Wentu/Ying Zhigang

At the beginning of winter, a guide to "Suzhou Shooting Ginkgo" was revealed in the circle of friends. Huangdai Old Street in Xiangcheng was one of the "must-check-in" locations.

The old street has a total length of more than 1,300 meters. In the past, there were many shops and thousands of leaf boats. Merchants from all directions passed by. It has always been an important commercial port in northwest Suzhou and the Xidong area of Wuxi. It is known as the "Yinhuangdai".

The houses preserved to this day are built next to the river. Most of them are buildings during the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. They have white walls and black tiles, streets and rivers, and stone ports. They have the unique style of an ancient town in the south of the Yangtze River with a typical "small bridge, flowing water, and people's homes".

There is an ancient ginkgo tree more than 800 years old on Huangdai Old Street. The tree is 14 meters tall and 4.29 meters around the tree body. It has lush branches and leaves.

Every season, golden "little fans" fall with the wind, creating a poetic scene of "falling leaves one after another and building fragrance".

Ancient ginkgo trees grow in the middle of the old street and are wrapped in many simple houses. They are called White Orchard.

Ginkgo is a common name for ginkgo, and its place name is based on trees. It seems that this ancient ginkgo tree has a great reputation.

There are many local versions of legends about the origin of ginkgo, but the most widely circulated one is related to the story of the Taiping Rebellion.

It is said that Baiguoyuan is the training ground for the Taiping Rebellion Army to train in Huangdai. This ginkgo tree was planted by Tan Shaoguang, King Mu.

During the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, Suzhou was the Sufu Province of the Taiping Rebellion. In the early spring of 1862, Tan Shaoguang, the king of Mu, presided over the stay in Suzhou. One day, when he was passing through Huangdai, a woman accused the local deputy military attache of molesting and insulting the bride.

King Mu set up a temporary station in Huangdai for three days to hear the case. He tried cases every morning and led his entourage to inspect nearby villages in the afternoon to understand the sufferings of the people and do many commendable practical things.

The military attache who molested women was found to be beheaded, and the local area left ruins such as the "King Mu's Executing Office" and the "Knife Dub Stone Dog Head".

Before King Mu left, he saw rural farmers selling saplings, so he purchased two ginkgo saplings and planted them in the backyard open space himself. This is the origin of this ancient ginkgo tree.

But I personally think this is not credible, because the Taiping Rebellion has been less than 200 years since then, which is not consistent with the age of Ginkgo biloba. I prefer to believe that this was made up by a storyteller in Huangdai Town.

Storytellers, who were previously honored as Mr. Storytellers, are first-class at composing and telling stories.

As a large market town where supplies were distributed in various towns in the northwest of Wu County and Ganlu, Dangkou, Changshu Xinzhuang, Yangyou and other places in Wuxi, Huangdai was home to merchants from all directions in ancient times, and it was naturally a must-visit dock for storytellers.

"If you don't know how to tell stories, you have to pass through Huangdai Old Wharf." Huangdai Town was once the largest ancient dock in Wu County in history. On the old street alone, there were nine bookstores including Wanyunlou, Changyuan and Yiyuan. Huangdai Bookstore is also known as "Suzhou Little Guangyu".

Huangdai Bookstore is one of the oldest folk Pingtan Bookstores in Suzhou. It is located in the original Xiyu Cottage at the west end of the old street.

The Xiyu Cottage was built in the 30th year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty. It was originally the house of the squire Zhu Fuxi and was carefully built by craftsmen from the "Xiangshan Gang".

A knowledgeable old man said that the name Xiyu Cottage was named after the meaning of "Shu Ji Xian Xi" in "Shang Shu·Yao Dian" and the meaning of "Sing high to the clouds and rejoice for many years" in "Shi Chongwen"; the second is that the name of the owner "Fuxi" means "more than a year".

In the early years, guests gathered here and high-ranking guests, and there were from time to time major figures in the pingtan industry such as Jiang Yuequan, Xu Yunzhi, Yan Xueting, Huang Yi 'an, etc. who came to perform.

Today's Centenary Bookstore is still open to the public and there are often performances. The Huangdai Pingtan Exhibition Hall, located in Xiyu Cottage, is equipped with many Pingtan performing props and hundreds of old photos.

The antique brick-carved gate buildings, window lattices that exude the light of history, and the ancient Magnolia trees that bloom unshakably every year are all immersive in the old year.

After walking through the long preparation, in the crisscrossing light and dark light, in a trance, the 46 famous Pingtan masters who have been to Huangdai Bookstore since the end of the Qing Dynasty are ringing strings in front of you, sounding a soft and glutinous "soul enticing tone" lingering around the house.