Xuancheng Chaji in Anhui style town

In the ancient town of Chaji in Jingxian County, Anhui Province, the word "cha" here is pronounced as "zha" instead of "cha". Most people here have the surname Cha. Among the mountains in the northern part of the Huangshan Mountains, on the north bank of Taiping Lake, there is an amazing ancient village - Chaji. Its scale is the largest in southern Anhui and it is also one of the largest existing ancient residential groups in China. Its dilapidated and vicissitudes of beauty allow people to see the glorious history of China's rural era. From Jingxian County to the west, drive 50 kilometers to Chaji. Small bridges, gurgling water, row upon row of ancient houses, solemn ancestral halls, majestic pagodas, elegant pavilions, extremely vital ancient trees, idle and comfortable villagers, an ancient village exuding a simple and elegant atmosphere. With its unique charm, it suddenly captures people's hearts. Chaji is located in Hou'an Township, Jing County, Xuancheng City, Anhui Province (now merged into Taohuatan Town). The village covers an area of ??more than 20 square kilometers. It was built in the early Sui Dynasty, flourished in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and was abandoned in the late Qing Dynasty. and modern times, with a history of more than 1,380 years. In view of the fact that there are many ancient buildings from the Ming and Qing Dynasties existing in the village and the ruins are extensive, the national cultural relics department listed it as the fifth batch of national protection units in 2001.

According to records, when Chaji Village was at its most glorious, it had four gates: Zhongxiu, Pingling, Shimen, and Bashan, three pagodas: Bashan, Qingshan, and Rusong, 108 bridges, and 108 temples. There are 108 ancestral halls and nearly 70,000 villagers. After years of ups and downs, the Taiping War and the destruction of the Four Old Ages in modern times, the village was severely ruined. However, with three streams (Xuxi, Cen, and Shixi) flowing side by side, the overall pattern of people "building houses on the hills, forming villages near the water, opening windows to see the river, and opening doors to walk on bridges" has not changed. There are still about 100 existing ancient Ming and Qing folk houses. There are 200 buildings and 1 Yuan Dynasty building. The framework of a glorious village in China's rural era is still there. The pine tower on the mountain at the entrance of the village still stands proudly in the wind and rain. Most of the villagers in Chaji are named Cha. According to genealogy records, the ancestor with the surname Zha was originally named Ji, and his name was Ji Yan. During the Zhou Dynasty, he was granted the title of Cha Di in Jiyang, Shandong Province. When he got there, his surname was changed from Ji to Cha. From its birthplace in Shandong, the surname Zha spread to Anhui, then developed from Anhui to Jiangsu, and gradually spread to Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Guangdong, Fujian and other places with Tai County in Jiangsu as the center. By the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty , people with the surname Cha began to move from Fujian to Taiwan and settle down.

It can be seen from the genealogy that the people with the surname Cha in Chaji Village moved from Shandong during the Tang Dynasty. Their ancestor was Zha Wenxi, who served as the governor of Xuanzhou and Chizhou during the Tang Dynasty. He was also the first person to conduct name checking in historical records. Since then, the surname Cha has been associated with famous people. According to Zha Quanjun, a descendant of the Cha family, in the Ming and Qing dynasties alone, Chaji Village produced 129 officials and scholars above the seventh rank. Xuanzhou and Chizhou have been connected by mountains and rivers since ancient times and the people have been close to each other. But in an era dominated by water transportation, no direct waterway was feasible. Therefore, the "official road" between the two states mostly runs through the mountains. After Zha Wenxi was appointed as the governor of the two states, he often traveled between the two places, riding a donkey and sitting in a sedan chair. Seeing this place surrounded by mountains, gushing streams, and fertile land, I loved it very much. Therefore, after leaving office, I decided to settle here. Since he settled in Chaji, generations have thrived, gradually turning a remote village into a large and well-known village.

"There are nine miles of smoke in Shilicha Village, and three streams flow into thousands of households. Under the shadow of ancestral temples, pavilions, towers, small bridges, flowing water and apricot blossoms." This is the Chaji described by villager Zha Jiang during the Ming Dynasty. Village scene. According to reports, Chaji Village flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, when the population increased and it gradually developed outward, extending to 15 miles away. In the Ming Dynasty, the village had a fairly complete plan, and houses, temples, ancestral halls, towers, and water systems were all built according to the plan. Almost every household has a front yard and a backyard, and lives by the water. Therefore, Zha Jiang wrote affectionately: "Whose family is deep in Wuling, let's check it out on both sides of the river. The fisherman is not afraid of leaking the news, and we will make an appointment to see the peach blossoms next year." Now, the news about Zha Ji has been "leaked" go out. In the back courtyard where the oldest building in the village, the Degong Hall, collapsed, a new owner appeared - French young man Julien. He came to Chaji by chance a few years ago and was immediately attracted by the natural environment surrounded by green mountains and gushing streams. He also deeply fell in love with the tranquil, simple, leisurely and contented folk customs here. He paid for the collapsed backyard of the Degong Hall House and asked local craftsmen to try their best to repair it. Last fall, he and his girlfriend, Miss Jing, a physical education teacher at a primary school in Nanjing, held a traditional Chinese wedding in Chaji. His father and several brothers came from France and helped him carry the sedan. Now every weekend or vacation, Julien and his wife will go to the village to stay for a few days. As a result, they have become a special cultural landscape in Chaji.

