The Song of the River: The Hidden Beauty of Old Covered Bridges

The Song of the River： The Hidden Beauty of Old Covered Bridges

Zhou Huacheng

Zhejiang Literature amp; Art Publishing House

January 2023

58.00 （CNY）

This book tells the stories of ancient covered bridges in southern Zhejiang， with a cultural prose style. It presents the spiritual connotation behind the covered bridge culture with quiet and profound language and shows readers the strong spiritual support brought by this ancient building. The author spent more than two years searching for Taishun Covered Bridge. He integrated documentary into pure literature and expressed the rich connotation of the covered bridge as Zhejiang’s cultural business card with enchanting literary language.

It was too late when Dong Zhiji’s name was discovered. He almost forgot that he had built the bridge. After a long time， someone found traces on an old bridge.

It was a stone arch wooden flat-beam covered bridge called Taifu Bridge in Shangyang village， Lingbei. Why was it called Taifu Bridge？ Because this bridge was an essential bridge from Taishun， Zhejiang， to Fujian. In 2003， several cultural relic workers visited Shangyang village and found the words “Shengmo Dong Zhiji” on the beam of Taifu Bridge.

“Shengmo” refers to the designer and architect of a covered bridge. This bridge was built in 1948. If the architect was young when he built the bridge， he might still be alive. Thus， the cultural relic workers， Xue Yiquan and others， immediately changed their itinerary and looked around Lingbei for the covered bridge architect named Dong Zhiji.

In the mountainous areas of southern Zhejiang and northern Fujian， there are a variety of covered bridges. For example， there are stone arch covered bridges， wooden flat beam covered bridges， cantilever covered bridges， wooden arch covered bridges， etc. Among all the covered bridges， the wooden arch covered bridge requires the most complicated construction techniques. It is a masterpiece in bridge history and a living fossil for studying ancient Chinese bridges. It has been included by UNESCO in the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

The construction techniques of wooden arch covered bridges are rare in previous data， especially about the “Lao Si” （the respectful name of “old master” in the Taishun dialect）， who masters the construction techniques. Experts repeatedly investigated the existing ancient wooden arch covered bridges in southern Zhejiang and northern Fujian. They found that most of the old covered bridges were made by architects in Fujian.

From the mid-1990s， many cultural relics workers searched several times， but the results were disappointing. Things last longer than men. The covered bridge remained， but there wouldn’t be anyone in the world who could build a new covered bridge through traditional techniques.

The words “Shengmo Dong Zhiji” found on Taifu Bridge were exciting to cultural relic workers. Xue Yiquan， accompanied by their Literature and History Committee comrades of Taishun County Political Consultative Conference， visited every village and household along Lingbei Ancient Road to seek the legendary Master Dong.

They walked a long way and arrived at Cunwei village. The villagers took the strange guests to a stone table under ancient trees， pointed to an old man， and said： “He is the Master Dong you are looking for.”

Dong Zhiji didn’t expect that someone would have visited him for bridge construction in his old days.

When he was “found，” he was 79 years old， but he looked hale and hearty.

After learning about the construction of Taifu Bridge， the visitors nervously asked if the older man could build a wooden arch woven beam bridge.

The old man calmly said he fully mastered this technique. Moreover， he kept his dream of building a wooden arch woven-beam bridge.

At the age of 13， Dong Zhiji stayed at the home of his relative in Shouning of northern Fujian. At that time， a place named Yangmeizhou was building a covered bridge. Dong Zhiji went to watch it. There， he saw a 70-year-old bridge architect lift a beam weighing 500 kilograms into the air with wooden pulleys and frames.

Driven by curiosity， Dong Zhiji ran to the construction site for over ten days.

Dong Zhiji was clever and diligent. He helped the masters on the construction site， so the bridge architect taught him some bridge construction techniques. Dong Zhiji kept the whole process in mind. From then on， an idea grew in his mind： he would also build a beautiful covered bridge.

For this dream， Dong Zhiji began to learn to be a carpenter from his master at the age of 17. He worked hard with his master for three years and became a carpenter， but he had no chance to build a covered bridge. Whenever he talked about the idea of building a covered bridge， villagers didn’t believe it -- a young carpenter could build a covered bridge. The old generation of carpenters scorned his idea： “We can’t realize it. Can you？”

Every day， a regular carpenter carried a burden of utensils， walking on the long ancient road in the village， from one household to another. Every host had different carpentry jobs to do. It would take more than ten days to finish the jobs for one household. After the carpenter finished the jobs for a household， he would do the next， and repeat the same process.

It was the same with Dong Zhiji. He had to bury his dream of building a covered bridge in his heart. He had been able to construct large wooden houses independently and make a living by undertaking such carpentry jobs required by villagers. When he was 24 years old， Shangyang village near Cunwei village was going to build a covered bridge. They had searched all around，" but none of the carpenters were qualified. Thus， someone found Dong Zhiji.

After he was invited to construct the wooden covered bridge， Dong Zhiji was too excited to sleep all night. A covered bridge would lie among the mountains and rivers. It was very difficult for a carpenter to use his ink marker. A miss is as good as a mile. There were many failures in the history of covered bridge construction. A failure to build a bridge would make a carpenter ashamed all his life. His techniques would no longer be trusted by villagers， and his career would be ruined. What could be worse than this？ Therefore， many carpenters wouldn’t easily take on" this difficult task. But for young Dong Zhiji， these troubles didn’t exist because he had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.

In 1948， among the mountains and fields of Taishun， a wooden arch covered bridge appeared in Shangyang Village as expected， winning people’s praise. This bridge， elegant and beautiful， was the Taifu Bridge. During the construction process of Taifu Bridge， there were various folk activities， such as choosing pillars， choosing auspicious dates， offering sacrifices to the carpenter god， offering sacrifices to the beam god， throwing beams， etc. Every procedure was full of people’s expectations for good luck and happiness and carried the villagers’ pursuit for a better life.

Taifu Bridge was completed， but Dong Zhiji still had some regrets. In the original construction plan， the covered bridge had two layers of eaves and 11 bridge houses. The construction plan was changed halfway to reduce expenses. There would be one layer of eaves， and eleven bridge houses were cut to nine. This reduced the momentum of the covered bridge to a certain extent.

The most regrettable thing was that the bridge houses were built on a stone support bar rather than a suspending wooden beam. He had taken it to heart that he hadn’t set up the wooden beam with his own hands.

In the following decades， Dong Zhiji never had a chance to show his techniques. Such a “hero” with peerless techniques had lived a common life like this. He was covered by countless ordinary days and trifles and dressed from a vigorous young man into an ordinary old man.

Zhou Huacheng

Zhou Huacheng is a writer， a member of the China Writers Association， an independent publisher， and the founder of “Father’s Paddy Field.” He has published over 20 collections of essays and works totaling more than 1 million characters.