It is an ancient town with a history of more than 1,760 years. When I came here, a local friend told me that Fan Zhongyan and Lu You had both been officials in Meicheng, and this ancient town was so good, and even told me that being able to stay in Meicheng, the ancient city of Yanzhou, with a rich cultural accumulation, for one day is definitely better than reading the history of the millennium on paper. This somewhat amazed me. In the past, our travels have traveled all over the north and south of the river, and many famous ancient towns in China have been Xi on the spot, and the famous towns of Zhouzhuang, Xitang and Wuzhen in the south of the Yangtze River have left a deep impression in their memories. However, Meicheng, which is only 100 kilometers away from Hangzhou, I have never met it, not because it is not famous enough, not because the road is not difficult enough, and I even know that it contains landscapes and cultural history that cannot be reached by the ancient towns I visited in the past. This cannot but be said to be a very regrettable thing.
I'm finally here. Many evenings, I walked alone on the dam along the river, the ancient half-cut plum blossom city wall was faintly visible, and the fishing fires of the three rivers of Xin'an, Fuchun and Lanjiang were not far away, which was like a starry contrast, forming a sharp contrast with the lights of the town. Listening to the old people in the neighborhood chatting, Meicheng has some history of Wulong Mountain, Fang La in the Meicheng uprising and the Northern Song Dynasty army and Song Jiang Liangshan Xiong fought on the Wulong Mountain and the river, many Liangshan heroes died in Meicheng, and the soul stayed in a foreign land. At night, I looked at Oolong Mountain in the distance, and in the vast depths it did look like a reckless dragon lurking, adding a bit of majesty to the town.
The ancient town of Meicheng, in history was the seat of Muzhou and Yanzhou, and the famous Wu Zixu, Zhu Maichen, Yan Ziling, Xie Lingyun, Meng Haoran, Liu Changqing, Du Mu, Fan Zhongyan, and Lu You have all left footprints here, and Du Mu, Fan Zhongyan, and Lu You are all local officials, and the five ancestors of the Pure Land Sect, Master Shaokang and Zen Chen Zunsu also participate in Zen practice here and achieve positive results, which are the eternal glory of the town. According to historical records, Meicheng has always been the seat of the county and government since the four years of Huangwu of the Three Kingdoms until the 60s of the last century. Many locals sighed that Meicheng prospered by the water, and it was a place where Hui merchants and Fujian and Jiangxi merchants were in the past, but it was rapidly declining today under the development of land transportation, and the level was reduced to the lowest level, which can not but be said to be an extremely rare case in the history of the development of ancient towns in China.
The town's long history and thick culture are originally a big book that cannot be afforded, and every wall and brick, every alley, and every ancient house has endless stories and legends. Listen to the people of the ancient town say that there are two and a half plum blossoms in the world, and half of the plum wall is in Meicheng. This plum does not refer to plum blossoms, but plum blossom-shaped city walls, China only Beijing, Nanjing exists, but Meicheng is used than the imperial city is a level lower than the imperial city of the half of the moat, because Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew Li Wenzhong is the founder of the Ming Dynasty, his special identity created the former Meicheng half of the plum blossom-shaped city wall.
Meicheng is a city of literati and culture. The famous literati in history, Du Mu, Fan Zhongyan and Lu You were all officials here. The character of Chinese cultural people has created the literati's concern for the country and the people. After a lot of hardships to serve as Meicheng's Du Mu, as soon as he arrived here, he wrote to his friends that Meicheng's landscape was good and easy to keep people, and wrote a lot of poems in praise of Meicheng. Fan Zhongyan was an official in Meicheng and wrote poems at the same time, and it is said that most of his poems came from here. It is worth mentioning that Fan Gong was sympathetic to the people and did good deeds, and the people set up Fan Ting to commemorate him after he left office. Lu Fangweng, his father and younger brother are all officials here, and their reputation is also quite good, and they have won the support of the local people. The story about Master Shaokang of the Pure Land Sect and Chen Zunsu of Zen Buddhism is a good story that good men and women never get tired of talking about. It is said that the Pure Land sect was introduced to Hangzhou and then to Japan, and has had a profound influence at home and abroad." The "Muzhou Poetry School" originated in Meicheng and is an important poetry genre in the history of Chinese culture.
The "Yanzhou Engraving" is also an important cultural heritage, representing the highest printing technology at that time, and many unique copies are the treasures of the library. The stories of Yan Ziling, Jiang Gongwang and "Nine Fishermen" that have been circulated in the ancient town are well known to women and children. It is really the legacy of ancient customs that is still there today, and the cultural Xi have been passed down through the ages.