County government characteristics of Yexian government museum

Hall-the place where county officials hear cases.

Ye county was the land of Yuzhou in ancient times, Zhou was the country after Ying, and Chu was in the Spring and Autumn Period. It was once the capital of many countries and was called "Ye Yi".

The government of Yexian County is located on the north side of Yexian East Street. The whole building consists of 4 1 units and 153 rooms on the central axis and the east-west sub-lines, covering an area of 16848 square meters. There are splayed walls on both sides of the county gate. According to "Bao Puzi's Inner Chapter", "The world is full of eyebrows, otherwise, the eyebrows are very vertical, such as eight ears." In other words, it is said that Yao's eyebrows have grown into an inverted figure of eight, which looks very harsh. Building eight-character walls on both sides of the gate of the county government is to take its symbolic significance and set off the solemnity and sacredness of the county government building.

Most CEOs have a positive attitude.

"Ye county is different from other counties. From the buildings of the county, you can see the official titles of the incumbent officials. The layman can't see this. " On February 3, Zheng Xiaopei, a county tour guide who accompanied the author, said. The gate of the county government is a hard gable structure building with a width of three rooms. Scarlet color, set off by the tall and straight blue painted doorposts, is daunting, showing the majesty of ancient county-level political institutions. In ancient times, people used to call county officials seven sesame officials, but Yexian was already the capital of Britain and Guo Xu as early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, with a high historical status. In addition, Ye County in Han Dynasty was formed by the merger of Kunyang, Hongyang, Wuyang and Guyeyi, with a large population, and the annual grain rent paid for the country was more than 100,000 stone. Therefore, the chief executives who came here in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were mostly Tongzhi titles and Wu Zhi titles, according to the records in 《

Above the gate of the county government, there is a big black plaque with the words "Yexian County Government" written on it. Below the plaque, there is a couplet "Heaven listens to the people, Heaven looks to the people, People drown themselves, People starve themselves", which was written by Ouyang Lin, the magistrate of Ye County in the sixth year of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty, when he took office. Couplets are easy to understand, but only the word "drowning" in the second couplet is understood as difficult, which shows that one parent is willing to accept the supervision of the masses and share joys and sorrows with the people. This undoubtedly played a very positive role in establishing the image of political institutions and strengthening communication with the people in the feudal era when "the entrance of yamen faces south and no money can enter".

Xiaocao Temple is the land holy land of the government.

Entering from the gate, on both sides are the classrooms where the ancient "soap, strong and fast" three classes of officials were on duty and the night watchman lived. If the people beat gongs and drums to express their dissatisfaction, the head on duty here will ask about the situation and report it to the magistrate for discretion. There is an instrument door next to the gate, which is three rooms wide. The middle gate is usually closed, and it can only be opened when the new emperor ascended the throne, national celebrations and new officials took office. The setting of the instrument door means that "there are instruments comparable", which not only reminds the magistrate of a county to set an example for the people, but also adds a bit of rigor to the county government. On the east and west sides of the instrument door, there is also a urinal door, which is called "life door" and "death door" respectively. Summoning prisoners in and out is usually through the entrance, and the death gate on the west side is only opened on the day of execution of the death row, and the death row is officially pushed out for questioning, so it is also called "the gate of hell".

On both sides of the gates of life and death, there is a small building. On the east side of the gate is the "Xiaocao Temple", which is dedicated to the famous figures of the Western Han Dynasty, Xiao He and Cao Can. Because of its good governance, Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Taizu of Ming Dynasty, after he proclaimed himself emperor, asked government offices at all levels across the country to establish Xiaocao Temple, so that officials could regularly go to the temple to worship and learn Xiaocao's way of governing the country for the benefit of the people. There is a land temple to the west of the Death Gate. Because Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a land temple in Xuyi County (originally in Anhui, now in Jiangsu), he has special feelings for the land temple. Therefore, after he proclaimed himself emperor, he ordered all government departments in the country to build a land temple to worship the land god. Secondly, due to Zhu Yuanzhang's emphasis on rectifying official management, he stipulated that corrupt officials should be punished by "stripping grass" and "pumping intestines"

The sunken kneeling stone has witnessed hundreds of years of history.

