Wuzhou, Guangdong
Author | Ma Mingyue
Wuzhou looks a little different in Guangxi, like an adopted child. Her magic lies in the fact that the land boundary is in Guangxi, but the culture is close to Guangdong, which is one of the birthplaces of Cantonese and Lingnan culture. Today's Wuzhou once had a Guangxin County, which was the seat of government of the ancient Cangwu County, called "Guangbu Enxin", which managed Lingnan. In ancient times, the division of administrative areas was demarcated from here, in short, Guangxi was west of Guangxi, and east of Guangxin was Guangdong. Today's Wuzhou people drink beautiful soup, eat morning tea, speak vernacular, life customs and psychology are closer to Guangdong, to Guangzhou than to Nanning, this is the most unlike Guangxi city. Wuzhou's profound historical and cultural origins, the liupao tea of hongchun camphor, and the large-scale Lingnan and Western-style mixed arcades are all impressive. She is like a twilight beauty, the years have passed but she is still graceful, and she has her own charm.
Wuzhou is the eastern gate of Guangxi, close to Guangdong, and the veins are connected. Historically, Guangdong was a place where ideas and leaders were born, and it had a great influence on Guangxi. Hong Xiuquan, a Guangdong native, went to the remote village of Guiping, Guangxi, to pyramid schemes to sell the "God Society", fooled the locals, and tossed a Peasant Revolution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. With Guangdong as his base camp, Dr. Sun Yat-sen led an armed uprising against the Qing Dynasty, established a revolutionary regime, launched the Northern Expedition, and ushered in a new era of democratic revolution. And Guangxi big brother not only can sing mountain songs, rice noodles, but also a more fierce life, there is such a sentence to say guangxi zai's fierceness: Guangxi wolf soldiers dominate the world. During the Republic of China, the new Gui clan originated in Yulin and Wuzhou, both of which were close to Guangdong. In the rise of the new Guizhou clan, two Guangxi people who followed Sun Yat-sen's revolution played an important role. One is Ma Xiaojun, a native of Yulin Rong County, known as the "Godfather of the New Gui Clan", who founded the Guangxi Army Model Battalion, trained a group of officers, and created a new Gui Army with strong combat effectiveness. There is also Li Jishen, a native of Wuzhou, which is even more remarkable. He was a Kuomintang veteran, commander of the First Division of the Guangdong Army, vice president of the Whampoa Military Academy, chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Government, and vice president of the state of New China. He has the reputation of "the whole country's army is a post-study, and the two famous Cantonese generals are all protégés", especially for their fellow villagers in Guangxi. Li Jishen's political guidance, military support, and economic support for the new Gui clan represented by Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Huang Shaohu played an important role in unifying it with the revolutionary base camp led by Sun Yat-sen and its subsequent rise, and was considered to be the quasi-core figure of the new Gui clan. It is no accident that Li Jishen, Guangxi Zai, can be respected and supported in both Guangdong and Guangxi, but because of his "noble character and sincere style of treating others" (Bai Chongxi). Mr. Li Jishen's former residence is in the present-day Dapo Town, Longwei District, Wuzhou City, more than 40 kilometers away from Wuzhou City, I went to pay special tribute. Mr. Li Jishen walked toward me through the clouds of history from the yellowed photos, when he was young, heroic, handsome, tough, in today's point of view is absolutely handsome and beautiful. The pavilion of the former residence has a collection of handwritten poems by Mr. Li Jishen, late Tang Dynasty poet Du Xunhe: "Good with the Han will collect Hu Tu / Go to the grass army to write out of the imperial hometown", full of the heart of the family and the country and the style of a brave man who crosses the world. The pen and ink have the rhyme of the southern scholar Lai Shaoqi, which is elegant and simple, and rich in gold and stone flavor.
Wuzhou, known as "a thousand years of Lingnan important town, a hundred years of two Guangdong commercial port", has a long history, superior location, the Confluence of the Xun River, Gui River into the West River, directly to the Pearl River, is a famous golden waterway and trade town. The spread of rivers maintains the cultural bloodline and enhances the sense of belonging of people up and down the rivers. The prosperity of Wuzhou began in the Tang and Song dynasties, and flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties. If we look at the information, we will give a thumbs up from the bottom of our hearts: in the sixth year of Ming Chenghua (1470), it was designated as the first governor of Liangguang, and Wuzhou became the political, economic, and military center of Liangguang. In 1897, the port was opened as a foreign trade port, and in 1927, the Wuzhou Municipal Government was established, which was the earliest provincial municipality in Guangxi. In 1929, it also became the capital of Guangxi Province, and Guangxi University, the first university in Guangxi, was founded in Wuzhou in 1927. These alone make Wuzhou's status in Guangxi shine, and let Wuzhou people have a lot of pride in their hometown's past, and they can't help but exaggerate it.
