On July 16, 1671 in the Kangxi Dynasty, on August 20, 1671, Zhang Dai's mood was very unstable, and he wrote this uneasiness into the preface of his new book "West Lake Dream Search" with trembling hands.
If you turn back the clock thirty years, at this moment, Zhang Dai in the West Lake may be strolling along the Su Causeway with red and willow green flowers, perhaps exploring the elegant Xixi River, perhaps reading hard in the mountain house of The Ridge, or sitting idly in Longjing and tasting tea... Such a scene used to be his ordinary daily life, but now it has become a distant luxury of life, and only in his dreams can he relive these good times of the past and comfort his already cold heart.
The year of the Kangxi Decade is a key to opening the West Lake Dream Quest. This year, Zhang Dai was seventy-six years old, and he had long passed the age of ancient rarity. The Ming Dynasty that he had been obsessed with had disappeared into the black hole of history for twenty-eight years, and the new dynasty had arrived unexpectedly, no matter how much he resisted. Heaven and earth are yellow, time flies, and everything is destined and unchangeable.
A small West Lake Chronicle
An exhibition hall of Chinese culture
For an old man who is old and disheartened, how can there be such leisure and elegance to write this book at this moment? Haven't the previous feelings and thoughts already been said in "Tao An Dream Memories"? What else could make him so inseparable?
Understanding this, I also understood "West Lake Dream Search", read the West Lake, and understood the scenery and vicissitudes behind the lake and mountains.
After the Ming Dynasty was destroyed, Zhang Dai also took up a knife and gun and carried out a futile resistance, seeing that the general trend had gone, there was no hope of restoring the country, and turned from the battlefield to the desk, which was something that the students who had no power to tie the chicken were better at. He wants to use his pen and ink to preserve a history for his lost homeland and for himself. There are two ways to present it specifically: one is to write solemnly in the form of writing history, and its results are "Shi Kui Shu" and "Shi Kui Book Later Collection"; the other is to write with literary brushwork and sensibility, and the results are "Tao An Dream Reminiscence" and "West Lake Dream Search". The former is the historical archive of a dynasty, the latter is a person's perceptual memory. Zhang Dai recorded that era of tragedy and joy in two completely different ways. However, from the perspective of the repercussions of later generations, "Tao An Dream Reminiscence" and "West Lake Dream Search" are more popular and have greater influence, and now they have both become literary classics.
"West Lake Dream Search" is not large, the whole book seventy-two, in addition to the first one always write about the West Lake, a total of seventy-one West Lake and surrounding scenic spots, this is Zhang Dai's eyes of the West Lake seventy-one scenes, is Zhang Dai's west lake alone.
The question is, since we want to express the thousands of emotions of life and write out the unforgettable feelings of home and country, why not express our chests and clearly express them, but instead use the West Lake, a scenic spot in the landscape? What is its purpose? The answer has to be found between the lines. It can be said that this is both an emotional choice and a rational choice.
[Qing] Dong Bangda's Ten Pictures of the West Lake (Partial), collected by the National Palace Museum in Taipei
It is said that the choice of emotion is because Zhang Dai has an indissoluble relationship with west lake all his life, and many of his life imprints and memories are here. Since his grandfather, he has bought a house in West Lake. He grew up living here with his elders, traveling through the landscapes and rivers here, and his familiarity with the West Lake is no less than that of his hometown in Yuezhong. For him, this is not a place of residence, but his own home. He has also been to Nanjing, Suzhou, Yangzhou and other places many times, but he is not so familiar with it, and his feelings are not so deep.
Long-term residence, long-term love, this is just the norm of human beings. More importantly, these more than seventy landscapes of the West Lake have distinct personal imprints, which belong to Zhang Dai, which is Zhang Dai's West Lake and his spiritual home where he can place his soul. Although these mountains, stones, trees, pavilions and pavilions are objectively existing, they have different connotations and colors in the eyes of different people, just as there are a thousand Lin Daiyu in the hearts of a thousand readers, and there are a thousand West Lakes in the minds of a thousand people.
