In the early years, Shengze township was a bustling town floating on water with water lanes and lakes. At the east and west ends of the town were two lakes. East of the town's small lake called Dongbaiyang, although the name of the earth some, however, the scenery is really good, it is surrounded by five rivers, that is, people say the five dragons take the water situation. Legend has it that Liu Bowen, the early wunderkind, surveyed the world's geographical situation for Zhu Yuanzhang, and seeing this, he built a temple on the north shore of the lake to hold down the dragon's head, so as not to give birth to a nobleman here to fight for the world with the Zhu family. This temple was not used for other purposes until the 1950s. Dongbaiyang although small, is a lively place, the size of the river port arranged along the lake, the four townships of farmers boat crowded with a small half of the lake, selling vegetables, selling straw, into the town of silk collar silk, buy oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar, shouting, haggling, the sound is endless.
The west end of the town is a large lake, called the West Baiyang, also known as Sheng Lake. Literary people also gave it the elegant name "Shun Lake" in honor of the late Ming Dynasty Shengze famous scholar Bu Shunnian, and to this day, the town to "Shun Lake" named streets, factories, stores, hotels still abound, it can be seen in the hometown of the people in the mind of the status. Xibaiyang is more than four miles across, with vast water and rippling waves, which is a good place for the townspeople to relax and visit. Pick a clear sky, and the wind sends warm days, about three, two friends canoeing on the lake, quiet water ripples, reflecting the colorful waves, soft wind, bringing a trace of the surface of the water cool, the boat in the son or lead a song, or talk about the shallow theory, to enjoy half a day of leisure, is really a rare thing of fun.
Between the two lakes, the center of the City River, a water connection, the shape of the two baskets as a stretcher on the shelves. City River crosses the town east and west, on both sides of the town is the most prosperous north and south streets, the city river has seven stone bridges across the river and built, climbed on the stone bridge east and west view, a water lane full as blue, seven stone bridges in different forms, stone bridges and the green water side by side, complementing each other, such as the green tape inlaid with seven white jade buckle. Water lane in the foot rowing boat traffic such as shuttle, but also a lot of fun. Street houses along the river are often built with exquisite river bridge, not out of the house can make the water in the river, the water township of women especially attached to the river, even if rubbing a piece of rags, but also prefer to go down to the river beach to get cool. Wandering in the township, everywhere you can see a bay of green water, a small bridge, a piece of the boat tied to the stone nose, they are so elegant and rich in water township feelings, the town dressed like a natural to carve the village girl.
Nearly thirty years, with the development of modern industry, the old water town seems to look old, disorganized, a little bit of the appearance of urgency. You see, more people, more cars, the road is too narrow, the land is not enough, so the center of the city river filled, stone bridge demolition, all over the town of water, water gradually disappeared, replaced by a wide road, towering buildings, speeding cars, Shengze has become a modern town known far and wide. But when the townspeople enjoy all the conveniences of modern material civilization, they still miss the green water and clear waves reflecting the small bridges of the water town style, so Shengze people began a new round of efforts.
Over the past few years, the old river has been dredged, the collapsed river port barge refurbished, a wide new city river reappeared in the north side of the town, the slow flow of clear blue water gently singing, such as in the water townspeople's longing for a new life. In order to make the river always green, the sky is always blue, the people of the water township and launched the treatment of environmental pollution, a centralized heating network covering the whole town, instead of the old days of the forest of chimneys, the township has built a number of sewage treatment plants, which handle sewage in the country's townships in the ability to be called one of the best. To the sewage treatment pool to take a look at it, the scene so that you look at the emotion: a few thick water pipe every day into the tons of industrial wastewater and urban sewage into the plant that huge treatment pool, after precipitation, filtration and a biochemical, physical treatment, black stinking sewage into a magic trick like white, transparent water, how not to call the water township people heartfelt delight. When the East Baiyang mouth of the ascending bridge will collapse due to age, the relevant departments in order to maintain the original appearance of the ancient bridge, in accordance with the program to repair the old as the old, carefully removed from the old bridge on each piece of the bridge stone No. registered for safekeeping and then rebuilt at the original site with the old bridge stone, reproducing the ascending bridge rustic, solemn figure. Today, there are red pear garden, mirror lake and other waters of the new attractions one by one, one by one, to recreate the water town style of Shengze, has been just around the corner.
Xinkai Lane and Zheng Shiru
Many friends from abroad ask, "Is there really 72 half-lane in Shengze town? They are clearly skeptical that this claim is exaggerated. It is no wonder that a small township, the total **** only palm-sized piece of ground, where to squeeze down so many streets and alleys it. Say there are seventy-two and a half, who believes it?
