A trickle that originates from the Weishan Mountains of Dali, crosses southern Yunnan and transforms into a large river with rolling red waves, which flows deep into the Ailao Mountains, leads to northern Vietnam, and finally runs to the wide sea. This river is called the Red River, and its north and south banks are the Red River State.
Sama dam rice terraces
Walking along the misty fields, the mist is yarn, the rice field is the mirror, the light and shadow are the soul, and the light and shade alternate, which is equivalent to experiencing a reincarnation of time and shade with water. Which ethnic group carved 10,000 acres of ink paintings in a thousand years, from the top of Ailao Mountain to the Red River Valley?
From the first Chujiao field to the 10,000 acres of terraced fields, from the carved wood to the water to the canal, from the first wild rice flowers to the dance of ten thousand ears... Who used the most primitive tools to paint a stunning totem of life on the countless folds of Ailao Mountain?
Standing on the high observation deck overlooking the Samaba rice terraces, the extreme sight, the water and sky are colorful, sparkling, flowing, which magic pen takes the mountains as the scenery, with the terraces coloring, the light and shadow change, the angles are staggered, outlining a stunning masterpiece of the earth. Who created the culture of terraces that reached the clouds?
The Hani were forced away from their northern homeland by foreign invasions, and in the midst of constant wars and refugees, they buried their own ethnic script and migrated seven times from the Norma Ameyee Plain to the depths of the Ailao Mountains in Yunnan. Faced with the reckless mountains and bottomless valleys, the mountains and rivers ran out and made a cruel choice to take root in the Red River Basin. What a trekker and pioneer!
Beneath each terrace of samadhi dam is the accumulated white bones of Hani's ancestors, and each terrace has Hani ancestors praying and watching. What can't be reached is far away, what can't go back is the hometown, and then build a Norma Ami. "There is no harvest lies in the water", the Hani people who survive by water have inherited Lao Tzu's water as the best, and used water skillfully according to the favorable geographical situation, constructing a complete ecosystem of "alpine forests, Zhongshan villages, and low mountain terraces".
The water flows down the river, flows through the villages, washes and cooks, flows to the terraces to moisten the crops, fattens the ducks and fattens the fish, thus feeding the family. Man and nature have long embraced the heavens and the earth, conformed to nature, treated nature well, and appreciated nature, which is exactly the Taoist nature that the ancestors of Hani adhered to in the long and vast history of the desert.
Over 1,300 years, 14,000 acres of terraced fields. What a spectacular engraving! What a wisdom the engraved artists are! Between amazement and wonder, you can't interpret the incomparable Samaba Rice Terraces from a single aesthetic, scientific, and natural science. Like an ancient epic, the Hani Rice Terraces are sung from generation to generation, slowly forming a great epic rhythm, reverberating in the long years with moving and mysterious human geography legends.
The ancient town of Hesa
In the last century, Ailao Mountain, known for its prosperity and known as the "Little Hong Kong outside the River", stands on the mountain beams on the south bank of the Red River, which is a hometown of overseas Chinese on horseback, and is also known as the "Grand View Garden of Architecture Outside the River". In the courtyard where Chinese and Western are combined, there are green tile cornices, Ming and Qing dynasty courtyard carved beams and paintings, French-style Western-style arches and round windows, and some houses are neither churches nor hospitals, but for no apparent reason a cross is raised on the top of the gate. Trace the journey of the ancient town of Hesa to the exotic Mabang. Looking up or overlooking the famous houses and private houses, the ingenuity and uniqueness of the mansions show the unusual personality and talent of the owner. The bloody rain and wind of the chaotic world, the ups and downs of the class struggle, the prosperity and decline of the vicissitudes of the mulberry fields, the foundation of the family and the country are like grass and mustard. With sweat and life, the Mabang people have written the history of national walking and survival, opened up eleven transnational trade routes to neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, and opened a new era of border trade in southern Yunnan. The green tiles are still there, the horseshoe has passed away, and the mabang culture and the spirit of the mabang are like an ancient and long-standing song, singing, mourning and weeping, floating above the Red River Valley of the Sorrowful Mountains.
