"Flowers are half-mountain, grass is half-mountain, white clouds are half-mountain, half-mountain, crowded birds fly to the sky..." In late autumn, the weather turns cool, and there are still tourists from time to time in Shishangzhuang Village. In front of the "poetry wall" at the entrance of the village, all kinds of poems are engraved, and the children point to one poem after another and recite them loudly, and the strong poetry comes to the face.
Hidden in the depths of the majestic Yanshan Mountains, there are only 256 households and more than 760 people in Shishangzhuang Village, Anziling Township, Xinglong County, Chengde City, Hebei Province. The mountain village is built on the side of the mountain, the villagers push the door to see the green mountains, open the window to listen to the babbling water, although remote, but it is known for its poetry.
Aerial view of the village of Shishangzhuang. (Photo by Yu Lei)
Strolling along the village road, the beautiful scenery of the mountains and countryside comes into view one after another, all of which are related to poetry: in the poetry garden, there are more than 30 stone statues of Chinese and foreign poets; on the stele forest of the poetry square, more than 100 poems of Chinese and foreign poets such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Dante, tagore are engraved; the poet's home has a large collection of poets' works; the cliffs at the mouth of the village and the stone walls at the edge of the village are engraved with beautiful poems... Wandering through it, you can feel the influence of poetry culture everywhere.
A corner of the Shishangzhuang Calligraphy and Painting Institute. (Photo by Yu Lei)
Shishangzhuang Village's real name is Shangzhuang Village. From the elderly to the young children in the village, many people love to read and memorize poems after tea and dinner. Some villagers also love to write poetry, "when busy farming and idly writing poetry, racing the gods I know myself."
Shishangzhuang Village Cultural Tourism Reception Center. (Photo by Yu Lei)
Why is a small mountain village in the deep mountains and old mountains associated with poetry?
Li Haiping, secretary of the party branch of Shishangzhuang Village, said that in the 1960s, a shepherd baby in the village herded sheep while looking at the mountain flowers and white clouds and chanting poems, and created the poem "Shepherd Song", which is the local poet Liu Zhang. Based on the old trees, boulders, houses, mills, wells, etc. in his hometown, he created many poems praising the beauty of his hometown, published dozens of poetry collections, and many poems such as "Inch Grass Love" and "Shepherd Song" were selected into textbooks or reading books for colleges, middle schools, and primary schools.
Aerial view of the "Taoyuanju" residential area in Shishangzhuang Village. (Photo by Yu Lei)
At present, this small mountain village has produced 4 members of the Chinese Writers Association, 12 members of the Hebei Provincial Writers Association and dozens of Members of the Chengde Writers Association, and published about 100 poetry collections. In 2012, Liu Zhang and three other poets co-authored the poetry collection "Shi Shangzhuang" held a premiere ceremony in the mountain village, which gave the small mountain village the name "Shi Shang Zhuang".
In recent years, Shishangzhuang Village has integrated poetry with ecology, carried out rural cultural construction, and integrated poetry into the daily life of villagers. In addition to the construction of poetry monuments, poetry walls, poetry forests, etc., the village holds activities such as the Spring Festival Gala and the Poetry Contest every year.
A corner of the Poetry Garden in Shishangzhuang Village. (Photo by Yu Lei)
In the most conspicuous position of many villagers' halls, there are "family training" written with famous sayings and aphorisms, the traditional culture of harmony and humility, and the ancient style of cultivating and reading heirlooms, which always infiltrates the hearts of villagers. Some villagers took up hoes to farm and picked up pens to write poems.
A corner of Filial Piety Square in Shishangzhuang Village. (Photo by Yu Lei)
Zhang Jinlai, a disabled villager, wrote more than 100 poems, and on the title page of the collection of poems were written his heartfelt words: "I lost the road under my feet, but what I got was the whole sky." Villager Wang Yali lamented today's happy life and created "Poetry on the Zhuang Taoyuan Residence": "Green water and green mountains are a sky, and Taoyuan dreams fall into the world." Now that I have lived in a blessed land for generations, I do not envy the Buddha and do not envy the immortals. At present, 6 farmers have published their own collection of poems.
A corner of Lu Xun Poetry Park in Shishangzhuang Village. (Photo by Yu Lei)
Every year, many tourists come to seek "poetry and far away", experience "poetic perching", and pursue "poetry and wine pastoral", which has led to the development of rural tourism in Shishangzhuang Village.
Tourists stop at the mouth of Shishangzhuang Village to watch. (Photo by Yu Lei)
Villager Zhao Qinglu and his wife Li Xiuzhi have been working outside for many years, and in 2015, the couple opened a farmyard, named "Guan Ju Farmhouse".
"Every holiday, there are often tourists from Beijing, Tianjin, Tangshan, Chengde and other places to play. My family runs a farmyard and sells local specialties, and its annual income is more than 100,000 yuan. Write poetry in your spare time, and life is full of flavor. Li Xiuzhi likes such a comfortable and poetic life, she has created more than 400 poems, not only to talk to tourists, but also to produce poetry collections.
Although the mountain village is small and clean, the local poetry is to the end of the world. Shishangzhuang Village has been rated as "National Civilized Village", "China's Beautiful Leisure Village" and "Hometown of Chinese Poetry". Last year, the village received 85,000 tourists, and the total tourism income was more than 6 million yuan. Nowadays, the village is planning to build a homestay, a hawthorn winery, a medicinal material base, a picking garden, etc., to drive more villagers to get rich. (Reporter Qi Leijie)
Source: Xinhua Net