Author: WANG Anliu (Researcher, National High-end Think Tank, National Institute of Development and Strategic Studies, Chinese Min University, Director of Cultural and Creative Center)
With the advent of the big times, there are always keen explorers. The painter Xu Dongdong and the journalist Xu Lijing, two deep cultivators with different experiences and different fields of focus, have a strong resonance in the pursuit of the aesthetic pursuit of poetic life in the twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two seasons, and are expressed into wisdom. More than 140 Chinese abstract paintings with strong colors and unique textures, nearly 80 delicate and deep Beautiful Texts interpreting the Seventy-Two Seasons, and wise dialogues with Wang Meng, Ding Yihui, Xue Qikun, Chen Lai and other people in different fields of culture, meteorology, quantum physics, and philosophy, together constitute the symbolic cultural masterpiece of the times such as "Twenty-Four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Weather".
During the spring equinox, the farmers of Xianju in Zhejiang Province began to work in spring ploughing. Photo by Zhang Fuhua/Guangming Image
"Twenty-Four Solar Terms: Seventy-Two Seasons" by Xu Lijing by Xu Dongdong, citic publishing group
What do the twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two days mean in the history of Chinese civilization? Why is it so important? Why did the ancestors know so much about time? If we look at the broader and deeper prehistory, we may see it more clearly and realistically. Among the four origins of the original agricultural civilization, the Nile River Basin, the Two Rivers Basin and the Indus River Basin have complete "dry, hot, water, flat and fertilizer" and take the lead in starting and promoting mutual exchanges. After a period of splendor, the ancient Indus River civilization first disappeared, the ancient Egyptian civilization and the ancient two river civilization also declined, and the large civilization circle around the Mediterranean sea entered the dominant form, evolving and evolving in a mixed form of commerce, ocean, farming and nomadism. Its people precede the geographical advantage, and the geographical advantage precedes the heavenly time. China is alone in the unique large geographical unit of the East, with a significant monsoon climate and a complex and diverse climate. Even in the warm period of Yangshao, when agriculture broke out and the population swelled, it was the ebb and flow of the tide, and the hedong and hexi rivers were heard. The Longshan era began with the Yao Shun Xiaoice River, through the Great Flood of Yu, the tribal civilization full of stars and buckets of life, converged on the Middle Reaches of the Yellow River, the Luo-Guanzhong Basin, creating the southern rice and northern millet, the four distinct seasons, starting with the Erlitou Wangdu, and the Chinese agricultural civilization with the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River as the core for thousands of years. Within the four seas, there are millions of square kilometers of arable land, with dry and cold grasslands to the north, vast oceans to the east, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the west, and humid and hot rain forests to the south. As a result, the civilizations of the East and the West are divided, and the twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two days have gradually become the background, base and core of Chinese civilization in the long-term agricultural practice of the vast and subtle.
The twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two days begin with the "agricultural function" at the level of survival and reproduction, and gradually give birth to the "cultural identity" at the level of home-country cohesion and the "aesthetics of life" at the level of individual perception. The trinity of "agricultural function, cultural identity, and life aesthetics" forms a solid triangular relationship, like the jade Xuanjie carefully carved by the ancient ancestors, the concept of whirlwind, movement and stillness, etc., and all the material and spiritual creations of the ancestors are deeply related, just like "three lives and all things". Agricultural functions reflect the relationship between man and nature, cultural identity reflects the relationship between man and man, and the aesthetics of life reflects the relationship between man and himself. In the foreseeable future, the value of agricultural functions of the twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two days will continue to be reduced, and the value of cultural identity will be repeatedly mentioned and strengthened with the enhancement of China's strength. On November 30, 2016, China successfully declared the 24 solar terms as the intangible cultural heritage of mankind, which is a landmark event of cultural identity. The aesthetic value of life is closely related to and silently accompanied by everyone's life. Do not manifest in big things, do not fade with the years, and integrate into the big times in another way. After ten years of polishing, the book "Twenty-Four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Waits", which was officially published on the eve of the Spring Festival this year, is the manifestation of the aesthetic value of life embracing the arrival of a big era.
In this big era, every enjoyer of the fruits of civilization must face the challenge of two development paradoxes: the dilemma of the thermostatic corridor and the danger of biological algorithms.
Let's start with "the trappings of the thermostatic corridors." In the 21st century, industrialization and urbanization are advancing rapidly and changing with each passing day, on the one hand, the achievements of civilization have brought real changes to everyone, on the other hand, people's living circles have gradually entered the "constant temperature corridor" composed of houses, cars, trains, planes, hotels, and business circles. The natural skin of man and the universe is consciously or unconsciously isolated, and the direct perception of the changes of the four seasons by the flesh is repeatedly weakened physically. Only the headline articles pushed by intelligent media remind from time to time, and the solar terms have changed again. The twenty-four solar terms have thus become the closest cultural bond between the individual and the nature of the universe in contemporary society. It is hard to imagine how today's Chinese would be alienated from the natural matrix born and raised without the twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two conditions that go deep into the bone marrow. As Xu Lijing, the author of the book, puts it: "Standing in the architectural jungle of the 21st century metropolis, I am no longer alienated from nature. Even just seeing the ordinary green trees on the sidewalks, or the unknown wildflowers on the country roads, I began to read how this branch and leaf changed from season to season, and their connection to the vast universe. ”
Let's talk about the "danger of biological algorithms". Harari was the first to argue in A Brief History of the Future that every living organism is essentially an algorithm, and that it is surprisingly frustrating but by no means sensational. In the traditional farming era, the vast majority of people struggled with subsistence all their lives in order to survive, and there was almost no time for him to think, just to survive and busy. In the past half century, Chinese have gradually lived longer, and the meaning of life has become a soul torture that individuals in every intelligent age must face from time to time. How to avoid becoming the data body under the progress of the overall civilization, the twenty-four solar terms become the carrier and entry point of excellent life aesthetics, providing a cultural bridge for the construction of each life meaning. If you can eat all day, you must be careful. Xu Dongdong wrote in the book "Creation Talk": "From the change of yin and yang at every hour, day and every season, to the changes in the universe and the world, to the heart of life of all things, to bring the monologue of the soul in the "Twenty-four Solar Terms and Seventy-Two Seasons", to the expression of the essence of life. Xu Lijing wrote in the preface: "Follow the footsteps of the twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two days, to experience the changes in heaven and earth, the changes in the four seasons, and the changes in life, and every day becomes different." This is the deep understanding of the two authors, and it is also the beautiful rhythm of the big times.
In this big era that is coming, the so-called Spring River Plumbing, two sensitive hearts, grasp this trend, paint with the heart, take the heart as the text, and paint the text together. From the perspective of life concept and life aesthetics, using such a systematic, deep, and delicate method to express the twenty-four solar terms and seventy-two weather is indeed a meaningful cultural construction.
Guangming Daily (2022-03-26 12th edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily