【 Memory of the Sea 】 The Never Disappearing Chenxing Old Street Courtyard | Old Street | Chenxing

Where is Chen Xing? Chen Xing is in Pudong. Where does Chen Xing go? Chen Xing Returns to Minhang - In Shanghai, there is a group of Minhang people who speak Pudong dialect.

This land, administratively under the jurisdiction of Minhang, is adjacent to Pudong New Area and consists of two streets and towns: Pujiang Town and Pujin Street. Before 2015, this place was collectively referred to as Pujiang Town. The Pujin Street, which was separated from Pujiang Town in 2015, is the youngest street in Minhang District. However, for the locals living here, they have a more affectionate name for it - "Chenhang".

According to the local chronicles of Minhang District, during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, a merchant surnamed Chen in Zhejiang opened a wooden shop in the east of Tangkou, known as the Chen Family Wooden Shop, abbreviated as the Chen Family Shop. During the Xianfeng and Tongzhi periods of the Qing Dynasty, it was called Chenjiaxing Town. During the Guangxu period, it was prosperous with cotton, grain, and cloth, and was the center of commerce. The original town's east-west and north-south streets were arranged in a cross pattern.

In folk discussions, Chen Xing's name is more vivid: Chen Qiu, a Guangdong businessman who deals in timber, arrived here on a raft. Unexpectedly, in the Zhoupu Tang River, the raft fell apart and drifted all over the river. With the help of the locals, Chen Qiu salvaged all the wood. In order to express gratitude for the kindness of the locals, Chen Qiu decided to open the Chen Family Tree Company here, which was then called the Chen Family Company, abbreviated as Chen Xing.

In the local chronicles of Minhang District, Chenxing is described as a hometown of talented people wearing boots and hats, and the Chenxing Old Street in Chenxing Town was the busiest place in the entire Pujiang area at that time. The old street is narrow and not too long, but it densely exports many talents and cultures. Most of those who can live in old street houses have some background, even the famous actress Qin Yi has come to the old street to search for her ancestors.

Photo by Zhu Qianwen, a century old twin catalpa tree of Chen Xing

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Standing in front of two catalpa trees over 150 years old, Cai Bin, the owner of the "Old Land" Chen Xing Department Store, sighed, "These two trees used to be quite lush, with a purple hue when they bloomed." Now, the catalpa tree branches are somewhat bald, and the lower branches are still lush. They also almost withered completely before being rescued around 2003 before re spreading their leaves.

Photo taken by Zhu Qianwen on the outskirts of old buildings in Chenxing Old Street

Qinjia Yuhantang Mansion Pujin Street Local Chronicle Information

According to the series of intangible cultural heritage books in Minhang District, "Retaining Homesickness - Pujiang Chapter", two catalpa trees are landmarks at the west end of Chenhang Old Street. Chen Xing's alternate name is "Zixiang". Qin Xitian, a renowned scholar of Chen Xing, self proclaimed himself as a "native of Shuangzi Village" and wrote the "Zixiang Conglu". In 1991, famous actress Qin Yi made a special trip to Chenxing Old Street to shoot the TV special film "Descendants of the City God". It is said that when she saw the catalpa tree, she sighed, "Finally found the root."

In his poem "Shanghai County Bamboo Branch Poems", Chen Pedestrian and the famous Qing Dynasty educator Qin Rongguang wrote: "A large wooden bridge spans the Tang Dynasty, with a monument inscribed on the sleeping mast of the Yongzheng Dynasty. The Shuangzi Temple stands tall in front of the gate, swallowing the spirit tide in August." You can glimpse the style of Shuangzi at that time. Cai Bin recalled that these two trees were originally planted in the courtyard of Chen Xing's Guandi Temple. After 1949, the Guandi Temple had been used by Chen Xing's grain management. However, due to various reasons, it was abandoned and demolished, leaving only two catalpa trees.

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According to the guidance of the old Chen pedestrian, another living specimen of Chen Xing's history and culture is several Qing Dynasty old buildings with a history of nearly 200 years left on Chen Xing's old street.

But the process of searching for old streets and houses is not smooth. After experiencing the division, division, and multiple planning of administrative divisions, large areas of old houses have already been demolished, and the remaining old buildings are surrounded by weeds with large locks in front of them. Nearby residents revealed that due to long-term disrepair and historical reasons, there is no consensus on how to repair it.

Searching for "Chenxing Old Street" in the historical database of Liberation Daily, it turned out that in 2009, this approximately 5000 square meter Qing Dynasty architectural complex was accidentally discovered. At that time, the report stated that this was the largest and most well preserved ancient architectural community in Minhang District to date, and a group of media reporters were organized to conduct interviews.

One of the people who discovered this ancient building was Zhou Shuming, a cultural relic census officer from Pujiang Town at that time. Now 75 years old, Zhou Shuming still remembers: when he was 61 years old in 2009, after the launch of the third national cultural relics census, one afternoon, he and other census takers returned to Chenxing Old Street after conducting on-site inspections. They walked into a small alley in the old street and suddenly saw a well preserved courtyard wall and ceremonial door, with a blue brick door plaque carved in regular script "Dunshi Shuli" outside. Zhou Shuming's eyes suddenly lit up, and his neighbors told him that this courtyard had a history of over 150 years. He quickly took photos and left information before rushing back. The next day, he took two other census takers to the old street for another inspection and discovered four old houses from the Qing Dynasty, including the Qin Family Mansion, the Hu Family Mansion, and the Hu Drunken Mansion. Among them, the Qin Family Mansion is a place where descendants of the Shanghai City God Qin Yubo have lived for generations.