The long-term nostalgia did not make Zhang Dai have aesthetic fatigue for the West Lake, but constantly made him feel fresh. From the book "West Lake Dream Search", it can be seen that he has always used his eyes to search, looking for landscapes that others have not discovered, and looking for new connotations of landscapes. The beauty of Huxin Pavilion is well known, from early spring to late autumn, visitors can see it, but its elegance after the winter snow is not appreciated by everyone, only the author and three or five people can enjoy this lonely tranquility. On the lake in July, tourists are weaving, but at night, it is empty and deserted, and the author prefers the cool breeze under the moonlight. Even in the inaccessible depths, he found strange and beautiful landscapes. These landscapes are visible to everyone, but in the book "West Lake Dream", they have a distinct personal color and emotion, and it only belongs to Zhang Dai.
[Song] Ye Xiaoyan, "Ten Views of the West Lake", "Broken Bridge Residual Snow", Collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
It is also like this, when the merciless war burned through this land, the mountains and rivers changed owners, things were not people, the mountains and stones were still in their original shape, and the flowers and plants still withered and prospered every year, but at this time, the West Lake suddenly became strange and no longer belonged to Zhang Dai. People cannot be without a homeland, and those who do not have a homeland will become a lone ghost who has lost his soul and lost his soul. The familiar West Lake scenery in the past has not disappeared, but forever engraved in the memory, for Zhang Dai, this kind of dreamy memory is more real than reality, more worthy of nostalgia, so it is impossible to understand why this book should use the name "West Lake Dream", and it is not difficult to imagine how many rich and complex connotations and emotions are contained behind the West Lake scenery, whether this emotion is cheerful or bitter, it is worth savoring.
It was not Zhang Dai who lost the West Lake due to the change of dynasty, but thousands of people whose fate was changed in that era. Zhang Dai, who has read a lot of scripture history, knows what West Lake means and what it means to lose West Lake, so "West Lake Dream Search" records not only his memory, but the memory of an era and an ethnic group. From this point of view, it is a very rational choice to express the feelings of home and country through the West Lake.
[Ming] Chen Hongshou's "Drunken Sorrow"
The rational choice is because few scenic spots can be as specially loved by nature as the West Lake, and so many beautiful landscapes have gathered in a not very large space, which can get so much care and praise from generations of literati and inkers, and have accumulated such a rich cultural heritage for thousands of years. Here, there is no need to say strange stones, xiufeng, smoke willows, streams, random temples, a small bridge and even a pavilion, have witnessed thousands of years of changes, sorrow and joy, condensing the vicissitudes of the years in brick by brick, grass and trees. Behind the tangible Lingshan water show is an endless humanistic custom, and the West Lake integrates natural and cultural scenery and has become a gathering place of Chinese culture since the Tang and Song dynasties. In this sense, West Lake is an exhibition hall of Chinese culture. Through the writing of this representative landscape, we can see through the changes of an era, and thus express our thoughts and exclamations on history and society and life.
Zhang Dai is obviously aware of this, and while he is looking for landscapes, he is also tracing the past and present lives of these landscapes and recording them, "West Lake Dream Search" can be said to be a small West Lake Chronicle. In addition to personal descriptions and feelings, there are also many important documents, whether it is an ancestral hall mausoleum or a Taoist Buddhist temple, although the space is limited, it is also as informative as possible to introduce its creation and destruction, including time, principal, reason, etc., are truthfully recorded, which can be said to be a brief history of each scenery. There is both a vertical combing of historical facts and a horizontal spatial narrative, and the whole book together is a history of the changes in the West Lake, which is also a perceptual history of Chinese cultural changes.
Zhang Dai was immortal because of the West Lake
The West Lake is colored by Zhang Dai
How did Zhang Dai's intertwined love-hate feelings be presented through "West Lake Dream"? In terms of writing, Zhang Dai has been a predecessor of the Fa and has made some innovations. The stylistic form of "West Lake Dream Search" is taken from the Ming Dynasty's "Imperial Capital Scenery Strategy", "West Lake Tour" and other books, such as its articles are arranged according to geographical orientation, divided into five volumes: Xihu North Road, West Lake West Road, West Lake Middle Road, West Lake South Road and West Lake Exterior, highlighting the spatial distribution of these landscapes, and forming a crisscrossing temporal and spatial relationship with the historical traceability of each scenery, so that each scenery is three-dimensional and deep.
"West Lake Dream Hunt" is influenced by more than just these two books. Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the works of writing famous cities represented by "Tokyo Dream Hualu", "Capital City Jisheng", "Mengliang Record", and "Wulin Old Affairs" have gradually developed into a new body of writing, which has attracted people's attention, which is on the one hand the embodiment of the prosperity of urban culture, and on the other hand, it is also an innovation in literary creation.
