Recently, an online article titled "Gull Eyes Overlooking Kunming" has attracted the attention of Kunming citizens. In an anthropomorphic way, the article borrows the mouth of the red-billed gull distributed in Cuihu Lake, Huanxi Bridge, Haigeng Dam, Daguanlou, Dianchi Lake and other places to "appear and say", introducing Kunming's environmental climate, cultural relics and ancient buildings, city customs, history and humanities, etc., which is kind and vivid to read, and has touched many "old Kunming".
Zhan Lin, the author of the article, has been committed to the study of the local history and culture of Yunnan since the 1990s, and has written and published a number of historical and humanistic monographs on Yunnan. Among them, the book "Yunnan Wadang" is a pioneering work for the study of Yunnan Wadang culture, filling the gap in related research. Today, please join You today in Zhan Lin's narration about Wadang, review the history of exchanges and exchanges among various ethnic groups in Yunnan, and appreciate the rich and colorful national culture of Yunnan.
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Zhan Lin, a native of Kunming, was born in the 1950s. In his early years, he worked as a middle school history teacher, and then "went to the sea" to do business. In the 1990s, he began to focus on the study of local literature and history in Yunnan, and successively published personal monographs such as "Kunming Guandu, Distant Dianchi Ancient Ferry", "Return to Old Kunming", "Yunnan Wadang", "Kunming Old Industry", and published dozens of articles in newspapers and magazines such as "Yunnan Daily", "Yunnan CPPCC Daily", "Yunnan Archives", "Wuhua Literature and History Materials" and so on.
The epitome of the exchanges and blending of various ethnic groups
People Today: For what reasons did you choose to write a 200,000-word monograph on the theme of Wadang?
Zhan Lin: I was born in Kunming in the 1950s, when the residential buildings in the streets and alleys were mostly traditional earthen (jī) tile houses. On weekdays, "flying cornices and walking the wall" on the roof, digging bird nests, poking honeycombs is a great pleasure for those of us children, and we have done a lot of pranks of "uncovering the tiles in the upper room". Because of this, I myself have a deep affection for traditional tile architecture.
The traditional building materials on the roof of the earthen tiles, in addition to their practical functions such as sheltering from the wind and rain, are also an important carrier of traditional Chinese culture, integrating practical life and culture and art.
First, let's briefly introduce the composition of the tiles. There are two kinds of house tiles, the bending amplitude is small, the back surface is built between two rafters, called the plate tile; the bending amplitude is larger, covered between the two columns of plate tiles, called cylinder tiles; and the circular, square, triangular or fan-shaped components located at the front of the cylinder tiles and plate tiles are called tiles (also known as grooves). Wadang is the "bottom of the tiles", its role should not be underestimated, there are three main points: to prevent the cylinder tiles from falling off, to protect the rafters from wind and rain erosion and to increase the aesthetics of the building.
Schematic diagram of the roof tile composition
Without the Wada, the house loses its spirit. Whether the wadang is neat and complete reflects the attitude of a family to a certain extent. As the saying goes, look at the face first, and the wadang is the embodiment of the face of the house. Without wadang, the rafters "emerge" and are prone to decay. Based on this, yunnan people have a proverb called "the rafters that come out of the head rot first", reminding the world that people must be careful in their words and deeds. For another example, rainwater flows down the wadang (ditch head) into the ditch in front of the house, preventing the rafters from being eroded by rainwater. There is a saying in Yunnan called "ditch dripping water", which is used to describe a person's poor situation and very embarrassing.
Some people say that when studying things, we should "think big and start small." Compared with jewelry and jade and ancient books and paintings, Wadang "does not look good", and its economic value and collection value can be described as not worth mentioning. However, in practical research, I found that Wadang reflects the wisdom of yunnan people's production and life and artistic aesthetic interest from one side. In the past, some people have written articles about Yunnan Wadang, but they have not been able to form a system, with the increasing number of things I have seen and heard, I gradually began to write a monograph on Yunnan Wadang, and over time, I have the book "Yunnan Wadang".
Today's Nation: What era did Yunnan Wadang probably appear in?
Zhan Lin: The word "Qin Brick Hanwa" is familiar to us. In fact, tiles appeared much earlier. Archaeological research has found that as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, which dates back about three thousand years, Wadang has appeared. Since the Qin and Han dynasties, the central government has set up counties in Yunnan, and the connection between the frontier and the interior has been deepening, and the architectural style of the interior will inevitably have an impact on the border areas. Therefore, Wadang appeared in Yunnan no later than the two Han Dynasties. It is only for various reasons that we have not been able to see too many surviving Qin and Han Yunnan Wadang today.
The earliest Yunnan Wadang I have seen so far can be concluded to be the Tang Dynasty, which was seen in an antique shop in Dali Xizhou more than 20 years ago and photographed. It was an earthy yellow moiré tile with a diameter of more than 10 centimeters. It can be speculated that the barrel tiles it connects are larger, the rafters are thicker, and they are not ordinary houses. Moreover, it is almost exactly the same as similar tiles in the same period in the mainland in terms of shape, ornamentation, materials, specifications, etc. This shows that at that time, Yunnan was already very closely linked to the mainland, and the architectural style was also deeply influenced by the mainland. As the saying goes, "a leaf knows autumn", this piece of wadang is a true reflection of the exchanges and exchanges of various ethnic groups in ancient China.
