Widow building

Widow building

The widow building is located at the westernmost end of TAIPINGZHAI Great Wall in Huangyaguan Great Wall scenic area. It was built during the Longqing period of Ming Dynasty. It is the most intact of the 52 enemy towers in Jixian Great Wall.

Widow building is a brick and stone structure, 13 meters high, with two floors inside. The outer wall of the lower building is connected with the city wall. There are four big brick columns, which divide the building into four vaulted halls. There are arrow windows on all sides for defensive shooting. There is a brick ladder in the northwest corner, along which you can climb to the upper layer. The upper layer is surrounded by battlements and crenels, and the middle part is a rectangular hut with a door facing north and a window on the left and right. The room can accommodate more than ten people for soldiers to watch and rest.

Through his historical theme, he created his work the anecdote of the widow's house.

The origin of the name

The name of the widow's building originates from a solemn and stirring legend among the local people: when Qi Jiguang commanded the construction of the Great Wall, he enlisted a Henan soldier. Among them, the wives of 12 soldiers went to the border to find their husbands when they saw that their husbands had not returned for several years and had not heard from them. After many hardships, they finally came to the great wall of Jizhou, only to learn that their husbands all gave their lives for the construction of the Great Wall. They wept in front of the grave. Qi Jiguang, the chief soldier of Jizhen Town, visited the great wall and passed by. Seeing the scene, he asked about the situation and immediately got off the horse and came to them to comfort them. He also gave each of them a pension, so that they could go back to raise their children and support the elderly. On that night, holding back their grief, they decided to inherit their husband's ambition, share their worries for the country, offer their pension as the cost of the construction of the Great Wall, and stay to participate in the construction of the Great Wall. At last, they built the enemy tower to defend the enemy. In memory of these 12 heroines, people call this enemy building "widow building".

In the great wall restoration project, the widow building is listed as the key restoration object because of its special position in the hearts of local people. During the construction of foundation clearing, the thimble, hairpin and other relics used by women were also found.

Related works

The author of the anecdote of the widow's house grasps this theme and sublimates the reality of life into the reality of art. It is not only about "anecdotes and gossip", but also about the distortion and collision of eastern and Western cultural concepts in the broad background of the 1930s. In history, the last Mou Dynasty was inextricably linked with Yantai, which opened as a port very early. This connection was not only economic, but also cultural. The author makes a deep understanding of the content of the manor through the intricate and secret strife within the family, so that readers can better understand the nature of the manor.

Jiang Zhenguo, the "little widow" in her works, is a strong woman of that era. Her misfortunes are coming one after another. She lost her husband when she was young, lost her son when she was middle-aged, and supported a huge family after her father-in-law died. It can be said that it is hard to prepare for them. In such a society, there are many people who covet her huge wealth, and orphans and widows are really tired when they travel around. What's more surprising is that the author puts her in a deep fear of inner conflict, and she has the impulse to pursue personality liberation, which is the result of her being influenced by "West Wind East Street" and her strong desire for face, which is also the strong binding force of the strong feudal atmosphere. Under the pressure of contradiction, the little widow lived a life of "washing her face with tears", and many delicate psychological descriptions made people cry. The author gives us a "multi prism" image, which is rare in contemporary literature image gallery.

Address: the westernmost end of the Great Wall, TAIPINGZHAI, Jixian County, Tianjin

Longitude: 117.398153

Latitude: 40.0492

Ticket information: no ticket required. Included in the ticket of Huangyaguan Great Wall scenic area.

Chinese PinYin : Gua Fu Lou