The Yao nationality is one of the oldest nationalities in our country. The legend is that it is a member of the “Nine Li” in the ancient East. It has a strong national color. Although the “Hakka” is not a nationality, it is the only one that is not named after a region Department, also formed a unique Hakka culture. The Yao culture and the Hakka culture seem to be relatively independent, but there is a place where the two are interactively integrated to form a unique Hakka culture. This place is conveniently called the Yaxi Ancient Village.
Yaxi Ancient Village is located in Longyuanba Town, Quannan County, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province. It is about 22 kilometers away from the county seat of Quannan County. It can be reached by car in about half an hour. If you don’t know the ancient village of Yaxi, you will think this village is very new, so many people think that it is a completely new village. In fact, it is not. Although the ancient town looks very new, if you look at its history, it can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty. . At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the ancestor of the Chen family, Lu Gong, moved from Jinling to Kaiji in southern Jiangxi, and his fifth grandson, Chen Wenxin, separated from Yaxi during the Chenghua period. At present, it has been included in the fourth batch of Chinese traditional villages list, and it is an ancient village with eight years of history.
As soon as I entered the ancient village of Yaxi, there was a very grand welcome ceremony. The old grandfather dressed in Yao costumes led everyone to the entrance of the village to greet him. Although the old grandfather looked very kind, he spoke loudly and powerfully. “The place is not as elegant as here, stop and retrain and take a leisurely time.” This is the beautiful rural life described by Wang Yangming, a writer of the Ming Dynasty. Now it appears on the Yingbin Stone at the head of the ancient town of Yaxi, and it has become the reality of the ancient village of Yaxi. Portrayal.
After the elder’s welcome opening remarks, there was a group of young girls in Yao costumes who said that ethnic minorities can sing and dance, and the Yao people are no exception. Although these girls are young, they have very good dance skills. These little girls danced Yao’s unique dance, filled with youthful enthusiasm and smiles, and also formed a sharp contrast with the old and vigorous old man before, and the visual impact was very strong.
In addition to the performance staff, there are also sisters and grandmothers in Yao costumes who are drying the grass. They are especially immersive, as if they are traveling back to a thousand-year-old village. However, I am not familiar with grass and I don’t know it is drying. What on earth, if you have an erudite or a local Yao friend, please tell me, and let everyone learn and have a long experience.
There is also a performance in Yaxi Ancient Village worth seeing, which is the dragon dance performance on the square. This performance restores the sacrificial rituals of the ancient Yao people. If you are careful, you can find that although they are all dragon dances, the dragon dance of the ancient Yao people is different from other places. The main difference lies in the “dragon”, the ancient Yao people The dragon is woven from haystacks. It is said that in addition to sacrificial offerings, the ancient Yao people would dance dragons whenever they encounter important festive days or when important guests come to visit. This is considered to be the inheritance of traditional culture.
Since the ancient town of Yaxi is a thousand-year-old town, apart from the inherited culture, are there any ancient buildings handed down? Really, these are the two enclosed houses in the Qing Dynasty in the village. It can be said that the entire ancient village exists because of these two enclosed houses. Many people will ask, what is the difference between a fenced house and a tulou? In fact, enclosed houses and earthen buildings are one of the three major schools of Hakka architecture. They not only use different materials, but also have different distribution areas. Although both have the function of living and defending against enemies, generally enclosed houses focus on life, while earth buildings are defenses. The fortifications are stronger, and the enclosure can be divided into Tu Wai and Shi Wei according to different building materials. Fuxing Wai is one of the Tu Wai.
Tuwei Fuxingwei is the earlier one of the two enclosed houses in Yaxi Ancient Village. It was built during the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty. It was a square rammed-earth brick structure built by Chen Shoushuo and Chen Shouying’s uncle and nephew. It seems to give people a very strong feeling, because of the rammed-earth brick wall structure, it is also called “earth enclosure”. The entire building is three stories high, with 17 rooms on each floor. The inner ring corridors are installed on the second and above floors. The design is very compact and unique, but tourists are not allowed to go upstairs without permission.
On the first floor is the Hakka Culture Museum, which not only displays Hakka folk customs, but also includes Hakka intangible cultural heritage, weddings and funerals, and traditional customs of the New Year holidays. If you are interested in Hakka culture, you may wish to Take a look around here, you will definitely get a lot of gains.
Another enclosed house in the ancient village is called “Yafengwei”, also known as Shiwei. It was constructed later than Tuwei. It was built in the northeast of Tuwei by Chen Shouying’s son Chen Xianxue during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty. The fourth floor is one floor higher than Tuwei, but there are only 13 rooms on each floor, which looks a lot smaller than Tuwei, so it is also known as “Xiaojiabiyu”.
Yafengwei’s granite gate and exquisite wood carvings and stone carvings are superb, and the empty brick cannon horns, fire attack devices, etc. all show its outstanding fortifications, which is unique among the Gannan fenced houses. , The second floor is still not allowed to visit casually, but there is a “Twenty-Four Solar Terms” exhibition hall inside the enclosure, which integrates farming culture, Hakka folk culture and Twenty-Four Festivals, which is very interesting.
In addition to the two enclosed houses, there are many other buildings in Yaxi Ancient Village, such as the farming culture exhibition area showing farming culture. Agricultural tools such as plows, rakes and stone mills can be seen here, and there is also a small building. The courtyard and an old house were rebuilt into Yaxi Academy. It contains nearly 10,000 books and is divided into three areas: book collection, reading, and lectures. Not only that, there are many ancient houses in the village, and there are still villagers living in these ancient houses. Therefore, Yaxi Ancient Village can be regarded as a living millennium ancient village.
Having said so much, do you think this ancient village that combines Hakka culture and Yao culture is particularly interesting? If you also like Kayao culture, come and check in at Yaxi Ancient Village! You can also rent a set of Yao clothes and be an authentic Yao for a day in Yaxi Ancient Village.
The picture/text is original by Xia Xia Xia, a travel mad, unauthorized reprinting is prohibited
About the author: now go over 500+ global city, and had studied at Oxford University and Waseda University, UK, Sri Lanka and worked as international volunteers are welcome to continue to focus, eat, drink all over the world to share with you, like to remember the point Like Comment Or share!
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