Ancient Sri Lanka, also known as Ceylon, is a mysterious kingdom hidden in the forest. Legend has it that more than 500 years ago, there was a clever and capable prince in the Kingdom of Balaye, Wang Shili. He and a beautiful girl, ko gloria, really fell in love and got engaged. At this time, the king sent his son to distant China to gain more experience before he succeeded to the throne.
Unexpectedly, the prince never came back. After waiting day after day, Roglia sadly married someone else; Looking forward to year after year, the old king passed the throne to his grandson. What caused the prince to leave his beloved girl and noble throne forever?
1986 At the beginning of this year, a Sri Lankan parliamentary delegation visited China. During the talks, they expressed the hope that China would help find the whereabouts of the missing prince. A few days later, the relevant departments of the State Council wrote to Quanzhou, Fujian, asking Quanzhou to help find the whereabouts of the prince, because according to the research of Sri Lankan experts, the final resting place of the prince is probably Quanzhou. Chen Risheng, then editor-in-chief of Quanzhou Evening News Agency, first accepted the task of finding Prince Ceylon.
According to the records of foreign biographies in the Ming Dynasty, Prince Shiliba of Ceylon came to China in the third year of Tianshun in the Ming Dynasty, that is, AD 1459. When the prince landed in Quanzhou Port, Fujian Province, it was the beautiful season when Erythrina bloomed all over the city.
Quanzhou local officials warmly welcomed the distinguished guests from Ceylon and sent special personnel to escort them to Beijing. Zhu Qizhen, Ming Yingzong, met Prince Ceylon. He was very happy to see all kinds of rare treasures he brought, and returned a lot of gold and silver to the monkey. Soon after, the prince and his party left Beijing for home.
According to the Records of Ming History, Ceylon has never sent an envoy since he made friends with the princes. We know that the prince did not return to Ceylon. Did he sink into the sea of Wang Yang on his way home?
Just when the investigation fell into mystery, a person recorded in Quanzhou local chronicles attracted people's attention. His name is Shi Gongxian, a juren in Kangxi period. After he claimed to be the monarch of Mount Ceylon, his ancestors were the missing princes. From here, people learned such a thrilling story.
Just as the prince was about to return to China, a family member came to report that something had happened to China. The king's nephew, the prince's cousin, rushed into the palace and usurped the throne. Not only did he brutally kill all the brothers of the prince, but he also wiped out the whole gang when the prince returned home.
The sad and angry prince can only stay in Quanzhou. Year after year, he didn't expect any good news at home, so he had to change his clothes and take the first word "teacher" as the Chinese surname, and settle down and reproduce.
Knowing that the descendants of the prince took the world as their surname, the experts immediately rushed to Quanzhou Public Security Bureau to inquire about all the people in the city who took the world as their surname. Unexpectedly, the result was disappointing. There was no stone in Quanzhou. Is there an error in the government records, or has the family incense been broken long ago? Chen Risheng lost in thought. Can I change my family name at home? Last name is Shi? Last name is Shi? Still surnamed si?
This is the Fu Mei Ferry in the whole state. At that time, there were merchant ships from all over the world, with numerous sails and victorious battles, so Quanzhou was called the largest port in the East by people at that time. Experts speculate that Prince Ceylon should have landed here and set foot on the land of China.
This is the site of "shi bo Stone" in Quanzhou. It is speculated that the prince once came here from the port along this river for customs declaration and registration. The Municipal Shipping Department was an organization specializing in the management of foreign merchant ships at that time, which was equivalent to today's customs.
At that time, many foreign businessmen set up warehouses in this alley. The old man said that some signs were unearthed here a few years ago. I wonder if it has anything to do with Prince Ceylon. The visa is an entry visa issued by the government to foreigners at that time, which has its own signature. However, the experts did not find the clue of the prince from the unearthed symbols.
This is Jubao Street in Quanzhou, where the Ming government set up a source station for foreigners living in China. It is almost certain that Ceylon Wang Zigang will live here when he comes to Quanzhou and later prepares to return to China.
Jubao Street got its name because it was once a famous international commodity trading market, which gathered treasures from all over the world and merchants from all over the world traded here. It can be said that Quanzhou was one of the most open and tolerant cities in China at that time, which is also the reason why Prince Ceylon settled here.
According to government records, this juren named Shi Gongxian has lived on a mountain full of bamboo for generations. In other words, Prince Ceylon bought a house and settled there after moving out of a distant post station. But where is that mountain?
However, according to research, the only old house here was built in the early years of the Republic of China, and the rest of the houses were demolished in recent years, which is regrettable.
Just as the experts sighed and were disappointed, an important clue appeared in Shi Jia Temple, a small temple not far from the death of "xianggong mansion".
Master Kong Jie presided over the Shi Jia Temple, and all the important documents in the temple were locked in this small wooden box. This is a title deed in the early years of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty. According to the above records, a big donor bought the land where today's Shi Jia Temple is located and donated it to build this temple.
The great benefactor's name is Shi Chenchu, a descendant of Prince Ceylon and the second generation descendant of an aristocratic family discovered by experts after he ascended the throne.
Luoyang Bridge is a famous historic site in Quanzhou. It was built by Cai Xiang, a calligrapher of the Northern Song Dynasty, when he was an official here. People built an ancestral temple to commemorate it. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, another local official named Cai rebuilt Luoyang Bridge. At that time, the gentry and celebrities in Quanzhou collectively erected a monument for him, and all the participants left their names on the monument. Experts found that one of them was a juren named Shi, a descendant of another noble family.
