years. At present, the ancient city wall of Pingyao standing in front of the world is 6 162.7 meters long, 12 meters high, 10 meters wide at the bottom, three to six meters wide at the top and three meters deep in the moat. After the river dries up, only an incomplete river section can be seen. Outside each city gate, there is a square area as high as the city wall, which is called the urn city. There are two doors inside and outside the urn, which are usually used to check passers-by. When fighting, you can put in a certain number of enemies and then close two doors, so that you can quickly destroy the enemies in the urn from above.

The ancient city wall was last used as a military facility in February of 1938 and 13. On this day, the Japanese invaders blasted a corner of the East City Wall with explosives, swarmed in and occupied the ancient city. The defense facilities designed 600 years ago have completely lost their function in the fire of modern war. So far, these wounds in the southeast corner of the city wall are bullet marks left by Japanese artillery fire at that time.

In the history of more than 500 years, the ancient city wall of Pingyao has been restored 26 times in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Since the 1980s, the state and local governments have made many repairs, with an accumulated investment of nearly 10 million yuan.

Pingyao ancient city is roughly square, with an area of only 2.25 square kilometers. The north-south street in the center of the ancient city forms a straight central axis, and the tower with a height of 18.5 meters stands in the center of the city. Four streets across the east, west, north and south, eight evenly distributed streets, and seventy-two criss-crossing alleys, * * * isomorphically constructed an orderly traffic network in the small town. Government offices, temples and huge green glazed tile roofs are symbols of rank.

In the early 1980s, China began a great economic reform movement. Due to people's lack of understanding of ancient buildings, or they hindered the blueprint of urban development planning, many ancient buildings collapsed one after another in the roar. Pingyao ancient city has not gone out of this change, but also formulated the overall planning of Pingyao county. According to this plan, at least several wide roads will be opened vertically and horizontally on the ancient city wall, and eight big openings will be excavated to build a series of high-rise buildings accordingly. 198 1 began to implement the plan to destroy the ancient city. However, due to the lack of construction funds, the project progress is slow. At this time, the ancient architecture experts in China learned of this situation and urgently called on the government to leave the ancient city. The suggestion was finally adopted, and the ancient city of Pingyao survived because of decades of economic underdevelopment. Today, among more than 4,000 towns in China, Pingyao has become the only example that can present the original pattern and style of the traditional historical ancient city of China.

The traditional residential buildings in Pingyao ancient city belong to the rigorous quadrangle form of Han nationality in northern China. Each brick courtyard or low wall has an outer wall as high as seven or eight meters, which is conducive to resisting sandstorms in the north. Most courtyards face south to get more sunshine.

The most unique feature of Pingyao ancient dwellings is that the main house retains the form of northwest caves. This kind of cave is no longer a kiln. It is completely made of bricks on the flat ground, usually with three to five holes. Generally, a wooden corridor tile eaves should be built outside the brick hole to prevent wind, rain and sun, and it should be decorated with exquisite wood carvings and paintings of various themes. Large-sized units also add a layer of brick and wood structure on the second floor of the main house for meeting guests or serving as a study. These various feng shui walls and buildings are built on the roof of the main house, striving to surpass the neighbors in height and maintain feng shui.

The story of the Shanxi Opera "Three Mothers Teach Children" is like this: a naughty boy who lost his father in his early years, under the strict education of his stepmother and family, became the top scholar after ten years of hard training (Shanxi Opera, formerly known as Shanxi Bangzi, is a local opera popular in Jinzhong, and its origin is now difficult to verify).

These strange-looking cold weapons were used in China's ancient and modern wars. In recent thousands of years, there have been groups of people in China who are strong and have mastered fighting skills to escort valuables for others and get rich rewards. This kind of non-governmental organization is called Escort Agency.

By the beginning of19th century, Pingyao merchants in China could hardly save a lot of money and reach their destination safely even if they paid considerable fees to the escort agency. At that time, because there were semicolons in a pigment village in Pingyao all over the northern provinces, businessmen from the same town often asked the merchants to deposit their cash in the semicolons in the nearby pigment village, return to Pingyao with a certificate, and then withdraw cash from the total number of pigment villages, and the merchants paid a little handling fee for this. Lei Lutai, the owner of Pigment Village, foresaw that this was a huge business opportunity. However, after several years of preparation, Lei Lutai has created a brand-new way to buy and sell money, that is, a specially designed bill of exchange replaces the physical transfer of cash, and no longer carries a lot of cash with him.

