Modern society is a flowing river in which people swim. If you want to stay in a place, you can only become a member of it if you identify with and blend in with the culture there. Otherwise, no matter how you stay, it can only be a post station, and it can only be a rootless duckweed that goes with the flow. Except for strangeness, you won't really blend in.
Xi 'an's cultural identity will not be hindered. As the starting point of China's reunification, its long and rich literature and history have long been known to us. When we enter this city, we just remove them from books and integrate us in time and space.
Starting from the urban area, drive 30 kilometers to the east, and you can climb Mount Li, which is green and dripping and shaped like a fine horse. Here, we met plump beauties. Clouds circled around, and the beauty took a bath. How can she be fascinated? No wonder the majestic Emperor Tang Ming left his beautiful concubine in the palace and used the cave here as a place to meet him. Think about it, how exciting and fascinating it is! If they are ordinary people, it must be a romantic and admirable love story. However, when you went to Majipo and saw the lonely loess, what would you think? I can't help but blurt out the sentence "This love will last forever"! And that compliment, I don't know how enchanting she is, so that Zhou Youwang won a beautiful smile at the cost of her life! These two emperors ruined the country directly or indirectly because of the beauty of women, and even put their own lives on it. Heroes are sad and beautiful. After all, men can't escape the delicate hands of women, no matter ancient or modern, or sages and grass people.
More than ten miles to the east from here is the tomb of the emperor. Here, more than 2,200 years of just visiting condensed into a mound, and this controversial historical giant was buried in it. I wonder if he slept soundly? And I seem to see 700 thousand murders wandering in the gloomy night, and I hear their sad cries. The scene was horrible and creepy. I don't want to stay here and run away quickly. If you can't walk two miles east, it will be a completely different scene. Seeing those brave and mighty soldiers, it seems that the owner of this mausoleum is leading tribes, galloping on the battlefield with the momentum of swallowing mountains and rivers, annexing six countries, unifying the Central Plains, ending hundreds of years of war and establishing a unified China, which has made great achievements for the Han nation and himself. The great man and the devil are one. Man is such a huge contradiction.
For Xi, there is actually no need to go out of town. Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Little Wild Goose Pagoda, Drum Tower, Bell Tower, City Wall ... There are also thick historical thread-bound books in the bustling urban areas. Unlike some cities, because of historical and cultural poverty, fighting for the descendants of Ximen Qing and the hometown of Pan Jinlian, or digging a hole here and putting up a sign there will give a "history" or a monster story. In this "natural museum" in Xi 'an, you don't have to look for it. All you can see is history, every street is a story, and even a relative's palace may be at your feet. In Xi 'an, a "general survey of cultural relics" should be conducted first, because no one can guarantee that this shovel will not give a "forced demolition" to the brother-in-law or sister-in-law of any emperor in any dynasty. It is said that when the Xi 'an-Xianyang Expressway was built, the treasures dug underground were priceless, and it was not necessary to convert them into money. As Xi 'an people said, no one knows how many treasures are underground in Xi 'an. Maybe they'll never see the sun again. That's all right, let them sleep underground, and when we are old, they will become "historical relics", and together with them, continue to connect the historical context underground.
Xi 'an culture is not only embodied in tangible aspects, but also in intangible aspects. It is engraved in the bones of Xi people and flows in their blood.
When I came here from the south all the way north that year, I immediately felt like a wanderer returning home. In fact, this city is very strange to me. Why do I have a sense of belonging? Think about it carefully, it is its cultural atmosphere. Compared with southern cities, it is obviously different. An obvious phenomenon, for example, the commercial street model of economically developed southern cities at that time had begun to take shape, and there were commercial streets selling specialized goods everywhere, but there were few traces of cultural products, while there was a cultural street in Xi' an, which was a colorful spiritual river, swimming here and being infiltrated by thousands of years of civilization; Also, when you walk in the streets of Xi city, there are not only bookstores, large and small, but also small bosses who are busy writing calligraphy! Just at this time, I read the White Deer Plain just published by Mr. Wang here. I was surprised that a great writer and a wonderful book suddenly appeared in Xi 'an, and I couldn't help sighing. Who knows who Li and Wang will be in a few years?
A painter friend of mine in Xi 'an,1graduated from the former Central Academy of Arts and Crafts in the mid-1980s, and originally wanted to stay and teach. When he graduated, he got involved in a fight out of loyalty and was sent back. He was heavily in debt for firing pottery, so he had no choice but to go out to work. I told him that you studied arts and crafts, and it's easy to make money now. He said, er, no, er, part-time job is to earn some money to hold a solo exhibition. He regards working for private enterprises as a kind of degeneration of literati, afraid of being known and laughed at. I went to Guangzhou on business with him. His classmate, an associate professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, has already started a personal decoration company in Shanghai, so he gave up his promotion as a professor. They told the story of fifteen students in the same class, going abroad and going to sea. Only my friend and their other classmate are still engaged in their major, and their classmate has actually become the leader of an art college. His classmates advised him not to be obsessed with pure art, because there would be no hope for twenty years, but my friend was unmoved and persisted. I think this persistence is in the same strain as Xi 'an's traditional culture. You may say that he lacks an economic mind, but if everyone is a so-called "economic mind", from another perspective, isn't it also a kind of sorrow for society and the times?
In the 1980s and 1990s, a group of writers called "Shaanxi Army Phenomenon" appeared in Shaanxi, which was very influential in the domestic literary world at that time. Their characteristics are seriousness, persistence and despair of pure literature. My painter friend took me to visit the compound of Shaanxi Writers Association. He told me that Lu Yao had been writing day and night in a small room in the backyard of this yard. In summer, he put his feet in a basin of water to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. In the morning, he went to the street and bought some steamed buns and pickles as food for the day. It's so long that it's almost fascinating. Looking at the old houses painted by the Writers' Association without external walls, looking at the houses like simple houses where Lu Yao lives, and thinking of their living conditions like Chen Jingrun, I can't help feeling deeply. Only under the influence of Xi 'an's vigorous cultural background can we have this spirit of dedication to culture. When he unfortunately died young, 30,000 people in Xi spontaneously saw him off in the rain. Isn't this a good example? Thousands of years of China culture is rooted in this city, forming a unique city symbol and humanistic spirit.
I don't know how thick Xi 'an culture is. One evening that summer, I sat outside the East Gate to enjoy the cool air and had a conversation with a gentle old gentleman around me. He introduced the city wall in front of me and the ancient capital of thirteen dynasties. Yes, Xi 'an's profound culture is engraved on this generous battlements, lasting forever, and people here will write a new chapter in the new era!
20 12.05. 15