Jiaoxi town

Jiaoxi ancient town, known as "Zhouzhuang of Changzhou", has a history of more than 700 years. Although not as old as Yangqiao ancient town, it is more secluded. There is little management in the ancient town. The old houses in the alleys are even more mottled and old. There is also an exquisite Church of Jesus, which may add inspiration to your photography. If you have enough time, you can come and visit the old bee bee. If you're hungry, you can also taste the famous sheep soup in Jiaoxi town.

If you are interested, you can also go to Gao Xiaosheng's former residence. In houdongshu village, which is close to Jiaoxi ancient town, you'd better ask more local people.

Jiaoxi town

Jiaoxi, a famous historical and cultural town in China

It is subordinate to the northeast of Tianning District of Changzhou City (formerly Wujin District), and now it is under the jurisdiction of Zhenglu Town, Tianning district. Located at the junction of Changzhou, Wuxi and Jiangyin, it is a civilized ancient town with a history of more than 700 years, famous in the north and south of the river. With a total area of 41.4 square kilometers, it has jurisdiction over 25 administrative villages, 2 neighborhood committees and 304 villager groups. The total population is 44312, of which 3377 are non-agricultural. It is known as "the hometown of grape" and "the hometown of dryer".

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Jiao Bing, Zhu Yuanzhang's teacher, set up a school here to give lectures, so it was called Jiaodian. Later, in order to overcome fire with water, people changed Jiaodian to Jiaoxi. There are hundreds of well preserved Minqing buildings in Jiaoxi, and the blocks of "one river, four bridges, five streets, thirteen lanes" are still intact. Some folk cultural things such as "Jiaoxi mutton", "mashed meat" and "foot cake" are still handed down, and the production technology and ingredients are still handed down, which still exudes a strong flavor of history and culture.

physical geography

Jiaoxi town has a subtropical monsoon humid climate with four distinct seasons: the weather is changeable in spring and rainy at different times; it is significantly affected by the marine monsoon in summer with high temperature and rainy weather; it is clear and crisp in autumn; it is cold and less rainy and snowy in winter with the influence of northerly wind. The whole town belongs to Taihu Plain, low-lying, fertile soil, thick soil, loose texture, rivers, rich water.

The Jiehe River and the Longxi River pass through the town in a half moon shape, leading to the Shun River and entering the Shun River. This shows that the Longxi river is not a water conservancy setting, but a living setting. First, it used to rely mainly on water transportation, but it was gradually eliminated by the end of the 1960s, and changjiao road transportation replaced it. Second, drinking water and fire fighting also rely on it. Although there are many old wells in it, generally speaking, residents go to the dock to wash and draw water. When there is a fire, they move to "Yanglong" to pump water to put out the fire, or use buckets, basins and other utensils to put water in. Jiehe river is also a "thermometer" of seasonal changes. The turbid water from the Yangtze River comes from the high tide in summer, and the clear water from Taihu Lake comes from the low tide in autumn and winter. At the same time, it also undertakes the drainage function. The ancient underground drainage system converges here, and the rainstorm is rare, unless the river rises and piping. When did the river come from? There seems to be no clear conclusion. Judging from the existing four ancient bridges, the earliest one is called Sanyuan bridge. According to the records, it was built in the early Qing Dynasty. According to the inference, Longxi river was completed at least in the early Qing Dynasty, and the bridge and river should be completed at the same time, because Jiaoxi river was cut into North and south parts by this street river. The ancients would not sacrifice another convenience for one convenience. One thing to mention is that the Jiehe revetment is still the original one, and there has been almost no large-scale collapse in the past few hundred years. The main reasons are as follows: first, large stone blocks are used, and the teeth are crisscrossed and overlapped; second, I remember that in the 1960s, some people built a lot of bank piles in order to find wood, which can be seen in the dense arrangement of bank piles in low water. The revetment looks very strong.

Some of the ancient bridges were rebuilt later. For example, the "Xian'an bridge" in the middle of the bridge was also called "Zhuxing bridge" by the residents in the past. The stone tablet engraved with a hundred characters about the reconstruction is still in existence. The main content is that it was built in the Xianfeng period and funded by local squires to remind people not to burn on the bridge to avoid damage.

architectural composition

According to the existing ancient buildings, it can be roughly judged that most of them are of Jiangnan residential style, but it can not be said that they are 100%. The layout of Jiaoxi old street is very compact. It is divided into southeast, northwest and middle streets. They are the main line, with 18 lanes as the goal. They are arranged in parallel from north to south. Most of them are very narrow and deep.

Most of the houses use the local Heshan yellow stone blocks as the footings, and some of the gables are even full of stones, which forms the unique feature of Jiaoxi houses in Changzhou -- the impression of stone houses. In fact, the interior is still exquisite. Many buildings have mortise and tenon wood structures with simple basic style and no exaggerated external decoration, but there are novelty hidden in the interior, such as Chinese style gatehouse, screen wall, eaves, doors and windows, brick and wood carvings. Large families often have three or four entrances, deep courtyards, thick and solid columns, and exquisite floor tiles. Some of them are glazed in the Qing Dynasty, with traces of Dustan style, but they are almost extinct. Zhongjie, built in the Republic of China, is a typical representative of Jiaoxi's folk houses. It has a two-story brick and wood structure with a span of about 5 meters. It has been the "South Street" of Jiaoxi's commercial center until the end of the 1980s, when the new town moved to the west, it gradually declined.

