1|||Tour Guide Commentary on the 12 Scenic Spots of Fenghuang Ancient Town Featured
Hello, everyone. I am a tour guide from Zhangjiajie Kangtai International Travel Service, and I will be explaining the scenic spots and folk customs of Zhangjiajie, Fenghuang Ancient Town, Changsha, Shaoshan, and other places.
Legend has it that after the divine bird "Phoenix" of the ancient Indian kingdom reached five hundred years of age, it gathered fragrant wood and immolated itself, then rose again from the ashes, more beautiful than ever and never to die again. This bird is the phoenix, king of all birds in China. To the southwest of Fenghuang there is a mountain that closely resembles a phoenix spreading its wings to fly, and so the place was named after it. Fenghuang, formerly called Zhen'gan, is located on the southwestern border of our prefecture, with a total area of more than 1,700 square kilometers and a population of 370,000. It is a county inhabited mainly by the Miao and Tujia ethnic minorities. Fenghuang has a long history: during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods it belonged to the State of Chu, under the Qin it was part of Qianzhong Commandery, in the Tang a Weiyang County was established here, in the Yuan and Ming the Wuzhai Zhangguan Si was set up, and in the Qing the Ting, Zhen, and Daofu offices were established, making it the military and political center of western Hunan. Fenghuang's tourism resources lie mainly in its rich historical culture. Its unique history has left behind numerous ancient sites, and its distinctive historical culture has shaped a group of famous people.
Fenghuang has beautiful scenery and many places of historic interest and scenic beauty, and has always been a favorite destination for sightseers. Since ancient times it has had eight great scenic spots: East Ridge Greeting the Dawn, South Huashan's Layered Green, Dragon Pool's Fishing Lights, Mountain Temple's Morning Bell, the Graceful Strange Peak, Stream Bridge's Moonlit Night, Orchid Path's Woodcutter's Song, and the Buddhist Pavilion's Returning Waves. There is the world-renowned ancient town scenery, the most complete stone city surviving from the Tang Dynasty--Huangsiqiao, the Miao frontier wall--the Southern Great Wall of China, a historical witness to the separation between Miao and Han peoples, and the Qiliang Cave, known as the King of Caves in China.
Fenghuang Ancient Town is situated on the bank of the Tuo River, surrounded by mountains, with strategic passes of extraordinary ruggedness. The emerald Tuo River winds past beneath the ancient city wall, the layered green of South Huashan is reflected in the heart of the river, fishing boats and tour boats dot the water, stilted houses cling to the cliffs in neat rows, and by the wharf girls washing clothes with wooden clubs laugh merrily. The East Gate and North Gate towers on the bank of the Tuo River are magnificent. The streets paved with bluestone slabs crisscross in every direction. The wooden houses of Ming and Qing dynasty style are arranged in pleasing disorder. All of this makes the ancient town resemble a Chinese landscape painting in bold ink and light color. After visiting Fenghuang, the New Zealand friend Rewi Alley said that China has two of the most beautiful small towns: one is Changting in Fujian, and the other is Fenghuang in Hunan.
The beauty of Fenghuang lies not only in its natural scenery, its local customs, its cultural relics and ancient sites, and its beautiful legends, but also in its glorious traditions and its fighting spirit. In the words of Mr. Shen Congwen, the spirit of the wandering knight, combining personal romantic feeling with historical religious feeling into one, forged another model of character and morality for this place. Once this knightly spirit is combined with patriotism, so long as leadership is proper, it can charge into battle whenever the country and nation need it, and create earth-shaking achievements. Indeed, look at some of the great events in modern Chinese history--people of Fenghuang took part in all of them, and often stood at the very forefront of the struggle. In the First Opium War, Zheng Guohong, one of the three commanders of Dinghai who gave his life for the country; in the Second Opium War, Tian Xingshu, the upright Guizhou military governor during the Qingyan and Kaizhou missionary cases; in the 1911 Revolution, Tian Yingzhao, who organized a suicide squad to retake Nanjing and fought a bloody battle at Yuhuatai and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general by Dr. Sun Yat-sen; and in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Fenghuang "Gan Army" fought bloody battles at Jiashan and charged into battle at the Battle of Changsha. Although this place is small, it has produced Xiong Xiling, the first popularly elected prime minister of the Republic of China; Shen Congwen, known as the father of regional literature and influential throughout the world; and the famous painter Huang Yongyu, among others.
