Where does the "emblem" of Huizhou come from?

In November 1987, the State Council issued a document announcing the abolition of the Huizhou region and the establishment of prefecture-level Huangshan City. Regarding this name change, many Huizhou people are still "grieving": Do we only have one tourist attraction left in Huizhou?

The preciousness of Huizhou does not lie in its name. Landscapes and villages are one of the main goals for tens of millions of tourists visiting Huizhou every year. But the essence of Huizhou culture is reflected in its own system from philosophy and art to lifestyle. What is the force behind the formation of this special regional culture?

01 Huizhou, mountains and rivers are her background

In ancient times, Huizhou maintained the structure of one prefecture (prefecture) and six counties for a long time, and governed Shexian, Yixian, Xiuning, and Qimen , Jixi and Wuyuan six counties. In modern times, Huizhou Prefecture has experienced changes in administrative divisions. First, Wuyuan was transferred to Jiangxi, and then Jixi was placed under Xuancheng City, Anhui Province. The main part of Huizhou exists as today's Huangshan City. “When you return from the Five Mountains, you don’t look at the mountains; when you return from Huangshan, you don’t look at the mountains.” Huangshan is indeed a business card of Huizhou region, Anhui and China.

Huizhou has experienced violent geological movements. As a result, a basic pattern of a fault basin in the middle and uplift of fault blocks on both sides was formed. From a geographical point of view, the Huangshan Mountains are the watershed of the Yangtze River and the Qiantang River. It is connected to Tianmu Mountain in the east and Jiuhua Mountain in the north. It is the center of the mountainous area in southern Anhui. Led by Huangshan Mountain, Huizhou has many mountains and hills. According to the "Brief Records of Huizhou Region", the Huizhou region covered an area of ??13,403 square kilometers before it was revoked, of which the total area of ??mountains and hills reached 10,578 square kilometers. Because of these mountains, the Xin'an School of Painting, the Huizhou merchants who traveled all over the world, and the Huizhou we see are possible.

Most foreign tourists go to Huizhou to see the mountains in Huizhou. The writer Yu Dafu also left a deep impression on the mountains when he traveled to Huizhou: "This car has to go through the mountains, learn pangolins, and learn the immortal earth escape before it can reach Huizhou... I first counted silently in the car "We had to go around several turns and cross several ridges to reach Huizhou, but later we were frightened by the dangerous scenery around us and actually forgot the number."

Huizhou’s mountains are so famous that the role of water is often ignored by people.

The most important Xin'an River flows eastward into Zhejiang, the Changjiang River and Le'an River flow into Poyang Lake from the south, and the Qingyi River flows from the north into the Yangtze River. Huizhou is dominated by mountains and hills, but the river systems originating from them are constantly eroded, leaving intermountain basins of varying sizes scattered throughout Huizhou, which in turn provided space for the later generations of Huizhou people to thrive. Huizhou’s ancient towns and villages were built on basins and valleys.

In the entire traditional Chinese society, agriculture is the basis, and Huizhou’s geographical conditions are definitely not favorable. For example, Huangshan Mountain, which is full of strange pines and rocks, does not look like a good place for farming. Huizhou people can only engage in limited agricultural production in basins and plains along rivers. However, thanks to this difficult environment, Huizhou culture was shaped. The saying goes, "I didn't cultivate in my previous life. I was born in Huizhou. When I was thirteen or fourteen years old, I threw it away." This is the truth.

02 The nature of mountains makes people blocked, and the nature of water makes people accessible

In the story of Huizhou, the function of mountains is to block, while the function of water is to communicate.

Huizhou is surrounded by mountains and the situation is so dangerous that some people even compare it to the "Sword Pavilion of Shu". Shanyue was the original owner of this land, so they relied on their terrain advantages and refused to accept the rule of the Central Plains. As the power of the Central Plains Dynasty gradually moved southward, conflicts between the natives in these mountains and foreign forces occurred from time to time. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Sun Wu attacked Shanyue with heavy troops and drove the mountain people out of the mountain. Only then did he establish a county (Xindu County) here for the first time and start effective rule.

Huizhou is an immigrant society. When war broke out in the late Western Jin Dynasty, Huizhou's steep peaks were enough to become a barrier between the war and the people. This incompletely developed "paradise" has become one of the destinations for northern refugees.

The northern aristocratic families based on family units have settled here one after another. The Huizhou people’s persistence in blood ties has already planted a seed at this time. Similar stories happened twice in the late Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties, and the late Northern Song Dynasty. People who immigrated became the majority of Huizhou residents. From this perspective, probably all Huizhou people do not belong here.

Huizhou people have really never stopped. The characteristics of Huizhou's immigrant society are not only "walking in" but also "running out". Wang Shizhen, a native of the Ming Dynasty, said: "Mostly in Huizhou, thirteen people are in the city, and seventeen people are in the world." Huizhou people seem to have a restless temper.

Huizhou connects to surrounding provinces not only by several ancient post roads, but also by the water system extending in all directions. Because it is mountainous, most of Huizhou's rivers are rapid, making it easy to get out but difficult to get in. For Huizhou people who plan to go out to make a living, the rapid water flow has its own benefits. Timber dealers in Huizhou sell wood to other places by "putting wood rafts", that is, bundling the wood into rows and sending them down the river.

