Mr. Hou Renzhi's manuscript of "The Founding of the City in Beijing", the relevant archives after the arrest of revolutionary martyr Li Dazhao and others in 1927, the "Map of the Five Cities square lanes of the Beijing Division" during the Jiajing period, a neat old Beijing hutong "original" barbarian gate... These precious historical carriers are all gathered in an exhibition called "Archives Witness Beijing".
Walking into the new building of the Beijing Municipal Archives, it is easy to find this large-scale exhibition that is "enough to see for a day". If you pay a little attention in the exhibition hall, you may also encounter a "docent" who is very knowledgeable and eloquent. He is the curator of "Archives Witness Beijing" and Wang Lanshun of the exhibition hall of the Beijing Municipal Archives.
When it comes to archives, many people's first impression is boring, however, Wang Lanshun often hangs up on his lips is "too interesting"! His "interesting" is to find clues worth exploring in the vast sea of archives, to seek historical truth in the field investigation of walking away, and to excavate vivid details in rescue oral history.
It is the combination of these three that makes Wang Lanshun, the name of the archivist, enter the vision of the general public. He has examined the martyrdom of the Japanese general Tong Linge, and as one of the curators of the large-scale exhibition "Beijing's Hutong Courtyard", which has set a record of more than 600,000 visits, he is also the initiator of the "Internet Celebrity" Shijia Hutong Museum.
Behind these hilarities, he feels that he is more like "a craftsman who carries out engraving", carefully pondering, carving out archival stories worth remembering, and feasting on others.
He wrote about his accumulation over the years in a book, hoping to share it with more people, because they are so interesting.
The exhibition "Beijing's Hutong Courtyard" held at Shoubo attracted audiences to stop and watch.
Share your experience with friends during the hutong search.
1
The big sauce garden is associated with the hutong
In the warm and cold season, in the face of the misty drizzle, I met Wang Lanshun for the first time in the new museum of the Beijing Municipal Archives. I thought that such an authoritative and erudite archival expert would be a little cold, but I didn't expect that he actually greeted the door directly, and did not even have an umbrella.
As we walked into the exhibition hall, we talked about "Archives WitnessIng Beijing". He walked in a furious and fast pace, speaking faster as soon as he spoke, and finished the "difficulty" of curating in three words: "The day before the exhibition opened, I didn't sleep all night. At 6:00 a.m. on the day of opening, the exhibition hall was still a large construction site. When the museum opened at 9 o'clock, visitors came in, and more than 4,000 people visited on the same day. ”
Visitors saw an exhibition covering an area of 1,500 square meters, containing more than 670 archival exhibits, nearly half of which were made public for the first time. These archives are in the form of chronicles, starting from the founding of Yandu more than 3,000 years ago and continuing to the present. The span is so large, Wang Lanshun told the story behind each file, but it was handy.
"Some people say, does your archive have more than 3,000 years of Beijing's archives?" Of course not, but you see, this 1974 Fangshan Liulihe Shangzhou Cultural Site excavation work report, how was the Liulihe Ancient Yanguo ruins found at that time, what was excavated, written clearly, does not reflect the history of more than 3,000 years ago?
"This is the manuscript of Mr. Hou Renzhi's "The Founding of the City in Beijing", which was donated to our archives by his family after his death.
This 1909 "Latest Detailed Map of Beijing" was found from the archives of the Beijing Normal Water Supply Company. The red line on the map is the water pipeline planned by the water company at that time, you see these red dots, marking the location of the faucet, the red dots in the area outside the Zhengyang Gate in the south city are very dense, because there are commercial stores gathered..."
From "Pioneer Camp City" to "Ingenious Dream", we visited the exhibition hall for three hours, Wang Lanshun did not drip water, a Beijing accent is always transparent and calm, and every sentence is full of knowledge points.
Many people can't imagine that Wang Lanshun, who talks about the archives, is actually a middle-aged person who has become associated with the archives. A native of Beijing, he studied exhibition design and advertising planning in his early years, and almost never intersected with archives in the first 30 years of his life. Until 1996, he became a propaganda officer at the Jianguomen Street Working Committee in Dongcheng District.
