In the spring of Jiangnan, this box "the sunrise of the river flowers is red than the fire, the spring river water is as green as blue", there "spring water is blue in the sky, painting boats to listen to the rain and sleep". Wandering in the immortal green mountains, lingering in the sound and shadow of the paddle lights, some people sighed that "the water is the eye wave, the mountain is the eyebrow peak gathering", and some people look forward to "if you go to Jiangnan to catch the spring, ten million and spring live".
In the great homeland of Chinese culture, Jiangnan culture can be described as "the aggregator of thousand years of wisdom", unique and charming. It is like a bridge, connecting classical China and modern China, connecting mass culture and elite culture, and connecting urban civilization and rural civilization.
Recently, from the "Jiangnan Cultural Studies" series of books and the "Encyclopedia of Jiangnan Culture" to the small incision "Spring Mountains and Autumn Waters in Jiangnan" and "The Emerging Industrial and Commercial Groups of Suzhou City in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries", Jiangnan people, Jiangnan affairs, Jiangnan objects and the beauty of Jiangnan have been more diversely presented, more vividly told, and more in-depth elaborated.
"Prosperity"
Jiangnan people live in a bustling place, and the snow moon and wind flowers are divided into four seasons.
At the beginning of the classical masterpiece "Dream of the Red Chamber", it is written: "In this southeast corner, there is a place called Gusu, there is a city known as the Gate, and it is the most popular place of first- and second-class wealth and wealth in the red dust." ”
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, "Wu City" was famous for its benefits from the Three Rivers and Five Lakes; the Han Dynasty was the well-known southeast metropolis; the dredging of the Sui and Tang Grand Canals further promoted the commercial prosperity and market development of Suzhou; and by the Ming and Qing dynasties, Suzhou Zhangmen was known as "the world's first wharf".
Outside the city, life in the Jiangnan countryside is also worth talking about.
Xitang, north of Jiashan, is still a nationally renowned tourist attraction. In the old days, the daytime bazaar trade activities and lively life made this town unique in the eyes of the literati. In the Ming Dynasty, there is a poetry cloud: "The rising sun is full of clear rivers, and the passenger ship is flying." Thousands of gold are department stores, and the steps are tucked shoulder to shoulder. Bu Brown interprets the city language, and Tong Wu recognizes counterfeit money. Jagged fishing net set, Huawu competition cooking. ”
During the Qingming Dynasty, in the Mawang Temple by the Changshui Pond in Jiaxing, the villagers will use this free time to hold activities to entertain the gods, the so-called "Lao Drum Racing God Three-Day Meeting, Dangerous Pole Healthy Dance in the Shuttle"; when autumn comes, they are keen on fighting crickets, etc., the so-called "young people compete for the release of the sassafras, and ride the autumn to the wind". Fengjing here specifically indicates that in the Qing Dynasty, half belonged to Jiashan and half belonged to Jinshan's cotton cloth industry name town Fengjing.
In addition to abundance, beauty and freedom are the most important things in Jiangnan.
In "Ten Miles of Spring Wind", Hu Xiaoming, a tenured professor at East China Normal University, sincerely lamented that a large part of the soul of Jiangnan is quietly hidden in the beautiful poetry, songs, legends, stories and operas of jiangnan in the past.
"The soul returns to mourn Jiangnan", first sung by the Zepan poet Qu Yuan, who could not bear to go to the country of Jiangnan affection; "Jiangnan can pick lotuses", is the most rich in Jiangnan water town style, joyful and free folk love song of the Han Dynasty; Songjiang's lettuce perch soup, rescued Zhang Han's family, and also summoned countless Jiangnan wanderers who were homesick in the autumn wind; "In the late spring of March, Jiangnan grass grew, miscellaneous peanut trees, and warblers flew around", which actually touched a general who could not read a large character to return from Jiangbei.
Since the Taishou poet Bai Juyi sang "Jiangnan is good" and "Half of the lake is left", it has become the common soul of all those who see the West Lake when they leave; another Taishou poet, Su Dongpo, not only left a beautiful Su Causeway, but also left too many touching acquaintances about Xizi, high monks, famous mountains, and ancient temples.
