Xidi Travel Guide

Xidi Ancient Town is located near Mount Huangshan, known as the “Yellow Mountain”. It is a town with a very rural and ancient appearance, and its natural and cultural environment is top-notch. Here, people and nature work together in perfect harmony. This article will share a travel guide for a self-guided trip to Xidi.

Where is Xidi Ancient Town:

Eastern region of Yixian County, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, China.

What are the famous attractions in Xidi Ancient Town:

Xidi ancient village, Yuanyang Valley and Yanshan Natural Forest Park

A tiny village, like a grain of sand in the vast expanse of China; the time that a small village exists is like a fleeting moment compared to the five thousand years of Chinese civilization.

However, this small village, like a huge sponge, has absorbed the essence of traditional Chinese culture. If you can hold it in the palm of your hand, what drips through your fingers is rich cultural nourishment. The cultural history of Xidi is worth pondering.

Before writing this title, I came up with many names, such as “Xidi: The Symbol of Chinese Culture”, “Xidi: The Dream of Cultural Continuity”, “Xidi: The Village Surrounded by Culture”, but after much deliberation, I rejected them all.

The reason was that either they were too profound to understand, or their imagery was too illusory to write about, or they were too shallow and commonplace, failing to express what I wanted to say.

But no matter what, “Xidi” and “culture” are the core elements I want to convey. In the end, I settled on the words “imbued”, which gave me a feeling of unbridled relief from head to toe.

Yes, “imbued”.

Walking the streets and alleys, going through courtyards and halls in Xidi, one cannot help but feel the breeze and irrigation of traditional culture, like spring breeze, like dew, like warm sunshine, like a trickle.

Even the cracks in the walls of each house exude a rich, bookish fragrance, as if a sumptuous meal has already been laid out inside, waiting for the thirsty traveler to enjoy.

At this time, the powerful radiation of ancient Chinese cultural nutrients has irresistibly penetrated every pore and cell of the human body, until it ignites the whole body like fire, making people excited and amazed.

I never like to listen to tour guides’ endless explanations at every attraction, because they mix in too many commercial gimmicks, both real and false, that convey a lot of negative or wrong information, making people dubious and difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood, making people upset, and finally resulting in swallowing things whole and rushing through the sights. Especially in a place like Xidi, which has inherited a thousand years of cultural bloodline, it is even more necessary to isolate yourself from any outside interference, try your best to calm your mind, and contemplate and experience it with your heart. Only in this way can you truly appreciate its beauty.

Xidi does not have magnificent buildings that make people feel refreshed and amazed, nor does it have gorgeous scenery that makes people lose themselves in the flowers, but only rows of white-walled, black-tiled Hui-style buildings that stand quietly on both sides of the street, welcoming tourists from all over the world, with their age-old, mottled and worn appearance. Looking at their demeanor, they are like a learned scholar, full of wisdom and knowledge, with a dignified and unassuming demeanor, giving people a sense of awe and respect.

Learned scholars are often deep and introverted, but their brilliance is undeniable, and so is Xidi. Here, every building, including ancestral halls and archways, from the gate, windows, courtyards, pillars, halls, and studies …

… bears traces of traditional culture, such as carvings, calligraphy, painting, and poetry, either expounding on the way of being human, or talking about the principles of life, or discussing the way to govern the family, all of which are of a high artistic standard and intellectual depth. Whenever we are unaware of it, we can touch the flourishing branches and leaves of the giant tree of traditional Chinese culture.

Although it has been subjected to the merciless ravages of time, it appears even more verdant, alive, and full of life.

The story of Xidi has to start in the Tang dynasty, and there are written records that need not be elaborated on here. However, in terms of its rich cultural heritage, it is only through thousands of years of cultivation and accumulation by dynasties that it has achieved the splendid and colorful scene it is today. In the early days, Xidi was just a “hidden away” village in the vast land of China, little known to outsiders, but it has always existed silently in its own unique cultural way, day after day, accumulating energy.

