This article was published in the 6th issue of "Bashu Historical Chronicles" in 2023
Push open the narrowest door and go to the widest road
Chapter Husband
One
In front of you is a recreated "The Narrow Gate". The book was first published in 2007, coinciding with the comprehensive renovation and upgrading of Kuanzhai Alley, the "last Chengdu full city settlement". This edition has been printed more than a dozen times, and Ms. Liao Yun, the owner of the influential Jianshan Bookstore in Chengdu, told me that this is the best-selling book in Chengdu at the Kuanxiangzi store.
Gradually, I discovered that this "popular book" had many limitations. Many of what I want to say is far from "saying it in place", and what I don't have "saying in place" not only refers to the sense of historical depth, but also the sense of humanistic weight, and it is necessary to carry out "deep processing" and "fine processing". Later, with the encouragement of the publishing house, I carried out a comprehensive "transformation" and "upgrade". In other words, the reprint of "The Narrow Gate" in front of you, except for the title and the content of a few chapters, many of the text in it is completely new.
Just because there are too many debts on the desk, it has been difficult to settle down and devote himself wholeheartedly, and it has been delayed for 5 years.
The revised "Narrow Gate" can be seen from the subtitle of the book "A.D. 1718-1911, Chengdu Kuanzhai Alley Historical Fragments", focusing on the middle and late Qing Dynasty for nearly 200 years. Through the narrative logic of "Wide and Narrow Alleys-Full City-Chengdu-Qing Dynasty-World", readers are allowed to wander in the time and space of this history. Because this history is so exciting, there are many research institutions and writers from all walks of life to read all kinds of books. To a large extent, I just use this as a wedge, peeling off the cocoon from a small side (or section), so as to string together "changes unseen in a thousand years", which is the starting point for the grand narrative.
Two
The title of the book still insists on "The Narrow Door" because I appreciate the "Narrow Door Thinking". I once heard a fable: "When the flood came, all the animals ran across the river to take refuge on the top of the opposite mountain." There is a bridge and a single-plank bridge to choose from on the river, and the animals all choose to walk on the bridge, except for one goat. In the end, the bridge collapsed under the burden, and only the goats who walked on the single-plank bridge survived...... "Before the fork, they were willing to give up the avenue that everyone flocked to and walk on their own single-plank bridge, which is the "narrow door thinking".
The so-called "narrow gate" is actually choosing the path that most people are unwilling to take. It means that at the beginning, it was full of thorns, and it could only be hard to persevere, and after suffering the "sin" that ordinary people could not bear, once it was crossed, the road behind it would be smoother and smoother, wider and wider, which could be described as bitter and sweet. The opposite is the opposite of the wide door.
Taking the visible road and the invisible road as a metaphor, in fact, it is not difficult to understand, that is, the saying left by our ancestors: "If you suffer hardship, you will become a superior person". There are many such aphorisms and aphorisms that have been handed down, but anyone who has read them can easily read them.
To truly take this as a signpost in life and practice the true meaning of it, not everyone can do it. There are two kinds of life paths, choose the gate and the road is dangerous, and the narrow gate and the road is wide. Really powerful people understand that only by adhering to the "narrow door thinking", not being lazy and slippery, not complaining, and working hard and hard to die, can they win the brilliant rainbow that belongs to their own life.
People who can keep up with the changes of the times, even if they live a comfortable life, always maintain a narrow door thinking, constantly challenge new things, and broaden their own path.
Three
Push open the narrowest door and go to the widest road. The biblical Jesus seems to have had a premonition when he warned his disciples: "The gate is wide, the way is great, and many enter into it; Narrow is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and few find it. Knowing that there were not many who would hold out to the end, he warned "beware of false prophets." Perhaps he saw that it was not easy to find the narrow gate, so he would inevitably give rise to all kinds of "false prophets" who would lead the world astray. But what he didn't and couldn't have imagined was that in the world of disenchantment for thousands of years behind him, although the world's faith desires and impulses were there, they were still alone in the real narrow gate.
Enter the narrow gate, walk a long way, and see the glimmer. It can be called the most difficult practice in life.
