Shengci Town, Jingjiang City, Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province

Shengci town

Shengci Town, belonging to Jingjiang City, Jiangsu Province, has a total area of 70.19 square kilometers (2017) and a population of 47663 (2017). While showing the cultural and ecological characteristics of Shengci, it has changed from a simple agricultural town to an economic town with simultaneous development of three industries. In 2007, the gross national product of the town was 1.03 billion yuan, and the per capita income of farmers was 7119 yuan. It has been awarded the titles of new small town and Ping'an town by the provinces and cities. It is an economic, cultural, educational and commercial center with strong radiation function in the west of Jingjiang.

Brief introduction of ancestral temple town

Shengci town has a long history. In the fourth year of Jianyan in the Southern Song Dynasty, Yue Fei, the anti Jin hero, retreated from the army in Jiangyin. On the way, he gathered the refugees from Jiangyin and Huaihe River and sent troops to protect the palace. The common people felt his kindness and built temples here to pay homage to him. Because the temple was built before Yue Fei's death, it was named "Sheng ancestral hall", also known as "Yue Wang Temple". The word "Shengci" has been handed down and used to this day, so Shengci town also got its name.

Architectural history

Song Jianyan four years (1130) built ancestral hall. In 1143, the ancestral hall was located in Jiangyin Prefecture, and the inspection office was built in the west of Wangyue bridge. In 1471, Jingjiang county was set up, and the ancestral hall was transferred to Jingjiang county. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, Shengci hall was the seat of Houhe district government. In 1958, Houhe district was withdrawn to build a commune, which was named Hongying commune. In 1959, Hongying commune was withdrawn and changed into Shengci people's commune. In 1965, it was renamed Daxing people's Commune. In 1983, it was withdrawn to build a township, which was named Shengci township. In 1986, it was renamed Shengci town. In November 2007, the former Hongguang town and Shengci town merged to establish a new Shengci town.

physical geography

Shengci Town, a historical and cultural town. Located in the beautiful and rich Yangtze River Delta, the North Bank of the Yangtze River Estuary. The Yangtze River lies in the south, Ningtong expressway, Guangjing Expressway and Xinchang railway in the north, and provincial high-grade highway passes through the territory, with convenient water, land and railway transportation.

Historical evolution

The old appearance of Shengci Hall

As the name suggests, when Yue Fei was born, the ancestral hall was built to commemorate the people's devotion to virtue, or later generations thought that Yue Fei was still alive despite his death. In a word, it's too old to be researched. This paper briefly describes the evolution of Shengci hall, also known as Yuewang temple, which is located in the south of Shengci town's East Street, adjacent to dajinggang in the East, facing Tuanhe River and Siyue bridge (also known as Wangyue bridge) on the left. There are three rooms in the ancestral hall, which are song style buildings. The first one is three rooms in the main room, which opens to the south. There is a "manna Pavilion" outside the door. When you enter the ancestral hall, you must go around the pavilion. The second one is three rooms in the main room, with a shrine built in the middle. On the top is a statue of Yue Fei, with a golden body and a bright face. On the right are statues of Yue Yun and Zhang Xian, which are very vivid. Liang hung a plaque of "Jingzhong guanri". On both sides of the shrine are passageways. On the side of the passageway are eight standing statues of niugao, Yang Zaixing and Tang Huai, who are opposite to each other in East and West. Their posture is very active. The third one goes into five main rooms, with three statues in the middle. Guandi (commonly known as Guandi Hall) is in the middle. Liu Xianzhu (BEI) is on the left, and Zhang henghou (Fei) is on the right. There is a pair of couplets in the couplets, which has a steady meaning and is quite popular It is worth mentioning that the first couplet is: born in Zhuozhou, left in Xuzhou, guarding Jingzhou, Geng Geng, Jingzhong, Zhaori and Yueyue; the second couplet is: elder brother Xuande, younger brother Yide, discusses Meng De, Zhuozhou pound, majestic and earthshaking; there is a statue of Li Laojun in the East, a statue of Avalokitesvara in the west, five houses in the East and five in the West; the west is inhabited by the abbot, and the East is occupied by PI Xing, surnamed Lu. The courtyard of the temple is very large and there are many trees in it. When I was young, I saw several cypress trees on the left and right, with a circumference of about three feet. According to the couplets, the temple was rebuilt by Zhang Xuechun, the magistrate of the county before the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, in the late Qing Dynasty, the temple was in good condition.

Wang Jichuan's two renovations

In the early years of the Republic of China, Wang Jichuan (also known as Liu Zonghan), a native of Yuenan County, came to Yixiang to live in the countryside and plant evil forces. He tried to dominate Luli and make his own living comfortable. In the name of the dilapidated ancestral house, he raised money to build it (Yuanqi was written by me) It took about a year to clean up the house statues, build iron gate and watch gate at the former site of Ganlu Pavilion in front of the ancestral hall, and lay four characters of "loyal to serve the country" on the wall inscribed by Qian Zhenting of Wujin. In addition, it will rebuild eight pieces of stone inscriptions to build the ancestral hall wall, which is a record of Mr. Liu Guojun's righteous deeds. In the past few years, Xu Baoshan and Xu Yinfu, the big landlords of the town, were not willing to let Mr. Liu Guojun occupy the first place in the world because of their reputation of preserving the ancient achievements. Instead, Wang Jichuan took the opportunity to build a "Yueyuan" in the back of the ancestral hall In order to compete with the "Xianhua building" in Jingcheng Park, we have just completed the preliminary planning, that is, because of the Japanese invasion of China.

