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Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

"Heaven will send down a great task to the Scythians, and they will first suffer their hearts, strain their bones, starve their bodies, empty their bodies, and confuse their deeds, so they will be tempted to endure and benefit what they cannot." This is a passage from Mencius' Confession. This means that if a person wants to achieve great things, he must go through difficulties and pains that are difficult for ordinary people to experience, and then he can motivate his own heart and achieve his career. Mencius's words became Xing Jianwen's motto, inspiring him every day to step closer to his dreams step by step in the midst of hunger and hardship.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianhua is introducing the story of his collection of ancient locusts

Who is Xing Jianwen? What kind of hardships did he experience? What does he do? What kind of dreams do you have? Today we will solve this puzzle for you. Before answering the question, let's ask you a question, if you like something, or a certain thing, will you insist on doing it for more than ten years? Will you pay for it? Will you persevere in a state of daily starvation? Will you stick to the cynicism of others? I think probably most of us can't do that.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianwen introduced the ancient locust culture in the exhibition hall

Xing Jianwen, 54 years old, is from the three villages of Xingjiazhuang in Fulaishan Subdistrict, Juxian County, Rizhao City, Shandong Province. He was an authentic farmer, but he did not like to farm, and since he was a child, he liked to dance and ink and fiddle with tree roots. When he was a child, he herded sheep, saw apple orchards, worked for a few days, and finally he chose what he liked, that is, fiddling with the roots of trees. Since thirteen years ago, he has concentrated on collecting the withered ancient locust trees in the local villages of Juxian County, and has invested more than 600,000 yuan, only buying and not selling, buying more than 40 ancient locust trees, and building a rare "ancient locust hall" in China and rare in the world.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianwen introduced the story of the ancient locust

Lao Tzu said in the Tao Te Ching, "Even love will be a great expense", which means that if a person puts his mind too much on one thing, he will work hard and exhaust his energy, and thus lose something in his life. For more than ten years, Elder Brother Xing spent all his energy and financial resources on collecting ancient locust trees, which can be described as a state of great love and obsession. He was in a burrow, hungry and cold, alone, and still happy. For this reason, he almost went to the point of ruining his family, his wife had long since left him, and his son was still unmarried. In order to save money, he only ate two meals a day, day and night with these ancient locusts, it can be said that he is inseparable.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Poems written by Xing Jian

"I herded sheep for a few years when I was younger and saw apple orchards. At that time, there were many strange tree roots on the mountain, so I took it home and carved it with a knife, which looked very good. Brother Xing said that after graduating from junior high school, he began to be obsessed with tree roots, and sometimes when he saw the old man selling tree roots in the rural market, he would squat there and look at the tree roots for half a day, and sometimes he forgot that he had come to the market to buy things. Because he liked tree roots, he began to fall in love with root carving, and since then he has embarked on a road of no return. From collecting rat-sized roots to collecting tractor-sized ancient locust trees, he made hobbies his hobby his profession.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianwen introduced the origin of the ancient locust

"When I graduated from junior high school, I was asked to take a shovel to the labor market to do odd jobs, saying that I could earn dozens of yuan a day and not discount the cost. I tried for a few days, and we didn't get used to it, standing there, waiting for someone to come to you for work, like wood. Brother Xing said that his father meant to let him do no local business, work for others, and earn money with strength, so that the way of earning money is the most solid, just like the "white wolf with empty gloves", without any cost, without investing a penny, you can earn money. Brother Xing felt that working to earn money like this was too low-end, and he couldn't make much money, and he didn't like it at all, and he was constrained by others and couldn't realize his life ideals.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianwen resembles poetry and writes

"At that time, I began to like root art, although the ideal of life was not as clear as it is now, but at that time I vaguely felt that my life should be related to wood, root carving, root art, art, etc." Elder Brother Xing said that in the eyes of his father and his family, such an idea was unrealistic and whimsical. If those rotten roots can make money, will we still have our share? If those roots could be exchanged for money, they would have been dug up long ago, and they were still waiting for us to sell them? The good persuasion of fathers and family members, relatives and friends, is understandable, after all, they have been dealing with the land all their lives, and no matter what they do, they have not grown crops in the field to harvest grain. Besides, they really don't have any money to invest, work for people to earn money, and their strength is the best costless business.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianwen introduces the story of the collection