During the period of the autocratic monarchy, businessmen were discriminated against, and doing business was regarded as "sacrificing the basics to pursue the weak", but Huizhou people "placed their lives on business." Do they have a bone in the back of their head? Want to go against the imperial court? Huizhou people are forced to do business because there is too little arable land here. However, it was their departure from their hometown that laid the material foundation for Huizhou's prosperity.

03 Without Huizhou merchants, there would be no Huizhou

Nowadays when we mention Huizhou merchants, the first thing that comes to mind is the salt merchants of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, or the famous red-top businessman Hu Xueyan. In fact, Huizhou's commercial activities started very early and formed a large scale.

The "Records of the New Changmen River in Qimen County" written in the Tang Dynasty records that "within a thousand miles, there were seven or eight people who were engaged in tea." In the famous poem "Pipa Xing" written by Bai Juyi in the Tang Dynasty, there is already a sentence: "Businessmen value profits over separation, and went to Fuliang to buy tea the month before last" (in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, Chishan Town of Yi County and Fuliang County of Raozhou were established as Qimen County). It can be seen that the Qimen area has become an important tea distribution center in the Tang Dynasty.

The direct reason why the "Hui Camels" go out to do business is that there are more people and less land, but this does not explain why Huizhou merchants have become the most important business gang.

Another important reason is that Huizhou people have a strong sense of clan. Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, the northern gentry groups have been damaged by war, but the family view of the aristocratic families has been preserved in Huizhou, a "haven of refuge", and has gradually become a key factor affecting regional development.

During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the long-standing restriction prohibiting common people from building family temples was broken. Huizhou’s custom of family sacrifices that had begun in the Song Dynasty gradually became public, and the last trace of the clan concept in the bones of Huizhou people was removed. Shackles, cohesion is greatly strengthened. Huizhou business gangs with the same surname as their unit naturally benefited from the clan culture.

"Mingzhou Wu Family Code" contains a family law such as "If you are forced to engage in business, the clan may support you". Most of the capital that Huizhou people invested in the business world was obtained through families and marriages between different families. It is recorded in "Qing Bai Lei Chao" that after the Wang family moved to Huizhou, they only married the Cheng family because both families were wealthy businessmen. Not only that, Hui merchants even give priority to people who are knowledgeable within the family when hiring apprentices.

As the saying goes, "There is no town without Huizhou." Huizhou people make their homes wherever they go. The friendship between fellow villagers and ethnic groups led them to spontaneously form chambers of commerce in their places of residence. At the same time, families engaged in the same industry are also conducive to forming a monopoly and maximizing profits. For example, most of the people who opened pawn shops were businessmen from Xiuning.

With good management and teamwork to keep warm, Huizhou merchants quickly accumulated a large amount of wealth. In addition to using this money to further invest, improve living standards, and benefit the countryside, this is the main purpose of Huizhou merchants.

Many villages in Huizhou have the same surname. The same village means the same clan. The clan concept gives Huizhou merchants a strong sense of responsibility and they believe that they must make contributions to their fellow clansmen. This is also a beautiful thing to honor their ancestors. The Wu family in Xixinan has strong financial resources, so they hired water conservancy experts to build canals and other water conservancy projects for the village. These canals built in the Ming Dynasty are still in use today.

In addition to donating funds to public projects, the Wu family is most famous for its contacts with literati. Jian Jiang, the leader of the Xin'an School of Painting, lived in the Jiashan Temple of the Wu family for a long time. The famous Ming Dynasty talents Dong Qichang and Zhu Zhishan were all guests of the Wu family.

It is worth mentioning that the Wujiajia Mountain back then was the Huangshan Mountain that everyone knows now. Associating with literati is not uncommon among Huizhou merchants. The most amazing thing about the Wu family is their collection of art. The Wu family became rich in the salt industry, and their huge wealth allowed them to collect many art treasures, the most famous of which was the original "Manuscript of the Nephew Memorial", the "second running script in the world" that aroused public opinion when it was exhibited in Japan a while ago.

However, not all literati were interested in Huizhou. People often quote Tang Xianzu's words "I have never dreamed of going to Huizhou" to praise Huizhou. In fact, this is Mr. Ruo Shi, a noble man, who is satirizing the "vanity fair" of Huizhou and showing that he is not willing to go to Huizhou to seek fame and fortune. However, this also illustrates the great energy of Huizhou people.

There are many big families like the Wu family in Huizhou. Most of them maintained close ties with literati, and the most important way was to build academies.

04 No matter how poor you are, you can’t afford education

Hui merchants have always been called Confucian businessmen. Their emphasis on culture and education is hard to match across the country.

Bao Boting, a Huizhou businessman from the Bao family in Shexian County, once said: "You can't delay teaching if you are rich. What's the use of just accumulating wealth." If you don't provide education if you have money, what's the use of having a rich family? ? Many big families in Huizhou also have the experience of first abandoning farming and engaging in business, and then investing in schools to educate their children after becoming rich. The Mingjing Hu family, a branch of the Hu family in Jixi, refers to the family with Mingjing, one of the subjects, because their ancestor Hu Changyi passed the imperial examination.

