Riding the wind of rebirth

On the north side of the alley entrance, near Beiguan North, there are also merit tablets and prohibition tablets. The merit tablets are the names of people who participated in the construction of Huili Ancient City and made charitable donations, while the prohibition tablets are local regulations concerning environmental protection and municipal management.

Village rules and regulations were a distinctive feature of local governance in China's feudal dynasties, originating in the Song Dynasty and continuing until the Republic of China.

These two inscriptions in Xicheng Lane were erected in the eleventh year of the Guangxu Emperor's reign in the Qing Dynasty, exactly 111 years ago.

If an outsider strolls through the alleys and looks at the ancient buildings, they won't gain much. But it's a different story if you come with an expert. Chinese studies are like a three-dimensional network. You can grab any point and expand on it from various dimensions to discover a wealth of interesting knowledge. For example, the Wanshou Palace leads to a history of immigration. The Guild Hall of the Five Northern Provinces and the Hunan Guild Hall illustrate the prosperity of trade at Huili Pass in ancient times. This leads to the "Yunnan Copper Transport to Beijing" that once made the economy extremely prosperous during the Qianlong era and the later "Yunnan Copper Case".

At its peak, Jianlongchao transported 16 million catties of copper to the capital via the ancient road, accounting for 80 percent of the copper used for minting coins at that time, which greatly boosted economic circulation.

Merchants from all over flocked to Huili, creating the "Ten Provinces Guild Hall" culture, which directly gave rise to the exquisite ancient city of Huili.

The large influx of people who came as "merchants" and "military settlers" disrupted the original social family structure of Huili Ancient City, turning it into a "city of foreign immigrants" and creating a food and home culture that combines flavors from both the north and south.

These newcomers raised the cultural level of Huili City. Many families' children passed the imperial examinations and entered officialdom. Most of these families were concentrated in one alley, which was eventually called "Kejia Alley".

Kejia Lane is located on the northeast side of North Street in Huili Ancient City. The lane is mostly filled with Ming and Qing dynasty buildings. Because several prominent families in the lane, mainly surnamed Hu, Gong, Yang, Wu, Zou, and Zhou, produced people who achieved success in the imperial examinations, they hung plaques such as "Jinshi Di" and "Daifu Di" on their gates.

These plaques must have disappeared during a period of history, but they have miraculously reappeared and have been requested by the local cultural heritage authorities to be hung on the lintels again, which is quite a wonder.

As they walked, Zhou Zhi explained to everyone the correspondence between ancient buildings and the identities of their owners.

“In ancient times, wealthy families would have a pair of stone-carved ornaments on either side of the entrance, called ‘mendang’. The status of the family owner could be identified by the mendang. There is an idiom called ‘mendang hudu’ (meaning a good match in terms of social standing), which refers to this.”

"The bottom of the door frame of this box is square, symbolizing a book box. The carvings on the box are patterns such as plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, chrysanthemums, peonies, and phoenixes, symbolizing a scholarly family. If it is a high-ranking official's family, there is a round drum on the top of the book box, with a lion and an elephant standing on the drum; if it is a low-ranking official, there is only a flat carving, symbolizing an inkstone."

"No, not really. Elbow, look at that!" Xu Anxin pointed to the doorway of a house: "Look, this house doesn't have a square base, it's just a big round drum, and the carvings on the drum aren't plants, one side is a lion, and the other side is... a qilin?"

“If you look closely, you’ll find that these stone drum bases are carved from black stone,” Zhou Zhi said. “While the doorposts in front of other people’s houses are mostly carved from light-colored and white stone.”

"Besides, other Jinshi residences, even if they weren't the top scholars, usually have a plaque with the two characters 'Wen Kui' (文魁, meaning 'literary champion') to boast about. This Jinshi residence is very simple, with only the two characters 'Jinshi' (进士, meaning 'successful candidate in the imperial examination'), right?"

"Hey, it really is! What's the significance of this?"