"At that time, the street work committee purchased a set of camera equipment for publicity work, and I was responsible for making TV news films." Wang Lanshun said that the newsreels provided for broadcast by tv stations are only about a few tens of seconds. In addition, "I prefer to patiently shoot small features, the kind that can still be recalled many years later." "But what about the feature film?" In 1998, after a storm in Beijing, he discovered something different.
That day, Wang Lanshun went to Dongzongbu Hutong to interview and photograph the residents' disaster after the rain, and when he walked to a courtyard in the south of Xikou Road of the hutong, he saw a poplar tree poured in the courtyard and smashed the house, so he casually asked which property right the yard was. Unexpectedly, an old gentleman who was not proud of his appearance said a list of celebrities: "This was originally the dormitory of the Chinese Writers Association, did you see the tree that fell?" In front of the tree was Liu Baiyu's house, on the west side was Xiao Qian's home, on the north side was Yan Wenjing's house, and Zhao Shuli lived in the courtyard..." Wang Lanshun still remembers that the old man listed 20 small celebrities for him in one breath. He was immediately shocked: if such a heavyweight writer is in a foreign country, but every place where a person has lived is a scenic spot, and in our Beijing, so many heavyweight writers live in one courtyard! Later, Wang Lanshun also paid a special visit to Xiao Qian's wife, Ms. Wen Jieruo, and only then did he know that in Xiao Qian's memoirs, "The Traveler Without a Map", there was an article "In the Big Sauce Garden", which was written about this courtyard.
This is just a yard discovered by chance, there are so many stories, how many more such yards are there in Beijing? Driven by curiosity, the streets and alleys of Beijing have since broken into Wang Lanshun's life.
That year, after busy with the daily work of the street, he carried a camera weighing thirty or forty pounds and walked through the streets and alleys of the street jurisdiction, and the courtyards, neighbors, and cleaners in the alleys were all his subjects. Once, squatting and shooting for too long, "after shooting, I felt that my legs and feet were numb and I couldn't stand up." Wang Lanshun laughed, "The workload is very large, but at that time, I really didn't feel tired, I thought it was very interesting." By the end of the year, he had made 17 feature films on Beijing Television alone, most of which were hutong-themed.
Feature films were broadcast one after another, and the residents of the hutong gradually regarded Wang Lanshun as their own. What made Wang Lanshun sigh the most was that the hutong took him into the world of archives.
2
The charm of the archives is peeling back the cocoon
In 1999, Lumicang Hutong in Dongcheng District held a "Lumicang Hutong Present and Past Photo Exhibition". This is the first Hutong History and Culture Exhibition in Beijing, and the exhibition venue is located in the exhibition hall of the Cultural Center in the Hutong, and Wang Lanshun is one of the curators of this exhibition.
In order to plan the exhibition, Wang Lanshun carried a video camera, together with the staff of the neighborhood committee and the TV station reporter, along the alley, door to door to do oral history interviews, asking who lived in each courtyard and what stories had happened. Because he was too familiar with the residents, Wang Lanshun was already familiar with these things, and what he did not expect was that because of the investigation of the history of Lumicang Hutong, he felt the charm of the archives for the first time.
It turned out that in order to ensure the accuracy of the historical materials, Wang Lanshun returned to the archives as soon as he returned. This investigation did not matter, he was stunned at once - the original archival materials such as the household registration questionnaire and the factory questionnaire before the founding of New China were recorded in detail to each house number in the hutong.
