Cheng Chen
Spring scenery in Qiao's courtyard. File picture
In the spring, the Qiao Family Courtyard in Qi County, Shanxi Province is particularly charming. Spring flowers bloom quietly, exuding the vitality of renewal. Walking around the courtyard, you can feel the warmth and comfort every step of the way.
"Let me accompany you into this magnificent mansion to explore the past of the Qiao family..." The tour guide Xiao Chen started talking and led us to visit this mansion that was built during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Ancient residential house - Qiao Family Courtyard.
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Some people say that the Qiao Family Courtyard is "a shining pearl in the history of northern residential architecture"; some people say that the Qiao Family Courtyard is a "history book that can touch the temperature of life." Walking into this compound, you will find that it is magnificent, majestic, dignified, honest and solid.
The Qiao Family Courtyard faces the street on three sides, but is not connected to the surrounding residential buildings. It is a closed building complex, consisting of five parts: the Zhongtang, Dexing Hall, Baoyuan Hall, Ningshou Hall and Qiao Family Garden, with a total of 18 large buildings. courtyard, 41 small courtyards, and 731 houses. The whole hospital has a rigorous layout and exquisite design. It looks like a "囍" when viewed from above. It has elegant architecture and meticulous workmanship. The courtyard has brackets and cornices, colorful decorations and gold decorations, masonry and wood carvings, and exquisite craftsmanship. It completely protects, inherits and displays the residential style, living customs and business management model of the Shanxi merchant family.
The brick screen wall with a hundred longevity pictures at the entrance of Qiao's courtyard is eye-catching. According to reports, there are 100 powerful and different shapes of the character "Shou" in seal script on the screen wall, which are combined with the character "Wan" on the top of the screen wall, which means auspiciousness and profound charm.
The thresholds in the courtyard are one after another, and passages and steps connect the roofs of the bungalows into high-hanging spaces. There are more than 140 chimneys built on the roof. The lower half of the chimney is made of bricks into a hollow square bucket shape, and the upper half is carved into different shapes, like miniature buildings standing in the sky.
When the sun shines on the animal decorations on the roof, the laughter and tears, glory and dreams that once existed in this compound gradually come to life. Touching the green bricks and gray tiles, looking at the carved beams and painted buildings, I seemed to feel the courage and perseverance of the Qiao family who traveled all over the country to do business.
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The majestic compound and exquisite buildings are the material heritage left by the Qiao family; the strict family rules, wise family training, and simple family tradition are the spiritual wealth left by the Qiao family to future generations.
"Studying means not becoming famous, but after all, the character is elegant; cultivating virtue will be rewarded unexpectedly, and the natural dream is to have peace of mind." "The only way to inherit a family is to be honest, and to be honest in life."...Walking in the courtyard, I admire it the most. It is a pair of couplets rich in philosophy. These famous quotes and aphorisms, word for word, are penetrating; word for word, thought-provoking. They stand on both sides of the gate, greeting guests and telling the story of the Qiao family.
In the early years of Qianlong's reign, Qiao Guifa, the founder of the Qiao family, "went westward" for business, and he and his fellow villagers jointly opened a business called "Guangsheng Gong" in Baotou, dealing in commodity trading such as fodder, grain and oil, rice and noodles. Despite the setbacks, the Qiao family's business is still growing and their financial resources are getting stronger. Later, Qiao Guifa saw with his own eyes that the Qin family, his partner in the business, had unhealthy family traditions, wasted money and was in decline, so he established a 24-character "Six Don'ts" family rule to correct the family tradition.
The Qiao family attaches great importance to Confucianism in business and family governance, which can be seen from the hundreds of couplets and plaques in the courtyard. Study diligently, be honest and kind, be elegant and harmonious, be upright and magnanimous...the mottos of self-cultivation can be seen everywhere and have become the principles of life that are cherished by the descendants. In the inheritance of more than 200 years, the Qiao family has relied on their perseverance, hard-working spirit, broad mind, integrity-based philosophy, resourceful wisdom, and Shanxi merchant spirit of putting justice before profit. It writes a family legend from a poor farmer to a wealthy businessman.
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"It is our pursuit to provide more professional and humane services to every tourist who comes to the scenic spot." Tour guide Xiao Chen explained while chatting with everyone.
As a national key cultural relics protection unit and a national second-level museum, the Qiao Family Courtyard Scenic Spot continues to improve its exhibition level and supporting facilities, activate and utilize cultural relics resources, and tell the story of Shanxi merchants.Recently, the Qiao Family Courtyard has launched a series of special spring outing activities: admiring the spring scenery and experiencing fancy check-in; exploring the spring scenery, "Qiao" meets Qiao Courtyard Cultural and Creative; enjoying the spring spirit, painting umbrellas and wearing willows together. During the Qingming Festival holiday, the Qiao Family Courtyard received an average of 8,000 tourists a day, using practical actions to polish the business card of Shanxi merchant culture and improve tourist satisfaction.
All kinds of barrier-free facilities and attraction signs are complete in the scenic area. The visitor center provides a variety of services, from mobile phone charging areas, boiled water supply points, postal express services and other facilities to functional areas such as maternal and child rooms and film and television leisure areas. , all embodying the concept of the scenic spot putting tourists first.
In order to meet the personalized and diversified travel needs of tourists, Qiaojia Courtyard has launched three NPC (specific role) teams, allowing tourists to immersively experience the connotation of Shanxi merchant culture through situational interaction. In addition, the Qiao Family Courtyard has also added new intangible cultural heritage experience stores such as shadow puppetry and paper-cutting. Relying on Qiao Family's family motto, architectural decorations, Qiao Family Fu characters, red lanterns and other cultural elements, it makes full use of new technologies such as 3D printing to increase cultural and creative products. R&D and promotion efforts make cultural relics "alive" and open another window for tourists to understand Shanxi merchant culture.
Visiting the Qiao Family Courtyard in spring is like traveling through a time and space tunnel and entering the passionate entrepreneurial story of Shanxi merchants. A red sun hangs high in the sky, shining red on this large mansion that has witnessed historical legends, and also on the happy faces of tourists.
