A Millennium Ancient Village —— Zhangbi Castle in Jinzhong, Shanxi Province

Zhangbibao, Jiexiu City, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province, as a thousand-year-old village, is built with traditional ideas and has a unique style. The whole village is built according to the traditional ancient astrology and China's geomantic concept, and the ground layout corresponds to the 28 stars in the sky. Therefore, Zhangbi Castle is also called "the first astrological village in China". Most experts assume that Zhangbi Fort was built in the Sixteen Kingdoms period, and it is one of the dock walls built by Zhao's late Quan Gui and Zhang Ping, with a history of 1600 years.

Zhangbi Castle in Jiexiu, Shanxi Province is a state-level cultural relic protection unit. In 2005, it was selected as the "Top Ten Charming Towns and Villages in China" of CCTV's "Charming China" series, and it was also the second batch of "Famous Chinese Historical and Cultural Villages". There is a castle in the upper city, and the underground "10,000-meter Great Wall" is the best in the world. It is an ancient pocket castle integrating military affairs, life, production and religion.

As the saying goes: one person's strength is above ten thousand people. This Millennium castle is a rare ancient military fortress. It has concentrated a series of Chinese cultural essences, such as ancient cultural sites in Xia and Shang Dynasties, ancient roads in Sui and Tang Dynasties, stage in Yuan Dynasty, tombs in Jin Dynasty, and folk houses in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and has high academic research value and tourism appreciation value. The existing Mingbao Tunnel in Zhangbi Village was built on 6 17, which was built by Dingyang Khan Liu Wuzhou at the end of Sui Dynasty to fight against villagers in Shili. The total length of the tunnel is10000m, criss-crossing, and it has the functions of monitoring, command, communication, ventilation facilities, stables, granaries and garrison.

With its growing fame. June 5438+October 2005 10, the ancient and magical Zhangbi Castle competed with more than 20,000 famous towns in China. With the unanimous approval of the judges and experts, it stood out and was selected as the top ten charming Zhangbi Castle of the year with absolute advantage. Although the area is only1.2000 square meters, the urban form is complete, the military defense function is complete, there are many small bell and drum towers, religious activities sites and developed transportation networks. The 1 1 well in the castle constructs the urban water supply system, and the stage in the urn is the venue for public activities and the political and cultural center. These characteristics make Zhangbi Castle different from the traditional village castle, but more like a town with reasonable planning, complete functions and perfect facilities.

It has great research value. What Zhang Bi presents to the world is an ancient castle for both military and civilian use. It has multiple connotations such as history, culture, religion, military affairs, architecture and folk houses. It fills the gap in the planning system of small towns in China, and is a scarce material in the study of ancient military engineering in China.

The wall, the army base also. As the name implies, Zhangbi may be a single-function military fortress at first. This is also the case. Zhangbi is the only dual-purpose castle site in China.

Zhangbi Castle is built along the tableland, high in the south and low in the north. There are three deep grooves extending downward in the north; There are three outward passages in the south; Yaowan ditch in the west has a steep cliff, which is tens of feet deep; There is a gully barrier in the east, which can be described as "easy to defend but difficult to attack, with progress and retreat." The castle has two gates, the north gate is brick and the south gate is stone. In the middle is a 300-meter-long street, with elegant shops and quaint houses on both sides, and several glass-covered and splendid temples dotted among them. Willow trees and rare glass sheets on the ancient pagodas also add a lot of color to the ancient reclamation.

The uniqueness of this castle is that all the intersections here are T-shaped, and there are no crosses. Its primary and secondary streets are distinct, and the length of the north-south main road is about 300 meters. It is paved with stones and strips. It is called Dragon Street. Form a D-shaped structure with three lanes in the east and four lanes in the west. Most of the houses in Dongsan Lane are small farmhouses, while the buildings in Xisi Lane are scattered and orderly. In the past, most of them lived in rich households, with elegant lintels and exquisite bricks, wood and stone carvings.

