His school is right next to Yangji Village. I say it's a village, but it's full of high-rise buildings, connected to Huacheng Square and Tianhe CBD. The Little Barbarian Waist, East and West Towers and other Guangzhou landmarks can be seen from afar. It is still a village, but there are Yao, Li, Liang and Qin Ancestral Halls and Yuxu Palace with three stone pagodas. The Li Clan Ancestral Hall is the largest in size, facing west to east. In front of the ancestral hall, there are eight monuments, one of which is engraved with the words "A scholar of the Nonnyin Section in the sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty", "Li Tianze standing", etc. The night is like the sea. At night like the sea, the LED lights of the building gradually light up, such as transparent flickering jellyfish with long tentacles slowly descending. Yangji Village, the bustling heart of Guangzhou's cosmopolitan city, has its origins in a quiet village in Conghua, a hundred miles away!
This small village is called Ma Village, 7 kilometers north of the city. 2 kilometers north of the village, towering mountains, from east to west Lao Crow Hill, Ushih Hem, lion-shaped, large nest, millstone, snake lined up, such as the double palms together to defend the village north. East of the village there is a levee, levee outside the Liuxi River, the river on the other side of the Yuntai Mountain; west of the village there are fields, through the eight townships of water irrigation ditches. Between the two waters for the hemp village plain, a street hemp highway from the center through. Hemp village near the river, suffering from flooding for a long time. Qing Kangxi fifty-two years (1713), Republic of China thirty-seven years (1948), the water destroyed countless shrines and houses. Before liberation, the villagers voluntarily in the village east of the earth and stone construction of soil curb, and planted litchi trees. Villagers agreed to take the mud can be shares, lychee dividends, so-called "Zhenkang about". After the liberation, the military and the people have worked together many times to build the Ma Village embankment. Until 2006, the government large-scale construction of highway embankment, so that the village of hemp forever stop flooding. The village looks east to Yunxing, south to Tangxia, west to Guanglian, and north to Wushi. It has an area of 12 square kilometers and a population of 6,000, all of whom are surnamed Li. Hemp Village consists of three administrative villages, from north to south in order of hemp three, hemp two, hemp a village. The three villages of the ancient village well-preserved, residential buildings around the village distribution, 7 Fengshui ponds such as a long chain formed east-west natural separation belt.
The northeast corner of the hemp village last year, a new "hemp village" stone plaque, engraved with a couplet: the system out of the Longxi nine miles of the countryside to respect the ancestral teachings, ZongKai from the HuaWuHuaWuShi business spectrum. Couplet in the "nine miles of the township" is hemp village in ancient times, nine miles are distributed in the village of hemp today, respectively, the new pool; hemp two villages in the Huahan Li, Lou Zhen Li, Yu Qing Li; hemp three villages in the Liantang Li, Changxing Li, Zhuyuan Li, Xintian Li, Pan Lu Li. Ma Village was first named after horses. There were two hills in front of the village like horses running towards each other, which meant "two horses returning to the fence", so it was called "Ma Village". Later on, "Ma" and "Ma" sounded the same, and the name was changed to Ma Village. Later, "ma" was shortened to "ma" and was called Ma Village.
October in the golden fall, and came to the harvest season. Hemp village "village gallant" Li Zhenmin led me into the hemp village. The people uncle conical face, windy ears, body lean. Although nearly seventy years old, but feel ten years younger. Uncle Min said: I have been doing business in the village since I was 8 years old. I was curious; he went on to say, "I know every inch of the village. I became convinced of his status as the "village guts". We walked through the gatehouse of Changxingli in Ma San Village and first saw the Mengxiang Li ancestral hall. In front of the shrine, the villagers were drying wet grain, and the air was filled with the aroma of steaming rice. The Mengxiang Li Ancestral Hall, with a tiled roof and a concave door, was built in 1931. Next to it is Lichang Li Ancestral Hall, with two four-sided stone pillars and a hemp stone gate. The large characters of the stone door plaque have been chiseled away, vaguely covering the "public **** canteen" four bucket-sized red lacquered Chinese characters in Song font. The title of the plaque is engraved "Guangxu Dingyou Zhongchun", and the inscription is engraved "the former city guard of Conghua Sanshui Liu Tengxiang book". More than a hundred years ago, the foreign generals a stroke of the pen, I did not expect the name of the shrine is gone, but his name is preserved.
