Farthest Root Archived 遠源的 根 收櫃



Yuliang Dam 漁梁垻 
by Ziyang Mt under Ziyang Bridge 紫陽山橋
Shexian, Anhui 歙縣 安徽(2019)



Huangshan 黃山
 'The last battle' 光明頂' of Kung-Fu fiction.
 Mystical island Penglai 蓬萊

While I can't muster a reason (motive, desire whatever - simply my heart went cold) to see China again - I felt my early 2019 'Farthest Root' experience should be tucked but not swept away in a nice corner of my heart. So here it is.

YULIANG DAM 漁梁垻 

Yuliang dam situated in Yuliang , Shexian 歙縣 (a well preserved, characteristic Huizhou 徽州-style ancient town) is the oldest and largest-scale dam in ancient times with more than 1,000 years' history .

Huangshan area is all about STONES.

Stone banks of the dam I walked on was rebuilt in Ming dynasty. And the town was paved with cobblestones. (Great photo and information on this blogpost HERE. )

I was taken here primarily because of Ziyang  紫陽 (purple sun) Mt and the surrounding village of the same name where my maternal ancestor Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130 – 1200 AD) had his root. 

Zhu Xi and his father 朱松 (1097-1143 AD) both used Ziyang for their 'other name 號'. 

It would have appeared Ziyang (purple sun) is the spiritual home of the Zhus and the family inhabited on the southern side of the mountain, denoted by yang. (ying north, yang south of a mountain or river)

The river bank is also famous because of poet Li-Po's 李白 apparent and regular visits and the poems Li produced about the place. We hired a boat and passed the pavilion where poet Li-Po rested and mused. 

Highlight of this overnight trip came the next day in search of a junior-high school in some distance from the dam - it is where Ziyang Academy original gate was relocated and preserved. 

ZIYANG ACADEMY 紫陽書院 

Built in 1245 AD in honour of Zhu Xi. Its original location was near Ziyang Mt, rebuilt and restored in 1519, 1790, 1907 respectively, before the final resting place we found at the back end of a school tucked away in bamboo forest. THAT memorable sighting is on a different level to what I have experienced in all my journeys to date.




HUI HANG CARAVAN TRAIL 徽杭古道

After about two hours' car journey, we reached a section of an ancient Silk Road Trail of Tang dynasty 1000 years ago.

Huihanggudao is an ancient trail used by the merchants from Zhejiang region to Anhui region. Historically to transport tea from Anhui in exchange for grains in Zhejiang.

If I had gone all the way, which some hikers and campers do, I would have ended up in Hanzhou in Zhejiang Province. 




~ Once in a Lifetime Closure ~

















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mongolian BBQ History Taiwan - Created by a Chinese Comedian 1951

Image
Photo Update (June 10 2020)  Source - 'Remembering Taiwan' Facebook Group Mongolian BBQ mobile vendors in the late 1950s on the east bank of Tamsui River  Credit to Mr A Zoraster who stationed at Taipei Air Station from Aug 64 until Dec 66  Credit to Mr A Zoraster who stationed at Taipei Air Station from Aug 64 until Dec 66  “In Mongolia, you won’t find Mongolian Barbeque.   But, you do in Taiwan.   It’s just as you won’t find Fuzhou Noodle in Fuzhou.   But, you do in Taiwan.   Neither would you find Sichuan Braised Beef Noodle Soup in Sichuan.   Again, you do in Taiwan.   They are created by Taiwanese food industry to reflect the chefs’ imaginations of the regions and creativities.” In my forthcoming book with Steven Crook “The Culinary History of Taipei” Chapter 6: Supplying the Consumer (Taipei’s Markets) . We included an anecdote of Mongolian BBQ mobile vendors in the late 1950s on the east bank o...
Read more

Saartje Specx (17th Century Dutch-Japanese, Famous Prisoner Batavia, Wife of First Missionary Fromosa) and Her Grave by Pineapple Stretch

Image
Terrence Ying-Tai Lai  賴英泰 in a recent talk I attended mentioned 'Sara's Grave 莎拉之墓' in Tainan.  Saartje Specx story, unknown to many including myself, is most fascinating.  A 17th-century watercolor drawing of the Dutch East India Company’s Fort Zeelandia, present-day Tainan, taken from the Eugenius-atlas, which was commissioned by Laurens van der Hem, a Dutch lawyer and map collector. (Wikipedia) Saartje's grave in green circle.  Pineapple stretch, women prison, graveyard, Amsterdam (a farm) clearly labelled. (Terrence Ying-Tai Lai  賴英泰 talk at Linking Publishing    聯經書房) Page one of a piece I found online. Saartje Specx (1617–1636) was the daughter of Jacques Specx, governor of the North Quarter of the Dutch East India Company's (VOC's) Asian trading empire, and a Japanese concubine. Saartje (Sara in English) was born at the Dutch trading base on the island of Hirado. In 1629, aged 12, she was living at Batavia in Java under the protection of Jan...
Read more

Sweet thirty hour stay - Taitung

Image
1. Our host  Aeles (tears in the Rukai language) at her restaurant Dawana ( a place of rest) 2. Buddha's head (fruit) in a bowl bought from a Paiwan wood-craftsman  3. The wood artist's most famous work - lily (flower) 4. Green Island on the horizon 5. Taiwan red quinoa  6. Ancient 'hot stone technique‘ soup My original plan was to go to Miaoli for a vegetable dyeing and weaving workshop with 林淑莉 Lin Shu-li a Taiwanese married into Atayal family and who demonstrated her skill in London in 2018. The workshop was closed until further notice. I therefore contacted Lily Wen (or Aeles Lrawbalrate in Rukai and 溫秀琴 in Mandarin) in Taitung if I could pay a long overdue visit - cancelled two years ago by typhoon. She readily welcomed and there I went with a friend. (Note -  For the Paiwan and Rukai peoples, lilies signify virtue and beauty in women as well as bravery and hunting power in men) We were greeted by a local friend and t...
Read more