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Notes on the investigation of ancient villages in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (1)|Moraine mouth sunset around the Yellow River

Text | Xu Zhijie

In midsummer, the journey of the Yellow River goes up against the water. The investigation of ancient villages in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River lasted for two weeks, starting in Henan, traveling in Shaanxi and ending in Shanxi, conducting field measurements of existing ancient village dwellings, taking photographs and drawings into archives, and investigating the cultural history, social geography, architectural art and protection and repair of ancient villages. Appreciate the customs and customs on both sides of the Yellow River in different regions, investigate the ancient villages and houses built in the Ming and Qing dynasties, set up files for craftsmen, save aspirations for craftsmanship, and explore cultural values, and have a lot of insights.

Starting from Guojiagou Village, Suide County, Shaanxi, passing through Wubao County, crossing the Yellow River in the east, and arriving at Moraine Town, Linxian County, Shanxi, it was already the second half of the sun in the west. Follow the local guide to the moraine mouth in a hurry, and get a general idea of the past and present of the ancient town. When the sun was about to sweep across the Yellow River to bid farewell to the Luliang Mountain Range and sink into the Loess Plateau on the west side of the Shaanxi-Jin Gorge, I suddenly remembered to take a look at the sunset of the Datong Moraine, known as the "second moraine of the Yellow River", and hurriedly trotted to the commanding point at the mouth of the moraine - the Black Dragon Temple dedicated to the Dragon King at the foot of Crouching Tiger Mountain, occupying the best observation position and watching the thousands of weather changes. The mountain is high and the sun is short, just brilliant, and in the blink of an eye it has been covered by a pipa, quickly disappearing. The sunset of the Yellow River at the moraine mouth may become a ray of light to welcome tomorrow.

Notes on the investigation of ancient villages in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (1)|Moraine mouth sunset around the Yellow River

Regarding the Yellow River, the moraine mouth is the deepest memory buried in my heart, and there are many time passages closely related to my ancestors' difficult entrepreneurship and struggle to prosper their family, as well as fragments of stories torn apart by time. There are no iconic events or characters to tell the story, and all I can offer is the great-grandfather's generation of great-grandfathers, who made small deals with the trend of the times based on the limited wealth that land can bring to people. My hometown is in the south of the Changwei Great Plain in today's Weifang in Wei County, Shandong Province, bordering Bohai Bay in the north, and I have benefited from fish salt. The economically minded ancestors started the idea of the sea, the so-called relying on the sea to eat the sea, trying to transport dried fish and shrimp paste from Bohai Bay to Shanxi and Inner Mongolia in the inland areas, bartering for sheepskins and dried dates abundant in Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi, and selling them in their hometowns to make a small profit. Later, the transportation front was further lengthened, and the ancestors began to turn the head of the car, first go to Fujian and Anhui in the south to load jasmine tea, and then go north to bring dry sea goods through their hometown and go to Shanxi. At that time, the means of transportation were very primitive, using wooden wheelbarrows, a person pushed behind, and at the same time played a supporting role in supporting the right road, and the car did not fall but only pushed. Every day, more than ten or twenty miles forward, a single trip is at least a month, and a smooth back and forth takes more than two months. Wind and food sleep, rain or shine.

This story is often mentioned by the old people in the village, and they can't help but turn their faces and sob, which is embarrassing. The initial accumulation of raw capital by Chinese peasants was all full of hardships and hardships, and all they earned was hard-earned money that was worth their lives. Speaking of the tear-jerking "Go West Exit", when the old people tell this difficult historical story, they will vaguely mention "Moraine Mouth", because they are relatively unfamiliar with the real history and geography, and "West Exit" and "Moraine Exit" are often confused. From the existing historical point of view, walking the West Exit is a general reference to a long journey, from Hequ and Jinzhong in Shanxi to the north through the mouth of the tiger to today's Baotou and Hetao Plains, collectively known as "taking the West Exit". This is not only the only way for Shanxi merchants to go out of the customs and import to traffic goods in the Ming and Qing dynasties, but also the way for the Jin people who are struggling to make a living escape from natural and man-made disasters, escape from famine for food, and leave their hometowns. From the formation and inertia analysis of geography, in fact, there should be two roads to the west exit, and the aforementioned "killing tiger mouth" can be called the west exit by land. Moraine is one of the "mouths" of the west exit of the waterway.

