A Brief History of Zheng's Seventeen Rooms

According to the records of Zhenhai County Records under the Temple in the Republic of China, "Huanggong Temple was built in the river transportation in front of Zhengzhai". Huang Gong, named Huang Shu, is a hero of water control. Huanggong Temple was built in the 10th year of Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty (1250). "Zheng is in the river in front of the house", that is, 17-room village road is. It proves that the Zheng family had settled in Zhenlu before 1250.

According to Guangxu's Zheng Chuanqi Zhu Juan, "the ancestor of Zheng moved to Puxiang and chose the grandson of the mountain along the Tang Road (that is, the hill on the north side of the Seventeenth House)". "Pei Pu Zheng's Genealogy and Origin" records more clearly: "The ancestor of Zheng's seventeen rooms chose the road along the mountain road in Buju Xu Ling Township, and then divided it into three rooms: East, West and Middle." It can be seen that the East Room, West Room and Middle Room, which are still well preserved, are the earliest birthplaces of Zheng's 17th Room. According to the inscription on Zheng Ancestral Hall, "Song, the ancestor of Zheng, was a Taoist priest, who lived in the East Room, the West Room and the Middle Room." "After the sixth one, I was divided into seventeen rooms." What is the reason? Zheng Derong's biography of Chu Shi Dongcang says: "The old house is not enough to live in, but in the northwest corner of the old house. Don't camp in a new house. Dongcang is called Zhengquan, which is called the Seventeen Rooms. " This is the origin of room 17.

The map of Zheng's Yin House in Pu Jie contains: "Zheng's ancestor cemetery is located between the middle room and the east room along the road". The investigation confirmed that the location of Hou Jing cemetery was completely consistent with the records. According to Mr. Zheng, a descendant of Zheng, "This tomb has been preserved after several generations of hardships. When the land was leveled, nearly 100 graves of the Zheng family were demolished, but the Weijinghou cemetery was not demolished. It has been repaired and protected, and it has become a place for the sacrifice of Zheng's descendants. "

There are certain historical reasons why the Zheng family moved to Xiapu Road in the Southern Song Dynasty. Lin 'an (now Hangzhou) was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the royal family of the Song Dynasty was in jeopardy because of the pursuit of Jin Bing from all sides. Imperial bureaucrats have a huge family. In order to protect their descendants from extinction, they tried to live in seclusion elsewhere. For example, Bao, Sheng, Fang and Ye in Zhenhai were all officials in the Southern Song Dynasty. During their southern tour in the Song Dynasty, they arranged many families in remote rural areas. Zheng is also a big official family in the Southern Song Dynasty, and it is a historical fact that "Buju chose the mountain as Sun Dao". According to the genealogy of Zheng family in Zhenbei Longshan compiled in the 28th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (Longshan originally belonged to Xu Ling Township, Lipu, and now belongs to Cixi City), it is recorded that "Laiding, Zhao Gou (Zhenhai County in Song Dynasty is called Dinghai County), Song Gaozong has lived here for 30 generations (calculated in 25 years, it is more than 700 years, which happens to be the Southern Song Dynasty).

Why didn't you stay in Dinghai, but in Zheng's mansion? "Four go on road trip" makes it very clear: In December of the third year of Jian Jian (1 129), I drove to Mingzhou, at the end of Xin, and set sail in the burnt-out Dinghai County. I said sadly, "I am the parents of the people, and I can't protect them." "1898 produced 7,000m hooves in one hundred days, making the residents of Mingzhou victims of the war." . It can be seen that Dinghai County was in ruins at that time, and Song Gaozong could not live in Dinghai City. What's more, in the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a "Palace" in Pu Jie (page 1554 of "Talking about the Four Dynasties in Ming Dynasty and Protecting the Four Dynasties in the West of Ming Dynasty"), and it was also located in Pu Jie Port (an import and export center in eastern Zhejiang in Song Dynasty), so it was safe and convenient to dock royal ships, and it was inevitable that Zhao Gou would live in Zhengzhai. According to historical records, Zheng's seventeen-room merchants in Zhenhai were one of the earliest business gangs in Ningbo. The original building area of seventeen rooms reached 60,000 square meters, covering an area of 80,000 square meters. Due to the changes of years, there is still a building area of more than 40,000 square meters, covering an area of 60,000 square meters. Such a large-scale building complex did not get rich by being an official, but by going out to do business for generations. Among the early merchants of Ningbo Gang, no merchant clan group can compare with it.

