China News Service, Jinhua, November 8 (Lan Yini, Yu Ping, Song Jiemei) Recently, "Chinese Fish Scale Atlas (1581-1934)" was selected into the "Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Register", becoming the first archival document in Zhejiang Province to be selected into the list. News came that this ancient cadastral file, which was created hundreds of years ago and was used to register land, once again came into public view.
Siping Ancient Village. Photo courtesy of Jinhua Development Zone
At this time, researchers used the relatively complete fish scale atlas of Tangxi "Sipingzhuang" (today's Siping Village, Tangxi Town, Jinhua Development Zone) in the Qing Dynasty to uncover the "wealth code" of this famous Chinese historical and cultural village famous for its brick carvings for more than 700 years.
Siping Village is a kinship village formed by the Dai clan since the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. The village preserves 24 ancient buildings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, including Baishun Hall, Dunmutang Hall, and Chonghou Hall. The exquisite brick carvings are all over the gate tower, lintels, and window frames. It is known as "the most beautiful brick-carved residential house in China." However, researchers looked through the "Genealogy of the Dai Family in Xidong" and found that not many people from the Dai family entered officialdom through the imperial examination. Without the support of high-ranking officials and salaries, what financial resources did the villagers rely on to build so many magnificent halls? The most familiar version passed down from generation to generation is the story of Yin Niang entering the palace to seek eight years of tax-free grace for her hometown. It wasn't until the volumes of yellowed fish scale atlases were reorganized and researched that a more complete past was pieced together.
Li Yimin, deputy dean of the School of Humanities of Zhejiang Normal University, led a research team to map and splice the scattered plot information recorded in the fish scale book to complete the "Si Pingzhuang" fish scale master map. They compared and verified each one in the order of creation, accurately matched the historical geographical information with modern satellite images, and restored the spatial distribution map of the village's native names more than 100 years ago. After the research team marked the densely packed local names on the booklet on the satellite map, a passage passing through the village and extending southward to Nanshan was highlighted.
According to Hu Arong, the ancient building protection consultant of Siping Village, this was an official road in the Ming Dynasty, which is today's Baishun Road. There was also a section of the land official road "Tongqu Avenue" in the village, and the land and water roads finally intersected at Shiliudaoyuan. Shiliudaoyuan has thus become the commercial exchange center of Siping, with inns, wine shops, butcher shops, and Nanhuo stores all close together. Among them, the red-stamped steamed buns of Xinglong Millet Shop are the most famous.
A total of 541.01 acres of mountain forests are registered in "Sipingzhuang" in the Fish Scale Atlas, accounting for only 6.6% of the total acres. Li Yimin explained that the recorded acres are the taxable area rather than the physical area, and the actual forest area should be more than this.
According to the information collected by Hu Arong, the Dai clan managed the forest industry in a prosperous manner. Making yellow paper, dealing in southern goods, and practicing medicine and selling medicine became the three major industries in the village at that time. At that time, there were 36 paper troughs in Siping Village specializing in the production of yellow paper. The largest one had more than 100 machetes cutting young bamboo on the mountain at the same time. During the same period, Siping people also opened Nanhuo stores and pharmacies to Hangzhou, Suzhou and other places. The location of the Village Party and Mass Service Center was originally the Tutaku Hall, which was built in the late Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty. It was a warehouse for storing goods and valuables. "Generally, there are very few earth warehouses in rural areas. Only big businessmen can afford to build earth warehouse halls." Hu Arong said. Several businesses including papermaking, southern goods, and medicinal materials were run together. The steady flow of business income was later turned into lumber for building houses and brick carvings on the gatehouse.
The fish scale atlas is no longer a tax collection book in the old days. The "Sipingzhuang" fish scale master map formed after GIS (geographic information system) technology processing provides a reliable historical basis for the protection of the ancient village. The album does not directly describe the carriages and horses on the official road, the sound of water in the paper trough, or the hustle and bustle in the shops, but it stabilizes the geographical coordinates of the story.
"Siping's past glory was protected by grace, and it also had a solid foundation of prosperity based on roads, mountains, and business. This history that grew from the soil will become the only foundation for Siping Village to take the road of cultural tourism revitalization in the future." Dai Yongbin, secretary of the Party branch of Siping Village, already has a clear plan in mind. The village plans to build a fish scale album exhibition hall to tell tourists the stories behind each local name. It will also rely on the results of the Zhejiang Normal University research group to design a cultural tour route that follows the order of the fish scale album exploration, so that tourists can understand the different "wealth codes" of Siping while tracing back time. (over)