The rich imagination of the Northern Song Dynasty Jiangnan's "three autumn guizi and ten miles of lotus flowers" actually alarmed the northern country's horse riding Haojie to go south; "the bells of Hanshan Temple", "home in Huangye Village in Jiangnan", "a river of tobacco, full of wind in the city, plums yellow and rainy" but warm, intertwined with a picture of quiet years, stopping life, moisturizing people's hearts...
Tea, lotus, apricot blossoms, plum blossoms, ancient temples, smoke moons, bells are not unique to Jiangnan, but the reason why Jiangnan became Jiangnan is that there is a wonderful humanistic mechanism. Once it is connected with Jiangnan, once it is in Jiangnan, once the poet or painter of Jiangnan sings and draws these things, these beautiful things will be refined and "better than good".
"Enlightened"
Jiangnan is a place that produces "beauty", releases "beauty", spreads "beauty", and magnifies "beauty", and "Jiangnan" itself is also enlarged and produced, becoming a "Chinese image" of beauty and commonality.
In the "General Guide to Jiangnan Civilization" launched by the Shanghai Municipal Fangzhi Office, through the interpretation of Jiangnan people, Jiangnan affairs, and Jiangnan things, such as the scholars, peasants, merchants, and nobles in Jiangnan, the beliefs, folklore, imperial examinations, and education in Jiangnan, and the rice, silk, gardens, and opera in Jiangnan, the beauty of Jiangnan and the civilization of Jiangnan have been "comprehensively reviewed.".
"Spring Mountains and Autumn Water in Jiangnan" starts from the surface and inside, starting from the beauty of mountains and rivers, the beauty of characters, and the beauty of poetry, and deeply tells the customs and culture of various parts of Jiangnan. In the view of the author Hong Liang, Jiangnan is a simple recitation, and it is also a grand chorus. "The atmosphere of Jiangnan culture is so deep, the aftersound of the song that has been issued has been around the beam for three days, and the song that will be issued has long been itchy and itchy, and it is about to come out."
In the impression of many people, Jiangnan culture is affectionate, subtle, delicate, gentle, and with a touch of sadness, it seems to be full of feminine colors. In the story of Jiangnan, in addition to the drizzle of Jiangnan and the silk bamboo of the pipe, there will always be a Jiangnan woman who is "like a moon on the edge of the river, and the wrist is frozen in frost and snow" to be the protagonist.
In fact, due to the increase in income and status, Jiangnan women can go out of the house and show their faces very early. Suzhou's Dragon Boat Race, the most prosperous in Shantang, "to Duanyang more than ten days before and after, the viewer fell into the city, ten thousand boats gathered, far county soldiers and women, companions come together, sideburns and incense, fog seven miles." In Yangzhou, "during the Zhongyuan Festival in Jiangnan, every woman who buys a boat is used as a flame mouth and burns a lamp on the water.". In the event of the Yingshen Tournament, all over Jiangnan set up a stage to perform, men and women gathered to watch, and even the situation of "women going to the house to watch" appeared.
Rural women in Jiangnan also live a tasteful life. These "big-footed barbarians", outspoken and unrestrained, pursue spiritual relaxation in the same way as men in their spare time. For example, "The city god temples in Changshu, Wujiang, Kunshan, Jiading, Shanghai, and Wuxi have garden pavilions, which are also quite good. Whenever the Spring and Autumn Festival is held, the village maids and village women, zashan cheer, and sing books."
Under the influence of such an environment, the attitude of Jiangnan society towards women has become increasingly enlightened. Although they have also advocated the concept of women's festivals, most Jiangnan people have different views. Wang Huizu, a shaoxing man, said bluntly: "You may wish to listen to his own convenience and understand the poverty of the people; if you are strong, there will be those who are out of common sense and turn to non-beautiful things." ”
With "empathy", you can "dali". The "Strategy of Poets in the Qing Dynasty" edited by Shi Shuyi at the end of the Qing Dynasty contains a total of 1262 female poets. Among them, 524 are in Zhejiang and 465 in Jiangsu, accounting for 78% of the total.