"I processed those big tree roots into art root carving tea tables, one can sell for seven or eight hundred yuan, and some good shapes can sell for thousands of yuan." Elder Brother Xing said that when his father saw that he had turned a rotten tree root that did not look like a good looking coffee table and could exchange money for money, his father and family would no longer stop him. In those first few years, it was his happiest, most proud moment. Collecting roots, creating, carving, and selling money, Brother Xing's life began to change, developing towards his ideal state. During this time, he married, had children, and embarked on the path to happiness.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

An ancient locust tree in Xing Jianwen's collection resembles an animal with a big mouth

"I'm an idealistic person, as long as I like one thing, I will do it seriously, and the nine cows will not be able to pull it back." Brother Xing introduced that after getting married, having a son made him more motivated, and he wanted to do his hobbies and make a bigger career through his own efforts. In those years, he rented a house in the bustling area of the county, processed and made tree root tea tables for customers, and at the same time invented machines for processing and making tea tables, and when he was busiest, he also found someone to help. At that time, because the processing machinery he invented was not patented, and the structure was relatively simple, some people bought it back, imitated it according to the same way, and then looked for him to return it, saying that it was not easy to use, which made him lose a lot.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianwen introduced the history and culture of ancient locust

Real people do real things, and honest people do honest things. Whenever he met such a person, Brother Xing also laughed. Later, with the change of people's consumption concepts, coupled with many people who like root carving also joined the team of making tree root tea tables, the local market tended to be saturated, and the business slowly deteriorated. At that time, he began to study ancient locust trees, and many villages at that time still had ancient locust trees, because of neglect of management, many hundreds of years, or even thousands of years of "Lizhuang locust" have withered and died. The withered locust tree was used as firewood by people, which made him feel very sorry.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

The ancient locusts collected by Xing Jianwen are strangely shaped

"The word 'locust' in the locust tree is composed of 'wood' and 'ghost', which means that after a person dies in the earth, he becomes a 'ghost', and the soul returns to the ancestral temple with the coffin. In ancient times, the people believed that the locust tree was a 'shoutu tree', 'Licun tree', 'Lizhuang tree', generally when building new villages and new temples, a locust tree would be planted at the entrance of the village and in front of the door, hoping that the wandering leaves of the long journey would fall back to their roots and the soul would return to their hometown. The sound of the word 'Huai' means that the wanderer misses his hometown, and no matter where he is, he can always remember the big locust tree at the entrance of the village or in front of the temple. Brother Xing said that an ancient locust tree, which has grown for hundreds of years and thousands of years, has gone through vicissitudes and witnessed the migration and reproduction of generations, and its cultural value can be written in a big book. If it is burned as firewood, it is a pity.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianwen lived alone under an ancient tree in the ancient locust hall

"Since around 2010, I have begun to collect information on ancient locust trees in Juxian County and surrounding districts and counties, and when I saw the withered ancient locusts, I bought them and collected them, and now it has been twelve or three years, invested more than 600,000 yuan, and collected nearly fifty ancient locusts." Brother Xing introduced that when he was obsessed with root carving, his wife saw that she only had these pieces of wood in her heart, just like she was fascinated, and there was no common language, she felt that he did not do his job, did not ask about the family, and divorced him when the child was less than ten years old. There was no way, Brother Xing had to take the child, while continuing to collect ancient locusts, while processing root carving tea tables, wooden benches, making animal specimens and other work to maintain life.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianwen introduced his collection of ancient locusts

"As soon as I save some money, I will go to buy ancient locusts, and my idea is to build an ancient locust exhibition hall, a unique exhibition hall in the country, so that people can visit for free, publicize our 'Ju culture', publicize the traditional village culture, let people know where we come from, when we came from, where we were born, where we are going, and what we are going to do." Brother Xing said that with the support of such an idea, over the years he tightened his pants belt, saved money, and finally realized this wish five years ago, and formed the "Juguo Ancient Locust Museum", which was the curator of the museum and opened to the public for free, so that people can browse the thousand-year history and culture of Juxian County and feel the inheritance of a thousand-year civilization in an exhibition hall.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianwen introduces the cultural background of ancient locust

