In 1499, Tang Bohu planted.
In the Jiangnan Township Trial a year ago, Tang Bohu won the first place and became the famous Tang Xieyuan in Jiangnan.
At that time, with his hands in his pockets and not knowing what an opponent was, he had not yet met the beautiful and moving Sister Qiuxiang, so he embarked on a journey to Beijing to catch up for the exam.
On the way, he met Xu Jing, a Jiangyin examiner, and the two were the same age, chanting the wind and moon along the way, and wantonly sprinkling hormones that had nowhere to place
From Jiangsu to the capital road is thousands of miles away, the two young people with blood and qi are also very bored with dancing and ink.
In order to add some fun to the boring journey, Xu Jing, who is not poor in money, hired 6 singers as soon as he made a move, singing and dancing all the way, which attracted the eyes of the examinees along the way.
After arriving in the capital, perhaps to show off his connections, Xu Jing dragged Tang Bohu to the house of Cheng Minzheng, an attendant of the Ministry of Ceremonies.
After the two sides exchanged blows, Xu Jing sent some native products to Cheng Minzheng, and Tang Bohu was not good at refuting his friend's face, symbolically sending a gold leaf to the other party.
It's just that this ordinary entertainment has planted a dark thunder for the fate of the three people and even their families.
That year, the chief examiner of the examination was none other than Cheng Minzheng.
Even more coincidentally, after the scientific examination, Cheng Minzheng sighed at the candidates' examination papers: "This time and the first, there will be Jiangnan Tang Bohu and Xu Jing!" ”
This is very intriguing, you Lord Cheng has not even read the test paper, how can you conclude that the two can win in one fell swoop?
Thinking of the swaggering behavior of the two before, someone soon reported to the emperor that Tang Bohu and Xu Jing were suspected of fraud in the science field, and the chief examiner Cheng Minzheng was also suspected of accepting bribes to leak exam questions.
Under the thorough investigation of Jinyiwei, Tang Xu's gift was true, and Cheng Minzheng's leakage of the exam questions was found to be unsubstantiated.
In this way, things are tangled.
In the end, in order to calm the public opinion turmoil, the imperial court decided to compromise, Cheng Minzheng was deposed and returned to his hometown, Tang Bohu and Xu Jing were sent to prison, cut off their status, and banned from the examination room for life.
A few months later, the resentful Cheng Minzheng died depressed; After this incident, Tang Bohu's reputation was ruined, and after he was released from prison, he divorced his wife, and since then he has been passive and decadent, and later died in Peachblossom Dock.
However, Xu Jing, a seemingly frivolous rich second generation, is more persistent in defending rights. After being released from prison, he did not return home, but kept petitioning.
In the face of the imperial power, this move was naïve and futile, and after repeated failures, the physically and mentally exhausted Xu Jingke died in Jingshi at the age of 35.
After Xu Jing's death, the Jiangyin Xu family, known as "since the fifth dynasty, literary heroes in the country", has since turned from prosperity to decline.
A hundred years later, among Xu Jing's great-great-grandchildren, a strange man named Xu Hongzu appeared, making the family's reputation reach its peak again.
He traveled for more than 30 years, visiting famous mountains and rivers, crisscrossing rivers, lakes and seas, covering 21 provinces and cities in China, and was later respected as the "father of Chinese geography" and "China's earliest travel blogger".
Yes, you guessed right, this Xu Hongzu also has a household name, Xu Xiake.
The reason why Xu Xiake was brought out in such a big circle was because his high ancestor Xu Jing had too much influence on this family.
In view of Old Lady Xu's tragic experience, the descendants of the Xu family no longer have any intention of making a name for themselves. They scrupulously abide by the ancestral motto of "the imperial examination is wrong", relying on the huge family property left by their ancestors, and lie flat without waves.
