A thousand-year-old ancient village in the mountains of Beijing. The village is full of courtyards but no one lives in it. It is 86 kilometers away from the capital.

When people think of Beijing courtyard houses, they will think of mansions worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But there is a place in Beijing that is full of ancient courtyard houses that no one has bought or lived in. There is Yangjiayu Village, a thousand-year-old village in Zhaitang Town, Mentougou, Beijing.

From the map we can know that the terrain of the entire Beijing city is high in the west and low in the east, high in the north and low in the south. Yanshan, Jundushan and Xishan mountains closely guard this thousand-year-old city from the north and west respectively. Yangjiayu Village is located among the peaks of the Dahanling Mountains in the Xishan Mountains.

During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a relevant record about the Dahan Ridge in the "Shuntian Prefecture Chronicles": "The Dahan Ridge is one hundred and forty miles west of the city and hundreds of feet high." Shen Bang wrote in the Ming Dynasty The historical record "Wanshu Miscellaneous Notes" also mentioned: "The Dahanling Mountains are more than 200 miles west of the county and are divided by Qingshuijian."

According to legend, in the Han Dynasty, some tribes from the eastern Xiongnu once penetrated deep into Beijing. They lived and multiplied in the Zhaitang area in the western suburbs, and the Dahanling Mountains were their boundary with the Han Dynasty. The Beijing-West Ancient Road runs through the Great Cold Mountains and is a strategic route leading to Beijing from Hebei, Shanxi and the Mongolian grasslands.

Especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the imperial court established its capital in Beijing. In order to ensure the safety of Beijing, the feudal dynasty set up checkpoints at various passes in the Dahan Mountains to take strict precautions. The most famous one is Dahanling Pass.

During the Anti-Japanese War, in order to prevent the Japanese army from invading Hebei, Shanxi and Suiyuan areas through the ancient road to the west of Beijing, the Chinese army, under the leadership of the patriotic general Wei Lihuang, fought with the Japanese army near Zhuji Mountain. The fierce fighting lasted for more than half a month, and it was known as the Battle of Biji in history. This shows the importance of Dahanling’s geographical location.

Yangjiayu Village is located at the northwest foot of the Dahan Mountains, 86 kilometers away from downtown Beijing. To say that the location of Yangjiayu Village can be said to be surrounded by mountains, it is a paradise in the wild mountains.

The first is its geographical location.

Yangjiayu Village is located among the peaks of the Western Mountains, surrounded by mountains on all sides. To the east of the village is the main peak of the Dahanling Mountains, and to the north of the village is the famous Mount Zhuoji. This mountain is called the "ancestor of the Western Mountains" in "Wanshu Miscellaneous Notes", which shows how majestic and majestic the mountain is.

There is Yuxi Peak blocking Yangjiayu Village. Many mountainous areas surround Yangjiayu Village like mother's arms, so Yangjiayu Village has been protected from the pain of wars for thousands of years. The ancient buildings in the village are relatively well protected.

Secondly, let’s talk about local resources.

In the inherent impression, mountain villages all have a sense of being closed-minded, conservative, outdated and backward. But Yangjiayu Village is really rich in products and has outstanding people.

1. Its products are abundant.

Yangjiayu Village has been famous for its red apricots since ancient times. Thanks to the special local soil and water climate, the red apricot fruits produced in Yangjiayu Village are large and delicious, and are popular in Beijing and Tianjin. At its peak, there were 300 acres of apricot groves in the village, producing 100,000 jins of apricots every year.

In the past, the dried red apricots produced in Yangjiayu Village were the most expensive in the fruit shop in Dashilan, Qianmen. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the red apricots from Yangjiayu Village were selected as local tributes and settled in the imperial city for the emperor's relatives and dignitaries to taste.

There used to be a local ballad that talked about the products of various villages around Beijing. Among them, the "big red apricots of Yangjiayu" are the same as the cucumbers and green onions of Zhangjiacun, the sweet pumpkins of Yangjiacun, the pears of Lishutai, etc. Properties are juxtaposed. This shows how excellent the quality of local red apricots is.

There are two ancient pine trees planted in the village, one of which has been rated as a national first-class ancient tree. Because of their age, the villagers called these two ancient pines the dragon and phoenix pines, and even evolved the legend of "dragon pines are magical". A statue of the tree king is also enshrined in the temple in Yangjiayu Village.

