Hongji Bridge

Hongji Bridge

Hongji bridge is located in Dongqiao village, 2.5km east of Guangfu ancient city, Yongnian District, Handan City, Hebei Province. In Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was also known as "Fudong bridge" because it was located in the east of Guangfu ancient city

The Fuyang River section where it is located flows from north to South and crosses the Fuyang River from east to west, so it is a bridge from east to west. Dongqiao village is named because it is in the east of the bridge. Local people also call it "Dongqiao" and "laodongqiao". Hongji bridge was rebuilt in the 10th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1582).

Hongji bridge is a single hole double open shoulder stone arch bridge, 48.9 meters long from east to west and 6.82 meters wide, all built by bluestone masonry.

There are exquisite reliefs on the outside of Hongji bridge, and there is a huge water sucking beast on both sides of the top. There are four small coupons at both ends, with dragons, twigs and flowers carved on the outside. There are tiger, deer, unicorn, flower ornaments and folk allusions carved on the inside of the existing fence on the bridge deck.

Hongji bridge is one of the existing large-scale ancient stone arch bridges in China. It is similar to Anji bridge in building structure and shape, and occupies an important position in the history of ancient Chinese bridges.

On May 25, 2006, Hongji bridge was announced as the Sixth Batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council of the people's Republic of China.

Historical evolution

Hongji bridge was rebuilt in the 10th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1582).

From the 28th year of the Ming Dynasty to the 32nd year of the Republic of China (1939-1943), Hongji bridge was occupied by the Japanese invaders. The Japanese army cut off the passage of the bridge and dug up the western part of the bridge to build a blockhouse on it. At the same time, the small arches at both ends were transformed into prisons for anti Japanese workers.

From the spring of 1832 to march of 1833, Hongji bridge was repaired.

In the 1950s, the main arch of Hongji bridge was found to sink and incline outward.

In March 1966, the Xingtai earthquake caused the main arch of Hongji bridge to sink and incline more and more seriously.

In 1985, the Bureau of cultural relics of Hebei Province once sent someone to investigate Hongji bridge. At that time, it was measured that the sinking size of the main arch was 14 cm, which attracted the attention of various departments.

In 1992, when the cultural relics department formulated the economic plan, the main arch of Hongji bridge had sunk more than 30 cm.

From 1992 to 1993, Hebei Institute of ancient architecture was entrusted by the Provincial Bureau of cultural relics to undertake and complete the survey and repair of Hongji bridge.

Site features

structure

Hongji bridge is a single hole double open shoulder stone arch bridge, which is similar to Anji bridge (Zhaozhou Bridge) in structure design and slightly smaller than Anji bridge (Zhaozhou Bridge) in construction scale, all of which are built by bluestone masonry.

Two parallel small arches are respectively arranged between the ribs at both ends of the main arch and the bridge deck.

Hongji bridge is 48.9 meters long from east to west and 6.82 meters wide. The clear span of the main arch is 31.88 meters and the sagittal arc is 6.02 meters (the vertical distance between the top of the main arch and the two legs). The span of the two ends is 3.5 meters, arc loss is 1.6 meters, the other is 1.9 meters, arc loss is 1.05 meters.

The side ticket near the bridge is 3.8m in span and 2.85m in height. The main arch is built by 18 single arches in longitudinal arrangement. Each single arch uses an average of 33-34 stones, sharing more than 600 stones. The stones are connected by 0.37m-0.43m iron girdle. On both sides of Hongji bridge, the arch backs are paved with eaves hook stone, the adjacent deck stones are inlaid with iron waist, and the vertical and horizontal gaps are filled with lime soil mixed with jiangmi slurry.

Two concealed large iron beams were installed at the back of the main arch, which tightly wedged 18 single arches together.

characteristic

Each single stone of Hongji bridge arch is connected by tenon and mortise in series. This use of stone components actually adopts the manufacturing principle of ancient carriage wooden wheel, and its advantages are the integrity, stability and seismic performance.

On both sides of Hongji bridge, the arched backs are paved with eaves hook stone. In this way, not only the appearance is beautiful, but also the hook stone is used to close the two side coupons tightly, which reduces the possibility of the side coupons tilting outward and enhances the integrity and stability of the main arch coupons. During the construction, every single bond is built, and then another bond is built. Each bond is relatively independent of each other. The outstanding advantage of the stone arch bridge with this structure is that when one or more of the stone fragments, it can only affect the single bond, but it will not pose a big threat to the adjacent single bonds.

Hongji bridge adopts the bridge design of double open shoulders of main arch, which not only ensures the smooth navigation, but also achieves the purpose of diversion when the river rises. At the same time, it reduces the weight of the bridge, saves stones, and is also for aesthetic consideration. In order to meet the needs of large ships, and the topography on both sides of Hongji bridge is relatively low, the span loss ratio of Hongji bridge is 1 ∶ 5.3 (the span loss ratio of Anji bridge is 1 ∶ 5.1).