At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, because of his meritorious service in pacifying Bashu, the ancestor of the Xu family was awarded 100,000 mu of good land in Jiangnan. After more than a hundred years of changes, by Xu Xiake's generation, the declining Xu family only had more than 10,000 acres of good land, plus a large mansion with 117 houses.
In the era when there was no hybrid rice and pesticide fertilizer, it was still a ceiling for ordinary people to occupy such a large territory in the land of fish and rice.
Therefore, while his peers were still hanging their strands bitterly, Xu Xiake, who was full of confidence, indulged in the landscape and measured the length of life with his footsteps.
In addition to the influence of ancestral training, Xu Xiake's deviance is largely due to the words and deeds of his parents.
When he was born, his father Xu Youmian was 42 years old and his mother Wang Xiaoren was 41 years old, and today is also a couple who missed the best childbearing age.
Rich and noble families have children in their old age, and they are naturally spoiled. Xu Youmian had high hopes for this son and named him Hongzu, the character Zhenzhi.
To carry forward the glory of the ancestors and revitalize the Xu family, it depends on this kid!
As for why it is also called "Xu Xiake", we will talk about the specific reasons later.
The Xu family has a private library with more than 10,000 volumes, many of which are unique, so it is called "Ten Thousand Volumes Building".
No intention of the imperial examination does not mean not reading, and successive generations of Xu family descendants, including Xu Xiake, have spent their childhood in this library.
However, when reading is no longer reduced to climbing the ladder of fame and fortune, a person's thinking is pure and free.
Xu Xiake, who grew up in a pile of books, loved to read all kinds of geographical maps, especially the "Notes on the Water Classic" compiled by the Northern Wei geographer Yun Daoyuan.
After reading more, he found that many books were full of holes and nothing new in content, but just a bunch of clichés copied from each other.
Since then, he has set the ambition of "the origin of poor rivers and rivers, and the meridians of mountains".
Once while reading a private school, he was punished for peeping at miscellaneous books, and in the face of the ruler waved by his husband, he suddenly straightened his waist and uttered a famous sentence that was deafening: "The eldest husband should swim in the blue sea and twilight!" ”
Manly husband, crisscrossing the rivers and lakes is the right thing!
After entering the rebellious period, Xiao Xu became more and more out of line. He often traveled alone with his bags, and did not return home for several days, and when his father Xu Youmian learned this, instead of being angry, his face showed joy: "Such an unscrupulous son, indeed like me!" ”
One red morning, Xiao Xu, a classmate who had been traveling for many days, returned home in the dust, just in time for the visit of Xu Meigong, a famous Ru in Jiangnan.
Looking at the boy in front of him with sweat beads and sunshine, Xu Mei smiled and said: "You are full of smoke, and you are willing to be a guest of the world, it is better to call it Xiake!" This poetic name has been passed down to the world.
If the family wealth inherited by his father created a favorable material foundation for Xu Xiake, then the spiritual baptism of his mother Wang and his children injected him with confidence beyond the world.
The ability and vision of Wang and Xiaoren are no less than most mothers today.
In addition to taking care of the family property and running the household, Wang Xiaoren also has the skill of weaving cloth by hand, and the cloth woven by her hand is called "Xujia cloth", and its cloth is as fine and flat as a cicada wing, which is quite famous in the Jiangnan textile industry.
In the eyes of outsiders, she has supported her son who is not doing his job: "As a man, he is determined to be in the world, and those under the world are also mountains and rivers; Staying in the homeland is like a chicken in a fence and a pony in a rut. What can you care? ”
A good boy is determined to be everywhere, how can he let his son be trapped by his parents like a chicken or a foal?
Truly wise parents not only create a comfortable and prosperous life for their children, but also give them the courage and ability to overcome difficulties, so that their children can gain true courage and freedom in life.
Having a pair of high-end parents is Xu Xiake's greatest luck in this life.
When Xu Xiake was 18 years old, his father Xu Youmian passed away.
After the three-year filial piety period expired, Xu Xiake wanted to see the outside world, but thinking of his elderly mother, he wanted to stop talking.