Not only in the West, but also in the Eastern way of thinking. Hong Yingming, a thinker of the Ming Dynasty, once said: "It is easy to escape from the difficulties of hard times, and it is difficult to escape from the traps of happiness." It should be said that in the long history of China, there were "great changes unseen in a thousand years" in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, which is very worthy of the observation of writers. People run all the way on the bustling avenue, whether it is the emperor or the general, the peddler and the pawn, whether it is the virtuous and wise or the sentient beings...... No exceptions.
Although we all have a high sense of self-esteem, few of us can see the way forward, such as the last night watchman of the Qing Dynasty, the last emperor and his "Aixin Jueluo Group", such as Zhao Erfeng, the once invincible feudal official, and Duan Fang, an important minister in the late Qing Dynasty who thought he had seen the world clearly, and many people with lofty ideals in the Baolu Movement written in the book...... People are crowding the overcrowded avenues in different ways, in the mud and sand of the times...... In the end, what I gained was mostly the bitterness that backfired.
Those "wide" and "narrow", those "light" and "heavy", those "big" and "small...... The kaleidoscope-like chaos constitutes the appearance of all beings before and after the "great change". Through the scenery of the city in this specific historical context, I seem to smell the fetal sound of history.
Therefore, the content added in this reprint is more to reflect the following weights and considerations.
Four
The view is even broader. Examine and contrast Chengdu in the context of the world. Divided into stages and scenes, it shows the Sichuan Baolu Movement that directly triggered the Xinhai Revolution - a major historical event of epic significance. From the various people to the situation at each stage, we strive to stand in the depths of history to dig through historical materials. It aims to abandon the grand narrative in the general sense, and tries to pick up a minimally invasive scalpel through some little-known official histories, giving readers a different historical vision. For example, starting with the "domino effect" triggered by a stock, we can gain insight into the chaos and unbearable situation at the end of the Qing Dynasty. The "Langezhi stock" that was indiscriminately located on the other side of the ocean flapped its wings like a butterfly, and the butterfly effect caused by it finally sent the Qing Dynasty to its end.
On March 29, 1910, shortly after the opening of the Daqing stock market, the share price of the leading stock Langezhi (the name of a rubber company) quickly climbed to 1,675 taels of silver per share, and the issue price was only 100 taels of silver per share, ushering in a historic crazy moment for the empire.
The domino effect refers to the fact that in an interconnected system, a small initial energy can produce a series of chain reactions. If God wants you to perish, he will first make you mad. Such a "domino effect" directly determined the end of the late Qing Dynasty.
In addition, the decision of Emperor Kangxi to defend Chengdu was specially put into the entire historical vision and geographical space to examine, so as to bring out the history of change and evolution of the Aixin Jueluo family according to the time and place. That is, how did they grow from a corner of peace to a snowball, completely complete the siege, compete in the Central Plains, and finally become the masters of the Forbidden City.
From large to small, from the inside to the outside, layer by layer. The "full city" of the Qing Dynasty, which is presented in the eyes of readers, appears more three-dimensional and plump.
Such a lens with a large field of view stretches even further. The Xinhai Revolution triggered by the Baolu Movement directly launched China's New Deal, and the direct target of China's New Deal was its neighbor Japan. From this, we will delve into the historical channel and explore the causes of Japan's New Deal, even if it is like a small Japan, civilization is not achieved overnight, and there is also a painful delivery process. Sorting out the Chengdu New Deal, China's New Deal and even Japan's New Deal has a clear context, which is organically connected and expressed, which not only gives people a sense of historical depth, but also makes people feel a broad vision.
Start with the "visible" changes and infiltrate the "invisible" places. Marie Rui, Fairbank's most talented student, put it in a phrase: "It was the reforms of the Qing government that destroyed the government that carried it out, because it could not control the acceleration caused by its own policies." During this period, many Westerners came to China, to Chengdu, to Mancheng, and to stay in Chengdu as a mirror image from the perspective of the "other". For example, Ruth Nacharity, an American who has lived in Chengdu for nearly 3 years. That is the most exciting three-year change in Chengdu under the turbulent situation in China. On June 24, 1910, at the age of 31, Ruth Naeder traveled from her hometown in Anderba, Illinois, USA, to Chengdu, where she signed a contract with the Sichuan Higher School of the Qing Dynasty (now Sichuan University) to teach chemistry and arithmetic for one year. Later, during his years in Chengdu, he left behind a large number of letters and pictures. From the perspective of the "other", these letters and pictures have become valuable historical materials for our study of "Chengdu in 1910". In fact, at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there were many "others" like Na Eder who walked on the land of China. It is they, directly or indirectly, who have brought a real image of China to the Western world, which is considered to be the mainstream of the world.
