Recently, the No. 1 Document of the Central Committee was released, which is the 19th Central Document No. 1 guiding the work of the "three rural areas" since the beginning of the 21st century. Among them, when referring to the protection of traditional villages, it is stated: "Carry out demonstrations of centralized and continuous protection and utilization of traditional villages, and improve mechanisms such as monitoring and assessment of traditional villages, warning withdrawal, and prior review of withdrawal and merger." Protect characteristic ethnic villages. Implement the 'Save the Old House Campaign'. ”
How to protect and make good use of traditional villages, preserve rural memories, and retain nostalgia in the process of rapid urbanization in today's society has become an important topic of common concern to all sectors of society. Professor Wang Yunqing of the School of History and Culture of Shandong University shared his insights and insights on the topic of "how to retain the beauty of traditional villages" when he was a guest of the public forum of Shandong Provincial Library.
Traditional villages are living cultural heritage
"Every year, the No. 1 document of the Central Committee is all about the issue of three rural areas, and in recent years, the No. 1 document has mentioned the protection of traditional villages. Traditional villages are an important carrier for highlighting and inheriting China's excellent traditional culture, coordinating the relationship between protection, utilization and development, striving to maintain the integrity, authenticity and continuity of villages, and strengthening the protection of traditional culture, which is not only conducive to maintaining rural characteristics and enhancing rural charm, but also conducive to enhancing the cultural self-confidence of the country and the nation, maintaining the integrity and diversity of Chinese culture, and is of great significance to realizing rural revitalization and building a beautiful China. Wang Yunqing thought.
Wang Yunqing first analyzed the concept of "traditional village", that is, the general term for the villages formed by various ethnic groups in the mainland in the long process of agricultural civilization and the development of a large number, wide distribution and full of regional characteristics. In fact, since 2012, the academic norm should be a traditional Chinese village, its original name is an ancient village, so the current book is about ancient villages, some are about traditional villages, refers to villages that formed earlier, have rich culture and natural resources, have certain historical, cultural, scientific, artistic, economic and social values, and should be protected. By the end of 2019, the number of existing traditional villages at the national level had reached 6819. ”
The traditional culture of the mainland is rooted in a wide range of rural areas, and the traditional villages have condensed a lot of historical information, cultural landscapes and national memories in the long-term development process of agricultural civilization, which is an important carrier of the long and splendid civilization of the Chinese nation, and also a precious historical heritage that integrates various elements such as material and intangible culture. "Regarding this important cultural heritage, especially the protection of famous towns and villages, it has been around since the 1980s." Wang Yunqing said.
"The tangible and intangible cultural heritage contained in traditional villages are integrated and interdependent, and belong to the same cultural and aesthetic genes, which together constitute a unique whole." Wang Yunqing believes that from the perspective of attributes, traditional villages are a kind of living heritage in the production and life of local society, rich and colorful traditional cultural resources, and have great value for society, history, economy, culture and other aspects.
From different perspectives and levels, the value of traditional villages is different. From the social level, as a gathering place for traditional houses and a community for the production and life of villagers, traditional villages constitute a unique local society and are the grass-roots units of the entire social system. In the local society, the villagers have created rich and diverse material wealth and cultural wealth through labor and wisdom, providing resources and driving support for the progress and development of society.
Wang Yunqing said that from the perspective of historical development, traditional villages are the largest heritage left over from the period of agricultural civilization, whether it is village architecture, historical relics or rural customs and traditional skills, they all record and reflect the historical process of social development and the progress of human civilization, and are a distinct mark of the historical and cultural development of the Chinese nation; from an economic point of view, the natural attributes, historical attributes, cultural attributes and non-renewable nature of traditional villages make them a wide range of potential tourism resources. Reasonable development and promotion will bring great economic value.
In addition, from a cultural point of view, traditional villages embody a cultural essence of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and each village containing traditional culture is a living cultural heritage, which fully demonstrates the diversity of national culture and the essence of traditional culture. From the perspective of social and cultural identity, traditional villages have become the link that maintains the cultural identity of Chinese descendants, and plays an incomparable role in maintaining the common memory of the nation and promoting the prosperity and development of national culture.
The preservation of traditional villages is urgent
Traditional villages, including villages in ethnic minority areas, are living and real cultures, revealing the historical trajectory of rural cultural development, reflecting the progress of civilization, embodying the unique cultural essence of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, with fragility and non-regeneration.