Through the instrument door is the hall. In addition to major events held here, the lobby is usually the place where county officials try cases, which is equivalent to the current court trial hall. What caught the author's attention was a quartzite kneeling stone in front of the lobby, which was used by people who complained with one leg in ancient times and was a real cultural relic of the Ming Dynasty. After more than 600 years of friction and wind and rain erosion, there are obvious dents on the kneeling stone, which proves the long history of Yexian county governance.

Zheng Xiaopei told the author that this kneeling stone was not found when 1997 rebuilt the county government. At that time, the foundation was more than one meter higher than the kneeling stone, and the kneeling stone was exposed when cleaning the foundation. In front of the kneeling stone, there is a brick building preserved in the Ming Dynasty. Although a large area of bricks has long been weathered, the sunken ground seems to show people what the complainant did before kneeling hundreds of years ago: according to the regulations at that time, people who went to the lobby to complain had to stamp their feet and tidy up their clothes before they could kneel down and tell their grievances.

There is also a row of half red and half black wooden sticks in the lobby. When he ascended the hall, the chief stood on both sides of the county magistrate with wooden sticks. He always thought that this wooden stick was used to beat prisoners. This time, I realized that this stick is not a torture device, but an instrument stick symbolizing justice and black and white. According to the regulation of "writing from left to right", there were "official, household and ceremonial" rooms and "military, criminal and industrial" rooms on the east and west sides of the lobby, which was the gathering place of various functional institutions in the county at that time. According to the regulations of the official department, there are no more than 20 staff members in the six departments of the county government who enjoy the five-product treatment, so there were only three staff members in each department of the Yexian county government at that time. It seems that "better troops and simpler administration" has a long history.

In the center of the lobby is a picture of "rising tide and sunrise", which symbolizes the political image of the magistrate. The top of the lobby is embedded in the purline, and there is also an inscription on the renovation of the lobby by Ouyang Lin, the magistrate of Tongzhi County in the eighth year of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty: Du Heci, the traffic director of the renovation of Ouyang Lin, the magistrate of pengze county, Zhongmu Province, has been responsible for the renovation of the lobby since the eighth year of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty. This inscription witnessed the vicissitudes of the county government for hundreds of years. In the feudal era, when the saying that "officials don't repair officials" was widely circulated, it was even more precious to preserve it with the ancient county government.

The origin of "going through the door"

Behind the lobby is the zhaimen, which is the barrier from the lobby to the second and third halls, which means strict, but it is not what we usually call zhaimen. The door of the house is usually closed, and it will only be opened when welcoming important guests and holding major celebrations. The staff of the yamen all come in and out through the side door. In ancient times, Hall 2 and Hall 3 were places where officials gathered, and ordinary people could not go in and out at will. Therefore, there are doormen on both sides of the house door, which are guarded by the doorman (commonly known as the "door") and are responsible for checking people and reporters. Therefore, it is inevitable that some doorways are greedy and use their positions to extort money and seek personal gain. This is the origin of "visiting the door" in ancient times. In A Dream of Red Mansions, the door that provides Jia Yucun with the "amulet" has done this work, and it is difficult to get through here without mentioning the supply door.

The second hall is five rooms wide, and there are couplets on the eaves and columns in the middle, "to cultivate the righteousness of heaven and earth and improve the ancient and modern laws."

It means a person who promotes human justice and learns ancient and modern morality. There are four screen doors in the middle of the second hall, and above the screen door there is a big gold plaque of "Pure Heart and Careful Diligence", which is taken from the words of Sima Zhao Xun, Minister of Wei State in the Three Kingdoms Period: "To be an official, you should be pure and cautious and cultivate these three things. Why not die? " Emperor Kangxi wrote this plaque in calligraphy, and the imperial edicts were hung in all provinces, prefectures and counties of the country.

"You can be an official without salt"

Entering the third courtyard is Tang San, with a striking and special couplet on both sides: "Today, ancient and modern, ancient and modern, ancient and modern". The tour guide Zheng Xiaopei said that it has no fixed explanation, but it has opened up people's infinite imagination space with limited changes in two words, which is very intriguing.