Leave the hemp three shortcut to the hemp two, to pass through a piece of wasteland. The ochre-red withered grasses that are half a person's height make people feel depressed. In front of me, I suddenly saw a large upright tree, crown green, tree circumference of two or three people embraced, like a huge green snow batch. Closer to see, the trunk of the charcoal stains, has long been dead. It turned out that this is an ill-fated autumn maple tree: more than 20 years ago by lightning split half of the trunk, a few years ago, the children in the tree hole to play with fire and burned once again, came to two fire trucks to put out the fire. Autumn maple did not fall, because the top of the tree grew a banyan tree, the roots have grown along the trunk of the tree to the ground, the two trees into one form the same tree. The banyan tree is the "octopus" of the plant world, once it is entangled, the original tree is difficult to have a self. The banyan tree borrows the autumn maple to live into the tall appearance it wants, but the dead autumn maple borrows the banyan tree to stand as if it had "lived" again. Uncle Min said that there were white cranes nesting and circling on top of the maple tree. The first thing you need to do is to get a good look at the color of the paper, and you'll be able to see what you're looking for.
Leaving the Autumn Maple Tree southbound, we came to the ancient village of Xinxiang in Ma'er. There is a big banyan tree at the end of the village, the head of the village there is Guangqing Li Gongzhi, commonly known as "Yuqing Hall", this is Yuqing Li. Ancestral hall is also common, but in the east and west corners of the wall each set a column "Tarzan Shi Dare Dang" blocking stone is unusual; set in the corner of the blocking stone is also common, but the head of the stone carved on the tiger face pattern is unusual. West corner of the tiger face round eyes round face, east corner of the tiger face almond eyes cone face. Although the eyes and mouth exposed fangs, but feel like a smiley face full of joy, people feel that the power of this blocking brake discount.
Leave the blocking brake stone to continue southbound, we came to hemp two of the big room and connected to the hemp a new Chi Li ancient village. The big house is located in two old ancestral halls of the Qing Dynasty, namely, the Bitou Li Gongzhi and the Bisui Li Gongzhi. The Bisui Li Ancestral Hall is located in the north-south direction, with three rooms and three entrances. The mural paintings on the wall of the main entrance are still the original ones made in the year of Xianfeng. There are "three friends", "four phases", "group of immortals drunk", but also painted phoenix, magpies, peonies and so on; but also inscribed with a poem: dafu junzi **** with the forest, cui shadow cross-pressing the ground yin, or: the mountain color through the years Jieling green, the river draws the day to listen to the soundless. Entering the door there is a "blessed" wooden screen, and then enter a three-arched brick pagoda. Ancestral shrine two into the 1950s collapsed and destroyed, last year, hemp two villages with reinforced concrete rebuild, covered with green glazed tiles, brushed with snow-white gray, and one, three into the connection, feel like the ancients put on a suit, bright and shiny.
Uncle Min led me through an ancient building. Hemp village ancient village is like a quiet diamond, regardless of how the outside world is disturbed, it still maintains the appearance of more than a hundred years ago; it is also like a layer cover dyeing oil painting, new traces cover the old traces, the old traces but also hidden. Different generations are in the hemp village on the "bite", leaving marks; it is more like a thick genealogy, flipping between the ancient and modern characters have jumped out .....
To find the source of the hemp village, the first to start from the hemp village ferry. Because the first hemp village ferry, after the nine miles of township. And 800 years ago an official son of the landing, set off the hemp village reproduction of the thick curtain.
