The history and culture of Huancuiyu Scenic Area

The Eighth Route Army Rear Area Hospital is the main embodiment of the red culture in Huancuiyu.

General Pi Dingjun made outstanding contributions in the Anti-Japanese War. After the victory of the war, he was awarded the rank of major general. He felt dissatisfied and muttered in a low voice, which was heard by Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao said, "Pi has merit." ", he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general", which became a good story for a time.

During the Anti-Japanese War, Miaozi Township belonged to the Anti-Japanese Base Area in Western Henan. In April 1944, Commander Pi Dingjun and Political Commissar Xu Zirong led the Anti-Japanese Advance Team of the Eighth Route Army in Western Henan to come here and started a fierce battle with the enemy. fought and eventually won, but many brave warriors were injured in the battle. At that time, the medical conditions were very difficult, so a temporary anti-Japanese rear hospital was built here. A big tree was used as a cover, and three cave dwellings were built under the big tree. At that time, these three cave dwellings housed mildly and seriously injured patients and hospital medical staff respectively. Many heroes who shed blood and were injured for the country were treated here. Commander Pi Dingjun visited the ward many times to express his condolences. Countless heroes have come here, and countless heroes have walked out from here, fighting in the north and south, until the whole country won victory.

This very tenacious ancient tree on the roof of the cave dwelling is called the ancient post tree. It is also one of the rare tree species in the Central Plains. There is a record in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" that the urinary trees grow luxuriantly in the Cuiyu valley around Fuxi Mountain and the wood of the urinary trees is hard. In ancient times, they were mainly used to make wheels. Today, there are very few ancient pillar trees in the world, but there are more than 30 in Huancuiyu. The oldest ones are the Nanyu ancient pillar and Wangzhuang ancient pillar, which are 20,000 years old.

This ancient tree has gone through several vicissitudes here and is still majestic and luxuriant. In particular, its crown is like an umbrella covering the entire courtyard. It played a huge role during the Anti-Japanese War and protected batch after batch of wounded people from danger. Therefore, this tree is also called the "Hero Tree", symbolizing its wit, bravery and tenacious vitality. "Historical Records" records: "The daughter of the Yellow Emperor who lived in the hills of Xuanyuan and married in Xiling was Leizu. Leizu was the Yellow Emperor's true concubine." Myths and legends describe her as the creator of methods of raising silkworms and curing silk.

The Leizu Cultural Garden is 371.2 meters above sea level. It is said that Leizu gave birth and lived here in the early days of mankind. Sangziyu is the hometown of the ancestors of mankind, and because of this, there are the Grandma Temple, Yaochi, Fangjiling, and Jixian. Leizu Cultural Garden is named after Tai and Gunmo Rivers.

The Lei Zu Temple covers an area of ??900 square meters. According to the "Sishui County Chronicle", it was originally Ziyun Palace, and later changed to the Notre Dame Shrine and Leizu Temple. The year of its construction is unknown and it has been rebuilt many times. There are inscriptions that the tablets were rebuilt during the Kangxi, Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns. The upper hall faces south and is 28 meters long from north to south and 18 meters wide from east to west. There are 8 temples built, with Lei Hall on top and east and west wing rooms. Wenchang Pavilion was built in front of the temple. It was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and only one ancient cypress remained. There is a mountain ridge in the north of Wolongtai tourist area, which was called "Fangji Ridge" in ancient times. Later it was called "Fangji Ridge". That is the commemorative name of the mountain left by the ancestor "Fu Xi" and his sister "Nv Frog" who discovered the "Celestial Silkworm" cocoon in the mulberry forest. They twisted the silk on this mountain and invented the "Net Silkworm". Related ones are "Jifang Terrace" and "Spider Cave". "Jifang Terrace" is the hilltop at the north end of the ridge; "Spider Cave" is the enlightenment place where "Fu Xi" and "Female Frog" discovered the large spider web and were inspired by it to create the "Web Silk". Spider Cave is located near today's "Fuxi Mountain Huancuiyu" imitation of the cliff-carved stones.

