One morning in 1938, the Qiao family’s clerk got up early as usual to clean the courtyard.
As soon as he opened the door to the yard, he saw a Japanese army troop rushing towards Qiao's house from a distance.
The waiter was shocked and quickly ran to Master Qiao’s courtyard to make an announcement. Master Qiao waved and said to the waiter: “Quick! Go and hang that thing on the gate!”
Qiao’s courtyard is located Qiaojiabao Village, Qi County, Shanxi Province, was founded in 1756. It is a national second-level museum in my country and a national key cultural relics protection unit.
It has profound historical origins, is a building with great practical significance and inheritance value, and is also an unparalleled art treasure house.
The design style of the Qiao Family Courtyard is very unique and has high artistic appreciation value. The origin of its architectural style is also closely related to the current social status and regional customs at that time.
Those who have visited it can see that the Qiao Family Courtyard is a very large independent courtyard that is not adjacent to other residents.
The gate is also an independent arched doorway. The plaque on the gate is inscribed with the four characters Qiao Family Courtyard. The gate is tall and towering, and it is magnificent.
Another outstanding feature of the Qiao Family Courtyard is that the walls are high and thick, but the windows are small;
the walls and the top floor are exquisitely and ingeniously designed, which has extremely high appreciation value and is a precious folk art treasure.
In addition, the alley in Qiao Family Courtyard is very deep, and walking from the entrance to the end of the alley will give people a sense of closure.
The Origin of Qiao Family Courtyard
In fact, all architectural styles were affected by the current social situation at that time. Of course, the current Qiao Family Courtyard has also developed from its initial prototype.
Speaking of the first generation owner of the Qiao Family Courtyard, many people don’t know that his name was Qiao Guifa.
Qiao Guifa's identity is exactly the opposite of his name. He was the most inconspicuous poor person in Qiaojiabao Village during the Kangxi period.
He lost his parents due to poverty when he was young, and became a lonely orphan. The young Qiao Guifa ate a lot of food from hundreds of families, but he grew up peacefully.
When he grew up, Qiao Guifa no longer received support from his fellow villagers and decided to find a way to make a living on his own, so he left with his fellow villagers who were making a living in Inner Mongolia.
When he arrived in Inner Mongolia, a fellow villager introduced him to a pawn shop and asked him to work as a clerk here.
Qiao Guifa quickly agreed without even thinking about it, and worked diligently in the pawn shop.
Because Qiao Guifa was young and had never seen the world, he had to endure hardships at first. But fortunately, the boss was a generous man and never disliked him.
Just like that, Qiao Guifa met a lot of people and saw a lot of objects during his several years in the pawn shop. It was considered that he broadened his horizons and learned a lot about how to deal with people.
The most important thing is that Qiao Guifa is alone, has no worries, and has actually saved a small amount of money in the past few years.
At this point, Qiao Guifa thought about using the money to do other things, so he took care of the pawnshop's work, said goodbye to the boss, and left the pawnshop.
After leaving the pawn shop, Qiao Guifa was not idle. He found another fellow villager, and the two opened a tofu shop together, and their lives gradually became better.
Unexpectedly, within a few years, there would be a severe drought for a whole year. The grain harvest in the entire northern region was miserable, and the price of grain doubled.
Coincidentally, running a tofu shop requires stocking up in advance, and Qiao Guifa happened to have a large amount of ready-made soybeans in hand.
Without too much hesitation, Qiao Guifa and his fellow villagers reached an agreement and sold the batch of soybeans at a high price, and the two of them made a lot of money.
With this money in his hands, Qiao Guifa couldn't bear to be mediocre. He bought another store, this time the store was much larger than before.
Qiao Guifa had a business acumen and wanted to become bigger and stronger, so he started various businesses covering a wide range of fields.
In addition to business related to food, clothing, housing and transportation, after accumulating more wealth, Qiao Guifa also started a "financial" business, entered the banking industry, and established the Dade Pass No. .
Since then, Qiao Guifa's industry has grown bigger and bigger, and his fortune has gradually reversed.
Many years later, Qiao Guifa returned to his hometown to repay the village where he had been raised for many years. A poor boy who could not afford to eat returned from being away for many years and turned into a wealthy businessman.
After Qiao Guifa returned to his hometown, he was introduced to his wife. Although she was a widow, she was hardworking and capable. Qiao Guifa didn't come from a good background either, so he didn't say anything.
After that, he bought land and built a courtyard in his hometown, which was the original appearance of the Qiao family courtyard.