In particular, I would like to express my gratitude and respect to Mr. Wang Yulong. Mr. Wang has done a lot of research and research on the pictures taken by Ruth Naeder in China, and is willing to provide them for use in this book. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. A hundred years later, through those slightly yellowed pictures, we can still intuitively feel the magnificent historical moment of modern China.
Five
The historical data is more informative. History is often memorable through some wonderful moments and little-known details, and I try to exhaust my vision and collect a wide range of imperceptible historical materials, especially some seemingly fragmented historical details, which often excite me inexplicably, and they will make the reader's eyes light up in the grand historical narrative. Having been in journalism for 30 years, I firmly believe that only those touching details can keep history alive and rich. For example, in the political reform at the end of the Qing Dynasty, I took the special perspective of the "Senior Administrator's Yuan" as a breakthrough to find the most primitive record at that time, allowing readers to travel as if they were in the Chinese political scene a hundred years ago.
As an important part of the constitutional monarchy of the late Qing Dynasty, in the past 100 years, because it did not match the main theme, its image was distorted and gradually forgotten, and it was thrown into the pile of old papers of history. Fortunately, they left a "speed record". The details of the history are really interesting, and I never thought that half a year before the first annual meeting of the Information Administration Yuan, a shorthand school was set up to train the shorthand talents needed by the Council, and this led to the "Record of the Meeting of the Council of the Information Administration" of 1.2 million words.
I have to thank the vision of the old people in the Senior Administration Yuan back then - they may have already realized that everything they did must be groundbreaking in China, and it will definitely enter history and be remembered by history.
In 2011, Shanghai Joint Publishing Co., Ltd. compiled and published this "Quick Record", which has become the most original, detailed and authoritative first-hand information for later generations to study this period of history. My intuition tells me that the print run of this book will not be too large, and it should not make much money (it will probably lose money), which is the historical vision and professional responsibility of a publisher. It can be said that an excellent publishing house relies on these books that do not make money but can influence future generations to support its own hardcore readership.
I spent a week perusing it, and I paid special attention to the issues related to the Sichuan Road Protection Movement that were covered twice in the book. The first time was on the afternoon of the first day of November in the second year of Xuantong of the Qing Dynasty (December 2, 1910), "the No. 23 meeting of the first annual meeting of the Senior Administration". In the afternoon, there were 14 topics, including the new criminal law, the amendment of the anti-smoking ordinance, the copyright law, the proposal to establish compulsory education for the purpose of popularizing education, and the proposed bill to cut braids and change clothes. There were 140 members present.
Mr. Meng Siming, the younger brother of the famous historian Professor Meng Wentong, said that the historical method "is not a magical thing or a secret treasure, but in fact it is just some logical and common sense critical principles and working procedures that people can rely on." My understanding is that the basis of the historiographical method is logic and common sense. It is also in line with what Mencius said: "Husband, if the road is true, how can it be difficult to know?" People don't ask for ears when they are sick. The son returns and asks for it, and there are more than teachers. (Mencius)
One of the major features of "The Narrow Door" is to pay attention to the small historical figures in the historical materials who are caught between them. The protagonists of history are people, and it is easy for us to focus on those "big people" who are dominant, because they have left the most historical materials and are the easiest to identify. As inconspicuous individuals, those "little people" are easy to be overlooked, but they play a role that cannot be ignored in history. Based on this, even if they are "big people" like emperors, I try to dig them up from the perspective of ordinary people. Because human nature is the same, the life and hobbies of the emperor are also like you and me. This is also the direction of my thinking that I am committed to picking ears of wheat and expressing grand history through "details".
