Thirteen generations do not separate families, one family is one village, explore legend of "Single Gate Willow Tree" in depths of Taihang Mountains.

In depths of mountains, there is such a small village. Although they live a peaceful life, their ancestors have exciting stories in history. This makes people very curious, and during our visits we also found that we can all talk about ancient verses of this ancestor. You should know that in ancient times, those who could leave their name in human impressions were all celebrities.

Moreover, we found that all inhabitants of this small village belong to same family. They are all descendants of same person, and all have surname Liu. Such a phenomenon is actually very hard to see in mountain villages, so what is story behind this small village?

(1) Liu Zongyuan

If you want to learn about history of this small village, you must start with famous poet. This Song Dynasty poet has an ancient poem that is especially familiar to us. But besides poet, he was also an official. But politics at that time were very dark, and he was also persecuted, emperor considered him a thorn in his side and a thorn in his body.

So that children and grandchildren are not implicated on their own and endanger Nine Clans. So when he sensed danger, he started holding a family meeting and said to all descendants, “Please go, go to all sides of country. Maintain your anonymity and stay out of public eye. Don spit on so-called Gold, silver and jewelry, main thing is to survive. Hurry up, go while it's dark, and don't talk to people along the way."

Thus, his descendants all began to flee in all directions of country, while he remained in political center, bearing wrath of emperor, and eventually died in depression. Presumably, before his death, he lay in a hospital bed, looked at door and thought about his descendants!

Actually, Liu Zongyuan is not a small family, but a very famous family in ancient times. The famous Liu Xiahui was his ancestor. Their family is also known as Hedong Liu family, and is a well-known extended family. In end, he turned out to be incognito, which can only be called an indisputable era.

(2) Wenxing West Village

We now find that small village where many of his descendants live is Xiwenxing Village. This place, specially chosen by his descendants at that time, is located in mountains and cannot be found by people.

And it is difficult to walk along a mountain road, it is difficult to be noticed by others. So they came here with their descendants and hid their names, because there were no people from same village, no one recognized their identity.

When this dynasty completely died, they also began to actively join world and participate in politics during Ming Dynasty.

One of most famous descendants is named Liu Ye, and it was he who brought their lineage to this small village. And they gained fame in politics, and gradually began to show glory of their surname.

After him, descendants who settled in this village gradually showed their abilities in various industries. Two of them were especially smart in business and started doing business during Qing Dynasty. He not only earned a lot of money, but also began to lead fellow villagers to earn money, making whole village rich.

After they had money in their hands, they began to build their ancestral homes, ancestral halls, Confucian temples, etc. in village, and also repaired all buildings related to genus. The villagers also began to build their own houses, old buildings are very original, so even now houses built by people of that time are also a kind of cultural heritage.

(3)Current village

Now as tourists we come to this village and there really are many places to visit. Colorful buildings in village are a kind of art, as an understanding person they will be very interesting.

In addition, many ancient buildings remain as an ancient village, and contrast between old and new produces a special expressive power. We will feel not only solemnity and solemnity of ancient times, but also novelty and development of modern times.

There is a place called Jiangge where descendants of Liu family helped government suppress White Lotus Sect during Qing Dynasty, so court gave them a sword. They specially built such a house in village as a sword pavilion to store sword given to him by emperor. They even set up net-like facilities such as nets and nets in courtyard to show that White Lotus Sect has no way to survive and nets are waiting for them.

But many years have passed since baptism by time and war, although this place has not suffered. But sword donated by emperor at that time has long since disappeared, and we can feel glory of family of that time only from portraits painted by later generations.

An era is a really wonderful thing. There can be glorious moments in family, and sunset. Everything seems to be in a hurry, and pace of time never stops waiting for someone. In comparison, Liu Zongyuan cared so much for his descendants when he died, and he would never have imagined that his descendants would be able to create such splendor in next few hundred years.