The development of the Qiao Family Courtyard
Qiao Guifa and his wife continue to do business. His wife also gave birth to three children, and the family is harmonious and beautiful.
As the years went by, Qiao Guifa realized that he was getting old, so he distributed the property he had accumulated throughout his life to his three sons, and he enjoyed his old age in peace.
After the three sons grew up, they each married wives and had children, and separated their families. They held on to the property left by their father and lived a comfortable life.
But the younger son Qiao Quanmei seemed to have perfectly inherited Qiao Guifa's business acumen. He had expanded part of the family's industry long before the separation, and this matter had been discussed by the villagers.
After the family split, Qiao Quanmei became even more diligent in making money, and it didn't take long for him to make a fortune.
As a result, Qiao Quanmei bought a large piece of land in the northeast of Qiaojiapu and built a large house.
If we say that the house built by Qiao Guifa was the prototype of the Qiao Family Courtyard, then the house built by Qiao Quanmei basically established the style and tone of the Qiao Family Courtyard.
Qiao Quanmei has been full of ambitions like his father since he was young. He has had ups and downs in the business world. He knows that the world is full of unpredictable things, and he must be prepared for good and bad.
So he built a high wall and built it into a closed structure with five entrances and three courtyards.
This structure reflects that Qiao Quanmei attaches great importance to security on the one hand, and on the other hand, it also caters to his personality that he likes peace and does not want to be disturbed by foreign affairs.
Qiao Quanmei has two sons, one named Qiao Zhiguang and the other named Qiao Zhiyong. There is a lot of age difference between them.
Later, Qiao Quanmei and his wife died young, and Qiao Zhiyong was raised by his still young brother and was carefully cultivated.
But who knows, Qiao Zhiyong originally wanted to enter officialdom after taking the imperial examination, but his brother suddenly died of illness.
Qiao Zhiyong was the only heir left in the Qiao family, so he naturally took over the family business and continued doing business.
Perhaps it was because of his many years of schooling that Qiao Zhiyong’s path to wealth was also quite exciting, and he once became a “business elite” of the year.
He not only cleared the north-south tea road, but also sold Chinese tea to foreigners.
Doing business with foreigners is really a coincidence, but it can also be seen that Qiao Zhiyong is good at seizing opportunities.
One day, Qiao Zhiyong went out to eat. During the dinner, he saw a foreigner holding a cup of tea and he was full of praise. Qiao Zhiyong was originally in the tea business, and this scene aroused his interest.
There happened to be a scholar sitting there who could speak foreign languages, so he immediately asked the man to go up and communicate with the foreigner.
After the scholar came back, he said that the foreigners liked our tea very much and wanted to take some with them when they went home.
If others listen to this, they may think that even foreigners don’t necessarily have much worldliness.
But Qiao Zhiyong was a business genius, and he immediately decided to expand his tea business and sell tea to foreigners.
At that time, the court was in turmoil and the society was uneasy. The Taiping Rebellion caused unrest across the country. It may not be easy to export goods.
But after years of hard work, Qiao Zhiyong has already accumulated a lot of connections.
He first found a shop that could be contacted by foreigners and set up a tea brick workshop called Yangludong, specializing in the production of tea bricks that foreigners like.
Soon his Tea Brick Shop became the largest tea shop in the area.
Later, Qiao Zhiyong spent money to deal with government officials in order to smoothen water transportation and compete with the biggest rival at the time - Russian businessmen.
In this way, the Qiao family's business is booming and gradually reaching its peak.
Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Qiao family owned more than 200 shops and businesses across the country, with assets reaching tens of millions of taels, and was known as the "King of Bright Wealth" in Shanxi.
After Qiao Zhiyong became rich, he expanded the Qiao family courtyard to the fourth courtyard.
Since wars were raging in that era and bandits were escaping everywhere, the people of Shanxi would raise the walls when building courtyards to resist bandits.
So Qiao Zhiyong raised the wall on the original basis, making the theme of safety and closure of the Qiao family compound more profound.
In addition, he also shortened the distance between the east and west sides. The closed structure of
actually reflects the feudal idea of family unity among people of that era, and the concept of self-sufficiency and self-preservation is particularly prominent.
Later, Zhang Yimou directed Raise the Red Lantern, which was shot in the Qiao Family Courtyard.
The enclosed courtyard and decoration style also deepen the heavy and depressing emotional color of the movie.
The plaque on the gate reads "Langhuan of Blessings", which was later written by the Empress Dowager Cixi. means that this place is shrouded in blessings and is a place where gods can live.
In addition, there is a couplet on both sides of the door, which reads: "The descendants of the virtuous family will be great, and the brothers will unite the family." It comes from Li Hongzhang.
