Yangzhou is a beautiful small city, both the elegance of the northern country, but also the charm of the water town, the ancient canal, the slender West Lake, the painting of the orchid radial, the soft wind and the willow, fascinating. A few years ago, I was traveling with my family in Yangzhou, and I met an old man who was singing in the depths of the garden with flowers, and the gentle and low-back song followed the vines on the wall to the street, and the old man said that this was Yang opera, the Yangzhou people's own play. The locals may not have paid much attention to this scene, because Yang Opera has always been a part of their lives, and I can't forget it for a long time - from this detail, I can see that this is a city with culture and interest.
Yi Junzuo
The literati in history also had a fondness for Yangzhou, Bai Juyi, Du Mu, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, Qin Shaoyou, Liu Yong, Zheng Banqiao, Zhu Ziqing, and Wang Zengqi were all closely related to Yangzhou, leaving countless poems and texts. Of course, there is a figure who cannot be avoided when it comes to Yangzhou, and the storm between him and Yangzhou that caused a sensation in the whole country, and he also moved the world with this name - this person is Yi Junzuo, a literati of the Republic of China.
Yi Junzuo is a native of Hanshou, Hunan, born in a family of scholars, with excellent poetry and literature, known as a talented man. Yi Junzuo studied political economy at Peking University and Waseda University in Japan, and taught at Anhui University after returning to China, where he also served as the chief secretary of the Anhui Civil Affairs Department and the chief writer of the Republic of China Daily. In the early 1930s, Yi Junzuo's hometown friend Zhou Fohai became the director of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education, and invited him to serve as the editorial director of the department.
The capital of Jiangsu Province was located in Zhenjiang at that time, and after the outbreak of the Songhu War of Resistance, the situation was suddenly tense, and the National Government in Nanjing was ready to move the capital, and the Jiangsu Provincial Government also moved some institutions to Yangzhou, across the river. Yi Junzuo crossed the river with the Department of Education and temporarily worked in Yangzhou Middle School. Yi Junzuo, the director of the editing office, was very relaxed, there was nothing to do, and the chaotic world of people's panic could not sit quietly in the study, so most of his leisure time was spent reading and hanging out. Yi Junzuo lived in Yangzhou for more than three months, during which time he traveled through the streets and alleys of Yangzhou, read a large number of notes and local histories, and wrote some diaries, poems and essays. Later, he wrote a small book of 30,000 or 40,000 words based on these things, and named it "Gossip Yangzhou". The pamphlet was not published at the time, and shu Xincheng, director of the Zhonghua Book Company's editorial office, came to Zhenjiang and brought it to Shanghai for publication.
"Gossip Yangzhou" book shadow
"Gossip Yangzhou" is composed of three parts: "The Life of Yangzhou People", "Scenery of Yangzhou" (Part 1) and "Scenery of Yangzhou" (Part 2), most of which is an introduction to the history, people, scenery and scenic spots of Yangzhou, which is equivalent to a "Yangzhou Tour Guide". Objectively speaking, "Gossip Yangzhou" can be called a very good style travelogue, both literature and history, and beautiful tone, but there are also some ruthless statements in the book, which make the Yangzhou people shine, for example, Yi Junzuo said that the yangzhou people's personality "has a bit of laziness, romance, and decadence", he summarized it with the saying "morning skin wrapped in water, afternoon water foreskin"; Yi Junzuo also said that the reason why Yangzhou is famous is that one is that the scenery is good, the second is salt, and the third is to give birth to women. He wrote in the book: "The reason for the emergence of the girl, as far as my intuition is concerned, is about three: First, the economic reason. That is, the general life is very bitter, the ground is low and there are many floods, and the income is not spared. Second, historical reasons. That is, because of a habitual human feeling and custom, immersion is not ashamed of being a prostitute. Third, geographical reasons. That is, those who are close to the water are more watery. Yangzhou has many willows, and the shadow of the mountain cannot be seen in the complete water town, so human nature is frivolous, especially women. Finally, he commented frivolously: "As the ancients said, 'fireworks descend in Yangzhou in March', the prostitutes in the whole country seem to be arranged by Yangzhou, but in fact, the prostitutes in Yangzhou are not necessarily smarter than the place next to them." ”
The beauty of Yangzhou
After the publication of "Gossip Yangzhou", there was an uproar in Yangzhou, Yi Junzuo was accused of going to court, and after the storm, Yi Junzuo publicly apologized and resigned as the editorial director of the Department of Education. Decades later, Yi Junzuo, who lived in Taiwan, serialized his memoirs in a newspaper supplement, in which he talked about "Gossip Yangzhou", but unexpectedly caused the anger of some people in Yangzhou, Taiwan, and Yi Junzuo had no choice but to apologize again. After Yi Junzuo's death, Taiwan's "Spring and Autumn" magazine began to serialize "Gossip Yangzhou" and planned to publish this book, but it was severely condemned by the Yangzhou Hometown Association, and Yi Junzuo's family was afraid of provoking trouble again, and also came forward to stop the serialization and publication. The same is true on the mainland, so far there is little trace of this book, only Anhui Huangshan Book Club published once in 1993, but the stock is very small, almost nothing on the market.
The impact of the "gossip Yangzhou case" is so far-reaching that people are unexpected, but another negative impact of this incident is estimated that Yangzhou people did not expect it, because this case made Yangzhou people become narrow localists who could not criticize and could not be discussed in the eyes of the world, so some local scholars in Yangzhou pointed out to the point: "Although yangzhou people defeated Yi Junzuo, they do not seem to have overcome the habits that they should defeat." ”