If you want to say what is the most iconic in Wuzhou, it must be the arcade. In the old town of Hedong, seeing a group of quaint arcades full of Lingnan characteristics and Western charm will make you feel like entering the theater studio of the era, and time will return to the past. Before that, when I saw the well-preserved and large-scale arcade building group on Zhuhai Road in the old town of Beihai City, I was still amazed at the preservation of such a complete cultural heritage. When you see the crisscrossing arcade buildings on Wuzhou Avenue, you feel that it is a big and small witch. It makes me wonder how in the past years there were merchants and merchants gathering here, and the traffic was unstoppable. Wuzhou has preserved the largest and most complete group of arcades in the country. There are more than 20 arcade streets, the longest of which is 2 kilometers. There is a large archway erected at the intersection of Guotai Plaza on Zhongshan Road, which reads "China Arcade City" and calls the whole of Lingnan. Located in the West River, the New West Hotel, 7 floors high, European style, is the highest and most luxurious hotel in Wuzhou in the 1930s and 1940s, it is very famous in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and radiates to Southeast Asia, and it still seems to be very grand. In the 1930s of the last century, all kinds of people gathered here, dragons and snakes were mixed, and Wang Yaqiao, an Anhui man known as the Assassination King, was killed by the guns of Kuomintang agents in this hotel.
These arcades combine Lingnan culture and Western cultural characteristics, and the combination of East and West, diversity coexists. Traditional Chinese reliefs, brick carvings and ornamental patterns, Western architectural details roman columns, round arch windows and so on can be seen everywhere. This integrated architectural culture bears witness to the glory of Wuzhou's "century-old commercial port", and in the final analysis, it is the crystallization of the open and innovative tradition of Cantonese culture and the open and compatible attitude towards foreign cultures. Only by opening up can we develop, only by blending can we prosper, and only by inclusiveness can we be diverse, and history and reality are constantly strengthening this truth.
A famous snack in Wuzhou is ice spring soy milk. Soybean milk fritters, the most ordinary city food, have become a shining business card in Wuzhou. Wuzhou friend Lao Lu told me that Wuzhou does not produce beans, And Wuzhou soybean milk is famous because of the unique "ice well spring fragrance" well water and very exquisite soy milk production process. I think there is also the pioneering and innovative consciousness and the level of excellence in business of Wuzhou people, which has turned the ordinary into magic. Lao Lu said that when he came to Wuzhou, he wanted to drink ice spring soy milk, otherwise there would be regrets, so I must experience it. He said that there are many people who drink ice spring soy milk every day, and it is necessary to book it in advance. Can open a kind of market snack into a restaurant pattern, drink soy milk also need to be booked, only Wuzhou.
Ice Spring Soybean Milk Museum is located at the foot of Baiyun Mountain, ice spring Chong, a two-story building with several halls inside, and is said to have been in operation for more than 60 years. Rushing to go early in the morning, it was already crowded, there was a long queue, and it was not just a cup of ice spring soy milk. In a simple private room, Lao Lu invited me to drink a Cantonese morning tea. There are simple fritter buns, exquisite Cantonese dim sum, and of course, the world-famous ice spring soy milk. It is characterized by a high concentration of soy milk, and after cold freezing, the surface condenses into a thin layer of bean skin, a bit like the yogurt with milk skin brewed by the Namanbek family in my hometown. Soy milk dripping on the table into beads do not disperse, called "dripping beads of soy milk". However, to be honest, I don't have a special feeling in the ice spring soy milk, I feel the atmosphere and ritual of drinking morning tea, and enjoy the leisurely process.
Growing up in Wuzhou, Lao Lu was more like a Cantonese, speaking Mandarin with a Cantonese accent, tall, gentle temperament, and speaking in a low voice. Lao Lu did not move tobacco and alcohol, but he was obsessed with tea and tea. Busy with business, when it gets dark, Lao Lu will definitely take me to a secluded tea room, bring his own six-fort old tea, let the little sister of the tea room burn incense, brew tea, three or five people sip slowly, talk about the world, until the two armpits are full of wind, the spine is full of jin, and the whole body is comfortable. After drinking for half a day, I didn't even want to go to the toilet. Lao Lu said that this is the drink in place, tea penetrates into the body, rather than directly into the urine excretion, which is also a criterion for judging the advantages and disadvantages of leaf tea, and the essence of good tea will be absorbed by the body. Lao Lu popularized tea knowledge to me, such as several family treasures to talk about the origin, type and evaluation of Liupao tea, all night I soaked in the atmosphere of tea aroma, did not drink, but had a slightly drunk feeling.
Guangxi is famous for Liupao tea, and Wuzhou is the ancestral land of Liupao tea. The history of Liupao tea is comparable to the history of Cangwu County, with a history of at least 1500 years. The origin of Liupao tea is in Liubao Town, Cangwu County, 60 kilometers away from Wuzhou City. The rise of Liupao tea in Guangxi is still the result of Guangdong people's help. Guangdong people love tea, love tea, the meal is called "drink morning tea", its tea consumption habits, to promote the consumption of Liupao tea in Guangdong and the prosperity of Liupao tea, directly driving the modern Liupao tea large-scale production and distribution. At that time, a large number of Guangdong merchants went up against the Pearl River and the Xijiang River and went to the Liubao Mountains to set up a village to collect tea. Every tea season, merchants load tea leaves into pointed boats from the Hekou Street wharf in Liubao, through the small river and small streams into the Xijiang River, loaded and unloaded into large boats, transported to Guangzhou, and then re-exported to all parts of the port of Ao Nanyang, which is the so-called "Tea Boat Ancient Road" in that year, and guangxi people will compare it with the "Tea Horse Ancient Road". According to records, before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the production, transportation and sales of Liupao tea reached an unprecedented peak. Liupao tea has also penetrated into the hearts of the people of Guangdong and has become a daily tea in many places along the river.