Overseas researchers were also surprised to find that in the Ming and Qing dynasties alone, women's publications in China exceeded the total number of women's publications in the entire Western world before the modern era. This opens up a new field for overseas Chinese studies.
Since the 1980s, Yi Peixia's Nei Min (内闱), Gao Yanyi's Boudoir Master (闺塾師) and Man Suen (Manson's Book of Adornments) have focused on the writing and life of Chinese women during the Song Dynasty, the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and the Sheng Qing Dynasty, respectively. Among them, "The Book of Embellishments" also won the most authoritative Levinson Award in the field of overseas Chinese history research.
Manson is a professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Davis, and a former president of the American Society for Asian Studies. Her other book, "Zhang Men Cai Nu", solemnly promotes the Changzhou Zhang family, which is famous for its "three generations of virtuous mothers". The song and weeping deeds of Jiangnan women who took up the burden of the family have attracted praise from Zeng Guofan, Feng Guifen and others. The Changzhou Zhang clan is only the humble home of generations of karmic Confucianism, but because of this, its story is more grounded and more real.
"Responsibility"
In 1996, Wang Xufeng's "There is Jiamu in the South" and "The Prince of The Night" won the Fifth Mao Dun Literature Award. Also winning the award were Zhang Ping's "Choice", Ah Lai's "Dust Settled" and Wang Anyi's "Long Hate Song".
After winning the award, Wang Xufeng did not stop the pen in his hand. Twenty-six years later, in the spring of 2022, she launched a nearly 400,000-word novel, Wangjiangnan.
Chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea, open the door seven things, the last one is tea. Chinese days, tea is a long and wide aftertaste, the charm of the day, the spirit of the person. Wang Xufeng is famous for writing tea, this tea is actually more and more brewed and thicker, writing tea people tea in the great era of the world, writing about the sound of gold and stone, wind and thunder.
The new work recounts the ups and downs and the fate of the Characters of the Hang family of the Jiangnan tea family in the nearly 20 years before and after the founding of New China. In the earth-shaking era, Wang Xufeng wrote about the choice and openness, integration and progress of Chinese in the midst of the smoke and rain in Jiangnan; in the excitement of the times and the sound of wind and thunder, Wang Xufeng wrote a long and low and swinging intestine, wrote about the aroma and tea nature, wrote about the poetry and strength of Jiangnan culture, and wrote about China's demeanor, feelings and character.
This is the taste of spring, but also the taste of life.
The land of tea also has the breadth of "the world". The book writes about the Japanese tea ceremony, about the tea plantations in Georgia, about the tin tea utensils in Southeast Asia, and about the iced tea that Americans love... Whether it is the Hang family or their old rivals the Wu family, whether it is Chinese or Japanese, Americans, or Nanyang people, there are always some essential connections playing a subtle role in the great differences. This vein involves the source of the world's thin lines, which originated in the author's pen from "Jiangnan".
As the author said, "The greatest insight for me in the creation of this work is the realization that there is never a clear boundary in the novel." No matter how history advances, how culture evolves, and how the human world changes, the Chinese nation has been moving forward in difficulties and twists and turns. "I believe that there will always be people who march toward the light, and no matter how twists and turns the history of the Chinese nation is, it has never lost the elegance and steady demeanor of the Jiangnan tea people."
From the sound of jinshi to the sound of reading, from the tea people to the literati, Jiangnan people have never forgotten the responsibility for their homeland. From the Northern Song Dynasty to the late Ming Dynasty, from the late Qing Dynasty to the modern era, "the sound of wind and rain reading and reading in the ears, family affairs, state affairs, and the concern for everything in the world" has become the common voice of many Jiangnan scholars and scholars.
Taking the Jiangnan gentry as an example, there were a total of 547 people and jinshi in the Shanghai area of the Ming Dynasty. According to other records, there are about 3,000 students in Songjiang YifuFu, plus Jiading and Chongming, a total of more than 4,000.
At that time, the situation in the provinces of Jiangnan was roughly the same. In Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou, the total number of gentry should be more than 30,000, although it only accounts for 0.1%-0.2% of the total population, but from the absolute number, it is still relatively large.