The well-preserved houses in Zhangbibao are mainly concentrated in Hujiayuan and Xiangjiatang in Jia Jia. Most of the descendants of these rich families have moved out of the castle and their ancestral homes have been closed. In addition, Zhangbi Castle still retains the "Li Fang" left by the Sui and Tang Dynasties, which is where most ancient cities in China have disappeared. In the T-Lane of Longjie Street and several alleys, visitors can still see the preserved alley doors, which are the only exits of every "Li Fang". After the door of the lane was closed, each lane became a relatively closed castle in the castle. Lane can fight independently and echo each other, which is a complete internal defense system.

The south gate of Zhangbi Castle is a hollow "faucet" with a stone carving of a faucet at the door. Under the gate, nine vertical red stone slab roads are laid to the south to symbolize the dragon beard, and the main road to the north is the "dragon body": in order to make the shape of the dragon more realistic, in the Qing Dynasty, the horizontally laid blue stone slab was specially lifted out and changed into three vertical red stone slab roads to symbolize the dragon's back. On both sides of the main road are the pond (original) in the north of the city, Huai Liu Bao, two kidneys symbolizing "dragon" and the fish of yin and yang in Chen Tuan Taiji.

There is a small "urn" in Zhangbi to repel the enemy. There are also a pair of small bell towers and drum towers, which have a complete urban form, which is a very important feature different from the well-preserved "village castles" common in other parts of Shanxi Province. They are not "country castles" in the general sense, but "cities".

Across the yellow land, under Zhangbi Castle is another amazing city. Entering from the tunnel entrance of an ordinary residential building in Xichang Lane is a mysterious underground world, which contains Zhang Bi's underground defense system and unsolved mysteries.

The Castle Tunnel is three-dimensional, the top floor is only about 1 m from the ground, the middle floor is 8- 10 m from the ground, and the bottom floor is 17~20 m from the ground. The tunnel is winding and vague, with air holes in it, leading to the outside of the gully, and there are three floors down from the well. There is a small pit on the wall of the tunnel at intervals, with different distances, which is the place to put oil lamps. There is a spit for feeding livestock at the top; There is an earth hole that can accommodate two or three people at intervals below the middle cave wall, which is an authentic sentry; There is a cave 2~3 meters deep and 4~5 meters long on the ground floor, which is a cave for storing food. Such a huge and complex underground project, its military needs and strategic purpose of keeping secrets from the outside world can be imagined.

The underground of Zhangbi Castle has an intricate and huge tunnel system built by the ancients, with a total length of nearly 10 km. Some parts have two or even three layers. In the tunnel, two people can pass through the wide part in parallel, and only one person can pass through the narrow part. The height of most sections is less than1.8m. There is a pit on the cave wall every few steps, which may be used to place oil lamps.

Zhangbi Castle has more than 10 wells, and at least 8 wells have been found to be connected with the tunnel. There are holes in the inner wall of the well, and there are two opposite holes on the left and right sides of some shaft walls. You can put a board through it, but if you remove the board, you will break the back road. Due to the collapse caused by many earthquakes and floods, the whole tunnel is unknown, and the original tunnel wall was destroyed because the villagers dug and cleaned it themselves without expert guidance.

Now, it is impossible to get an accurate answer, when and why this tunnel was dug. Some scholars believe that the builder of Zhangbi Village is Liu Wuzhou, and the most direct evidence of this conclusion is the Khan Temple in the castle and the historical fact that Li Shimin and Liu Wuzhou fought in Jiexiu in the early Tang Dynasty. The religious temples with dense walls are the distinctive features of Zhangbi Castle. A small village with more than 200 families actually had more than 20 temples in its heyday. Up to now, there are as many as 16 temples. This density is also rare in China. The religious temples in Zhangbi mainly include Zhenwu Temple, Confucius Temple, Three Masters Lang Temple, Lvzu Pavilion, Western Holy Land Temple, Tibetan King Bodhisattva Temple, Khan Temple and Guandi Temple. They are concentrated in two groups of temples inside and outside the North Gate and the South Gate, and most of them are built on the fortress walls, which on the one hand increases the momentum of religious buildings, and on the other hand may be due to military defense considerations.

