A Visit to Southern Jiangxi Province

By Zhuang Yuejiang

The Cradle of the Peoples Republic

Yudu and Ruijin are situated between Ganzhou and Shicheng in southern Jiangxi Province, a landlocked province to the southwest of Zhejiang Province. It was from Yudu that the famous Long March started in 1934. Today there is a rock monument standing in the center of the square in front of the office building of the county government. We took some photographs at a bridge outside the West Gate. The Red Army crossed a river from there and set out on the great Long March. We picked some pebbles from the river as souvenirs before getting on our bus and setting off to Ruijin. We caught a glimpse of the Long March Monument outside the East Gate through our bus windows.

We reached Ruijin. The highway was ornamented with numerous national flags, indicating the glorious status of Ruijin: the cradle of New China. The Provisional Government of the Soviet Republic of China was founded in Yeping, Ruijin in 1931. Yeping is small village in a basin northeast of Ruijin City. The provisional governments offices can be seen there today. The village is home to clusters of ancient camphor trees. We saw a post office, a printing house, a note printing workshop, a bank, a radio studio, and a security department. The village temple was where the government once worked. The first congress of the Soviet Republic of China was held in the temple from November 7 through 20th, 1931, attended by deputies of workers, peasants and soldiers. The congress passed documents such as The Outline of Constitution, Labor Law and Land Law and declared the founding of the republic. Mao Zedong was elected the chairman of the republic. The eastern and western rooms of the temple housed ten ministries such as military, foreign affairs, land, finance, civil affairs, supervision, education, and security. The temple served as the state council. It took Chinese revolutionaries 18 years to first establish the Soviet Republic of China and finally establish the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. How time flew in 18 years!

I spent 30 yuan buying a postcard made in honor of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Long March. Now and then I take it out and examine it. The souvenir refreshes my memory of the visit to the cradle of the Peoples Republic.

The Confucius Temple in Ganzhou

The Confucius Temple sits in the southeast of the old city of Ganzhou. Situated on a platform, the temple radiates majesty. This is where religious activities and education were concentrated from the Song Dynasty on. On the east side of the Confucius Temple is Ciyun Temple, which today is the campus of a primary school. But a refurbished stupa still towers there. On the west side of the Confucius Temple is the Lord Guan Memorial Temple erected in the Qing Dynasty. The hall still stands, hemmed in by arrays of modern buildings of a middle school.

The Confucius Temple is an ancient affair. In the Tang Dynasty, a Taoist temple stood on the site. It was in the Song Dynasty that the Confucius Temple was constructed and became the site of the county school. The original temple site covered an area of 10,000 m2, much larger than it is today. The current temple site measures only 7,000 m2, including a 4,000 m2 square in front of the temple. Interestingly, our visit coincided with the time when the scores of the higher education entrance examination 2009 were announced. The names and scores were copied on large-size paper and posted on the wall of the temple for public review. For more than 1,000 years, scores were posted on the street side of the wall of the Confucius Temple.

The current temple was a masterpiece made in the Qing Dynasty. It is an architectural wonder. It is the best preserved ancient wood architectural structure in this part of Jiangxi Province. It is also the best preserved ancient county school in the province. Apparently, the temple absorbed architectural elements of this part of the country: the gabled walls show curves and variations. Inside the Hall of Great Achievement are carved wood components, a regional architectural element. The yellow-green-glazed tiles on the roof and other ornamental porcelain mascots on the roof are not seen anywhere else in the country.

Yugu Pavilion

The pavilion enjoys an eternal renown with Chinese literati thanks to a poem written by Xin Qiji, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). A military talent and poet, Xin wanted to retrieve the lost land in the north, but he was not trusted by the new emperor. When Xin Qiji came to visit Ganzhou, he visited the pavilion. What he saw from the pavilion touched his heart. He wrote a poem that has touched the heart of the whole nation for centuries.

The pavilion stands on the top of a hill in the northwestern part of city of Ganzhou. We walked all the way up to the pavilion, photographing flowers by the path and taking in views from where we were.

The pavilion is the most famous place of historical interest in the city. In history, the pavilion went down and came up several times and got its name changed again and again. The current three-story architecture was rebuilt in 1983 using a Qing Dynasty blueprint.

The river does not look as lonely as the one described in Xins poem. Across the river are factory houses and residential communities; on the northwest side is a tall bridge across the river, all signs of a prosperous life. □