"Put the accurate file together with the residents' accounts, and too many interesting things come out at once!" Talking about the first encounter with the archives, Wang Lanshun still can't hide his excitement, "For example, why is this alley called Lu Micang? During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a granary for storing Lu rice, and according to archival historical records, in the past, there were 57 warehouses in the whole plot. ”
In 1912, Duan Qirui founded the Army Quilt Factory in Lumi Cangcang. During the Liberation War, the Kuomintang built the North China Quilt Clothing Revolution General Factory here, but the communist underground organization also broke into the Quilt Factory. These are reflected in the archives. I visited the members of the organization of the underground party in the garment factory at that time, and he told me that when fu Zuoyi did not know that Fu Zuoyi was going to fight peace, the organization assigned them a task, and if a fight really broke out, let them try to cooperate with the People's Liberation Army to open the Chaoyang Gate. ”
The history that lasted for nearly 500 years was finally condensed into a richly illustrated exhibition and more than a dozen videotapes. In 2000, a three-episode series of documentaries such as "Wind and Rain Lu Rice Warehouse" was officially broadcast on CCTV, and the camera was Wang Lanshun.
Wang Lanshun said that at that time, people's understanding of hutong culture was still relatively vague, and many people did not understand him. Unexpectedly, the exhibition and documentary were particularly sensational at the end, not only popularizing the history of the hutong, but also bringing a ripple effect full of positive energy: the newly appointed director of the neighborhood committee of Lumicang Hutong mingled with the residents in the preparation process of this hutong exhibition; the resident units in the hutong made an exception to open the bath and canteen to the residents; Chen Geng, one of the creators of "Long March Song", also lived in this hutong, and in the process of holding the exhibition, the old man took the initiative to participate in community activities and teach everyone to sing revolutionary songs... The historical and cultural exhibition of a hutong actually promoted the construction of the community, which made Wang Lanshun suddenly realize that the charm of the archives is not only in the archives themselves, but also in the exhibition.
Since then, Wang Lanshun has successively planned historical surveys and exhibitions in Zongbu Hutong, Foreign Ministry Street, and Chongwenmennei Neighborhood. Every time, it is indispensable to go to the archives to check the archival historical materials. However, the archives really became the key word in Wang Lanshun's life until 2005.
3
Examine the martyrdom of General Tong Linge
In 2005, by chance, Wang Lanshun was transferred to the research office of the Beijing Municipal Archives. In his opinion, being able to deal with archives all day long, this job is fantastic, it is simply his dream. No, I sent a group text message to my friends, but the reply I received was: "Yes, it is a good place for the elderly." ”
Maybe it was a newcomer, or maybe he was used to the previous full load of work, when he first arrived at the archives, Wang Lanshun really felt some relaxation. But he couldn't stay idle at all, making a list every day, adjusting a bunch of files, sitting in the consultation hall and carefully studying one by one, in his words, "It feels like a conversation with an ex, it's too much fun!" ”
In 2005, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wang Lanshun went through many archives from the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. A file about the sacrifice of General Tong Linge entered his field of vision. This is a file submitted to Nanjing by the Beiping Municipal Government in 1947, which reads: "During the July 7 Incident, the former Twenty-ninth Army lost the battle with the enemy and withdrew to the area outside the Red Gate of Peking University, which is now the third branch of the suburbs of Pingshi, so the command post of the deputy commander of Tong Linge, encountered several times the troops of Kou Mutiankou in Shiliuzhuang, Shijia Village, and several times the day, and as a result of the battle, all of them were loyal and martyred. ”
Tong Linge died in Beijing, one of the senior generals of the Chinese army who died early in the War of Resistance Against Japan. However, for a long time, our textbooks and history books have always referred to him in general terms as "sacrificing in the area of Dahongmen." Wang Lanshun couldn't help but think: In the area of the Great Red Gate, that place is big, where is the detailed location? Isn't the "Pomegranate Village and Shijia Village" here a clue? So he opened the old map, there is a village in the Dahongmen area called "Shicun", which belongs to today's Nanyuan Township in Fengtai District, just northeast of Dahongmen, will this be "Shijia Village"?
