As early as the Liao Dynasty, today's Beijing was designated as the capital, which was then called Yanjing. Outside the East Gate of Yanjing, there is a place called Wanghai Village, where there are many temples and businessmen. It used to be a bustling place, but it was later destroyed by fire. During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the royal family established the capital, where glazed tiles were placed, hence the name Liulichang. At that time, Liulichang started from Xijiang River in the north, Zangjiaqiao Hutong in the south, Tongzi Hutong in the east and Liuxiang in the north and south in the west, with huge borders, strong fireworks and prosperous business. The five-color glazed pottery here not only decorated the Forbidden City in Beijing, but also became an ornament of temples and palaces. Wu Meicun, a famous poet in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, once wrote a poem praising: "The old factory of colored glass lives in the west, and the moon axe turns into five-color mud. I was kissed by Hua' an Feng everywhere, and the crimson rope helped me up the cold ladder. "

After entering the Qing Dynasty, the glass production of Liulichang gradually became quiet, but it was still a concentrated place for tourists and vendors. In the late Kangxi period, the imperial court moved the lantern festival in the inner city here for the safety of the palace, so the department stores were mixed and tourists flocked. Every holiday, the factory garden becomes a symbol of the prosperity of the capital. In the thirty-eighth year of Qianlong, Sikuquanshu was revised in folio. Most of the Hanlin bachelors who participated in the compilation at that time stayed in the south of the city. At that time, the forest pond was unexpectedly quiet, and the stone-cold Liulichang became a paradise for literati and scholars, and smart booksellers also flocked to it. As a result, the book market came into being and developed into a cultural center integrating books, antiques, stationery and calligraphy and painting. Dai Lu's Miscellaneous Notes on Fujin: Cheng Jinfang moved to Yuan Mei to send a poem, in which "the powerful family rested their horses and commented on treasures, and the cold guests shared money and asked?" Quot Yuan Mei smiled and said, "This must be Liulichang." It can be seen that Liulichang was very famous at that time. Since then, whether you are a taxi driver in Beijing or an official living in Doumen, you have regarded Liulichang as an ideal place to enjoy elegance and play. Quot However, I remember the road next to Wanghai Village, and the bookstand temple market is a forward tour. "What I recall is the faint book fragrance of Liulichang, which is a bit elegant. At that time, there were many bookstores and antique shops in Liulichang, which were colorful: Songyunge, Eryoutang, Wenguang Building, Cuiwenzhai, Huaiyin Mountain House and Bo Gu Zhai ... all became the cultural centers of Beijing. According to incomplete statistics, by the early years of Guangxu, there were more than 220 bookstores in Liulichang and more than 50 antique calligraphy and painting shops. It was really a "jade toothpick, a thousand contacts; Books are all over the building and treasures are all over the street. "At that time, Liulichang also attracted a large number of literati. There are some Sun Park, Kong's Seaside Club, Li Yu's Mustard Garden, Zhu Yizun's Gu Teng Bookstore and Caotang, and other high-ranking officials and celebrities such as Wang Shizhen, Weng Fanggang, Qian Daxin, Luo Pin and Sun Xingyan have also been lingering here.

After the Republic of China, the "Wanghai Village Park" was opened to the north of Liulichang Road. The east, south and west sides of the park are antiques, calligraphy and painting, epigraphy, photography and piano room, and the north is architecture. Whenever the factory has a meeting, vendors will gather here, making it a lively center of the factory. 1927, the Peace Gate was opened and the Liulichang Bridge was demolished. The newly added South Xinhua Street and Liulichang are divided into two parts. East Liulichang mainly deals in antiques, while West Liulichang mainly deals in used books. This basic model has continued to this day.

The most famous industry in Liulichang is naturally the bookstore. Come to find songs, Jia Yazhai and other century-old shops to find the north and the south, visit you to explore the victory, and run the Song version of the Yuan Dynasty, full of glory; The ancient banknotes are dazzling. Not only fascinated Huang Pilie and Miao, but also trained Sun Dianqi, a bibliographer from a bookseller. Between the ups and downs of hundreds of songs and thousands of dollars, many amazing stories have been left. After the Republic of China, a large number of new bookstores took this place as the starting point of their careers. Jinghua Bookstore is located in the northwest corner of Hufang Road, formerly known as Zhili Official Bookstore reorganized by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao. 1897 The Commercial Press, founded in Shanghai, also located its Beijing branch in Liulichang West Street. In addition, Zhonghua Bookstore, Ming Kai Bookstore, Sweep Leaf Bookstore and Fujin Bookstore all opened here. They published a large number of Chinese and foreign masterpieces, which made great contributions to the enlightenment thought in the early years of the Republic of China. China Bookstore, founded in 1952, is the first state-owned antique bookstore in New China. 1958 after the public-private partnership, several private bookstores in Beijing11merged into China Bookstore, becoming the inheritor and main representative of Beijing antique book industry.

