Lianyungang "is an ancient city, a city of literature, but also a young, passionate and romantic land, "Journey to the West" and "Mirror Flower Edge" won tens of millions of readers in China, Zhu Ziqing and Xu Zechen used the depth and majesty of the sea to interpret different Chinese stories. In addition, the Purple Mountain Literature Award, the highest award for Jiangsu Literature, has been awarded by Lianyungang writers every time, which is the only city in the entire northern Jiangsu region to receive this honor. Since ancient times, the literati and inkers have favored Lianyungang so much because of its thick cultural heritage.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="19" > port city poetry</h1>
The literati really love Lianyungang.
Confucius was a sage of literature, and he was the first literati to visit Lianyungang.
Confucius set a good example. Later literati followed. The next thing should be Tao Yuanming, and then there is Bao Zhao of the Southern Dynasty. Of course, the two of them, one has worked here, and the other is home next to it.
Kong Wangshan Confucius looks at the sea
In the Tang and Song dynasties, the poets shone brightly, almost as if they were going to run all over the world.
Therefore, Li Bai, Liu Changqing, Qian Qi, Wang Yuwei, Su Shi, Zhang Qian, Shi Manqing, and others all borrowed Haizhou and Yuntai Mountain to send out his poetry and complain.
What moved me the most was Li Shangyin's "On the Sea":
Stone bridge east looking at the sea,
Xu Fukong could not come immortally.
Straight to Magu and scratching his back,
May stay for Kuwata.
There is a kind of Zen in Li Shangyin's poems, but they are nothing more than envy and desire to live in those immortals who have become immortals. Yuntai Mountain and that sea on the east coast will always be a dream in the poet's heart.
Su Shi also wrote: I used to climb the Shu Mountain, go out to see the vicissitudes of the sun; I want to help Donghai County, and hate the stoneless bridge.
Zhang Qi of the Song Dynasty even wrote such a poem: Ask the old man to think of me? The dream soul is still in the seaside state.
Yuntai Mountain
The same kind of poetry, expressed in different literati poems, it seems that this place is really a place where poets are haunted by dreams. Isn't it a bit like the land of today's influencers? This red has been red for thousands of years, and it has not faded to this day.
Poets are fans of Lianyungang, and we are fans of poets.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="190" > ancient masterpieces and Lianyungang</h1>
However, the next literati have a deeper relationship with Lianyungang, not just like the poets above, chatting about poetry.
Guan Hanqing,"Touching the Heavens and Moving Dou E'e"
Guan Hanqing, a great playwright of the Yuan Dynasty, wrote a world-famous tragedy called "Touching the Heavens and Moving The Earth dou e grievance". But dou'e's image was not made up out of thin air by the writer. Dou'e's image is derived from the story of the Filial Wife of the East Sea. It is said that a woman in Donghai County in the Han Dynasty, Zhou Qing, was accused of poisoning her mother-in-law, beaten into a confession, and issued three vows such as June Feixue before her execution. Later, all three vows were fulfilled. Since then, a filial piety shrine has been established in Zhou Qing's hometown in Donghae County. At least in the Song Dynasty at the latest, there have been annual tributes to filial piety.
Lianyungang East China Sea Filial Piety Shrine
If we talk about the origin of Chinese classical literature and Lianyungang, I think we must first start with Guan Hanqing, the old man.
Wu Jingzi's "History of Ru Lin"
The next one is Wu Jingzi, the author of "The History of Ru Linwai" and a quanjiao person in Anhui. But like Li Ruzhen, he ran to Lianyungang from other places. The difference is that Li Ruzhen is in the excess, and Wu Jingzi is the successor.
What's going on here? Wu Jingzi's family is actually a famous and prestigious family, and his great-grandfather and uncle once won the Tanhua and The Eye of the List. In the Qing Dynasty, a family produced two third-class, which was a terrible thing. But Wu Jingzi inherited from an early age to his uncle Wu Lin. Wu Linqi was then sent by the imperial court to Ganyu in Lianyungang as a teaching. Wu Jingzi followed his father to Ganyu.