To experts' surprise, the worldwide view was established in 16 18, that is to say, the family with surname Shi from foreign countries was among the best in the highest cultural examination in China after only 100. This is an amazing speed.
Shortly thereafter, another discovery confirmed this inference. On an arch in Dongshiguzhai, people saw the legacy of calligrapher Shi. According to relevant historical data, this man lived in Jiaqing and Daoguang years of Qing Dynasty, and his specific deeds can no longer be verified. But the elegant and handsome words he left behind fully show that this noble family has completely integrated into the blood of China culture.
This is Tumen Street in the old city of Quanzhou. Minnan people call this big house a big mistake. The owner of this big house is Mr. Lin, who is over sixty years old. The Lins have lived here since Mr. Lin's grandfather 100 years ago. 1June, 1996, the Lin family mansion was included in the demolition plan, and Mr. Lin began to make preparations for moving, and by the way, he turned over the deeds of his ancestors.
Mr. Lin suddenly found that one of the deeds was of extraordinary significance, because the names of the people who wrote it were Shi Quan, Shibang and Shi Bing. In other words, this big house should be called Shi Jia Big House.
This is what experts have been looking for for a long time, that is, the old residence of an aristocratic family, where the descendants of Prince Ceylon once lived, lived, multiplied and lived.
Forty-eight years after Qianlong, the family declined and had to sell the house to others. Where did they live after that? This is still a mystery.
This is a wilderness located at the foot of Qingyuan Mountain in the suburbs of Quanzhou, and few people usually come.
1996 One day, a man named Liu Zhicheng came here. He is a scholar of literature and history in Quanzhou. He likes to look around in his spare time and always wants to find something. He is a caring person.
On a stone bridge, he keenly noticed that there seemed to be words under the bridge, so he decided to go down and have a look.
The word "Shijiakeng" made Liu Zhicheng realize that he had found the ancestor of an aristocratic family.
According to Liu Zhicheng's report, the relevant departments in Quanzhou immediately organized manpower to clean up the cemetery on a large scale, removing shrubs and weeds. What kind of world will people see?
These mysterious patterns were later confirmed by Sri Lankan experts as totems from Ceylon.
The smiling lion found in front of the tomb is believed by experts to have the carving style of the ancient Ceylon Huang Fengying dynasty, and the time is about the middle of15th century.
The more amazing discovery is still in the back hill. There are dozens of tombs of different ages scattered in the origin of this family. The excavated tombstone tells the history of a family.
Experts speculate that this is probably the tombstone of Prince Ceylon of Ba Li, because the word "envoy" on the tombstone strongly implies this.
It has been noticed that almost all tombstones are engraved with the word "Ceylon", indicating the hometown of ancestors.
When they first settled down, some of them took general affairs as their profession, that is, they worked as translators. Later, some of them started to do business. Later, they studied and passed exams. The family even has a Jishi Shu by the Royal Academy of Art..
The discovery of the cemetery of the noble family convinced the experts that they would soon uncover the final mystery and find the descendants of the noble family.
Two years later, Quanzhou Evening News published a critical report on the destruction of Shijiakeng cemetery by villages and towns. The next day, the reader called.
The caller was a woman who claimed that the destroyed Shijiakeng cemetery was her ancestral grave! However, I hung up before I finished.
Lin Shaochuan knew what this meant, so the next day he immediately published a speech in the newspaper, looking for the mysterious woman who called.
However, will the woman call again to recognize her? Lin Shaochuan waited in fear and trembling.
Lin Shaochuan and the other party agreed to meet at Daguanmen in Quanzhou in 30 minutes, and each person took a newspaper as a sign.
Put the phone down, Lin Shaochuan immediately drove to the gate.
This woman's name is Xu E. Although her surname is not Shi, experts later confirmed that she is indeed a descendant of Prince Ceylon.
This is a famous tourist commodity cultural street in Quanzhou. At the corner, there is a small shop called Daqian Folk Art Square, which specializes in selling all kinds of antiques and handicrafts. Xu E is the owner of this small shop.
Xu E just turned 40 this year. She is quiet and talkative. At first glance, she is an ordinary Minnan woman. She said that when she was a child, she didn't know she had such an extraordinary life experience.
The old grandmother said that our family came from a distant seaside. Originally, our surname was Shi. Later, your grandfather's grandfather had no son, so he married his daughter to a family named Xu, and the child born was no longer surnamed Shi, but the surnames of the two families were combined and changed to Xu.
The memory of childhood left a deep imprint on Xu E's heart.
Soon after, the Cultural Revolution began, and all people with overseas relations were silent in this political storm. Grandma secretly put all the genealogies in the family into the fire, and since then the secret has been sealed in the hearts of the living family.
This time, if the ancestral grave is not destroyed, she will keep this secret. In the past, she fell in love, got married and had children like an ordinary woman. However, her lover and children don't know the secret. She just wants to have a peaceful and happy home and be a good wife and mother.
Now, Xu E is bound to face our camera, and her life will never return to the past, which is somewhat helpless. In June 2002, the Sri Lankan government sent an invitation to visit Xu E, and Xu E finally returned to the land where his ancestors lived. The people of Sri Lanka welcomed her with the highest courtesy, and the government minister delivered a speech to welcome the princess back to China. She planted a sapling brought from Quanzhou and wished the friendship between the two peoples as long and high as this sapling.