Fuchun Mountain Residence Map (Partial)
In early summer and June, I visited Yanziling Diaoyutai, and the weather was not wet or hot. I had a salt steamed bream for lunch, and then sat idly in the water pavilion by the Fuchun River, in front of Huang Gongwang's mountains and the Lan Qi from the edge of the mountains, but a few strange questions emerged in my heart.
I very much hope that Mr. Yan Guang can sit in front of me at this moment and ask me in person: "Can Sir really fish on the fishing platform at the top of the mountain?" "Of course, Mr. Yan Guang could not have crossed time and space, so I can only speculate based on unreliable fragments of historical materials. In fact, it is just a matter of common sense, where would anyone be crazy enough to fish from the top of the mountain? Unless it is Ren Guozi in "Zhuangzi Foreign Objects", using fifty cows as bait and throwing rods into the East China Sea, but that is a fable with wild imagination. Mr. Yan Guang could not fish from the top of the mountain, his fishing place must be on the riverside, the legend is called "Yan Lingse", the specific location, well, should be not far upstream, near the current Town of Fuchun River. I think that Mr. Yan Guang cannot live here alone, he must have brought many family members and clansmen, he must buy fields and mountain farms to survive, and he will starve to death by fishing alone. Therefore, the fishing platform here was built by the good people of later generations, so that with the high festival of Mr. Yan Guang, some geographical errors are harmless.
At that time, there must have been many fish in the Fuchun River, and there were many species, such as silver carp and mandarin bream, which was large and delicious. Nowadays, there is a small fish called "Ziling Fish" that is a local specialty, the scientific name is "Chestnut Goby", the dry braised braised pork is delicious, and there are also dried fish in the market that can be bought, which is a good specialty. Mr. Yan Guang moved to Tonglu at the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when people did not fish for small fish, even if needed, they used fine-hole linen nets to catch Ziling fish, dried and mixed with rice crumbs, koji, salt and spices, and the altar was fermented for 100 days before eating. This thing is very famous in the history of Chinese drinking and eating, called "醢". Of course, there is another kind of pickle under the same name, which is made of dried meat. Mr. Yan Guang must have caught a lot of big fish in those years, such as the "Fuchun River Anchovy" that I really wanted to taste during my trip. At the turn of spring and summer, anchovies go up the Qiantang River to Ziling Beach in Tonglu County to spawn, and then no longer migrate, forming a fish flood. However, since the completion of the Xin'anJiang Hydropower Station, the anchovies have not come to the Fuchun River, and last night I had to braise a big white fish with a cocked mouth to eat.
Mr. Yan Guang caught a large white fish, if he is not afraid of trouble, he should use it to grill. The Northern Wei Jia Sixun's "Qi Min Zhi Shu" records a recipe called "Stuffed White Fish", which simply means that the large white fish is cut open from the back, washed and salted for use, the duck meat is chopped into minced meat, and spices such as shallots, ginger, oranges, and fish sauce are added to mix into fillings. Next, the duck filling is fried, then added to the belly of the fish, grilled until it is half cooked, and then brushed on the large white fish with fish sauce, bitter wine and soy sauce, and grilled for a while before serving. Of course, "stuffed white fish" is not a home-cooked dish, with Mr. Yan Guang's crazy personality, I am afraid that he does not have this patience, perhaps he just let his family chop the white fish, add the green onion and leek and other stews, and then eat it with japonica rice and taro rice.
Another question I would like to ask Mr. Yan Guang is: "What is the relationship between Mr. Yan and Liu Xiu?" If I were to guess, Mr. Yan Guang might blurt out: "It's the relationship between an old man and a child!" "There is a historical basis for my speculation. The future Emperor Guangwu of Han, Liu Xiu, who was in his early twenties at the time, traveled to Chang'an to study during Wang Mang's new dynasty Tianfeng and became acquainted with Mr. Yan Guang, who was at least fifty-five years old at this time. The average life expectancy of men in the Han Dynasty would never exceed forty years, so Mr. Yan Guang could be called a high-grade man at that time, and Liu Xiu was a new young man from a small place. Therefore, it is not right in the history books to say that the two of them traveled together to study together, it should be Liu Xiubai Yan Guang as a teacher, at least the two are also teachers and friends. Mr. Yan Guang taught Liu Xiu the "Book of Shang" only superficial content, in fact, Yan Guang should have a very profound impact on the formation of Liu Xiu's personality. More importantly, Mr. Yan Guang was a maniac, presumably he was very famous in Chang'an and had many admirers, and Liu Xiu followed him around and admired him incomparably. It is precisely because of Liu Xiu's admiration in his youth and Yan Guang's profound influence on his life that it eventually led to his crazy search for Yan Guang after he ascended to the pole.
Obviously, Liu Xiu's time to start looking for Yan Guang will not be at the beginning of his ascension to the pole, because at that time the country was divided, he was still busy with conquest, so the earliest time he began to look for Mr. Yan Guang had to be in Jianwu for seven years, after the Longxi Rebellion was settled, at this time Mr. Yan Guang was 72 years old. I've seen 72-year-old writers who are as fit as young as a youth, and maybe Mr. Yan Guang is like that. When the magistrate found Mr. Yan Guang that winter, he was "fishing in a sheep's coat." In that era of ten years of war, in the barren and isolated land of Tonglu, Mr. Yan Guang actually had a sheepskin coat to wear, indicating that his life was not tight. As for his going fishing, first, to find a quiet place to think, second, to improve his life, and third, this sport is the iconic posture of the ancient Chinese gaoshi, the posture of the hermit.
Here I don't want to talk about the story of Mr. Yan Guang, who is already familiar to everyone, and I don't like the far-fetched and even made-up legends. I also don't want to talk about the records in the Book of Yan Guang in the Later Han Dynasty, but I just want to ask Mr. Yan Guang another question: "You are one of the most important hermits in the history of Han culture, and you have a deep influence on future generations." You have compared yourself to your father, so is there any difference between you and Mr. Jiang Ziya? "Of course, this question still has to be asked by myself.
The 72-year-old Mr. Yan Guang was taken to the capital Luoyang by Liu Xiu, and his words and deeds are easy to summarize, that is, "I am not a rare official, I don't want to get rich, and I hate the reputation that fell from the sky; I just want to go home and go fishing and eat taro and beans and rice, can't I?" "The only person who cannot dispose of the powerful and the rich in the world is such a person, who only likes his current life, and does not like the life that the public thinks should be liked." They will say: Whoever likes power and wealth, you go to whomever you want, as long as you don't look for me.
Mr. Yan Guang returned to Tonglu and continued to fish. So, is there anything he can compare with another fishing hermit, Jiang Ziya? There is indeed a comparison, also at the age of 72, Mr. Jiang Ziya believes that he has the knowledge of heaven and earth, just in time for the world to change, out of the mountains to rule the world is a great responsibility from heaven, is his inevitable mission, so he hangs a straight hook on the shore of the Weishui River to fish, in fact, he is "fishing people". And Mr. Yan Guang put on a sheep fur and cast a bent hook to catch, but fished to accompany the meal. Jiang Ziya was born by fishing, and Yan Guang was born by fishing, which are the two basic starting points of China's reclusive culture and the two ultimate goals. Jiang Ziya's method was easy to learn and easy to become, and after two or three thousand years, it was often used by the people of the rivers and lakes and the disciples of the belly and the black, and its reputation was ruined. Later generations of scholars of Mr. Yan Guang are not well documented, because the true hermit is really trying to make himself "disappear.".
To sum up simply, these two roads are good roads, and I am afraid of being distorted.
Author: Ryuichi
Editor: Chen Chen