▲ The high-posted duck under the reeds is free. Photography / Clear Creek
-Fengwujun Language-
"As my teacher, Mr. Shen Congwen, often likes to say,
It's all really a holy place."
Every spring will come as promised, sooner or later, but never absent.
As soon as the spring passed, the small town of Gaoyou seemed to have entered a time tunnel, from the winter when hundreds of birds were perched, back to the spring day of the grass. Standing on the shore of Gaoyou Lake, watching the free swaying reeds, imagine how many important military and horse intelligence has been passed here; imagine Qin Guan leaving his hometown from here and embarking on a tortuous journey; imagine that the literati Wang Zengqi also ran and jumped here like other children when he was a child and played hide-and-seek...
▲ The quiet shores of Gaoyou Lake are gently changing seasons. Photo by Xue Shusong
Hidden behind the rapidly developing Jiangsu Province, Gaoyou is like an invisible city. Gaoyou has her own pride, more than 7,000 years of civilization history, more than 2,000 years of city history; among the more than 2,000 counties and cities in the country, the only city named after "post"... These cultural heritages make Gaoyou like a gentle gentleman, with indisputable leisure and wisdom.
This year's spring came late, so it was a lot of anticipation. This year is also the 100th anniversary of Wang Zengqi's birth, follow the wind and things to Wang Lao's hometown gaoyou, feel the confidence and hope brought to us by the spring of the small city.
▲ In the spring of the small town, casting nets is busy. Photo by Xue Shusong
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > water made of high mail</h1>
"My hometown is in Gaoyou, and the wind blows the lake and the waves are leisurely. Weeping willows grow on the shore and black buffaloes lie under the trees. ”
——Wang Zengqi, "Dream Hometown"
When the warm and humid spring arrives, more than 2,000 acres of rape flowers on Gaoyou Lake in Jiangsu Province will begin to stir, and in a few days, they will bring the small city of Gaoyou with the breath of spring in a full blooming posture. The gentle and slow rhythm of the town seems to have woken up, the children jumped and ran to the canopy boat; the couples boarded a hot air balloon overlooking the thousand acres of flowers, taking Gaoyou Lake as a mirror and kissing passionately; and tourists from afar, on the sightseeing train, simultaneously enjoyed the scenery of the lake beach, wetland, and flower sea.
▲ Sea of rape flowers on Gaoyou Lake. Photography / Li Shaomin
Gaoyou is made of water. Gaoyou Lake is the sixth largest freshwater lake in China and the third largest in Jiangsu, and three-fifths of its area belongs to Gaoyou. The 1963 square kilometer high post is embedded in the southern end of the vast Jianghuai Plain, on the banks of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. "Controlling the river and leading the Yangtze River, taking the east of Anhui and taking northern Jiangsu", rich water resources and convenient and developed water transportation have become the most precious natural gifts of Gaoyou.
▲ The Grand Canal connects the north-south water traffic. Photo by Xue Shusong
Children living in water city are always inexplicably more happy, wearing a foot of plastic sandals in the summer, "paddling" while walking, sticking their feet into the river for natural SPA at the dock, and the creaky laughter makes the river water tremble uncontrollably. Half-side bridges, ditch bridges... The bridges that I crossed in my childhood were code names for children's street dates. Women washing clothes by the river would always call the child's name at night and put away the washbasket in their hands.
In the 1980s, the old bus station and steamship dock of Gaoyou were built on the embankment of the Grand Canal, which not only set up water transportation connecting the north and south, but also became a beautiful attachment to their hometown in the hearts of Gaoyou people.
▲ In the 1980s, the Gaoyou Lincheng section of the canal was moved to the east of the project site. Photography / Zhang Yuanqi
On the west bank of the canal today stands a huge stone stele engraved with the words "China's Grand Canal, Gaoyou Ming and Qing Canal Ancient Road World Cultural Heritage". Many people in Gaoyou, for the first time, experienced the green of the reed sea, the blue waves, and also felt the splashed ink painting scrolls of water alleys crisscrossing and wild ducks flying for the first time. Being in it makes the feeling of "World Heritage City" more real.
