“Going to the West Gate” is an ancient Shanxi folk song, which is said to have been passed down for one or two hundred years. This song can be sung not only by Shanxi people, but also by many people in Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, and even further away in Ningxia, Qinghai, and Gansu. There is an old saying in China called “Ten miles of different sounds”, which means that folk songs have strong regional characteristics. The reason why people in many places in the Northwest can sing “Walking to the West Gate” is probably because many Shanxi people have been to these places at that time, and some of them have been singing this song for a long time, and the local people have also learned it. .
Many local chronicles of Shanxi, Ming and Qing dynasties also mentioned the experience of Shanxi people going to the Northwest to make a living at that time. Because there are so many people who have this experience, it has become a custom in some places. “Taigu County Chronicles” records that the people of Taigu County “besides farming, they are good at making a living, and it is common to travel thousands of miles”. “Yu County Chronicles” said that “they often serve Jia from afar, even though they are thousands of miles away.” “Shouyang County Chronicle” said that “half of the villagers traded in Yannan and Saibei”. Liang Xiaomin, professor of Beijing Technology and Business University: “When did Shanxi people go to the west entrance? It probably started in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and then the end time was probably at the end of the Qing Dynasty. The climax should be in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, when the number is the largest. What about the west exit? It should have lasted for nearly 300 years, and it should be said that there were two situations in taking the west exit. One situation was that Shanxi had a large population at that time, so life was more difficult. So what? The population migrated out, this is part of the population The other part is due to the needs of border defense in Inner Mongolia at that time, so Shanxi merchants developed in the middle of Ming Dynasty to meet the needs of border defense in Inner Mongolia. Then some people went to Xikou to meet this requirement and develop outside the mouth industry, trade development, and later to the ticket number. So the phenomenon of taking the west exit is actually a part of Chinese immigration.”
A folk song actually pulls out a thick history, this history contains the fate of thousands of people. And their fate is more or less related to that place called Xikou. So where is the west exit?
This is the original West Gate, which is located in Youyu County at the junction of Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. It is actually a pass on the Great Wall, and its real name is Shahukou.
In the Ming Dynasty, in order to prevent the Mongolian cavalry from going south, a large number of troops were stationed here. After the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the Mongolian tribe eased, it was opened up as a market for trade between the two sides. The three emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty successively sent troops to quell the rebellion in the northwest, and Shahukou became a logistics base for supplying food and grass for the army. After the war, it became the gateway for Shanxi people to enter the northwest region. Due to the many merchants coming and going, it even caused the commercial prosperity of this place for a time.
A resident of Shahukou Village, Youyu County, Shanxi Province: “It’s prosperous. In the past, I heard people say that there are 3,600 families in this place. Go straight from here, and you will arrive at Hohhot, Datong, Baotou, and Xibaotou. There are about four to five hundred at the moment.” Residents of Shahukou Village, Youyu County, Shanxi: “I never mention Youyu County, but it has no name, but when it comes to Shahukou, it is called Little Beijing, which is famous.” Shahukou, Youyu County, Shanxi Village resident: “In the past, it was a place where gold and silver were fought every day. I have lost my teeth, so I can’t tell the truth. Do you understand the meaning? There is nothing to say. Anyway, there used to be a household office with a lot of buildings. Seventy-two There is a temple, and we can’t remember it for a while.”
A resident of Shahukou Village, Youyu County, Shanxi: “Yu, Zhang, and Ma. These three families are very rich. Those with flagpoles in front of their houses are all high-ranking officials.”
The changes in Shahukou can actually be regarded as a microcosm of the history of Shanxi in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. If we look at Shanxi from the perspective of the whole of China, we will find that Shanxi is adjacent to the Mongolian grassland in the north and the hinterland of the Central Plains in the south. Herdsmen on the grassland need the tea and cloth grown by the farmers, and the farmers in the Central Plains cannot do without the cattle and horses raised by the herdsmen. This mutual need will inevitably lead to commercial exchanges. If commercial exchanges are artificially blocked, they can only be resolved by means of war.