Long Street Feast
Sitting on the large terrace of the Ryoma Inn, the sky of Ryoma Village is as blue as the truth that you can't get out, the clouds are soft like falling flowers that make you unable to stand up, the mushroom house is hidden in the forest, hidden in the fog, and it is transformed into a mirage-like wonderland, And Xiaxia dyes the terraces into crimson and dyes them into fairy tale colors, and the earth is cut into countless smears of water and rouge by the enchanting contours.
The rice sticks were twisted between the wooden troughs and sticks, viscous and overflowing, and the song and dance and "grinding autumn" were swinging in the courtyard at the same time, and we and the Hani people of all ages and young sang and danced more than "grinding autumn", and the long street feast was set up in the original laughter. Each household carries yellow glutinous rice, three-colored eggs, native chicken, wild fish, rice field duck, dried beef chamois, meat floss, peanut rice, more than 40 kinds of Hani-style dishes to the table paved with banana leaves, one to two tables, each family table after table, along the street, the local people call the long dragon feast or street wine.
At the opening sound of the mayor of Longtou Village, "Grinding and Grinding", the toast song of Hani's sister-in-law came over. The natural ingredient combination is the biological code on the Hani people's dinner table, putting more than thirty kinds of nutritious ingredients into the dipping water at the same time, holding a bowl of reddish brown rice, mixing soap buds with yellow peppercorns, and then dipping the yellow heart's duck eggs in the dipping water, the layering of spicy, sweet, sticky and fragrant instantly spread on the tip of the tongue, and suddenly realized: Isn't such a "taste" "taste"?
Hani song and dance
As I approach the Hani people, who are as beautiful as the White Storks, the Red River Valley is like a never-ending "Mill Autumn", and every day it stages an endless dance of music and dance about the sun, the moon, the sky, the earth and the fields. Where the Hani people come from, how the Hani people plant spring and autumn harvest, from traditional festivals to personal sacrifices, marriages and funerals, Tim Ding building houses, in the long production life, the Hani people mainly through listening to the singing of Haba to inherit the national culture. Now that the Hani have their own writing, they still cannot replace the charm of chanting.
The rice maiden of the Samaba Rice Terraces and the tian boy mud fight in the love song. Haniva could talk and sing, she could walk and dance, and the terraces and mushroom room were their teachers. I saw images from the wilderness. I heard the sounds from nature, I heard the sound of the blood of the ancestors of Hani, that is, the melody and rhythm of the mother tongue growing in the land, at first I did not know the meaning of the song, and then I listened to it. The appearance of the Red River, the secret homeland, is the look of a person I like, more tenacious than Ailao Mountain is the backbone of Hani Hanzi, and more extensive than the Samaba Rice Terrace is Hani Hanzi's chest. More beautiful than the clouds is the skirt of the Harney girl, and more beautiful than the white bird is the Hani girl's singing. Longer than the Red River is the flirting between the straw girl and the Tian Gangzi, and what is older than the years is the slow time of the original ecology of the Red River.
Humans walk too fast, and when it's time to stop and ask for directions, as today we walk into the Red River Valley deep in the Ailao Mountains, and stop at the red river in the slow time. Surrounded by mountains, forests, overflowing springs, dotted with houses, ditches and streams, green trees and rice grasses, this is the peach blossom source we have always wanted, this is the water and clouds we have been looking for along the way.
We are constantly creating and discovering many species in the world that did not exist before, but we are also looking for those old trees, old dwellings, stone mills, ancient customs, ruins, folklore, beliefs, inheritances that should exist... Those fading villages and childhood memories, those distant places that are being forgotten, the habitat of the human spirit.
I hope that the river in the depths of the secret realm will continue to flow affectionately, and the hani people, who are as beautiful as white birds, continue to dance, sing ancient songs, and live the Yiche Girls Festival. Hoping that travelers looking for distant places can sit on the mountainside of the Samar Rice Terraces and see the recitation of ancient species, hoping that the folk customs and secrets of mankind for generations will still be preserved in the humanistic epics of the Red River Valley.
(Selected from the WeChat public account "Ning Hongying's Little World")