In A.D. 1823, Lei Lvtai formally suggested to Li Daquan, an oriental family, that the business of Pigment Village should be changed to a bank and named as Rishengchang. As an investor, Li Daquan has 302,000 yuan, which is the business savings of his family for generations. Li Daquan and Lei Lvtai agreed that all the management rights of Rishengchang would be owned by Lei Lvtai, and Lei Lvtai would be given a certain proportion of original shares. Rishengchang's main customers are all kinds of big companies. These firms can not only transfer funds safely and conveniently, but also pay all kinds of money through bills of exchange, thus changing the traditional cash settlement method. There is only one key bill, which is held by the customer, and the exchange system is adopted. The draft also sets a set of passwords with Chinese characters as symbols, which can only be understood by the core personnel of the draft line. The draft number will also be delivered after 3 to 5 days, so that the person who dropped the bill has time to report the loss. Every draft is filled in by a special person, and besides the handwriting is familiar to insiders, it is more important to constantly change these passwords. Today, it is still difficult for us to decipher these mysterious Chinese characters.

According to the length of the journey, the ticket number charges a remittance fee ranging from 23% to 78%. Because the transportation was underdeveloped at that time, the remittance cycle was usually very long, so banks used this time to lend money to merchants at a lower interest rate and charge interest. The specific figures of bank profits are not available now. What is clear is that Li Daquan, the major shareholder of Rishengchang, originally invested 302,000 yuan in principal, creating a dividend of 100 years15 million silver for the Li family.

Every day, the financial office summarizes the business situation of each semicolon and total number. The financial office has all the accounts of the prime minister's general account, and a cashier and a helper are responsible for all kinds of special accounts.

Banks also have a complete reporting system. The core figure of this system is Mr. Fang Xin, who is mostly a middle-class person with high status and treatment. The daily report of each semicolon is completed in letters. The total number of people receives more than 100 letters every day, and dozens of letters need to be answered in time. The whole bank is managed by a big shopkeeper and one or two assistants. The daily operation and management are reported by the cashier, and Mr. Xinfang summarizes the operation of each semicolon and gives it to the big shopkeeper for decision. Specific instructions are transmitted from the mailroom to each semicolon.

In the heyday of Rishengchang Bank, the total number of people was composed of 14 and 15, and there were 35 semicolons all over the country, each with 3 or 4 people. There are only about 150 people in the whole banking system.

There is a set of strict rules for the choice of bank partners. He must be a boy between 13 and 15 years old, with a good appearance, and must take the abacus and regular script exams, and must be guaranteed by his fellow villagers. His family background must be innocent for three generations. After joining the ship for three years, the apprentice only cares about accommodation and no pay. After the apprenticeship expires, the salary will not be paid to him, but will be paid directly to his parents by the ticket number. Banks implement a lifelong employee system. When these guys mature, they will be sent to work everywhere. In a few years, there will be some specially designed human resources units. Rishengchang has nearly ten big shopkeepers, all of whom started with little ones at the earliest.

During the Qing dynasty, officials were frequently transferred and needed to transfer a lot of cash, so these officials became the most loyal private customers of banks. With the overall rise of banks, whether it is government relief funds, local taxes, or even war reparations at that time, bills of exchange issued by local governments gathered in Beijing, and cash was withdrawn from each semicolon and sent directly to the state treasury.

/kloc-in the middle of the 0/9th century, the banking industry entered its heyday. Most of the national banks are from Shanxi province, with more than 40 banks, of which Pingyao accounts for 22. Pingyao became the financial center of China at that time, and in its heyday, it almost controlled half of the currency in circulation in China. In the history of banks, there has never been a case of cheating with fake bills of exchange. It is precisely because of the strict management system that it is difficult for future generations to get used bills of exchange. This is the only complete bill that we see now, one hundred years ago. It may have been invalidated because of a clerical error at that time, but it was passed down. This is the correspondence of Rishengchang Bank. This account book records some accounts of Rishengchang Bank in the 20th year of Daoguang (i.e. 1840), and it is also the earliest bank account book found so far.

/kloc-from the end of 0/9 to the beginning of the 20th century, the society in China was in turmoil, and banks suffered huge losses repeatedly. In the1920s, Pingyao money houses declined completely. From the birth of Rishengchang, the first bank in 1823, to Baofeng Longguan, the last bank opposite, Pingyao's bank has existed for a whole hundred years.