According to the research of Ningbo Gang, "Zheng Shichang (1664- 1728) in Room 17 of Zhenhai went out to do business on the orders of his father. During the Kangxi period, four banks, Hengxing, Hengli, Henghe and Hengyuan, were opened in Dongsi Street, Beijing, which lasted for a long time and played a great role. Until the Gengzi Incident in 1900 and the fire in central Beijing (caused by looting in Eight-Nation Alliance), Chen, then the magistrate of Shuntian, wrote in Miscellanies of Meng Jiao Pavilion:' The city was destroyed, the furnace house was unemployed, and the remittance of large and small banks was ineffective, which was greatly affected. On April, the famous Qianpu Siheng in Dongsi Pailou was the first to close down. Kyoto has been established for more than 200 years, with the best credit and wide spread. Once it goes bankrupt, it will affect the property and livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people in Beijing, and the whole country will panic. "Even the Empress Dowager Cixi was alarmed and ordered to allocate 1 ten thousand taels of silver to help Siheng." This was the earliest businessman in the embryonic period of Ningbo business gang.

The second businessman who went out to do business was Zheng Guang (1707- 1780). At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, "he was good at Bai Gui's art" and "he could make many surprises and thousands of them". During this period, Zheng, Zheng Debiao and others went out to do business and managed well. "The inner tube is trivial, and the outer power will win. It is made of envy and immersed in Jiaochuan (the old name of Zhenhai)." Zheng Xun, Zheng Debiao's fourth son, Zheng Debiao's fifth son, Zheng Deying, Zheng Debiao's younger brother, and Zheng Debiao's nephew all went out to do business. They "don't make a living, practice diligently and earn double interest". "The more virtuous the elderly, the happier they are."

Zheng Tianzhi (1760-1868)17 years old went to Daishan with his father. He "inherited his father's instructions, repeatedly planned and started a career", and "Daishan and his peers paid attention to public service and became leaders."

From Kangxi to the middle of Guangxu, the Zheng family had six business groups with about 40 people, forming a huge Zheng family business group. After the Opium War, Shanghai became the most active place for businessmen in Ningbo. Well-informed Zheng Xun, with his abundant funds and years of favorable opportunities, started the earliest Ningbo bank business in Shanghai. His business was "repeatedly planned and obtained information, and his family grew rapidly." When the banking industry in Shanghai rose, he moved to Ningbo to start his own banking industry and soon became a giant in Ningbo. "Building Yiran as the mainstay of Yongjiang River for twenty years" was very remarkable at that time.

Zheng's 17th room is very clever. In order to protect their huge funds and luxury homes from infringement, they also take the way of "buying officials" to safeguard their own interests. According to the genealogy of the Zheng family in Xiepu, there are more than 30 people who donate money to public welfare undertakings or buy officials, and the biggest one is the second-class official title. If you are so powerful and capable, you are not afraid of being bullied by others, so the people in room 17 have lived a "peaceful" life for hundreds of years. In Qing dynasty architecture, there is a simple group rule, that is, a group building is composed of "rooms": a unit or a courtyard. Room 17, on the other hand, has another group style, with buildings (multiple rooms) as the unit to form a courtyard, thus showing its magnificent spirit. Its courtyard layout can be roughly divided into two types. One is to put the main buildings such as "front hall", "middle hall" and "back hall" on the vertical axis, and then install the opposite secondary buildings "wing rooms" on the left and right sides of the hall. The wing is divided into "bright porch" and "dark porch", forming a three-in-one courtyard. Some also put a second-class building called "inverted porch" in front of the main building to form a square or rectangular courtyard called "South Courtyard". This layout is suitable for the patriarchal clan system and the ethical code system in ancient China, and it is easy to distinguish the obvious differences among generations, generations, men and women, masters and servants. Sanhe courtyard and quadrangle have become the main group structure of seventeen-room residence, which fully embodies the unique style of a generation of famous families.

