Cheng Zhe

Cheng Zhe

Cheng zhe was born in Shexian County, south of the Yangtze River (now Shexian County, Anhui Province), Jiansheng, a famous prose master and stone Carver of the Qing Dynasty. From the second year of Yongzheng to the sixth year of Yongzheng, he was the magistrate of Yazhou (now Sanya county). In the seventh year of Yongzheng reign, he was transferred to Yuntong, the salt transportation department of Guangdong Province.

Anecdotes of characters

When it comes to Cheng Zhe, we first think that it should be "Tianya stone carving". In the fifth year of Yongzheng (the year of Dingwei, 1727 A.D.), Cheng zhe was the magistrate of Yazhou and traveled to "Tianya Haijiao" to express his feelings. He inscribed the word "Tianya". According to the records of Yazhou collated by historian Guo Moruo, "the stone carving of the end of the world is also on the seashore stone of Xiamaling, which is close to" judging the South sky by the sea ". The word is three feet big. The inscription beside it is "Cheng Zhe in the 11th year of Yongzheng.". Four inches. " From then on, Tianya stone carvings stand on the edge of the South China Sea. After more than 200 years of wind and rain, it has become a famous tourist attraction.

Careful people will surely find out how Guo Moruo's yazhouzhi can write "the 11th year of Yongzheng"? In fact, the present Tianya stone carving is decorated, and the present one is Yongzheng Dingwei. What is the origin of the two?

According to the common sense of ancient times, the emperor's year number "Yongzheng", the number of years "eleven" and the word "Wei" in Ganzhi are put together. There are Xinwei, Kuiwei, Yiwei, Dingwei and Jiwei in Ganzhi, and the eleventh year of Yongzheng is not the Ganzhi year with the word "Wei" mentioned above. Therefore, it can be affirmed that the age mark of "Yongzheng eleventh Wei" is wrong. In this regard, Cai Mingkang explained that the "Eleventh anniversary of Yongzheng" we see now was wrongly engraved and added in 1984. Of course, it is based on Guo Moruo's 1962 revision of Yazhou annals. Looking up the second edition of "Yangcheng Evening News" on February 20, 1962, we find that Guo Moruo published the article "ends of the earth" which was influential for a time. This paper describes his three visits to the ends of the earth and his observation of the word "end of the earth": on February 13, 1961, Guo Moruo came to Hainan for the first time, and on February 19, accompanied by local officials of Hainan, he toured the ends of the earth. This time, Guo Moruo, who was very excited, only estimated that the two groups of characters "Tianya" and "Haijiao" came from different handwriting by visual observation, and the size was slightly equal. At that time, he thought that these four characters were all written by Su Dongpo, a literary giant of the generation, but the font was very different. Guo Moruo wrote an impromptu poem to record this trip. On January 11, 1962, Guo Mo ruo once again "revisited his hometown. Although there were no differences in the mountains and seas, there were differences in the personnel, and the same poem was composed." This time, he did not talk about the "Tianya" stone carving.

Mr. Cai said: "Guo Moruo, who has a special interest in Yazhou culture, personally collated the records of Yazhou in order to reprint them. This is the only local records in China that he personally ordered. In the process of reading Yazhou Zhi, Guo Moruo found that the word "Tianya" was written by Cheng Zhe, the governor of the state in the 11th year of Yongzheng, not by Su Dongpo. This correction overturned the "authoritative" interpretation for many years. On the evening of January 16, Guo Moruo visited Tianya for the third time. In order to see the writing age of the word "Tianya", he read it very carefully. Sure enough, the five characters of "the 11th year of Yongzheng" are on the right of "Tian" and the two characters of "Cheng zhe" are on the left of "Ya". Therefore, Guo Moruo wrote in the three inscriptions of poems carved on the giant stone of Tianya: "you can travel back and forth three times, and only after one year can you get the truth of things."