The prosperity of Huizhou’s literary style is not accidental. Because this is the authentic place of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. The ancestral places of Zhu Xi, brothers Cheng Yi and Cheng Hao are both Huizhou. The set of "Conventional Ethics" expounded by Neo-Confucianism is not only the mainstream thought of ancient China, but also deeply consistent with the cultural core of Huizhou merchants who value clan. Huizhou people, who hope to gain more say through the imperial examination and maintain family stability, naturally attach great importance to Confucianism.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, “the most prosperous academies in the world were those in Donglin, Jiangyou, Guanzhong and Huizhou.” This form of academies began in the Tang Dynasty and was an important carrier for the spread of Confucian culture in Huizhou. Since the Ming Dynasty, Huizhou merchants have made huge wealth by monopolizing the salt industry, and the academies have also received large amounts of funding. Even in the deep mountains and valleys, the sound of reading can be heard. At that time, Huizhou was called "Southeast Zou Lu".

Chinese people have always been generous in education. No matter how difficult the family situation is, they still need to provide their children with the best educational conditions. Huizhou people can be said to be one of the best examples. Xu Guo, a native of She County, was the Minister of Rites during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. When he was young, his father failed in business, so he had to do business while studying. Unfortunately, he failed the rural examination five times in a row. After selling all his family property, he ran to the river to commit suicide. In the end, he was funded by a timber merchant. Only then can I continue to study.

The experience of Xu Guoyin is enough to show the importance Huizhou people attach to education.

The good combination of businessmen and scholars is also the uniqueness of Huizhou culture. Among the four people, scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, scholars have always been ranked first. Businessmen had the lowest social status. When the imperial examination system was first formed, businessmen were not even allowed to participate in the imperial examination. The fact that Huizhou people can directly say such pragmatic words as "reading well, doing business well, and doing well will be good" may be the real reason why Huizhou culture developed in this land.

05 Huizhou, a symbol of Chinese aesthetics

Whether they are doing business or serving as officials, Huizhou people have left their footprints all over the country. While they are changing the appearance of their hometown, they are also changing everything in the places where they live. The prosperity of Yangzhou during the Qing Dynasty was due to the Huizhou salt merchants who lived there. Due to the tradition of respecting Confucianism, these businessmen are not just nouveau riche who only know how to spend money. Their lifestyle has also left a unique beauty in the profound Chinese culture.

Among the scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, the one who left the most intuitive impression on us today is none other than Huizhou craftsmen.

Perhaps due to the flourishing academic style, the most famous Huizhou handicrafts are stationery supplies: Wang pens, Hui ink, Chengxintang paper, and She inkstones. Because Huizhou is mountainous and has a lot of pine trees, it can meet the needs of mass production of pine smoke ink. The Huizhou ink making method is complex, and is subdivided into three schools in Huizhou: She (County), Xiu (Ning), and Wu (Yuan). In addition, the literati and calligraphers who visited Huizhou merchants also participated in the process of craftsmen making ink, making Huizhou ink both practical and artistic. Despite the changes in the world, Hui ink has always been among the "Four Treasures of the Study" commonly known by Chinese people.

Huizhou Three Eagles directly benefited from the strong financial resources of Huizhou merchants. When Hui merchants built residences or built ancestral halls for their families, they were inseparable from the decoration of brick, stone, and wood carvings. From figures, landscapes to flowers, plants, birds and beasts, they are all common themes of Huizhou three-carving sculptures. While decorating the houses, it also plays a subtle preaching role, allowing the tribesmen to be influenced by Confucian culture. Because of these exquisite carvings, the Huizhou architecture with white walls and black tiles looks simple and elegant from a distance, but is full of rich details when viewed up close, fully demonstrating the aesthetic taste of Huizhou people.

Huizhou culture is probably the same. At first glance, it seems to be a regional culture dominated by Huizhou merchant culture. In fact, if you look closely, you can find the rich and delicate cultural connotation behind it. It contains the Chinese people's emphasis on education, the pragmatic thinking of the Chinese people who want to change when they are poor, and the profound understanding of family inheritance.

The divisions of Huizhou no longer exist. However, the inheritance of Huizhou culture that has gone through vicissitudes of life has not been cut off. She shows the same attitude as before in the mountains and rivers, and is also hidden in perceptible and knowable cultural symbols, confirming her existence to future generations.

Reference materials: "The Four Treasures of the Study: Paper, Pen, Inkstone and Cultural Connotation" by Chen Xiuling and Xiao Dongfa; "Brief Records of Huizhou Region" by He Jingwu; "Double Variations of Businessmen and Culture - Huizhou Merchants and Clan Society" "Historical Investigation", Tang Lixing; "Huizhou Merchants and Huaiyang Social Changes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties", Wang Zhenzhong; "Introduction to Chinese History and Culture", Yan Wugao; "Collected Works of Yu Dafu", Yu Dafu; "Huizhou: Picking up the Fragments of History", Zhang Jianping .