On the high post in the center of Hougou Ancient Village, there is an ordinary farmhouse courtyard, where General Zhang Xiaochi, a major general of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, was born and lived as a child, and is now called the "General's Courtyard".

After the July 7 Incident in 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, and the Eighth Route Army came to Shanxi from northern Shaanxi to resist the war. A certain unit of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army was stationed in Hougou Village. At that time, General Zhang Xiaochi was only 12 years old, and he was attracted by the fiery life atmosphere of the Eighth Route Army while getting along with the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army. So, Zhang Xiaochi hid from his mother and defected to the Eighth Route Army with three partners from the same village. Because Zhang Xiaochi was too young to participate in the battle, he was sent to Liu Bocheng's side as a guard. After that, Zhang Xiaochi followed Liu Deng's army to the north and south, and participated in hundreds of battles and battles in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the War of Liberation, and the suppression of bandits after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and grew up to become a senior commander of the Chinese People's Liberation Army because of his outstanding combat achievements. In 1952, Zhang Xiaochi was transferred from the army to the navy, served as the deputy commander of the navy of the Nanjing Military Region, and was awarded the rank of rear admiral.

The position of the General's Courtyard is condescending, the terrain is steep, and the back is against the Lailongling of the arch guard back ditch. After seeing the topography of the General's Courtyard, some tourists think that the location occupied by the General's Courtyard can be comparable to the residence of Chen Tingjing, the emperor of the Imperial City's Prime Minister's Mansion.

However, what is even more amazing is that two brick ornaments with patterns were also found on the outer wall of the wing room of the General's Courtyard. The brick ornament depicts an animal with a two-pointed jujube kernel-shaped body, four short legs, and a long tail. Although the composition is simple, it is clear that it is not a child's game graffiti, but the work of adults, and the two bricks were not inadvertently placed in that place, but were intentionally set by the builders of the house. Among the dozens of courtyards in Hougou Ancient Village, only this courtyard was found to have this kind of brick decoration, and this courtyard just produced a general.

So, what is the pattern painted on this brick ornament? What is the significance? What impact will it have on the owner of the courtyard? Is there an intrinsic connection between it and Zhang Xiaochi's eventual ability to become a general? We can't find the answer for a while, because we can't find any record of this pattern in the ancient books we can find, and we can only decipher the mystery through our understanding of traditional culture.

First of all, there are different theories about what is painted on the bricks. Some people say that it is a spirit animal that inherits the dew of the sky, and some people say that it is a spirit that prevents evil in the town, but in general, people think that it is a mythical beast. As for what kind of mythical beast is depicted, there are only two theories about this, some say that it is a tortoise, and some say that it looks like a snake, because the modeling characteristics of the pattern are only similar to these two animals. However, the turtle does not have such a long tail, and the snake does not have legs, so this shape should be said to be a combination of the turtle and the snake. Although there is no such animal in reality, there is such a mythical beast in traditional Chinese culture, that is, "Xuanwu".

In traditional Chinese culture, "Xuanwu", together with the green dragon, the white tiger and the vermilion bird, are called the four spirits, which are mythical beasts with multiple symbolic meanings. The green dragon, the white tiger, and the vermilion bird can roughly know their image from the name, but from the name "Xuanwu", we can't judge its image. Only those who know traditional Chinese culture will know that the image of Xuanwu is a combination of a turtle and a snake.

Xuanwu has a long history in traditional Chinese culture. When the divination culture was prevalent in ancient times, the ancestors held celebrations, sacrifices, expeditions and other activities, and used tortoise shells for divination, so the turtle was worshipped as a symbol of power for a long time. Because of its long lifespan, turtles are worshipped as a symbol of longevity. Later, the ancestors combined the images of the turtle and the snake and worshipped them as the god of reproduction. Because its god is defined in the north, the representative color of the north is black, black is also called Xuanse, and its name has a "Xuan" character, and the turtle has a carapace, which can resist external humiliation, and its name has a "Wu" character, which is collectively called "Xuanwu". "Xuanwu" has the meaning of resisting humiliation, so it is worshipped as the god of battle.