The time when Xidi truly produced a wealth of talent was not in the Tang or Song dynasties, but in the Ming and Qing dynasties – this is the effect of culture being as gentle as rain and as thick as the soil, gradually accumulating over time.

In fact, the formation of any culture requires a long period of polishing and accumulation, and cannot be achieved overnight simply by shouting slogans.

Short-term gains and quick profits are like hormones and poison in the process of cultural growth, only eroding, distorting, and killing the genes of the original meaning of culture, eventually producing a batch of ugly, deformed, and even mutated cultural freaks.

The cultural history of Xidi tells us that for cultural individuals, solitude and perseverance are the best environment and driving force for cultural growth.

For only in solitude can one be dedicated; only in perseverance can one continue.

Xidi is just a small village near Mount Huangshan in southern Anhui, about 40 kilometers from the Huangshan Scenic Area, and the whole village has only one main street, which is not wide, running from east to west. It is the collective place of the Hu family, a descendant of the royal family of the Tang dynasty.

Due to the escape from feudal political persecution, a descendant of the royal family changed his surname from Li to Hu, and after many twists and turns, settled here.

Among the descendants of the Hu family, there were those who were successful in their careers, there were those who were learned, but there were also many who were involved in business, especially the famous Huikaiwen and Huguan San of the Qing dynasty, the red-top merchant Husheyan, and the famous modern cultural scholar Hu Shizhi.

However, whether they were officials or businessmen, the Hu family of Xidi always regarded cultural cultivation as the basis for their descendants to stand in the world. The opening line of the “Hu Family Code of Conduct” is “Reading is the foundation of starting a family.”

Some family members also based their ancestor’s teachings on this, creating couplets such as “Reading is good, business is good, effectiveness is good, convenience is good, starting a business is difficult, maintaining success is difficult, knowing is not difficult, not knowing is not difficult”, “For hundreds of years, families have nothing but accumulated goodness, the best thing is to read”, “Family traditions for thousands of generations are only filial piety and brotherly love, a hundred years of career lies in reading”, “If you want a high family status, you must do good, if you want good children and grandchildren, you must read”, “Reading, etiquette, filial piety and brotherly love, hard work in the fields” and other words, which were made into couplets and hung in halls as a reminder. Reading to educate people became the starting point for the growth and continuation of Xidi’s culture.

In Xidi, there are countless couplets like those mentioned above, which are well-structured, profound in meaning, and have a lingering aftertaste. And a couplet is often a superb and exquisite work of calligraphy, either seal script or regular script, or running script or cursive script, a true hundred flowers in bloom, a delight to the eye.

It is conceivable that in Xidi, where the cultural atmosphere is so rich, a person who neglects to compose poems and songs, write articles and paint, would face what kind of shame and embarrassment?

According to historical records, many families in Xidi often ate husks and vegetables, while the tuition fees for their children’s education – the rice, noodles, oil and salt for the teachers – were never deducted. To save lamp oil, no matter how hard or tiring the adults’ work was, they would finish it during the day, and they would not light lamps at night. But they never begrudged the lamp oil for their children’s reading, and it often burned until late at night.

It was in this atmosphere of the sound of reading aloud and the silent influence of culture that the bloodline of traditional Chinese culture gradually integrated into the bodies of Xidi people, consciously becoming their compass for their behavior, their way of being in the world, and their way of life. At that time, Xidi people were proud of “passing down family traditions through poetry and books” and “family traditions of literature”, and they passed it on from generation to generation through words and deeds, through ear and eye, until today.

Xidi scholars had the spirit and responsibility of “taking the world as their responsibility”. The most representative of them was the “Petition by Officials in the Capital”, a shocking event that shook the court, which was launched by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao in 1895. According to historical records, there were 8 candidates from Anhui province who signed the petition at the risk of their lives, and 3 of them were from Xidi. Holding a letter in their hands, they were concerned about the country and the people, which also reflects the broad-minded spirit of patriotism and love for the people that Xidi’s culture possesses.

