Autumn rain, ancient town, cloud smoke
Jiangnan
Looking back at my life trajectory, in my birthplace, I don't know if there is still the cultural gene of Jiangnan literati in my bloodline, but I know that in the autumn rain in Jiangnan, I have seen the reincarnation of many historical cycles, and the backs of all kinds of Suzhou people have not disappeared in the clouds and smoke.
Jiangnan, Autumn Rain, Ancient Town, Yunyan
Text/Ding Fan
Published in the January 19, 2023 issue of Literary Newspaper
Stepping on the dripping autumn rain in Jiangnan and the pleasant sound of kicking and tapping high heels hitting the bluestone road, we broke the silence of the thousand-year-old town.
Walking in the streets and alleys of Suzhou's rural ancient town, old houses, mottled tall and prominent dilapidated gatehouses, still quietly tell the former glory here.
Unlike the famous ancient towns such as Zhouzhuang, Tongli, Mudu, Luzhi, Zhenze and so on, the places we visited were semi-developed ancient towns and villages. Silence, for a traveler, is a kind of well-being of walking, because you can stop and stay, stand by the scenery and carefully observe, and experience the ancient and modern life with your soul.
From Lulu Alley, the first ancient village of Taihu Lake, to the ancient village of Mingyuewan in Xishan, to the inaccessible ancient town of Lili in the epidemic era, I seem to have seen a purdah beauty hidden in the smoke and rain of Jiangnan.
Wudi is the holy place of traditional Chinese culture education, there is no doubt that in the Ming and Qing Dynasties alone, cultural celebrities rich here accounted for half of the Jiangshan community, and the champions and the first alone accounted for 40% of the candidates directly under the north and south, and there was no shortage of figures such as the two generations of emperor Weng Tongjiang, of course, the Suzhou Dao of that year also included the present-day Songjiang Prefecture in Shanghai.
Known as the "Four Great Geniuses of Jiangnan", Tang Bohu, Zhu Zhishan, Wen Zhengming, and Zhou Wenbin are even more famous, and their unruly romantic stories have been exaggerated and amplified, and they have spread in the city, and have become another romantic style of the literati. Jin Shengxi actually said the "faint words" that soybeans and dried plum vegetables cooked together can eat the taste of meat at the time of the bean; The Donglin Party members are not just idle people who fight with their mouths; Xia Wanchun of Songjiang Prefecture and Chen Zilong bravely resisted the Qing Dynasty, talked and laughed freely in prison after being arrested, and wrote the famous poem "Nanguan Cao", I always feel that the historical drama "Nanguancao" adapted by Guo Moruo in 1943 seems to be missing something. Xia Wanchun was only 17 years old when he took up his rebellion in Nanjing, and as a teenager, I used to play in the place where he was imprisoned, but I didn't know that there were any traces of him there. Jiangnan's character is soft and gentle, but there is another side of the strong and bold that is overlooked, 20 years ago reading Xia Jianyong's historical essay "The Glory of Oblivion", I was frightened by the momentum of Jiangnan Shizi who went east, golden iron horse, and swallowed thousands of miles like a tiger, it turned out to be the lightning and thunder behind the Jiangnan smoke and rain.
Xia Jianyong "Oblivion Splendor"
Today, following the footsteps of these sages, in the hazy drizzle, I am plunged into an infinite reverie of history. The thousand-year-old history is a story that can never be told, and it is just a historical reference. For me, this land is the origin of my life, because this is the land of my people.
After 1949, my father came from the Shanghai Aftermath Management Institute to the Southern Jiangsu Office of New China, when Shanghai was still under the jurisdiction of the Southern Jiangsu Office, and in the quip of the late Professor Fan Boqun of Soochow University, the great Shanghai of Ten Mile Ocean Field was just a back garden in Suzhou. I was born in 1952 in Quemen, Suzhou, where the office was located. Later, when listening to my father talk about the past, he constantly complained that there was more time to go to the countryside to conduct research than to squat in the office, and they rode in an old jeep and ran almost all over the townships in various counties in southern Jiangsu. He remembers that many places were not Yumi Townships in Jiangnan Province, and poor counties like Shazhou (present-day Zhangjiagang) could not compare with the rich townships around Suzhou's Wujiang River.
