Li Fuping: A brief discussion on the challenges facing rural traditional culture

Since the introduction of household contracting in rural areas, extensive and profound changes have taken place. With the deepening of reform and the adjustment of the industrial structure, especially the implementation of the strategy of precise poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, the material living conditions of farmers have improved unprecedentedly, and their spiritual outlook has also quietly changed. In this historical process, the changes in productive forces and production relations, the promotion of industrialization and urbanization and marketization, and the rise of new concepts, new fashions, and new cultures have inevitably formed impacts and challenges on traditional culture. This kind of challenge and change can be summarized in three main aspects: First, the population continues to decline. After the large package is dried, decentralized family production and non-agricultural soil management bring about a hollowed-out living environment. With the large number of laborers going out and the population moving out, there are generally situations in the countryside where there are no households, no houses, and no land. Like my hometown, the production teams of hundreds of people in the past are now only thirty or forty people, and some houses and villages are even empty. Second, the tradition is gradually forgotten. Now people feel that the taste of the year is getting less and less, the folk customs are getting farther and farther away, the nostalgia is getting weaker and weaker, and the number of capable people is becoming more and more scarce. Not only are farming methods changing, lifestyles changing, rural customs and customs changing, and ideological concepts also changing. Third, the intergenerational characteristics are obvious. The elderly farmers, the young migrant workers; the can't do the work, the capable can't do well; the "5438" who goes out, the "9961" who stays behind, is the common reality of the countryside at present. Between the old, the middle and the young, new knowledge has increased, traditional skills have decreased; new ideas have increased, traditional literacy has decreased; new life has increased, and traditional customs have decreased.

From a spiritual point of view, rural traditional culture should be closely linked to agricultural civilization and reflect its inherent characteristics of concepts, character and fashion. In my opinion, there are three main points that are most representative: one is industriousness, which is doing things; the other is frugality, which is family management; and the third is simplicity, which is for people. This kind of character is more reflected in the families of the villagers and the toiling masses, but it is also praised by the scholars and the large households. For a long time, the most admired ancient adage was "cultivating and reading heirlooms". Although it has evolved into a distinction between farmers and readers, the idea of thrifty entrepreneurship and not forgetting the original contained in the word "ploughing and reading" is the same. In promoting the building of spiritual civilization today, it is also worth vigorously advocating and carrying forward.

Looking at the rural areas and farmers in the new era, although there are many positive progress, what cannot be ignored is the decline of traditional culture. In connection with the above three points, it is manifested as three subtractions.

(1) The spirit of hard work has weakened. This can be described in three sentences. First, scientific and technological progress to raise lazy people. With the application of new machinery, new products and new technologies, it brings about changes in production lifestyle. Replace the people with cars, replace people with machines, and replace firewood with electricity and gas. Some clumsy labor is gone, and the complicated labor is simple. While reducing human labor, it also breeds human laziness. This is an obvious fact. The second is policy progress to raise idle people. The abolition of agricultural taxes, the implementation of direct grain subsidies, and the practice of "one level and two adjustments" have not been carried out, and many people have nothing to do. Farmers do not pay attention to farming, the double-cropping rice of the past is gone, and idle wasteland can be seen everywhere. A few years ago, there were more than 2,000 acres of empty land in Moyan Village in our county, all cultivated by a couple in the outer village, and basically no rent. The third is to make progress in life and raise mediocre people. Satisfied with food and clothing, small wealth is safe, accustomed to eating policy meals, enjoy ready-made blessings, and want to spend festivals and leisure every day. As the old saying goes, the poor do not lose books, and the rich do not lose pigs. Now some people not only do not farm, do not cut firewood, or even do not grow vegetables and do not raise pigs. The buildings are spacious, and there are more lazy sleepers; the roads are smoother and the walking is less; the days are not worried, the atmosphere of playing cards is thicker, and the progress of life reflects the decline in labor literacy.

(ii) The frugality has faded. The ancients said that diligence is to cultivate oneself, and frugality is to cultivate morality. Frugality and hard work go hand in hand. In the past, not only the poor had to be frugal, but many large families were also very frugal. This virtue has a long history and has been passed down from generation to generation. But now frugality is not popular, and it is even used as a synonym for miserliness and stinginess. Behind this status quo is the "three too". First, too convenient brings waste. The philosophy of life is often that too free is easy to be slow, too generous is easy to be decadent, too convenient is easy to waste. For example, the use of disposable products everywhere is convenient and convenient, but it consumes resources, pollutes the environment, and grows laziness. Second, too much love of face brings comparison. Pay attention to pomp, catch up with fashion, love vanity. Big scenes, wedding bride price, going out with a big head, and staying at home with a rich mentality. They all lamented that they could not afford to send gifts, and they could not afford to get married, and when it was their turn to be in front of them, they still drew the scoop according to the gourd, and followed suit. Third, too much stability brings short-sightedness. In the era of peace, there is no chaos in the army; there is no longer a shortage of food and clothing for a well-off life. Therefore, there is a lack of awareness of crisis, disaster prevention, and thriftiness; the idea of "preparing for war and preparing for famine for the people, the spirit of saving a handful of rice every day," and the ancient precepts of carrying an umbrella and being full of hunger and food have all been left behind.