Although the Hu family of Xidi advocated feudal family culture, its essence is completely a copy of China’s excellent traditional culture. For example, the Hu family advocated “thrift and frugality”, “harmony and unity”, “loyalty and filial piety”, “governing the country and the world”, “settling the unrest and changing the situation”, and so on, all of which can be found in the original words in ancient books.

The Hu family of Xidi’s copy of traditional culture is actually a kind of inheritance and development of culture.

Even today, these should be the main melodies that we strive to sing. And what is most valuable is that this cultural inheritance is completely conscious. No matter what dynasty they lived in, no matter how successful they were, they never had the unwise act of “abandoning literature for business” or “belittling literature for officialdom”, their cultural consciousness never stopped.

The Hu family of Xidi advocated “doing business with literature, entering officialdom with literature”, which has a strong feudal utilitarian color, and deserves to be seriously discussed and criticized in modern society.

But shouldn’t their idea of regarding culture as the foundation of life and placing it in a very high position also be worthy of study and learning by future generations? In their common sense and understanding, culture is not a dispensable decoration or embellishment, nor is it a makeshift gesture for showing off one’s sophistication.

They firmly believe that whether one is in business or in officialdom, without culture, one will not go far. Doing business with literature is not unrefined; entering officialdom with literature is not without integrity.

Perhaps, it is precisely because of this cultural consciousness that Xidi, a small village, has ultimately become the purest, clearest, and most brilliant drop of water in the long river of Chinese culture.

The Hu family of Xidi valued culture but did not shy away from profit, and many of them were among the best of the Hu merchants. Many of the Xidi merchants who became prosperous outside did not, like some so-called “rich people” today, indulge in sensual pleasures, satisfy their personal enjoyment, and spend money recklessly, but instead chose to return to their hometown of Xidi to build ancestral halls, erect archways, build houses, establish schools, and enthusiastically indulge in public welfare, thereby realizing the reverse feeding of culture by commerce.

This is a peculiar sight of Hu merchant culture. And this is probably an important reason why Xidi’s culture has been able to continue uninterrupted. Xidi merchants all have many common excellent qualities: integrity, kindness, modesty, self-denial, love of learning, and courtesy. “Silently entering the night with the wind, gently nourishing things without a sound”, the cultivation of these qualities, without the infiltration and influence of a deep cultural atmosphere, would be impossible.

Today’s Xidi is a World Heritage Site and has become a famous tourist destination both at home and abroad. The ancient houses and courtyards, which were once homes, are now both tourist attractions and places of business. However, their commercial activities are also closely related to culture.

Among the operators, there are those who are good at calligraphy, those who are good at carving, those who are good at painting, and some are members of the national or provincial calligraphy and painting associations. They use literature to enter business, use business to support literature, and place equal importance on literature and business. Nowadays, taking a walk around Xidi village is like watching an art exhibition of calligraphy and painting with a relatively high artistic standard, and there are live demonstrations, which is a pleasant and edifying experience.

A girl in her twenties was carving bamboo slips with cursive script, her knife skills were proficient, her iron hooks and silver strokes were vigorous, like a dragon and a phoenix soaring through the clouds. After a bit of bargaining, tourists could buy one of her works for about 100 yuan.

She said that she had been practicing calligraphy since she was a child, and had over ten years of experience. Now she makes a living by writing, and her income is not bad. In Xidi, her writing can only be considered average, not good, because there are many people like her in Xidi. Even the children now are studying hard.

I can interpret what the girl said as either modesty or another interpretation: Xidi’s culture has successors.

However, I still have some vague concerns in my heart: will the impetuous nature of the pursuit of profit in modern commercial society erode the branches and leaves of Xidi’s cultural tree?

In fact, I hope more than anything that the descendants of Xidi will be able to continue to carry forward the excellent qualities and unique characteristics contained in Xidi’s culture. In the near future, I will also be able to see them being able to do their part to give back to their hometown and enrich Xidi’s culture with more fresh content.

