Jielong Bridge

Jielong Bridge

Jielong bridge is located on the Lanhe River in Xiangfeng Town, Laifeng County, Hubei Province. It is only 80 meters long and more than 5 meters wide. Because of its historical legend, it is famous in the border area of Hubei, Hunan and Chongqing. It is the patriotic education base of Laifeng County. Another Jielong bridge with the same name is in Zhangkeng village, Dongkeng Town, Jingning County, Zhejiang Province.

legend

There is a legend about the construction of Jielong bridge: there are two mountains on both sides of the river. They are called "Yulong" in the South and "Xiangfeng" in the north. They are the incarnation of dragon and Phoenix, but they are "blocked" by the river. Therefore, the Tujia Miao people have suffered many disasters. It is said that as long as a stone bridge is built to cross the river and connect the "dragon vein", the good day of "dragon and phoenix" will be ushered in. In order to seek happiness, in 1809, the Tujia Miao people donated money and food. They invited skilled craftsmen to build two large and small stone arches, carved a stone dragon on the stone bridge, and chiseled three big characters -- Jielong bridge. In April 1934, he long led the third red army into Laifeng from ganbizhai, Hunan Province. The people on both sides of the river were overjoyed and went to Jielong bridge one after another, hoping that the Red Army would meet him. From then on, Jielong bridge was endowed with a new meaning and became a symbol of the people's desire for revolution.

In ancient times, Kaijiang (Xinning) county government was built according to the official system, with its seat facing south. According to the survey, it is believed that the Zushan mountain on the north side of the block meanders from the direction of shabachang, and the dragon vein is far away, but it is blocked by Shuanghe river near the north gate. In order to cultivate fengshui, Jielong entered the city. In the Ming Dynasty, a large stone arch bridge was built, especially named "Jielong bridge". In today's view, it seems incomprehensible to spend money on bridge construction for "Jielong", which seems to be an administrative decision lacking scientific consciousness. However, it is necessary and reasonable to build bridges to facilitate people to enter and leave the city. In fact, many of the ecological and cultural values of Bashu folk since ancient times are often realized through the form of gods worship and religious belief. For example, the protection of forest resources by the worship of "sacred tree" and "Dragon Mountain", the protection of animal diversity by the snake totem of Jiyu's reproductive worship, and the religious creed of "throwing grain and being hit by thunder" for the education of food conservation are all the same. This kind of form, with its supreme sacredness, is irreplaceable by many administrative measures in the old times.

building structure

Simple and elegant, the bridge is a semicircular right arch. At both ends of the bridge are Baiban roads made of huge bluestone slabs, connecting the Miao villages on both sides of the zhuangxia river. The stream under the bridge is clear and cheerful, running all year round. Jielong bridge is a natural place for Miao people to carry out "Jielong" activities here. On the day of "Jielong", colored flags are planted on both sides of the bridge and on both sides of the stone road. The Jielong team is led by teacher Miao, who shakes a brass bell in front of the line and acts as the master of "Dragon Girl", walking in the middle of the crowd in full dress and silver hat, followed by gongs and drums, trombones and suona. This scene full of strong local flavor of Miao's hometown often attracts thousands of Chinese and foreign tourists. There is a stone tablet in Shanghua shangkeng village of Chenghai, which is inscribed with "Jielong bridge". It is said that this tablet is related to the Song Emperor. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor min of the Song Dynasty was chased by Yuan soldiers and came to shangkeng village in Shanghua. At that time, it was raining heavily. He hurriedly hid in the bamboo forest for shelter. The bamboo seems to be connected with spirituality. The bamboo leaves are all folded up and become a bamboo shed, so that the monarch and his officials will not get wet. At present, Emperor min's dragon heart is very happy. After a while, the rain cleared up, and the monarch and his ministers continued on their way. However, there was a big river blocking the way ahead, and the boat could not be found. I did not know what to do. The emperor of song sighed: "is this the end of the road?" before he finished, a rainbow came down from the sky. The emperor was very happy. He quickly crossed the river and erected a monument to give the bridge the name of "Tianyi bridge". Yuan Bing arrived and smashed the monument. Later, the people erected a stone tablet beside the bridge, which read "Jielong bridge". It is located on the Lanhe River in Xiangfeng Town, Laifeng County, Hubei Province. It is only 80 meters long Because of its historical legend, it is famous in the border region of Hubei, Hunan and Chongqing. It is the patriotic education base of Laifeng County. There is a legend about the construction of Jielong bridge: there are two mountains on both sides of the river. They are called "Yulong" in the South and "Xiangfeng" in the north. They are the incarnation of dragon and Phoenix, but they are "blocked" by the river. Therefore, the Tujia Miao people have suffered many disasters. It is said that as long as a stone bridge is built to cross the river and connect the "dragon vein", the good day of "dragon and phoenix" will be ushered in. In order to seek happiness, in 1809, the Tujia Miao people donated money and food. They invited skilled craftsmen to build two large and small stone arches, carved a stone dragon on the stone bridge, and chiseled three big characters -- Jielong bridge. In April 1934, he long led the third red army into Laifeng from ganbizhai, Hunan Province. The people on both sides of the river were overjoyed and went to Jielong bridge one after another, hoping that the Red Army would meet him. From then on, Jielong bridge was endowed with a new meaning and became a symbol of the people's desire for revolution.

