Pastoral in imagery
Jiang Debin
One
After a long time, I began to get tired of the city life, and longed for the time of the landscape and countryside, and I didn't remember that I had suffered in the countryside, and whether I could still adapt to the rural life after so many years. Human memory is very strange, and it is not only selectively remembered or forgotten - there is no doubt about that - but when you mobilize your memory, it is also very tendencious and selective. For example, at this moment, in the face of irritating traffic, the front car with road rage and the non-stop honking, as well as the motorcycles and pedestrians rushing at the intersection, I can't help but start to miss the quiet, quiet and leisurely countryside. At this time, memory only selectively retrieves the memory scenes that best meet your current expectations or desires, and blocks the rural side of loneliness, loneliness and idleness that you once complained about and feared. Therefore, memory is a filter, and what is filtered out is always the picture of the current state of mind.
Guanying Terraces, Minxing Village, Xuzhou District, Yibin City (Source: Sichuan Department of Culture and Tourism)
In this sense, one of the difficulties we face is that when we aspire to something, or believe something, we can always find a reasonable basis to prove that it is what I deserve, or that it should be the way it is. Even if someone reminds you that you are against you, you generally won't change your course.
We are tired of city life because it is crowded with people, traffic, noise and dust. You can't see the green mountains and green water here, and you can't drink the sweet mountain springs. Even in the middle of the night, you will be disturbed by inexplicable sounds from time to time, so you can't rest quietly.
We are tired of city life because the cost of living here is so high and the quality of life is low. It's a noisy environment that makes it sleepless to sleep, and all kinds of fresh ingredients are far away from life. It's a crowded place, but it often feels lonely and helpless. In times of loneliness, it is impossible to face the silent valley and shout loudly and vent the anger in your heart. Stuffed into a narrow space where it is difficult to turn the body, it feels suffocating. When you feel suffocated in life, you can't breathe freely in another place...... In short, living in the city, housing, medical care, education, etc., are like mountains, pressing on the top of the head, unable to move.
We are tired of city life because we can only see the bustling crowd here, but we can't see the majesty of the green or the momentum of the big river. This is because you can only see the drowsy lights in the dim yellow, but you can't see the quiet and lively starry sky full of mysterious oriental colors. It's because the water that comes out of the faucets here is full of industrial smell, and because the water flowing in the ditches in the rivers is lifeless, if not muddy, but it's dying and dead. We aspire to be full of active power and boost the confidence of tomorrow's sunny day.
Yibin Sanjiang New Area (Source: Chuanguan News)
Two
In the final analysis, people's imagination and nostalgia for the countryside are because life originated in the land and mountains, so in the subconscious, they hope to return to the primitive. Longing for life in the mountains is a kind of longing to return to the basics. The first social form of human beings was a state of life that was separated from each other. The human heart is like a bouncy ball, and when we are overcrowded and piled together, it often creates an outward tension; And when we are too distant, we want to be more closely together. This basic phenomenon is the physical law of the change of the human heart. "The fallen leaves gather and disperse, and the jackdaws perch on the shock", perhaps it can be used as an alternative to this mentality!
Rape flowers in Zhongdu Town, Pingshan County are covered with mountains and fields (Photo by Sichuan Daily reporter He Haiyang, source: Sichuan Daily)
We are tired of city life because today's cities are too crowded. At the same time, it is also because we have a peaceful, tranquil, and intoxicating rural night scene that can be imagined.
Even those who have not lived in the countryside can imagine rural life. Part of these imaginations probably comes from the depiction of the countryside in literature and art. The other part, in fact, is buried deep in our subconscious, belonging to the hidden realm deep inside. When the outside is too squeezed, the desire for rural mountain life, which belongs to the hidden realm, gradually moistens the surface of the land like a spring that penetrates the earth, and begins to overflow.
Anshi Village, Lizhuang Town, Cuiping District, Yibin City (Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of Cuiping District Committee, Yibin City, source: Sichuan Daily)
It's just the overflowing water of the ground, but not all of it is drinkable, just like the village life we imagined. When you go on vacation to the countryside as a city dweller, it is not the same thing as you transform into a real country man and live in the countryside for a long time. After a period of time, city dwellers who live in the countryside for a short time will find many discomforts in their simple life, and begin to miss the gorgeous life in the city, and will eventually choose to escape the countryside and return to the city.