Hu's San Shou Tang Mansion. Local chronicles of Pujin Street.

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Among the celebrities of Chen Xing, the Qin surname holds half of the sky. In Cai Bin's memory, he often went to the Qin Family Ancestral Hall to watch plays in his spare time when he worked at the Chenxing branch of the Shanghai Supply and Marketing Cooperative, the predecessor of the Chenxing Department Store on the old street.

Now living in Chen Xing, 83 year old Qin Dagu is still spirited. From the "Shanghai Chen Xing Qin Clan Pedigree" he brought, he listed Qin Guan, a litterateur in the Northern Song Dynasty, Qin Yubo, a politician of the Yuan Dynasty, the god of the city god in the Chenghuang Temple of Shanghai County, Qin Xitian, Qin Rongguang, Qin Bowei, one of the top ten famous doctors, and also included Qin Yi, a famous artist.

Qin Dagu also introduced several exquisite and special set of gourds, which are also Chen Xing's specialties: beautiful white drawing and vigorous calligraphy, not left on paper, but "grown" on the gourd. Qin Dagu introduced the method of making a set of plate gourds, which involves using molds to create various forms of gourds and carving books such as fish, flowers, birds, and seal script. After removing the molds, the patterns are fully visible. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the set of gourds was highly favored by the royal family and literati, but the cultivation difficulty was quite high, and there was a saying that "a thousand models cannot produce a high-quality product". During the period from Jiaqing to Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, the Qin family gourd was exquisitely crafted and became one of the specialties of Chenxing. In Qin Dagu's memory, when he was young, there were several sets of gourds and multiple sets of boards used for planting in the Qing Dynasty, which were carefully carved from hard wood.

Qin family made plate gourd. Photo by Zhu Qianwen

Old objects of Yuhan Hall. Photo by Zhu Qianwen

In the existing buildings on the old street, it was confirmed during a large number of media visits in 2009 that the Hu Zui Tower was built by local late Qing gentry. On the magnificent ceremonial door, pieces of palm sized stained glass were inlaid inside, presenting a colorful appearance under the sunlight. According to the person in charge of cultural relics census, this is an "imported product" from the Qing Dynasty, with a considerable value, and oyster shell windows made of oysters are more commonly used around it.

In the local chronicles of Minhang, the Hu family was also a merchant and a writer, starting with the development of rice industry and rice shops. The Hu family and the Qin family have some connections. Hu family celebrity and Chen Xing Township Dong Hu Zude was a disciple of Qin Rongguang. He came from a wealthy and philanthropic family and often donated money to charity and education to assist Qin Rongguang in handling local public welfare affairs. He also compiled two volumes of "Hu Proverbs" and "Hu Proverbs Extracted", including nearly 2000 Hu proverbs. The dialect section listed the characters and pronunciation, preserved the language characteristics of Shanghai, and reflected customs and customs. He was the first compiled work to record the Shanghai dialect, opening the way for modern popular literature research. He also revised Hu Shiyu's "Genealogy of the Hu Family", edited and edited Zixing's "Hu Family Records", Qin Rongguang's "Shanghai County Bamboo Branch Ci", Chen Xing Bamboo Branch Ci ", and so on.

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The old residence of Cai Diaotou, a revolutionary martyr and patriotic journalist, is located on the west street of the original Chenxing Old Street.

In February 1938, to the east of the French Concession's Huali Road Police Station during the "isolated island" period in Shanghai, there was a blood and flesh blurred head hanging on a power pole near Sapo Sai Road, and a white cloth with the words "Results of Anti Japanese Elements" written on it. It was later confirmed that the victim was Cai Diaotou, the person in charge of the Social Evening News and Chen Xingxing.

Cai Diaoyu often referred to himself as a "sea fisherman" when publishing articles, and later became famous as "Cai Diaoyu". The Social Evening News, which he was in charge of, repeatedly publicly reported on the news of Xie Jinyuan's "800 heroes" retreating from Shanghai and persisting in the anti Japanese struggle. As a result, he was seen as a thorn in the enemy's side and suffered the first shot by the Japanese puppet forces at the Shanghai news industry. He sacrificed himself at the age of only 34. After the liberation of Shanghai, the people's government posthumously recognized him as a revolutionary martyr.

There are very few related objects left in Cai Diaotou's home. "The photo of Grandpa Tai on Baidu Baike was initially incorrect, and I specifically called Baidu to correct it." Ye Weijie, the grandson of Cai Diaotou's daughter, still remembers his grandmother mentioning that Grandpa Tai was rehabilitated after the liberation of Shanghai, and in a few decades, he officially sent a certificate of revolutionary martyrs.

In the records of Shanghai County Annals, Cai Diaotau, originally named Anfu and styled Lvzhi, was a native of Chenxing Township. Before being in charge of the "Social Evening News", he went to Wengjia Lane in Nanshi, Shanghai in 1927 to run the "Dragon Newspaper" and later wrote articles for "Saturday", creating a romantic novel called "Flowers Falling in Yingzhou". He was a young man who made extensive friends. He studied at Minhang Junior Normal School in his early years and later entered Minhang Agricultural School. From this educational experience, it can be seen that he is indeed a Minhang native who speaks Pudong dialect.