Antique industry is another pillar industry of Liulichang, and its business scope includes epigraphy, calligraphy and painting, as well as jade porcelain, jewelry and woodwork and other antiques. There used to be counters in all walks of life in Beijing, but only bookstores and antique shops didn't have counters. In the elegant living room, the windows are bright and clean, and the fragrance floats. In the tea narration, the host and guest played with utensils, talked about ancient and modern times, and did a lot of business between laughter and laughter. This unique mode of operation not only cultivates the special friendship between the owner and the guests, but also makes the antique calligraphy and painting shop a place for literati to appreciate cultural relics and exchange ideas. Many national treasures handed down from ancient times were shocked and fleeting in the entertainment sent by antique dealers, including Gu Kaizhi's Ode to Luoshen, Lu Ji's Pingfu and Zhan Ziqian's You Chuntu in Sui Dynasty. By the time new China was founded, Liulichang had 120 antique shops. 1960, the main task of Beijing cultural relics store, which was established on the basis of public-private partnership, became to protect cultural relics. He has collected and purchased the bronze plate of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the thirteen-line jade plate and the Xiaoxiang bamboo stone map, all of which are national cultural relics.

Rong Baozhai is the representative of Liulichang antique shop. Its predecessor, Songzhuzhai, was founded in the 11th year of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty (167 1). Mainly engaged in Four Treasures of the Study and Nanzhi calligraphy and painting, with a history of more than 300 years. 1933, Lu Xun and Zheng Zhenduo * * * edited Beiping Annotation and entrusted Rong Baozhai to print it. Rong Baozhai lived up to his great trust and completed this set of printmaking notes with high technical level, leaving a brilliant chapter in the history of printmaking in China. Taking this opportunity, Rong Baozhai creatively copied Chinese paintings by using traditional engraving printing techniques, and created unique engraving watermark paintings, which kept the vivid charm and ink flavor of Chinese paintings to the maximum extent and made contributions to the spread of traditional art in China. In addition, Rong Baozhai's century-old reputation has also made it an important town of calligraphy and painting management in China. The ink left by many famous painters here has provided a reliable guarantee for Rong Baozhai's reputation and status.

Liulichang has also witnessed the vigorous development of Peking Opera art, from which a group of children from the Liyuan have emerged, many of whom have become outstanding figures in the history of Chinese Peking Opera: Cheng Changgeng, Mei Lanfang, Shang Xiaoyun, Xun Huisheng, Qiu ... These superstars on the Peking Opera stage are inextricably linked with Liulichang. Famous Peking Opera classes such as Xiliancheng, Fuliancheng and Binqingshe also camped around Liulichang. The Theatre of Zhengyi Temple, Anhui Guild Hall and Huguang Guild Hall, the stage where Peking Opera masters often perform, are also part of the cultural landscape of Liulichang. Because the Qing Dynasty stipulated that theaters and halls could not be built in the inner city, Cheng Nan, as the only way for southern provinces to enter Beijing, naturally became the first choice for the children of Liyuan. It is this historical background that has made Liulichang and Peking Opera predestined. Today, when people stroll around the Liulichang in the ruins of the former residences of famous Peking Opera masters and watch antique buildings such as Justice Temple and Huguang Guild Hall, the melodies of Peking Opera, which are faint in silk and bamboo, faint in gongs and drums, clear in pronunciation and mellow in charm, still seem to be sung softly in the long river of history. ...

When it comes to Liulichang, we can't help but mention Changdian. Changdian Temple Fair is a gathering place of folk culture, street culture and religious culture in old Beijing from the first day to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Every time I go to Diandian Temple Fair, men, women and children from all directions gather in Liulichang to enjoy the rich local charm and ethnic customs here. There are all kinds of Beijing snacks here: fried liver, tea soup, noodle tea, rice cake, Yuanxiao, bean juice, enema, wonton, sugar ear, snowballing, Aiwowo, bean paste and Sugar-Coated Berry. Variety of juggling tricks: diabolo, windmill, bamboo knife and wooden gun, silk flower paper flower, colorful kite, cloth tiger, kaleidoscope, ever-changing, colorful, dazzling children, fondle admiringly. The fragrance wafted from large and small food stalls, together with the shouts of different lengths, made the atmosphere of the New Year Festival vivid. If the Lantern Festival comes, will there still be orchestral and woven crowds everywhere? Quot I wonder how many people have made up their old dreams in the south of the city.

From those yellowed photos, we felt the glory of Liulichang in those years, and also realized the massiness and vicissitudes of China traditional culture. Times have changed. Today's Liulichang is no longer the cultural center of Beijing, and those newly renovated carved beams and painted buildings can't naturally bear the homesickness of tourists. And the newly opened antique shops of various colors can't reproduce the leisure of the literati in those days. However, it is in this alternation of the old and the new that people see the development and inheritance of China culture and the new vitality of Liulichang. In this sense, today's Liulichang is also a true portrayal of our ancient national culture in the new century.