Compared with people in other provinces and cities, Beijingers have an extraordinary love of political culture. But these cultural shrines are not concentrated in campus desk lecture halls, but are popular in the city, from the teahouses of the old days to the streets and alleys of today, including the public toilet culture of a specific period.
In addition to Beijing's unique geographical location as the capital of China, taxi drivers have contributed to the promotion of Beijingers' preference for political and cultural image.
Teahouse culture
The Ming Dynasty's secret service agency, the East and West Factory, the Qing Dynasty Daxing Literary Prison, the promotion of the Eight Strands of Literature, and the control of Science and Technology aggravated the lack of freedom of speech in this period, and thus there was a situation in which Gong Zizhen said that "ten thousand horses are deplorable".
These repressed personalities, the individual needs of the indifferent, were finally satisfied in the tea house with a casual way of "tea tasting".
Mr. Lao She wrote in "The Tea House": The room is very tall, with long tables and square tables, benches and small stools, all of which are tea seats. The partition window shows the backyard, and there is a pergola high, and there are also tea seats under the shed. There are places to hang birdcages in the house and under the pergola. There were notes everywhere that read, "Don't talk about state affairs."
Not talking about state affairs means not talking about state affairs. Due to social turmoil, the political situation "investigated" folk speech, resulting in the "Yutai" tea house need to post a notice of "do not talk about state affairs" in the store, and later with the increasingly serious suppression of the authorities, and the "do not talk about state affairs" in the store is also more and more, the font is also getting bigger and bigger, suggesting that the chaos and darkness of society, the government tightens the freedom of speech, and the people's life is suppressed.
Its most well-known source is in Lao She's three-act play "The Tea House". Of course, during the Republic of China period, there were also such notes in many places, such as the bookstore that appeared in the TV series "Jinghua Smoke and Clouds".
The tea houses in Beijing reached their heyday in the Qing Dynasty, and they were not only numerous, but also complete in variety. There are large tea houses, Qing tea houses, book tea houses, chess tea houses, seasonal temporary tea houses, evacuation tea houses and so on.
Many imperial royalty, bureaucratic aristocrats, and the children of the Eight Banners soaked in teahouses all day long, and the history of teahouses in Beijing in the Qing Dynasty is a microcosm of the history of the Qing Dynasty. During the Beiyang warlords and the Republic of China era, the Beijing tea house was a place where politicians and bureaucrats came and went.
A 1994 book published by the China Social Publishing House, "Criticizing" Beijingers?! The author is Luo Shuang. One of the chapters reads: "In a deeper sense, the teahouse has changed from an entertainment place for ordinary people and merchants and rich people to a refuge in the lives of people in distress and confusion." ”
Before Gengzi, the big tea house in Beijing in the Qing Dynasty had walked through the red and purple luck, because the Eight Flags disciples who did not do things soaked in it all day.
Eight banners and twenty-four gushan, three flags of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, three mountains and two fires, two sides of the warehouse, the whole package of money and grain per month, and the whole truck of rice on a quarterly basis. There is surplus grain at home, people have no vegetables, in addition to the worms, fish, dogs, horses, eagles and camels to play well, the rest of the pastime is to go to the tea house.
Beixinqiao Tianshouxuan, specializing in yellow flags full of Menghan Sangushan customers. Dengshikou Guangtaixuan specializes in blue, white, and white Jiugushan customers. Tianluxuan, Fuchengmen Street, specializes in right-wing flag customers.
A certain Xuan outside the west entrance of the Gokokuji Temple, because liuquanju has good wine, can attract some diners. Tianshou, Guangtai, Guanghe three places, because they can directly drive the car in, high-level people, car class, mostly like to drink and play chess under the canopy, so they are particularly prosperous.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the history of teahouses in Beijing in the Qing Dynasty is a microcosm of the history of the Qing Dynasty. It can be seen from Mr. Lao She's "Tea House" that in the era when the Manchu Qing Dynasty was about to fall, the Yutai Tea House in Beijing was still a "prosperous" scene, with caged birds, fortune telling, selling antique jade, and playing with crickets.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the people, the big tea houses gradually closed their doors, and the book tea houses began to become popular. In the morning, clear tea is sold, and in the afternoon and evening, artists are invited to speak and comment on books. Drinking tea is only the medium, and listening to the commentary book is the main content. For example, the Wang Treasurer in "The Tea House" placed a phonograph in the main hall.