Shuanglin Temple, located six kilometers southwest of Pingyao ancient city, covers an area of more than eleven thousand square meters. The temples of the whole temple are covered with colorful plastic balls, the big ones are more than three meters high and the small ones are only a dozen centimeters. There are 2050 * *, and the well-preserved ones are 1566. After six or seven hundred years of construction, it is known as the treasure house of colored plastic art in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties in China.

After entering Shuanglin Temple, it is the hall of kings. Under the eaves are four huge statues more than three meters high, commonly known as the Four donkey kong. Donkey kong's eyes are inlaid with glass beads, lifelike, lifelike. This is a unique decoration technique in China. In the hall of Sakyamuni, the Buddha Sakyamuni sat high in the middle, and Manjusri Bodhisattva and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva stood around. The walls of the whole Sakyamuni Buddha Hall are covered with colorful sculptures, telling the legendary story of reincarnation of the Buddha to nirvana. More than 200 people, with different identities and different expressions, shuttled between buildings and rocks, and their ideas and compositions were wonderful and breathtaking.

There is also a small hall with eighteen arhats in it. Lohan means a man worthy of respect by the world. Ancient artists gave full play to their imagination and talent, which made these arhats become obvious evidence of the transition from stylized to personalized Buddhist plastic arts in China, and they were called masterpieces.

The Hall of Daxiong in the Second Hospital of Shuanglin Temple is the tallest building in the whole temple. Because the Buddha can subdue all kinds of demons, it is also called Daxiong. These three giant buddhas are all three incarnations of buddhas.

The Thousand-Buddha Hall is located in the east of the Ursa Major Hall. There are more than 500 colored sculptures in the hall. The main statue, Guanyin Bodhisattva, has a casual posture and a quiet and charming face, which is one of the few unusual statues of Bodhisattva. The statue of Wei Tuo, the protector beside him, is called the first Wei Tuo of China. The statue is 1.6 meters high, and the coordination of expression and eyes is very dynamic, which produces a real beauty of a strong warrior and is the most outstanding colored plastic product of Shuanglin Temple. More than 500 painted bodhisattvas around the four walls show a rich and colorful Buddhist sacred land.

In the Bodhisattva Hall opposite the Thousand Buddhas Hall, the main statue is Guanyin with thousands of hands and eyes. In the eyes of China people, Guanyin Bodhisattva is the most sympathetic to the sufferings of the people, so it has the most affinity. Her image is more like a beautiful young woman, giving birth to thousands of eyes to save all beings.

Located in the northeast of Pingyao ancient city 12 km, there is also a striking temple called Zhenguo Temple. Zhenguo Temple was founded in 963 A.D. and has been renovated in various dynasties in China. The whole temple faces south and enters the courtyard, covering an area of nearly 13,000 square meters.

Wanfo Hall, which was built more than 0/000 years ago, completely maintained the architectural style of China in the Tang Dynasty. Its biggest feature is that the whole hall is approximately square, and the huge roofs and eaves spread out like wings, showing a magnificent atmosphere. It is one of the earliest wooden structures found in China so far. There are eleven colored sculptures in the Ten Thousand Buddha Hall, depicting the Buddha and his disciples. These statues are the only remaining colored sculptures in China temples in the 10 century, which can be called national treasures. The three Buddhist buildings in the Second Hospital were built in the Ming Dynasty, and 37 colored sculptures and 52 murals have been preserved so far. These Buddha statues and four Bodhisattvas are typical works of China in the Ming Dynasty (i.e.14th century) with beautiful shapes and natural manners. The murals on the mountain walls on both sides integrate landscapes, flowers, birds and figures, and depict the extraordinary life of the Buddha in detail in the form of comic books with simple painting techniques. This ancient pagoda tree has a history of 1000 years. It was accompanied by generations of monks. Although it is less than three meters high, it has a strange shape and is one of the wonders in Zhenguo Temple.

Pingyao is located in the traditional agricultural area in the north of China, with a temperate continental climate. It is cold in winter and rainy in summer. The main crops are wheat, sorghum and corn, and the cultivated land is nearly 800,000 mu. By the end of the twentieth century, food was basically self-sufficient.

In the ancient city, more than half of the population still maintain the status of farmers, but they have no land to farm, and most of them run various small businesses, which has become the mainstream of self-employed in the ancient city.

Life is proceeding in an orderly way according to the usual rhythm, and all kinds of voices echo in the streets and alleys of the ancient city.

Life is a vivid truth.