There are exquisite relief sculptures on the outside of Hongji bridge, including flying dragon, Phoenix, two dragons playing with pearls, galloping horse, monster and so on. There is a water absorbing beast on both sides of the top of the ticket. There are four small coupons at both ends, with dragons, twigs and flowers carved on the outside. There are tiger, deer, unicorn, flower ornaments and folk allusions carved on the inside of the existing fence on the bridge deck.

Cultural relics

On both sides of Hongji bridge deck, there are 18 square pillars, 17 breast boards and 2 drum stones.

At the same time, Hongji bridge is decorated with a large number of eaves stones.

There are seven lions, eight monkeys, peaches and pomegranates on the top of Hongji bridge pillar. On the board are relief carvings of deer, Qilin, jiejiefenghou, wuniuchuanyue, Wusong fighting tiger, eight immortals story, songmeizhulan, entwined flowers, etc. the patterns are exquisite and vivid. There is a dragon head carved between the big ticket and the small ticket, which is a relief of dragon looking at the water; two dragons playing with pearls, flying phoenix, flying dragon and flying horse are carved on both sides of the big ticket, and the twigs and flowers carved on the small ticket are on both sides.

On the south side of the main arch of Hongji bridge, a small hole with a diameter of 4-5cm is carved on the deck stone above the water sucking beast, which is curved and leads to the upper side of the head of the water sucking beast. Whenever there is a huge flood that submerges the water sucking beast or approaches the edge of the small hole, the small hole will make a low "Ming Ming" sound, similar to that of an old cow. Therefore, the local people call this hole "Di Yu Niu". It is chiseled by using the principles of air flow and acoustics.

There is a local doggerel: two peaches, two pomegranates, seven lions, eight monkeys, and one "local yak" in the middle. A few Doggerels vividly summarize and summarize the sculptures on Hongji bridge.

History and culture

Arts and culture

Several times nostalgia for the east of the ancient city, all this bridge flying into the water. It's like a magic weapon wielding a ghost axe, and the cloud comes from a petrified rainbow. One after another, Hebei and Shandong developed a great economy, and the other was transferred to Tianjin and Handan. It is planned to release the boat and chant, and poetry and thoughts are scattered into the Bihe wind.

arch

Stone arch bridge is divided into full shoulder type and open shoulder type in terms of architectural structure modeling. The so-called full shouldered arch bridge is to build up all the space between the main arch rib and the bridge deck. This kind of stone arch bridge seems to have solid piers, but in fact it is clumsy and fragile. The open shoulder stone arch bridge, in short, is to open the two shoulders of the main arch, and set up two parallel small arches between the arch rib and the bridge deck, which has the advantages of light structure, firmness and applicability. Hongji bridge is an open shoulder stone arch bridge.

Name source

On the outside of the north and South railings in the middle of Hongji bridge, there are three powerful characters "Hongji bridge". On the side of the characters, there are still stone inscriptions inscribed: "tuiguanggongjiachen, tongduanzhouping, Tongzhi Dongxuan, Guangping prefect Jia Yingbi founded; Wanli ten year old Wang Wu Shiyue jihitachi." Hongji bridge across Fuyang River is an important traffic road in Hebei, Shandong and Henan provinces. "Guangping Fu Zhi" of the Qing Dynasty states: "it also depends on the water, reaches Cihan, reaches Jinwei, ships, and trades all over the world, so it is not convenient for the people of one county and one city." It was called "great contribution and great benefit". When the bridge was being built, people from all sides donated money to help others, helped them to do good deeds and fought together, so it was called "great benefit".

The name of Hongji bridge should not be "Hongji" at first.

According to the records of mountains and rivers in Guangping Fu Zhi (Volume 3) by Jiajing of Ming Dynasty (1522-1566), "matouqiao is five li east of Fu Cheng".

Hongji bridge was recorded in Yongnian County annals · Jianzhi · bridge by Chongzhen of Ming Dynasty (1628-1644).

"Hongji, five li to the east of the city" is recorded in Guangping Fu Zhi (Volume 4, Jianzhi) by Kangxi of Qing Dynasty (1662-722).

It is recorded in the records of Guangping prefecture (Volume I, Jianzhi) by Qianlong of Qing Dynasty (1736-1795), "Hongji bridge is five li to the east of the city". In the book Guangping Fu Zhi Yutu Yongnian County Aotu written by Qianlong of Qing Dynasty, the bridge was labeled as "Dongqiao".

In 1745, Yongnian County annals Volume 6, Jianzhi bridge recorded that Hongji bridge was located in the east of the city.

"Hongji bridge, five li east of the city" is recorded in Yongnian County annals (Volume 7, Jianzhi) in 1758.

In Guangxu (1871-1908) of the Qing Dynasty, it is recorded that "Hongji bridge is located at Wuli in the east of the county, Aoshi, near Matou village, also known as Matou bridge"

Chinese PinYin : Hong Ji Qiao