"Traditional villages are different from other heritage protection units. It is not only a cultural security unit, but also a base for residents' production and life. Villages have long been the most basic units that make up society. The spiritual heritage of traditional villages includes a large number of intangible cultural heritage, various customs and customs, as well as a large number of unique historical memories, such as slang dialects, township rules and regulations, people's production methods and so on. When talking about the criteria for identifying traditional villages, Wang Yunqing said that as a unique spiritual and cultural connotation, it exists because of the existence of traditional villages, and it is these material and intangible contents that make traditional villages appear thick and fresh.
So how to identify traditional villages according to the standards formulated by the relevant departments? "The existing buildings in traditional villages should have a certain degree of longevity, the level of cultural relics protection units should reach the standard, the scale of the traditional buildings, the existing traditional building complex and the preservation of the surrounding environment, there must be a certain integrity." The shape, structure, material and decoration of the building should have a certain aesthetic value and inherit the traditional skills. In addition, in terms of site selection and planning, traditional villages represent the typical characteristics of the ethnic groups and specific historical periods in the local area, have certain scientific and cultural historical and archaeological value, and are coordinated with the surrounding natural environment, carrying a certain intangible cultural heritage. Wang Yunqing said that some villages also carry intangible cultural heritage evaluation indicators, including the way of inheritance, the scale of activities, representative inheritors, etc.
In the process of transformation from traditional agricultural society to modern industrial society, the survival and development of traditional villages have been impacted by industrialization, urbanization and modernization, and they are generally facing the dilemma of being destroyed or gradually disappearing. According to relevant survey data, the mainland had 3.63 million natural villages in 2000, which decreased to 2.71 million in the decade of 2010 and 2.3 million in 2012. It can be seen that the situation of traditional villages is not optimistic, if they are allowed to develop, we may lose those precious historical and cultural heritage and national memories forever, and it is urgent to protect traditional villages.
Let them bloom for generations to come
Talking about the progress of the protection of traditional villages in the mainland, Wang Yunqing specifically mentioned that since 2016, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage has supported a public welfare project implemented by the China Cultural Relics Conservation Foundation to protect traditional villages, the "Save old houses action", which has played an important role in the protection and restoration of traditional houses. "Off-site protection of endangered buildings, some old houses can be regenerated in different places." As far as I know, there are already several villages that have 'traveled far and wide'. ”
In addition to the off-site protection method, there is also a way called "static freeze-frame", that is, the residents of the ancient village are moved out, and the ancient village can be protected as a whole. "There is a problem here, that is, the responsibility for the protection of ancient villages after the relocation of residents." Wang Yunqing said that another way is to "old bottles of new wine", carry out functional renewal of ancient building protection, transform some ancient buildings, maintain the style of ancient buildings, and attract investment.
Wang Yunqing believes that the protection of traditional villages in the process of urbanization must follow the historical law of the formation and development of traditional villages. The residents of traditional villages cannot be forced to maintain a primitive living state, but they cannot be allowed to demolish and build at will, putting ancient buildings and original traditional culture in a state of destruction. For the protection of traditional villages, only by scientifically and reasonably following the historical law of the interaction and development of people and villages can we achieve a win-win situation between the two.
Widely distributed traditional villages, each place is created by the wisdom of the local people's production and life, and the protection measures must be adapted to local conditions and highlight regional characteristics. "It can be seen from the various documents on the protection of traditional villages issued by the relevant departments of the state that the protection of traditional villages can have common goals, principles and directions, but there is no unified method to follow, and it must be adapted to local conditions, one method per village." Wang Yunqing said that in the planning for the protection and development of traditional villages, it is necessary to pay attention to the formation of history, cultural resources and development conditions in combination with traditional villages, plan first, protect and develop synchronously, and highlight regional characteristics and unique cultural connotations.
Wang Yunqing also talked about the protection of traditional villages. "In the collation work, we must adhere to the principle of proper understanding, extract the rough and refined, and improve the quality of traditional village units, especially for similar traditional villages of the same type, to avoid too much duplication." Wang Yunqing said.
"Don't let traditional villages exist only on screens and pictures, don't let traditional culture only be passed on by word of mouth, and can't let traditional villages wither the splendid flower of civilization on the motherland." Instead, make them more eye-catching and bloom for generations to come. Wang Yunqing concluded.