Now, following the stone-slab road, we arrive at No. 10 Zhongying Street, the former residence of the famous Chinese writer Mr. Shen Congwen. This is a typical southern courtyard house. In the center is a small patio, surrounded by old wooden-tile buildings: three main rooms, two side rooms, and three front rooms. Although this old residence has no carved dragons or painted phoenixes, it is small and exquisite, antique and elegant, and the carved wooden windows with western Hunan characteristics are especially eye-catching. Shen Congwen's former residence was built by his grandfather Shen Hongfu in the fifth year of the Tongzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1866). On December 28, 1902, Mr. Shen Congwen was born here, and spent his childhood and youth here. In 1917, when Mr. Shen was 15, his family fortunes declined, so he joined a local western Hunan militia and left his hometown, wandering through the Yuan and You river valleys. Several years of army life made him witness life in dire suffering and experience raging warfare firsthand, which sparked his desire to write. In 1922, Mr. Shen went alone to Beijing, beginning his hard career in literature. From 1928 to 1930, Mr. Shen taught at a middle school in Shanghai and served concurrently as editor of the literary supplements of the Dagong Bao and Yishi Bao. From 1930 to 1933, he was a lecturer at Wuhan University and Qingdao University. From 1934 to 1939, he edited national primary and secondary Chinese textbooks in Beijing. From 1939 to 1949, he was a professor at Peking University. Over a twenty-seven-year creative career, Mr. Shen, under pen names such as Yue Huan, Shangguan Bi, Jiachen, Xiaobing, and Master of the Narrow and Mouldy Studio, wrote a series of literary works including Border Town, Duck, The Love of the Divine Shaman, The Life of an Actress, Random Notes on Western Hunan, Western Hunan, The Autobiography of Shen Congwen, Collection of Black Phoenix, The Long River, Picture of Eight Steeds, Collected Essays of Shen Congwen, and Collected Works of Shen Congwen, making a name for himself in the Chinese literary world and becoming almost as famous as Mr. Lu Xun, who was more than twenty years his senior. After the 1950s, Mr. Shen served as a researcher at the Chinese History Museum and the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, devoting himself to the study of Chinese cultural relics and producing the astonishing work that filled a gap in our country--Studies of Ancient Chinese Costumes and Adornments--as well as a series of works on cultural relics including Bronze Mirrors of the Tang and Song, Ming Mirrors, Dragon and Phoenix Art, and Warring States Lacquerware. Mr. Shen's works and his character were strongly unified: natural, honest, modest, diligent, broad, and dignified.
The more than five million words Mr. Shen wrote in his lifetime are a treasure of world literature and have left precious historical documents for later generations to study China and western Hunan.
In 1982, Mr. Shen and his wife Zhang Zhaohe returned to their hometown to visit the elders and fellow townspeople, little knowing it would be a permanent farewell to their hometown. At 8:35 p.m. on May 10, 1988, this giant of world literature passed away in Beijing at the age of 86.
The place we have now reached is Chaoyang Palace, also called the Chen Family Ancestral Hall, one of the representatives of Fenghuang's twenty-four ancestral halls. It is located on Ximen Slope in the ancient city district and was built in the fourth year of the Republic of China (1915) by the local gentry of the Chen clan, who mobilized their clansmen to construct it. In the twelfth year of the Republic (1923), Chen Quzhen, the King of Western Hunan, led the clansmen to expand it. At that time, the annual ancestral worship ceremonies were held here, and matters such as raising funds to build roads and bridges and dealing with clan members who violated rules were also discussed here.
