Xinfeng Bridge

Xinfeng Bridge

Xinfeng Bridge is located between the Nanjin Street section of the old town in Lichuan County and the northern entrance of Huangzhu Village in the southern suburbs of the county. Originally a wooden footbridge, it was rebuilt during the mid-Hongzhi era of the Ming Dynasty (around 1497) as a stone masonry structure with five piers and six spans, featuring timber-beam framing, flagstone paving, and a long corridor covered with tiled roofing. The bridge stretches over 90 meters in length and is about 5 meters wide, with bridge towers at both ends. A small chamber once stood on one side of the central section of the bridge, serving as an altar to the river god, with a couplet hanging on either side of its entrance that read: “The distant and nearby green hills form paintings without ink; the murmuring flowing water sings poetry with sound.” As this bridge served as a vital thoroughfare connecting Lichuan County to the southern and southwestern townships (and further to several counties in Fujian), it has always seen heavy traffic and is rich in cultural heritage. The renowned Northern Song scholar Li Gou resided and taught near Chian, not far from the southern end of the bridge, for many years and would cross it daily to reach the town; the famous Southern Song philosopher, educator Zhu Xi, along with his disciples Huang Gan, Cai Shen, and Huang Zhong, successively lectured at the “Wuyi Hall” established at Shuanglin Temple in Fushan (within the territory of Sheping Township, Lichuan) during different periods. The Ming Dynasty geographer Xu Xiake personally traveled to and investigated many sites in Lichuan, including Xianxian Peak, and this bridge was a necessary route. The modern master of fiction Zhang Henshui spent his childhood in a small building right next to the northern end of the bridge and often played on it. In the spring of 1931, Yuan Guoping, then director of the Political Department of the Red Third Army Corps, was dispatched by Commander Peng Dehuai to disguise himself as a calligraphy and painting peddler and secretly enter Lichuan to carry out revolutionary activities. During the day, he set up a stall on Xinfeng Bridge to sell calligraphy and paintings; at night, he visited poor workers, peasants, and enlightened locals door-to-door to promote the policies of the Communist Party and the Red Army, gather information on local political, economic, and military arrangements, and draw maps in preparation for the Red Army’s first capture of Lichuan. In November 1932, when the headquarters of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army was stationed in Huangzhu Village at the southern end of Xinfeng Bridge, its subordinate First, Third, and Fifth Corps and the leadership organs of the Min-Gan region were also stationed at various locations on both sides of the river. Leading figures of the headquarters, corps, and the Min-Gan Provincial Committee—including Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Wang Jiaxiang, Peng Dehuai, Liu Bocheng, Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, Nie Rongzhen, Ye Jianying, Teng Daiyuan, Su Yu, Luo Ruiqing, Huang Kecheng, Tan Zheng, Dong Zhentang, Zhao Boxeng, Gu Zuolin, and Shao Shiping—frequently crossed this bridge.

Xinfeng Bridge has been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times. The most recent reconstruction replicates the style from its restoration during the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty. The bridge plaque still bears the handwriting of Fang Zhichun, who inscribed it upon the bridge’s completion in 1986. Fang had served as the Secretary of the CPC Lichuan County Committee during the Soviet Area period and later became the Governor of Jiangxi Province after the founding of the People’s Republic. Today, the bridge, together with the Henggang Stone Arch Bridge standing diagonally across from its southern end, along with the adjacent market square and riverside park, forms the “Twin Bridges Scenic Area,” which also displays numerous works of poetry, calligraphy, and painting.