Guiyang Zhuangyuan Bridge

Guiyang Zhuangyuan Bridge

Zhuangyuan bridge is located in Guiyang Town, Qidong County. It has a five hole stone arch bridge with a total length of 80 meters, a width of 8 meters and a height of 9 meters. There are stone railings and Bridge pavilions on the bridge deck. It is said that when the stone bridge was built, a new champion passed by. At that time, there were a lot of people at both ends of the bridge. The bridge engineer wanted to test the champion and asked him to pass only when he was in the right position. The stone craftsman said, "the bridge has just closed. Since then, I will sing poems. What do you think of the champion?" After pondering for a while, Zhuangyuan Gong happily said to him, "Xiaosheng Xinzhong will be an official in the future. He will serve the country and benefit the people, not for fame or profit. Don't worry about it After hearing this, all the people in the audience agreed that it was wonderful, so they named the bridge "Zhuangyuan bridge".

The bridge was first built in the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty and later destroyed by floods. The Zhuangyuan bridge we see today was rebuilt in the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. The construction time is as long as 12 years. The bridge is a five hole stone arch, 80 meters long, 10 meters high, 8 meters wide, magnificent.

It is said that when the bridge was built, there was a new champion passing by, so the craftsmen were in a dilemma and took the joint examination. The craftsman's first couplet is: "the bridge has just closed. Since then, it will pass through. I will sing poems. I have a feeling and do something about it. What does the champion think? " The number one scholar pondered for a moment and said happily, "Xiaosheng Xinzhong will be an official in the future. He will serve the country and benefit the people. He will not seek fame or profit. His father and the old need not worry." After hearing this, everyone agreed to call the bridge wonderful, and named it Zhuangyuan bridge.

Zhuangyuan bridge is also called Xianren bridge. There is another touching story about the origin of this name: it is said that there were exactly 100 masons working at the time of bridge construction, but only 99 people were present at each meal. Everyone guessed that the successful completion of the bridge must be helped by the immortal who never came to the table. Therefore, the bridge is named "Xianren bridge". On the stone slab of the bridge deck, we see a depression that looks like footprints. The local people say that it was left by the immortal who helped the bridge to ascend to the sky after the completion of the bridge. They call it "immortal foot". "Immortal foot" is 28 cm long and 16 cm wide, about the size of a human foot. When visitors pass here, they always have to step on the "immortal feet" barefoot. It is said that they can add happiness and longevity.

Zhuangyuan bridge is made of bluestone. Each square stone weighs more than one ton, and the light one weighs several hundred jin. There is no bonding material between the stones. Although it has experienced 130 years of wind and rain, it is still solid. Under the conditions at that time, it is hard to imagine how these huge stones were transported to the building location and how they were built together. No wonder later generations attributed the contribution of building the bridge to the help of the immortal.

According to the county records, in 1944, the bridge was bombed by the Japanese army, and all the kiosks were burned down. The stone lions at the end of the bridge were blown up to the stone block. The kiosks we see today were rebuilt with government funding in 1959.

Moving legend to the number one bridge covered with a mysterious veil, with this layer of mystery, listening to the heel of the blue slate melody, we boarded the stone bridge. A hundred years of stone is polished by the past steps, the cracks tell the vicissitudes of history. Although it's already midsummer, the gentle River breeze brings a little coolness through the old railings. The old people chatting in qiaotian and the children playing in qiaotian reveal the unique leisurely of the people living in the water area. Looking out from the fence, you can see a line of mountains and rivers, the stilted buildings on both sides of the Xiangjiang River are quiet and misty, the lying boat, the fishing old man, and the washing woman. What a beautiful picture of Jiangnan in Chinese oil painting! A few poetic feelings arise spontaneously, and it seems that there is a kind of pride that the number one scholar faced the bridge at that time.

Leaving Zhuangyuan bridge, boating on the Xiangjiang River, looking across the dense river, the Zhuangyuan bridge in the distance is like "the clouds in the early moon, the rainbow lying on the waves", which is another scene!

Address: Guiyang Town, Qidong County, Hengyang, Hunan Province

Longitude: 112.203916

Latitude: 26.55287

Chinese PinYin : Gui Yang Zhuang Yuan Qiao