Yunluo felt that as long as he was with Yan Chenyu, it didn't matter where they went. What mattered was that the girl around him was the one Yunluo liked and liked Yunluo. That was love. ＋Top＋Point＋Small＋Say, Yunluo hoped to quietly hold Yan Chenyu's delicate little hand, from today to tomorrow, and then to the distant future, until they were old.
Huang's Huoxiang is much more spacious than that of ordinary people's houses, with high walls and large houses on both sides, staggered in height. It is built with blue bricks and blue-gray seams, and the walls are thick and clear, simple and unsophisticated. It has obvious local characteristics, different from the thin walls, white lime and black smoke color in Jiangnan. What Yangzhou people call Huoxiang is called Bei (Bi) Nong in Jiangnan.
But Yangzhou Huoxiang is more open than Jiangnan residential lanes. It is open to the sky and the sun, and is light and ventilated. Usually, an open roof is added between two pairs of doors in the lane. It is called a tile. Jiangnan lanes are relatively narrow, with almost completely closed roofs and dim lighting.
There are two characteristics of the walls on both sides of Huang's Fire Lane: First, the lower half of the wall is made of flat blue bricks. The upper half is made of hollow bricks and is called a mandarin duck wall. Another characteristic is that the wall is nailed with iron bars at regular intervals and in an orderly arrangement. This was a particular way of building walls for wealthy families in the past.
When building a wall, place the wall-following wood (horizontal wood) inside the wall, and at the same time, place the wood-climbing on the inner wall. The wall-following wood is connected to the wood-climbing. This iron bar looks like a straight line on the wall surface, but it is actually a T-shape. The other end is nailed to the wall-following wood and the wood-climbing, playing a role of pulling and tying, making the wall and the wood-climbing more solid and not easy to collapse. Simply put, it is equivalent to the reinforcement of the current building concrete ring beam.
The front of the central road in the southern part of Geyuan is the main hall, and the middle and back halls are the residences, which are called the front hall and the back bedroom. This house has three rooms and two wings, and is relatively large. It is a large seven-beam structure with four side rooms. This is one of the traditional layouts of wealthy families in Yangzhou in the past.
The lattice windows, short windows and lattice strips in the middle road are carved with "turtle back brocade". The sill walls and patio are made of bluestone, the main room has square bricks, the bedroom has wooden floors, and the walls are decorated with wall panels. The decoration is very regular. The eaves and the doors, windows and pavilions are all decorated with upside-down bats. It means "good fortune is coming".
The Hanxuetang was also a place to receive guests, but the reception standards were higher than those of the Qingmeitang. Huang Xilin named the hall "Hanxuetang" because he admired "Hanxue". The so-called "Hanxue" refers to the fact that scholars in the Han Dynasty studied Confucian classics, paid more attention to the exegesis of characters, examined the names and systems of things, and had a very rigorous attitude towards academic research.
The Hanxuetang is the main hall of the Huang family mansion and a formal ceremonial reception venue. This hall is three rooms wide and has a raised beam style. It has a cypress wood frame and cypress wood beams, so it is also called the Cypress Hall.
The large beam is 60cm wide and 40cm thick, flat and simple. The column base (stone steps) on the ground are round on the top and square on the bottom, and the dwarf pillars (children's columns) on the roof are simple and simple. The whole structure is concise, without the complexity and variety of the Qing Dynasty. It should be a relic of the Ming Dynasty.
The furniture in the hall is arranged in the traditional Yangzhou style, and all the decorations on the tables and chairs are in the shape of bamboo leaves. The couplets and the scrolls in the middle hall are hung on the front, which is called "Taishi Bi". The magnificent mahogany table is decorated with porcelain hat boxes, stone screens and vases, which are homophonic to "peaceful and safe".
In the middle hall, there is a couplet written by Zheng Banqiao: "If you read a few useful books, you can forget about food; if you grow a few new bamboos, they will be like your children and grandchildren." The first couplet talks about becoming a good person: if you want to make money, you must read books, and read useful books. The second couplet talks about becoming an adult: if you want to become an adult, you must have "joints" like bamboo. The owner of the garden used this couplet by Zheng Banqiao to explain from another perspective why the garden has an indissoluble bond with bamboo.