"However, is it the truth that Guo Moruo is glad to get? As he said, the writing time of the word" Tianya "is really the 11th year of Yongzheng?" Cai Mingkang disagrees. According to him, according to the record of "zhiyazhou entry" in "general annals of Guangdong Vol.2 No.19 official annals", Cheng zhe was born in Shexian County, Jiangnan, and served as a supervisor in the second year of Yongzheng. " The successor of Cheng Zhe, the governor of Yazhou listed in Yazhou annals, is "Yan Yu, a Gongsheng of Hanshan in the south of the Yangtze River, who was appointed in the seventh year of Yongzheng". Yan Yu is followed by Yang Cheng, a Zhejiang Juren, who was appointed as the governor of Yazhou in the eighth year of Yongzheng. According to the record of this clue, the Zhizhou in the 11th year of Yongzheng should be Yangcheng. According to the records of "general annals of Guangdong, Vol.19, official annals", Cheng zhe was born in Shexian County, Jiangnan, Jiansheng, and was appointed as the salt transportation Si Yuntong of Guangdong in the seventh year of Yongzheng It can be seen that Cheng zhe was transferred to Yuntong in the seventh year of Yongzheng reign. According to the above records, Cheng Zhe, as a generation of essayist and stone Carver, was punctual in renyazhou and did not go to the "ends of the earth" to express his feelings. However, he had to engrave the "ends of the earth" in the "11th year of Yongzheng" after leaving office. This is neither reasonable nor practical.

"In ancient Yazhou, the traffic was inconvenient, and" birds fly for half a year. "Even if Cheng zhe liked the scenery of Yazhou, he could not go back to Yazhou and inscribe" Tianya "in the busy official business. The textual research of later generations has proved that the record of" Tianya "inscribed by Cheng Zhe in the 11th year of Yongzheng was wrong." Cai Mingkang seems to be taking things seriously.

Yongzheng's "the year of the fourth emperor"

In 1984, the relevant departments of Ya county (approved by the State Council on May 19 of that year to abolish Ya county and establish Sanya City at the county level) organized a repair of "Tianya" stone carvings with deep inscriptions and filling in Danqing. The money engraved by the repair workers was "Yongzheng eleventh Wei".

Cai Mingkang said that it is worth noting that at that time, Ya County Cultural Bureau and Cultural Center organized a survey team to the Tianya Haijiao tourist area to conduct another rubbings investigation on the cliff inscriptions. After verifying the rubbings, Huang Huaixing and he Qingguo, local cultural and museum experts, were surprised to find that the date on the right was "Yongzheng Dingwei", which overturned Guo Moruo's identification of the time.

Huang Huaixing once wrote a special article for this purpose. It is introduced that the word spacing of "Yongzheng" and "Dingwei" is equal. The bottom of the vertical drawing of "Shi" has an obvious tick to the left, which can be distinguished from the rubbings. The word "Shi" should be "Ding". The word "Yongzheng 11" which had been falsely spread for a long time only occupied one position. It can be seen that the word "Yi" was added far fetched. From the rock surface and rubbings, there is no "year", only "Wei" can be discerned. According to the rubbings and the identification of the rock surface, it should be "Yongzheng Dingwei", which is completely consistent with the stone inscription of "Tianya" and "Yongzheng Dingwei Chengzhe". It can be concluded that the stone carving of "Tianya" was inscribed by "Dingwei" (1727 A.D.) in the fourth year of Cheng Zhe's reign as governor of Yazhou. This is the truth of the matter.

It is impossible for Mr. Guo Moruo, who only lived in Yazhou Zhi for 10 days when he revised it, to make it accurate in such a short time. And the error that he made when he observed the word "Tianya" from a distance at dusk is really excusable. But things shouldn't drown out their truth because of emotional factors. Mr. Cai Mingkang put forward the records about Cheng zhe: from the second year of Yongzheng (Jiachen) to the sixth year of Yongzheng (Wushen), Cheng zhe was the governor of Yazhou, and the fifth year of Yongzheng was the year of Dingwei, which coincided with the stone carving time of "Tianya".

So far, the mystery of Cheng Zhe's inscription "the end of the world" has finally been recognized as an answer.

Cai Mingkang said that the stone carving of "Tianya" has been standing on the seashore for more than 200 years. After being exposed to the sun and rain, and accompanied by the high temperature and humidity in Yazhou, the handwriting is illegible under weathering and erosion; In addition, the compilers of Yazhou annals and Guo Moruo, who later did not climb the cliff, viewed the word "Ding" from a long distance by naked eyes, and mistakenly connected the word "Ding" with the etch mark, which led to the wrong time of the famous inscription "Tianya" for many years. Fortunately, our later researchers did not believe in the ancients or authority, and finally corrected this historical mistake and returned a true face of history. Today's impetuous spirit of seeking truth is worth advocating.

Chinese PinYin : Cheng Zhe