"Have you seen the story of Prince Fu and Baby Ning written by Pu Songling in "Liaozhai Zhiyi"? That story happened under an ancient locust tree in Zhuting Village, Yanzhuang Street, Juxian County. There are many legends in folklore, all of which occur under the ancient locust tree. The most famous folk tale is the love story of Dong Yong and the Seven Fairies, who married under the old locust tree. Brother Xing introduced that the folk tales about the ancient locust tree, all the elderly rural elders, almost everyone can say a few, but also very legendary, which gives the ancient locust tree a sense of mystery.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

The ancient locust has a peculiar shape like an animal's head

"Now it is difficult to find a hundred-year-old tree in the countryside, because of the acceleration of urbanization, coupled with the demolition of many old villages, coupled with the coexistence of villages, community-based centralized residence, many rural century-old trees have been destroyed." However, in recent years, people's awareness of protection has increased, and many century-old trees that are still alive have been protected. Brother Xing introduced that now, whether it is a rural area or an city, it is more difficult to find a century-old tree, and even a few decades old trees are rare. There are still many old trees in the process of transplanting, because the water and soil are not satisfied, after changing the growth environment, they slowly wither.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianwen wrote his own poems

"I have a lot of ideas, you see our ancient locust museum, if there is a big scenic spot, or a place with a large flow of people, to make an exhibition, it is very eye-catching." We have experience, we can also do the strange stone exhibition hall, animal specimen exhibition hall. Several leaders came to see us and said that they were asked to set up an exhibition hall there to publicize our Juguo culture. Elder Brother Xing said happily, after so many years of perseverance, he was finally about to see the results. People visit for free, relying on the flow of people can drive the sales of other goods, you can also do some cultural and creative products, combined with food and snacks, etc., then there will be a harvest.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianwen introduced Ju culture

"In the most difficult times, I almost couldn't hold on. The year before, I wanted to sell this pavilion, and if it sold for 6 million, I would sell it. At that time, someone bought it, but he did not harvest it all, as long as one or two ancient locusts, give me 300,000, we considered that it would not work, the overall sale was OK, and then it was not sold. The oldest of these locust trees is about 2,000 years old, and the shortest is about 600 years old. Juxian Daguo Street that ancient locust, is the Western Han Dynasty, Chengyang King Liu Zhang personally planted, has been more than 2,000 years of history, the old Juxian people are called the old locust tree bottom, tied horse locust, said is the big fruit street of the locust tree, is now the treasure of the town hall, give no money to sell. Elder Brother Xing said that over the years, he only collected ancient locusts and never thought of selling them, but the reality really forced him to have no choice, so he wanted to sell these years of painstaking efforts. However, now that he is not selling, life is difficult, he must also persevere.

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianwen introduced the poems he wrote

"Last year, my income wasn't enough to pay the rent. I rented this house for less than ten thousand yuan a year. In the past two years, there have been fewer tourists, fewer people have come to visit, and fewer people have come to me to process animal specimens and make tea tables. Brother Xing introduced that his persistence, hunger and cold, hard work, no money, no hope, this "strange business", in the eyes of others this pile of wood is worthless, and the collection is a joke. Many people laughed at him, and some of his peers also laughed at him: "My grandson will play soy sauce, and your son does not have a daughter-in-law." ”。 For such ridicule, he can only laugh and not answer, the difference between the tao and the conspiracy, the bird and the bird know the ambition of the bird?

Unwilling to work, the 54-year-old man does a "strange business", and for 13 years he has only collected and not sold, and his peers are not used to it

Xing Jianwen's ancient locust pavilion

"I can't do without these ancient locusts every day, eat and live in the exhibition hall here, and sleep with the ancient locusts in my arms at night." When I go out for a while, I think of them in my heart, and I have to come back and see them quickly. Every night when I get up to go to the toilet, I will stand in front of the ancient locust for a while, and the scene of the war horse roaring, the storm, and the old man, the child, the big girl, and the little daughter-in-law playing under the ancient locust tree will be displayed in front of my eyes like a movie. Brother Xing said that with people's attention to traditional culture, he believes that the future will be fruitful, and he is looking forward to the arrival of that peak moment.

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