The Chen Family Ancestral Hall consists of the main hall, the stage, and left and right box seats, forming a courtyard house with strong local ethnic characteristics. The ancient stage at the entrance is especially distinctive. A couplet reading "Within a few feet of ground, one can be family, country, or world; through a thousand years of characters, there are the worthy, the foolish, and the immortal," together with the eight opera murals on the stage, is sure to evoke a touch of nostalgia in everyone. Fenghuang's famous local opera is called Nuotang Opera, ancient and rich, full of mysterious color, with delicate performance, simple and lifelike; people praise it for its four great characteristics: "earthy, popular, pure, and fine." Its representative plays are mainly the "Three Women," namely Meng Jiangnu, the Dragon King's Daughter, and Madame Pang. During performance it is accompanied by gongs and drums, with lively rhythm, beautiful and flowing melodies, primitive and simple content, and concise and interesting plots.
Following the narrow purple-sand stone-slab path, we pass under the eaves of the Dacheng Hall--the Confucian Temple--and arrive at No. 10 Wenxing Street, the former residence of Mr. Xiong Xiling, the first popularly elected prime minister of the Republic of China.
Xiong Xiling, courtesy name Bingsan, was born here on July 23, 1870. In his youth, Xiong Xiling was known as a child prodigy of Hunan. At 15 he passed the imperial examination at the county level, at 21 he passed the provincial examination, and at 24 he passed the metropolitan examination and was appointed a Hanlin Academy bachelor (commonly known as "pointing the Hanlin"). Even as a boy, Mr. Xiong had a heart concerned for his country and people. At the age of 9, his private tutor gave an upper couplet: "Plant several pots of flowers, to probe the news of spring and autumn." Mr. Xiong immediately matched it with a lower couplet: "Dig a pool of water, to observe the fullness and emptiness of heaven and earth," which became a much-told tale of the time. After passing the provincial examination, the newly successful candidates painted pictures to express their aspirations. For a time, peonies, hibiscus, and golden chrysanthemums vied in splendor, but Mr. Xiong painted only an unremarkable cotton plant; however, his inscription, "When this gentleman appears, the whole world is warm," astonished everyone present.
After achieving fame, Mr. Xiong actively advocated reform and modernization, and established the Xiang Bao newspaper, the Shiwu Academy, and the Changde West Road Normal School, becoming a core member of the reformist faction in Hunan, as famous as Tan Sitong. Some of our country's famous revolutionaries, such as Xiang Jingyu, Lin Boqu, and Teng Daiyuan, the leftist Kuomintang member Song Jiaoren, and Jiang Yiwu, commander-in-chief of the Wuchang Uprising, were all students of Mr. Xiong. Mr. Xiong later served as finance official of the Three Eastern Provinces, military governor of Rehe, and Minister of Finance. In the second year of the Republic (1913), he became prime minister of the Republic's cabinet, and that government was called by the press the "Cabinet of Talents." Later, because Mr. Xiong opposed Yuan Shikai's dictatorship, Yuan forced him to dissolve the cabinet and resign as prime minister. From then on, Mr. Xiong's charity kindergarten took in a large number of orphans, and Lei Jieqiong, the current vice chairwoman of our National People's Congress, was one of the orphans raised there. After Li Dazhao, one of the founders of our Party, was executed, his wife and children were also hidden in this institution. In the fourteenth year of the Republic (1925), Fenghuang County suffered a great drought, and most fields yielded nothing. When Mr. Xiong learned the news, he sent relief funds of 100,000 silver dollars (of which the famous Peking opera artist Mei Lanfang donated 40,000 silver dollars), saving many disaster victims.
In his later years, Mr. Xiong served as president of our country's Red Cross Society and actively devoted himself to battlefield rescue during the War of Resistance Against Japan; his merits shine as brightly as the sun and moon.