In ancient Jiangnan, the gentry had a high status and also had important responsibilities and obligations. Chen Jiru, a man from Huating in the Ming Dynasty, said: "To be a showman, like a virgin, you must be afraid of people; if you enter the army, like a daughter-in-law, you must raise people; and when you return to the forest, such as your grandmother, you must teach people." ”
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jiangnan was heavily taxed, and local gentry often used their influence to promote tax exemption and tax reform at the imperial court. The ultimate success of the Ming Dynasty Jiading Folding Cao was the result of the efforts of the gentry.
However, after Jiadao, with the growth of the population, the number of students in the provinces of Jiangnan became increasingly large, coupled with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement and other factors, many people gave up their careers and began to do business. In Shaoxing, there was even a profession dedicated to the profession of master. Whether it is business or entering the curtain, it provides another way out for the gentry of Jiangnan. For example, Sheng Xuanhuai, Zhao Fengchang, Wang Tao, Feng Guifen, Li Shanlan, Xu Shou, etc., have all gained the opportunity to emerge.
The book "Poetry Heirloom: The Change of Jiangnan Family Style and Family Training" summarizes that although the family style and family training in the Jiangnan region emphasizes reading and examination, it has always emphasized that all industries are based on the foundation. With the invasion and plundering of Western powers, the imperial court advocated the foreign affairs movement, and some people of insight in Jiangnan advocated "commercial warfare" to save the country, believing that only by revitalizing the national economy and enhancing the country's economic strength could we save the country and survive. Wang Tao further explained the benefits of trade, including "the skill of craftsmen and the artists can support themselves", "the idle people have to return", "can provide for the loss of food".
Under the joint action of internal and external factors, the traditional concept of "four peoples" has begun to undergo positive changes. In August 1881, the "Declaration" published an article entitled "On testing artists", emphasizing that scholars, farmers, industrialists, and merchants are equal, believing that "one thing can be used for one thing, and one industry can be used for one thing, and although there is a distinction between large and small, and therefore it is also for food."
In the vigorous changes of the times, Shanghai is at the forefront of the country. Before and after the Sino-Japanese War, Shencheng had spawned a number of new occupations and professions, such as enterprise management, lawyers, architects, designers, newspaper editors, doctors, customs and bank clerks, as well as telephone, telegraph, post and telecommunications, electricity, etc.
After the young Rong Desheng went to Shanghai to study, when his father came to Shanghai to visit, he instructed: "Don't study business, but go back to study together." Rong Desheng's answer was concise and powerful: If you have learned business, you can also be motivated!
"Yes or no"
Jiangnan culture is a common cultural marker in the Yangtze River Delta region. Among them, Wu Yun Su Feng, Anhui Yun Hui Feng, Yue Yun Zhejiang Feng and Hai Pai Culture, each with its own characteristics and mutual appreciation.
Economically, the diversification of the terrain in the Yangtze River Delta region ensures the diversity of products and is conducive to the improvement of the degree of specialization of economic varieties in the region. Since the Song Dynasty, an organic division of labor has been formed within Jiangnan in grain-producing areas, silkworm areas, cotton planting areas, and salt-making areas, and various personnel, including merchants, scholars, and technicians, have frequently flowed in the Jiangnan area.
For example, Huishang went to Hangzhou, Suzhou, Changzhou, Yangzhou and other places to start a business, Shaoxing master to Jiangsu, Anhui and other places to develop, modern Ningbo, Wenzhou, Shaoxing, Wuxi, Changzhou, Hefei, Anqing and other places of businessmen, scholars, artists to Shanghai for development, and so on.
As one of the "Jiangnan Cultural Studies" series of books jointly launched by Shanghai People's Publishing House and Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House, "Jiangnan Society and the Life of Scholars in the Ming and Qing Dynasties" introduces Jiading bamboo carvings in a special chapter.
Jiading bamboo carving is closely related to the social atmosphere and consumption preferences in Jiangnan. Wang Shisheng once said: The Gusu people are intelligent and ancient, and they have played with their heads, several cases, and beds, and recently they are all based on rosewood and pears. As for the inch of bamboo pieces and stones, it is easy to write a thousand words. Among them, nature includes Jiading bamboo carving.