Zhizi Mo Ruomu, in order to dispel Xu Xiake's concerns, Wang Xiaoren personally sewed a "long travel crown" for his son and encouraged him: "Go boldly, I still want to hear you tell me about the journey!" ”
For thousands of years, the concept of "parents are there, not far away" has been respected by feudal rites, why is Xu Xiake's family so unique?
This is closely related to the change of atmosphere in Jiangnan in the late Ming Dynasty.
During the Wanli years, with the active commodity economy, people-to-people trade exchanges became more frequent, and the migration of people also brought about ideological integration.
By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the social climate changed abruptly, and people began to ridicule people who only knew how to read dead as anachronistic nerds.
At this time, the literati class in Jiangnan also strongly advocated the "unity of knowledge and action", advocating that body and soul must always have one on the road.
Dong Qichang, a contemporary of Xu Xiake, also officially put forward the saying of "reading ten thousand books and traveling thousands of miles", raising travel to the same height as reading for the first time.
Driven by this thought, Xu Xiake's travel became logical.
In 1608, he and his mother met to "travel when the spring grass first buds and return when the autumn leaves are frosty", and then embarked on a difficult and fantastic expedition. That year, he was only 22 years old.
Where the heart goes, follow the past.
This walk is most of his life.
Different from the "sightseeing tour" in the eyes of laymen, Xu Xiake's journey is almost a history of blood and tears of a lone brave.
When traveling through the Xiangjiang River, he encountered mountain bandits who killed people and crossed goods, and he jumped into the icy river to survive; In Maye Cave in Hunan Province, he crawled with a torch in one hand and almost suffocated;
When climbing the Yellow Mountain, he suddenly encountered a blizzard, and he was trapped in a waist-deep snow nest, struggling to cut through the solid ice; When climbing the Banzai Peak of Songshan Mountain, his hands were ground by rattan and blurred flesh and blood;
In Yandang Mountain, Zhejiang, he almost died on a cliff; Exploring the source of the Yangtze River, he repeatedly encountered fierce tigers in the dense forest...
What is even more awe-inspiring is that whether sleeping in the wilderness or sheltering in a broken temple, every night before going to bed, Xu Xiake will always light an oil lamp to record what he saw and heard that day.
Opening these investigation records containing blood and tears is like opening Beidou satellite navigation, accurately marking the mountains that Xu Xiake has turned, the rivers he has crossed, the streets he has traveled, and the dense forests he has dived into.
The road is blocked and long, and the line is coming. The future can be expected.
A pure traveler, once he has chosen his goal, cares about the wind and rain.
As he wrote at the beginning of his record: "Do not shelter from the wind and rain, do not fear tigers and wolves, do not count the schedule, do not seek a mate." Play with the spirit, swim with the body. For eternity, it's just one person! ”
It is both a self-declaration and a spiritual portrayal.
In September 1625, Xu Xiake's mother, Wang Xiaoren, died.
For this reason, Xu Xiake kept filial piety for three years, which is also one of the few time at home in his life. And this change also became a watershed in his travel career.
In the life of his mother, his travel is driven by no external causes, a response to inner longings, a pure dialogue between man and nature, and an exploration of life forms.
After his mother's death, a strong sense of mission surged into Xu Xiake's heart, and in order to live up to his mother's nurturing and knowledge, he must also go on.
This doomed his subsequent travels to be more thorough and tragic.
After his footprints traveled through the central, western and southeastern provinces, the then isolated and barbaric southwest region became Xu Xiake's next target.
With white sideburns, he refused the dissuasion of his family and headed southwest with a servant carrying a shovel.
According to his words, if there was an accident in the middle, let the servants bury the body on the spot.
Heaven and earth travel against each other, and the same sorrow is eternal. If a person looks down on life and death, there will be no power in the world that can stop him.