When arriving at Chaji, it is easy to think of Peach Blossom Spring. Indeed, the remoteness and isolation of Chaji have deeply captured the hearts of many people. "Green mountains cross Xiguo, and springs surround the village. Travelers from Jinling in a hurry, simple mountain villagers. White clouds wandering around, the setting sun, the conditions of the old country. Wave your hands and go, repeat the traffic dust." This old-style poem written by the famous painter Chen Danqing , fits Chaji’s unique look, and expresses the unique mood of contemporary people. The ancient residential buildings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties are located on both sides of the gurgling Chaji River, stretching for 10 miles. There are 80 Ming Dynasty buildings and 109 Qing Dynasty buildings. Almost all buildings in the Ming and Qing Dynasties have carved beams and painted beams, with raised corners and cornices. Among them, the residences such as Degong Hall, Songqing Hall, and Airi Hall are even taller and grander with exquisite structures.

In particular, the Degong Hall House has a four-column, three-story archway-style gatehouse, five bracket roofs, and a slightly curved three-story gatehouse. It is simple, elegant, majestic and generous. On the back, auspicious patterns such as two dragons playing with beads, red phoenixes rising to the sun, fish leaping over the dragon's gate, and lions rolling embroidered balls are carved with skillful and exquisite techniques.

Ancient carvings, brick carvings and wood carvings can be seen everywhere in Chaji. The wood carvings of the door and window sash, the stone carvings of the pillar base of the hall, and the brick carvings of the gate tower and doorway are all intricately carved, exquisite and clear, with different pictures, whether flowers, birds, animals, or people, all of them are lifelike; the structure of the house is multi-faceted. There are three or four entrances. There is a "four water to the hall" style patio in the entrance. There are "beautiful people leaning" along the two corridors of the patio. The stone walls are built on the basis of the walls, and the column bases are round carved stones. , with blue bricks on the walls and black tiles on the roof. The traditional double-mantled roof is half-covered and half-exposed, hiding behind overlapping gables. The gables that are higher than the roof can not only prevent the spread of fire, but also act as a guard against theft. The gables have various shapes, including cloud-shaped, bow-shaped, stepped, etc., and the top of the wall is in the shape of a horse's head looking up into the sky. The appearance of these ancient houses are all blue bricks and black tiles. It is not that the ancient Chaji people did not have financial resources or aesthetic sense. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, most Chaji people did business abroad. There were many wealthy businessmen, and Chaji's writing style was extremely prosperous. There are four gates and three towers around Chaji Village: Zhongxiu Gate, Pinling Gate, Shimen, Bashan Gate; such as Pine Tower and Qingshan Tower. Bashan Tower. Simple and elegant. These three towers were built by the Cha family during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty in order to revitalize Cha Ji's literary style. Chaji natives Zha Bingjun and Zha Chunru were famous calligraphers and painters in the Qing Dynasty.

So why don’t the Chaji people decorate their houses in colorful colors? It turns out that China’s feudal society had extremely strict hierarchical distinctions in the use of colors. Common people, even if they have thousands of pieces of furniture, are never allowed to use all kinds of splendid paintings and decorations on their houses. "Loss within the embankment will be compensated externally." Although the residences are uniformly made of blue bricks and black tiles, the smart Chaji people have cleverly laid out the layout, "building houses close to the mountains and forming villages by the water." The distribution pattern of the residences cleverly uses techniques such as borrowing and contrasting views from Chinese classical garden art. It forms a pattern of "harmony between nature and man" in which "the green mountains outside the door are like inside the house, and the water flowing from the east house flows into the west neighbor". The houses are connected by streets and lanes. The Chaji River, one of the three waterways of Cen River, Xu River and Shihe River, meanders through the village, and the stone canal passes around each house. The Chaji River has a large drop and clear water. It flows like a waterfall, and there are many arch stone bridges, slab stone bridges and hole stone bridges built at random along the river, connecting the residential buildings on both sides of the river. The weather-beaten stone bridge, entwined with vines and vines, looks like jasper crossing the water from a distance, echoing the green bricks and black tiles on both sides of the bank. It is said that Chaji Village originally had 108 bridges, 108 temples, and 108 ancestral halls.

To this day, although Chaji Village has gone through a hundred years of ups and downs and has lost its former glory, it still has 15 bridges such as Honglu, Tianshen and Ganoderma lucidum and more than 10 ancestral halls and temples. Among them, the gilded cornices and painted beams in the larger Baogong Temple, Honggongke Temple, and Erjia Temple are easy to imagine the past style of Chaji Village. In the middle of Sanshui Village, there are three towers and four gates, a stone bridge across the river and a group of ancient buildings on both sides. The long and unique architectural culture and the beautiful landscape artistic conception have nurtured the Chaji people in the past. Standing in front of this ancient architectural complex from the Ming and Qing dynasties, we can't help but arouse our pride in the time-honored Chinese culture and admire the diligence and wisdom of our ancestors in creating this splendid ancient civilization.