The city of Xi'an
I have lived in Xi'an for 20 years. I dare not say that this city is mine, or that I have given this city something, but 20 Years ago when I was in the countryside of southern Shaanxi, I did have a dream. I dreamed of a not tall but very old tree with a hole in it.
In real life, there are mountains full of woods in my hometown, but I didn’t find such a tree. But when I first became a city dweller, I found it on the street. It’s really , exactly the same as the tree in the dream.
This tree is still growing, and I always look at it once every year. The dead branches have become stiff, and the new branches are as soft as willows.
I often stare at the cicada shell with its cracked back still lying on the trunk of the tree, with its substance gone. , is really neither born nor destroyed, but when did the flying cicada begin and where should it end? So I stopped at the south city building in the late evening sun and listened to the incomplete bricks corroded by the years. In the cracks between the bricks, a group of crickets are singing a piece of music. In a trance, I feel that which brick is me, or I am one of the crickets, looking at the sky thousands of miles away every night, welcoming each new bright moon. And sang happily.
I'm glad that this city is in the west of China, on the vast Guanzhong Plain. In fact, such a city can only be found on the Guanzhong Plain in western China. I couldn't help but sing about this. A local folk song:
Eight hundred miles of Qinchuan are filled with loess, and 30 million people are roaring Qin opera②.
Mixing a bowl of sticky noodles is joyful, and there is no chili.
Such ballads may lack modern flavor, but backwardness does not mean ignorance. The momentum it conveys is not pretentious or vain, but is cold humor and a reflection of the old living conditions. self-examination.
When I sang it, I couldn’t sing it, but I often thought of the tragedy of Kuafu Zhuri ③ dying of thirst on the way to the sea.
Exactly like this, several cities in the south came to recruit me a few years ago, offering excellent and unusual living conditions. I declined, I will not go, I love Shaanxi, and I love the city of Xi'an. .
I was not born here, but I will definitely die here. When my body is burned in the crematorium a hundred years later, and my soul climbs out of the tall chimney along with the black smoke, I will also become a cloud and wander around. In the sky above this city.
The city of Xi'an, the old city's wet dream. When the new cities in the world are increasingly turning into a pile of cement, how should I describe the city of Xi'an? Yes, there is no need to boast that it was once a pile of cement. The history of the capitals of the 13 dynasties is not proud of the geographical location surrounded by eight rivers. They admit that the political, economic and cultural center of China is no longer here. For the prominent Han and Tang Dynasties, it can only be called an "abandoned capital".
But the lovely thing is that to this day, Xi'an is the only ancient city that still retains its grandeur and elegance, and has the most charm of the ancient city in the world.
Its city walls are impressively complete. Standing alone on the suspension bridge over the moat, looking up at the city towers, turrets, and crenellations of the parapets, no matter how timid you are, you will scream with pride.
The streets and alleys are square and symmetrical, and the courtyards and courtyards with brick-carved gates are arranged in an orderly manner. The flower-stone gates downstairs are as dark as iron, allowing you to immediately fall into the ancient Xili with a tall horse driving a wooden cart. Go to the realm you came from.
If you have the opportunity, collect thousands of street names in the city: Gongyuanmen, Shuyuanmen, Zhubashi, Liulishi, Jiaochangmen, Duanlumen, Tanshi Street, Mailan Street, Car Alley, Oil Alley... You suddenly feel that history is not that far away. Even if an unhygienic fly flies before your eyes, you can't help but suspect that this fly has the appearance of the Han Dynasty or the marks of the Tang Dynasty.
Modern art is performed day and night in large and luxurious theaters, cinemas, and dance halls, but under the moss-covered city walls that look like ancient coins, there are always people watching China's oldest cultural heritage. This place has Qin opera, or shadow puppets.
This is not a regular entertainer, they are entertainment after work. Some people perform, and others watch. What is vented by both performing and watching is a kind of pride, and what surges in life is a kind of historical recollection. , so you also understand the tableware in street restaurants. The bowls are so thick that they are called sea bowls.
During the holidays, have you ever seen social operas being performed in the streets and alleys of any city, with people walking on stilts, carrying apricot flags, setting off firecrackers, and beating pure drum music? Zha's dialect, if written in Yiyin pen, turns out to be an extremely elegant word in classical Chinese. When you hug a child, you don't say "hold", you say "carry". If you say "boring", you don't say "boring", even if you curse, go away. Don't say get out, say "avoid".
If you walk into a house in an alley at random, you may be an artist or a worker, a small clerk, or an individual vendor. Their living room must be hung with well-framed calligraphy and paintings, and there must be furnishings on the tables and cabinets. A few pieces of ancient pottery and porcelain.
The understanding of calligraphy and painting and the preservation of cultural relics and antiques have become the basic requirements of their lives.
Men advocate black and white tones, while women like to wear bright red and green clothes, which are simple and elegant, with distinct joys and sorrows.
They use less words and more actions; they like silence and are good at thinking; they admire wisdom and despise slickness; they are overall vigorous and not trivial and sweet.
Xi'an has a large concentration of scientific and technological talents, producing many world-famous mathematicians and physicists. However, there are also a large number of researchers of the "Book of Changes" among the people who observe celestial phenomena, understand geography, and make predictions. , for remote control.
Don’t you dare to underestimate *** The old man drinking alone in a corner of the pub or the old woman with chicken skin and crane head in the alley, they may be geniuses with special skills.
In the early morning vegetable market, you will see people holding tofu in their hands, standing there in groups of three and two, talking about domestic news.
Squatting in the public toilet, you will also hear the most timely content about a United Nations meeting.
Caring about national affairs and looking at the world seems to be superfluous to them, but they have this kind of temperament endowed by the ancient capital.
Hui has become a city symbol.
The entire city of Xi'an is filled with the ancient meaning of Chinese history, expressing a kind of oriental mystery. The whole city is an old cultural relic, but also a fresh symbol of the new.