But regardless of war or peace, Shanxi may be the shortest passage connecting the hinterland of the Central Plains and the Mongolian grassland. Those who want to establish a powerful dynasty in China can see this very clearly. Before the royal family of the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, when formulating their strategy for managing the Central Plains, they took Shanxi as one of the areas that must be controlled. They believed that “Shandong is a route for grain transportation, and Shanxi is a route for merchants, so it is very suitable for recruiting. If the soldiers and people of the two provinces belong to our territory, there will be wealth and wealth, and the country will not be short of it.”
These words are not just words. As soon as the Qing soldiers entered the customs, the emperor Shunzhi had not yet sat firmly on the dragon chair in the Forbidden City, and immediately summoned the eight most famous Shanxi businessmen at that time. “Banqueting in the hall and giving clothes” is both a treat and a gift. In the end, these merchants were included in the ranks of the “Imperial Merchant” managed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The extra-standard courtesy of Emperor Shunzhi brought great rewards for the subsequent rulers of the Qing Dynasty. In the fifteenth year of Yongzheng, the imperial court mobilized troops from nine provinces to put down the rebellion in Qinghai. After the Qing army entered the depths of the grassland, due to the long supply line, it was difficult to supply the army food.
Just when the court was at a loss, a Shanxi businessman named Fan Yubin stood up and said, “Leave this matter to me!” Fan Yubin’s grandfather happened to be one of the eight businessmen who attended the banquet given by Emperor Shunzhi.
What is difficult for a country to achieve may be even more difficult for a businessman. Once, Fan Yubin’s 130,000 tans of military rations transported to the front were robbed by the rebels. He sold almost all his family property and collected 1.44 million taels of silver to buy food for supplementary transportation.
Today, we can find Fan Yubin’s name in “Manuscripts of Qing History Biography”. In this “Biography”, it is said that he “traveled thousands of miles in the desert, did not work for officials, did not disturb his neighbors, and he would arrive at the appointed time, saving hundreds of millions of state expenses”.
The Fan family won the trust and appreciation of the court by “destroying the family to relieve their difficulties”. In return, the court generously gave the Fan family the privilege of trading with the nomadic peoples in the northwest. This was a huge business opportunity for Fan Yubin’s family, because before that, the imperial court strictly prohibited Han people from entering the grasslands to trade with herdsmen.
The road to the west exit was thus opened up.
Scholar Yu Qiuyu: “This involves a very important issue. It is the northwest, a very remote place, and the climate is very cold. Although the rulers of the Qing Dynasty came from the northeast, they are still unfamiliar with the northwest, and the ecology is still different. In this Under the circumstances, according to what we think of now, it is very difficult to call the logistics supply, so they have a very smart policy, that is, whether all the expenses of the soldiers on the border have been resolved through certain commercial methods and commercial operation methods. Then you If it can be resolved, our imperial court will give you another kind of promise, such as the promise of selling salt. In this case, Shanxi is the first to bear the brunt. Its geographical location plays a big role, it is in the center of our Central Plains rule For example, like Beijing and other places, Shanxi is a very important gateway to the northwestern frontier. This is a very important gateway. The group has a direction.”
These courtyards are the houses that Shanxi people built for themselves after they went to Xikou to make a fortune. Now they are used as a symbol of the wealth of Shanxi merchants. If you explore the history of these courtyards a little, you will find an interesting phenomenon. The first-generation owners of these courtyards were almost all poor peasants who had nowhere to go in their hometowns before going to the west entrance.
The Qiao Family Courtyard used to be home to one of the most famous big businessmen in Shanxi. Their business is mainly opened in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia. In their heyday, they almost monopolized all trade and operation activities in Baotou. The development path of the Qiao family from shabby poverty to great wealth started when the ancestor Qiao Guifa left the West Gate.
Qiao Yiqing, the sixth-generation grandson of Qiao Guifa: “When he first went to Baotou, Qiao Guifa didn’t have any money, so he worked as a laborer. Later, he made some money, but the business was not very good at the beginning, so he returned to Baotou. He started farming again in his hometown. For his small business in Baotou, he asked a fellow villager surnamed Qin to guard it.”
