Seeking Roots in My Hometown (1)
(1) Hometown Liujiaping My hometown where I was born is Liujiaping, the place where the Red Army's Second Front Army set out on the Long March. Because of its association with the Red Army revolution, the name Liujiaping has always been very famous. If you open any current atlas of China, on the map of Sangzhi County in Xiangxi, you can find the mark of the three characters Liujiaping. Liujiaping has a flat area worthy of the name. It is about 10 li long and 2 to 3 li wide. Around the flat area are one after another...
(1) My Hometown Liujiaping
I was born in Liujiaping, the very place from which the Red Army's Second Front Army set out on the Long March. Thanks to its association with the Red Army revolution, the name Liujiaping has always rung loud and clear; open any modern atlas of China, and on the map of Sangzhi County in Xiangxi you will find the three characters "Liujiaping" marked.
Liujiaping has a flatland worthy of the name: about 10 li long and 2 to 3 li wide, surrounded by one small hill after another and by great mountains. A clear little stream emerges from the myriad mountain folds, skirts the upper flatland, makes a bend in the middle like a half-round bracket, then rushes down toward the lower flatland and the county town, finally emptying into the Lishui River. This stream is called Shuangquan River, and its water comes from Shuangquan Reservoir dozens of li upstream. Among the great mountains within its bounds, Yangqi Mountain and Yingzui Mountain are the most famous. Yangqi Mountain rises more than 1,000 meters above sea level and has a temple on its summit; standing in the temple, one is said to be able to see four counties, which is why the mountain is also called Siwang Mountain (Four-View Mountain). At the foot of Yangqi Mountain, at the bend connecting the upper and lower flatlands, there is also a small hillock rising dozens of meters high, home to more than twenty households. This is the place where I lived for more than twenty years——Lijiagang. As the name suggests, most of the people in Lijiagang are surnamed Li. Regarding the origins of our branch of the Li clan, it is said that a genealogy once recorded them in great detail, but unfortunately that genealogy was lost in the 1950s. According to the recollections of the elders still living, our ancestor was named Li Maitang, originally a native of Dalishu in Jishui County, Ji'an Prefecture, Jiangxi. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, to escape the chaos of war, he moved to Zhuang'erping in Sangzhi. Beginning with Li Maitang, the generational name sequence thereafter was: Mai, Yong, Shuang, Wan, Yin; Da, Zheng, Guo, Zai, Min; Wen, Shun, An, Xing, Sheng; Shi, De, Chang, Kang, Ning. From the "Mai" generation to the "Sheng" generation, fifteen generations of the Li clan in all, little is now recorded, and the details are hard to verify. Only the five generations of the Li clan after "Sheng" are now clearly traced.
Besides the Li, Liujiaping is also home to several other major clans, including the Gu, Liu, Xiong, and Zhong. The Liu were especially numerous, which is why the whole place is called Liujiaping; there are also place names such as Xiongjialong and Gujiaping, all named after surnames. As for the origins of these clans, the authoritative conclusion from research on the Bai people of Sangzhi is roughly this: around the middle of the 13th century, when Kublai Khan unified China under the Yuan Dynasty, the Bai people of Yunnan formed a "Cunbai Army" that followed the Yuan general Uriyangkhadai on campaign. After the war ended, Uriyangkhadai was not employed by Kublai Khan, and his subordinates were ordered disbanded. Some of the scattered soldiers first went to Jiangxi, then "up the Yangtze, across Dongting, through the Jin and Li regions, and on foot to Ciyang," arriving in the area of Niaoping, Hulixi, and Maidiping in Sangzhi County (all near Liujiaping). There they stuck grass as markers and pointed to paths as boundaries, settled down, and only gradually formed the local populations of these major surnames. Because Liujiaping is mostly inhabited by Bai people, since the 1980s it has officially been designated one of the seven Bai ethnic townships of Sangzhi County.
In the past Liujiaping had another name: Zhujita. It is said that this name came from a kind of crystalline gypsum found along the riverbank there, like pearls and gems—hence the name. But this gypsum was never mined, nor is there any record of it. Still, Liujiaping, nestled against the mountains and beside the water, has fertile land and abundant products, and is famous far and near. Its geographical position is also rather favorable, only a little over 10 kilometers from the county town. Transportation is very convenient, with a paved road running through it. At the place where the Red Second Front Army set out on the Long March, a memorial tower and exhibition hall have been built; there is also Longyanyu, the site of the headquarters of the Red Second and Sixth Army Corps, whose stilted wooden buildings and courtyard houses are still well preserved. Many people come to visit these two places out of admiration.
I hope my hometown will both prosper and develop, and forever keep its true colors of green mountains and clear waters. For only what is authentic and original can be more truly appreciated.