Introduction to Choreographer
Mi Chao, choreographer of "Remember Nostalgia".
Representative works: "Daizhou - Seventy-two Elements of the City has been passed down from generation to generation" and so on.
"Life is a process of continuous adaptation and learning, and only after experiencing anything can you experience the hardships behind others." I'm glad I've been able to stick with it for so many years. Putting in more effort also makes people feel more at ease.
- Mi Chao "
Seventy-two elements of the city have been passed down from generation to generation
When I received the topic of this issue of the ancient city of Daizhou, I did not know much about the city, but with the deepening of the step-by-step research, the historical context of an ancient city gradually became clear. With all my curiosity, I began my journey to explore this thousand-year-old city.
The ancient city of Daizhou is a small city in the southwest of Shanxi Province, it is bordered by The Lüliang Mountains to the north and the Emei Mountains to the south, and the ancient Fenhe River flows slowly from the ancient city. Because it is located on the road from Chang'an to Yanmen Pass, coupled with the convenience of water transportation by the Fenhe River, it has always been a very important "water and drought wharf" in southern Shanxi.
In the historical evolution of the past thousand years, Daizhou has the reputation of "Seventy-two Elements City" since ancient times because of the development of handicrafts, and today's ancient city is still bustling and bustling on the street, with many shops, and a variety of craftsmen gathered in the small town. In the conversation with them, I was deeply impressed by the peaceful and calm state of the craftsmen shown from them, and the wisdom of the craftsmen passed down from generation to generation. So later we set the theme of this episode as "Seventy-two Elements of the City, Passed Down from Generation to Generation".
Generations of ancient city people have fished, hunted and cultivated in this rich land, living a quiet life of sunrise and sunset. The ancient city of Daizhou that we see today was founded in the third year of the Sui Kai Emperor. But Daizhou has a recorded history, more than 2600 years. Due to the fertile land, rivers and geographical location here, in 668 BC, the Duke Xian of Jin moved the capital of the Jin state to here, and the history is called "Shilang Chengdi".
With the help of Liu Baomin, former director of the Cultural Bureau of Xindi County, we learned that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the vehicle and ship manufacturing industry in Daizhou was already very developed. In the fourth year of jin huigong, the jin state suffered a drought, the grain harvest failed, the people's life was difficult to sustain, the jin huigong decided to borrow grain from the qin state, he summoned all the shipbuilders in the ancient city to start shipbuilding and grain transportation, which was the first time in Chinese history that there was a clear record of inland river transportation, known in history as the "Battle of Panzhou". The "Battle of Panzhou" rescued the Jin Dynasty, which was deeply in a food crisis, and also gave the ancient city the saying that "there is a craft, and no one can die of hunger".
The ancient city of Daizhou began to be built from the Sui Dynasty, and the long years and cultures of different eras have left a deep imprint here. In the Tang Dynasty, Dai prefecture was not only an important military stronghold, but also the center of coin minting in the country. The Old Book of Tang records: "Ninety-nine furnaces under heaven, and thirty in Daizhou." "During the Tang Tianbao period, the number of iron furnaces for minting coins in Daizhou increased to 40% of the country. By the Qianyuan period, the coin minting of the Tang Dynasty was basically all dependent on Daizhou.
Walking into the streets and alleys of the ancient city of Daizhou, you can see the brick carvings, stone carvings, door piers, stone lions and other ancient things preserved in the past, and there are still many people in the ancient city who have been doing stone carving business today.
Historically, the "Seventy-two Lines City" reached its peak in the Ming and Qing dynasties, when the Jin merchants rose, and Daizhou gradually transformed from an ancient capital and a military town into a water and land wharf and an industrial and commercial port. Unlike the Jin merchants in other parts of Shanxi who walked in all directions to buy low and sell high, most of the merchants in Daizhou bought and sold local goods, and for a time, craftsmen from all over the world poured into Daizhou, and the local government also had the saying that "the inexhaustible wing city pass, the inexhaustible Daizhou city".
The movement of people promotes the inclusion of ideas and the development of local cultures. The ancient city of Daizhou brought together the "one learning and four teachings" of the East and the West, and Cheng Zhu Lixue developed the "Daiyang School" in Daizhou, of which the representative figures Xin Quan, Dang Cheng, and Li Yuxiu were called the "Three Sages of Daizhou", and Li Yuxiu, the author of the "Disciple Rules", was known as the "Saint of the North". It was learned from the local Propaganda Department that the seventeenth day of the eleventh month of the lunar calendar is the anniversary of Li Yuxiu's birth, and on this day, people after Li will hold a family sacrifice, and the people of the ancient city will commemorate this Confucian and educational master who has had a profound impact on future generations. "Living in a constant, the karma has not changed", Daizhou people have always adhered to the spirit of learning a line, loving a line, doing a line, drilling a line, and passing on their own craftsmanship from generation to generation.
After entering the new era, the ancient city of Daizhou paid more and more attention to the development of handicraft industry, and the craftsmen in the ancient city ushered in the spring of their careers. Wujian Zhu Line, Xingyun Flowing Water, this is the Daizhou Cloud Sculpture that has been lost for many years, and He Junming is the non-hereditary inheritor of this handicraft. There are more than 60 processes in the cloud carving process, and only He Junming can fully master the whole process. Nowadays, He Junming, who is well aware of the difficulty of learning art, takes the initiative to pass on the whole set of techniques to his apprentices without reservation.
The inheritance of craftsmanship is a never-ending relay run. Due to the complex process and difficulty in firing, Chengni Yan in Daizhou has been lost in the last years of the Qing Dynasty. In order to bring this ancient skill back to life, Lin Tao and his father embarked on a difficult quest. After more than thirty years of perseverance, Lin Tao finally restored the ancient skill of Chengni Yan in Daizhou. In order to let more people understand the Chengniyan culture, he built the Chengniyan Cultural Park, and gathered many non-hereditary inheritors to stay in the park for free to show their skills, Lin Tao hopes to let more and more young people feel the charm of traditional handicrafts, and join the restoration, development and innovation of the Seventy-Two Elements of Skills.
Nowadays, the national and provincial intangible cultural heritage in Daizhou has reached 33 items, and there are more than 1,800 varieties of handicraft products in 25 categories, with nearly 10,000 employees. The ancient seventy-two lines set sail again in the new era and continue to write glory. The ancient city of Daizhou, this "museum" that carries ancient history and civilization, this multicultural time and space that spans history, is radiating charming charm in the new era.
Edit | Zhao Ruixuan