▲ Gaoyou Qingshuitan Wetland Park, flocks of wild ducks flying. Photography / Zhang Xiaomeng
Water not only brought the tenderness of a water town to Gaoyou, but also the root of the city's rise. Among the more than 2,000 counties and cities in the country, Gaoyou is the only city named after "postal". A thousand years ago, in order to strengthen the connection between the central government and the localities, Qin Shi Huang began to establish a powerful postal system, and the small town of Gaoyou was selected because of its convenient water transportation, where it was "built a high platform and placed a post kiosk", hence the name Gaoyou.
▲ Whether it is a government decree from the imperial city in the north or a good report from the southern coast, it is transmitted in Gaoyou. Photo: "Chinese Video FangZhi"
It is explained in the "Explanation of Words and Words", "Vertical, far away", which originally means border. The "阝" on the right is a simplification of the Chinese character "邑", which is the earliest concept of "city-state, city". What links the remote areas with the city-states is the "郵". For thousands of years, Gaoyou has guarded its functions in this way.
▲ Overlooking Lu chengyi, you can also feel the grandeur of the year. Photo by Xue Shusong
Lu Chengyi once witnessed the prosperity of this period of history. Lucheng Yi, taking the sentence "My hometown is like a covered cup" from Qin Guan, this is the oldest and most complete post station in China, and it is also one of the few amphibious stations, when the Ming Dynasty was built, the area reached more than 16,000 square meters. A census of cultural relics in the 1980s brought Luchengyi, which had been sealed for hundreds of years, back into people's vision.
Today, standing under the Yixiang Archway of the Lucheng Yi Entrance Landmark Building, along the green brick pavement inlaid with the word "驿", it seems to be back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the fruits transported from the south to the north and the letterhead from the north to the south have all been transited here. For thousands of years, Lucheng Yi has witnessed the past and present lives of the small city of Gaoyou, as a station connecting the north and the south, it conveys information and also conveys feelings.
▲ Lucheng Yigu Tower. Photo by Xue Shusong
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Wang Zengqi, Qin Guan, and Wang Pan, who "spoke" for Gaoyou</h1>
Someone asked me how I became a writer, and I said it had something to do with my growing up looking east and west. These shops and these craftsmen deeply touched me, and made me smell a hard, solid, light sweet, slightly bitter breath of life.
——Wang Zengqi, "Self-reported Home Door"
Many people come to Gaoyou because of Wang Zengqi's true description of his hometown, "reading his books and wanting to see him as a person." In the alleys scattered by GaoYou, you can find Wang Er in the novel "YiBing", and you can also find Gao Xue and Wang Houji, the daughter and son-in-law of Gao Beiming in "Migration".
☞ Swipe left or right to view ☜
▲ From left to right: Bakery shop, hoop cooper and shoe shop on East Avenue of Gaoyou Old Town, Photo / Dr. Long
Elder Wang said in the preface to "The Depths of pu pu": "When I write novels, I want to have a sense of truth, and I don't have this ability to build towers on the sand." Some of the characters in my novels have archetypes. Shuttling through the East Street of Gaoyou Old Town, those "handicraft workshops, cloth shops, sauce gardens, grocery stores, explosive shops, bakeries, shops selling lime and linen knives, dye shops" and bathhouses that enjoy "water foreskins" seem to still exist and have never changed.
▲ Copper wells and qing dynasty ancient wells in Tongjing Lane. Photography / Dr. Long
There is a copper well lane in Dongtai Lane, which can also see an ancient well of the Qing Dynasty, according to legend, the owner of the well is surnamed Li, who is the owner of the shop, in order to facilitate the neighbors who go to his house to fetch water, the well is separated from the courtyard by a wall, and the well is made into a public well, which is convenient for everyone to use. This kind of consideration and tolerance for the sake of others has achieved a comfortable and elegant living atmosphere in the small town. Just like Wang Zengqi once mentioned in the "Chronicle of Da Nao", when bandits are caught from the countryside, the shops along the streets of Gaoyou will put away the bird cages, afraid that the bandit brother will feel hopeless to get out of prison when he sees the caged birds.
▲ The life of the residents of Da Nao Neighborhood, the place written in Wang Zengqi's "Memoirs of Da Nao". Photography/Quote
Perhaps it is this kind of compassion hidden deep in the depths of the character that makes the little gaoyou rich and talented. In addition to the familiar contemporary writer Wang Zengqi, there are also the Song Dynasty literati Qin Guan, the Ming Dynasty prose writer Wang Pan, and the Qing Dynasty scripture master Wang Niansun Wang Yinzhi's father and son, all of whom were born in this hot land.