Behind jiangnan skills, there is recognition and respect for the spirit of craftsmen——
At that time, many Jiangnan literati had words that appreciated the craftsmanship of the craftsmen. Zhang Dai also spoke out for craftsmen: "Jiaxing Bamboo, Wang Er's Lacquer Bamboo, Suzhou Jiang Huayu's Bamboo, Jiaxing Hong Lacquer Lacquer, Zhang Copper's Copper, Huizhou Wu Mingguan's Kiln, all started with bamboo and lacquer and copper and kiln masters, and their people sat in opposition to Mr. Jinshen. ”
There are also people who are directly involved in the production of crafts. Chen Hongshou, a Qiantang man who is one of the "Eight Great Masters of Xiling", visited the pottery production site in person when he was serving as the commander of Yixing County, and cooperated with the three brothers and sisters of yang pengnian, Yang Baonian and Yang Fengnian, who were masters of pot making, to create the "Mansheng kettle" named after himself. The purple sand industry has been pushed to a new stage because of the participation of literati and scholars, similar to the combination of production, education and research today.
Behind Jiangnan's skills, there is also the effective organization of rival industries——
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were about 160 industrial and commercial guilds in Suzhou, and more than 70 of them could be determined to belong to the handicraft industry, mainly distributed in silk weaving, printing and dyeing, papermaking, book printing, smelting, hacksaws, gold wrapping, gold and silver wire, lacquer, mahogany, candles, clocks, embroidery, glasses and other industries.
"Emerging Industrial and Commercial Groups in Suzhou City in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries" is a monograph by Qiu Pengsheng, distinguished professor of the Department of History of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which takes 68 "public offices" and "guild halls" as the research objects, traces their development history and internal power operations, expresses the complexity and diversity of these industrial and commercial groups, and strives to restore the more comprehensive and detailed appearance of various industrial and commercial groups in the traditional social structure.
Behind the Jiangnan skills, you can also see the interconnection of the "two Jiangnan" -
For example, the "Three Sculptures of Huizhou", that is, brick carving, wood carving and stone carving with the style of Hui school. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of Hui merchants returned from "Plain Jiangnan" to "Mountain Jiangnan" to buy land and build civil engineering, which promoted the development of Huipai seal engraving techniques. In 2006, the "Three Eagles of Huizhou" was included in the first list of representative items of national intangible cultural heritage.
Huipai bonsai began in the Tang and Song dynasties, with plum blossoms, Huangshan pine, and juniper as representative tree species, and the overall style is known for its ancient peculiarity, with clear primary and secondary, skillful and clumsy, and suitable for concealment. Huipai bonsai are mostly planted in ordinary tile pots, and then add pots on the outside. The set of pots is mostly elaborate, commonly used in the blue and white porcelain pots produced in Jingdezhen and the purple sand pottery pots produced in Yixing.
Behind Jiangnan's skills, in the final analysis, it condenses the beauty of labor, the beauty of creativity, and the beauty of life.
"On Paper", published by Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House, collects a number of documentary essays by The famous Jiangnan prose artist Su Cangchang who went deep into the scene of life, trying to reproduce the beauty of wind and things, the beauty of labor, and the beauty of the people.
Among them, "Wandering with the Drama Class" condenses the bitterness and bitterness of the century-old Yue opera, the wandering world in "The Bee Map", the "Silkworm Family of the Last Generation in Jiangnan" in "Spring Silkworm Chronicles", the Boat Lady who has been wandering for 30 years in "Boat Lady", and the lonely and persistent ancient winemaker in "Winter Brewing"... These neglected real lives, after breaking free from the conceptual existence, become so vivid and meaningful.
The author said: "I found that everyone I met never skimped on their own efforts, and in every most primitive labor, there were unimaginable hardships and helplessness, and also hidden in the ancient virtues of endless life, such as the bitterness and fragrance of a leaf of tea, standing on the tip of the tongue for a long time and trembling on the heart. ”
"Star Bucket"
The Jiangnan region is connected by mountains and rivers and loams, the people of Jiangnan have similar languages and customs, and jiangnan has a strong sense of cultural identity and high intimacy.
