Dragons Soar and Tigers Leap at Hongjiaguan
Hongjiaguan is the former residence of Marshal He Long, located only 12 kilometers from the county seat of Sangzhi in Xiangxi. Geographically, Hongjiaguan is surrounded by mountains, and its terrain is quite distinctive. To its east is Yulin Stockade, to the west is Luomen Ridge, to the south is Tianhe Temple, and to the north is Niujiao Peak. In the middle lies a gourd-shaped peninsula, encircled by three streams—Yuquan, Erhu Stream, and Yaquan Spring. Feng shui masters call this formation “coins strung on a gourd,” and this plot once housed a township government,…
Hongjiaguan is the former residence of Marshal He Long, located only 12 kilometers from the county seat of Sangzhi in Xiangxi.
Geographically, Hongjiaguan is surrounded by mountains, and its terrain is quite distinctive. To its east is Yulin Stockade, to the west is Luomen Ridge, to the south is Tianhe Temple, and to the north is Niujiao Peak. In the middle lies a gourd-shaped peninsula, encircled by three streams—Yuquan, Erhu Stream, and Yaquan Spring. Feng shui masters call this formation “coins strung on a gourd,” and this plot once housed a township government; it has now been turned into the Memorial Hall of Marshal He Long. Hongjiaguan also has a saying of “five dragons upholding the sage.” The five dragons refer to a prominent central ridge that runs from the Dasha Ridge and Tuojia Hill down to Hongjiaguan—this is the principal dragon—along with the front-right peak mountain, the front-left Jizi Terrace, the Dog-Climbing Rock on the right, and the Tiger's Lair on the left, all upholding Hongjiaguan. In addition, hills and peaks resembling tigers, lions, and various beasts all encircle and guard Hongjiaguan. Thus feng shui masters consider this place a “treasure ground of feng shui,” where the emergence of a great figure was inevitable.
When the name Hongjiaguan originated is difficult to determine precisely. However, in the areas inhabited by ethnic minorities in Xiangxi, many place names are formed with characters such as wei (guard), suo (garrison), ai (pass), guan (gate), and kou (mouth), such as Jiuxi Guard, Anfu Garrison, Shanyang Pass, Heisong Gate, Yankou, and so on. These place-name markers clearly bear the imprint of designations left over from the wei-suo system implemented during the Ming Dynasty. Based on this, it is surmised that the origin of the name Hongjiaguan also dates from this period.
According to local gazetteers, in the sixth year of the Yongzheng reign of the Qing Dynasty (1728), a rebellion broke out within the Sangzhi Xuanwei Office. Tang Zongsheng led more than a thousand rebels to Hongjiaguan to take refuge and received protection from a deputy general of the Jiuxi Brigade. This shows that before the policy of “replacing hereditary local rulers with appointed officials,” Hongjiaguan was already an important pass for the Jiuxi Brigade to guard against and control the Sangzhi Tusi.
The residents of Hongjiaguan are mainly surnamed He. The ancestor of the He clan was He Congxian, who came from Hubei with the army during the Kangxi reign, first to Jiuxi and later moved to settle in Hongjiaguan. Thereafter, the He clan continued to flourish. By the fifth generation, two notable figures emerged: He Tingbi and He Tingzai. He Tingbi rebelled against the government during the Xianfeng reign and was killed; his wife was known far and wide for cradling her husband's severed head in her garment. He Tingzai was He Long's great-grandfather. He was praised for opening a school to teach students and for his enthusiasm for public welfare, but this also caused the family fortunes to decline. By the time of He Long's grandfather, He Liangshi, the family was “somewhat reduced yet neither jealous nor covetous, content with simple food and a plain life to the end... heeded Laozi's warning to know strength yet keep to gentleness, and remained modest and retiring” (see “Epitaph of Mr. He Hengshan, a Qing Dynasty Martial Scholar”).
Overall, He Long's forebears up to his grandfather were still “a family of distinguished rank, with official caps and tassels in unbroken succession, long a prominent clan in our county.” But by the generation of He Long's parents, the family fortunes had collapsed, and the whole family of nine had only a little over two mu of poor land to farm. Growing up in poverty, He Long had long harbored a sense of injustice toward feudal society. Injustice cries out, and injustice fights back, so rebellion was deeply ingrained in him. The influence of clan ancestors such as He Tingbi was also great, and the young He Long longed to seek a way out through rebellion. The turbulent times also gave He Long a grand stage on which to make his way in the world. Through repeated struggles and efforts, He Long staked his life's pursuit on faith in the Communist Party and joined the Party when it was at its lowest ebb. At the time, many clan members did not understand and thought he should not wear the “red hat,” but facts proved that He Long had chosen the right path, for the Communist Party won the realm in 1949, and He Long became a founding marshal. Hongjiaguan, once a little-known place, also became a sacred site that drew the world's attention as the birthplace of a revolutionary marshal.
Today, when tourists visit Hongjiaguan, they may as well take a careful look at this “treasure ground of feng shui.” Is everything about its geographical setting really as mystical as the feng shui masters claimed? Perhaps only visitors themselves, through careful reflection, can truly appreciate it.