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Woods Guard Villages' Fortune
Located in East China's Anhui Province, Huizhou is a small city nestled within picturesque mountains. The local farmers follow the ancient tradition of planting a small patch of woods at the entrance and exit of the village, according to today's China Daily.
The locals call such woods Shuikou woods, or the "forest to guard the water mouth." It is believed that the stream in a village carries with it good luck and fortune. There is a Chinese saying that goes: "No rich water should be let out of one's own fields," in the fear that the good fortune would go away.
While there are ginkgo, maple, fir and other trees, water-mouth woods are primarily composed of camphor trees. The camphor tree has beautiful cross-section patterns, and the locals say they are perfect articles composed by Mother Nature. The local farmers follow the long tradition of being businessmen, as well as studying. In harmony with this are camphor trees, seen as a symbol of good luck for business and academia.
In water-mouth woods, pavilions, bridges, temples, schools and other elegant architectures find their ideal abode. The woods have become the local people's center of recreation, education and religious affairs.
At the Zhukou Town of Qimen County, the farmers built a dyke to hold the Dabei River, thus forming a small lake at the exit of the village. Visitors can take a narrow boat to drift on the lake, admiring jade bamboo wood and golden flowers in the field.
All the villages in the Huizhou area have specific strict rules protecting their water-mouth woods. In the Songtan Village of the Qimen County, the Dai Family set up a rule a few hundred years ago that "only birds are allowed into the woods, no axes or knives shall ever enter."
What's even stricter is that only poor, elderly people of the village can go into the woods to pick fallen branches as firewood. If other people break this rule, the whole village will gather to punish the trespasser.
The water-mouth woods have, indeed, become a part of the local people's harmonious life with Mother Nature.
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