Can my assertion justify itself?

When she arrived at Lama Bay, Hekou Town, Toketo County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, she suddenly turned her flow and rushed down from north to south to the moraine mouth of the first town of the Jiuqu Yellow River. The Lüliang Mountain Range is like a wall in front of you, to be precise, the dragon king who protects the well-being of the Jin people in Shanxi, and with a wave of his hand, the unscrupulous and rampaging Yellow River water is blocked out of Jin Province, ensuring that there is no flood disaster in Shanxi, and at the same time it is the dividing point of the Yellow River from the upper reaches to the middle reaches. The Yellow River upstream is basically a well-behaved boy who listens to people and has a human touch, with clear water, no wind and no waves, creating the Hetao Plain that feeds hundreds of thousands of people who have fled the desert and taken refuge, and Lingzhou in Hedong Irrigation District, known as the north and south of the river. Entering the middle stream, the drop in flow increases, the river channel narrows, and the river water is turbulent and accumulates into huge waves. The bottom of the river is moraine and rocky, there are many tributaries on both sides, flash floods in the rainy season, and sediment pours into the Yellow River. During the flood season, the moraine at the bottom of the river is dangerous, difficult to observe, and the rate of damage to boats is extremely high. When the water is dry, the bottom of the river is full of rocks, boats travel in between, around the rocks to avoid the waves, the boat crosses the moraine mouth, is called "breaking into the moraine", ten boats and nine stranded, the heart-wrenching trumpet of the porter, can not shake the moraine mouth dangerous beach, "the Yellow River boat, talk about the color change of the moraine", can be described as extremely dangerous.

The roaring Yellow River, the dragon groaning at the mouth of the moraine.

Notes on the investigation of ancient villages in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (1)|Moraine mouth sunset around the Yellow River

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the river flooded, and the town of Hooutai in the southern Sichuan district of the county and the town of Quyu on the east bank of the Yellow River were washed away, and the people of the two places moved to Moraine to become a town. Moraine is located at the northeast foot of Wohu Mountain, where the Yellow River meets the Huangshui River, and belongs to Linxian County, Shanxi Province. The Yellow River in the west and the water in the south, the character "湫", two pronunciations, two interpretation characters, this "湫" is the same as "autumn", meaning low-lying place. Locals explain that it is a seasonal river ditch, and during the rainy season, flash floods carry a large amount of sediment, and they rush into the Yellow River and seize the Yellow River's waterway. The bed of the Yellow River rapidly shrinks from 400 meters to 80 meters, forming a 500-meter-long reef with a maximum drop of 16 meters. Moraine at the mouth of the moraine literally means "shoal made of sand and gravel", and there is also the meaning of "desert", the former is the mainstay. I think it is more accurate to interpret the "Moraine, the one who has stones in the water column". The Yellow River has two "moraine", one is the Hukou Waterfall downstream of the moraine mouth, known as the first moraine of the Yellow River, and the moraine mouth is the second moraine. The drop of the kettle mouth is very large, forming the Yellow River Wonder Waterfall, which deserves the first moraine. Moraine mouth is upstream of the kettle mouth, it is logical to condescend to the second old, but in the old era when the kettle mouth was not yet regarded as a waterfall attraction, the reputation of the moraine mouth is actually far beyond the kettle mouth, because after the shipwright "moraine" was repeatedly hit hard, the ship boss gave up the danger that could cause the ship to be destroyed and the goods washed away, and the ships coming upstream began to unload the cargo at the moraine mouth, diverted to the land, and sent the freight to inland places. Ships going upstream in the wrong direction are loaded here and transported to the outside of Cyprus. Moraine has become an important cargo distribution center in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, with merchants gathering and mules and horses neighing, making it a lively town atmosphere. It has the reputation of "a small metropolis of water and drought wharf" and "the first town of the Jiuqu Yellow River", and there is a folk song that "Moraine Street is full of oil, and the streets are not full of water for three days".

The moraine mouth became the end point of the upstream to the middle parade boat, and the starting point of the middle boat cruise.