"Because this family is different. This family has produced martial arts graduates. Generally, the door knockers of those who have passed the martial arts examination will be made of black stone and carved into drums, symbolizing war drums and bravery. The drums are decorated with fierce beasts such as lions. The drums with high-end features will also have three-dimensional drum lions standing on them, while the lower-end ones will be replaced with animal heads."

“No wonder, he’s a military man.” Li Laosan laughed. “But as a military scholar, he’s squeezed into a bunch of civil scholars’ families. In ancient times, when civil officials were valued more than military ones, he’d probably be discriminated against, right? At the very least, he wouldn’t be able to be ‘matched’ with those families.” “That’s not necessarily true,” Zhou Zhi said. “You guys have all been fooled by those civil scholars’ plaques. Except for the Hu family, the rest are basically from the Northwest.”

"Fake? Not a real scholar?" Huang Ruishan, who had been trembling with fear at the sight of the Wenchang Temple in the alley, now straightened his back a bit: "Why would they forge it and then hang it up? Aren't they afraid of getting into trouble with the authorities?"

“Because the government tacitly approves of them doing this.” Zhou Zhi pointed to a spot: “Look at this, this plaque, between the huge characters for ‘Jinshi’ (进士, successful candidate in the highest imperial examination), there’s a tiny, tiny character stuck inside. What character is it?”

"The word 'en'," Li Yijia said, "what does it mean?"

"This is not a regular imperial examination degree. It means that you were recruited to study at the Imperial Academy by imperial decree due to some special reasons. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, this was called the tribute student system."

"Look down there, there's another plaque with the words '拔元' (Ba Yuan) written on it. Doesn't that easily remind you of titles like '状元' (Zhuang Yuan), '会元' (Hui Yuan), and '解元' (Jie Yuan)?"

“Yeah, I was just wondering what kind of exam this ‘Ba Yuan’ exam was, where he got the top score,” Li Yijia said.

“There are many ways to enter the Imperial Academy. For example, those who are admitted by imperial decree are called ‘En Gong’. Those selected by the provincial education commissioners are called ‘Ba Gong’. Those selected from the supplementary list of the provincial examinations are called ‘Fu Gong’. Even those who have failed the examinations for many years and are too old have some places. These are called ‘Sui Gong’.”

"Among all the tribute students, the highest status is that of the selected students, because after studying at the Imperial Academy for three years, they can become officials directly without taking the imperial examination. Of course, whether they go to a good unit or a bad unit, they still have to go through an examination and ranking. This examination is called the 'court examination'. The first place in the court examination is called the top scholar."

"Tch! I thought he was something special." Li Yijia said disdainfully, "Turns out he's just someone who got first place in an internal exam."

“This one is still considered good; at least it’s the real number one.” Zhou Zhi laughed. “Look at this family. This family’s Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) also has the character ‘恩’ (en, meaning grace) in the middle, and the two characters below it are even bigger than those of the Bagong (selected scholar) just now.”

When everyone looked over, they saw the words "tribute to the emperor" on it.

"So this is also a tribute student, but the top scorer among all tribute students?" Huang Ruishan pondered. "The scope of candidates is broader than that of the previous selection of tribute students, right? Shouldn't it be more difficult?"

There are three interpretations of "Gongyuan". One interpretation is that it refers to the first place among the tribute students in each province. Another interpretation is that it refers to the sixth place in the provincial examination. Yet another interpretation is that as long as you are a selected tribute student by the provincial education commissioner, you can call yourself "Gongyuan".

"The so-called first place among the provincial tribute students is equivalent to an internal school exam and doesn't count; if it's sixth place in the provincial exam, then a plaque for a Juren should be hung here, which means a proper imperial examination degree, far more glorious than a tribute student. Therefore, this family's so-called 'tribute student' who received the imperial edict is actually the third type."

"From the late Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the Imperial College had long been a filthy place where connections and backdoors were rampant, and a so-called 'special channel' for the transfer of benefits and the sale of official positions. It was both numerous and pervasive, and was by no means a novelty." (End of this chapter)