Looking for hemp village ferry, leading me to hemp village "old village gallant" Li Guixiang. Xiangbo lion nose round face, broad waist. Although nearly eighty years old, but has a small ten-year-old physique. He is passionate about village history, was the old branch secretary of Ma Village. Xiang Bo hands have hemp village only one "rescue" over the old genealogy copy. Kraft paper cover, the book "Li genealogy," "the world to survive" bucket ink characters, a brick thick. Its mother is the handwritten copy of the Li genealogy in the Qing Dynasty in the hands of the clan Uncle Pan. Hemp village from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty through eight revision of the genealogy, several iterations of the loss of Uncle Pan's hand is the last old genealogy of hemp village. In the 1990s, the old genealogy was already tattered and torn. Uncle Xiang took a lot of trouble to borrow a copy from Uncle Pan. In the end, the old genealogy could not escape the fate of extinction, and was later torn to pieces by the delirious Uncle Pan. 2018, the same clan, the former principal of the former Huancheng Middle School, Li RongXuan, on the basis of the old genealogy, repair and printing of the new genealogy of MaCun, so that the history of MaCun will never lose the risk of loss.
Ma Village ferry in the southeast of the village of Ma Village on the west bank of the River Liuxi, the local name "Goose Thai factory". From the ancient county records, hemp village ferry is one of the 11 official ferry from the chemical. The official ferry, also known as the straight ferry, "sail to the provincial capital. In the past, the Liuxi River was wide and deep, and people and goods could reach Guangzhou directly by water. Mazhongdu was prosperous for a while. Upstream of Liangkou's bamboo and wood firewood and charcoal through the transit, hemp village, the local rice and grain agricultural products also began to send. Before the liberation, "Qimei Rice" of Macun was famous in the province. The rice vendor, Gao Lao Tang, specialized in collecting grains and then hired wooden boats to transport them to the provincial capital. In the 1950s, the serpentine dug out fluorspar mine, also by water to Guangzhou Iron and Steel Works for steelmaking throw miscellaneous use. In order to seek peace on board, Qing Daoguang eleven years (1831), hemp village ferry next to the construction of Guanyin Temple, and later evolved into a place for villagers to pray and make wishes. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Dragon Boat Festival and Guanyin Festival, there is an endless stream of incense. In 1905, a social school was built next to Guanyin Temple in Ma Village. At the main gate, there is a couplet written by Li Zhuhou, an old teacher of Deixin Middle School and a native of Macun, which reads: "The society enlightens the civilization and unites a lineage, and the school educates and casts talents". During the years of the Republic of China, the children of Ma Village were educated here. Due to the paving of the cement road platform raised, "Tuanlian", "Taozhu" below are missing.
The prosperity of the Ma Village ferry to promote trade, gave birth to the Ma Village market. From the ancient county records, hemp village market is one of the 13 market from the chemical. "With a period of one six, a village of people in Ma Village to go." Ma Village Market in the Guanyin Temple next to the peak of prosperity before and after the liberation. Every market day, not only hemp village village people to go to the light of the United States, Pei, Jiekou, Yunxing and other neighboring villagers also came to take advantage of the market. Only a small street on the market, there are vendors with small baskets picking agricultural products on the ground for sale, there are also food stalls on the ground to hit the stove and support the pot fried noodles for sale. On both sides of the street, there are herbal medicine stores, iron stores, pork stores, grocery stores, and supply and marketing centers. There is also a two-storey Fuzin teahouse, the second floor is a wooden attic, for hawkers and marketers to provide refreshments and meals. The "Gunfiring Front" operated an iron smithy. With a red-hot, clanking stove, he made hoes, shovels, sickles, and rakes for all kinds of agricultural tools. He is so good that he can actually make a gun, and he can also make fire. Bustling stalls interspersed with a nondescript bookstall, placed twenty or thirty books of the four great masterpieces and other small books, often surrounded by children to read. The stall is also a child, the owner is 8-year-old Li Zhenmin. He borrowed them from the library for a penny and rented them out for 2 cents to read. A child often "Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou", Li Zhenmin could not deliver, and later often did "Liu Bei". When the stall bear child, grew up with agricultural machinery and dealt with the whole life. In the seventies, Li Zhenmin into the commune agricultural equipment factory as a technician, specializing in hand tractor repair. In those days, the hand tractor could replace most of the manpower for harrowing and transportation, and farmers couldn't afford to hurt themselves when the machine broke down, but they were still in a hurry. Which family's hand tractor is broken, old Li on the bicycle door to door repair. Later, he took off work to study agricultural machinery modification, development of semi-mechanized rice transplanter, cutting machine, pulping machine, to solve the farmers "three bends" problem; the eighties, Lao Li self-managed factory modification of self-unloading walk-behind tractor, a can earn 1,200 yuan; the nineties, Lao Li transition to do rural construction contractor. In the 1970s, the hemp village market moved to hemp village community school next to the street on both sides of the highway, the market period was changed to thirty-eight, called "thirty-eight market.