What official position was Wu Linqi's teaching? Some people say that it is equivalent to the current secretary of education, which is actually very inappropriate. At that time, there was no official school, where did the education bureau chief come from? But the teachings are literally exhortations. In fact, the responsibility was to admonish the talents of a county, to teach them to be loyal to the emperor and to the Confucian way of benevolence and righteousness.
Wu Jingzi lived with his father in Ganyu for ten years, so he was able to watch his father admonish the Confucians every day, and he also came into contact with all kinds of Confucians, which directly contributed to the completion of the most ironic novel in China, "The History of Ru lin". The Fan Jin who was raised in the middle is a vivid portrayal of ancient Confucianism, although his actions make people spray rice, but there is also a handful of sour tears.
Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West
We all know that Wu Cheng'en, who wrote "Journey to the West", is a native of Huai'an Province, how could he write Yuntai Mountain in Haizhou into his novel and let Qi Tian Dasheng settle in Huaguo Mountain.
Not to mention that Huai'an Province was originally very close to Haizhou Capital, what is more important is that this arrogant Huaihai Langshi also liked to play in the mountains and rivers like those literati in ancient times. Many of Wu Cheng'en's relatives also live in Haizhou, so Wu Cheng'en often forgets about this mountain and sea wonder. As he climbed the Huaguo Mountain, crossed the Water Curtain Cave, and watched the monkeys dancing among the trees and tasting the wild game of the mountain fruit, a bold thought came to his brain.
Flower and fruit mountain
Standing on the top of the Jade Girl Peak, far away, is a vast sea; looking down, it is cloudy and misty; looking up at the sky, clear and transparent blue. He suddenly felt that how he was so tall and mighty, it was simply a Great Saint of Qi Tian.
The divine monkey is Wu Cheng'en's inner demon and his ambition. "A journey to the west has not been half a step out of this mountain, and the transmission of the Three Tibetans to the East is not what the novel says." A few years later, when an elder who was familiar with "Journey to the West" came to Huaguoshan and gladly raised his pen to write this couplet. I know that he actually understands Wu Cheng'en the most.
A few years later, the famous contemporary poet Shu Ting came to Huaguoshan, and she and Wu Cheng'en also had a sharp mind, and there was telepathy across time and space:
Unable to fall asleep at night, he got up and opened the curtains, and saw that the bright moon was silent, the meteors were dragging on the ground, and the shadows of the rough rocks on the dangerous cliffs were enough, but Lin Tao was moaning incessantly. Thinking of that Wu Cheng'en, it must be at the time when the essence of such heaven and earth is full of essence, the poker pen is a blade, cut itself open, and burst out a shocking stone monkey.
"Mirror Flower Edge" Li Ruzhen
There is also a romantic novel in China, "Mirror Flower Edge", which is also very powerful, and was also born in Lianyungang. "Mirror Flower Edge", which writes the story of the Hundred Flowers Fairy being mistakenly ordered by the emperor of the world, also writes the story of a group of people's overseas exploration.
I think lianyungang has produced two books, "Journey to the West" and "Mirror Flower Edge", which are very interesting. One is to explore the west, and the other is to explore the sea in the east, which seems to really be the way to travel the world. Does the Belt and Road Initiative proposed today have some kind of echo and overlap with history?! Compared with "Journey to the West", "Mirror Flower Edge" is actually not inferior at all.
In ancient Chinese literature, women were degraded very low. Including "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West". Although "Dream of the Red Chamber" is written about women, it is still not the protagonist of the historical stage when it writes about the tragedy of women. But "Mirror Flower Edge" is different, Li Ruzhen wrote about the Hundred Flowers Fairy, wrote about women participating in the imperial examination, and also wrote about a country in which men played the role of women. After all, Li Ruzhen was the first literati in China to support women. In that feudal era, to have this kind of thinking, you have to admire.
"Mirror Flower Edge" also has an impressive place, which is the story of the protagonist of the novel, Lin Zhiyang, who went to overseas countries to explore. Ancient Chinese novels, essays, have never written about this. That's why I say that Li Ruzhen's open thinking, especially the thinking of exploring the sea, is really unprecedented.
