Tongli ancient town

Tongli Town, one of the six ancient towns in the south of the Yangtze River, is located in Wujiang District, Suzhou City, on the Bank of Taihu Lake and east of the ancient canal. Founded in the Song Dynasty, it has a history of more than 1000 years. It is a real water town of Han nationality. It is 18 kilometers away from Suzhou City and 80 kilometers away from Shanghai. Tongli, with an area of 33 hectares, is surrounded by five lakes. The town is divided into seven islands by a network of rivers. The ancient town has beautiful scenery and is surrounded by water. In 1982, it became the first and only ancient town in Jiangsu Province to take the whole town as a cultural relic protection unit. In 1995, it was listed as one of the first batch of famous historical and cultural towns in Jiangsu Province. In 1998, Shuixiang ancient town and tuisiyuan were listed in the world cultural heritage preparation list.

Tongli can be regarded as a real old Jiangnan and a water town. There are many rivers, many bridges, many buildings in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and many celebrities and scholars. Tongli has a unique side, loose temperament, seemingly conservative, self-confidence in the heart. Tongli also has the wisdom side, the post-modern structure, but the combination of dynamic and static.

Here, you can enjoy the unique style of tuisiyuan. Walking on the smooth stones under your feet, walking through the narrow to one person wide chuanxinnong, you can enjoy the tea, chat and listen to the music in Nanyuan tea house. Walking on the three bridges is God's best wish to you. You can enjoy the life in Tongli by boat. Everything is fresh and intimate.

Tongli ancient town

Tongli ancient town belongs to Wujiang District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, which was built in Song Dynasty. There are many gardens, temples, houses and former residences built in Ming and Qing Dynasties in the town. 15 rivers in the shape of "Chuan" divide the town into seven small islands, and 49 ancient bridges connect them into one, which is famous for "small bridges, flowing water and people".

Historical evolution

The history of Tongli can be traced back to "Songze culture" and "Liangzhu Culture" five or six thousand years ago. As early as the Neolithic age, there were ancestors here to cultivate, live and multiply. The superior natural conditions made it the richest place in Wu, so it was originally called "Fu Tu".

The pre Qin Dynasty had become a market, which was subordinate to Wuxian County, Kuaiji Prefecture. 　　

In the early Tang Dynasty, it was renamed Tongli because of its extravagant name. Still belongs to the village city, in Jiuli village. In 909, the third year of Kaiping in Houliang Dynasty, Qian Liu, the king of Wuyue, set up Wujiang County in the South and Jiaxing in the north. Tongli belonged to Ganhua Township, Wujiang county

Song Dynasty, the abolition of reformatory Township, Tongli is a Fan Yu Township, the formal establishment of the town. The old name "Fu Tu" is overlapped, and then the word is divided into two parts. The upper part is "Tong", and the lower part is "Tian" and "Tu", which are added together to form Tongli.

During the yuan and Ming Dynasties, Tongli gradually moved to the south, because there were three East-West rivers in the town, forming the character "Chuan", also known as "Tongchuan". Tuncun became a market in Han Dynasty, which was called Tunshi at the beginning of Tang Dynasty. During the reign of song Jianyan, there were more than one thousand people living here.

In the yuan and Ming Dynasties, the city was changed into a village. In 1356, Zhang Shicheng's younger brother, Zhang Shide, took charge of Wujiang and divided his troops to tan Daoji to guard Tunshi's Dongguan, Xiuzhou and Songjiang. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there were hundreds of residents, more than half of whom were iron workers. Later, the number of residents increased slightly and became a marketplace. In the first year of Hongzhi in Ming Dynasty (1488), Tun Village belonged to Jiuyong township of Wujiang county.

During the reign of Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty, the administrative region was readjusted. Originally living in Tongli Town, Shui Min'an's several acres of Fangsheng River block houses have become "downtown", known as "newly reclaimed land". The town continued to expand southeast. In 1910, Xuantong carried out regional autonomy.

In the first year of the Republic of China, Tongli set up a municipal office.

In October 1985, Tongli town and township were merged to implement the system of town governing village.

In 1980, Tongli ancient town was listed as one of the national Taihu Lake scenic spots, and in 1982, it was listed as a provincial cultural relics protection unit.

In 1992, it was listed as a provincial cultural relics protection town. In 2000, tuisiyuan was listed as a world cultural heritage by UNESCO

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In 2010, it was rated as a national 5A scenic spot by the National Tourism Administration.

Folk customs

Take the third bridge

It is an activity for people to avoid disasters and pray for their children. "Three bridges" in the custom of walking three bridges in Tongli refers to three ancient stone bridges: Taiping Bridge, Jili bridge and Changqing bridge. It is the treasure of Tongli bridge.

In 2011, the people's Government of Wujiang City (now Wujiang District) announced the custom of walking three bridges in Tongli as the fourth batch of Wujiang municipal intangible cultural heritage list projects.

Da Lian Xiang

Lianxiang is a kind of folk self-made instrumental music popular in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. It generally uses green bamboo with a length of one meter and an inner diameter of about two centimeters as the raw material. The artists make a through hole on the bamboo tube every 10 centimeters from both ends, and insert two copper coins in the hole (the hole is slightly larger than the copper coin, which can be shaken), and fix it with screws and nuts. At the same time, red, green and yellow ribbons are tied here. Generally, three holes are made at each end and three pairs of multicolored ribbons are tied.