It can be seen that in the late years of the Qing Dynasty , the reputation of the Qiao family was well-known throughout the country.
Outside the courtyard, Qiao Zhiyong built another gate, which was grand and elegant in style. On the west side, he built an ancestral hall to worship the memorial tablets of his ancestors.
In times of war, the protection of homes against foreign invasion cannot be ignored.
Ordinary people will only work on the outer walls, making them taller and thicker to resist invasion.
But Qiao Zhiyong not only did this, he also built a passage on the roof to connect the four courtyards, making the connection between the courtyards more convenient.
Starting from this point, the design of the Qiao Family Courtyard is full of military style, which is very worthy of study.
Fortunately, these were not used much, but during the Anti-Japanese War, the Qiao Family Courtyard almost became a meal for the Japanese army.
Kinds of Good Causes and Good Results
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese army started fighting everywhere, burning, killing and looting, not sparing any family, and any wealth that was a little bit would be looted.
Soon, the war came to Qilian County . As the richest man in Shanxi, the Japanese army had already heard about it and led a large army to prepare to take the Qiao Family Courtyard as their own.
At that time, the head of the Qiao family had long expected this scene. When he was at a loss what to do, he thought of Meng Zexi, the priest of the local Italian Catholic Church.
It turns out that the Qiao family also has a relationship with this Catholic church.
In 11900, foreigners were excluded and the governor of Shanxi massacred local foreigners. Many churches were persecuted as a result.
Seven nuns escaped from a church in Taiyuan and fled all the way to Qiaojiabao.
When they fell into despair with no one to rescue them, the kind-hearted Qiao Zhiyong extended a helping hand and hid them to avoid pursuit. Afterwards, he gave them a lot of money and sent them away.
The master of the Qiao family sent someone to tell Meng Zexi about the incident, and sought Meng Zexi's help to avoid the plunder of the Japanese army.
After Meng Zexi heard this, he immediately took out an Italian flag and handed it to the visitor, and told him to hang the flag at the door of his home and put up a notice for peace of mind.
It turns out that Italy and Japan are allies, and the places protected by the allies are absolutely inviolable.
Sure enough, when the Japanese troops visited the Qiao family compound, they saw the Italian flag, and a notice to calm the people was posted at the door, which read:
"This is my people, you can't mess around.""
The Japanese officers immediately ordered a retreat and warned the soldiers in the team that no one should harass the Qiao family. The Qiao family also became the only "survivor" in the Japanese army's sweep.
Later, the fireworks of the war became more and more intense, and Qiao's family The family also plummeted due to the suppression of the new government's new policies.
In order to avoid the war. During the war, the Qiao family fled to other places, and some of them took the road of revolution and worked hard on the battlefield.
No one returned to live in the mansion, and the old mansion has been preserved intact until the reform. After the opening, in 1985, the local government retained the house and established it as a museum, which was opened to the public the following year.
The museum houses thousands of exhibits. In addition to the remaining parts of the old house, many local folk customs are also added. Cultural relics, rich in content and diverse in variety.
. For example, the Qiao family industry in its heyday not only involved food, clothing, housing and transportation, but also involved local customs and etiquette.
Later, some directors came to film here, so some exhibition halls related to related film and television themes were set up. spirit though joe There is no trace of where the family ended up, but this large house has preserved its history for many years. It carries the spirit of several generations, the most prominent of which is hard work and kindness. Joe After becoming wealthy, he did not choose to be comfortable, but returned to his hometown in glory and started over. Qiao Zhiyong led the Qiao family to prosperity, but he never forgot his roots and always maintained goodwill. If he had not helped the Italian nuns, many years later, the Qiao family would have been in trouble. The compound has long been destroyed by the Japanese, and we will not We can still see its majestic style. In addition to wealth, we can also see the hope of human nature, which is really valuable. Therefore, the Qiao Family Courtyard not only leaves behind a mansion and a lot of legends. The history of color and the spirit it carries are also passed down. l7 This kind of spirit is a treasure that is more important than wealth and material things. It is this spirit that has supported the Qiao family for hundreds of years. If not for the changes in the world, the Qiao family might have lived in this house for generations. Of course, these are all people's unlimited fantasies. The story of Qiao Family Courtyard tells us that on the road to chasing wealth, we must not only dare to fight hard and persevere to the end, but also always keep the down-to-earth simplicity and goodwill in our hearts. Only in this way can we go on for a long time. -End- author | Li Mingxuan editor | Ayan editor | Don't miss the little star