On December 5, 1937, Mr. Xiong Xiling died of illness in Hong Kong at the age of 67.
During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the seat of Fenghuang County was the location of the Wuzhai Zhangguan Si, and at that time an earthen city was built. In 1556 the earthen city was changed to a brick city. During the Kangxi reign of the Qing, the Fenghuang Zhili Ting was established, and the offices of the Ting vice-prefect, the commander-in-chief, and the Chen-Yuan-Yongjing Military Defense Circuit were all located here. In the fifty-fourth year of Kangxi (1715), a stone city was built. The stone city had a circumference of more than 2 kilometers and four gates: the East Gate called Shengheng Gate, the South Gate called Jinglan Gate, the West Gate called Zhuocheng Gate, and the North Gate called Bihui Gate. Each had a towering gate tower. In 1940, Xue Yue, commander of the Ninth War Zone of the Kuomintang and concurrently chairman of the Hunan Provincial Government, issued an order to all counties under his jurisdiction to demolish all city walls on the grounds that "once the fortress falls into enemy hands, it will be difficult to counterattack, and it is also unfavorable for air-raid evacuation." In Fenghuang County, because of the need for flood control, only the battlements and watchtowers of the East and North Gates were demolished, while all other gates were completely torn down. Now we can only see the East and North Gates and the half-wall of city wall connecting them.
What you see now is the North Gate, also called Bihui Gate. On the gate tower there is a stone relief carving depicting three figures, taken from the "Meeting at the Ancient City" episode in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The one beating the drum above is Zhang Fei, and below is Guan Yu wielding his blade to kill Cai Yang, having passed five passes and slain six generals, finally meeting Zhang Fei and Liu Bei at the ancient city. This carving takes as its meaning certain victory in a hundred battles and a triumphant return. Outside the North Gate is the North Gate Wharf, which was the main passage out of the city in former times. In the film The Bandits of Western Hunan, in the scene where bandits attack Fenghuang County town, the bandits charge over from the opposite bank of the river, and the People's Liberation Army stops them here. This river is called the Tuo River; it winds all the way here in twists and turns like a snake, and since the ancients called a snake "tuo," it was named the Tuo River. The jumping stones were used by local people to cross the river before the Yuan Dynasty, and the wooden plank bridge was used by local people to cross after the Ming Dynasty.
We have now arrived at the East Gate. East Gate Street is a tourist commodity street. The Liuse Fang here has many Miao folk artworks and handicrafts for everyone to buy and see. The tie-dye handicrafts of Ms. Wu Jinglian (Wu Huahua), a folk arts and crafts master certified by the United Nations, and the wax-resist Chinese paintings of the Xiong family inside the East Gate are especially distinctive and have been praised by the famous painter Zhang Ting. Tie-dye and wax-resist dyeing can be called a wonderful flower of Fenghuang folk crafts. Wax-resist dyeing is further divided into Tujia wax-resist printed cloth and Miao wax-resist homespun cloth. The former emphasizes purity of color matching, stress on conception and composition, with a uniquely pure and beautiful artistic style, and its outstanding technical feature is its use of warm colors; the latter emphasizes pure dyeing, does not strive for gorgeous ornamentation, and gives one a natural and pure artistic feeling, with its outstanding technical feature being its use of cool colors. Their common characteristics are simplicity and elegance, as well as primitive simplicity and exquisite workmanship. Compared with wax-resist dyeing, tie-dye is another special craft, also called the sister art of wax-resist dyeing. Its special technical performance is most prominent in hand-tying. Because of its fine workmanship and special production, tie-dye has been extremely rare among the people. Now, with the prosperity and development of the market economy, tie-dye has undergone bold reform and innovation in tying, composition, and shaping, making it more practical and contemporary. In recent years, Fenghuang's tie-dye art has risen abruptly, and when exhibited in the capital market it has been warmly welcomed by merchants at home and abroad and is highly acclaimed. Fenghuang wax-resist and tie-dye, with their unique ethnic style and rich local flavor, are exported to Japan, Hong Kong, and other places, and have good value for collection and artistic appreciation. The tourist commodity street, also called the ethnic commercial street, is lined on both sides with shops, dye houses, workshops making silver jewelry, arts and crafts stores, and all kinds of snacks. Fenghuang's famous local snack is "pickled radish." This radish has a moderate sourness, rich condiments, sweetness within the sourness, fragrance within the sweetness, and richness within the fragrance. When you come to Fenghuang, don't forget to feast your taste buds.