Kuixing in the sky, the wall on the ground. The outline of Zhangbi Castle is similar to Kuixing in the sky, suggesting that the castle was once an important place for military defense. The building of the castle follows the basic principles of ancient astrology and geomantic omen in China. In the ground buildings and tunnels, there are more than 30 landmarks corresponding to 28 stars, such as water wells, stage, seven-star Sophora japonica, eye of the eye and general kiln, and the custom of "offering sacrifices to stars" on the 28th day of the first month is still preserved in the castle. There are five elements of yin and yang on the ground, and six strange doors underground.

Zhangbi Castle faces south, and the south is high and the north is low, which violates the principle that the ancient city is located high in the north and low in the south. In order to make up for this defect, the builders of Zhangbi Village spared no effort to renovate Beibaomen and its surrounding temples for many times. They built Erlang Temple and Zhenwu Temple on the wall of Baobei City, and the height of the top of the temple was higher than that of Nanbaomen, so as to conform to the principle of high in the north and low in the south. Due to the steep terrain of Mianshan Mountain, Guandi Temple was built outside Nanbao Gate to block Mianshan's "Shaqi". In fact, if we pay a little attention to the architecture of the old castle, we will understand that the architectural planning in the old castle embodies China's ancient thought of harmony between man and nature. For example, the north and south doors are not visible to each other and are not in a straight line, because the main street connecting the two doors is deliberately bent at both ends and slightly "S"-shaped, which is based on the consideration of "Feng Shui does not flow out".

It is amazing that there are so many temples and palaces in the small Zhangbi Castle. Its splendor also shows the people's spiritual sustenance from another side, which is the people's expectation for peace and happiness at that time and their eternal hope. Zhang Bi is located in the hilly area of the Loess Plateau, where there is drought and little rain all the year round, and there has always been a custom of praying for rain in history. "Empty Buddha, heavy rain, heavy rain to save the people ...", the rain-praying song has been circulated so far, and the rain-praying building with carved beams and painted buildings has witnessed those sad and pious scenes countless times.

Folk activities have been passed down to this day. It is impossible to prove when the dry yangko originated. According to legend, the ancient Jiexiu area was a big lake. After "opening Lingshikou and leaving Jinyang Lake", people began to transplant seedlings in the open space, but the transplanted seedlings would die if they were not exposed to the sun, so everyone waited for the sun in the field and sang, and over time they became dry yangko.

It is said that these are two old trees that grow together, and they are "Huai" trees in the Song Dynasty. Sophora japonica is a Millennium Sophora japonica and willow is a century-old willow. As a result, the roots and veins are intertwined and the branches intersect. Is this a true portrayal of "we want two birds to be one, fly in the sky, live and grow together on the earth, and have two branches in one tree"? In "Song of Eternal Sorrow", or materialized reduction? People can't help but sigh that he is homesick and Liu has the heart of "staying behind". Is "embracing Liu" an agreement with the native land? After all, they have been on a par for hundreds of years, and it is early winter. The branches of riding a dragon are covered with colorful cloth instead of green rendering, which is obviously regarded by local people as a sacred tree to protect their people.

Six or seven old artists sang Yangko dryly under the willow-shaded ancient pagoda in the village, and both villagers and foreign tourists quickly gathered around. Dry-tune yangko is a kind of folk drama without musical instrument accompaniment. Its style is bold and unrestrained, similar to grassland style, and it is also called singing on horseback.

Besides yangko, Chinese Valentine's Day is also a traditional folk custom of Zhangbi Castle. Every year, on the 28th day of the first lunar month, stars are sacrificed to the castle, which is called off-year by people in the castle. On this day, the villagers will get together to worship the Six-Star King of Nandou, the King of Yao nine planets, the Twenty-Eight Gods and the Four Gods, and invite friends and relatives to get together and watch the Yangko and the bustling performances in the streets.

"Five hundred years to see Beijing, five thousand years to see Shanxi". The antiquity, simplicity, clumsiness and purity of Shanxi have condensed into the soul of Chinese civilization. Zhangbi Castle is a pocket-sized town with an area of only 0. 12 square kilometers, but it has rich and diverse cultural relics. Since the Sixteen Kingdoms period, the castle has experienced several stages, such as dock wall, military town and fortified village. In the long history of 1600 years, a unique military defense system of "opening castles on the ground and underground tunnels", a religious culture in which Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism complement each other, a magical astrological culture and a splendid farming folk culture have gradually formed.