"Capital City Customs"
In contrast, the spirit and connotation of "West Lake Dream Search" are very different from the two books of "Imperial Capital Scenery and Material Strategy" and "West Lake Tour", the latter two books were written in the jiajing and Chongzhen years, the time before the death of the Ming, the two authors did not witness the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, and even imagined that such a thing would happen. If they had experienced all that Zhang Dai had seen and heard, would they still have written these books? Even if you write it, will it still be that kind of relaxed, pleasant tone? Believe the answer is no. From this point of view, suffering is an unfortunate and an opportunity.
In terms of creative motivation, "West Lake Dream Search" may be more directly inspired by Li Gefei's "Luoyang Famous Garden", who wrote this passage in "Liuzhou Pavilion":
Uncle Li Wen wrote "The Famous Garden of Luoyang", which is said to be the rise and fall of the famous garden, the rise and fall of Bu Luoyang; the prosperity and decline of Luoyang, the chaos of Bu Tianxia. Sincerely! Yu Yu Jia Wu Nian, occasionally wading here, the Forbidden City away from the yellow, thorns and copper camels, sighing sadness, several effects of mulberry amaranth swimming in the river, the night will cry and return.
The author's emotional expression in the book is generally more restrained, but here, he finally can not hold back, and the writing is extremely painful. This is not only a sentimentality in the face of the tragic destruction of Hangzhou after the war, but also a motivation for the author to write this book. It is also this motivation that distinguishes it from the "Imperial Scenery Strategy" and the "West Lake Tour", which is lacking in both books.
"West Lake Dream" is an extremely difficult book to write, most of the seventy-one scenery collected in the whole book has a history of hundreds of years or even thousands of years, during which it has undergone dynastic changes, there have been many rises and downs, coupled with personnel changes, there are many things, if you want to explain one by one, just a scenery, it takes a long time, and it is not too much to write a book alone. But the author did not do this, he took a very simple route, often with only a few hundred words, he will explain the terrain and landscape of various places, the ins and outs, and from time to time express his own views.
[Ming] Liu Du's "Ten Views of the West Lake" "Spring Dawn at Su Causeway"
Why should the author be so stingy with pen and ink? Obviously, he did not want to pile up materials and write a pure chronicle, but wanted to use the most refined pen and ink to point out the essence of the scenery and pin his personal feelings. He prefers to express his mind rather than to paint with a pen. This way of writing is actually a kind of self-challenge, which requires a lot of money.
You can use the writing to convey the spirit, concise and concise eight words to summarize the writing characteristics of "West Lake Dream". There are seventy-one landscapes in the book, some of which are won by beauty, and some of which are known for their humanities. For those who win with beautiful scenery, the author often has to be unimpressed, and in only three or five sentences, he will depict its characteristics and accurately convey the gods. As it says Cold Spring Pavilion: Cold Spring Pavilion is on the left side of the mountain gate of Lingyin Temple. Danyuan green trees, reflecting the eerie forest. The pavilion is against the cliff, and it is desolate and miserable. Not only explains the geographical location, but also points out the quiet and handsome characteristics of the place, the sentence is highly condensed, the amount of information is very large, and the constituent elements, orientation, color, sound, and form of the scenery are all written out, and no word is superfluous. Its secluded and rugged shape is like being in front of you.
For the cultural landscape, the same ink is not much, and the context of the future is clear. For example, he wrote Lu Xuangong Ancestral Hall: Why is the Lonely Mountain Ancestral Hall Lu Xuangongye? Gai Zi Lu Shao BaoBing was the son of Sejong's nursing mother, seized power and favor, and claimed to be a xuangong and created a shrine.
In just thirty-six words, the rather complicated construction of the Lu Xuan Ancestral Hall was clarified, and the basic information such as location, builder, and reason was all available. The text is so concise, but the account of the rise and fall of these landscapes is not missing. For example, he wrote baochu pagoda: its pagoda was destroyed at the end of the yuan, and the monk Hui Torch was rebuilt. Ming Chenghua was destroyed again, and the nine-year monk Wen Yong of Zhengde was rebuilt. Jiajing was destroyed again in the first year, and the monk Yonggu rebuilt it in the twenty-second year. In the third year of Longqing, the wind broke its top, and the tower gradually fell, and it was rebuilt in the twenty-second year of the Wanli Calendar.