We have now come to the Hong Bridge. This bridge was first built during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty and was expanded in the ninth year of Kangxi of the Qing (1670). What is now seen is the later restored bridge. Below it, one can see a row of stilted houses with a history of a hundred years. Mr. Shen Congwen's books are also filled with stilted houses, filled with the scenes of human joys and tragedies performed over the ages in the stilted houses on both banks of the Tuo River and Yuan River valleys. The people and events of the stilted houses became a major landscape in Mr. Shen's works. This river bend is the place where dragon boat races are held every year during the Dragon Boat Festival. Whenever Mr. Shen met people from his hometown, he would ask about the stilted houses here and tell stories of watching dragon boats from the stilted houses in those years. In Mr. Shen's works, Cuicui stands on a stilted house watching the dragon boat race. After liberation, Mr. Shen returned to his hometown twice, and both times he found time to come here to see the stilted houses, chat with the families living in them, seek traces of his youth, or stand before a river-facing stilted window, mourning the vicissitudes of the stilted houses and the waters flowing east, reliving the enchanting dreams left behind in the stilted houses.
After descending the bridge, we step into Shawan. Of Fenghuang County's eight great scenic spots of old, four are here: "Stream Bridge Moonlit Night," "Dragon Pool Fishing Lights," "Buddhist Pavilion Returning Waves," and "Graceful Strange Peak." What we see now is Wanshou Palace, also called Shuifu Temple. Because it was built by Jiangxi merchants, people customarily call it the Jiangxi Guild Hall. Wanshou Palace covers more than 4,000 square meters and is the largest folk building in Fenghuang County. The Xiachang Pavilion inside the palace is still completely preserved.
Legend has it that after Jiangxi merchants made their fortune in Fenghuang, they built this Wanshou Palace. Someone was unconvinced and built a Zhunti Nunnery on the opposite bank of the river, leaving two big eyes (windows) on the nunnery wall, wanting to see how the Jiangxi people had made their fortune. The Jiangxi merchants were displeased, so they built a pagoda on the bank of the Tuo River to block those two eyes.
Legend has it that originally there was no pagoda here. It is said that in the water beneath Cormorant Rock by the river there was a pair of golden ducks that from time to time stirred up winds and waves. During the Jiaqing reign of the Qing, people built a pagoda here to suppress them. Another legend says that when Fenghuang Ancient Town was expanded into a brush-rack-shaped city in the fifty-first year of Qianlong of the Qing (1786), to match the scenery, a paper-burning furnace was built on Cormorant Rock at Shawan, like a giant brush, echoing the brush-rack-shaped city from afar, meaning that Fenghuang's culture would flourish. In 1985, the famous painter Huang Yongyu donated paintings for charity sale and raised funds to rebuild it, so it was named Wanshou Pagoda.