Now Lianyungang is one of the first open cities along China's coast, and it seems that from Li Ruzhen's time, it has an open mind.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" Lu Zhu
Lianyungang is destined to be the most enjoyable stage in the Chinese literary world, and it wants to make the literary images that have been praised to this day shine one by one.
Dou E first came out and sang a touching song, followed by the stubborn monkey fighting the heavens and the earth, then the Hundred Flowers Fairy Fighting For Glory, and then Fan Jin's crazy obsession. And then what?
Then there was the Three Kingdoms General's horizontal horse and sword, and the green forest good man in the Water Margin was killed on the battlefield.
People who have watched the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" know that Liu Bei's three divisions of the world rely on Taoyuan Jieyi and rely on Zhuge Liang's divine ingenuity.
The real strong support for him was Lu Zhu.
The rich merchant of ancient China, the one who hung the first card was Tao Zhugong, became the grandfather worshipped by the business community. So who is in second place? Well deservedly is elk.
Lu Zhusheng was born in a village in the south of Yuntai Mountain in Haizhou, probably the first bucket of money earned from fishing salt. He then traveled back and forth between Xuzhou and Haizhou for business. Later, he accumulated hundreds of millions of family assets, and raised tens of thousands of people in the family. This is one of the few in the Twenty-Five Histories, and even Shen Wansan of the Ming Dynasty could hardly have such a style.
Haizhou Ancient City
Lu Zhu not only married his sister to Liu Bei, but also donated all his hundreds of millions of family property to Liu Bei, and turned to Become Liu Bei's brother-in-law and the general of An Han. With the backing of grain and grass, Liu Bei has achieved fame and success, and only then has there been a pattern of three worlds.
"Water Margin" "Good Han Mo"
Another classic literary masterpiece, "Water Margin", what impresses us the most is those green forest good men who shoot when they should be shot.
Finally, one day, the rebels failed, and Liangshan scattered. Those good men were cornered, forced to the sea by the officers and soldiers, and eventually the whole army was destroyed. The well-wishers gathered up the body of the good man on the edge of Haizhou City and buried it under the White Tiger Mountain in the west of Haizhou City. That "good Han Mo" left people with a mighty charm.
Their ending is also reminiscent of the story of The Five Hundred Soldiers of Tian Yoko. In fact, it was also on the seashore of Yuntai Mountain in Lianyungang, which became the final destination. On the "Tian Henggang" that still makes history unforgettable, the five hundred warriors of the Qi people Tian Hengjia Ding jumped down from the cliff and committed suicide in the sea, performing a tragic elegy, which made Liu Bang sigh endlessly.
Therefore, in this land, whether it is Xu Fu, or Sun Wukong, or Tian Heng, whether it is Dou E, or the good man of Liangshan, everyone has a fierceness that is not afraid of life and death. This fierceness not only infected the common people, but also infected the literati.
Zhu Ziqing, a great writer in the Republic of China period, was born in the small town of Donghai County at that time and spent his childhood in ignorance. Later, Zhu Ziqing did not eat American relief grain and starved to death at home. A generation of literary heroes is so magnificent that they will not let the bravery and determination of those good men of Liangshan be decisive.
Yuntai Mountain scenery
Suddenly I thought of two sentences from Lin Zexu's poem "Climbing the Yuntai Mountain in the East China Sea":
Denglin Ben is a Yingzhou guest,
The vicissitudes of the sea poured down a statue.
It was really a long sigh of contemplation of heaven and earth, alone but drooling.
In the last decade of the twentieth century, the famous writer Zhao Benfu also came to Lianyungang one year, saying:
Cities have temperament.
If the city is also divided into realism and romanticism, Lianyungang undoubtedly belongs to the latter, which is rare in Chinese cities.
Author: Cai Jiming, member of the Chinese Writers Association, member of the China Literary and Art Critics Association, director of the Jiangsu Literary and Art Critics Association, and currently deputy director of the Lianyungang Municipal Religious Affairs Bureau.
Source: Excerpt from the fourth issue of Jiangsu Local History Magazine in 2021 " Qi Tian's Mountain, Lian Hai's Clouds"
Review, Release: Zhang Yizhe