Six
More detail. For some historical events in the past, it is often only because of the lack of more historical materials to testify, it is difficult to have some brilliant details to flesh out, and the writing idea of panoramic "approximately" and "estimate" has become inevitable, and the macro description of the general has become a matter of course. Qu Qiubai once said that if you want to understand the social life of a country, you must not rely on just a few laws and decrees, but also see the soul of that society." The heart of a society is, of course, reflected in the people in the society. Every individual's perception has its individuality, but just as the sun can be seen in a drop of water, the individual's perception also reflects the so-called spirit of the times. Mr. Lu Simian also reminded us that "although the speaker of an abstract theory is earnest, the listener is ultimately estranged". Therefore, this revision pays more attention to excavating the plot and characters, especially the historical details involving some characters and events.
Zhao Erfeng, the last governor of Sichuan, who devotes a whole chapter to expressing himself, is undoubtedly an extremely important protagonist in the book and the most important party in the Baolu movement. Over the years, Zhao Erfeng has been portrayed as a "butcher" in various literary works. In the face of this demon that has been "faced" in people's minds, how to find more and smaller stories, even if it is a very small historical moment, has become an important consideration when I am looking for materials. Human beings are complex complexes, and it is difficult to find a completely heinous person in the world. What many people don't know is that as a real feudal official, Zhao Erfeng played an extremely important role in the late Qing Dynasty in Tibet-related counties, and in a sense, he was undoubtedly a capable minister. Some experts even lamented that Zhao Erfeng's "lonely courage to go to Tibet" can be called the last "epic expedition" before the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Zhao Erfeng's forcibly implemented land reform and various ethnic policies in Tibet-related counties undoubtedly played a "fixed star" role in maintaining the crumbling centralized power. Just a few months after the Qing army marched into southern Tibet and established Chayu County, the Xinhai Revolution broke out. With the execution of Zhao Erfeng, the Qing army stationed in Tibet also mutinied, and the officers and soldiers fled back to Sichuan. The dominoes fell, the results of Zhao Erfeng's painstaking management for decades were fleeting, and Tibet returned to its previous state of being closed and backward. The next reform will have to wait until 1959.
The Chengdu Bloody Case is the only notoriety in Zhao Erfeng's life that is difficult to clear in history. In that era of sudden changes, every character was like duckweed, drifting with the tide in the ocean of fate of the times. The tide maker at the head of the tide is likely to fall into the abyss in the next second. From a feudal official to a prisoner on death row, from a national hero to an enemy of the people, from a late bloomer to a late bloomer...... This rollercoaster-like charming resume, Zhao Erfeng only took more than 100 days.
There is an interesting historical detail. The great lama of Khenpo of Lenggu Temple in Litang is very good at clever calculations, Zhao Erfeng has specially asked him to calculate, this great lama twisted a string of coral beads, squinted his eyes, and said unhurriedly: "After the big handsome, if you go to the west, you will be good, and if you go east, you will be fierce......" Zhao Erfeng was unexpectedly stunned, to the west is Tibet, and to the east is Chengdu. Can I only stay in Tibet? I can't go back to Chengdu?" Zhao Erfeng has never believed in ghosts and gods. The reason why he went to ask for a hexagram was nothing more than that he wanted the Grand Lama of Lenggu Temple to say some auspicious words to him, a member of the imperial court, to make him happy, but he didn't expect the Grand Lama to be so serious. At that time, although he flashed a trace of unhappiness, he didn't pay attention to it at all. I didn't expect it to be a prophecy.
History is a laboratory of human nature with a large sample, and although the actors are different in different eras, the props have not changed. In today's information age, massive amounts of information are created and pushed every day, and often the more information, the more difficult it is to understand the truth, because almost all sources of information may be "polluted". Just like Zhao Erfeng's image, it has long been "face-painted" in some people's minds.
The richness and brilliance of the details will undoubtedly enrich the characters and events, and sublimate the quality of the text. For example, in the description of the "Chengdu New Deal", such details are specially added: the famous Yuelai Cinema in modern Chengdu ushered in the spring breeze of local autonomy - the police authorized them to sell tickets to women. After much deliberation, the police station decided to open it to women. Panda Cinema was asked to design two completely separate entrances, one for men to enter and exit, leading to the main seating area; An entrance is reserved for women and leads to a balcony separated by a screen.