Now the specific meaning of Xikou is controversial. Some say it is the Yellow River ferry in the north of Shanxi and kill the tiger; some say it is west of Zhangjiakou in Hebei. In the Qing Dynasty, it generally refers to the vast Inner Mongolia area north of Shanxi and west of Zhangjiakou, Hebei, such as Baotou and other places. Because this is the junction of the Qing government and the Mongols, the land is vast and sparsely populated, and further north is the Mongolian grassland, which is the Mongols.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a pass was set up in the northern part of Hebei, Shanxi, and Shaanxi, and the place north of the pass was called Waikou. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, commodity trade with the Mongols had to be carried out at several designated points outside the mouth, similar to the establishment of foreign trade ports in places bordering Russia and Kazakhstan today. Merchants in Shanxi wanted to do business outside the mouth, so they had to pass through the pass, and later they were called to leave the west entrance. Going to Xikou later became a general term. Merchants from Shanxi, Shaanxi and Hebei who went to do business outside the mouth all called Xikou. This incident had a great impact on later generations. A large number of Han people immigrated to the outside of the mouth, stabilizing the frontier.
Baotou, now one of the largest cities on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, has a population of over two million. More than a hundred years ago, it was just a small village called Baoketu. People in Baotou said that the prototype of today’s Baotou City was formed little by little because Shanxi people came here to do business. Now there is still a saying in Baotou City that “there was Fusheng Gong first, and Baotou City came later”. Fusheng Gong is the name of a business house opened by a businessman surnamed Qiao in Shanxi more than a hundred years ago. Many local chronicles of Shanxi, Ming and Qing dynasties also mentioned the experience of Shanxi people going to the Northwest to make a living at that time. Because there are so many people who have this experience, it has become a custom in some places.
Shanxi people began to go to the West Gate in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and the end time was probably the end of the Qing Dynasty. The climax should be in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, when the number was the largest. Going to the west exit lasted for nearly three hundred years, and it should be said that there are two situations in taking the west exit. One situation was that Shanxi had a relatively large population at that time, so life was more difficult. So what? Population migration, this is a part of the people. The other part is due to the needs of border defense in Inner Mongolia at that time, so Shanxi merchants developed in the middle of Ming Dynasty to meet the needs of border defense in Inner Mongolia. Then some people went to the west entrance to meet this requirement, to develop business and trade outside the entrance, so that they became the ticket number later. So the phenomenon of taking the west exit is actually a part of Chinese immigrants.
At that time, there were many poor men in Shanxi. The reason for their poverty was not because of laziness, but because of the harsh natural conditions in Shanxi. A scholar in Shanxi in the Qing Dynasty once said sadly when talking about Shanxi, “There is no fertile land for flat land, no benefits for irrigation by water springs, no benefits for boats and carts to fish rice. Life”. “Sweating cow hurts servant” means that the cow is already sweating profusely, but the owner still has to pump it hard. In traditional society, cattle are not only the most valuable possessions in the family for farmers, but also their working partners. Unless it is a last resort, it is easy to not use such desperate orders. But even with such hard work, the food produced in the fields is still not enough to make ends meet. A man named Ren Qiyun in the Qing Dynasty said, “Two hundred and forty steps in the south of the Yangtze River are mus, and a thousand steps in Shanxi are mus, and the annual income of the fields is less than one-tenth of that in the south of the Yangtze River.” “. The local chronicles of Datong even say that the Datong area is “every year is rich, and the mu is not full of buckets.”
Shanxi is not only barren, but also has frequent natural disasters. During the more than 300 years of the Qing Dynasty, there were more than 100 disasters in the whole province of Shanxi, with an average of once every three years, and the longest drought lasted 11 years. According to official statistics, more than three million Shanxi people died in this famine. When one side of water and soil is not enough to support one side, Shanxi people can only go out. The folk song called “Walking to the West Gate” began to be heard in villages and roadsides in Shanxi. Its lyrics are actually some homely words that wives say when they bid farewell to their husbands and girls who bid farewell to their lovers. Since we don’t know when we will meet again after we parted, so I give more and more trivial instructions, for fear that there will be something that I can’t think of.
No matter how reluctant to go, they still left, gritted their teeth, thinking that one day they must walk back again, and then they really came back. On this barren land that forced them to go out, they built solid and magnificent courtyards for their wives and children. This is a general route map for Shanxi people to go to the west exit.