Tang San, also known as magistrate of a county, is the office of magistrate of a county, and is also the office of aides and teachers around magistrate of a county. In ancient times, officials practiced the avoidance system, usually serving in a foreign land hundreds of miles away from home. When the local governor takes office, he doesn't know the local customs, so he needs to hire some talented people who are familiar with the official sea and resourceful to make suggestions for himself. The staff and touts recruited are not on-the-job officials, but the magistrate of a county often "respects the curtain as a teacher", and their remuneration is a bundle of supplements, that is, red envelopes, which are usually very generous. Shaoxing people in Qing Dynasty were resourceful and had many performers. Many local officials like to hire them, so there is a saying that "nothing can be done without salt".

Today, the government of Yexian County also showed a brief list of some officials who had served in Yexian County. The first Yin county (called Yin in the Spring and Autumn Period) was. From the profiles of these officials, it can be seen that in the existing records, more than 200 officials from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Republic of China are from other provinces. The titles of county officials also vary from county yin, county magistrate, magistrate to governor and county magistrate.

Zheng Xiaopei said that the main structure of the county hall, the second hall and the third hall are all buildings preserved in the Ming Dynasty, so Yexian County Hall is the only county hall in the Ming Dynasty.

Well preserved in Ming dynasty

Yexian government consists of three buildings: the central axis and the east-west branch line. In addition to the above-mentioned buildings located on the central axis, there are prisons, kitchens and magistrates' houses in turn from south to north on the east branch line. The prison house has been used until the Republic of China, and the unearthed stone tablet is proof. The various instruments of torture in the prison made people deeply feel the cruelty of the government at that time. The kitchen yard is the daily dining place for the staff in the yamen, and the ancient well in the Ming Dynasty has been preserved to this day. From the outside, the ancient well is more than ten meters deep and the water is as clear as a mirror. Today's ancient well has become a cultural relic and has been protected. Standing by the ancient well, it seems that you can still see the scene of ancient cooks fetching water and washing vegetables here.

The only county government with a shed

Ancient county government buildings are basically like this, but in front of the lobby of Yexian county government, you can see a long and narrow shed-style building connected with it, which is a rolled shed. Roll shed is a kind of architectural form that originated from offering sacrifices in palaces and temples. When it is used in government, it becomes a symbol of official status. Because in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the magistrate of Yexian county enjoyed the same title (positive five grades), so the shed here is a reflection of their senior official titles in architectural form.

It is worth mentioning that the Yexian government is also the only county government in China with a roll shed, especially the "gutter and Luo Guo rafter" overlapping method adopted at the joint between the roll shed and the front eaves of the lobby, which is rare in the ancient wood-making technology in China.

There is a sentence on the post of the shed: "It is not honorable to get an official, and it is not shameful to lose one official. Don't say that one official is useless, and the place depends on one official; Eat people's food, wear people's clothes, don't say that people can be bullied, but also people "and" mountain strong gold and silver are not greedy; The couplet "Iron and stone encircling the river is actually a couplet" profoundly expresses the expectations from the court officials to the people.

From the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China to the early 1970s, the county government of Yexian County has always been the office of the county government. After the relocation of the county government in the early 1970s, the county government became the office of the county education bureau, library, theatrical troupe, industrial and commercial bank and the residence of some employees. These units didn't move out until the restoration began. 1997, Ye County invested 6.4 million yuan to start the county government's rescue restoration. The whole restoration work was carried out in strict accordance with the principle of repairing the old as the old, and the architectural style of Ming and Qing dynasties was well preserved. In order to increase the cultural connotation of the county government and improve its appreciation, the cultural relics exhibition room of the county government museum with a building area of 473 square meters was built to display more than 300 pieces (sets) of cultural relics collected and unearthed in Yexian since the founding of the People's Republic of China, of which more than 50 pieces are unique in China. The newly unearthed bronze chimes are especially precious. Today, 2500 years later, this set of bells can still play all kinds of Chinese and foreign music, which is amazing.