Today, the hemp village ferry has become part of the Liuxi River levee. Massachusetts village market has long been empty of a piece of decaying walls and tiles. The small stone steps that left the footprints of the ancestor of the village, also buried under the concrete pavement.
At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, Li Tui (1185--1258), the first ancestor of the village, started to live in the village. Tui Gong family distinguished, his great-grandfather is no one else, it is the provincial city, "a hand", the Shaoxing years of the Southern Song Dynasty ZhiZhou LiAnZheng; his grandfather, is the AnZheng Gong's eldest son, the official to the ChaoFengDaifeng LiMing; his father, is the Ming Gong's second son, authorized to teach Mew ZhiZhiGuan Li, the second son, the second son, the second son of the Ming Gong, authorized to teach Mew ZhiZhiGuan Li. His grandfather was Li Ming, the eldest son of Duke Anzheng, who was an official in the imperial court. His father was Li Calyx, the second son of Duke Ming, who was authorized to teach Mew to be an official of the imperial court. After burying his mother Chen, Tui Gong took a boat from Guangzhou upstream to Macun Du. After disembarking, he realized that the land was flat and there was plenty of water, so he did not want to go back to Guangzhou. According to the old genealogy, "(Tui Gong) saw that the world had abandoned the migration flow, so he did not go back to Guangzhou, and lived in Ma Village." Tui Gong's life in Macun, "leisure is to count the green hills and lotus turtledove stick and sunflower hat, music is to the qin bottle and the clear wind and bright moon." He was like a hermit in a happy land. Mr. Tui was born as Bicheng, Bitao, and Bitai; his brother Mr. Yi was born as Bixian, Bidai, and Bisui. Later, people called it "the six big musts of Macun". Among them, Mr. Bitai gave birth to Tianju; Tianju gave birth to Ruoji and Ruojin; Ruojin gave birth to Renfa, Rensui, Renguang, Renqing, and Renshou, which were later called the "Five Great Ren of Macun". Hemp Village has become the "total origin" of the Li family name from Huahua. The descendants of the "six big must" are mainly in Macun, but also branch to the city, the entrance to the river, Dafutian, Hecun, Xiangxin, Shuixi, Guanzhuang, Shinan, Yunxing, Mumu, Panxi and other places in Conghua; and from Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Huizhou, Qingyuan and other places in the province. Among them, Yangji Village, Li, is the descendants of Bida.
To find the traces of the Tui Gong "constructed hemp village", the first to start from the "gate tower tube". "Go, I'll take you to see the birthplace of Bitai Gong." Xiang Bo said. Bitai Gong was born in the Southern Song Dynasty Jiading ten years (1217), so, the earliest traces of the village of Ma Village can be traced back to the end of the Southern Song Dynasty.
