Zhang Fang and Qian Tang Zhizhai

Zhang Fang and Qian Tang Zhizhai Zhou Jingwei American Western Overseas Chinese News Today's Luoyang is no longer the ancient Luoyang in historical memory. Luoyang has become so modern, so new, imitating...

Zhang Fang and Qian Tang Zhizhai Zhou Jingwei American and Western Overseas Chinese News Today's Luoyang is no longer the ancient Luoyang in historical memory. Luoyang has become so modern and new. It seems that only the Longmen Grottoes on the edge of Yishui River can make you feel a little bit of the afterglow of the Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties. "Iron Gate" is a small town about 45 kilometers west of Luoyang. Mentioning this name makes people feel inexplicably passionate. Qiantang Zhizhai in Tiemen Town may have never been heard of by ordinary tourists, just like "unknown to people who grew up in a boudoir". But the name of its original owner, Zhang Fang, was unknown to fellow villagers in Henan during the Republic of China. Zhang Fang was born in Xin'an County, Luoyang, in the late Qing Dynasty (1886-66). During the Republic of China, he was the leader of the Black and White Roads in Shaanxi and Henan provinces and a veteran of the Revolution of 1911. During the Central Plains War, Feng Yuxiang offered a reward of 600,000 for his head, but Chiang Kai-shek still offered a higher price to save his life. Later, he served as the general commander-in-chief of the 20th Route Army. Because his troops were all recruited swordsmen and green forest figures from Henan, he was nicknamed the "Old Bandit of the Central Plains." During the Anti-Japanese War, he entered the Military Senate. The civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party instigated the 20th Corps of the Kuomintang Army to defect in Sichuan, and finally peacefully liberated Sichuan. In the 1930s, Zhang Fang was encouraged by Yu Youren and began to collect epitaphs, and made an agreement with Yu Youren that those before the Tang Dynasty would belong to Zhang, and those after the Tang Dynasty would belong to Zhang. Over a five-year period, more than a thousand pieces were collected. In addition to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there were Zhishi from the Northern Wei, Western Jin, Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, spanning more than a thousand years. Zhang Quan was born in Lulin, and his political stance has been repeated, so it is difficult to enter the annals of history. However, because of his "Qian Tang Zhi Zhai", Zhang Quan's merits in "Financial Affairs Bureau" made him famous in the history. The author's parents have lived in Henan for a long time. Although they don't know the Zhang Fang family, due to their good relationship with Liu Zhenhua, another aristocratic family in Henan, they learned about the grievances and grievances between the Zhang and Liu families in Henan for decades. Although this happened decades ago and the ancestors have all passed away, this old story is turning over in my mind like it was yesterday. Many of the tomb owners of Qian Tang Zhi Zhai have no biographies in the "New and Old Tang Books", so this is a very precious collection of basic historical materials of the Tang Dynasty. It can be said that Qian Tang Zhi Zhai is another Tang history, a Tang history carved on stone. What is even more rare is that Qian Tang Zhi Zhai preserved not only the rubbings of these epitaphs, but also includes all the original epitaph stone carvings themselves. It can be said to be a very rare collection. Qiantang Zhizhai is a very magnificent building. It was originally Zhang Fang's garden "Zhe Lu". For these more than a thousand epitaphs, Zhang Fang built a huge building with more than ten collection rooms like cave dwellings in northern Shaanxi and three rectangular courtyards. Square epitaphs are inlaid on the walls inside and outside these collection rooms and courtyards. They are densely packed and silently showing the life achievements of each deceased to the world. Today there are basically no tourists in Qiantang Zhizhai, and those who go there are almost all experts. These epitaphs were not only written but also engraved in the Tang Dynasty and have been handed down for more than a thousand years. Compared with paper articles such as the "Quan Tangwen" compiled in the Qing Dynasty, these original epitaphs carved on stones really give people a faint, ghostly and ghostly sense of fear, as if the deceased has returned to the earth. Because these epitaphs were originally supposed to be buried in the tomb of the deceased, and their original function was not to announce anything to the deceased's world before he was alive, but to promote the deceased's achievements in the underworld after death. In fact, the original purpose of carving them was not to be read by the common people in the world, so they were buried deep in the underground tomb. Nowadays, they are mounted high on the wall and displayed, as if there is no way to escape. Whenever I see an epitaph, I can't help but think that another ancient tomb has been stolen, and another ghost of the Tang Dynasty has returned to the world.