Entering Taiping Village —— An Interview with Li Zicheng's Descendants (Continued)
In 2004, when Li Zhiqiang from Taiping Village in Fuxian County came back from Shenzhen to continue his genealogy, he accidentally found a genealogy of Li Jin. After many textual researches, the ancestor Li Jin in the genealogy is Li Zicheng's nephew and general Lee Guo. Thus, the legend that a Taiping village person is a descendant of Li Zicheng has been confirmed, and the fate of the Li people in Taiping village has come down in one continuous line. This year marks the 400th anniversary of Li Zicheng's birth, and the Li Zicheng Memorial Hall in Taiping Village is also under active preparation. On August 18, with admiration and infinite curiosity, the reporter came to Taiping Village, Sixian Township, Fuxian County, where the legendary descendants of King Chuang lived. The mountains and rivers here are beautiful and the trees are shaded. The layout of one street and two lanes in the village vaguely retains the architectural style similar to Beijing quadrangles.
Beautiful village, mysterious story
Taiping Village, located in the south of Yan 'an area, is the main road leading to Yulin from the ancient Qin Dynasty, commonly known as Tongshankou. The terrain here is hidden, and the original village is an independent platform with the shape of a pot bottom. Standing on three sides, you can't see the village. Backed by Ziwuling and surrounded by forests, the only way to the outside world is the dangerous earth bridge in the south. The dramatic building in the village, which resembles Tiananmen Square in Beijing (demolished during the Cultural Revolution), the earth building at Taoshuyakou in the east of the village, the Gulongfeng Pagoda in the north and south, the cautious behavior of the Li people, their unique beliefs and strange ways of worshipping God ... all put this village, which is called "Little Beijing" by Fiona Fang Baili, on a mysterious coat.
Li Zhiqiang said that in the past, people in Taiping Village were very cautious, and generally didn't go out easily, even if they visited relatives, they didn't want to expose their whereabouts. They always go out at dawn and return to the village at dusk. I don't know why, but it has become a habit for hundreds of years. The reporter also saw in the interview that although the village has built wide roads and convenient transportation, there are very few people who often go out except those who go to school and go out to work. People still like to stay in the village, and few people compete with them.
People in Taiping Village, like all traditional people in China, believe in God. The name of the God they believe in is lord shen. However, this god is different from the gods worshipped in other places, and it is a unique belief of Taiping Li people. People in Taiping Village are quite devout to this deity and affectionately call him "Grandpa". Every year, Li people put on new clothes for grandpa, which are sewn by women in the village. The hat is a snow hat and the clothes are snow clothes. Whenever there are difficulties or celebrations in the village, the villagers will put on new clothes for the immortal master and take him around the village in a sedan chair. At the beginning of each year, the worship ceremony is particularly grand, and the New Year's Eve dinner is sent to the temple to worship "Grandpa" before you can move chopsticks, which is the case in every household. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, we will pay a New Year's call to Grandpa and watch a vigil for him on New Year's Eve, which is similar to the traditional ancestor worship in China. In addition, on April 15th of the lunar calendar, on the birthday of Master Xian Shen, pigs and sheep were slaughtered in the village, and firecrackers were set off at noon 12. Every household brings food, wine and offerings to the temple to worship, which has been handed down from generation to generation and continues to this day.
The way of worship in Taiping village is also different from other places. Their gods are generally not enshrined in temples, but hidden in villagers' homes, leaving only a shrine and an exquisite empty sedan chair in the temple. At the beginning of the year, he was invited back to the temple to attend the sacrificial ceremony and to celebrate the birthday or dress for the immortal god. Then the villagers took it home and hid it. The way of worship is also very strange. The middle-aged and elderly people present kept chanting "Grandpa, I'll give you incense, I'll give you paper money, and your old man will accept it" and "We're here to see you", and they also lamented from time to time "Alas! Grandpa is the victim. " The whole process is dignified and sad, just like attending the funeral of a loved one.
