"Seven mountains, half water and half fields, one road and one manor." Like other ancient towns in western Sichuan, the ancient town of Mucheng is also surrounded by mountains and waters. The mountain is called Daqi Mountain, which is called "the first mountain in Jiajiang", and the water is Qingyi River, which is called "Jade Belt in West Sichuan".
Mucheng is located in Jiajiang County, Leshan City, on Gujiayang Post Road, also known as Wuchi Road. It is a land and water commercial road from Jiazhou to Ya 'an, and an important section of the Southern Silk Road and the ancient tea-horse road.
"Nan 'an Old Metallurgy" records: "Muzhen is the earliest place to set up Nan 'an County. In 3 10 BC, the Qin dynasty conquered Danli and captured the king city of Danli, which is now the wooden city of Jiajiang County. Then set up Nan 'an County. "According to this record, the ancient town of Mucheng has a history of more than two thousand years.
Nan 'an County was abandoned in Nan 'an in 479-520 after Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms and Two Dynasties. In the first year of Tang Wude, the court restored Nan 'an County.
There are two explanations for the origin of the name of the wooden town: the first explanation is that Qingyi River is outside the wooden town, and the five-foot ancient post road passes through here. Mucheng has an amphibious dock, which is a distribution center for local native products and foreign goods. There was a businessman who was engaged in timber business. The timber sank here three times, so it was named "Mu Chen".
Relatively speaking, the second statement is more true. It is recorded in the annals of Jiading Prefecture and Jiajiang County: After Zhang occupied Sichuan, in the first month of the third year of Dashun (1646), the headquarters sent the "Daxi" army from Hongya to Jiajiang to attack Nan 'an Town. At that time, Zhou Dingchang, deputy commander of the Ming army, set up a wooden city here to lead the people in charge. Liu Wenxiu built a pontoon bridge on the Qingyi River, and Zhou Dingchang sent soldiers who were good at swimming to dive into the water and cut the rope connecting the pontoon bridge with a knife, so that the "Daxi" army could not cross the river and could only return in vain. Nan 'an turned a corner, so it was renamed Mucheng, which has been used ever since.
According to local elders, there used to be three water docks outside Mucheng Town, including Ya 'an Tea, mountain products, Jiazhou Silk, Salt Grain, Jiajiang Homemade Paper and Tea. Most of them are transported to Chongqing, Yibin, Ya 'an, Xikang and even Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau through Qingyi River Waterway and Jiayang Ancient Post Road.
The development of commerce and trade will inevitably bring economic prosperity. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the amphibious dock wooden city was known as the "little shanghai on the Qingyi River", with songs coming and going, bells jingling on the five-foot ancient post road, and caravans flowing in an endless stream.
Many wealthy businessmen stopped here to build residential shops. Folk houses include Zhangjia Courtyard, Zhangshi Garden and Shi Jia Courtyard. Temple buildings include daming temple, Dongyue Temple, Sanyuan Palace, General House, Wusheng Palace, Huokeji and Gaomiaozi. Unfortunately, many ancient buildings have been destroyed and disappeared.
Zhangjia Courtyard, which locals used to call Zouma Jiaolou (the seat of Log Town Government), covers an area of 800 square meters and has 48 rooms. Zhang Shaoting is engaged in manual papermaking. This kind of handmade paper is not the paper towel we use now, but Xuan paper for writing.
Jiajiang is the "hometown of bamboo paper for thousands of years", which inherits the traditional craft of "bamboo paper" in Jin Dynasty. In Ming and Qing Dynasties, Jiajiang handmade bamboo paper was regarded as "tribute paper" by the imperial court, which was the "paper roll" of the imperial examination and equivalent to the special paper for the college entrance examination. During the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the production scale of Jiajiang paper reached its peak, and some businessmen engaged in paper production and trafficking earned a lot of money.
Zoumajiao Building is the most well-preserved building at present, with blue tiles, partition walls, cantilever beams, cornices and bucket-through structures, which is typical of the western Sichuan residential style. Some carved windows have been damaged, and exquisite carvings can still be seen on the stone pier under the column. It is said that the timber of the corner building is all from Ya 'an via Qingyi River.
There is also a yard in Mucheng, which belongs to another big family named Zhang. It is a traditional quadrangle, divided into two courtyards, with slate pavement and white walls and blue tiles. Because the garden is full of flowers and trees, and in order to distinguish it from the Zhangjia Courtyard, it is called Zhangjia Garden.
With the disappearance of the traffic function of Qingyi River and the ancient tea-horse road, the bustling old scenery of the wooden city has long since disappeared. Nowadays, most of the wooden houses in the back street of Mucheng are guarded by iron generals. There are weeds in the cracks of the stones, and only a few tourists from afar linger here occasionally. It is difficult to see young people in the town, and other streets are quiet and deserted.
According to statistics, the preservation rate of wooden houses in Mucheng Town is about 70%, which is considered as a well-preserved ancient town in Sichuan. However, it is said that this kind of Qing Dynasty architecture has little protection value, which may be the reason why some ancient towns have not been protected and repaired, and also the reason why some ancient towns have been demolished and rebuilt with antique buildings.
The ancient banyan trees outside daming temple are still tall and tall, with lush foliage. For hundreds of years, it silently looked at everything here, protecting people and soil.