During the Tang Dynasty, the rulers of Yunnan and the dignitaries of Yunnan used tiles and tiles to apply to the construction of palaces and private houses during the construction of large-scale civil engineering. "Upward and downward effect", building materials such as tiles have also begun to affect the construction of ordinary houses. With the passage of time, the tile house has gradually become another representative building in Yunnan after the dry column building. By the time of the Ming Dynasty, with the large number of people in the interior entering the Diantun Reclamation, tile house buildings bloomed everywhere in the province. The history books record that during this period, Yunnan "ancient houses and buildings were no different from the Central Plains". Although this kind of account is a bit exaggerated, it is undeniable that Yunnan in the Ming Dynasty ushered in a period of great development of tile house architecture.
There is an example that may help us to further our understanding of this historical fact. Traditionally, the regulation of cylinder tiles is higher than that of slab tiles, and mainland houses mostly use slab tiles to cover the roof. However, during the Ming Dynasty, the two major cities in Yunnan, Kunming and Dali, both belonged to the windy areas. Especially in Dali, there is also a seasonal scenery of "listening to the wind in Shimonoseki". Initially, the people of the two places followed the old practice of building houses with slab tiles. But every year when the wind season comes, the winds whip up the tiles to kill and injure the people. Local officials were very troubled by this, and specially wrote to the imperial court, hoping to let the people use more sturdy barrel tiles to build houses. Zhu Yuanzhang approved this request, and from then on, the use of barrel tiles in residential buildings became the custom in Yunnan. This example reflects that in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, tile house buildings have been widely used by the people of Yunnan, otherwise "tiles falling to the ground hurt people" would not have become a social problem. Today, if we compare the traditional houses in the three provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan and Qian, which are also located in the southwest frontier, we can find that the traditional houses in Sichuan and Qian provinces are mostly plate tiles, while Yunnan is mostly barrel tiles, and its source lies in this. The widespread use of cylinder tiles has promoted the production of tiles.
A vivid interpretation of the "pluralism and unity" of Chinese culture
Today's Nationality: What do you think is the most important feature of Yunnan Wadang?
Zhan Lin: Rich and colorful ornaments are the biggest features of Yunnan Wadang. I photographed thousands of Yunnan wadangs before and after, with hundreds of kinds of ornaments, covering flowers, animals, characters, auspicious rui, ya bureaus, totems, weapons, flags, armor horses and other aspects, which are difficult to count, and they intuitively or abstractly reflect the aesthetic tendencies of house owners and local people. Yunnan Wadang not only has commonalities with the mainland wadang in terms of ornamentation, but also has unique characteristics, especially many ornaments are not available in the mainland, which helps us understand the living concepts, customs and ideological conditions of the ancestors in Yunnan.
For example, I saw a tile decorated with a "clam" ornament in the village of Guanjia in Fumin County, Kunming City, and a huge moth on the tile surface. There are not many people with the surname of Finish in Yunnan, and the old man in the village said that they are descendants of the Jurchens who went south in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and their ancestors were surnamed "Finished Yan" and later took "Finish" as their surname. Moreover, among the local population, I was very impressed by the fact that the character is pronounced on the sound (pronounced wǎn), which is different from the Chinese dialect of Yunnan, which is accustomed to Fayang Ping (pronounced wán). If what the villagers say is true, then the descendants of the ethnic minorities in the north do not use horses, eagles, wolves, which are common animals in the white mountains and black waters, as tile ornaments, but choose the unique "clams" of the ethnic minorities in the southwest, indicating that in the long-term production and life, they have integrated with other local ethnic groups and actively accepted the frontier culture.
In addition, in some Han villages in Yunnan, I also found that the use of tiger heads, copper drums and other ethnic minority totems to make wadang ornaments; and the use of shuangxi, Danfeng and other traditional Han ethnic decorative elements to do wadang ethnic minority villages are also very many, it can be said that the wadang ornaments are not only an objective reflection of the extensive exchanges and exchanges of various ethnic groups, but also a vivid interpretation of the "pluralism and integration" of Chinese culture, or an important witness to the formation and development of the Chinese national community.
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Today's Nation: Yunnan Wadang ornaments are rich and colorful, what do you think is the reason behind this?
Zhan Lin: I think there are three reasons: First, Yunnan is a "kingdom of wild animals and plants", rich in animal and plant species, as well as a variety of mountains and rivers and landforms, which give inspiration to the people of all ethnic groups to create ornaments. Secondly, with the deepening of the degree of exchange and integration between ethnic groups, the cultural influence and eclecticism of various ethnic groups have provided many materials and imagination spaces for the further development of ornament creation. Yunnan Wadang ornaments cover the cultural characteristics of various ethnic groups, and are a "collector" of national traditional culture. Third, the richness and variety of wadang ornaments also have a lot to do with the simple character of Yunnan people.