Da Lian Xiang means that artists hold it in their hands and beat their hands, feet, arms, shoulders and legs with the music in various ways. When dancing, the copper coins in the lotus box will make a pleasant sound, and the colorful ribbons will also fly up and down, which is really beautiful. In the early days, Lianxiang artists were generally men, wearing white clothes and trousers, performing in temple fairs and major activities. Later, the woman also played a lotus box. Women often wear blue cloth printed clothes and wear blue cloth flower scarves on their heads, dancing in various festive places and festivals.

Main attractions

Delicious food

Minbing

"Bentangzhai" specialty in minjiawan, Tongli, is a well-known traditional pastry with a history of more than 400 years. Its production is only made by the Min family. It is passed down from generation to generation, so it is called "Min cake". Minbing is made of minbing grass, rice flour as skin, bean paste and walnut meat as stuffing and steamed. It is a kind of Green League with dark color, light and fine knot. It tastes oily but not greasy. It has a unique flavor of Jiangnan farmers. In the Qing Dynasty, minbing was once listed as a tribute by the imperial court and was sent to Empress Dowager Cixi for tasting. Shen Zhou, a painter of the Ming Dynasty, once wrote a poem praising: "the fragrance is round and the cream is soft and steaming. The female worker is a virtual Zheng Yao, and the scholar's banquet is a Tang Ling. " In the early years of the Republic of China, min established "Da Fu Gui min cake company" in Shanghai, and its products were sold all over the world.

Sock bottom crisp

Shaped like the sole of a sock, layers of butter are as thin as the wings of a cicada. It tastes crisp and sweet, and tastes salty in the mouth. It has always been a traditional tea in Jiangnan. Its popularity lies in the selection of ingredients and exquisite workmanship. The main ingredients are flour and lard, supplemented with sugar, salt, sesame and chives. The production process includes two parts: the production of pastry and pastry. First, flour, boiling water and oil are used to make dough; then oil and flour are used to make pastry. When using pastry and noodles, knead it five or six times until it is completely even, so that the baked pastry can be transparent and crisp. The stuffing core is made carefully and the ratio of raw materials is strict. For example, the salt used for making salt and pepper crisp should be cooked in a wok, rolled with flour and finely rolled, and the shallots should be crushed to avoid perforation and stuffing.

Champion hoof

This dish is not unique to Tongli, but the method of making it is very different. As for the method of making it, it is not passed down. This dish is sure to be on the table when people in Tongli invite guests and friends.

Youth League

It is said that qingtuanzi uses bromeg grass juice and glutinous rice to pound together, so that glutinous rice is immersed in grass juice to form mud and turn into green. This is used to wrap the bean paste or jujube mud, then put the reed leaf into the cage and steam it.

gorgon fruit

It is the top product of Tongli local specialty. The Euryale ferox seed (commonly known as "chicken head rice") produced in Northwest Dang of Tongli is known as "ginseng in water".

Scenic spot evaluation

Chen Congzhou: Tongli is named after water. There is no Tongli without water.

Mark, senior lecturer, University of Manchester, UK: "the real life of ancient town residents is perfectly integrated with historical buildings".

Ancient town celebrities

From the fourth year of song Chunyou to the end of Qing Dynasty, Tongli town successively produced one number one scholar, 42 Jinshi and more than 90 civil and military Juren.

Ji Cheng: no apricot in character, no Taoist in name. He was a garden artist in Ming Dynasty. He was born in the year of Renwu in Wanli of Ming Dynasty (1582).

Ye Yin: a famous poet in Song Dynasty. He is good at poetry and prose and has a clear style of poetry. He has written five volumes of shunshitang chanting manuscript, including pengzecongshu and Fuli collection. Siben bridge, one of the ancient bridges in Tongli, was built for him.

Chen Wangdao: (1526-1576) was a Jinshi in the 44th year of Jiajing (1565) of Ming Dynasty. He went to Nanjing to supervise the censor. It is said that the folklore of "Pearl Tower" is the story of King Chen's marrying daughter.

Zhu Heling (1601-1683) is the author of Yu'an poetry anthology, Songling literature anthology, Du Gongbu anthology, Hanshan anthology and Chunqiu anthology. In addition, there are annotations to classics, Yi Guang Yi Lue, a research achievement of Confucian Neo Confucianism, and Shang Shu Yu Zhuan, a research achievement of Sinology and Song Dynasty. In addition, he wrote the book of songs with Chen Qiyuan.

Lu Hui (1851-1920), whose name is Lianfu, was born in the Qing Dynasty. He was a painter of the Wumen painting circle. In his early years, he studied calligraphy from Yan Chengde, Ren Lizan, Tao Kui and others, and learned from each other's strong points. Liu deliu, a young painter, lived in Suzhou in his middle age. He once painted eight pictures of "Hengshan mountain high Tour", which is a masterpiece of his life. He once worked with Wu Changshuo, Ni Tian, Wu Dacheng, Wang Tongyu and Gu Linshi in Gu Yiyuan,

Chinese PinYin : Tong Li Gu Zhen