In fact, this is only a hundred years before the end of the Qing Dynasty records, to today, I can memorize the name of the alley no less than a hundred. It can be said that, in addition to silk, this alley is Shengze's second major feature. You walk in the town of any neighborhood, everywhere you can accidentally see a narrow and deep alley, they are crisscrossed, like a spider's web all over the town, evacuating the dense flow of people on the street. This kind of scene was afraid that it was impossible to find a second one in the whole Jiangnan water town. "Cul-de-sacs are short and seventy-three in length, Zhengli in the eastern part of the city is a new senator again, the doors of a thousand households are suspected to have no way out, and the loom sounds into the ears soundly." This is written eighty years ago in a "Sheng Lake bamboo lyrics", with a note that "the town of public and private size of the alley *** seventy-three, Changqing Square and a new addition to the Maolin Lane, commonly known as the new open alley, the post office in Yan". This Maolin Li is a ranking in the seventy-three outside of the young Xinkai弄.
There is a touching story about the emergence of Xinkai Lane. The main character of this story is Zheng Shiru, a popular local scholar in the late Qing and early Civil War.
Mr. Zheng lived in Changqingfang in the center of the town, a stone street no more than ten feet wide, densely packed with stores on both sides of the street, the town's busiest commercial district. Republic of China four years (1915) of the lunar calendar on February 22, is the local old custom out of the traditional festival of horse lamps, the sky just dark, four villagers in the townships will be early to eat dinner into the town to see the lamp, a long Qing Square crowded. Who knows the joy of sadness, disaster suddenly fell, the street side of the Xiekangxiang cloth store suddenly caught fire, instantly burned north and south of the two streets. Panicked men and women watching the lights in the narrow streets and alleys, rushing left and right, chaos, because the channel is not smooth, a moment of "step on the burning pressure of the dead phase by" (after the statistics, more than 80 people died, numerous injuries). In the fire, Mr. Zheng resolutely open an account to accept the escape, so that many people were able to escape. After the disaster, Mr. Cheng also took the initiative to give up his home base, opened for the Maolin Li, from the prosperous Changqing Square and a spacious passage, greatly facilitating the town's residents.
Maolinli is connected to the main street in front and the alley at the back, and the wide marble pavement can be said to be unique in Shengze's alley family. Old people often talk about the origin of this alley, but it seems that never heard anyone called its proper name, everyone called it Xinkai Lane, perhaps they are in such a way to commemorate a respected good people. Over time, the common name changed to its proper name, so that no one remembers its original name anymore.
Decades later, the former city river has long since been filled in, and Changqingfang has become the wide Shunhu Road of today. Although Xinkai Lane has long ceased to be so noticeable, and may one day be wiped off the map, but Shengze people will always remember it, because it records the past of a good man.
The foot of the garden
Anyone who has been to Shengze seems to have no one to go up to the garden street to take a walk.
You mustn't think that people go there to browse the beautiful tree-lined, flower-filled streetscapes, or to appreciate the magnificent, rich and luxurious commercial buildings ━━ In fact, it is in addition to a beautiful name that inspires unlimited reverie, there is almost nothing to be praised for its attractiveness. It is just an unimpressive ordinary street, in the eyes of the city people may not even be called a small street, the narrow pavement to push a yellow fish car is difficult, can only be regarded as an alley. However, it is only a hundred meters long on both sides of the street, like a grate like tightly arranged nearly a hundred small stores, you stick to me, I leaned against you, the door to the outside crowded out, like a narrow and deep matchbox. Narrow store hall full of a wide variety of goods, walls, shelves, windows, ceiling, almost all the space that can be utilized without missing, people have to admire the shopkeeper's shrewd calculations. The whole street through a strong prosperous atmosphere, no wonder people see it as a microcosm of the thriving economy of Shengze, will want to take a look and fast.
Foreigners like to go to the garden street walk, it is as a window to recognize Shengze, and the local girls and housewives are more to the garden street store as a pleasure, three or two know has been accompanied by something or other skulking will be folded into the garden street, like a hen pecking like door to door idly wandering around, comparing the goods which is true, which is inexpensive, which is the model of the color of the chic, Patterns, even if nothing wants to buy, look also comfortable. The elderly may no longer have much interest in the new products, but they are still willing to often to the garden street for a walk, to see the former "garden foot" reappeared in the prosperity.
In the old man's memory, this is called the foot of the garden. The Sheng Hu Zhi records, the Ming Dynasty students Zhong's had built a private garden here, the name of the garden, "ponds, bamboo trees, stone steps, peaks, just like the mountains and forests," Li in the celebrities in the garden small Xiaoxiang Pavilion lectures and theses, the name of the moment. How the scenery of the garden, unfortunately, did not leave a detailed record, but we can still be from the predecessor of the words and the names of the places handed down to this day to imagine the appearance of the year. In the Qing Dynasty, Shen Chengxiu wrote a poem titled "Xiuyuan", which reads: "In the dusty city, there is a small Xiaoxiang. The water of the spoon swallows the clouds and dreams, and the lonely peak shows the frontier. Bamboo sparsely welcomes the dawn, banana spreads to send the slanting sun. The guests are so kind as to link up their poems with each other, and they are not tired of singing long songs." According to Shengze Bamboo Poetry, "under the south corridor of the present day (Xiuyuan), which is also known as the foot of the garden, there is a garden called Xiaoxiang, which is also a remnant of the garden". In addition to Xiaoxiang Lane, the neighborhood also has Saju Lane and Makoto Bay, the names of which are still in use today. You think about it, clear pool water, handsome stone peaks, and corridors and paths, flowers and bamboos, Xiaoxiang Pavilion scholars and scholars dance in the ink singing and chanting, flower street paths on the boudoir was outside the walls of the melodious sound of the pastoral flute sound impressed, a momentary lapse of concentration was scattered in the hands of the beads. What a mesmerizing view!