Although due to terrain restrictions, Yangjiayu Village only covers an area of ??12,000 square meters and has only 565 acres of cultivated land, the grain yield per mu of local land is surprisingly high. Historically, famines rarely occurred in Yangjiayu Village, so it is not an exaggeration to call this place a paradise among the mountains.

2. He is an outstanding person.

Yangjiayu, as the name suggests, was the gathering place of the Yang family in the early years. And indeed it is. The origin of Yangjiayu Village can be traced back to the Liao Kingdom 1,100 years ago.

Although the Liao Empire was founded by ethnic minorities, after occupying the sixteen Youyun states, it made Beijing its companion capital "Nanjing" and regarded Beijing as an important cultural and economic center. The Beijing area was heavily developed by the Liao State at that time, and the prototype of Yangjiayu Village was also formed at this time.

According to the "Miscellaneous Notes of Wanshu" written by Shen Bang, the magistrate of Wanping County in the Ming Dynasty, the three brothers of Yang Guoliang from Sangyu Village in the Yuan Dynasty came here by chance to open up wasteland and thrive, and they became the "Great Cold". Lingtun". The three Yang Guoliang brothers have also become the "big family Yang" among the local population.

In the early years of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, three brothers, Yang Ruhui, Yang Rudai and Yang Rulu, came to settle here again and became "Xiaohu Yang". Two waves of descendants of the Yang family settled in the area, completely establishing the name and pattern of "Yangjiayu Village" here.

The poor and simple life in the mountains has brought up generations of simple and kind-hearted Yangjiayu people. Throughout the dynasties, there have been people in the local area who have noble moral character and are loyal to the country.

During the Qing Dynasty, Wanping around the capital often encountered natural disasters, either floods or droughts. As a result, refugees fleeing famine often starved to death in the villages and towns around the capital.

Yang Maofa, who was born in Yangjiayu Village and worked as an official, opened warehouses many times to release grain to help the victims during his tenure, and properly stabilized the situation around the capital. Yang Maofa's behavior was recognized and praised by the court. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty personally inscribed a plaque "Dunlun Hall" on Yang Maofa to praise his family's noble morals.

Yang’s father, Yang Guoliang, and Yang Maofa themselves also funded the renovation of the “Guanyin Bodhisattva Temple” located near Guancheng in the Dahanling Mountains, making a lot of contributions to the protection of local cultural relics.

In modern times, Yangjiayu Village also has many outstanding people and has cultivated many people with lofty ideals who are patriotic and patriotic.

In the Battle of Biji during the Anti-Japanese War, because the battlefield was right next to Yangjiayu Village, local villagers often provided supplies and medical treatment to the Chinese troops participating in the war. In 1938, a party branch was also established in Yangjiayu Village to organize the people to provide grain, grass, military supplies and transportation facilities for the Eighth Route Army.

Because Yangjiayu Village is located in the mountains, it is easy to hide and is close to the transportation line of the Jingxi Ancient Road. The Eighth Route Army often used Yangjiayu Village as a "safe house" for the repair and transfer of party and government agencies and main troops.

From the party branch in this small mountain village, two outstanding cadres who had accompanied the leader and served in New China emerged. They are Yang Xingzhou and Yang Xingmin.

Yang Xingzhou is a veteran party member who joined the party in 1938. Before liberation, he traveled extensively with the army, and finally served as secretary of the Municipal Party Committee in Tingtan City, Hunan Province. In 1965, Yang Xingzhou, as a representative of local officials, followed Chairman Mao throughout his trip to Shaoshan to sweep graves and visit relatives.

Yang Xingmin and Yang Xingzhou are relatives of the same family. They also joined the party in 1938 and served as the director of the Beidaihe Public Security Bureau for a long time after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Beidaihe is a resting place that our party leaders often go to in summer. Yang Xingmin has protected the safety of Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou in obscurity for ten consecutive years.

From the above, it can be known that Yangjiayu Village is a thousand-year-old village with beautiful mountains and beautiful people.

Thanks to the relatively isolated environment of the village, this thousand-year-old mountain village was finally able to avoid the destruction of the war. Although Yangjiayu Village was destroyed and looted twice by the Wang Puppet Regime and the Japanese invaders during the Anti-Japanese War, the losses were not major and harmless.

