The Sajin Bridge is not a bridge, but a street. There is no gold on the Golden Sprinkling Bridge, but it hides the food color of countless Xi’an people and lives in the market.
Is there gold on the Sprinkled Gold Bridge?
In the early autumn, passing through the Suzaku City Gate with a hint of coolness, and walking through the crowded Xiaonanmen morning market, West Street was not fully awake at this time. Carrying fresh vegetables, melons and fruits, and freshly baked biscuits, line up at the breakfast stall to buy a piece of oil tea, ask for a pancake from the stall next door, or sit on the roadside with a bowl of hot and spicy soup. It is the way of life for the locals living near Sajin Bridge to settle for a breakfast with Tuo Tuo Mo.
To the west of the Bell Tower, next to the Drum Tower, is Huifang (Muslim Street) in the center of Xi’an, which has long been a landmark food street in the city. In order to meet the needs of tourism development, it has been renovated several times before and after, but the original structure has continued. The alleys are intricate: Xicang East, West, South and North Lanes, large and small learning lanes, east and west lanes. Sheep Market, Guangji Street, Qiaozikou… There are so many road names that a local person is often dizzy. Even if there are so many names, big and small, the street in Huifang with a subway station in the name of the road is a unique treatment – that is the Sajin Bridge, which is about 800 meters long on the west side of Huifang. When you walk it for the first time, it is difficult to associate it with the shiny name of the street, which is less than five meters wide. There are many legends in this name.
Sajin Bridge has changed its name many times. In the Tang Dynasty, its location was called Daqiao Street, which led directly to Qingshui Bridge on Guangyun Lake in front of Guangyun Gate. At that time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Guangyun Gate was the palace valet agency, so Daqiao Street took the opportunity to take the burden of transporting the goods from the whole country into the royal warehouse. After that, it was renamed Tielu Street in the Southern Song and Yuan Dynasties, and then changed to Tielufang in the Ming Dynasty. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the northern section of the street was mainly inhabited by people with the surname Sha, so it was named Shajiaqiao.
There are many different theories about the origin of the word “sprinkling gold”. The most famous one comes from the Qin Opera aria “Gathering Gold”. Accompanied by the crisp and long tune of Banhu, the clown played by the famous Qin Opera actor Sun Cundie sang on the stage:
“Hey, this person is walking happily, what did he put on me and mixed it up… oh, what is this, it’s wrapped in red and red paper, um, it’s hard to pinch, hey Ah, it’s still heavy when I weigh it, hey, what is this, hey, this, this, this… Ha, ha, it must be that the heavens have opened their eyes, my world is turning, and the good dream last night was fulfilled. I have an ingot of gold, why don’t you make me happy, haha, hey hey…”
This play sings a poor beggar “Hu Lai”. He dreamed in the Chenghuang Temple that he was given gold by the Lord of the Chenghuang Temple. After waking up and returning home, he was pleasantly surprised to find a package. At first glance, he thought that the package was full of gold as in a dream , but in the end it turned out that it was just a brick. In view of the fact that the City God Temple in Xi’an is located less than one kilometer near the Sajin Bridge, the story of “picking up gold” in the play has become the source of the name of the Sajin Bridge today.
There is another story more familiar to the elderly who have been living nearby. During the Song Dynasty, three brothers surnamed Li lived in Sajin Bridge. One day, the three brothers were on their way home when they were blocked by a large stone on the bridge at an intersection. In order to allow the wood-pulling car to cross the bridge, the eldest brother stepped forward and tried to kick the stone away, but unsuccessfully, the three brothers had to work together to move it away, but who knew that the stone rolled straight to their door. After returning home, the three of them didn’t pay attention to the stone, until they looked at the door early the next morning and were surprised to find that the stone was actually a large gold nugget.
Since then, the road in front of the three brothers’ house has been called the Sajin Bridge.
In addition, some people firmly believe that the name is derived from an event recorded in the Book of Tang Xuanzong. It is written in the book that Emperor Xuanzong “feasted the princes and a hundred officials at the Chengtianmen, and ordered the left and right to spread money downstairs”. At that time, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty allowed the officials of the fifth grade and above in Zhongshu and Menxia Province, and the officials of the third grade and above in each Yamen to pick up these gold coins and give them according to their grades. Later, it was confirmed by archaeological excavations that the Chengtianmen in the Sui and Tang Dynasties mentioned in the book was only 500 meters away from today’s Sajin Bridge. In this way, the name of the Sajin Bridge may also be related to this.
If you want to find out the authenticity of the legend, you may choose to take a walk to the Sajin Bridge in the early morning. Under the shade of the trees on both sides of the narrow street, you can see the soon-rising sun shining through the leaves, hitting the road with bright yellow sunlight. Like gold scattered all over the place.
The ancient capital starts here in the morning
My friends often ask me when they come to Xi’an: How can I go shopping in Xi’an? Even though I was born and raised here, this question has always troubled me. In my eyes, whether it is the Bell and Drum Towers, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the city walls or the Huifang, they all show two different stories every morning and night.
The uneven bluestone road, the asphalt road curved by the old tree roots, every slight bump of the bicycle is like the pulse and heartbeat of the city. In recent years, the business district outside the south gate of the city wall has developed rapidly, with many high-rise buildings. Entering the city from the side entrance of Yongning Gate, there is a feeling of stepping through the gate of time and space. The advertising signs outside the door have changed and changed, but many old buildings in the city have not changed in memory.