It is said that during the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty show garden was destroyed, the south corridor under the gradual development of the market, initially known as the show garden square, and then changed to the garden street, became one of the most lively streets in Shengze. Before and after the "Cultural Revolution", hawkers were treated as capitalist tail gradually cut off, and merged with a large pile, Garden Street lost the old bustle, until recent years and once again prosperous.
The combination of the past and today's commercial prosperity is probably the charm of this "foot of the garden".
Clothing the world
Turning to the history of Shengze Town, there are almost only two words - silk.
When you ride the sculling sound alas Nai's boat from the western suburbs of Shengze Shun Lake under the White Dragon Bridge, that engraved in the stone arch bridge columns of a couplet: "clear over a thousand feet of waves, the wind sends ten thousand machines sound" will immediately evoke a strong interest in you, tempted to explore the silk capital of this water town silk waves rolling, ten thousand machines roar of the mysterious connotation. The mysterious connotation.
When you take a leisurely step in the sunset when wandering in the town streets and alleys, that one exudes the silk flavor of the old alley names, like a white-haired elders in telling you a long story: shuttle lane, reed store lane, dyeing lane, Zhuang face lane ...... through these names, let you feel that the "Sunrise 10,000 horses, clothes by the world" of the silk township prosperous scene. When you stand in the town east of the diamond leaf ferry, look up at that "the scale of the spacious, exquisite architecture of the first in Jiangnan," the first silkworm ancestral temple door; when you walk along that was built in the Qing Dynasty, commonly known as the "Zhuangmian" closed building, marveled at the experience of a hundred years! Rain and wind of the former market's clever layout; when you walk into the old Jidong Hall, recognizing the "Jidong Hall monument to rebuild" on the fuzzy handwriting; do you realize, in fact, you are reading a history of China's silk development it.
Talking about the history of silk in Shengze, it is really a long history.
As early as five thousand years ago, the local ancestors have learned to raise silkworms and textile. To the Tang Dynasty, the silk production here has gradually become large-scale. Zhengde "Gusu Zhi" contains: "Aya, all counties have, and Wujiang is prevalent. In the Tang Dynasty, it was called Wu Aya." Late Tang poet Lu Guimeng once lived here, leaving behind the poem "all while the sunny repair net frame, every and the smoke and rain off reeling car". In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, with the development of the southeast coast, commerce became more and more prosperous, and the silk trade was especially prosperous, and in the area of Shengze there appeared successively the silk market of Xinhang, the silk market of Huangxi, and the silk market of Shengze, which formed the grand situation of "the water townships became a city, and the silks went to the Central Plains". Feng Menglong, a famous writer at the end of the Ming Dynasty, depicted Shengze in "Waking up to the World" as follows: "There were about a thousand silk houses on both sides of the city, and all the silks woven in villages near and far were listed here. The merchants from all directions came to buy the bee save ants gathered, crowded not open, the road without standing gap, is the production of embroidery town, the accumulation of damask place." Since then, so far five hundred years, although the world changes, through the boom and bust, but the silk industry has always been the pillar of the Shengze economy. Shengze is known as one of the four silk capitals of China, along with Suzhou, Hangzhou and Huzhou, on the scale of a small township.
The unending silk culture has nourished generations of Shengze people, who were born in Shengze and grew up in Shengze, and all they heard and saw was silk, and even the rags used for wiping tables and tables at home were silk, which made people from other countries sigh for luxury. In such a strong silk atmosphere in the Shengze people, with their fathers inherited the silk gene growth, one by one, they love silk, fine silk, generation after generation to struggle, finally from the remote countryside of the projectile dance up a enough to let the world look at the silk dragon.
When the spring breeze of reform blew green the land of Jiangnan, this dragon and as inserted the wings of flight, rocking up 90,000 miles, Shengze jumped to become China's silk industry, the main production base, export base and product distribution center. That thin as a cicada wing, color as colorful, "the strange and clever day by day, can not be remembered", known as the treasures of silk, fiber queen of Shengze silk across the sea, popular in the world, I do not know how many white skin, high nose, fluttering gentleman and fair lady.
Today's Shengze has long grown into a city. The town's arterial roads up and down, bustling, a prosperous weather, both sides of the street, a high-rise, a store decorated with luxury; economic development zone in thousands of silk weaving machine issued a rumble, presenting the spectacular scene of the sound of the machine; town of the west of the "China Oriental Silk Market," thousands of silk business lines Pectinately arranged into rows, all colors of silk in this competition, converging into an ocean of silk ...... They seem to be declaring: Shengze this inlaid in the Golden Triangle of the Yangtze River, the Pearl of Silk is bound to put on the color again.