In the Song Dynasty, people simply evolved "Xuanwu" into the great god "Xuanwu Emperor" who guarded the north. Because the royal ancestor of the Song Dynasty was named Zhao Xuanlang, in order to avoid the word "Xuan", he was also called "Zhenwu Emperor". But after the Song Dynasty, the folk are still accustomed to call it "Xuanwu", such as the Zhenwu Temple built by the ancestors of Hougou at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which is called "Xuantian Treasure Palace". The image of the Emperor Xuanwu is very powerful, wearing black clothes, gold armor and jade belt, fighting with swords and angry eyes, stepping on turtles and snakes, and covering the top with round light, it is said that he can sweep away the demons in the world. Since the Song Dynasty, the emperors of all dynasties have canonized the Xuanwu Emperor, so they are more and more respected in the folk beliefs, and the Xuanwu Temple has also become a more common temple built by the people.

The "Xuanwu" shape on the portrait brick of the Han Dynasty is a snake body wrapped around the turtle body, and the "Xuanwu" shape of the Hougou General's Courtyard is a snake body embellished behind the turtle body, which should be a variation of the "Xuanwu" shape in the folk circulation. The General's Courtyard was built in the Qing Dynasty, when the worship of the Xuanwu Emperor was already very common among the people, and the turtle and snake also evolved into the gods and generals who stood on both sides of the Xuanwu Emperor, and the shape of the turtle and snake was no longer popular among the people. The maker of the "Xuanwu" portrait brick of the General's Academy may have only heard of the saying that the turtle and snake are combined, and has not seen the turtle and snake combined shape drawn by the ancients, and the portrait brick made by his own imagination;

At that time, the builder of the General's Courtyard inlaid the portrait bricks painted with the shape of Xuanwu on the house, which was naturally for the peace and prosperity of the family. So, is it true that the General's House has been protected by some mysterious force and has prospered in its fortunes? According to the recollections of the villagers of Hougou, General Zhang Xiaochi's father died at the age of 29, and his grandfather died because he could not bear the pain of losing his son, when the general was only five years old. Since then, the burden of family life has been supported independently by the general's mother, and life has been very difficult. It can be seen that the Xuanwu Divine Beast did not bring good luck to this family.

However, we may be able to get a glimpse of the character traits of this family from the behavior of the ancestors of this family who dared to inlay the basalt shape on their own home.

In the past, there was a saying that you should not live near a temple. If you have to live near a temple due to environmental constraints, you need to do some mitigation measures. There is a villager's courtyard in Hougou Ancient Village facing Guanyin Hall, and the owner of this courtyard placed a brick with a spirit talisman painted on the main kiln in the courtyard. It is said that the gods in the temple are all worshiped by the common people, and they also exercise the function of blessing and eliminating disasters, and people still have to go to the temple to ask for the blessing of the gods, but why do they not want to live near the temple? This may be because the ancients felt that the power of the gods is too strong, and the power of people is too weak, and if they are too close to the gods, they are easy to be injured by the gods, so people offer most of the gods in the temple, and only the gods who are particularly merciful like Guanyin are invited to go home and worship.

Xuanwu is a god who can sweep away demons, and his mana is powerful, and it is very rare to place such a god on his own home. Of course, the master wants to use Xuanwu's mana to drive away evil spirits, but he also needs to have considerable courage to dare to invite such a god home. The ancestor of the General's Courtyard dared to use the Xuanwu Town House, and this family must have the characteristics of bravery, tenacity, and aggressiveness. General Zhang Xiaochi dared to join the Eighth Route Army at the age of 12 and go to the battlefield full of artillery fire, which is the courage that many adults do not have; and a person can grow into a general in the rain of bullets and bullets, and he cannot do it without superhuman courage, which should be the reason why General Zhang Xiaochi inherited the brave character of his ancestors. The Xuanwu portrait brick undoubtedly plays a role in strengthening and transmitting this family characteristic.

Through the above analysis, we can see that the gods worshiped by the ancients in traditional culture are ethereal, but they were created by the ancients to express a certain wish or achieve a certain purpose, so the spiritual influence and support that the ancients got from it are real, which is an unavoidable cultural phenomenon in the development process of human society.