Therefore, Yangjiayu Village has become one of the best-preserved ancient villages and buildings in western Beijing. In Yangjiayu Village, people can fully appreciate the architectural style of my country's Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, which is of great academic and tourism value. It is a masterpiece of the original ecological ancient mountain village.

Currently, there are more than 20 well-preserved ancient residential courtyards in Yangjiayu Village. The courtyards in the village cover the period from the Yuan Dynasty to the years after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Don’t think that siheyuan is unique to Beijing during the Qing Dynasty. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, relatively mature siheyuan residential buildings had already appeared.

For example, the courtyard of "Da Hu Yang" mentioned above is a typical courtyard design of the Yuan Dynasty. Courtyards in the Yuan Dynasty were all built with ancient brick short doors, and there were no south rooms. Most high-rise buildings were built on the west side. The walls of the courtyard are decorated with four-petal patterns made of tiles, which look particularly like copper coins.

This actually explains the social status of the Han people in the Yuan Dynasty.

In the Yuan Dynasty, because of their low status, the Han people rarely engaged in politics, so they devoted a lot of energy to literary creation and business.

Another example is the courtyard architecture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties represented by the courtyards of "Xiaohuyang". The courtyard houses of this period were still centered on the north, with the main room facing south, but there was also a south room, which was called an "inverted sitting room". Because Yangjiayu Village reached its peak of prosperity during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the village had the most courtyard houses during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Among the courtyards built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the courtyard of Yang Maofa's family is the most luxurious. Because Yang Maofa's family has served as officials in the Qing court for all dynasties starting from his great-grandfather Yang Siyin, it can be called the "official family" of Yangjiayu Village.

There are not only screen walls, horse-tying posts and horse-mounting stones outside the gate of the courtyard, but also an eight-character screen wall inside the gate. There is a study room on the east side of the courtyard, and a servant room on the east side of the gate. The entire courtyard is a typical representative of the residence of officials in the Qing Dynasty and is of great ornamental value.

Apart from the distinctive courtyards mentioned above, the rest are ordinary villagers’ houses. Most of these ancient houses are not restricted by the rules and regulations of the courtyard. They are often built according to the terrain, and the shapes are "weird" when viewed from a bird's eye view. However, the advantage is that they use local materials and give them an antique feel.

The temple can be said to be the gate of this village, because the temple is close to the road that "connects every village". Many gods and goddesses have been worshiped in this temple, and the statues of the Dragon King, Tree King, and Insect King are still preserved.

In ancient times, because some villagers saw the "Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady" appearing near the Dahanling Mountains, they called that peak the "Goddess Peak", and the temple in the village also worshiped the "Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady". However, with the popularity of Taoism in Yongle of the Ming Dynasty, the temples were converted to the Taoist "Three Purities".

In the Qing Dynasty, the Yellow Sect began to rise, and the villagers moved out of the "Sanqing" and worshiped the Three Kings in the temples, namely the Dragon King, the Insect King and the Tree King. Worship the Dragon King to pray for good weather, worship the Insect King to keep pests away, and worship the Tree King to worship the gods transformed from the two ancient pines in the village to protect everything going well.

In addition to the temple, there is a stage and a chastity archway in the village, which are also of certain tourist value. In ancient times, inviting opera troupes into villages to sing operas and villagers spontaneously singing operas were the main local leisure and entertainment activities. The stage can be said to be the center of local entertainment life.

This chastity archway also has a small history. It was inscribed by Feng Guozhang, the president in the early years of the Republic of China. Patriot Yang Wenbo lost his father in his early years, and Yang's mother raised him alone. As an adult, Yang Wenbo actively participated in Dr. Sun Yat-sen's democratic revolutionary cause and became famous far and wide.

The local squire admired the moral integrity of Yang's mother Li, and jointly requested the then "President" Feng Guozhang to inscribe a chastity memorial for Li in recognition of her many years of dedication. Feng Guozhang, who was a Beiyang warlord, deeply believed in this, so in the seventh year of the Republic of China, he inscribed a plaque "Jieli Songyun" for Yang's mother.

This feudal archway is certainly the dregs of feudalism and a symbol of the bondage of women. However, the artistic content of this archway building and the tenacity of Yang Mu in the background story are still worthy of study and study by future generations.