Let the details speak for themselves, and let the details serve the plot and point of view, which is my unremitting pursuit in writing. But it is a headache to find historical details like a needle in a haystack in a sea of panic. Qian Mu, a master of Chinese culture, once said: "There have been great achievers throughout the ages, and there is no other trick, and they are all capable people who are willing to be stupid." I feel this very deeply.
Seven
The expression is more rigorous. The book focuses on the entry of the Eight Banners into Chengdu, focusing on the first chapter, the third chapter and the sixth chapter. What kind of people are they? Why did they come to Chengdu? How did they get into Chengdu? What did they do in Chengdu? What is the logical connection? How did Zhao Erfeng degenerate step by step from a capable official to a butcher, thus moving towards the road of no return?
To stretch one question mark after another, it is necessary to screen historical materials, lay them out layer by layer, distinguish the warp and weft, and advance in stages.
The flag system is a wall boundary. "Commanding the people with the flag, that is, commanding the army with the flag," and using the method of "unification" to manage the population is always a limited space. The Eight Banners are based on the Beijing Division, and "the prince is not allowed to go out of the Beijing Division thirty miles away". Although the Manchus who have entered the government can go far and wide, they must "return to the flag" with their dependents after they are dismissed. Therefore, the governor, the two divisions, the generals, and the commanders, and their descendants all took root in the capital. This kind of specially built "Changyuan" blocked the soldiers and the people, and also blocked the Manchu and Han Dynasty, and there must be a "Changyuan" where the garrison went, and the people in the area demarcated from this were commonly known as "Mancheng". The flag is the soldier's registration, and the people in the "full city" are not able to move freely. The Eight Banners system has many walls, showing the inherent racial consciousness of the Manchu monarchy. The wall boundary guards the caste and face brought by the Manchus from outside the border, and the edict called it "the period is restored to the old customs, and the borders are forever maintained".
In the 18th century, the Kang, Yong, and Qian dynasties met the racial consciousness of the monarchs and the scholars, which led to years of literary prisons, and on the other hand, the emperors gradually Confucianized in the process of accepting Chinese culture. In the 18th century, China was accompanied by a succession of cultural disasters in a prosperous era of light endowment, and the Manchu monarchy created the last prosperous era of traditional China, and the righteousness in this period was taken from the royal politics contained in Chinese culture. When the fierceness and tension caused by the literary prison made the world of scholars unpeaceful, the farmers and cultivators in the prosperous era were in peace. In this world of most people, few people will feel the impact and suffocation from "that side".
The Eight Banners system has many walls, and the only place where the Manchus and Han can communicate with each other is officialdom. In the middle of the 19th century, when internal and external troubles came together, the long-standing imbalance between the Manchus and the Han Dynasty showed its true nature in the collapse. Gengzi then made a new policy, and later became the "Beiyang Three Heroes" Wang Shizhen, unexpectedly as a Han to the Yellow Banner Mongolian deputy capital, when the audience to appreciate the head of the top belt, the Guangxu Emperor said worriedly: "You are going to work with the banner people, they are all confused." Historian Mr. Yang Guoqiang astutely called it "a kind of harshness blended with sorrow". And Duanfang "thinks of himself as a Manchurian and biased against Manchurians", once scolded the wine seat, and wantonly scolded "the flag man as a foreign official, he doesn't understand anything, he can't read a word, and all the events are consulted by the door government, and the door government is the father", Yang Guoqiang believes that this is "a lot of cruelty in the meanness".
What is very comic is that in an era when the Manchus look down on the Manchus, the consciousness of gathering the Eight Banners to compete with the Han people for the length of a day will definitely not become something that will grow. When the long-standing anti-Manchurian consciousness surged up in Chinese society, it became inevitable that the first decade of the 20th century would be full of storms.
While mastering a large number of historical materials, we should reasonably weave them into one "logical chain" after another according to the logic of writing, and those eye-catching details all originate from such a "logical chain" one after another. Strive to not only conform to the reader's reading habits, but also clearly understand the ups and downs of the characters' fate.