As the saying goes: There are three treasures in the 17th room, with the largest and highest chess lever, which can be seen in Ningbo; If it doesn't rain for three years, the river will not dry up; Seventeen rooms have the most horse-head walls, which are higher than the first one, and the typhoon can't blow. There is a street on the house and a city on the street. There are shops, shops, workshops and fire fighting in the city. There is a ring river outside the house, and every family has a dock. There is a big river outside the river, which leads directly to Ningbo. There are small bridges running by the river, ducks playing in the water, willows brushing the shore, and the reflection is oblique.

Seventeen buildings are connected, divided and combined, and the corridor spans the pavilion, with wide eaves and no water in rainy days. Tangmen, Horsehead Wall, Mingtang and Ancestral Hall are divided into different levels of power. Each family is independent, with side doors, partition doors, gates, alley doors, back doors and serial hall doors in good order. Corridor, lane combination, intercommunication portal, extending in all directions. Entering the inner court is like entering a maze, and you can't tell the southeast from the northwest. The largest "later Tang building" is the most representative and complete seventeen-room building complex. It is composed of eight courtyards, four gates facing north and south, and the horse head wall is lined up, which is magnificent and simple. Officials, big or small, will stop and dismount, step into Imperial Road and enter the inner court.

The sculpture art in room 17 has reached a high level. Clay sculpture, wood carving and brick carving are used in corners, roofs, eaves, porches, columns, doors and windows and other places with light load. These sculptures are famous for their exquisiteness and exquisiteness. Important places, mainly stone carvings, are rough and simple lines. The decoration of doors and windows is original and thoughtful. Even the small string of window grilles are engraved with figures, flowers and birds. Many doors and windows in Fangxing, Hengde and Houtoulou are engraved with various patterns. Hengde's window panels are particularly elegant, surrounded by flowers and plants, with middle figures, some immortals and some arhats. Room 17 is called the Hundred Arhats Map. Many lattice windows have the same pattern. The lattice window of the house is the most representative, and all kinds of exotic fruits are carved on the doors and windows, with good wishes of bumper harvests and fish (surplus) every year.

The decorative colors of Room 17 are also very distinctive, with white walls, grey tiles, millet, black, dark green, brown and ochre on the beams, frames, brackets, columns, eaves and walls, forming a simple, natural, elegant and transparent style, which integrates objects with the natural environment.

Room 17 is surrounded by rivers, and there are countless small water tanks and ponds. These water coefficients have been maintained as Kagami Akira for one hundred years. They put up a sign on the main river, which read: "No cattle and sheep, no sundries" and other clan rules. If someone in the clan throws debris into the river, it is necessary to hand out steamed buns from door to door, or stand in the sun for public display to show the importance of environmental protection. /room kloc-0/7 the Zheng family is a big clan and business gang family in eastern Zhejiang, with many celebrities in previous dynasties. Here are some modern celebrities for readers.

Zheng Jingfeng founded Quanshengyuan People's Information Bureau in Ningbo on 1852. Headquartered in Shanghai, it has branches in Ningbo, Shaoxing, Hangzhou and Dingding. It is the most prestigious and influential people's information bureau in China.

Zheng Fangzheng, 19 16, co-founded with Fenghua Zheng Yuanxing in Shanghai, and later developed into Maochang Egg Company and Maochang Refrigeration Company, the largest in the domestic egg industry, and later served as deputy general manager.

Zheng Zunfa (1849- 1970), who studied in Japan in his early years, raised funds to establish Minsheng Ink Factory in Shanghai on 1924, and served as the factory director. He is a pioneer of China's national ink industry. 1966 Minsheng Ink Factory was renamed Hero Ink Factory.

Zheng Jiajun was born in 1925. 1948 graduated from the chemistry department of Zhejiang university. 1949 went to study in the United States, and 1954 received his doctorate in chemistry. 1957 Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Chinese and Western Studies, Kansas City. 1999 Dean of Cancer Research Institute, University of Kansas, retired that year. Published 250 papers and obtained patents 13. More than 3,000 anticancer, antimalarial and anti-agricultural drugs have been designed and synthesized. Among them, mitoxantrone has an excellent inhibitory effect on breast cancer and leukemia, and has won many research awards from 1973 to 1983, and has been hired as a visiting professor and honorary professor by more than 20 universities in Chinese mainland, Taiwan Province Province and the United States.