The commentary originated in the flyover. After 1920, the large and small tea houses concentrated in the West Street of the Tianqiao West Market and the Fair Market began to add book reviews and performances one after another, and there were countless tea houses such as Fuhaiju, Wudouju, Tonghexuan, and Tonglexuan. At that time, the old Beijingers often said, "Second brother, where are you going?" "I went to the teahouse in my mouth to listen to the book."
Some famous actors sang popular from the teahouse. Shen Fengxi, the heroine of Zhang Hexhui's novel "Laughing at the Marriage", was favored by Liu Dezhu, the commander of the Beiping garrison, when she sang the big drum book in the source tea house.
During the Beiyang and Republic of China eras, many politicians and bureaucrats liked to go in and out of Beijing teahouses. While satisfying themselves to listen to the drama, it also provides a convenient opportunity for the killer agent.
In the past, teahouses were almost one of the few "public spaces" shared by Beijingers. Three religions and nine streams, all kinds of people, etc. are mixed here, there is a kind of occupation called "bag inquiry", they often haunt tea houses, restaurants and other crowded places, pay attention to the information in other people's small talk.
But then again, although the teahouses in Beijing are full of people, they are at best places where people with no way out of speech have passed through their mouths and complained.
The old Beijing teahouse can be said to be the epitome of society, and a large teahouse is a small society.
Therefore, Mr. Lao She's work "Tea House" precisely grasps the characteristics of this scene, highly condenses the time span of half a century, and the fifty-seven main and secondary characters in the tea house, showing the life scenes of the three eras after the failure of the Penghu Reform Law in the late Qing Dynasty, the beiyang warlord division period in the early years of the Republic of China, and the eve of the collapse of the Kuomintang regime, summarizing the sharp confrontation and conflict between various strata and several forces in Chinese society, and revealing the historical destiny of semi-feudal and semi-colonial China.
Toilet culture
As the biggest feature of Beijing, it is the popularity of the number of public toilets. The habit of old Beijingers to defecate on the ground has long been sealed in history, thanks to several "public toilet revolutions", Beijing's public toilets are becoming more and more upscale, and the number is also increasing. "From the change of public toilets in Beijing to see the construction of civilized cities" said that "Beijing: a public toilet at 500 meters, it is really convenient when you want to be convenient". In the alley, toilets can be bumped into every few tens of meters.
Old Beijingers have familiar and complex memories of public toilets. According to the description of "From the Change of Public Toilets in Beijing to the Construction of Civilized Cities": There was a time when every morning, when people met, they would ask: "Why do you go?" Meeting. "Meeting" is to go to the toilet, because there were few public toilets and many people at that time, people had to wait in line in front of the door, and when they waited, they could not help but talk about national events and talk about parents, so it was called "meeting".
Using public toilets as a social place, Beijing's uncles and aunts do not feel embarrassed at all. It perfectly interprets the meme text have the opportunity to together that is now popular in the circle of friends.
Teacher Gua once went to a dirty stall in a hutong in the second ring road of Beijing, saw the public toilets in the hutongs, and thought in his heart, how inconvenient such a public toilet is, and is it hygienic. Di Dao, who lives in the second ring road, said that the public toilets are cleaned every day, and there are also people living in them, and it is particularly convenient for nearby residents to go to the toilet.
It is said that public toilets are clean and hygienic during the day and traces left by hangovers at night. Every time I go to the public toilet in the alley, it is a shock of ideas, a cultural exchange, and a memory of friendship, such as the buddy who once borrowed my hand paper.
In the past, street toilets became a scene of the times, and it was also a unique style of that era.
A female tourist wears a Qing Dynasty women's palace dress in a public toilet on the west side of the south gate of Zhongshan Park in Beijing
The small advertisement in the public toilet has deceived many unknown teenagers.
Public toilet reading materials, once very serious one-word reading, but also left words.
I guess this is the most primitive way of tearing it up.
There is also the fact that every time you go to the toilet, it is the best choice to think about life.