In addition, there are many eye-catching figures in the Baolu Movement, and the background is complex, how to effectively fit with the international and domestic climate? It is necessary to return to the historical scene as much as possible, so that one by one vivid people can "walk" out of history, and readers will be immersed in the scene and have a sense of "presence".
The word "presence" means to plunge into the pile of historical materials from some places that people "can't see", and strive to find out "different" things from them. With their assistance, I interviewed some of the Manchu and Mongolian descendants living in Chengdu, most of whom are already old people, but when they mention their parents and grandparents, they will talk endlessly and be refreshed. When I was interviewed more than 10 years ago, he was still full of emotion when he talked about the history of Mancheng. His son, He Junyi, is now the head of the Chengdu Manchurian and Mongolian Society, and his research on his own national culture is admirable, meticulous and rigorous. During a party and chatting, several of Ho's Mongolian friends communicated with each other in Mongolian, and Ho reminded them very seriously: "This friend of mine can't understand your words, so let's all speak Chinese and respect each other." Hearing this, his Mongolian friend immediately switched to Chinese. These seemingly inconspicuous details can make people feel an inner unusualness.
"Kailu" is the landmark building of the wide alley, where Lamur Sheephorn lives. "Lamur" is the surname of the Mongolian nationality in the sheephorn, in order to accurately express the meaning of "Lamur", He Juntai took me very seriously and explained for a long time, he repeatedly used how to switch between Mongolian and Chinese to show me, although he himself admitted that "my Mongolian is not standard", but his tenacity to hold the national elements tightly and not let go, people moved. "Lamur Sheephorn left us before the Spring Festival, so suddenly. He came to me a day ago and was in good spirits. "On an afternoon after the Spring Festival in 2023, I came to the location of the Chengdu Manmeng Society on Huangwa Street, when He Junyi told me the news, I was also surprised, although I have rarely met Brother Sheephorn in recent years, but he has been interacting on WeChat, he is born with artistic cells, music, art, calligraphy everything is "handy".
Over the past ten years, I have been in contact with these "outsiders" because of my writing, and I have learned a lot from these special immigrants and their descendants. The seemingly cold historical materials are effectively woven into a unique logical system, and a large number of interviewed humanistic materials are effectively integrated into this logical system, and those seemingly unsurprising materials are listed with ease, so that their expression is more rigorous. That's one of my big feelings in this revision.
Eight
The subject of history is man. Sima Qian's writing spirit is to "take the characters as the main body of history", so his "Historical Records" is also "character-centered". Since the subject of history is man, the subjectivity of history should also be expressed in man. Historian Mr. Luo Zhitian once proposed to "recall the hidden 'people' to history" and construct an ideological history with people as the main body. In my opinion, only by reducing each person to a living person in a concrete scene can we avoid over-abstracting it, so as not to "objectify" specific people. Later generations' interpretation of the history of their predecessors is like asking a case, and all kinds of evidence chains are complete and mutually corroborative, so that they can truly become credible historical materials.
Writer Yu Hua has such a passage in the novel "Brothers": "Writing is so wonderful, starting from narrowness often writes broad, starting from broadness but writing narrow." Another writer, Liu Run, once said something similar: "If you choose the easy path, you will slowly become addicted like taking drugs, and once you find a logical self-consistent reason for yourself, you will become more and more addicted to simplicity, and finally tend to mediocrity."
This may be the reason why I revised and created "The Narrow Gate" again.
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Source: Sichuan Provincial Office of Local Chronicles
Text/Photo: Zhang Fu (Member of the Chinese Writers Association, Expert with Special Government Allowance of the State Council, The 13th Batch of Academic and Technical Leaders in Sichuan Province, Tianfu Cultural Leading Talents, The 10th Batch of Outstanding Experts with Outstanding Contributions in Chengdu, and the First Top Ten Journalists in Sichuan Province. He has successively served as a reporter of "Nanchong Daily" and "Chengdu Evening News", director of the news commentary department of "Chengdu Daily", editor-in-chief of "Young Writers" magazine, and deputy editor-in-chief of "Chengdu Business Daily".