Cocoons and Silk

One day, Nuwa was eating mulberries in the mulberry forest and saw a cocoon knotted among the grass. She didn’t know what it was. She picked one out of curiosity and squeezed it with her hands. It felt soft and there seemed to be something inside. She wanted to open it and take a look, but she couldn't do it even with a lot of force. She pinched and tore it with her nails again. This tear was not done tightly, and a thin piece of material was torn off, which became longer and longer. She pulled this thing with both hands and it was so strong! She twisted several pairs of it into long strings. I picked some more cocoons and tied them together one by one with the string to form a string. Then I tied the two rope ends together and put them around my neck. She felt very excited and jumped up and down to find Fuxi. Fuxi felt very strange when he saw the string of things hanging around Nuwa's neck. He looked at it carefully. Nuwa was playing around and asked Fuxi to give the string of things a name. Fuxi asked in detail about the origins of the things and asked Nuwa to try making them again.

After Nuwa finished, Fuxi thought for a while and said: "This round and long thing has things inside it, and there is space between things. It can be called 'space'. This long and slender thing can be called 'space'." Objects obtained by tearing can be called 'tearing'." From then on, the names of "Jian" and "Tear" were passed down. However, the cocoon and silk characters we write today were created by later generations, and they also contain the understanding and creation of later generations. There were many mulberry trees in Fuxi Mountain in ancient times. Although there are not many mulberry trees today due to various reasons, there are still place names related to mulberry trees, such as "Sangziyu" and "Mulberry Bend".

Spider Cave and Jifan Terrace

Entering Huancuiyu (200 meters) from Longbo, there is a cliff on the left side of the road. There is a cave called Spider hidden in the dense woods under the cliff. Hole. Three miles southwest of the cave, there is a mountain ridge called Fangji Ridge. At the north end of the ridge is a stone platform, which is called Jifan Platform in the world. The origins of the names of the cave, ridge and platform are all related to the ancestors Fuxi and Nuwa.

Fuxi threw stones at the bird, and the bird fell down and fled. Nuwa chased her down the cliff, and the bird flew into the cave. Nuwa took a closer look and was stunned. Why was Nuwa frightened? It turns out that there is a thousand-year-old spider living in the cave. It has built a large web in the cave, dividing the large cave into two parts, the inner and outer sections. The mesh is originally transparent and difficult to detect when looking from the outside in. The bird just jumped into the hole, hit the net and was tied up. It couldn't escape because of the flutter. The spider hiding in the dark corner jumped up and pounced on the bird. The spider's body is as big as a sieve, and its legs are as wide as a grinding plate! Fuxi had also arrived at this time. When he saw the spider snatching his prey, he picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the spider. The spider was hit by a stone, and grinned with its chipped teeth in pain. It stared at Fuxi, knowing that it was not his opponent, and hurriedly ran away and got into a small hole in the big hole. Fuxi walked into the hole, grabbed the bird and pulled it off the net. He looked at the net again and again before walking out of the hole. He thought how powerful this spider was, how could it spin silk at any time, and then use the silk to form these holes for hunting, and those who touched it would die! Fuxi thought of Nuwa's discovery of cocoons and silk a few days ago. He figured that if he accumulated more cocoons and drew more silk, and used silk threads to build a net for catching birds and rabbits, it would definitely be better than throwing stones at birds and chasing them away from the mountains. Rabbits save more effort, and you might even be able to catch fish with them. Fuxi told Nuwa his idea, and Nuwa was very happy. So they went to the mulberry forest to pick cocoons and sat on a stone platform on the mountain to draw and twist the thread. Twisting thread by hand is a laborious and inefficient task.

One day, Nuwa saw a caterpillar falling from a branch. It was hanging in the air without falling. It was hanging there and spinning around. She felt strange. When she got closer, she saw that it was a caterpillar. Silk hanging. She looked and looked, and suddenly an idea came to her, and she invented a twisting method that saved both labor and time. She tied a few thread ends to a small stone and let them hang down. She turned the stone and used the inertia of its rotation to twist the threads. She called this method "spinning". The spun thread is even and smooth. Fuxi and Nuwa worked continuously for more than ten days and spun a pile of silk thread. They used the silk thread to form the world's first net for catching birds, rabbits and fish.

Thousands of years later, Leizu, China’s second female scientist, was born in Sangziyu, where she pioneered the technology of artificially raising silkworms. She still went to the place where Fuxi and Nuwa accumulated cocoons to spin thread, and created the technology of weaving silk for people's clothes. Later he was revered as the originator of sericulture and revered as a god. There is still the "Cangu Grandma Temple" in Huancuiyu. "Spider Cave", "Jifang Terrace" and "Fangji Ridge" are not only the hometowns of Fuxi and Nuwa, but also the hometown of Lei Zu.