Folk culture of Huizhou ancient archway

memorial archway is the highest symbol of honor in feudal society, which is used to flaunt merits and promote feudal etiquette. There are many archways in Shexian county, which has a long-standing relationship with the development and rise of Huizhou merchants and the origin and influence of Cheng Zhu's Neo-Confucianism. Ancient Huizhou people who took Confucianism as the main content of their spiritual world, the natural conditions of insufficient land for cultivation became their main driving force for expanding their living space. Shexian people have left their homes and gone out to do business, and they have traveled all over the world. Going out for as little as three years or five years, and as many as dozens of years, in order to take care of Gaotang's parents, they usually have to get married before going. If you can't make a fortune in business outside, you will be ashamed to see your hometown elders. Businessmen made a fortune, and their money was prominent. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huizhou merchants reached their peak, and there was a grand occasion of "no town without emblem". Their financial resources influenced the national economic lifeline for more than 3 years. Of course, the court was impressed by the Huizhou merchants, and they were favored by them. Therefore, Huizhou merchants entered a benign development track of "attaching importance to business, entering the official position with literature, and protecting business with official position". For the sake of honoring their ancestors, Huizhou merchants, who have traveled all over the world, asked the emperor to grant them permission to return to their hometown, build memorial archways, and set up monuments for fame, longevity and chastity, so as to remain immortal. There are many memorial archways of Ming and Qing Dynasties in Huangshan City. Famous ones are Tangyue Paifang Group in Shexian County, Hu Wenguang's memorial archway in Xidi, yi county, Xuguo Stone Square in Shexian County, and so on.

The archway evolved from the Xingxing Gate. Ling Xing is the original Ling Xing, and Ling Xing is Tian Tian Xing. Emperor gaozu stipulated: sacrifice the spirit star first every day. In the sixth year of Song Renzong Tiansheng (128), the outer wall of suburban platform (a building dedicated to heaven and earth) was built, and the Lingxing Gate was set up. Moved back to the Confucius Temple to respect Confucius with the etiquette of offering sacrifices to heaven. Later, people thought that the sacrifice of spiritual stars in the Han Dynasty was to pray for a good harvest, and it had nothing to do with the Confucius Temple. See also changing the spirit star into a star. After the first year of the Song Dynasty (Southern Song Dynasty), especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, this kind of building was not only placed in suburban altars and Confucius temples, but also built in front of temples, tombs, ancestral halls, offices and gardens or in front of streets, back streets and intersections. It is also used not only to worship heaven and Confucius, but also to praise merits and virtues, and to show good manners and virtues, and so on, so the Lingxingmen became not only the Lingxingmen, but also the memorial archway. As far as its construction intention is concerned, memorial archways can be divided into three categories: one is sign square; The second category is Gongdefang; The three categories mark the achievements of the imperial examination.