Su Dongpo once sailed in the snow-like reeds of Gaoyou, came to visit his student Qin Guan, and sang on the high platform behind the Taishan Temple, and Guangling Taishou sent a plaque with the word Wenyou written on it, and since then it has been called Wenyoutai. At the east end of East Avenue, there is Wenyoutai, where the relics of the Qin Temple are preserved.
▲ Ink painting platform. Photo by Xue Shusong
Like Wang Zengqi, Qin Guan is also a young man who leaves home and goes out to practice, and in the land of a foreign land, Qin Guan often lives in the caravanserai, which is not only a temporary place to settle down, but also an infinite nostalgia for his hometown. In Qin Guan's poems, there are more than a dozen times when "faith in beauty is not my land", and in the blood of grief and indignation, there is also a gentle attachment to his hometown, and the nostalgia is endless like a silk rain.
▲ Zhenguo Temple. Photo by Xue Shusong
Gaoyou has a history of more than 7,000 years of civilization and more than 2,000 years of city building. In Gaoyou, if you look up, you can see the Zhenguo Temple Pagoda with a history of more than 1100 years. ZhenguoSi Pagoda is located in the middle of the Grand Canal and is one of the few remaining Tang Dynasty pagodas in China, which is extremely rare and locals call it "West Pagoda". In the early years, the West Tower was the guiding light for boatmen sailing on the Grand Canal, and when they saw the West Tower, they knew that they had arrived at Gaoyou.
There is a "West Pagoda" and there is an "East Pagoda", and the Pure Land Temple Pagoda with a history of more than 400 years is the "East Pagoda" among the local population, which is a Wen Pagoda. The four duds once found here witnessed the national self-improvement and endless life of the Battle of Gaoyou, as the last battle in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
▲ Jodoji Pagoda Square. Photo by Xue Shusong
The "East Pagoda" and "West Pagoda" with a vast history have now returned to Gaoyou as "Zhenguo Temple" and "Pure Land Temple Pagoda Square" and began to carry the story of modern Gaoyou people, and the two towers, like the history of Gaoyou, not only represent the glorious past, but also herald the infinitely promising future.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > have you ever eaten? </h1>
"I am not very happy that foreigners praise gaoyou duck eggs, as if we have duck eggs in poor places!"
——Wang Zengqi, "Food in Hometown"
▲ How many people in Wang Zengqi's pen began to know this small city and fell in love with this small city. Illustration/May
The duck catchers shouted "Ah Tut Tak" on Gaoyou Lake, full of strength and vitality. Speaking of Gaoyou, there is always no escape from duck eggs, and even in this hometown of Chinese folk songs, the most typical folk song is also named after "Counting Duck Eggs", "A duck has a mouth, two eyes and two legs." The loud voice made people really feel the pride of gaoyou people for duck eggs.
Even Wang Zengqi said, "But Gaoyou's salted duck eggs are indeed good, I have walked a lot of places, and there are many duck eggs eaten, but they are completely incomparable with those in my hometown!" Once the sea was shipwrecked as water, and the salty duck eggs in other places, I really couldn't look at it. ”
▲ Gaoyou double yellow duck egg. Photography / Zhang Yuanqi
The fish and shrimp in Gaoyou Lake provide natural live food for the duck, so the ducks here produce duck eggs with large egg heads and many yolks, which are delicious after pickling. But if you talk about Gaoyou, you can only think of duck eggs, which is really the biggest misunderstanding of Gaoyou. Gaoyou has a food culture represented by the famous Chinese banquet "Less Travel Banquet", how can there be a lack of delicious food in such a city?
▲ The traditional method of making Gaoyou duck eggs is to soak them with yellow mud and grass and wood ash successively. Photography / Clear Creek
Look at Wang Lao's article, you will know how the water town is silent, raising the mouths of the people living here, and cultivating a generation of famous eaters. Come to Gaoyou, food must first break down people's cognitive barriers.
Gaoyou is a water town, all year round indispensable river fresh, hairy crabs, bream, white fish, green shrimp and white shrimp, are the natural preference for Gaoyou, soup, braised and slippery fry is the most serious and responsible answer sheet of Gaoyou people. It's just that in addition to the river fresh, the delicacies hidden in the alleys of Gaoyou people's lives are even more innumerable.