The bamboo and rock painting in the middle of the couplet is also an imitation of Banqiao's work. The couplets on the pillars on both sides are: more than three thousand years of antiquity; seventeen authors' writings are extraordinary. The general meaning is: The writings of the seventeen official histories of Chinese civilization are magnificent. The seventeen official histories are the official histories of all dynasties compiled before the Song Dynasty.
The seventeen official histories refer to "Records of the Grand Historian", "Book of the Later Han", "Records of the Three Kingdoms", "Book of Jin", "Book of Song", "Book of Southern Qi", "Book of Liang", "Book of Chen", "Book of Wei", "Book of Northern Qi", "Book of Later Zhou", "History of the Southern Dynasties", "Northern Qi", "Book of Sui", "Book of Tang", and "History of Five Dynasties".
On both sides of the Taishi wall are wooden floor-to-ceiling pavilions. Walking into the pavilions, you can see two fan paintings, one of which is a meticulous flower-and-bird painting, and the other is a Song Dynasty painting with figures and landscapes, both of which were painted by Huang Zhiyun.
After passing the screen door (Taishi wall), you can see the polished brick covered waist door connected to the three "Daozuo" rooms facing north. Daozuo is usually used for reception etiquette services.
The bluestone corridor between the houses seems to be getting narrower and narrower. This is not only a visual effect, but in fact the corridor is getting narrower and narrower. The widest part in the south is 4 meters, while the narrowest part in the north is only 2 meters. Because the owner of the garden is not so elegant as to be indifferent to worldly affairs, the corridor is wide in the south and narrow in the north, which is homophonic to "南官北财", which means pursuing promotion and wealth.
When you get to the seat, you can see a courtyard with three rooms and two phases, which is the middle entrance of the middle road. The indoor corridor runs through the three buildings of east, middle and west. This is the residence of Huang Zhiyun's second son Huang Shi and his wife.
Huang Shi's main work was "collecting lost works". He was as famous as another scholar of the same period, Ma Guohan, and was called "the two masters of collecting lost works". His main works include "Jinsi Lu Ji Shuo", "Lu Yun Ji", "Qingsongtang Collection", "Hanxuetang Collection", "Hanxuetang Zhizuzhai Collection", etc. There are hundreds of volumes in total.
Huang Shi highly respected Sinology and was rigorous in his studies. The famous scholar Ruan Yuan called him "diligent and knowledgeable". It was not easy for a rich family's son to leave a name for himself with diligence and erudition. Of course, he was proud to have such a son. Now we know why the furnishings and arrangements of the main hall and Sinology hall of the Huang family are full of Confucian elegance. It seems that the Huang family is not only a wealthy businessman, but also a family full of scholars.
In the middle entrance room, there is a wall hanging of "Four Seasons Reading Song", with the couplet in large seal script: Carefully study bamboo dew to write Tang poems; chew plum blossoms to read Jin books. The first couplet means: Gather pure dew from bamboo leaves to grind a full inkstone with thick ink, so that I can write Tang poems.
The meaning of the second couplet is: Just like the subtle fragrance of plum blossoms, you need to savor it carefully to appreciate the calligraphy art of the Jin people. This couplet expresses the life interest of literati and scholars who study Tang poetry and appreciate Jin books. The furniture in the east bedroom and the west study are both in typical Qing Dynasty style, exquisite and luxurious.
There is a scroll hanging in the study that reads: "White duckweed blows at the head of the Yangtze River, and the rain makes me sad every year. The spring breeze does not know the pain of leaving the pavilion, and first sends a long scroll to the guests." The author of this poem, Liu Qinzai, was Huang Shi's wife. She was the daughter of the salt transport historian of Lianghuai at that time, and also a famous talented woman in Yangzhou.
Huang Shi and his wife can be said to be a couple who follow each other's lead. From the calligraphy and paintings hanging in the room and the furniture displayed, we can get a rough idea of Huang Shi's life scene here, where he concentrates on studying.