Starting from the central and northern parts of Shanxi, one goes west, exits through the Shahu Pass, and enters the Mongolian grassland; the other goes east, passes through Datong, exits through Zhangjiakou, and enters Mongolia. A series of passes set by the Great Wall. Since it is a pass on the Great Wall, it was originally used as a military fortress, so the geographical location is naturally very dangerous. Yanmen Pass is located in the Taihang Mountains with an average altitude of 1,500 meters. It is said to be named because the location is too high. After the pass is built, wild geese flying in the air can only pass through the gate hole. One or two hundred years ago, people from Shanxi who walked to the west entrance walked along the rugged mountain road and climbed over these mountains that could not be seen at a glance. In order to reach the grassland in spring, they often had to choose to start this long trek in cold weather.
Under such conditions, Shanxi people have not only passed through the past, but have passed through it generation after generation. Guguan is a gateway in the northeast of Shanxi. The road through Guguanguan City is paved with thick bluestones. Due to the continuous flow of people and horses, over time, even ruts a few inches deep have been rolled on these bluestones.
If it is said that these are only geographical barriers, then Shanxi people who pass through here and go to the west entrance have to face psychological barriers one after another.
Less than a hundred kilometers north of Yanmen Pass, there is a village called Qidaodi. There are two main roads beside the village, one leads to Shahukou and the other leads to Zhangjiakou. Although both roads can eventually reach the Mongolian grassland, where should the long journey go?
For the Shanxi people who first walked out of the mouth, the Mongolian grasslands only pinned their vague hopes. What the hell can they do there? What will happen? Everyone is not clear. Those who had no choice but to grit their teeth and hold back tears and walked out of the house without hesitation began to hesitate when faced with the choice in front of them. Back then, many of them stood on this hill called Huanghualiang and sang that sad song.
A villager in Qidaodi, Shanyin County, Shanxi Province: “The people from the south come up here and say that once you climb up this beam, you can see the bottom (two roads), which means, ‘Come up to a yellow flower beam, two eyes Wow, I’m teary, I think of my wife first, and then my mother!’ This is just a jingle.” A villager from Qidao, Shanyin County, Shanxi: “He’s not sure, he doesn’t know where to go, If the business is good or the business is bad, he will throw shoe boards here, take off the shoe and throw it away, he will go wherever he throws it, and he will walk on the other side if it is good or bad.” This kind of approach is not Resigning to fate, it is more like a gamble, a gamble with fate, and God. The bet is one’s own life.
Liu Lu, a professional writer of the Inner Mongolia Writers Association: “First, when a Shanxi native walks to the west entrance, the first thing he encounters is a bandit. The bandit wants to rob him halfway, and there is a place called Heitu Yazi. As soon as he enters Baotou from Fugu County, there is a place called Heitu Yazi. This place is a place haunted by bandits, so many people were buried in the sandworm in the desert, robbed and robbed; and they were frozen to death, because the climate in the northern grassland is cold, it is not like the Central Plains, unlike Shanxi It was so warm in his mouth. He didn’t understand that there was no forecast from the meteorological department at that time, he didn’t understand that there was a snowstorm, the road was impassable, and there was no way to freeze to death, and some starved to death and lost their way in the desert.” Yan Zhiguo, a professional writer from Shanxi Academy of Literature: “There is a pass, and the scenery in the pass is still inland, and there is no wind and sand. But when I open the gate from this pass, I opened the gate, and a gust of wind blows in from outside. Take a step forward, and you will enter the Mongolian wasteland, full of wind and sand. So on the way to the west entrance, you can still see the bones of Shanxi people. Ice, forty degrees below zero; in summer, it’s so hot that you can pass out, if that’s the case, Shanxi businessmen still walk there.” Liu Lu, a professional writer from the Inner Mongolia Writers’ Association: “So people in Shanxi say that I’m risking my life to go to the west entrance.”
No one has counted how many Shanxi people trekked in this wilderness and desert from the early Qing Dynasty to the 1940s, but many local chronicles of Shanxi have recorded a large number of such stories.