▲ Photo 1: Hairy Crab in Gaoyou Lake, Photo/ Qingxi; Figure 2: Fishermen harvesting river shrimp; Figure 3: Fish vendors selling fish in a wet market. Photo by Xue Shusong
Gaoyou people like to eat brine, and call it "smoked", the streets and alleys of large and small smoke shops reflect the Gaoyou people's love for smoking, as soon as the meal is served, all the vendors will hear the news and move, the city began to lively. Smoked goose, goose offal, pork head meat, pu bao meat, ear side (pig ear), pig tail, dried brine, vegetarian chicken... If the smoking is compiled into the "Name of the Dish", it is also impossible to say in one breath.
▲ A variety of smokes. Photo above / Ju Weifeng, photo below / Dr. Long
Among them, the pu bao meat is the "star product" that occupies the C position, the pu bao meat is the use of grass pig's hind leg meat, fast knife into cubes, add seasoning and starch, lining the pu bun with tofu skin, pouring the meat filling into the pu bao, tightening the mouth, and then tightening the waist into a gourd shape, putting it into the old brine "experience", as if entering the alchemy furnace of Taishang Laojun, waiting for the return, it is the perfect combination of salty incense. The aroma of puddle is more pronounced after cooling, chewing in the mouth, the taste of puddle first, and then the non-greasy meat aroma.
▲ Pu Bao meat. Photo above / Xiansen Zhao, Photo below / Dr. Long
If no duck can swim out of Nanjing alive, no rabbit can jump out of Sichuan alive, then no goose can leave Gaoyou alive. Gaoyou people's love for geese is also deeply rooted in the bones. "Boss, chopped horn goose (wó)." The "goose" mentioned here is actually a smoked goose, that is, a brine goose, also known as an old goose. Gaoyou also has a kind of "Lingtang brine goose", more than three hundred years of history so that it can be called "the overlord of the goose", a spoonful of old brine, I don't know how many hometown people linger.
▲ Brine goose. Photography / Dr. Long
Gaoyou people also love to eat noodles, the Yangchun noodles on the breakfast shop are neat and fresh, and the enamel bowls filled with "secret" sauces are "steamed in the sauna" in the steam pot, waiting for the luck of the morning risers. "Wang Xiao'er below, look at people under the soup", to be soft or hard, eat more than ten years of old stores at a glance can know the preference of customers.
▲ Yangchun noodles on the breakfast shop. Photography / Clear Creek
Wang tofu is a must-order dish for outsiders to come to Gaoyou, but it is also the most daily food on the table of Gaoyou people. Boil water in a hot pot, pour in the chopped tofu and pork blood, add ingredients such as dried shrimp and squeezed vegetable foam, cook, start to stir when you start cooking, and stir while pouring starch water. Seemingly simple steps are actually hidden mysteries, tofu must be brine point brine, neither too old, nor too tender, cut out of the tofu can not be too big nor too small, is a novice or hidden in the jianghu master, in the entrance of the moment can see the heights.
▲ Wang tofu. Photography / Dr. Long
Gaoyou Linze Town, a town famous for its "soup sheep" (mutton soup), can be regarded as a clear stream in Gaoyou, which is full of food everywhere. "Linze soup sheep" is one of the top ten famous dishes of Qinyou, its secret is in Kung Fu, fresh lamb to soak for a day or two, until the smell is completely removed can be under the pot, the cauldron of the earth stove, in the brewing of time slowly boiled, the original soup can appear. Rich and delicious sheep soup, accompanied by a diamond navel, is refreshing and happy like a god.
In Gaoyou, familiar people meet with a sentence "Have you eaten?" "At the beginning, you can talk hotly, and the people and people in the gushing people become warm, and after eating and chatting a few words, the night falls, and the day in the small town will end."
▲ When night falls, the Zhenguo Temple on the canal is still brightly lit, illuminating the entire town. Figure/VCG
Gaoyou Lake at night is quiet and quiet, when I was a child, while blowing the wind here, while listening to my grandmother, those stories about the history of Gaoyou and Gaoyou people, the concept of "vicissitudes and mulberry fields" in my little head for the first time; I woke up to see the sunrise on the shore of Gaoyou Lake, and the golden morning light and fluttering reeds reflected on the lake, vast and tortuous.
Day after day of life, plain as water, slowly began.
▲ On Gaoyou Lake, a golden light. Photo by Xue Shusong