Chapter 4 We made our fortune from Xiongzhuanjing

In China, almost every celebrity's fortune is related to a myth, in order to set off his difference from others.There are also such legends about Li Hongzhang's fortune.It is said that the initial fortune of the Li family was aided by a miraculous well, which is thirty miles east of Hefei City.Now take a minibus from the center of Hefei to the east, about an hour or so, and you will come to a place called Modian Township, Feidong County in the past.In terms of actual scale, this place does not seem to be considered a town, at most it is a market. Although it has been included in the urban area, the development has not kept up with it. Looking up, it is still mostly farmland and cottages. The dirt road is still full of potholes, and the air is filled with the mixed smell of straw and cow dung that is often found in rural areas.To the north of the market is a small village with only a few dozen families, which is now called Ancestral Hall Ying Village.

This village is the hometown of Li Hongzhang, the protagonist of this book. Because of Li Hongzhang's official title in the Qing Dynasty, this village was a remarkable place as early as more than a hundred years ago.In the village, there are not only the old house of the Li family, the pond of the Li family, and the horse tethering posts of the Li family, but also a large area of ​​the Li family’s burial mounds and cemetery fields outside the village.Although the ancestral hall of the Li family, which is carved with dragons and painted phoenixes, has only three entrances, there are thousands of acres of righteous land for the daily expenses of the ancestral hall.Over time, the name of the village became Ancestral Ying Village because of the ancestral hall of the Li family.The Li family who come to burn incense and worship their ancestors every year, in spring and autumn, are carried by horses and mules, shouting in front and hugging behind, covering the sky and the sun at every turn.

With the turning of the wheel of history, a hundred years have passed in a blink of an eye, and now it is rarely mentioned, because the original Li family ancestral hall no longer exists; the gods in the ancestral hall have been smashed to pieces; not only the Li family All the grave mounds have been flattened.Naturally, the family's high walls, deep courtyards, glory and wealth have long since disappeared with the years gone by. Now the only thing that is still valuable and often mentioned is the ancient well by the roadside at the head of the village. Speaking of this well, its history can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty.This was excavated by a local official surnamed Xiong in the Ming Dynasty, so it was called Xiongzhuanjing in history.Whether it is the local chronicles of Feidong in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, or the inscriptions of the Li family, there are records.If such a well were in a big city, it would have been covered with barbed wire, and a sign would be erected next to it. If you want to take a photo, you may have to pay a fee.But this is in the countryside, everything seems to be discounted, no one to protect it, no one put up a sign, every morning and evening, the villagers still come to fetch water for cooking, its use value is no different from other wells.

In the eyes of people, although the purpose of this well is no different from other wells, it is said that this well has extraordinary magic power and can bring good news to people.Because of this, there was an official who knocked a stone from the well curb to ask for blessings, and went back to engrave the official seal, so the Xiongzhuan well that I see now does have a very large gap.As for whether the official was later promoted, it is not known.But the Li family, who have lived by this well for many generations, finally got rich. The Li family believed that the Xiongzhuan well had magical powers, so they lived by the well when they were alive, and buried them around the well when they died.Some of them came back here when the leaves fell and returned to their roots after wandering abroad for several years.There are also some people who did not live by the well when they were alive, but they were buried by the well after death!

The third ancestor of the Li family was buried in the Da Lao Tomb to the west of Xiongzhuanjing, in a pine forest only half a mile away from Xiongzhuanjing; The old grave is only one mile away from the well; the sixth patriarch Li Dianhua, Li Hongzhang's grandfather, was buried in the jujube forest north of Xiongzhuanjing, which the Li family called the Jingshang Tomb; Li Hongzhang's father, Li Wen, was buried not far away from the well. miles.When Li Hongzhang was about to be buried in the ground, he was buried a little further away, but he did not leave Feidong. On the side of the road from Xiongzhuanjing to Hefei City, fifteen miles away from the city, the place is called Daxingji.Before and after this, many of his brothers, sons, nephews, and grandnephews returned here to be buried here. Only Li Hongzhang's eldest son, Li Jingfang, a minister to Britain and a figure from Shanghai, was buried in the Wanguo Cemetery in Shanghai.

It is from here that the Li family left Anhui, went to North China, East China, South China and the coastal line, and then went to the world. Of course, most of them still haven't come back.In the past two hundred years, the world has been turned upside down, things have changed, and the descendants have been scattered all over the world. In addition to mainland China, they also live and work in peace and contentment in the United States, Canada, Germany, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, just like their ancestors. Most of them are engaged in foreign affairs, and there are quite a few people engaged in cultural and educational undertakings, but no matter where they go, as long as they talk about Hefei, Anhui, as long as they say their surname is Li, they will write articles about the country with their fingers, and calculate their family fortune forever. Then determine which house you belong to, and whether you are a direct descendant of their old Li family.Older people will also mention Xiongzhuanjing.This Xiongzhuanjing is still squatting in the original place, squatting on the roadside of the village entrance where countless Li family members walked to Xintiandi.It was this posture in the past, and it is still this posture now. From a distance, it cuts the rural scenery with its incomplete well fence.It has been scarred and scarred, and the deepest rope ditch can reach into an adult's hand. Every day, it still dedicates clear ripples to the villagers.The first Li family to leave their hometown to venture into the world was Li Hongzhang's father, Li Wen'an, who was the first of eight generations of the Li family to run the country and live in Yongchang.