"Gatehouse tube" is located in the ancient village of Maichi Xinchi Li. The whole of the new pool sitting north to south, brick and tile, for nine vertical and eleven horizontal comb layout. Residence of a large five, a small three. Room size, big called room, small called porch. Housing is divided into levels, there is a jingle "big boy housing, fine boy live in the corridor." Ancient village in front of an irregular rectangular fengshui pond, the pond built a meter-high wall. Along the wall masonry herringbone masonry, the wall has shooting holes, is the first line of defense; the first column of homes for the south wall, no windows. Once the alley door is closed, it is like a column of walls, constituting a twofold line of defense. Ancient thieves were rampant, forcing the ancestors to superior survival wisdom.
Seventy years ago, on the night of October 12, 1949, the new Chihli River across the far side of the Yuntai Mountain gunfire, bullets spit tongue of fire cut through the night sky. Suddenly, a bullet hit the pond with a dull thud, scaring a few young men who were hiding behind the pond wall to watch the action. Li Yongjian was 18 years old, and he witnessed the final battle of the liberation of Guangzhou. At 9 p.m. that night, the 395th Regiment of the 132nd Division of the 44th PLA Army, which came from the direction of Liangkou, had a head-on encounter with two battalions of the Kuomintang army at Yuntai Mountain. The Kuomintang army occupied the main peak of Yuntai Mountain and attacked the PLA position at Fo Chai Au, blocking the highway below the mountain with machine guns. After a fierce battle until dawn, the Kuomintang army retreated down the mountain in defeat. The next morning, Li Yongjian met more than 20 Kuomintang soldiers who took the road to Ma Village and retreated. The Battle of Yuntai Mountain, the PLA sacrificed 50 people, wiped out 519 people. The southward army liberated Conghua on the 13th and Guangzhou on the 14th. Li Yongjian graduated from high school at the age of 16, and his mother died early. In the year of liberation, his father died of a serious illness and he and his 15-year-old brother became orphans. Luckily, Li Yongjian married his 16-year-old wife that year. The two in-laws farmed the land to make ends meet, and also paid for his younger brother's education. In the 1950s, when the government launched a broadcasting network, Li Yongjian became a telephone lineman. Later, he worked for the Post and Telecommunications Bureau until he retired.
At the east end of Xinchi Lane, there is the Renqing Li Ancestral Hall. The shrine was built in 1861, the eleventh year of the Qing Dynasty. Situated in the north to the south, three two into. Longboat ridge hard mountain roof, the door bearing two four stone pillars. Engraved on the stone door plaque are five dignified black italic characters "Renqing Li Ancestral Hall", written by Li Zhongliang, the twenty-fourth grandson of Anzheng Gong. Mr. Renqing was a native of the Yuan Dynasty, with the character Shude and the number Jiusi. According to the old genealogical records, he was smart since childhood and had an extraordinary appearance. As his name suggests, Mr. Renqing was both benevolent and virtuous. When the villagers were in trouble, he "pushed all the villagers to help them", and they were all convinced. The fact that Mr. Renqing was a kind and filial person was due to his mother, Ouyang Wan Er, who taught him well. In the shrine building of the Li Ancestral Hall, there is a plaque of "Ouyang Thousand Sixth Duke" enshrined in the shrine. This Ouyang Qianliu Gong is Ouyang Wanji's father and Li Renqing's grandfather. Li's ancestral hall actually enshrined a foreigner? It turns out that there is a story of "Grandfather's Field". Chien Liu-gong was a man from Feng Yuan, holding a large amount of land, but he had no children and only two married daughters. One day, Mr. Qianliu went to his eldest daughter's house with the land deed in his pocket and gave it to his grandson. At lunchtime, the grandson shouted, "Grandpa, it's time to eat!" Mr. Qianliu wanted to get up, but his grandson said, "I'm not calling you, I'm calling myself Grandpa!" Mr. Qianliu was saddened and wanted to get back the deed, so he claimed that he had a pain in his stomach and needed to cover his stomach with the deed to stop the pain. The eldest daughter did not know what the plan was and gave it back to her. When Mr. Qianliugong retrieved the deed, he went straight to his second daughter's house and heard his grandson, Renqing, shouting, "Grandpa's here, he's killing chickens!" It turned out that Renqing wanted to eat chicken, and his mother had taught him to save the chicken to honor his grandfather. Mr. Qianliu was so happy that he thought Renqing would be outstanding in the future that he gave his grandson in Ma Village all the land deeds. Before the liberation, hemp village "grandfather field" far away from the Zhu Shan, Zhu's Li's as a guest of honor.