The place we have now reached is the Temple of the Three Kings, also called the Temple of Heavenly Kings and the Shrine of the Three Marquises. Legend has it that in the Northern Song Dynasty there were three Yang brothers, superb in martial arts, who defended the borders and protected the people in the western Hunan and Hubei region and won great military achievements, so they were enfeoffed as marquises by the emperor and a temple was built to commemorate them. After the Temple of the Three Kings was completed, people often came here to offer sacrifices and pray for children and blessings, and some men of letters also often came here to recite poetry, paint, and gather to write essays. In November of the third year of Xuantong of the Qing (1911), Fenghuang gentry Tian Yingquan, Tang Lichen, and others held a great assembly here to respond to the 1911 Revolution, launched the Fenghuang Uprising, and also celebrated the victory of the 1911 Revolution here. The main hall of the Temple of the Three Kings enshrines the kings, and the rear hall enshrines the ancestor of the Miao people--Nuoniang. Legend has it that in primeval times of chaos, a great flood occurred, and only a pair of Miao brother and sister survived. In order to continue the Miao people's descendants, the elder brother proposed marrying his younger sister. The younger sister thought brother and sister could not marry, so the two each rolled one half of a millstone down from the high mountain, asking heaven and earth to decide. After the two millstone halves rolled down the mountain, they joined into one, so the brother and sister did not dare defy heaven's will and were married. Therefore, in our Qianli Temple Mountain, there is a two-part allegorical saying: brother and sister bow in marriage--as enduring as heaven and earth. This brother and sister are called Nuogong and Nuoniang, and the Nuotang opera and Nuo dances still circulating in western Hunan developed from the ceremonies commemorating Nuogong and Nuoniang.
Following the old official road, we are about to arrive at Shen Congwen's grave. This official road was the great road leading to the outside world during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and at that time there was also a pavilion for receiving officials. In the seventeenth year of Daoguang of the Qing (1873), Lin Zexu, governor-general of Huguang, came to Fenghuang via this official road to inspect. Arriving at Shen Congwen's grave, after climbing a few stone steps, the first thing we see is a large inscription: "Knowing the rise and fall of the times." This is the handwriting of Li Yuanhong, provisional president of the Republic of China. In November 1911, influenced by the 1911 Revolution, Fenghuang gentry Tian Yingquan, Tang Lichen, and others gathered Miao, Han, and Tujia people from the four ting of Fenghuang, Qianzhou, Huayuan, and Songtao to launch an armed uprising, forcing Zhu Yijun, the Qing official stationed in Fenghuang as Chen-Yuan-Yongjing Military Defense Circuit, to retire, and established a new regime in Fenghuang--the Western Hunan Military Government. When Li Yuanhong learned of this, he gladly took up his brush and wrote this large inscription for Fenghuang. A few steps further up, we see the inscription written by Mr. Huang Yongyu in memory of his uncle Shen Congwen: "A soldier either dies in battle or returns to his hometown." Yes, Mr. Shen walked out of the vast mountains of western Hunan at the age of 17, and in 1982, on Qingming Festival, Mr. Shen returned to the hometown he had longed for day and night. Mr. Shen's grave has no raised mound, only a multicolored stone standing among green mountains and clear waters, making it a most unusual tombstone. There are no carved railings or jade steps here, only a stone path used for grazing and gathering firewood, so that Mr. Shen remains forever with ordinary people. Part of Mr. Shen's ashes was scattered in the Tuo River, and part beneath this multicolored stone. He is like the Tuo River before us, rising from the earth and returning to the earth; he is like this multicolored stone accompanying him, coming from the earth and returning to the earth.
On the front of the multicolored stone serving as the tombstone is inscribed Mr. Shen's own handwriting:
Think as I think, and you can understand me; think as I think, and you can know people.
Yes, it was precisely such a belief that made Mr. Shen abandon the path of official advancement and wealth and choose the hard life of literature; it was precisely such a belief that made Mr. Shen wield his giant brush and introduce the western Hunan he knew to the world.
On the back of the tombstone is inscribed the epitaph by Ms. Zhang Chonghe, Mr. Shen's sister-in-law: Unbending and unyielding, his writing shines like stars; both kind and yielding, he was a man with a child's heart.
These four lines concisely summarize Mr. Shen's life. Mr. Shen's life was full of setbacks, yet in adversity he did not yield and did not blindly follow; Mr. Shen's life was poor and simple, yet his fame in the world literary world was like brilliant stars.