Some real-life experiences repeatedly tell us that culture and profit seem to have an irreconcilable contradiction, and in certain social contexts, the former often has to sacrifice or be buried for the latter. When some people still intentionally or unintentionally treat culture as a label rather than a soul, we have seen a large number of ancient buildings, ancient relics, and classical books being destroyed, buried, and declining. When our spiritual homeland becomes a pile of broken walls and ruins, what can we use to resist the erosion of “foreign cultures”?

We do not exclude, refuse, or demonize “foreign cultures”, we need to create and innovate our own modern culture even more.

But under any circumstances, we must never lose or abandon our cultural roots. The cultural history of Xidi has already shown us: believing in ourselves, sticking to our bottom line, being inclusive, is the way to be broad-minded, which is also a valuable cultural confidence.

Xidi, deeply imbued with culture, vigorously promotes the core values of traditional Chinese culture: loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and righteousness. The “Hu Family Code of Conduct” requires descendants to “be loyal and filial”, “be just in business”, “be Confucian and value benevolence”, and “accumulate virtue and do good”. From many inscriptions, calligraphy, and couplets, it can be seen that the Hu family of Xidi has faith, aspirations, awe, and responsibility, and their spiritual world is very full and strong.

The Hu family of Xidi pays attention to regulating their words and deeds from the details, scrutinizing their own hearts, even a single word, they must dig out their own culture from it.

In Xidi, there is a magnified cursive “filial piety” character, about one meter high, which was inscribed by Zhu Xi, a great Confucian scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, for the “Respect and Love Hall”. Looking from left to right, it is a well-mannered scholar, with both hands clasped, paying filial piety;

Looking from right to left, however, it is a sharp-mouthed and monkey-faced monkey, punching and kicking, gnashing its teeth and claws, meaning “being filial to others is a human being, unfilial is a beast”.

I have always believed that Chinese calligraphy is a very peculiar thing, the dots and strokes, the turns and twists, always make people think deeply and produce many realms beyond the words themselves, which is also a special charm of Chinese culture.

Whether Zhu Xi intentionally wrote the character “filial piety” in this way is unknown, but it is not important. What matters is that the people of Xidi, based on their own unique cultural literacy and characteristics, have given this character a reasonable and vivid interpretation. This character “filial piety” is also an understanding, inheritance, and development of Chinese filial piety culture by the Hu family, and its influence and efficacy have far exceeded the character itself.

Consulting the historical records of Xidi, for thousands of years, there has never been a wicked person in the Hu family. This is no small miracle.

Imagine: Xidi is small, but the Hu family is a prominent local clan, with a large population and over ten thousand people. Among them, there are merchants who are wealthy, and there are officials who are powerful. If we were to infer from the current media reports of certain social situations, the Hu family, which belongs to the wealthy, should also have produced a “second generation” who is arrogant, domineering, and bullies men and women.

But there was none, not one.

According to records, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were over 400 people in Xidi who were awarded official positions, but none of them tarnished their ancestors or disgraced their family, and none of them were convicted of corruption by the court. No wonder Cao Zhenyong, a minister of the Military Aircraft Department during the Qing dynasty, sighed, “The sound of reading is louder than the sound of the courtyard, their kind have no mean-spirited habits but have the demeanor of a gentleman.” Isn’t all this due to the powerful education and self-reflection function of culture?

The values and moral concepts promoted by traditional culture become the gatekeepers and filters for the pure style of the Hu family of Xidi. This is truly beneficial and helpful for us to deeply reflect on some current social phenomena such as extravagance, moral decadence, and loss of reason.

Many times, external constraints are pale and weak in the face of self-awareness. Countless facts have already told us: cultural decline, moral decline, loss of reason, are often more terrifying than natural disasters.

Before going to Xidi, a friend said to me, “Don’t go there, there’s nothing to play besides a few dilapidated houses.” It is true, if we talk about playing, there is really not much to play.

But Xidi’s culture has been able to survive for thousands of years, it is not played out. If you want to play, don’t go to Xidi.

Here, we can only experience it with a devout heart, understand the profound and eternal nature of Chinese culture, feel its unwavering moral power, and consider it a journey to purify our souls.

Xidi, a village imbued with culture, I will go back!