Huang Shi's academic achievements made him famous in history. His academic achievements were not only due to his intelligence, but more importantly, due to his "diligence and erudition". The Qing Dynasty Biographies said that he was very smart when he was young. Although he was born in a merchant family, he loved reading and studying almost to the point of obsession, which was completely different from other salt merchants' children who admired luxury and were ignorant.
He once invited Jiang Pan, a famous scholar of the "Yangzhou School", with great gifts to "stay at his home for four years". In other words, Jiang Pan served as Huang Shi's tutor for four years. After Jiang Pan's death, Huang Shi stayed at home for more than ten years, devoted himself to research, and had a very rigorous attitude towards academic research, emphasizing empirical evidence rather than argument.
Passing through the hall, you can reach the back hall in the middle, which also has three rooms and two wings, but the furnishings are very different. It is very simple and has no luxurious style of a wealthy merchant. This is where Huang Xixi, the fourth son of Huang Zhiyun, lived.
Huang Xixi is the youngest of the four Huang brothers and the last one to leave the ancestral home. Huang Xixi is aloof and regards officialdom as dirt. He places all his joy in life on reciting poems and painting.
Huang Xixi is like Baoyu in the Grand View Garden. He experienced the whole process of the family business from prosperity to decline, and lived in seclusion in his later years. From the luxurious life in his youth to living in a foreign land in his later years, his mental journey is probably hard for others to imagine.
Like his three elder brothers, Xixi was good at poetry and painting. It was written in "Wuhu Nostalgia Records" that "Xixi was fond of elegance and was good at poetry and writing." His "Qiyunshan Pavilion Ci Collection" has been preserved in the world.
The central hall of the main room is decorated with a landscape painting. The couplet is a collection of Huang Xixi's poems: "Distinguish river trees in the clouds; listen to birds singing in the flowers." "River trees in the clouds" presents a hazy beauty; "birds singing in the flowers" shows a quiet beauty. The sentences express the poet Huang Xixi's tranquil temperament and elegant feelings.
Huang Xixi's writing is elegant, graceful, and natural, which can be attributed to his circumstances.
The two rooms on the left and right are still study rooms and bedrooms like the middle room. The three rooms in the middle can be opened to go through the front and back, and closed to form an independent unit, and can be entered and exited through the side door in front of the wing room. After Huang Xixi left Geyuan, his son studied medicine since he was young, and his medical skills were excellent. He practiced medicine all over the world and was known as "one finger magic needle".
The main house of the remains of the residence on the west road in the southern part of Geyuan has three front and back courtyards. It is the place where the Huang family members live and move together. The front hall is called the flower hall. The middle and back halls are two-story houses, called the embroidery building.
The eaves and tiles are dripping with peach patterns, and the doors, windows and pavilions are decorated with crane patterns, which symbolize longevity. There are three corridors on three sides and side doors on both sides. They are all in the pattern of three open and five hidden, which means that there are three rooms in appearance, but in fact there are five rooms in a row, and the small rooms are used as suites.
In feudal society, under the rules of the "ritual" hierarchy, common people could only have three main rooms. In order to avoid the rules, the common people cleverly adopted the combination of "three open and five hidden". In fact, this is also a functional need. In front of the small room, a small patio is built with a flower bed. It is very elegant and quiet, with strong privacy. It is usually used as a boudoir, study, or secret room.
Qingsong Hall was named after the owner Huang Zhiyun, who was well-known in his later years. It is made of fir wood, but is very exquisite. The main hall has three rooms, and a suite is located next to it, with a small patio in front of the suite.
There are three corridors in front of the hall, with a width of 2 meters. The patio is paved with white marble, and the four sides are square. It corresponds to the tall square columns and the ancient square stone steps. The step edge stone is made of a whole piece of granite, with a length of 4.8 meters, a width of 0.6 meters, and a thickness of 0.2 meters.
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
The eaves beam is not only thick and solid, but also a whole piece of wood that stretches across three rooms, with a length of 12.3 meters. The net height of the hall eaves and corridor eaves is 5.2 meters.
Qingsong Hall is not only the tallest and most spacious hall in the three Huang family residences, but also the tallest hall among the ancient residences in Yangzhou. It was named Qingsong Hall because Huang Zhiyun had a "good reputation for purity" in his later years.
