Chapter 53 Yibian

There are three tones in ten miles.For any place in the distance, Changle people all call it "Yibian", Shuanglong people all call it "Koubian", Tongluodong people all call it "Xi (sound) side", and Maqiao people call it "Yi (Fabian)". Qusheng) Bian”—whether it refers to Pingjiang County, Changsha, Wuhan or the United States, it makes no difference.Those who play cotton, those who collect skins, the devolved cubs and the devolved cadres are all people from the "barbarians".The Cultural Revolution, the war in Indochina, and Benyi’s two years of raising horses in the special agency were all "barbarian" things.I suspect that they have always had a sense of centrality, a kind of inner arrogance and self-confidence.Why do they regard places other than these poor villages as barbarians?

Yi is the description of the surrounding weak and small ethnic groups by the ancients of the Central Plains.Literally, bow people are "barbarians".Why do people in Maqiao think that the prosperous and developed cities beyond the horizon still rely on hunting?Or some tribes who didn't learn agricultural production? A professor of anthropology told me that in ancient China, a hundred schools of thought contended, and only one small school denied that China was at the center of the world, that is, the famous scholars of the Spring and Autumn Period.Even later, some people didn't like famous artists, and they had doubts about their nationality: "Gongsun Longzi" and other strange names, could they be the nicknames of some foreign students or visiting scholars?Mr. Guo Moruo deciphered oracle bones, and believed that China's theory of heavenly stems and earthly branches had been influenced by Babylonian culture.Mr. Ling Chunsheng also guessed that the "Queen Mother of the West" tribe in the ancient Chinese history records is just a transliteration of the Babylonian Siwan (moon god), inferring that there was an influx of foreign cultures long before the Silk Road appeared, and there may be many sources of ancient Chinese culture. miscellaneous.All these have strengthened people's doubts about the origin of famous artists.Of course, for such a behemoth of a country's culture, even if the Gongsun Longzi are really a group of foreign scholars, their voices are still very weak. It is difficult to weaken the cultural arrogance of the Chinese people.The word "Yi" in the Maqiao people reveals their obvious Chinese blood, concealing their contempt and disapproval for anything far away.The Maqiao people's ancestors never considered the advice of the Gongsun and Longzi, and this stubbornness has survived to this day in their language.