Notes on the investigation of ancient villages in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (1)|Moraine mouth sunset around the Yellow River

At this point, it can draw a self-justifying end to the two-way "go to the west exit". The land route is a sidewalk, the waterway is a commercial road, and the Shanxi people who flee the famine to survive walk to kill the tiger's mouth, and the merchants sail from the moraine mouth to transport goods. Therefore, the people who go to kill the tiger leave a voice of lamentation, brother, you go to the west entrance, sister I really can't stay... A trace of hatred, a love for leisure. However, because of the continuous gathering of merchants and goods, Moraine Mouth slowly became a village and a town, the market was wide open, and the fireworks were prosperous, leaving the once prosperous Moraine Mouth town. Sort it out clearly, and think that when my ancestors were "fallen masters", the end point should be at the moraine mouth.

After 1949, in order to ensure the safety of boats on the Yellow River, the local area took decisive measures to blow up the moraine at the bottom of the river and level the reef. Since then, boats on the Yellow River have traveled like Pingchuan.

The sunset at the moraine mouth is like an old man of history who passes by me, giving me a faint affection, the top of the sky full of stars, tempting young people to reach out over the mountains and fly high with my thoughts. Tonight, I am fortunate to accompany the endless day and night rush here, and I don't know what the Yellow River is. Living in a newly built cave homestay halfway up the mountain, called Li's Family Courtyard, only more than 100 meters away from the Yellow River, at night when it is quiet, lying in the cave you can faintly hear the sound of the Yellow River passing through the stones. Cave dwellings are once the most common form of dwelling in the mountains and Shaanxi regions in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, ranging from digging holes embedded in the mountains to hewn half-mountain and half-standing along the mountains. It has the advantages of warm winter and cool summer, but also has the disadvantages of too humid and uncomfortable living. As the local people's economic conditions permitted, the desire to improve the way of living in caves intensified, and in the past half century, more and more people have moved out of caves and into bungalows or buildings, and many caves have been abandoned. In recent years, homestays have bulged, especially characteristic homestays have been sought after, cave dwellings have re-entered people's sight, abandoned caves have been repaired and protected, and new modern caves suitable for urban people to live in have been built, Li's small courtyard is like this, which not only satisfies people's wishes to live in caves, but also enjoys the modern lifestyle of living abroad, killing two birds with one stone.

Notes on the investigation of ancient villages in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (1)|Moraine mouth sunset around the Yellow River

In fact, Moraine is a half-baked place for me, I have never been here before, but it seems familiar. In my memory, there is always a story associated with the ancestors of the family, and I have always thought that Moraine is the homonym of "West Exit" that sings all over the north and south of the river, or vice versa. Today I am finally relieved, and my heart is relieved. There is a singing platform in the Black Dragon Temple, and there has long been a saying that "Shanxi sings Shaanxi listens", and three caves form a megaphone to let the sound cross the Yellow River and come to Shaanxi. The Shaanxi people responded with loud Northern Shaanxi folk songs, and the reverberations echoed around the Yellow River for a long time. Standing on the stage of the Black Dragon Temple, I raised my voice and sang a piece of Peking Opera that I thought could reach Shaanxi. Condolences to your ancestors, your efforts in pushing a wheelbarrow to the south and north, shedding blood and sweat in those years, the well-being of future generations, will not be forgotten.

In midsummer, the journey of the Yellow River goes up against the water. As part of the "National Social Science Foundation Art General Project (21BG118)", this inspection of ancient villages in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River should conduct field measurements of existing ancient village houses, take photos and draw into archives, and investigate the cultural history, social geography, architectural art, and protection and repair of ancient villages. Set up files for craftsmen, save aspirations for craftsmanship, and tap cultural values. It lasted two weeks, starting in Henan, traveling in Shaanxi and ending in Shanxi, passing through the Yellow River many times on the way, appreciating the customs and people on both sides of the Yellow River in different regions, and inspecting the ancient villages and houses built in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Before arriving at Moraine Kou, I have inspected 10 ancient villages and hundreds of ancient houses of different styles, and the reason why I chose Moraine Kou Ancient Town to start is still from the wisps of family affection that I can't let go of in my heart.

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