There used to be a very spectacular temple in Taiping village, which looked like a palace building, but it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. So who is "visible"? According to Li Zhiqiang, when he was young, he also asked this question curiously. At that time, some people in the village said it was Wu Zixu, but judging from the legend about the symbolic scepter and the statue of the empress in SHEN WOO, this statement was not credible. Later, after rebuilding the genealogy to confirm the relationship between the people and Li Zicheng, it was discovered that the costume of the immortal God was strikingly similar to that of Li Zicheng. The villagers' worship of God and the habit of greeting and vigil in the New Year also seem to treat an ancestor and relative. Moreover, God doesn't sit in a sedan chair, which means he is alone. There are various indications that it is not impossible to say that this grandfather is Li Zicheng.
There are treasures outside the village.
Taiping village is a quaint village. Due to hundreds of years of remoteness and conservatism, people here still live a relatively poor life. Walking into the village, that kind of simplicity and simplicity came to me, but behind this simplicity and simplicity, there were many unexpected surprises.
According to legend, all the bricks dug in Shaanxi are Qin bricks and Han tiles, and it is not an exaggeration to say that there are many cultural relics in Shaanxi. However, this word can't be used too much in Taiping Village. Almost every household in Taiping Village has "treasures", or antique furniture carved with dragons and painted with phoenixes, or ancient coins, ornaments and jade handed down by ancestors, as well as weapons and utensils accidentally dug out of the ground, many of which are palace objects. Among them, there is a weapon shaped like a spear tip, which is called "Wei Emperor" by the locals. And there are many Yongchang coins in Taiping Village. There are six villagers in Li Luquan's family, all handed down by their ancestors. Li Xiaojun, a villager, once dug up a ring engraved with dragon patterns and a large number of ancient coins, of which more than a dozen were Yongchang coins, which were later sold, and the ring engraved with the dragon head is still at home. As we all know, Yongchang Coin is a kind of currency minted and used in Li Zicheng after Xi 'an became king and Dashun peasant regime was established. After the defeat of Li Zicheng, owning Yongchang coins became a capital crime of decapitation, and most people dare not collect them. Only Li Zicheng's family or admirers would take such a risk.
When they came to Taiping Village, the villagers mentioned to reporters not only Grandpa Shen, but also two four-claw dragon axes painted on the curtains of the table for the case. The God Axis, also called the Yin Axis, is to draw the names of gods and the portraits of three generations of ancestors with cloth for future generations to worship. The axis of Li family in Taiping village is divided into long axis and short axis. The main shaft is painted with portraits of Li Zicheng and his six generations of descendants. However, this shaft was burned together with several small shafts during the Cultural Revolution, and now only two small shafts, Li Chengguo V and Li Fei III, are left, which were made in the 14th year of Guangxu and are well preserved. The curtain of the central table of the two sacred axes is painted with dragon patterns, which are lifelike and four-toed. In the hierarchical feudal society, especially in the Qing Dynasty, ordinary civilian families were afraid to draw dragons and phoenixes at will, and only emperors and princes had this patent. Dragon patterns are also very particular. Five-claw dragon represents the emperor and four-claw dragon is the prince. In Taiping Village, there are really many legends and heritages about dragons: Longhuai, whose tree heart has been decayed for hundreds of years, but its branches and leaves are still thick, ancient wooden furniture carved with faucets, faucet rings treasured at home, and especially why the pattern of four-claw dragon appears on Li's axis? Clear the relationship between Li Taiping and Li Zicheng, this problem naturally makes sense.
Remembering ancestors and benefiting future generations.
Confirmed that his family is indeed a direct descendant of Li Zicheng, people in Taiping Village are more excited than ever. A little girl told the reporter happily: "I learned the story of Li Zicheng in the text when I was a child, and now I suddenly know that we are descendants of Li Zicheng. I don't think I can believe it. " For hundreds of years, our ancestors have said that they are descendants of Li Zicheng, but there is no definite evidence to prove that people who live in seclusion in Taiping Village don't care much. The unexpected discovery of reconstructing genealogy, Li Zhiqiang's research, experts' textual research and gratifying conclusions finally made them re-examine their living space.
Concealment brought peace and rest to the defeated and reclusive ancestors, and since then it has cast a mysterious veil on this family. There are too many relics and legends about Li Zicheng. Now hundreds of years have passed, and later generations have multiplied to the nineteenth generation. Taiping Village is particularly closed and conservative because of chaos. How many cultural relics are there in Taiping Village? What cultural relics are related to Li Zicheng? Probably no one can tell. The only thing I know is that the frequent patronage of cultural relics dealers and the wanton destruction of ignorant people are losing these precious memories bit by bit. People in Taiping Village say that as descendants of Wang Chuang, we have an obligation to protect the secluded place of our ancestors and the historical and cultural heritage left here, and extend it to the world that worships him. One is to remember our ancestors, and the other is to benefit future generations. As a result, they changed their simple life and low profile, and began to use their brains in village construction and the protection and development of Li Zicheng culture in Taiping Village.