In addition to these ancient buildings, Yangjiayu Village also retains good examples of rural success. In ancient times, in order to promote righteousness and praise the virtuous, the central government would post "good news" in the hometowns of the commended individuals, so that the individuals concerned would "return to their hometowns in glory."

At present, Yangjiayu Village retains the good news of the promotion of Yang Maofa's great-great-grandson Yang Chengkuan during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty. These good news and the ancient buildings throughout the village clearly and detailedly show us the style of life in northern mountain villages during the Ming, Qing and Republic of China periods.

As the saying goes, "Success is a failure, failure is a failure." Although the continuous mountains have protected Yangjiayu Village from wind and rain for thousands of years, the rich products and ancient relics can be passed down. But in the new era, the barrier of mountains has become a shackles restricting the development of Yangjiayu Village.

Inconvenient transportation has always been a constraint on the development of mountain villages in old areas. Even though Yangjiayu Village has famous red apricots and beautiful scenery, the treasures cannot be transported out and outsiders cannot come in.

Countless treasures can only wait quietly among the mountains.

The villagers of Yangjiayu can only sit dryly on the Jinshan Mountain and endure the days of poverty. In order to survive, the villagers moved away one by one. The loss of population and strong labor force, in turn, exacerbates poverty in mountain villages, forming a vicious cycle.

Fortunately, after 1978, New China’s national strength gradually recovered, and its engineering technology improved year by year. Only then was the first carriage road to the village finally built for the villagers of Yangjiayu. This carriage road will undoubtedly put the development of Yangjiayu Village on the fast track.

Thanks to the economic policy of reform and opening up and regional resources, Yangjiayu Village took advantage of the rich underground coal resources and the famous red apricots from Beijing and Tianjin to open the village coal kiln and "Yangjiayu Red Apricot" in 1984 and 1991 respectively. Apricot base", earning a lot of economic benefits for the village.

After twenty years of development since reform and opening up, the capital has become the center of northern development. Beijing is becoming increasingly attractive to people in surrounding areas. Even though the villagers of Yangjiayu Village are living a prosperous life due to the coal mines and red apricot base, they still find it difficult to resist the strong attraction of the heart of the country.

Seeing that the village is sparsely populated, the once bustling courtyard houses are gradually deserted. At its worst, there were only 20 elderly people living in the village. Old people all know that no matter how dilapidated a mud house is, as long as there are people living in it and taking care of it, it will probably still stand upright. But a new house that has been vacant for a long time will gradually fall into decay.

With the continuous loss of population in Yangjiayu Village, more and more ancient buildings with thousands of years of history are being destroyed due to lack of maintenance and repairs. This will be a major loss of historical protection and cultural property. Therefore, we must reverse this adverse situation as soon as possible.

If you want Yangjiayu Village to regain its glory, you can only bring back the people who moved there or introduce commercial institutions to repair it. Yangjiayu Village is located within the capital area, so it is simply unrealistic to compete with Beijing for people. To protect this thousand-year-old village, the only way is to introduce commercial capital to develop new industries.

After entering the new century, the country gradually encourages various regions to develop cultural industries. Riding on this trend, the Mentougou District Government vigorously promotes the transformation of Yangjiayu Village into a tourist and cultural sightseeing spot.

In September 2005, the Mentougou District Government announced that Yangjiayu Village would be designated as a district-level cultural relic protection unit. In the same year, the Zhaitang Town Government reached an agreement with Zhongkun Group to jointly develop the "Yangjiayu Ancient Village" tourism project.

In the development plan of the ancient village, the local government and Zhongkun Group will relocate the original residents by providing cash compensation or setting up compensation houses in Zhaitang Town. Zhongkun Group also dispatched construction teams to repair old buildings and roads to provide convenience for sightseeing groups and tourists.

Although the courtyard houses in Yangjiayu Village are no longer inhabited, the village has received a different kind of new life. Now, the tourist route starting from Yangjiayu Village and walking to the Great Cold Mountains Guancheng and Pilu Temple ruins has become a popular route for "travel friends" planning a trip to the west of Beijing.

The "rebirth" of Yangjiayu Village undoubtedly provides a new path for healthy development for many ancient villages in China that have a long history but limited development. We look forward to the emergence of more “Yangjiayu Villages” so that the public can appreciate the long history and magnificent scenery of the motherland! < /p>

"Millennium Ancient Village Yangjiayu" was published by Zhang Wanshun in 2006