Vice Governor Liu cares about local historic sites and rebuilding new ancestral temple

After liberation, the houses in Shengci town were gradually restored to their original state. However, the ancestral hall had not been inquired about for a long time, and Vice Governor Liu Guojun's memorial site was destroyed. He lost his admiration for national heroes, so he spent a lot of money to rebuild the new ancestral hall. Two Shengci halls were built at the former site of Henan Shanyu hengbu factory in Zhenxi middle street. In 1961, Vice Governor Liu went back to Li and personally inspected the ancestral hall. Because the temple's north and south sides were not suitable and the scale was not perfect, he spent money again. As for the reconstruction of the Cultural Palace, the first step has been completed and is still under construction. Shengci, which has a long history and profound significance, stands again in Henan Province of Shengci town. Its scale is magnificent and magnificent compared with the old one. (October 1962, the third edition of Jingjiang literature and History)

Local Customs

Dancing dragon lantern and Danghu boat

dragon dance is a traditional custom for Jingjiang citizens to celebrate the Spring Festival. Praying for good weather in the coming year shows that people's life is becoming more and more prosperous. At the beginning of the lunar new year, the masses spontaneously hold a dragon lantern dance tour to celebrate the new year. In Jingjiang Shengci Jinxing village, the dragon lantern has a long history. According to 86 year old Lu Shaolin, the dragon lantern began to dance when he was his grandfather, and it has been at least 150 years.

temple fair

Shengci town is the oldest market town in Jingjiang. It is not only rich in cultural relics and culture, but also rich in folk art. The temple fair of the ancient town is enough to illustrate this point. The old ancestral hall is 400 meters long, 200 meters wide north and south, and a small street, built with Yuwang temple, Town God's Temple, Dongyue hall, three official hall, Tibetan hall, three Hall, extending from the town to the surrounding area for a few miles, and jade palace, South Temple, grass three official hall, Ni Si Temple, rising Gong hall, Liu Jia Guanyin hall, seven Li An, three li temple, Puji nunnery, great sadness palace, etc. go to and fro in constant streams. Every March 28 temple fair, people come from all over the country to catch up with the temple fair. It's a sea of people. Temple Fair has local traditional cultural characteristics. Temple fairs are usually held for three days. March 28 is the main day. In the hall, there are monks chanting sutras, Taoists praying and "Buddha's head" preaching. The sound of wooden fish, bells and firecrackers can be heard all the time. The temple fair also needs to build a stage, invite "Troupe" to sing, set up a canopy, pull up the tent and open temporary shops in the open space to attract pilgrims with local snacks and local specialties. The temple fair will also hold "going out" activities from time to time. This form of going out can be described as massive, spectacular and full of folk cultural characteristics. Going out of the meeting must be carefully planned and fully prepared by capable people. "Going out of the meeting" usually starts at about 2 p.m., and a huge team starts from the temple gate. Eight sedan bearers in ethnic costumes carry the shrine on their shoulders. In front of them, there is a special person to open the way. The Gong is very large, and two people carry it. The guard of honor is composed of about dozens of people, including those carrying flags and umbrellas, those holding golden claws and moon axes, those carrying "avoid" and "quiet" signs; drum bands are playing festive gongs and drums with national style; silk and bamboo bands are playing popular "baduanjing", "langtaosha" and "meihuasannong"; stilts are composed of dozens of people, including long stilts and short stilts, four or five feet high and two or three feet low, There is also a very high stilt, which is as high as the eaves. All the people who walk on stilts disguise themselves as characters in ancient traditional stories, such as "Eight Immortals", "Liang Zhu", "Liu Guanzhang", "white lady and Xu Xian". If there are women in the role, they use anti drama - men disguise themselves as women; martial arts teams dance "fireshooting star", steel fork and nine knot whip; lantern teams play Danghu boat, tiaohuadan, dragon lantern It's a lion dance. the Danghu boat in this area is different from that in other places. In addition, the "boat woman" and "support brother" are four partners. They are boating while singing, chanting, talking and so on. Another wonderful performance worth mentioning is Shao Ti Gong Xiang, that is, Shao Chong Xiang. This is an acrobatic performance. Walking in front of the guard of honor, the performer first uses a number of "s" shaped steel needles to pass through the skin under the elbow, hangs a 40 cm diameter Gong on the "s" shaped steel needle, and follows the team forward, walking, dancing and gonging. In addition to the incense burning, there are also incense burning and bench incense burning. The form is the same, but the causeway is replaced by incense burner and bench incense. This kind of program, sometimes three or five people, sometimes seven or eight people, compete with each other, showing their unique skills, forming a spectacle. Most of the people participating in the performance are local "literary elites". They gather together to perform their own skills. In fact, it is a great exhibition of folk literature and art. It is the most beautiful scenery of the temple fair, which makes tourists feast their eyes. When it comes to this scene, Mr. Sun, 91, is still alive in Shengci West Street

Chinese PinYin : Jiang Su Sheng Tai Zhou Shi Jing Jiang Shi Sheng Ci Zhen