38. A glimpse of the "Forbidden City"

After coming out of Jieyang Academy, turn right, then left, walk a hundred meters along the alley and you will see a stone wall foundation. Turning the corner along the wall, there is a stone tablet standing underground. This is the "Forbidden City". It is said that there used to be a moat around the city wall, but now it has been filled in to become a road. Most of the ancient wall paint has fallen off, revealing the stones inside. This section of the remaining city wall is about 500 meters long, more than 3 meters thick and about 3 meters high. It is made entirely of stone and sealed with shell ash. The city wall is circular in shape and is built entirely with staggered stone slabs. It still stands tall after hundreds of years. The wall in the alley is the outer wall of the Forbidden City ruins. There is moss on the large and small stones. Tall banyan trees grow on the wall, and the roots of the trees are rooted in the cracks of the stones. They have strong vitality! These three banyan trees from the Song Dynasty have become one with the city wall. The walls of the Forbidden City look dilapidated, but they are full of age, like walking into a time tunnel. This is the true "face" of history. The Forbidden City, also known as the "Golden City", was first built in the Yuan Dynasty (1352) by Dabudai, the then Jieyang Darughachi (Mongolian: seal-holding official), around the county office. At that time, the anti-Yuan struggle was fierce across the country. Dabudai built this stone city to strengthen the protection of the county government. During the Tianshun period of the Ming Dynasty, the county magistrate Chen Jue carried out large-scale construction, improving the inner city and widening the outer city. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Forbidden City was used as a county government office, and later as a prison and examination hall. "Golden City Banyan Tree", one of the "Eight Scenic Spots of Jieyang" in the Ming Dynasty, refers to the ancient banyan trees in the Forbidden City. It is still very shocking to see them now - growing tenaciously on the walls. During the Republic of China period, the Forbidden City was opened as Zhongshan Park. In the 1980s, when a place name census was conducted, the place names surrounding Jincheng were named "Forbidden City Foot", and the name "Forbidden City" has since spread widely. In October 2012, the Forbidden City was listed as the seventh batch of provincial cultural relics protection units. There are buildings and other structures within the current city walls. The best way to see the city wall is from the outside. It is nearly a thousand years old and is the only stone wall from the Yuan Dynasty in the country. Guo Zhiqi, a minister of the Ming Dynasty and a native of Jieyang, wrote a poem praising the banyan trees in the Forbidden City: "Ode to the Color of the Banyan Trees in the Golden City": The dense and luxuriant trees look lush and green. It is said to be the ancient banyan tree village in Lingguo. All year round, the frost covers the area with dense and sparse smoke, and the clouds are all green and misty. When did people sing about Du Fu on the road? Today, I recite about Gan Tang in the south of the state. The sky gives the hot earth a rest, so its remaining shade provides coolness for a hundred miles. The poem describes the banyan tree as tall and dense, evergreen all the year round, people's love for the banyan tree, and the coolness it brings in summer. Both "di" (fourth tone) Du and "gantang" are from the Book of Songs, and mean trees that grow alone. Visiting the Forbidden City Wall allows you to enjoy the ancient scenery and understand poetry, which is a lot of fun during the tour! This is one of the most culturally significant attractions we saw in Jieyang. (to be continued)