In order to expand its influence, in 2005, Taiping Village held the first Li Zicheng Cultural Festival. Many Li Zicheng research experts and various media are scrambling for reports. Since then, Taiping Village and Li Zicheng have entered people's field of vision and become amazing topics. Li Zhiqiang (Li Zicheng's15th generation grandson) who has been working deeply returned to his hometown, and successively invested hundreds of thousands to update Li Zicheng's genealogy, set up a Li Zicheng cultural website at his own expense, researched and collected Li Zicheng's cultural relics, formulated the development plan of Taiping Village tourist area in Fuxian County, and led the Li people in the village to devote themselves to the cause of publicizing their ancestral culture and benefiting future generations.
In April this year, at the 10th China East-West Cooperation Investment and Trade Fair, the investment promotion brochure "Li Zicheng Descendants Living in Seclusion-Taiping Tourist Attraction" designed by Li Zhiqiang at his own expense attracted everyone's attention. In the initial stage of building a new socialist countryside, the construction and development planning of Taiping Village has also become the focus of attention of leading departments at all levels. Since then, the project has been recommended by the provincial economic development center as a pioneer of the times and a demonstration of a new socialist countryside. At present, it has officially attracted foreign investment in Yan' an Merchants Network.
The reporter came to Taiping Village that day, which coincided with the official approval to establish the Li Zicheng Memorial Hall in Taiping Village. The villagers are very happy. Li Zhiqiang told reporters that the approval of the establishment of the memorial hall made him see the first ray of light, which was also the result of the attention of leading departments at all levels in cities and counties and the concerted efforts of Qi Xin in the whole village. He hoped that on the occasion of Li Zicheng's 400th birthday this year, more people from all walks of life would pay attention to this matter and sort out the development and construction projects of Taiping Village.
As of press time, Li Zhiqiang is still preparing the Li Zicheng Memorial Hall in Beijing, Hunan and Hubei with the entrustment and hope of his family.
Li Jiyuan of CPPCC Mizhi County Literature and History Committee said:
"Licun belongs to Dianshi Township, which was once called Emperor Township by local people, and pointed out two emperors, Li and Li Zicheng.
Li Cun:
A village named Li was found in Dianshi Township, Mizhi County. Locals also call it Lijia Station. The village has been handed down from generation to generation and is a descendant of Li. Both Li and Li Zicheng were born here.
Direct descendants of Li Zicheng:
On the back of his business card, it reads: "Li Zicheng is the Tuoba family in dangxiang after Li Yuanhao, king of Xixia. The descendants of' Wang Chuang' still maintain their original national characteristics, features and customs, which is of great significance to the study of Xixia and Tangut nationalities.
Author of Yao's Li Zicheng:
Li Zicheng and Li Yuanyuan are quite deep. Therefore, Yao, the author of the long historical novel Li Zicheng, once inspected it. When describing Li Zicheng's entry into Beijing, he wrote: "He (Li Zicheng) even thinks that his future exploits should be comparable to that of Emperor Taizong. Seven hundred years later, he established a unified Li Dynasty, which was much stronger than the Xixia Kingdom established by his ancestors.
Famous writer Ding Ling:
Ding Ling's family collected several palace cultural relics, such as the flat pot with dragon and phoenix ears, the jade carving with boy controlling fish, the jade cong and the jade ear cup. Ding Ling's uncles and brothers said, "They are descendants of Li Zicheng". Ding Ling also said before her death. I'm not arguing with Yao about whether there are revolutionary ancestors. That's the truth! She became the first scholar in Yan 'an and the most typical scholar in Yan 'an. 1939, Ding Ling, who lives in northern Shaanxi, said to Mrs. Si Nuo, "I always couldn't sleep before I came here, but now I sleep soundly and get fat." The romantic atmosphere in Sha Fei has disappeared in the pages of yesterday's yellow flowers. The locals said that she found the feeling of Xixia here and made a breakthrough in writing.