anecdote

All the stone arch bridges in the world have stone steps. The function of these steps is not only convenient but also to balance the stress of the arch stone. Jielong bridge is a stone arch bridge with only half steps in the world. Jielong bridge, one of the oldest stone arch bridges in Guangxi, was built in 976 A.D. in the first year of the Taiping reign of Emperor Taizong of Song Dynasty. It is said that it was donated by a monk named huaibing. Monk huaibing (born around 936 AD) was born in Zhengding County, Hebei Province. According to historical records, he became a monk when he was a child because of his poor family. He is resourceful and has profound attainments in the construction and transformation of bridges. Repairing the Zhaozhou Bridge and salvaging the iron ox from the Yellow River are his famous moves. Zhaozhou Bridge, located in Zhaoxian County, Hebei Province, is a single hole stone arch bridge built by Li Chun, a famous craftsman in Tang Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, due to disrepair, the bridge body was crooked, and the tenons between the arch stones were mostly rusty and loose. In 956, it became a dangerous bridge. Zhaozhou county magistrate had to order the closure of the bridge. Zhaozhou is located in the main road to and from the capital, so the bridge closure had a great impact at that time. Huaibing know this, came to the stone bridge field inspection, found out the cause of the stone bridge a skew movement of the root cause. After precise calculation, the scheme of widening the bridge foundation and adding two small arches on both sides of the large arch is proposed. After his careful design and ingenious construction, Zhaozhou Bridge has changed from a single hole stone bridge into a five hole stone bridge. It's not only reinforced, it's more beautiful. There is a floating bridge across the Yellow River at the Yellow River Ferry in Puzhou, Shanxi Province. The eight iron chains of the floating bridge are tied to the eight iron oxen on the bank. In the sixth year of Qiande in the Northern Song Dynasty (968 AD), the Yellow River was flooded, the floating bridge was broken by the flood, and the iron ox was brought into the Yellow River by the broken bridge. The county magistrate suspended a heavy reward to ask for the capable person who could catch the iron ox. So someone recommended monk huaibing who repaired Zhaozhou Bridge. Huaishang came to the scene and saw that he had a plan. He ordered people to stop two big wooden boats full of sand at tie Niu Shui. A big log is laid between the two ships. The log is tied with a thick hemp rope and an underwater iron ox, and then the sand on the two ships is removed. He took advantage of the buoyancy of the ship and successfully fished the iron ox. Monk huaibing has built countless bridges in his life, but he is most proud of building Jielong bridge on Xing'an Lingqu. Xing'an County was originally named Dechang County in the Qiande period of Song Dynasty. In order to avoid taboo, it was renamed Xing'an County, which means "prosperous and peaceful". In 976 A.D., monk huaibing traveled to Guangxi and came to Lingqu. He was deeply impressed by the unique scenery on both sides of Lingqu: the water of the canal passes through the city, the water street comes out by the water, and the canopies follow the water. It really feels like "the oars are easy to wave and the canopies are easy to buy wine". In particular, standing at the north gate facing south, there are lotus pond, Sandie spring, Wenchang Pavilion and watchtower in the west of the canal. To the east of the canal are the bustling downtown, Sandiequan and jiujingfang, with green bricks and grey tiles and antique flavor. However, from the west to the east of the canal, in addition to the ferry, we have to bypass the Wanli Bridge, which is very inconvenient. Huaibing decided to build a stone arch bridge in the downtown area of Beimen, which is not only convenient for the people, but also to express his nostalgia for Qin's canal digging. It is said that huaibing's method of repairing Jielong bridge is very special. Instead of blocking the canal water with the traditional method of bridge construction, he placed the center of gravity of the bridge on the west side of the canal, dug a big pit, and stretched out three thick arched iron bars from the pit to the east of the canal. Then pour iron juice into the pit to fix the iron bar. The arch stones of the stone bridge were first chiseled into deep grooves, and one by one, they overlapped from the west to the east of the canal. There are 8864 arched stones, which are neatly inlaid on the iron bars in three ways. Looking at the bridge in the mist in the morning, the whole bridge is like a dragon hiding in the Santai ridge behind. Open your mouth and gently put your chin on the dragon head on the East Bank of the canal, caressing it leisurely. Of course, why huaibing built Jielong bridge with nine stone steps in the East and no stone steps in the West has become an eternal mystery of Jielong bridge, which has aroused countless conjectures of later generations. The most common saying is that monk huaibing was afraid of other people's peeping into his secret of building the bridge, so he specially ordered people to fill up the west of the bridge with earth to connect it with santailing. How did the name of Jielong bridge come from? There are two popular sayings, one is the name of monk huaibing, the other is the gift of Emperor Qianlong. After the bridge was repaired, monk huaibing stood at the end of the bridge and looked east. He saw the number one Yuanfeng towering in the distance. Facing the Jiulong gorge near the bridge peak, there were several giant dragons winding towards the lotus pool, which seemed to mean "playing baolianzhu in Jiulong". Seeing this, monk huaibing blurted out, "this is a strange place. I'm building a bridge in a different way. It's called Jielong bridge."

Another theory is that when monk huaibing built the bridge, the county magistrate asked him to give it a name because it was built on the back of santailing

Chinese PinYin : Jie Long Qiao