The last character of each of these four lines, taken together, is a portrait of Mr. Shen's life: Congwen yields to others.
Yes, Mr. Shen was extremely modest and yielding. He did not contend for profit and quietly cultivated himself in the literary world. But when it came to literature, Mr. Shen never yielded to others. He encouraged himself with "everything is only a beginning," seeking up and down and never being satisfied, and finally became a world-famous master of regional literature.
Mr. Shen belongs to China, belongs to the world, but first of all belongs to the vast western Hunan.
Now let's go eat. After lunch we will head to two sites outside the city: the Southern Great Wall of China and Huangsiqiao Ancient City. Speaking of eating, let me first introduce Fenghuang's special "She rice." Eating "She rice" is a long-standing folk custom in Fenghuang. In the local dialect of Fenghuang it is called "silly rice." Eating She rice is different from ordinary home cooking; it carries a new meaning and is very particular. The rice used for "She rice" is fragrant glutinous rice produced by farming families, generally four jin and eight liang, taking the meaning of prosperity in all four seasons. When "She rice" is cooked, cured meat and She vegetables must be prepared. The important task of cooking "She rice" must be undertaken by the housewife. Cured meat, She vegetables, and fragrant glutinous rice are mixed together, and when cooked together the rice becomes She rice, with an inviting aroma and delicious taste. She rice is generally eaten in spring. After the She rice is cooked, ancestors are first honored in the main hall, and the God of Grain is sacrificed to. After the ceremony is completed, the whole family gathers together to eat "She rice." After eating "She rice," the family divides the work and begins the new year's spring plowing and production. At noon today everyone can be a Fenghuang person for once. After we finish the She rice, we will begin a new journey.
The place we have now reached is called Huangsiqiao Ancient City. This ancient city was built in the second year of Chuigong of Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty (686 AD). At that time this place was not called Fenghuang County but Weiyang County, and this was the county seat of Weiyang County. In the thirty-ninth year of Kangxi of the Qing (1700), in order to pacify and suppress the ethnic minorities, the imperial court established the Fenghuang Zhili Ting and the Chen-Yuan-Yongjing Military Defense Circuit here. Because there was no large river here, the ting city and the circuit yamen later moved to the present county seat. In the fifty-ninth year of Qianlong (1794), the largest Miao uprising in history broke out here, what historians call the Qianjia Miao Rebellion, which dealt a heavy blow to the Manchu Qing dynasty. Historians call this uprising the battle of the Qing Dynasty's decline, after which the Qing dynasty moved toward decline. In the three ting of Fenghuang, Yongshui, and Qianzhou, more than 200 high-ranking Qing officials, including governors-general, provincial military commanders, brigade generals, deputy generals, and assistant generals, died in this Miao uprising. You may have read Jin Yong's Hong Kong novel The Book and the Sword, in which it says that the Qianlong Emperor had a younger brother named Fukang'an, said to be the illegitimate son of the Kangxi Emperor. It was this Fukang'an, governor-general of Yunnan and Guizhou, who was ordered to lead 180,000 troops to Fenghuang to suppress the Miao rebel army, but was shot and wounded by the insurgents and died of illness in the army. The Qing dynasty originally did not build long walls, but in order to prevent the Miao people from uprising and rebelling, it imitated the Ming dynasty and built a "Miao frontier wall" more than 380 li long from here to Jiwei in Huayuan and Xique Camp in Jishou, and stationed large numbers of troops there. Huangsiqiao Ancient City was therefore changed into Fenghuang Camp for stationed troops, becoming the largest garrison castle and strategic point on the thousand-li "frontier wall" line along the Hunan-Guizhou border.