Lao Lu gave me the basic knowledge of Liupao tea. Earlier, Liupao tea was mostly made in accordance with the traditional method, that is, the mao tea was steamed and soft, pressed into the basket, and then sold after drying and aging, this Liupao tea was called "farmhouse tea", also known as "ancient law Liupao tea". Its production cycle is long, the output is low, and it is not easy to produce on a large scale. In the 1950s, scientific research solved the rapid fermentation process, and only then did the Wodui fermentation process tea, the production cycle and production scale have been greatly improved, the quality of the tea has also been newly improved, the soup color is deep, the bitterness is removed, and the taste becomes alcoholic. Most of the teas drunk on the market now are from this manufacturer.
Lao Lu also took me to a tea factory located on the bank of the Mandarin Duck River in the city to personally experience it, understand the production process of Liupao craft tea, and visit the tea cellar and wooden plank warehouse where fermentation is stored. This tea factory was built in the early 1950s, with a long history, known as the "cradle of China's Liupao tea industry". Lao Lu said that the Liupao tea on the market is mainly the Wodui fermentation process tea produced by this type of tea factory, also known as "factory tea". There are several old thermostatic tea cellars and wooden plank warehouses in the factory area, which are also the key facilities for the production of Liupao craft tea. The tea cellar and the wooden warehouse play a very important role in the whole aging of Liupao tea, which makes the growth and reproduction of beneficial bacteria and promotes the transformation of contained substances. The mellow "betel nut fragrance" in Liupao tea is the result of wooden warehouse cellaring, which generally needs to be stored for about 10 years before aging. This seems to be the same as the cellar aging of wine, and the excellent quality must be silently forged.
What impressed me the most was that from entering the gate of the factory work area, there was a large water storage tank, next to which were filled with bottles and cans, and when I opened the faucet, what flowed out was the rich fragrance of Liupao tea! The person in charge of the factory said: This is the welfare of the factory to the employees. It is really a mountain to eat mountains, rely on tea to drink tea!
Lao Lu is an old Wuzhou native, and there are relatives in the family who specialize in growing tea and making tea. He said that it is still a good traditional method of Liupao tea, natural fermentation, natural aging, and natural taste, but the yield is small, the price is high, and it is a niche tea. Every year, Lao Lu carefully selects and stores some farmhouse tea made by ancient methods, and saves it for himself to drink. He gave me two packs of old farmhouse tea that had been treasured for decades, and said to me like a philosopher: Farmhouse tea and craft tea, one with traditional charm, one with the same generational customs, drink it, no matter which one you like, the taste of Lingnan is in it.
Wuzhou has a long history, the ancient Cangwu is now Wuzhou, which is an ancient city with a history of more than 2,000 years... Stop, stop, everything is over! Once the most dynamic and prosperous city in Guangxi, it is now unpopular in the east and west, and the sense of economic and cultural existence is very poor. In lao Lu's words: "Guangdong does not kiss us, we do not kiss Nanning." Turkish Nobel Laureate in Literature Orhan Pamuk, in his Istanbul: Memories of a City, has a description of his home city to the effect that the glory and splendor of history have now been lost, leaving only the kind of historical sites and ruins that can be seen everywhere. These are a reminder that Istanbulers will never be able to regain their former glory, and what permeates the city is a deep "cry of sorrow". Sorrow, which means "sorrow" in Turkish, is a deep sense of loss in the soul. Do the people of Wuzhou also have this kind of loss and sorrow for the glory they once had and the decline and loneliness they have today?
Lingnan has a bright flower called the thorn tree flower, "when it blooms like a red glow, the wind blows the color more fresh", a cluster of red peppers, dazzling, this flower is also known as the cangwu flower. "Foreign Objects Chronicle" Yun: "Cangwu is the thorn tree, Lingnan has many such things, because of the name of the county". For some reason, such a flower and tree that is closely related to the history and culture of Wuzhou has not become the city flower of Wuzhou, which makes me a foreigner sigh. The flower of Wuzhou City is the scarf flower, that is, the bougainvillea, which is as common as rice flour in all parts of Guangxi and can be seen everywhere in Fujian and Guangdong. I don't know what kind of stem it is to choose the bougainvillea as the flower of Wuzhou City? Quite puzzling. Ask lao Lu, he Wang Gu said that drinking tea and drinking tea will be cold, this tea tastes good, right?
(Photo courtesy of the author)
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【Author】 Ma Mingyue, who has published prose works in newspapers and online media, published a collection of essays "Tianshan Mingyue", and now lives in Urumqi.
Excerpt from: Reading Village, copyright belongs to the author.