Zheng Yes's second daughter is currently the vice president of Emerging Markets Group of BP Amoco Global Business Center in the United States and the vice president of international trade of American and British oil companies. This company ranks among the top 500 companies in the world and has invested billions of dollars in Sichuan and Taicang in recent years. Invested US$ 6,543.8 billion in Beilun Daxie to establish Ningbo Huadong BP Liquefied Petroleum Gas Co., Ltd., and concurrently served as the president of Beijing A Yingke Oriental Refining and Chemical Company. Now lives in Greenville in the eastern United States.

Zheng Baiping was born in 19 16. During the Anti-Japanese War, he graduated from the Chemistry Department of Fudan University in Chongqing. After returning to Shanghai, he engaged in import and export trade and manufacturing of light industrial products. 1949 went to Taiwan Province Province to join Fuxing Shipping Company. 195 1 was the manager of the company's Japan branch, and 1959 was the company's representative in the United States and Canada. 1965 manager of Wan Li steamship (USA) company.

Zheng Yingren, born in 1933, studied in Xu Qi primary school in his early years, joined the army during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and graduated from Beijing Petroleum Institute in 1956. Later, he was assigned to the Military Engineering College and transferred to the Air Force Engineering College. Major General, professor, doctoral supervisor, member of the first academic degree committee of China People's Liberation Army, executive director of china civil engineering society Tunnel and Underground Engineering Branch, and director of National Defense Engineering Society. 200165438+February was elected as an academician of China Academy of Engineering. As a result of long-term research on military tunnels and caverns, the tunnel mechanics theory has been perfected, and the theory of spatial plasticity and multiple yielding of rock and soil strain has been developed, which has made outstanding achievements in the military underground field and won the second and third prizes of national scientific and technological progress for many times. 1996 was awarded the title of "a generation of famous teachers".

Doctor Zheng (189 1- 1956), whose real name is Xiaogang, has a good outline. My family is poor and lonely. I teach in my hometown primary school, like painting, and I am especially good at copying. In his twenties, he went to a shop in Cixi to take charge of accounts and went to Shanghai to sell paintings for a living. Nobody cared at first, but then a businessman named Yang copied Moulida for more than 20 years. During the Anti-Japanese War, painting was not easy. He went back to his hometown to collect firewood and sell cakes for a living. After liberation, he went to Shanghai again, and the National Artists Association recruited him to paint, participated in the second national art exhibition, and was hired as a librarian of the Shanghai Literature and History Museum. His paintings have a unique style, which is called "Hui Jin Pair". Most of the pictures are old books, residual posts, broken letters, official documents, abandoned contracts, short articles and so on. It looks messy, so it is also called "knocking over the wastepaper basket". Zheng's "Qing Yu's Random Essays" commented: "Da Fu intricately organizes those things, positive, negative, semi-intermediate, angular, or like embers or wrinkles, which fully shows the artistic significance and is appreciated by people." This is probably one of the main reasons why the Ningbo gang can get favorable comments and grow stronger. Compassion, compassion, helping the poor, charity, going out to help worship, donating money to promote learning, building bridges and pavements, these are the clan rules of nearly 17 rooms. They attach great importance to education. They run private schools or primary schools. Not only tuition and books are free, but also their neighbors can enjoy them. This is a small-scale "compulsory education" in early China. Room 17 can always lend a helping hand whenever there is a natural or man-made disaster. Not only did we open warehouses for disaster relief, but we also set up the "Dun Clan Association" and the "Lotus Fragrant Charity Association" to provide coffins and burials for the dead clansmen or neighbors who could not afford to be buried for free. All kinds of charitable acts and good deeds of seventeen countries often appear in the form of some organizations and foundations. Only when the rental interest is used by means of capital contribution and land donation can we achieve "the charity is inexhaustible in Huang Ze and still available in Laozi". Room 17 has a good reputation, and some ladies with his surname are proud of marrying Room 17.

If we compare Seventeen Rooms of Zheng with The Former Residence of Hu Xueyan, I think that the building area of Seventeen Rooms is several times that of Hu Xueyan's former residence, but the luxury of Hu Xueyan's former residence has reached its peak, which is beyond the reach of Seventeen Rooms. Hu Xueyan's former residence was just a family residence. After only a few years of enjoyment, it was forced to change its name, while Room 17 lasted for more than 700 years, with nearly thousands of descendants living at most, and it was not opened to the public until recent years and moved away.