The wheels are rolling, and my father is hobbling in Jiangnan Ancient Town, has his footprints reached the long streets and alleys of Luxiang, Mingyue Bay and Lili Ancient Town? Importantly, while walking through these historic alleys, did he just go to investigate the economic situation there? Pushing open the historic shops along the street with not heavy facades, can he see the future prospects of the township commercial ports they have built? A series of historical questions that have only one answer in the history of decades of change began to change dramatically after the 80s of the last century. However, he entered the final stage of his life, and his desire to meet and go around the townships of Suzhou again turned into a cloud of smoke, floating away in the ancient alleys and courtyards where he once wandered, and disappeared on the shores of Taihu Lake in the vast south of the river. Today, I am staggering along the long bluestone roads of these three ancient towns, I don't know if my father's footprints have reached this ancient town hidden in the middle of nowhere, if not, I walked through this long historical street on behalf of my father and saw the historical landscape of the past forty years that he did not see, which is also a trip for him.
In fact, I am very disgusted with the commercial hype in any tourist attraction, which erases the meaning of culture and attacks people's leisure interest in regional landscapes, customs and customs.
To be honest, Luxiang and Mingyuewan Ancient Town Ancient Village did not carry out excessive cultural packaging, but they were re-following the transformation model of commercial planning, and I could only sigh, but the Lili Ancient Town that had been transformed left a deep impression on me.
Walking on the long stone road, walking in the autumn rain in Jiangnan without an umbrella, I was surprised to find that it was different from other ancient towns, and the road was under the eaves of shops. This kind of historical architectural style is rare in domestic township streets, maybe it began in Fujian and Guangdong areas, I have seen a lot in Southeast Asia, especially when I go to Singapore for a long time, I see the long eaves of shops on the street, and I think of the convenience of passers-by in rainy days. Now walking in the ancient town of Wujiang, I guess that his father's footprints will arrive here, because he said that he has traveled to many famous ancient towns in Wujiang.
The intermittent autumn rain has boosted our wandering, looking at the stone bridges full of ancient meaning across the eaves on both sides of Lili Long Street, and inexplicable reverie, it is not a historical comparison of two eras, but an image of two worlds.
In the empty streets and alleys where there are almost no tourists, the soft chatter of the aboriginal Wu Nong, who asks each other on the other side, conveys a distant echo of the thousand-year-old scenery and customs - that champion, with 26 jinshi and 61 lifters, stands on the historical inn and bridgehead to beckon today's travelers, are they calling you to naturalize? Instantly, the famous couplet of the Donglin Party sounded in his ears.
Sitting in Mr. Jing Ge's cultural living room and drinking tea is really a pleasant thing, sipping the turquoise Suzhou Biluo Spring, eating Lili's famous snack oil dunzi, and blowing nonsense in the south and north of the sea, showing the life style of Jiangnan literati and elegant people.
Thinking of the former residence of Liu Yazi in the neighborhood, I felt a little melancholy. He is the authentic Lili clan, and it is admirable to think of the Suzhou "Nanshe" that advocates "the southern sound and not forgetting the roots", and once put the national integrity above the purpose of its association. What I didn't expect was that during the founding of New China, Liu Yazi's unmet state of mind was so unbearable, and when "Wanfang music played in Khotan", he could not "complain too much to prevent intestinal breakage, and the wind and things should be long-term and measured". Is this the other side of the sadness of the literati in Jiangnan? And I prefer cynical Jiangnan literati like Jin Shengxi and Tang Bohu.
Jing Ge, who writes novel essays, chooses the slow-living ancient town of Lili as his way of life facing the world, which is a good choice to resist the invasion of modern civilization, and I hope that people will live for a long time.
Looking back at my life trajectory, in my birthplace, I don't know if there is still the cultural gene of Jiangnan literati in my bloodline, but I know that in the autumn rain in Jiangnan, I have seen the reincarnation of many historical cycles, and the backs of all kinds of Suzhou people have not disappeared in the clouds and smoke.
New Media Editor: He Jing
Pictured: Photogram
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