For many people who so-called nostalgia for rural life, the real effect of the countryside is only to serve as a medicine to regulate or isolate, and its effect is no different from going to the park for a temporary walk. But people can't always live on drugs, and cities are still their ultimate destination.
Thoreau's lake was peaceful and beautiful, but Thoreau returned two years later. Therefore, for the vast majority of people, a complete return to the countryside is, in essence, always an unclimbable mountain and an uncrossable river.
Rural scenery of Gao County (Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Gao County Party Committee, source: Sichuan Daily)
Three
Knowing that it is impossible to return to the countryside, because imagining the countryside, in addition to taking farmhouse entertainment from time to time, in fact, in the city, you can also arrange your living environment as if it were idyllic. Buy a house with a garden, at least with a big terrace, and you have the confidence and ambition to live an idyllic life. No matter the size of the garden terrace, you can always find a little bit of fun in the field from the busy planting.
Bring bricks and build a flower bed along the wall. Every night, after dinner, I went to the construction site to transport two bags of newly produced residual mud and gradually filled the flower beds and pots. Fruit peels and rice washing water are good raw materials for manure, and they are also filled together. Everything was ready, and planning began to grow vegetables and flowers in the flower garden. In a corner of the nearby vegetable market, there are people selling pumpkin seedlings, cucumber seedlings and pepper seedlings, and of course, there are also ready-made flower seedlings, such as yueji, pothos, orchids and so on. Along the wall, of course, there are a few roses, imagining the splendid scenery of roses climbing all over the brick wall and flowers blooming, and I can't help but smile and squint. Each of the four corners of the flower garden can be planted with a melon seedling, and a row of moon seasons can be planted in the middle, which is an indispensable flower arrangement in the warm spring and hot summer. Originally, I tried to plant some jasmine, because I like the pure and elegant fragrance of jasmine, but unfortunately summer goes to autumn, and jasmine can't bear the cold of the north, so I have to give up. Peony and peony can actually be planted a little, but the flowering period is short, and the flower bed is too small to scale, which is difficult to arouse the exclamation in my heart. Some flower pots can also be arranged along the flower bed, high and low, layered, you can plant pothos, dripping Guanyin, anthurium, orchid grass and so on. Most of these plants are shade plants, and some only need to be raised in water, so there is no need to overwork, but they are the best place indoors. A basin of dripping Guanyin put the bookcase on the desk, the delicate and fat leaves, slowly gathering a drop of dew on the tip, crumbling, seeing people's hearts swaying, it is really a kind of enjoyment.
Yueji (Pengzhou Xianshi in Chengdu Botanical Garden, source: Sichuan Fangzhi Gallery)
The climate in the south is more suitable for most flowers and plants, and the winter in the north is too harsh. When I lived in the south, the room, the terrace, and the roof were full of green plants and flowers, and what was particularly interesting was a kind of three-cornered plum, which had a long flowering time and lush branches. After living in the north, the garden was mainly taken care of by the elderly, and the most planted were Yueji and roses. The old man was in great interest and served the garden well. When the spring and summer months were in full bloom, I happily took the scissors, looked at the most beautiful ones, clicked them off, and inserted them into the vase in my bedroom. When cutting the flowers, the old lady was not distressed, and pointed to the side, "That one is beautiful!" And that one!" That one bloomed!" At this time, everyone's mood is extremely happy.
Triangle plum (Pengzhou Xianshi in Chengdu Xinjin Hongshi Conservation Wetland Park, source: Sichuan Fangzhi Gallery)
The garden area is too small, and if you plant flowers and plants, there will naturally be fewer vegetables. But even if you only plant a few cucumbers, pumpkins and a small bunch of water spinach, every time you pick them back, fry them and put them on the table, they will always announce to the children in an exclamatory tone: This is our own planting!
Source: Sichuan Provincial Office of Local Chronicles
Author: Jiang Debin (born in 1971, senior engineer, working for China Electricity Council. He is a member of China Electric Power Association. He has published a number of academic monographs and academic papers)
Pictured: Fang Zhi Sichuan