However, due to the generally compact layout of the buildings, it is difficult to make a foothold in order to save land. At that time, the land was cheap, and by the 1970s, there were lots of farmland at the end of the fifth street of Jiaoxi, with some abandoned courtyards and weeds. There are some grounds for preventing bandits. In the past, I heard that there were bandits in this area. I'm afraid that the special geographical location is the main reason. Jiaoxi is at the junction with Jiangyin in the West. The east part of Jiaoxi is mountainous, river and swamp. The terrain is complex. It is obvious that Jiaoxi belongs to the area of "three no matter". It seems that it is in line with the objective conditions to make frequent banditry. The buildings named after surnames, such as xijianong, xujianong and shijianong, are closely guarded. Generally, there are gates at the entrance. When I was a child, I saw those undamaged mortars still there. The elder also said that the doors used to be closed at night. Jiaoxi is also an ancient town of immigrants, such as the surname Xi. According to Su Shen, an expert on surname culture in Changzhou, Jiaoxi moved from Furong in the Ming Dynasty and from the north in the early years. Immigrant residents should be more vigilant to protect their property and life, and naturally materialize their united mind into compact and solid buildings. Therefore, can we say that there are some similarities between this and the core of Fujian Yongding Tulou culture?

Therefore, all the buildings near the edge are basically built with stones, and some of them are reinforced with rivets on the cracks. Basically, the windows are not opened. Once the gables are built to the top, more side courtyard doors are opened, the steps are high, and the doors are firm. There is also a famous "black alley" in xijianong, which is more than 30 meters long and passes under a row of buildings. It is also dark when you go in during the day, so it is named. However, as soon as the doors of the two sides of the house are opened, it presents a scene of "another spring of flowers and dark willows". Generations of people have lived in this kind of environment until the early 1990s. This lane can also be locked on both sides, but the gateway can be connected with each other, attack can be defended and retreat can be made, which fully reflects the self-protection mentality in troubled times.

It is worth mentioning that when Jiaoxi people built their homes in ancient times, they already had the consciousness of public drainage. Every family's patio and both sides of the street were equipped with drainage drains. They were chiseled with stones, which would not be damaged for a hundred years. I've seen it before when I was building a street. It's a cobweb like drainage system. It's high in the north and low in the south, leading to Longxi river. It's not blocked once in decades. Its extraordinary drainage capacity is enough to make modern civilized people blush.

The four stone bridges in Jiaoxi are also ingenious. The other three are round arches, while the Xian'an bridge is flat arch. The bridge deck is composed of two huge stone slabs, one of which weighs about 10 tons. The bridge body is firm and solid. It is supported by four large stone slabs which are also integral blocks. Under it are stone piers and countless bridge piles. It was lifted a little at that time, but it did not become dangerous. It is as firm as ever.

The houses on the two southeast streets are all backed by Longxi, but there are few people who set up docks at the back door. This shows that most of them are small traders, unlike many merchants in Qingguo lane of Changzhou, who set up docks behind their doors to facilitate loading and unloading. However, it is customary to open the back door of Mianhe river. Residents have buckets at home to draw water at any time. In fishing season, it is also convenient for riverbank trading.

Culture and art

The origin of Jiaoxi

Out of Changzhou, more than 40 miles to the northeast, you will arrive at Jiaoxi. Jiaoxi is also called Jiaodian. There is a saying among the elders, which is called "huoshao paimen - Jiaodian". It is said that the name of Jiaodian comes from the narrow streets of Jiaoxi in the old days. If there is a fire, the streets on both sides will soon burn into a sea of fire. But after careful consideration, this scene was not unique to Jiaoxi at that time. Why did Jiaodian get its name? In fact, there is a historical anecdote.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there was a poor teacher named Jiao Bing at yumenqiao (also known as Qinglongqiao) in Jiangyin. As a man of integrity, Mr. Jiao was not used to all kinds of cruel policies that the government oppressed the Han people. Therefore, he was full of knowledge and integrity. He had no intention of taking the imperial examination. He only took a few students in the town and lived a monotonous and cold life. On this day, it snowed all night. It snowed heavily when it was clear. Early in the morning, Jiao Bing opens the door and finds a person sitting under the eaves, frozen to the ground. Jiao Bing is kind enough to invite him in to warm up. The man gradually returned to Yuanshen and claimed that he was from Anhui Province. Jiao Bing looked at the man and saw that although he was dressed in rags, his face was full of wisdom. Jiao Bing talks with him, from the weather to the harvest, and gradually to the state affairs. The visitor's surname is Zhu, and his speech is extraordinary and his opinions are not vulgar, which makes Jiao Bing sympathize with each other. Suddenly, just before noon, Jiao Bing cooked a yellow chicken and drank a few catties of water and wine to entertain visitors. The two sides talked more when they were drunk

Chinese PinYin : Jiao Xi Zhen