Hangzhou Baochu Pagoda old shadow
In these places, the author could have passed through the "successive generations have risen and fallen", but he did not avoid repetition, and even some tireless meaning, which was obviously intentional. Why? Its purpose is obviously not just to preserve historical materials and record them truthfully. Reading carefully, from this seemingly monotonous repetition, you can feel the ups and downs that a building has experienced in thousands of years, and there is a kind of vicissitudes and sentimentality between the lines. This is an atmosphere and effect deliberately created by the author.
The author's articles are accompanied by relevant poems, most of which are from the hands of famous artists, many of which are also from Zhang Dai himself, with a high literary standard. These works are a supplement to the author's narrative, but also form an internal echo, enrich the connotation of each text, and add a lot of color to the whole book. Most of the poems appended to the texts are the works of famous artists of the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, so the book can also be regarded as a selection of poems by famous artists of the West Lake in the past.
West Lake is a landscape with a soul
It's a big book that can't be read
For Zhang Dai, expressing the feelings of home and country and the thoughts of the old garden, the West Lake is undoubtedly an excellent entry point and an excellent carrier. For West Lake, what does the book "West Lake Dream Search" mean?
As the saying goes, it is better to see the scenery than to listen to the scenery. Why is this said? Because without people, history and scenery, it gives people only a simple pleasure, and lacks lasting charm. As a natural scenery of the West Lake, its lake and mountains have not changed much for thousands of years, but as a humanistic landscape of the West Lake, has been open, with the change of the years, increasing new connotations, whether it is history or allusions, characters or architecture, are an indispensable part of the West Lake, they themselves have also experienced the wind and frost of the years to become a landscape, even thousands of years of vicissitudes is also a landscape. The organic integration of natural scenery and humanistic customs has formed the unique cultural character of the West Lake, which is separated from the same scenery as Xuanwu Lake, Slender West Lake, Daming Lake, etc., and will never be similar, this cultural character is the soul of the West Lake. It can be said that west lake is a landscape with a soul, and each scenic spot has its own soul, which is the mystery of its haunting dreams.
The eighth episode of "Palm Death"
Understanding this, the significance of the book to West Lake is not difficult to understand. With its unique discoveries and unique interpretations, the author injects new spirit and connotation into the scenery of the West Lake, enhances its cultural character, makes it more spiritual and more temperamental, Zhang Dai has also become an indispensable part of the West Lake landscape, mutual achievements, Zhang Dai is immortal because of the West Lake, and the West Lake is born because of Zhang Dai. Zhang Dai, like his predecessors Bai Juyi, Su Shi and others, is not only an appreciator of the West Lake scenery, but also a writer of the West Lake landscape, and after the exquisite carving of the literati and inkers of the past generations, he finally achieved the West Lake, a unique scenery with personality, temperament and soul. It was a cultural relay that spanned time and space and is still ongoing to this day.
More than three hundred years have passed, and now when you read "West Lake Dream Quest", what can you read from it? In fact, the beauty of the West Lake that we see now, except for a few buildings, has not changed much from what Zhang Dai saw in front of his eyes, but the feeling is completely different. After all, the era of life is different, an era has an era of scenery, born in the Taiping dynasty, we do not have Zhang Dai's sad experience at the time of the Ding Revolution, nor can we linger in the West Lake for a long time like him. But if we are just tourists in a hurry, follow the tour guide to visit here, and forcibly carve their avatars on the scenery of the West Lake with a camera, to be honest, the West Lake is just the same tourist symbol as Xuanwu Lake, Slender West Lake, daming Lake, nothing special, and even the scenery of the West Lake is not necessarily better than the landscape elsewhere. In this way, it has failed the West Lake, the profound cultural connotation behind it, and the painstaking efforts of the literati and inkers of the past generations to visit the scenery, and many people have done just that.
If you want to truly appreciate the beauty of the West Lake, appreciate its unique personality and temperament, you need to be like Zhang Dai at that time, change a way of thinking, change the hurried footsteps into a looking eye, use your own eyes to see, use your own heart to read, you can see your own life from the scenery, read out the vicissitudes of a nation, such a West Lake is your own.
West Lake is a landscape with a soul, but also a big book that can not be read in a lifetime, and one of the many beautiful scenery is particularly bright and chic, that is, Zhang Dai and his "West Lake Dream Search".
*This article was originally published in guangming daily on March 24, 2022, 11th edition, the author Miao Huaiming is a professor of the department of Chinese of Nanjing University
(Co-ordinator: Lu Quan; Editor: Si Qi)