Ancient hemp village filial piety more than Renqing family. The latter's filial piety to the elderly, the village of the elderly more longevity. In ancient times, living conditions were low, seventy years old, not to mention a hundred years old. According to the ancient county records of Conghua, in 1689, there was only one 93-year-old Huen Zhong'en in the whole county. Longevity is a rare thing, and it is rewarded by the government in the form of rice, silver, and mian. In the spring of that year, county magistrate Guo Yuxi met Li Xincun, the 18th grandson of Anzheng Gong and a centenarian who lived from the Wanli year of the Ming Dynasty to the Kangxi year of the Qing Dynasty, in Ma Village. He came to see Guo with the support of his nephew Li Riqi. Guo asked: Why don't you go to collect the reward? Li said: I'm just a village man in the mountains, when I was young, only plowing wells, when I was old, only chopping wood and grass, for fear of insulting the Holy Spirit ah! Guo exclaimed: You are really a virtuous man! Guo Yu Xi went back and wanted to give a plaque to praise, but unexpectedly the plaque is done the old man but died.
In ancient times, the village of Ma also produced a number of officials known for their benevolence and filial piety. In 1302, Bisui Gong's only son, Li Tianze, became the only scholar in the history of the imperial examination in Conghua. Li Tianze became the only scholar of the Yuan Dynasty in the history of Conghua's imperial examinations. Li Tianze served successively as a general judge of Xinzhou Prefecture and an assassin of Luzhou Prefecture. According to ancient records, Li Tianze was "filial in nature". He was an official in Xinzhou for 6 years, and thieves dared not enter the border of Xinzhou to cause trouble. In 1513, Li Rifang, a descendant of Duke Bicheng, was successful in the imperial examination and was authorized as an oracle in Nanping. Li Rifang is a filial son, pouring out his salary to make his second brother to serve his parents. He donated money to build a monument for the forgotten Luo Yuzhang Ancestral Hall in Nanping. During his tenure as the magistrate of Changting County, he built a shrine in honor of the place where Prime Minister Wen diligently served the king. In the 17th year of Daoguang in Qing Dynasty (1837), Li Zhongliang, a member of the county, was appointed as a minister of foreign affairs. He was good at Regular Script, and once copied The Great Learning on a white fan in fly-head script, without a single word missing. When his mother died and his father died, Li Zhongliang went home twice to mourn and was in pain. During the reign of Emperor Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty, Li Zhongliang donated 10,000 taels of silver for military pay, and added two more civil and military students to the permanent school quota of Conghua. Li Zhongliang served as an official in Zhenjiang and Yinglizhou successively. When he left his post in Zhenjiang, the people sent him off on a 10-mile long road, presenting him with a plaque saying, "I am glad to see you again".