My friends often ask me when they come to Xi’an: How can I go shopping in Xi’an? Even though I was born and raised here, this question has always troubled me. In my eyes, whether it is the Bell and Drum Towers, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the city walls or the Huifang, they all show two different stories every morning and night.
In the early morning of the Sajin Bridge, this feeling of eternity and inauthenticity became more and more intense. Unlike the lively morning market under the city wall, or the whistling of motor vehicles on the road outside the city wall, the morning here is as quiet as a remote village away from the city. The road is quite narrow, barely enough to pass two cars. Walking through the twisty road, most of the ordinary people’s lives are hidden behind the doors on both sides. Passing by an open door by chance, you can see the deep yellowed hallway.
The breakfast at Jinqiao is very rich. Since the beginning of the early morning, Xi’an, the “Capital of Carbs and Water”, has confirmed that this title is not just for nothing. Boil the oil tea and twist in the pot together, and sprinkle the fried naan when eating. Thinking about it carefully, these seem to be made of flour. It is nothing more than adding some sesame powder and crushed peanuts and almonds, but it really makes the flavor. . A bit more “luxurious”, and add a soft tea egg. If the locals can evaluate such a breakfast, there is nothing more than two words – comfortable or a bowl of spicy soup with potatoes, carrots and gourd meatballs cooked softly. Rotten, pour a few spoonfuls of oil and spicy seeds, break a white flour cake, soak it and eat it. Like the thick white china bowl that holds the Hu spicy soup, this one comes quite happily. The elderly in the neighborhood prefer to ask roadside vendors to dig a piece of cake from a vat when shopping for vegetables and fruits, and ask for a few dollars from a bamboo basket, which is the size of a face, and then cut it up. A piece of cured beef to take home for breakfast for the family.
In the narrow alley, the cauldron is steaming with white flowers, and the fragrance of various breakfasts is the best shout. The morning sprinkled on Jinqiao carries the traditional Guanzhong atmosphere, with a happy and wanton like Qin Opera, but also with the stability of the morning bell and the evening drum peaceful.
Internet celebrity snack street with masks off
There are three temples in Sajin Bridge, one is the nearby Xiwutai, which is only open on the 15th of every month, or some major festivals. For tourists, this is a place that always keeps people closed. As a royal monastery in ancient times, it has high regulations. The Qingyouni Temple inside is said to have been built by Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty.
The other two less than 200 meters apart are the Old Mosque and the Western Mosque along the street. Among them, the ancient temple is more famous, also known as the North Temple. It is said that it was built in the Yuan Dynasty and has a history of six or seven hundred years. However, due to repeated damages in different years for different reasons, the giant cypresses, plaques and glazed tiles of the past have disappeared. Save, except for the old locust tree in the temple gate and the gate, most of the others are newly repaired, and you can only glimpse its former gorgeous appearance from the left corners.
The Sajin Bridge after dark is another scene. Walking in from North Street, there are many unattended cart stalls parked at the intersection. The fumes from the barbecue stall smelled lively and choking. The steamed buns were rolled in a small iron pan. On the iron plate, the Huanggui persimmon cakes with crispy skin and sweet and soft inside were sizzling. Beef and mutton biscuits came out of the big pot. Take out, steaming hot. All kinds of food crowded on both sides of the road, entertaining tourists from all over the world.
When foreigners come to Xi’an, when it comes to snack streets, they always say, “Muslim Streets go to foreigners, locals only go to Sajin Bridge”, but I also heard locals say that today’s Sajin Bridge is gradually commercialized, and there are many fewer the taste of the past. It is undeniable that it may be recommended by various social platforms and short videos. The trail of Sajinqiao is forced to receive diners from all over the country at an excessive speed. Narrow streets, congested traffic, and pedestrians are so crowded that it is difficult to pass, and it seems to be silent, rejecting the too noisy sound.
Or perhaps, for any snack street that has the opportunity to deal with foreigners, copying and pasting the snacks of the “bad street” is an inevitable result. But when the tourists dispersed, the small shops that existed only for one-time consumption turned off the lights. The street did not lose its vitality, but became light and quiet. Grocery stores, residential buildings, girls sitting on wooden benches eating snacks, and scenes that can be seen everywhere, weave the elastic characteristics of the Sponge Golden Bridge: it is separated from the “scenic spot” status, and its value will not fade. From the beginning to the end, the roots of the Sajin Bridge are firmly tied to the neighbors from generation to generation.
I have heard the term “sponge city”, which refers to a city with a low-impact rainwater system that absorbs heavy rainfall like a sponge, stores water to prevent flooding, and squeezes out water to avoid droughts when rainwater is scarce. Looking at the golden bridge, I remembered this concept. Walking on the bluestone road of the Sajin Bridge, it seems that you can see a microscopic Xi’an city. The long history has left an insoluble taste in the building, and the people living in it have found a way to get along with it for a long time, that is, to dilute it with a peaceful life.
However, when another dawn comes, flocks of birds will fly from the sky above to the bell tower, the white steam in front of the steamed bread shop will rise from the opened cage, and the hawker will put out fresh fruit by the roadside as usual vegetable. Perhaps the word “life” is the attitude embraced by this ancient street.
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