A monk from Yingfu Temple in Jiangyin who had been reciting sutras religiously for 20 years and copied the Lotus Sutra in his own blood, and his lifelong wish was to enshrine it in Jizu Mountain in Dali, Yunnan.
Inspired by Xu Xiake's spirit, he resolutely joined this journey of uncertain life and death.
After hundreds of days and nights, several people arrived in Guangxi.
Late one night in February 1637, they encountered a group of robbers, and Xu Xiake jumped into the water to escape in the chaos, but Jingwen was slashed by the bandits.
At the end of that year, in the Chongshan Temple in Nanning, Guangxi, Jing Wen passed away, and left his last words: "It must be a bone chicken foot mountain."
In fact, Jingwen is just a friend he met during his journey, Xu Xiake has no idea of immersing himself in cultivating Buddhism, and Jingwen has no ambition to travel the world.
If this is the end of the past, it is understandable.
But Xu Xiake did not do this, and after cremating Jingwen, he trekked with his bones for a year, and finally climbed Chickenfoot Mountain.
The moment he arrived at the top of the mountain, all the monks in the ancient temple on the mountain were moved.
In the first month of 1639, after the wish was fulfilled at Jizu Mountain, Xu Xiake went north to Lijiang, intending to cross the border from Tengchong to Burma.
However, years of running left him "physically and mentally exhausted, and his feet were ruined", and he could no longer walk.
In Lijiang, Xu Xiake was warmly received by Mufu Toast, and after the banquet, he was finally able to sit down and concentrate on sorting out his previous records.
In the past 30 years, he has traveled to 21 provinces, more than 100 cities, climbed more than 1,200 famous mountains, visited more than 500 caves, recorded 61 types of landforms, 24 types of water bodies, more than 170 kinds of animals and plants, more than 50 cultural relics and monuments, and spilled more than 600,000 words, leaving an "encyclopedic" style masterpiece for future generations.
This strange book is the "Travels of Xu Xiake", which is praised by later generations as "the true text of the world, the big text, and the strange text".
In 1640, Xu Xiake, who knew that the limit was approaching, was carried back to his hometown in Jiangyin, 6,000 miles away, by several strong Naxi men with the help of Tusi.
Six months later, Xu Xiake died on his own sick bed.
Before dying, the local official who visited him couldn't help but ask such a question that had plagued them for many years: "You have a good day, but you have tossed most of your life, and now you even have your life in it, you really have no regrets?" ”
Xu Xiake said the most firm answer in an angry gossamer-like tone: "Zhang Qian chiseled the sky, and did not see Kunlun; Tang Xuanzang and Yuan Yelu Chu were ordered by the Lord to travel west. I am old cloth, lonely and shuangyi, poor river sand, upper Kunlun, Li Western Regions, inscribed peerless country, and three people for four, death does not hate. ”
Zhang Qian of the Han Dynasty, Xuan Costume of the Tang Dynasty, and Yelu Chucai of the Yuan Dynasty all traveled the world with the emperor's order, and I am just a cloth cloth in Jiangyin, but I can do the same thing as them, what else do I have to regret?
A person has spent his whole life doing something he wants to do, and in this life, what can he ask for?
Xu Xiake would not have imagined that 370 years after his death, he would return in another way.
On March 30, 2011, in order to commemorate Xu Xiake's great contribution to China's geographical exploration, the State Council designated May 19 as "China Tourism Day" every year.
The reason why this date was chosen is because the opening date of the first "Diary of You Tiantai Mountain" in the "Travels of Xu Xiake" is May 19, 1613.
Time flies, and our yearning for freedom has not changed.
Heaven and earth were originally free, so why draw the ground as a prison.
There is no fixed path in life, breaking through barriers and choosing to set off is the beginning of dreams.
Author: Canghai Mingyuesheng. Pick up culture (ID: shiyafengshe), look at people and things with a rational attitude, and convey emotions, new knowledge, culture and life with the background of culture. Culture changes lives, faith shines into the heart.
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