Leaving the Renqing Li Gongzhi, I stepped one foot high and one foot low on the shiny brick road to the west. The first thing you need to do is to get a good deal on a new product or service, and you'll be able to get a good deal on a new product. The old man's village is sealed in time, slowly aging. In the center of the village, there is a brick house with a door and a window, called "House of the People", also known as "Dingliao", meaning that everyone has a share. Before the liberation, a pig shit association was set up in Ma Village, and the income went to the House of All People. In the past, pigs were free-range and shat and peed everywhere. The pigs belonged to each family, but the pig shit belonged to everyone. Pig shit is a good material to cultivate the field, but who to pick up but not by anyone, to meet the bidding; vote for the quota may not be able to pick up, but also to fight fast hands, like double 11. so the village often appeared in the "pig to wait for the feces" spectacle. Picking up manure people a hand sat on the Sun Wen, a hand holding the clip, eyes staring straight at the pig's butt, as if the inside pull out is not pig manure, but a golden egg. On New Year's Day, the House of the People with pig shit will be income to invite the troupe to do a big show. A high stage was set up in front of the House of the People, extending all the way to the fish pond. Liao Shaokun, Bian Hong led the troupe to perform, out of the first performance of the "six countries to seal the prime minister", from the 16th to the 20th of the New Year, performed for five days and five nights. Hemp Village Southern Lion and Hong Quan also came to help. The Southern Lion of Ma Village has two hall names, Nanwutang and Zhenwutang. The villagers have been practicing the tradition of Hung Gar Kung Fu, especially the South Wu Tang is the most famous. Before the liberation of the instructor Li Jieliang, Li Yingtai and many other disciples, practicing boxing and lion dance, the flourishing for a while.
Leaving the House of Representatives, I walked to the western end of the village and stopped in front of an arched gatehouse. In front of the gatehouse, there are yellow bananas and a small vegetable garden. There is a well in front of the gatehouse, which has been sealed and buried. Uncle Xiang said that there used to be chains at the mouth of the well to lock the dragon in the well. The entrance to the gatehouse is only one person high, wall bricks half a meter thick. Through the gatehouse, is a few brick buildings, weeds have obliterated the alleyway. Uncle Xiang said, this is Bitai Gong's birthplace, "Menlou tube", also known as the "West Garden", "Inner Circle", there used to be a village wall will be surrounded by the entire enclosure. In my eyes, the gatehouse is low and unobtrusive, but it seems to be a "secret cave", hiding the secrets of the village for 800 years.
Bitai Gong's birthplace in the southwest corner of the hemp a new pool, the shrine in his honor is far away in the northeast corner of the hemp Sanlian pond, across the entire hemp village. Bitai Li Ancestral Hall is the most grandiose ancient building in the whole village of Ma, built in the Ming Dynasty and rebuilt in the eleventh year of the Qing Dynasty (1861). Its destiny has always been closely linked to education, having been used as a temporary school building for Conghua Middle School during the war, converted into an elementary school in Macun in the 1950s and a kindergarten in Macun in the 1980s. The ancestral hall is situated from north to south, with five rooms and three sections. It is built on the wall of a pot ear with a dragon boat ridge, and the door is supported by four eight-faced stone pillars. The two large wooden doors at the main entrance are painted with blue lacquer, and the words "Ma Village Kindergarten" are written on the door plaque. The carvings under the beams are gorgeous: the unicorn growls at the bamboo, the deer turns its head back in the forest, the dragon turns over the waves in the sea, and the peony and crane present auspiciousness. Between the first and second patio there was a four-pillar, three-hole brick pagoda, the current site for kindergarten activities. Into the second, is eight columns and seventeen frames of the magnificent beam-raising hall. Drum-shaped red sandstone column base, a person embracing the pillar, were brushed with blue paint did not have the original face. The third entry was demolished in 1968 during the expansion of Ma Village Elementary School, and the wood of the ancestral hall was sold to Guangzhou Shipyard, and the original site was part of the school playground. On the playground there was a 300-year-old park tree with a parasitic banyan at the top. It is believed that the backyard of the ancestral hall used to be a scenic spot with green trees and birds singing together. But this scene is no longer the case, the school building is surrounded by lonely old trees.
At dusk, my trip to the village of Massachusetts is coming to an end. The sun is setting, the mist is rising, Bitai Li Gongzhi hidden. I suddenly feel like it is sitting high up in the sky overlooking the hemp village of Bitai Gong. Silent gaze, a glance of a thousand years.
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2019.11.19