Zheng Yi, an old man, was at home in the depths of an alley
When he entered Dongsi Ertiao in Beijing, he stepped into silence from the noise. Neat gray bricks set the tone of hutong, and lush trees and ancient courtyards added a touch of bright color to it. All the way to the end, it is the home of Zheng Yi, the former director of Beijing Bell and Drum Tower Cultural Relics Preservation Institute. According to records, six or seven hundred years ago, there were established standards for the width of streets, small streets and hutongs in the Dadu block of Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the city was divided into "checkerboard" blocks with basically the same area, and its regular shape was praised as "the Pearl of the East" by visiting Italian traveler Kyle Poirot. Dongsi Ertiao appeared at that time and was originally called "Ertiao Hutong". After 1949, it was named because it belonged to the hutongs on the east side of Dongsi North Street and ranked second.
For decades, in the interaction with Beijing, Zheng Yi has excavated and recorded many traces left by the torrent of time.
Place names can also be "plump"
In August, Beijing was in the heat, but Zheng Yi's home was less hot and dry. At his desk, he focused on the information of hutong place names in front of him.
At first, Zheng Yi glanced through the information and found that the existing information was too brief. "Because Beijing is characterized by hutongs. Part of place names come from the government, and part of them are established by common people, which are mostly related to local folk customs and environment. Simply introducing the length, width and year of hutong can't support the historical connotation. " So he decided to write a new document.
The book Memories of Dongsi Historical and Cultural Blocks written by Zheng Lao and the signs he made in the book
The round table in the room has once again become Zheng Yi's work position. He has the information collected over the years at hand, and he looks through books to find out where he is uncertain. "I found that when recording the name of an alley, the original data quoted ancient map information as a voucher many times. At that time, technical conditions were limited, and sometimes map information was inaccurate. " Because he has personally experienced the changes in hutong, he can quickly find some mistakes in details, such as the inaccuracy of the date of demolition, the length and width, and the starting and ending places.
Zheng Lao received a thank-you plaque from Dongsi Sub-district Office
He wrote down the origin and changes of the names of hutongs and the stories of important residents in hutongs word by word according to the historical context.
Dongsi block was built in the Yuan Dynasty, and it is called "Cross Street", which is located on the east side of the ancient capital, the Imperial City. From the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, to the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, there were countless celebrities who lived here, such as General Fu Kangan, Duan Qirui, Mao Dun and Ye Shengtao ... In Zheng Yi's pen, the unknown side of the alley, such as street names, changes and celebrity anecdotes, gradually became clear. "If you don't make the history of hutong clear, the place names will become rigid. Tell the story clearly, show the heavy sense of culture, and the place name will be' live' and fuller. " Zheng Yi said.
In order to make place names "alive", Zheng Yi has also made a lot of efforts in tracing the source.
Many hutongs in Dongsi region appeared in the Yuan Dynasty, which was far away from modern times, and the relevant documents have long been lost. In addition, some courtyards in hutong are named after "Hao", and these house numbers are often very different from the locations and sources recorded in previous data, so it is difficult to determine the origin of place names.
For example, the former No.12 Dongsi Santiao, and now No.35, is the Chejun Palace in Mongolia, with a history of 27 years. Zheng Yi pushed forward step by step from No.35 and found the source of its name. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the last prince who lived in this mansion was called Chelin Babu, the 29th grandson of Genghis Khan, the ancestor of Yuan Dynasty, and this courtyard was named Chejun Wangfu.
The courtyard belongs to Sijin Courtyard, which spans two hutongs. The door of the last courtyard opens in Dongsi Sitiao, which is quite large. It was confiscated after the liberation of Beiping; In 1952, it became the office space of the Central Bureau of Foreign Cultural Liaison; In 1954, Premier Zhou Enlai met with Vietnamese leader Fan Wentong and members of the delegation in the main living room and signed the Sino-Vietnamese Friendship and Cultural Exchange Agreement. Nowadays, even if it has become a residential area, its historical traces can be seen from the doorpiers, doorpins and steps.
Zheng Yi rewrites the place name information and submits it to the sub-district office. "The significance of protecting traditional place names this time is great." Zheng Yi said, "Place names are no longer simple names. From the perspective of protecting hutongs, the combination of physical objects and history can also better present Beijing's traditional culture.
After decades of accumulation
Zheng Yi's participation in this work is inseparable from his years of experience in studying hutongs and streets in Dongcheng District. In the 198s, he served as the vice principal of Gulou Middle School. In 1983, the school set up a "cultural relics class" to teach cultural relics-related knowledge and train middle-level technicians for the Forbidden City and Beijing History Museum. Therefore, he came into contact with many cultural relics experts from the Forbidden City, became interested in history for the first time, and learned some knowledge through books.