(3) The pure nature has faded. Simplicity is not a simple mind, nor is it clumsy, but a virtue that originates in the field and haunts the mountains and rivers, such as filial piety and love for the elderly, good neighborliness and benevolence, gratitude and righteousness, kindness and integrity, and so on. In the rural areas now, there is more foreign culture and less ceremonial culture; the leisure culture is heavier and the filial piety culture is lighter; the business culture is thicker, and the righteous culture is lighter. Taking the New Year custom as an example, in the past, on the first day of the New Year, it was necessary to go to the grave to worship the ancestors, and in the new spring of the first month, they all played the New Year to visit relatives, and a filial piety, ceremonial word, and righteous character ran through it. Now, that tradition is slowly changing. Younger people, etiquette is not learned, etiquette is not understood, filial piety culture is not much valued, the feelings of home and country have become weaker, and the sense of responsibility and hard-working spirit are not as good as those of the elders. Of course, they learn new knowledge, accept new things quickly, have an open and innovative spirit, and can keep up with the times. This is worth affirming.

To face up to the current situation and problems of rural traditional culture, we must apply dialectical viewpoints and development viewpoints, and we cannot generalize them in a partial way, let alone negate them completely. To solve the challenges faced by rural traditional culture, we must persist in taking multiple measures at the same time, become a weathered person, and make contributions for a long time. The most fundamental thing is to adhere to the Marxist position, viewpoint and method, take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide, strengthen the leadership of the party and the construction of grass-roots organizations, comprehensively promote the strategy of rural revitalization, and achieve four retention in the historical change of the focus of the "three rural areas" work.

The first is to adhere to the Marxist concept of development and retain fireworks with industry. To keep fireworks is to retain talent and retain popularity. People are the most dynamic, active and active factor in the productive forces, and also the most important carrier and support of traditional culture. In one left-behind family and empty shell village, it is impossible to achieve rural revitalization, nor is it possible to carry forward the excellent traditional culture. Only when the industry develops can we retain people and have better development of people. Of course, retaining people is not against the export of labor services, let alone trapping people on the land again. Instead, in the development of the industry, the labor force is transferred to the nearest place, so that production is prosperous, life is rich, ecological beauty and vitality complement each other.

The second is to adhere to the Marxist concept of history and retain tradition with folklore. Rural customs and folk customs are the deepest foundation of traditional culture and the most grounded carrier for educating Dong Tao people. We must have a correct attitude toward historical and cultural heritage, and we must not regard the old as backward, the old as obsolete, and the soil as a bad habit. Be actively guided, suck its essence, and use it for my own use. It is necessary to attach importance to the protection and inheritance of folk customs and essences such as festivals and seasons, ceremonial filial piety, marriage customs and funeral customs, handicraft specialties, customs and things, folk proverbs, Fang Zhi family trees, village rules and ancestral training, old house public property, and historical relics, so as to promote the advantages and eliminate the disadvantages, so that they can play a positive role. Special attention should be paid to the social function and civilized role of the family. Comrade Xi Jinping put forward three emphasises: pay attention to the family, pay attention to tutoring, and pay attention to family style. This is not only the basic source of inheriting folklore, but also an important window for retaining traditions.

The third is to adhere to the Marxist concept of propaganda and retain culture by taking the position. Chairman Mao said: "As for the rural fronts, if socialism does not occupy them, capitalism will inevitably occupy them." This is particularly evident in the infiltration of religions. It is necessary to attach importance to positive indoctrination, strengthen ideological guidance, innovate means of propaganda and education, and occupy the rural front with socialist ideology and culture. Culture is a big system, which requires big vision, big pattern, and big atmosphere. It is necessary to excavate and rescue traditional culture, and while resisting negative culture, we should inherit excellent culture, develop advanced culture, and establish a large cultural pattern of active participation that the masses like to hear and hear. Such as loudspeakers, house meetings, exhibition rooms, propaganda walls, cultural squares, farmhouse bookstores, humanistic logos, characteristic tourism, non-hereditary inheritors, civilized demonstration households, and so on, carry forward the main melody, increase positive energy, enhance the cohesion and guiding force of grass-roots party organizations, educate the people around them with the things around them, help correct and cowardly, and strengthen the Marxist ideological and cultural front.

The fourth is to adhere to the Marxist concept of the times and retain the root vein with nostalgia. Building beautiful villages is an urgent need and strategic task for building a beautiful China, and is an inevitable requirement for the progress of the times. The times must move forward, and the roots must be inherited. The root vein is the history and culture of a local system. Beautiful countryside, beauty in green mountains and green waters, more beautiful in folk customs and nostalgia. Comrade Xi Jinping said that you can see the mountains, you can see the water, and you remember to live in homesickness. What is nostalgia? It is homesickness, rural customs, historical imprints, geographical indications, cultural traditions, local customs, human settlements, interpersonal relations, and a unique humanistic feeling and local complex of a place. The background color of nostalgia is landscape, the connotation is culture, the charm is the style, and the soul is the root. Through protection and inheritance, through excavation and innovation, through cultivation and persistence, we should polish one business card after another with traditional characteristics, promote cultural progress, rural style civilization, and high spirit in the revitalization of rural areas, and achieve a double harvest in the construction of material civilization and spiritual civilization.

(The author is a former deputy secretary of the party committee and a cultural scholar in Tongcheng County, Hubei Province)

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