Wang Lanshun pedaled on the bicycle, went straight to the "stone village", and when he went to the "village", he was dumbfounded, all high-rise buildings. Stopped an old local resident to ask, the other party wondered, how do you know the stone village? Originally, it used to be a field of crops, but now it has become a high-rise "Hui Shi Xin Garden". Under the guidance of the old residents, I went to the village committee and found some old villagers under the contact of the director of the village committee at the time. When I inquired about Tong Linge's sacrifice, the results were even more unexpected, and some elderly people in the village said that this was not news, many of us had heard of it, but there were not many real witnesses. After many inquiries, a witness was finally found - the old man Jodlin, who was 81 years old at the time. Born in 1924 and 13 years old at the time of the July 7 Incident, the elderly Qiao Delin recalled to Wang Lanshun and his colleagues that the Japanese soldiers came that day, and their families hid in the cellar, and the Japanese soldiers set up machine guns on the roof of their houses, and the bullet casings of the machine guns fell into his yard, and even some of them fell into the cellar. When the Japanese soldiers left, Qiao Delin saw the body of Tong Linge under the yam rack in his own farmland, "the clothes are obviously different from others, and the age is older." The next day, Beipingcheng drove a Red Cross car and transported General Tong's body away, while the other officers and men of the Twenty-ninth Army were buried by the villagers and the Red Cross on both sides of the village dirt road.
Based on the old man's recollection alone, of course, it is impossible to determine the martyrdom of General Tong. After returning from the interview, Wang Lanshun and his colleagues sorted out the interview notes and videos, repeatedly checked the relevant details and some historical materials with the elderly Qiao Delin, and interviewed Tong Bing, the son of General Tong Linge. Archival records, oral history materials, field investigations, all the details match. "Shicun" was the "Shijia Village" of that year. The burial site of General Tong Linge's martyrdom and the burial site of the fallen soldiers of the Twenty-ninth Army who died with General Tong were finally confirmed.
4
Every corner is covered by archival history
Wang Lanshun seemed destined to be idle. This year is the 16th year he has worked here, and he is busy with what this friend calls "a good place to retire".
In 2009, Wang Lanshun took a rare annual vacation to experience the Beijing business atmosphere here in Dashilar Jewelry Market. When I came to the "Qianxiangyi" silk cloth store, I took a job for myself. It turned out that he saw that the store said "Humble Xiangyi 1830", and suddenly the onset of occupational disease began to ask the bottom: What does 1830 mean? Where did it come from? The clerk replied that the earliest history of Qian Xiangyi was seen in 1830, and it was passed down by word of mouth by the old clerks.
When Wang Lanshun heard this, he couldn't help but check the historical materials and found that the "Eight Great Xiangs" including Qian Xiangyi were all in Zhangqiu, Shandong. But are the historical records conclusive? It was during the annual leave, and Wang Lanshun went straight to Shandong at his own expense. Arrived at the old military village of Zhangqiu. With the help of the villagers, a stone stele from the ninth year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty (1804 AD) was found, on one side of which was a floor plan of the ancestral hall, and on the other side recorded the funders who donated funds to build the ancestral hall, including "Hengxiang". Hengxiang is the predecessor of Qianxiangyi. "This shows that the history of Qian Xiangyi is at least more than 20 years earlier than 1830." Wang Lanshun laughed after saying, "What a fun thing, right?" However, no one should be as 'neurotic' as I am. ”
In 2012, the Beijing Municipal Archives and the Capital Museum jointly hosted the exhibition "Beijing's Hutong Courtyard", which attracted more than 600,000 visitors in half a year. In this cooperative exhibition, the curator of the Municipal Archives is Wang Lanshun.
In 2013, the shijia hutong museum, the first hutong museum in Beijing, was opened to the public. Wang Lanshun recalled that the original purpose was to implement the spirit of the "three advances and two promotions" directive widely carried out by the Working Committee of the Beijing Municipal Organs Directly under the CPC, and to help Shijia Hutong, which belongs to the Chaoyangmen Subdistrict Office in Dongcheng District, to hold a hutong history exhibition to promote the construction of local communities. Wang Lanshun has planned many hutong exhibitions, but they are short-term, and they are demolished at the end of the exhibition. Therefore, he asked, can we hold a landing, permanent hutong exhibition? The street office also agreed, and the property rights of the courtyard located at No. 24 Shijia Hutong belonged to the street, and more coincidentally, there was a public welfare organization willing to pay for the repair of this dangerous house. In this way, the renovated courtyard eventually became the Shijia Hutong Museum, which exhibits the history and culture of Shijia Hutong all year round.
