Chapter 27 2. Can small towns and ancient towns save Chinese culture?

I look back at history with my own eyes, looking straight at it and looking sideways, so I can almost draw a very confident conclusion-the so-called relatively specific cradle of Chinese culture is not other places in China, especially not many Chinese people Long considered the metropolis of China.No, not like that.On the contrary, it is the small cities and ancient towns in China, those small cities and ancient towns that have been dotted between the countryside and the big cities for thousands of years. Taking modern history as an example, many of the cultural figures that we respect and shine in the annals of history have all left their childhood and youth in small cities and ancient towns in China.Small towns and ancient towns have inevitably influenced them with their unique cultural heritage and customs.Opening a list that blurted out is indeed a grand sight.Such as Cai Yuanpei, Wang Guowei, Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Mao Dun, Ye Shengtao, Yu Dafu, Feng Zikai, Xu Zhimo, Fei Ming, Su Manshu, Ling Shuhua, Shen Congwen, Ba Jin, Ai Wu, Zhang Tianyi, Ding Ling, Xiao Hong...

This does not include more cultural figures who have always taught in universities, such as Zhu Ziqing and Wen Yiduo; moreover, it does not include painters, dramatists, early film pioneers, and scholars of various cultural disciplines such as philosophy and history. We add points. What I want to point out is that small towns and ancient towns are not only their birthplaces, but also the places where their initial cultural character and cultural ideas were formed.Judging from their later cultural deeds, the initial imprints are very deep. Small towns and ancient towns have virtues in them, and therefore, they also have virtues in modern Chinese culture.

The cradle is the place where people dream at the beginning.Most of them are accompanied by singing, even if it is sad, it is also a song, and it must not be a roar.Often, and not always, it is weeping. Therefore, I think that the four characters of "good virtue carry things" are absolutely well-deserved in many small cities and ancient towns in China.They have "carried" not only objects, but also people, or "characters".When they have not yet become characters, give them cultural nutrition that may become characters. The culture of small towns and ancient towns is compared to home-cooked dishes, which are very flavorful, and are usually marinated with various seasonings; compared to dim sum, the cooking methods are often not sloppy at all, and the procedures are often traditional. , such as cake, a kind of glutinous taste; compared to wine, in the north, it is strong, and it is "white dry", but in the south, it is soft and mellow, so it is naturally rice wine.

On the one hand, small towns and ancient towns are geographically located between the countryside and the city, and as long as they have a peaceful year, they will of course benefit greatly from the nourishment of both urban and rural cultures.Why is a metropolis a metropolis?It is because their umbilical cord with rural culture has finally been broken.If it continues, it will be a big deal.Now that they have grown up, they have gradually developed their own culture.Once they have their own culture, they often turn a blind eye to rural culture.Even if you can still accommodate some, in terms of cultural attitude, it is inevitable that it is already superior.Rural culture thus produces self-knowledge and keeps it at a respectful distance.Small towns and ancient towns are different. They are generally not far from the countryside geographically, and they have always maintained an affinity with rural culture.They do not want to cut the umbilical cord with rural culture, nor do they think it is wise to despise rural culture.Because for thousands of years, many parts of their own culture have long been glued to the rural culture and cannot be torn apart.As the saying goes, the root is broken and the silk is connected. In the northern saying, "Bones are broken and tendons are connected."On the other hand, the small towns and ancient towns are the first place where the business claws of the metropolises will first go, because it is much easier and more convenient than going abroad.It is unlikely that the business claws of the metropolis will go directly to the countryside beyond the small towns and ancient towns that block it from the countryside and achieve the purpose of profit.Driven by commercial interests, they had to have a closer relationship with small towns and ancient towns.Sometimes, one even has to give favor to the latter.So they also brought some of the civilization of the metropolis to the small towns and ancient towns.First material, then cultural.For example, in small towns and ancient towns, the sale of gramophones first appeared, and then some people began to sing popular songs.And young people with knowledge in small towns and ancient towns are naturally yearning for the civilization of the metropolis.Not only longing for material, but also yearning for culture.They are extremely sensitive to the civilization of the metropolis.And only those who are sensitive to things will have sensitive thoughts in their minds.Therefore, an educated young man in a small town or an ancient town is already quite educated and thoughtful before he goes to a big city, and he is more cultured and thoughtful than an educated young man in a big city.Because they are standing on a special cultural standpoint, that is, the cultural standpoint of small towns and ancient towns; in other words, they are looking at metropolitan civilization from a more traditional cultural standpoint.It may be conservative, narrow-minded, or extreme. However, for young people with cultural personality types, self-correction of positions and opinions is only a matter of time.They have self-correcting instincts and abilities.Once they become people in the metropolis, they often have a different cultural experience when they look back at the small towns and ancient towns they were born in.Ancient and traditional cultures and modern and trendy cultural ideas are fermented and combined in their minds, and they are either promoted or discarded, or kept or rejected, and reflected in their cultural behaviors, they are very individual and highlight their characteristics.As a result, China's modern cultural landscape is diverse.What's more, their cultural enlighteners, that is, those school teachers in small towns and private school teachers in ancient towns, are often people who have pursued their lives in big cities. I have experienced the culture of the metropolis.Their ruminated experience of metropolitan culture often feeds the students they teach consciously or unconsciously.