We now walk forward from the East Gate. At the bend there is a protruding section. Do you know what this was for? This was a lookout platform set up to prevent enemies from launching surprise attacks and climbing the wall. Huangsiqiao Ancient City is a stone city of bluestone structure, built in 686 AD. The city wall has a circumference of 686 meters (please note: the ancient city was built in the 86th year of the Gongyuan era, and the ancient city wall's circumference is 686 meters--an astonishing coincidence), an east-west width of 153 meters, a north-south length of 190 meters, a total area of 29,000 square meters, a wall height of 5.6 meters, and a walkway on the wall 2.4 meters wide, wide enough for horses. On the wall there are 300 large and small arrow crenellations, and three city gates--east, west, and north--with gate towers, making it one of the best-preserved Tang Dynasty stone cities in our country. Some may ask: why is there no south gate? According to the theory of the four images and eight trigrams: the south is ruled by the fire of bing and ding, and since there is no large river here, in order not to bring the fire of the south into the city, there is no south gate. Without a south gate, does that mean there will be no fire? Even without heavenly fire, man-made fire of war is hard to avoid. Our thousand-year-old ancient city, each time it experienced a major war, these three gate towers were destroyed by the flames of war. Please look: in our North Gate tower, a stone stele is preserved, recording the historical fact that the tower was repaired in the ninth year of Xianfeng of the Qing (1849). The gate tower we see now was repaired anew by the Fenghuang County People's Government in 1986.
Passing through the North Gate, we see many ox-head souvenirs, which are specialty tourist souvenirs here. If any of you are interested, you can take one home as a memento.
Huangsiqiao Ancient City was listed as a provincial key cultural relic protection unit in October 1983 and is now applying to be a national key protection unit. In recent years Chinese and foreign tourists have come continuously, and it has also attracted large numbers of artists, experts, and scholars. Every year many painters and art school students come to sketch and paint. More than ten films and television dramas, including Border Town, Xiang Nü Xiaoxiao, The Bandits of Western Hunan, Wind Over Xiaoxiang, The Bandits of Wulong Mountain, Blood Drum, and General Su Yu, have shot exterior scenes here.
We have now reached the West Gate, the tallest of Huangsiqiao Ancient City's gate towers. It has two stories, and we can climb to the top story and look west through the arrow slits at the endless mountains beyond the city. Fenghuang has two ancient cities. If Fenghuang Ancient Town is beautiful for its clear mountains and waters, then Huangsiqiao Ancient City is beautiful for its primitive simplicity and grandeur. If Fenghuang Ancient Town is like a graceful young maiden, then Huangsiqiao Ancient City is like an old man whose beard is full of stories.
The mottled stone city wall is the crystallization of the wisdom of the people of Fenghuang. It records the thousand-year history of Fenghuang and also records the Miao people's course of struggle against their rulers. We now head to the Miao frontier wall, that is, the Southern Great Wall of China.
The Miao frontier wall was first built in the forty-third year of Wanli of the Ming Dynasty (1615 AD) and completed in the second year of Tianqi of the Ming (1622 AD), taking eight years in all. The Miao frontier wall was completed in two phases. The first phase began in the forty-third year of Wanli and was completed in the forty-fourth year of Wanli, with a total length of 320 li, taking one year. The second phase began in the second year of Tianqi of the Ming, continuing construction on the basis of the wall built in the forty-third year of Wanli. It was 60 li long, and the two phases consumed 42,000 taels of silver and took eight years. The Miao frontier wall ran from Tingzi Pass on the border with Tongren in the west to Xique Camp in Jishou in the north, with a total length of 382 li. The Miao frontier wall is one of the ancient structures of enormous scale in Chinese history. It crosses mountains and ridges, coiling through the steep mountains along the Hunan-Guizhou border like a giant dragon raising its head to soar. On April 22, 2000, the State Ministry of Construction and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage sent an expert group to investigate Fenghuang's application to be a national historical and cultural city, and during that process discovered this frontier wall. Mr. Luo Zhewen, vice president of the China Great Wall Society who participated in the investigation, concluded that this was the Southern Great Wall of China. He