The present life of the ancient castle——Youxi Shujing Castle

 

As soon as we got off the car and ran into the pavilion on the roadside, the wind carried a big cloud of rain and threw it towards us. In this empty pavilion halfway up the mountain, even though there were hundreds of years old camphor trees sheltering our heads, we were too There is no way to escape the fate of being wet.

Now that it’s here, let’s make peace with it!

Looking around, the terraces and ancient castles in the valley have been swallowed up by the rain and fog, and are vaguely covered in white. A tung tree near the pavilion, with white fallen flowers crackling on the ground in the heavy rain, is more beautiful than the snow, but also makes people feel distressed.

Spring really ended in a sudden thunderstorm.

We are currently in Shujing Village, Youxi County. This is a small village in the mountains in the hinterland of Fujian. It can only be reached by a thin, winding and narrow cement road. There are few people in the village, and the golden-rumped swallow is shuttling back and forth between the houses and paddy fields in the village. Swallows hold mud in their mouths in order to build nests, raise chicks and reproduce offspring, but most of the younger generations in the village have left, and almost all the people you encounter are slightly lonely old people.

There are two very beautiful castle-style houses in Shujing Village - Ruiqing Fort and Guangyu Fort. They are both Qing Dynasty buildings and are protected cultural relics in Fujian Province. The Ruiqing Fort at the lower level is slightly younger, but some of the details on the stone carvings and flower windows are more exquisite. In terms of the beauty of the building itself, the Guangyu Fort at the top is even better.

The shapes of the two castles are similar. They are both built along the hillside. There are terraces and houses in the front, which are arranged in a very regular courtyard style with layers cascading from front to back, left and right, and a stepped horse racing gallery built along the hillside in the back. The overall shape looks like a huge horseshoe print when viewed from the air. The horse racing gallery of Guangyu Fort is connected to the second floor of the big house in front. There is a blockhouse-style turret at the back. The gun holes for shooting are clearly visible. The gate has also been reinforced with iron sheets and rivets, obviously to better defend against invasion by foreign enemies.

It's quite interesting to think about it. At that time, a family reunited to defend themselves from enemies and seemed prosperous. Nowadays, they live a peaceful and prosperous life, but they are dispersed.

The walls of the castle are built of rammed earth, covered with white powder, and have stone arch door frames, which are eye-catching, grand and solid. The house and horse racing gallery are pure wooden structures, with cascading eaves rising up the mountain and covered with blue tiles. Because of the castle There are rice fields in front and thousands of green bamboos in the back. From a distance, it looks like dark clouds gushing out of clear water, which is so beautiful.

There is only one family left in each of the two castles living there, acting as a caretaker. The old man chatted with us about many things. He was proud of the generosity of his ancestors, but he had no complaints about the present. In fact, if it weren't for the epidemic, it wouldn't be so lonely as usual - after the implementation of the rural revitalization policy, there are always some tourists, and with various promotional and cultural activities, there are also lively scenes. We saw that the big red 囍 characters posted on the middle hall were still very new, so we asked if there were any newlyweds from the clan who came back to hold a ceremony? The old man smiled and said: "That's for filming TV, no one wants to come back to live there."

Indeed, except for the coolness of the mountain breeze, this kind of large aggregated wooden house is not livable in the least according to today's hygiene habits and privacy requirements.

Swallows return to their old nests every year, but people are different. People go to higher places and don't miss the past. Since there are fewer people living in the huge castle, it is inevitable that there will be more small animals. The ground inside the Paoma Building was originally solid rammed earth, but now it cannot withstand the erosion of wind and rain over the years and has gradually become loose. It has become a hunting ground for many ant lions. The ant lion is the natural enemy of ants. It makes a small funnel-shaped pit in the sand, buries itself underneath, and waits for the ants to pass by. Then it suddenly jumps out of the ground, and then drags it into the darkness of despair. We also found a kind of spider, although it was only 1/3 the size of a grain of rice, it was as shiny as galvanized, like a drop of mercury, hanging under the eaves.

On the hillside between the horse racing gallery and the main house, there are many camellias planted. The flowering period has just passed, and the flowers have bloomed and fallen, and it has been lonely for an unknown amount of time. The collared bulbuls in white collars and green shirts and the black bulbuls in red beaks and black robes in the mountains are both good singers. When they saw us coming and having an audience, they came over and sang their voices to join in the fun. We were also filled with joy, feeling as if this huge castle had just woken up.

The rain has stopped, and the summer wind blows leisurely.