Memory of Lion Dam

Shiziba is a typical small mountain village in the mountains of Qinling Mountains. Its special geographical environment creates an elegant environment and simple atmosphere. The people living here inherit the simplicity, kindness and enthusiasm of their ancestors; time flies, The four seasons reincarnate, and the footsteps of spring arrive as promised. Smelling the fragrance of flowers and plants, listening to the singing of birds, suddenly brought my mind to Shiziba on the other side of the mountain. People living there also enjoy the gifts of nature. Facing the breath of life that metropolitan people yearn for but cannot feel, their minds constantly salvage people and events from the past, and they also witness the changes of the times in rural China.

The activated memory seems to have returned to a village experience two years ago. Shiziba Village has a radius of more than ten miles and has 88 households. It governs four villager groups and is distributed in an area of ??17 square meters. In a narrow area of ??1,000 meters on both sides of a river and two ditches, what he means is that the population is small. The whole village has only more than 200 people, but the area is large. This is in sharp contrast to the narrow land and dense population in Pingchuan rural areas, especially in It is not an exaggeration to say that he is located in a corner of the county seat. It is better to say that he is hidden in a corner of the county seat. If you turn on your mobile phone and use satellite positioning, you can find the direct distance to the county seat. Less than ten kilometers, that is, just ten kilometers, has made the dreams of many generations of Shiziba people come true. Every night, the light show set up in Dongshan Park always flickers in and out of Shiziba, which inspires them to go out. The other side of the mountain, which is blocked by the mountains, longs for the integration of simplicity, innocence and modern civilization. On the other side of the mountains, it was not easy to visit Yuanjiazhuang, Foping County, five years ago. Starting from Shiziba, follow the Luguan River. Go down four kilometers to Yangyue Road and follow the Jinshui River for ten kilometers to enter Yangtianba in Yangxian County. Take the 108 National Highway towards Xi'an and cross Tudiling and then enter Fopingjing to reach the county seat. The total is about 60 kilometers. To get to the county seat To do something, such as taking a bus, it takes two hours one way. As the common people say: "Going to the county town will delay a day's work." But it takes less than half an hour to go to Yangtianba in Yangxian County, so there are ordinary people Complaining about the saying that "it is easy to leave the county but difficult to get to the county"; opportunities always give people hope and desire, and the fight against poverty is further expanded. A shortcut is clearly available. Starting from the county seat, borrow National Highway 108 and go south for ten kilometers to the west. From Chahe Yahuo, enter Pengjiagou, cross Jinjiaping, cross Changgouliang, and go down to Longtan. Then follow the Luguan River and go down four kilometers (Xilu Road) to arrive. Although I dare not mark the straight-line distance of ten kilometers, it is relatively The detour into Daoyang County saves half the distance and time, which is very convenient. From then on, the villagers of Shiziba no longer lamented across the mountains. The opening of the new road affected their production and life and changed the appearance of the small mountain village.

The origin of Shizi Dam is that generally speaking, the naming of a region has a certain connection with local human geography or a specific historical event. It is one of the few local administrative villages to be directly named after a certain animal. The land has nothing to do with lion entities, landforms, or human history. The reason why this area is called Lion Dam is due to a folk legend. According to legend, in winter and spring, villagers' crops are always eaten in pieces by unknown creatures for no apparent reason. After stepping closer and observing carefully, there were hoof prints of some kind of large animal that people had never seen before in the field. Later, the villagers spontaneously organized young and strong laborers to take turns to watch and observe. Sure enough, the two stone lions erected at the head of the village turned into animals at night. The real body came alive and walked to the field and started eating wheat seedlings. It turned out that the stone lion had become a spirit. The news spread in the village, so Mr. Yin Yang was invited to send a stonemason to cut the original big stone lion into a small stone lion town that was only half the original size. The Lion Spirit lived here, and the weather here has been smooth since then, and crops have been harvested year after year. The last name was Lion Dam, which is still used today. It is just a legend. There is no doubt that the truth of the matter does not exist, and there is no historical research. I think this is just the villagers yearning for a better life and praying for God's protection. It was just a kind of spiritual sustenance. In order to fulfill the wishes of the villagers, the Foping Court, the support unit, later spent money to build a pair of stone lions and erected them at the entrance of the village and became the landmark of the village.

As the buffer zone of the Giant Panda National Park, Shiziba Village has rich vegetation, a warm climate, and species diversity. In the era of shoulder-to-shoulder and horse-packing, this was definitely a place where families could live and thrive. As a result, people who fled from the surrounding areas of the county and outside the province many years ago and who were forced to make a living due to the war settled here and took root, gradually forming today's administrative system with surnames such as Dai, Zhu, and Wang as the main body. This village has the most stories passed down by word of mouth, especially about the surname Dai. I heard from an old man that in the late Qing Dynasty, a man named Dai traveled thousands of miles from his hometown in Anhui to avoid famine. I saw that the environment here is leisurely, the feng shui is good, and the soil along the river is fertile and very suitable for farming. , so he settled here. Dai was honest and modest in his treatment of others, he was also diligent and thrifty, and had a flexible mind. He accepted and hired people who had fled here from other places and treated them like guests. Over time, he became a famous and wealthy local. In his heyday The rent collected alone amounted to more than a thousand stones per year, and he built three courtyards, one of which remains to this day. Dai was not only good at business but also well-managed. He educated his children very strictly, and most of them were sent to the provincial capital Xi'an to study abroad. He also taught by words and deeds that farming and reading were passed down as a family motto, and he had someone write it on the square hall to show to future generations (it is still clearly visible to this day). He had an awe-inspiring sense of justice. It is said that banditry was rampant in those days and the surrounding villages were often harmed by it, so he He purchased arms at his own expense and armed his servants to participate in the court's suppression of bandits. Later, he was rewarded by the court for his success in suppressing bandits.

Shiziba is a beautiful place. When the Red Army returned from the westward expedition and fought in southern Shaanxi, they passed by or camped here many times. The slogan "The Red Army is the vanguard of anti-imperialism" was written on Daijiayuan. On the wall (with traces still left), the villagers who faced the Red Army soldiers who were short of food and clothing gave the only remaining food in their homes to satisfy the soldiers' hunger. It is said that the Red Army left a shoulder pole as a gift to Zhang as a souvenir when they left. The beauty of Shishiba lies in the villagers' broad-mindedness and lofty ideological consciousness, which allowed the Red Army to pass by or stop here safely many times without being discovered by the enemy. Their ancestors migrated with their families and chose this land to establish a foothold here. Its beauty Because of its magnanimity and selflessness, it accepted them and tolerated everything about them, making their next generation become today's neighbors or their relatives due to marriage between men and women. At the same time, it cultivated their simplicity, kindness, diligence and wisdom.

Author: Ma Liang (Foping Court)

Editor: Zheng Lipo

Chief Editor: Yao Qiming