In the same year, the Beijing Municipal Government decided to repair the Bell and Drum Tower and turn it into a tourist attraction at the northern end of Beijing's central axis, which was the first repair of the Bell and Drum Tower after the founding of New China. Because of his previous experience in studying engineering, agriculture and contacting cultural relics, Zheng Yi was transferred to the Bell and Drum Tower Repair Office as the deputy director, responsible for the supervision of the repair site.
At the beginning of January, 1984, the Drum Tower began to be repaired. You need to climb 69 steps to climb the Drum Tower. The first step is twice as high and steep as the ordinary steps. At that time, Bai Jiefu, vice mayor of Beijing Municipal Government in charge of the Drum Tower renovation project, often visited the site of the Drum Tower. Once, he suggested building an elevator to solve the problem of old people climbing stairs. Zheng Yi, after consulting with experts, thinks that if the elevator is built inside, it will affect the original wood structure, and if it is installed outside, it will destroy the overall landscape. But in order to receive tourists in the future, it has to be repaired.
Zheng Yi pondered this and was very impatient. One day, he was going to climb the second floor of the Drum Tower to check the repair progress, and suddenly he found a big round hole blocked by mud in the middle of the white marble steps. He quickly found an iron nail, which was found to be a round eye after being buckled. He looked up and saw the same round hole every other step. He immediately thought that after the Drum Tower was renamed as "Ming Shame Building" in 1925, the Photo Exhibition of Eight-Nation Alliance's Crime of Aggression against China was displayed on the second floor, which was left by adding handrails for the safety of visitors going upstairs and downstairs. The problem has been solved. He communicated with technicians and finally rebuilt the handrail.
Zheng Yi always thinks about the use after the renovation, and realizes that his knowledge reserve is far from enough. "I have to consider how to develop and use it, and I have to constantly add relevant knowledge." The first is the knowledge of ancient buildings. "Sometimes I have to write a report in technical terms, and I have to make it clear where columns, beams, corner clouds ..." In addition, the history of the Bell and Drum Tower is the most important. "It doesn't open as early as the Forbidden City, its historical context is not clear enough, and there is no unified and complete information. Most people only know that it plays a role in reporting time."
At that time, the Internet was not popular. In order to understand the history of the Bell and Drum Tower, Zheng Yi needed to go to the library and archives to search for ancient books and put them under the historical background of Beijing, so he accumulated a lot of knowledge about the evolution of hutongs and streets. In addition to his daily work, he spent nearly 2 years collecting and sorting out information, and published the book Bell and Drum Tower in 29. Years of experience in field work and the accumulation of books have also laid a solid foundation for him to study the history of hutongs in Dongcheng District in the future.
Searching for history through the streets
In 1985, the Bell and Drum Tower Cultural Relics Preservation Institute was established, with Zheng Yi as its director. Since then, he has been responsible for the protection of cultural relics in the Bell and Drum Tower for many years. After retirement, the local chronicles project in Dongcheng District started. He was transferred to the Cultural Relics Bureau at that time and was responsible for compiling the relevant contents of historical relics in Dongcheng District in Dongcheng District Local Records Office. Besides, he has more time to walk in hutongs. Dongsi is not only a residence for him, but also an excellent place to explore historical and cultural charm.
Zheng Yi is in Dongsi Hutong Museum
In walking through the streets, he found that many hutongs have special names. There are not many hutongs in Beijing named after "Li", but there is a place name called "Li" in Dongcheng District-Dehuali. Curious about this, Zheng Yi went here to look for old traces, and looked through many maps, classics and street directories of Beijing, and found the reason.
In April 1937, Zhao Ruichen, who lived at No.3 Dongsi Liutiao, built ten new bungalows and opened up a new hutong. This alley connects DongSiLiuTiao in the south and DongSiQiTiao in the north. He named it "Dehuali". In the Republic of China, "Li" was synonymous with high-grade housing. In the future, naming streets and lanes after this will also become a way of praying, such as Ping 'anli and Jing 'anli.
Zheng Yi has been tracing the history of hutong by "asking what comes next". When he found uncertain places, he made field trips, asked friends and visited experts. After years of visits and textual research, he compiled the book "Memory of Dongsi Historical and Cultural Blocks", which was published in 219. The contents of the book cover everything from the historical evolution of hutong and the evolution of place names to cultural relics and folk customs. Now, when I open the book on his desk, I can still see the detailed explanation and marks he made in it with a pen.
Zheng Yi, an old man, was born in 1939. He used to be the vice president of Gulou Middle School and the director of Beijing Bell and Drum Tower Cultural Relics Preservation Center, and compiled books such as Bell and Drum Tower and Memory of Dongsi Historical and Cultural Blocks. In 221, he provided relevant information for the compilation of the List of Traditional Geographical Names Protection in the Functional Core Area of the Capital.