In my research, I found an interesting phenomenon that eclecticism is a major feature of Yunnan wadang ornamentation. Many of the tiles are not cookie-cutter "custom models", but rather improvisations by masons. Taking the zodiac pattern tile as an example, I have seen in some places that the tiger pattern tile is a "cat's head tiger body", not a tiger in the strict sense, which aroused my curiosity. Under the inquiry, it was found that most of the local people believe that the cat's head is more cute, more agile and more grounded than the tiger's head, so there is no need to deliberately pursue the shape. It is precisely because the Yunnan Wadang ornaments are close to life that they can be widely recognized and accepted by the people.
In daily life, the masses are taboo to rats on the beam or enter the home. In my subjective imagination, for Tujili, there should not be too many people using rat pattern tiles. But in fact, the frequency of use of rat-pattern tiles is not low. In particular, some houses have tile cats on the roof, but wadang uses rat patterns, and builds "a pair of wrongdoers" on the roof, reflecting the frank character of the people who do not pay attention to "rules and regulations". Some hundred-year-old houses even use royal architectural "patents" such as dragon pattern tiles, and do not care about the problems of "violation" and "offense". According to the owner of the old house, the dragon pattern tile is more atmospheric and beautiful, and the ancestors did not think too much about the problem of regulation, but simply felt that it looked good, and it was used on the roof. Some people say that this is yunnan people who "don't understand the rules" and "do things without measure." I personally do not agree with this statement, in my opinion, the courage to "overstep the system" just reflects the temperament of the Yunnan people. In modern history, the people of all nationalities in Yunnan have relied on backward and primitive weapons to wage a deadly struggle against the British, French, Japanese, and other imperialist colonists, and have taken the lead in firing the first shot of "opposing Yuan and protecting the country" in the whole country.
An objective reflection of the course of history
Today's Nation: Does Yunnan Wadang clearly reflect the development and changes of the times?
Zhan Lin: Wadang art, like other arts, is a reflection of social life, culture and economic concepts. With the development of the times and the improvement of people's appreciation of architectural art, there is a process from low to high, rough to refined, simple to complex.
Judging from the current surviving tiles, Yunnan wadang has both simple loess pottery and green pottery, as well as more advanced glazed pottery and glazed pottery, and the ornamentation has also undergone the development from plain surface to complex pattern. The materials and ornamentation of wadang are themselves a reflection of the continuous development of craftsmanship and the continuous improvement of living standards. At the same time, the difference in ornamentation also reflects the changes in Chinese history. For example, in the early Ming Dynasty, Yunnan Wadang was mostly decorated with long patterns, and later the content of ornamentation became increasingly rich, especially in the Qing Dynasty, which can be described as all-encompassing. In modern times, five-clawed dragons, eighteen stars, five-color flags, five-pointed stars, peace doves, Tiananmen squares and other ornaments have appeared one after another, objectively reflecting the vicissitudes of China's transition from feudal autocracy to socialist society.
All kinds of tiles
Some history has long been submerged in the great waves of time, but through the wadang, we can still touch its traces. I have seen a collector in Yunnan collected the late Qing Dynasty Yunnan "Classroom Official" Wadang, the center of which is a giant goose with wings spreading its wings, the goose is cross-shaped and chirping, and there are 16 seal characters. The layout of the picture is very careful, and the text is rare in many lifetimes. Even if you look at the whole country, it is a unique treasure. The establishment of the "Classroom Hall" was very short, and it did not have much impact on the historical development of Yunnan, and many people today have not even heard of it. However, due to the uniqueness of this surviving wadang, it aroused the interest of researchers to understand the "Classroom Hall".
In addition to reflecting the process of China's historical development, Yunnan Wadang also reflects the contacts between China and the West. For example, today's well-known Internet celebrity punch card Bise Village, before the end of the Qing Dynasty, was only a poor rural backcountry, because of the harsh environment was named "tick village", rarely inhabited.
After the opening of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, tick villages have become an important transportation hub due to their proximity to Mengzi Customs and an old tin mine. In an instant, cafes, movie theaters, taverns and other facilities were built on the barren grassland, and for a while there was a "Yunnan Little Paris" and "Yunnan Little Hong Kong", and even a grand situation of "what cannot be bought in Mengzi City, there are tick villages". Alfalfa (four-leaf clover), a "lucky grass" in the eyes of Westerners, was also brought here by the French. I have a collection of blue-gray tiles made in the early years of the Republic of China, with 17 dotted milk nails on the surface that are equally spaced around and the four-leaf clover is symmetrically opened in the center. This piece of Wadang not only witnesses the rise and fall of a border town for a hundred years, but also reminds the Chinese people not to forget the humiliating history of the weak and the poor and the slaughtered by others in modern times, and to cherish our hard-won happy life today.
Images of this article were provided by the interviewee
Today's language
The little Wadang Li contains the story of exchanges and exchanges among various ethnic groups that has lasted for thousands of years, and is full of the common memory of the Chinese nation and a magnificent history. From this, we can glimpse the solidarity, honor and disgrace, life and death, and destiny of the sons and daughters of all ethnic groups in China as a community.
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