However, as far as the study of Jiangnan culture is concerned, there have been three more obvious characteristics in the past: one is that most of them stopped in 1840; second, they prefer to be in the narrow Taihu Lake Basin, and Jiangnan seems to have only "center" and no hierarchy, and the overall significance is weak; third, the special topic decomposition is not enough, and the case investigation and comparative research are relatively weak.
The "Encyclopedia of Jiangnan Culture", compiled by Tang Lixing, a well-known expert in social and cultural history in Jiangnan and a professor at Shanghai Normal University, is a high-quality reference book for subjects and knowledge, including geography, history, beliefs and customs, properties, places of interest, scholarship and literature, literature and art, science and technology and education, clans, celebrities and other topics.
In Jiangnan, Suzhou and Hangzhou are often mentioned side by side, known as "paradise on earth". Hangzhou, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, is the "world's most beautiful and luxurious heavenly city" in the eyes of Marco Polo, and also witnessed the wind and rain of Li Qingzhao's "knowing life".
"Hangzhou on Earth: My Memories with a City" published by Zhejiang University Press looks more like the "private memory" of financial columnist Wu Xiaobo.
From the birth of the Liangzhu civilization 5,000 years ago, to the endless canal bringing wealth; from the "heavenly true straight" Baiju Yili to overcome public opinion and build the Bai Causeway, to the more than 450 poems written by Su Dongpo, who "claimed to be a Hangzhou native in the past life", for Hangzhou and West Lake; from the night of Hu Xueyan's defeat to the "resurrection" of the shanjia people represented by Zong Qinghou and Feng Gensheng in the 1990s, the author has been trying to capture the urban character and cultural genes of Hangzhou City.
"Here there are loyal subjects who do not produce fierce generals, there are no scribes who are philosophers, there are no gamblers in merchants, there are no ascetics who talk about Zen, and even occasionally there is a king, and there is also a lack of ambition to chase deer from the Central Plains." The beautiful scenery of nature, the complex cultural history and the prosperity of commerce are seamlessly blended together in Hangzhou. ”
Unlike Hangzhou's "ordinary, slightly melancholy and not decadent" temperament, Suzhou's debut seems to have more "aura". In terms of the analysis of "Difen Dust - Towns and Villages in Jiangnan Humanistic Space", in the three famous cities at the southern end of the canal, Hangzhou wins with Hushan, Suzhou wins with the city, and Yangzhou wins with garden pavilions.
It is worth mentioning that the "two points of dust" in the title of the book is taken from su Shi's Song Dynasty's "three points of spring color, two points of dust, and one point of flowing water". The editors and authors borrow the description of spring colors in Su Ci to compare the thousands of weather of Chinese cities, and then use "dichotomous dust" as a metaphor for the two research objects of "towns" and "villages" in Jiangnan that the book focuses on, adding a lively humanistic feeling to relatively serious academic research.
The "Ten Views of Suzhou Canal" launched by Gu Wuxuan Publishing House also details the real scenes of Fengqiao Night Berth, Pingjiang Ancient Lane, water and land panmen in the form of pictures and texts, Chinese and English comparison.
If Wu Zixu, a Chu chinese, built the city of Suzhou, then Zhang Ji, who was also from Chu, strongly promoted the city of Suzhou. The latter's "Fengqiao Night Berth" accurately and delicately tells the observation and feelings of the night berths of passenger ships on the late autumn night scene in Jiangnan, and outlines scenes such as the moonset crying, the frosty cold night, the river maple fishing fire, and the lonely boat passengers.
In short, from the Wuyue Jinge Iron Horse, the Eastern Jin Dynasty Yiguan Nandu, the Song and Yuan Poetry Painting Heaven and Earth, the Prosperity of Ming and Qing Dynasties, to the modern Hai Na Bai Chuan, open and enterprising, Jiangnan culture is a thousand-year fusion of northern and southern cultures, the crystallization of Chinese tradition and modern spirit, and a great resonance of heaven, place, and people.