Talking about them, I came to the main point of my short article, which is--in my eyes, the cultural history of our China has been going up and down for five thousand years, from big cities to small cities and ancient towns. There is a naturally formed chain.Century after century, generation after generation, all kinds of cultural people have come and gone. The typical representative is Confucius. His original intention in life was to rely on his knowledge to govern the country and the world. Those who want to "serve the government".If he fails to become an official, he still has a way out, which is to teach and educate people.On the premise that there is still this way of retreat, there are three thousand disciples of Confucianism and seventy-two sages.Most of them later became "students" or private school teachers in the countryside.Moreover, their schools are often set up in small towns and ancient towns that avoid the impetuousness of the metropolis.From small towns and ancient towns, talented people come out in large numbers from generation to generation, and are transported to the metropolis century after century; the cultural stage in the metropolis is never deserted.In ancient China, it was rare for a cultural person to be an official for a lifetime.Taking off official robes is a regular thing.Even if the person who buys an official spends a lot of money, usually he can only buy it for one term.Even those who have been officials until the old age, once they quit their official positions, seven out of ten will not stay in Kyoto, but return home with their families.If the nature of their civilized people has not been completely changed by being an official, and they still want to do something in their old age, the first and most meaningful thing they usually do is to establish education and run schools.Those who have lost their ambitions for official careers are more willing to "sit in a hall" or run private schools for a lifetime.The so-called traditional "local complex" of Chinese intellectuals does not mean that they are obsessed with the countryside, but stick to a period of life in a place close to the countryside that is still beneficial to others and to the nation. human life.In the 5,000 years, at least 3,000 years of history, every dynasty and every generation has clearly reserved this retreat for cultural people.In modern times, the Qing Dynasty collapsed, the Republic of China was turbulent, warlords separatist regimes, wars continued, strong bandits fought fiercely, and lands were lost—even in such a bad situation, Chinese cultural people still have a chance. Strive to do what they are willing to do diligently on the last retreat.

However, in every political movement after 1949, they were unable to achieve even what they set out to do.Whether they deserve to do it or not is a matter of political qualifications.On the one hand, there is an unprecedented need for lecturers and disseminators of knowledge and culture in all parts of China, from big cities to small cities, to ancient towns, to rural areas; on the other hand, many cultural figures and intellectuals were ruthlessly beaten In another volume, they are dispatched or even escorted from the metropolis to their place of origin—that is, the small towns and ancient towns where they received good cultural enlightenment in their youth.The more unfortunate ones were swept back to the countryside where they were born by the times like sweeping garbage.Then came the "Anti-Rightist Movement", and then the "Cultural Revolution". The hometown that cultural figures and intellectuals dreamed of became the place where their bad luck began.But among rural areas, ancient towns, small cities, and metropolises, there are many laws and regulations, and people are not allowed to cross the threshold.

A cyclical chain of culture formed by the natural flow of cultural figures and intellectuals was broken in this way.It is the small towns and ancient towns that have been hurt the most by culture.Once the culture that once brought them a sense of cultural glory is completely destroyed, it seems that they have lost all meaning and value in the human mind. Although the broken jade is difficult to restore, the broken chain can be reconnected. Today, I see with my own eyes that some small towns and ancient towns known for their cultural atmosphere are working hard to weave the longitude and latitude of culture.One day, some contemporary cultural figures and intellectuals, tired of the impetuousness and hustle and bustle of the metropolis, may retreat to their hometowns as they did more than half a century ago.And, in their hometown, try their best to enshrine the cultural landscape with their existence.

Yes, at that time, some small cities and ancient towns in China will probably become the cradle of Chinese culture again, right?