In 2017, the new book "Shijia Hutong", published by the People's Publishing House, was published and distributed. As the executive editor-in-chief, Wang Lanshun spent two years, on the one hand, consulting archival historical materials, on the other hand, visiting more than 60 residents, correcting many folk stories of Zhang Guan and Li Dai.
In 2019, Wang Lanshun's new work "Archives and Engraving Flow Years" was officially published. A small book interprets the thick Beijing, including historical and cultural references to monuments such as Zhihua Temple and Rui Wangfu, traceability of beijing's time-honored brands such as Cheap Fang and Liubiju, verification of the past and present lives of old mansions such as "Chaonei No. 81", and of course, it is indispensable to sort out the changing context of Beijing's hutong neighborhoods. In addition, Wang Lanshun, who has been working tirelessly for many years, has also published "Living in Beijing Courtyard" in his spare time, participated in the writing of books such as "Courtyard Beijing", and since 2014, he has been writing columns for Beijing Planning and Construction magazine.
The "Archives Witness Beijing" exhibition, which has recently become a new landmark for Beijing's cultural lovers, has always been Wang Lanshun's wish. More than ten years of experience in flipping through massive archival historical materials has made him convinced that "every corner of Beijing is not covered by archival historical materials." "If you use archival historical materials to show Beijing's more than 3,000 years of city history and more than 860 years of capital construction history, it must be very spectacular." In the past, due to the limitations of the exhibition conditions, it has not been realized. It was not until the Municipal Archives was about to relocate to a new museum that it was necessary to hold an "appearance exhibition" that not only reflected the characteristics of the collection of archives, but also reflected the positioning of Beijing's city, and as a curator, his wish was realized.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, another new historical node. Wang Lanshun, who could not stay idle, began to rely on the archives of the collection and conducted new research in combination with historical materials. He said that many of the party history stories seem to be familiar to everyone, but if you read the archives, you can find many interesting details.
For example, a report by the detective team that captured Chen Duxiu and his evidence recorded that "at about eight o'clock tonight, I saw a man in a white hat suit in the new world, going up and down the stairs frequently, and his clothes were full of puffs" "At about ten o'clock, the person sneaked to the southwest of the fifth floor of the mall... Holding a leaflet, he was about to throw it down..." Arrested by the spies who were stalking here. Chen Duxiu's dress, the details of his actions in the new world, how he was arrested, etc., read this file, it is clear at a glance.
As another example, it is well known that Shao Piaoping, a newspaperman of a generation, was arrested in 1926 and brutally killed by the warlords, but few people know that before that, Shao Piaoping escaped the arrest of the Beiyang warlord government several times with the unique sensitivity of a journalist. There is a file that records what happened in July 1919, when the Beijing Police Department summoned Shao Piaoping, he "delayed his reasons, secretly escaped through the wall", ran to the Liuguo Hotel in Dongjiaomin Lane, and then changed into workers' clothes and fled to Tianjin...
These casual stories are only the "tip of the iceberg" precipitated in the countless archival stories in Wang Lanshun's mind.
So knowledgeable, how did he do it? At the end of the interview, I seemed to have found the answer. In the twilight, Wang Lanshun sent me outside the door, but he returned to the office. He said he would have to look at the archives a little longer. The "interesting" thing about archives is to go out, but first, you have to be willing to sit down and study boring archives in slow work.
(Original title: Wang Lanshun: Exploring "Interesting" Beijing in the Archives)
Source: Beijing Daily Author: Yang Lijuan
Process Editor: L019
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