Wuguniang Park in Xitang

Wuguniang Park is located at the western entrance of the ancient town Xitang, covering an area of 3,000 square meters, which includes the Wuguniang statue, Duwating Pavilion, and a water stage, among other features. A true love story is passed down in Xitang. In the late Qing Dynasty, Wuguniang, the daughter of the Yang family landlord in Tangdong Village, fell in love with the long-term worker Xu Atian. They faced opposition from her half-brother and were persecuted to death. Later, her love story was turned into a Tian Ge (field song) that has been sung here for over a hundred years. The musical 'Wuguniang', adapted from the Jiashan Tian Ge, won the Wenhua Award at the 7th China Arts Festival. Duwating Pavilion was specially made by Xu Atian when he was a kiln worker to express his love for Wuguniang. It is covered with a tile and features a bell hanging inside, engraved with the scene of their rendezvous and the words 'love at first sight'. About 'Tian Ge' Tian Ge is a rural folk song passed down among the people of Xitang, still sung in the adjacent areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, and is a precious local musical cultural heritage of China. It is particularly noteworthy that the musical 'Wuguniang', adapted from the Xitang Tian Ge, won the Wenhua Award at the 7th China International Arts Festival. Moreover, in 1954, the late Yue Opera writer Gu Xidong adapted it into the Yue Opera 'Wuguniang', performed by the Zhejiang Yue Opera Troupe. After watching the opera, Xia Yan (a famous playwright) highly appreciated it and wrote an article in 'People's Daily', giving it a high evaluation. Wuguniang was from Fangjiabin in Jiashan County, and Xu Atian was from Dongbin in Jiashan County. Xu Atian worked as a long-term worker in Wuguniang's family, and over time, they fell in love. One day, they exchanged songs by the Fen Lake and pledged their lives to each other. However, their relationship was discovered by Wuguniang's sister-in-law, who maliciously accused them of adultery. Xu Atian was driven out, and Wuguniang was locked in the mill, forced to commit suicide. With her sister's help, Wuguniang escaped and met with Xu Atian. They fled from danger and ran to the sparsely populated and mountainous Duting West Mountain, where bayberry and loquat trees were abundant. Unfortunately, their happiness was short-lived. Xu Atian was framed by Wuguniang's sister-in-law, captured, and imprisoned in Suzhou. Wuguniang was taken back home, where she committed suicide in anger and was buried at Yizhongtan. However, her body was exhumed and left to decay in the wilderness. After Xu Atian was released from prison, according to the cruel customs of the time, his leg tendons were broken, and he had to beg for a living by rowing a boat with a clapper. He spent the rest of his life accompanying Wuguniang's spirit tablet... Their tragic love story caused a sensation and was widely spread. A peasant tailor named Gu first composed their tragic love story into a mountain song in the form of flower names for each month while making clothes for Wuguniang's coffin. The tragedy itself had a strong popular appeal, arousing people's anger against the feudal and irrational marriage system and sympathy for Wuguniang and Xu Atian, hence it was widely sung. In the autumn of 1952, a reporter from the Liberation Daily named Zheng Huang first recorded the complete story of 'Wuguniang' from the mouths of Jiashan peasant women during an interview for the 'Resist America, Aid Korea Patriotic Day' event. In the winter of 1953, 'Wuguniang' was adapted into a Tian Ge opera and performed for the first time as a story-driven opera at the county's third-level cadre conference and the county people's congress. In the winter of 1953, to coincide with the promotion of the 'New Marriage Law', the Hongxi Township Xiaohe Village rural drama troupe (which was awarded the title of Zhejiang Province Excellent Rural Drama Troupe in 1954, receiving a large stage curtain as a reward) with Xu Maochun, Xu Zhengrong, Zhu Changyou, Shi Xuxing, Shi Zhifang, and others, with the help of Cha Kangguo from the Jiashan County Cultural Center, adapted the Tian Ge 'Wuguniang' into a Tian Ge opera for the first time.