The mahogany furniture with the Eight Immortals pattern in the hall is simple and exquisite, and the couplet on the pillar reads: "For hundreds of years, people have been doing nothing but accumulating good deeds, and the best thing to do is to study." This hall is the place where the Huang family gathers and worships. There is a pavilion on the step frame behind the hall, where the tablets of ancestors were placed.
Huang Zhiyun once raised a family opera troupe of 200 to 300 people, so this is also the place where operas are sometimes rehearsed and performed in "Tanghui". There are two pairs of large polished brick stained glass windows on the corridor wall, which are typical Yangzhou style. Through the crabapple brocade and turtle back brocade decorations, a few sparse bamboos in the small courtyard can be seen in the east, and a wintersweet can be seen in the west, which is extremely elegant.
From the couplets on the pillars of Qingsong Hall, we can know that Huang Zhiyun was deeply influenced by Confucianism, believed that reading was the best thing in the world, and attached great importance to the education of his children. He spared no expense to hire famous teachers to teach his children, and personally supervised their education every day.
Regarding Huang Zhiyun's teaching his son to become a talented person, people at that time had such descriptions, which I feel are worth learning from. When Huang Zhiyun first arrived in Yangzhou, most of the scholars and celebrities in Yangzhou disdained to associate with him because he was a businessman. Huang Zhiyun also did not associate with them.
But he would spend a lot of money to hire famous teachers from Anhui to teach his son every year, and he would personally check on his son's learning every night. If he found that his son was not good at studying, he would immediately send a servant to accompany him to the study room and ask the teacher to explain again. He would not go to bed until his son had fully understood the lesson. He did this every day for 20 years without interruption.
One day, a famous scholar from Yangzhou was talking with the teacher of the eldest son Xiqing at Huang's house. They happened to talk about the Book of Han, and the famous scholar was confused about something. The teacher pointed at Xiqing and said to him, "He is familiar with it," and asked Xiqing to answer. Xiqing stood up, recited it fluently, and explained it in detail. After the famous scholar came out, he said to others, "The Huang family has a good child, don't look down on him!"
With strict requirements, excellent teachers and their own efforts, Huang Zhiyun's four sons: Huang Xiqing, Huang Shi, Huang Xiqi and Huang Xixi were all good at poetry, calligraphy and painting, had profound literary attainments, and all had works passed down to the world.
Particularly outstanding was the second son, Huang Shi, who made great achievements in the collection of lost ancient books. He wrote more than ten academic works, including the "Han Xuetang Collection", and his name was also recorded in history.
The west entrance is a five-story house with three open sides and three dark sides, with a total of 10 rooms upstairs and downstairs. The last room on the west side downstairs is the bedroom of the owner Huang Zhiyun, with a treasure cave inside. The other room is a study. The easternmost room downstairs has a staircase that leads directly to the second floor.
The upper floor is where the family members gather, including an embroidery room, a children's room, etc. There are no flower windows on the corridor walls, and the suites and small patios form a unique pattern, which can avoid the heat in summer and the cold wind in winter, making it a comfortable place to live and read elegantly.
The west rear entrance is still a house with corridors on three sides, three open and five hidden floors, with a total of 10 rooms upstairs and downstairs. The main bedroom is downstairs.
From the staircase behind the screen door, you can go upstairs, where there is the boudoir embroidery building, where there are the daughter's bedroom, study, entertainment room, bathing room, etc. With high walls and deep courtyards, it is no wonder that there was a saying in the past that the daughters of wealthy families were "raised in the boudoir and unknown to the world".
Now, every March, Geyuan will co-organize the "Yangzhou Paper-cutting Art Festival" with Yangzhou Craft Factory. It is currently the only place to showcase Yangzhou paper-cutting art. Yangzhou paper-cutting uses rice paper as the raw material and black hard paper as the frame, with clear black and white images. The themes are rich, including figures, landscapes, flowers, birds, fish and insects, especially seasonal flowers and butterflies.
Yunluo sincerely felt that this garden was still very beautiful. Although in Yunluo's eyes, it was not as beautiful as Yan Chenyu, Xiaoyu Baby was the most beautiful girl in Yunluo's eyes. (To be continued...)
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