Xie Lingyun, whose ancestral home is in Taikang, Zhoukou, was the originator of China's landscape poems in Yongjia (now Wenzhou). He promoted water conservancy, encouraged agriculture and mulberry, and promoted education in Wenzhou, and at the same time created a large number of beautiful landscape poems, which had a positive and far-reaching impact on the formation and development of Ouyue culture. We should trace the origin between the Central Plains culture and Ou Yue culture from Xie Lingyun, so that the two cultures can achieve mutual benefit and win in communication and cooperation.
The brand of Central Plains culture on Xie Lingyun and the characteristics of the times
Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, with the continuous integration of North and South cultures, people of that time have been liberated from the dogma of "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", and gradually formed a situation in which metaphysics flourished for a period.
Metaphysics takes Laozi's Taoist theory, the foundation of Central Plains culture, as the mainstream. In the DPRK, metaphysicists paid attention to "governing by doing nothing", while in the opposition, metaphysicians advocated "nature". For a long time, the Tao of Laozi and Zhuangzi became the mainstream culture in the ideological circle at that time. Xie Lingyun is no exception.
When Xie Lingyun was four years old, he was sent to study with Du Ming, a Taoist master in Qiantang (now Hangzhou). The Taoist concept of advocating nature and the beautiful landscape of Qiantang influenced Xie Lingyun as a child, which left an indelible spiritual imprint of the Central Plains culture in his heart.
from the end of the eastern Jin dynasty to the southern Liu and song dynasties, although the trend of metaphysics was as strong as a spent force, until five years after Xie Lingyun's death, Song Wendi established four museums, and metaphysics was still listed as a national study alongside literature, history and Confucianism. Influenced by society and family all his life, Xie Lingyun cultivated a strong Taoist complex since he was a child, which laid the groundwork for the contradiction between "seclusion and being an official" throughout his later life, and also laid the foundation for him to become the originator of China's landscape poems in the future. It can be seen that the origin of Xie Lingyun and the Central Plains culture is not that he chose history, but that history chose him.
Xie Lingyun's thought of "governing by doing nothing" and its practice in Wenzhou
Taoist culture applies the philosophical thought of "Taoism is natural" to social politics and puts forward the political principle of "governing by doing nothing". "Governing by doing nothing" is not passively doing nothing, but adhering to the way of nature, governing the country and governing the people in accordance with the laws of nature, conforming to public opinion, caring for the people's feelings, and letting the people develop themselves and live a peaceful and simple life. Xie Lingyun lived in the prosperous era of metaphysics, and was deeply nourished by Taoism and Buddhism since childhood, and his thoughts were deeply rooted in Taoist philosophy. This point can be found in his behavior and poetry.
Since ancient times, China scholar-officials have always followed the life path of "Confucianism as an official, Taoism as a birth", and "helping the world if you are up to speed, and being independent if you are poor". After observing Yongjia, the Taoist thought of inaction gradually gained the upper hand in his mind.
To explore Xie Lingyun's inaction, firstly, it reflects the tragic complex of China's ancient literati who expressed their feelings for the mountains and rivers and sang about the moon after the officialdom was frustrated, and secondly, it is also in line with the core idea of Taoism, that is, "Taoism is natural". Xie Lingyun's behavior of indulging in mountains and rivers, surpassing the world and being broad-minded, is the recovery and explosion of the original energy of Taoist thought stored in his bones. Because of this energy release, he traveled all over the beautiful mountains and rivers in Yongjia County, wrote many poems describing the mountains and rivers, and gradually broke away from the shackles of metaphysical poems in Wei and Jin Dynasties, thus becoming the originator of China's landscape poems. Wenzhou landscape became the cradle of China's ancient landscape poetry, and became a resort for literati to find the soul of poetry. Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Meng Haoran and Liu Zongyuan all learned nutrition from his works, and many people came to Wenzhou one after another, leaving a lot of poems chanting mountains and water, which made the road of Tang poetry in eastern Zhejiang. After more than a thousand years' development, Wenzhou's landscape culture has gradually evolved into the most important part of Ouyue culture. The long-term subtle infiltration of landscape culture has cast Wenzhou's pragmatic entrepreneurial spirit like mountains and flexible adaptability and flexibility like water, which has taken care of Laozi's philosophical ontology of "Tao gives birth to everything" and life strategy of "being good as water" very skillfully.
It can be seen that Xie Lingyun is really a preacher and practitioner of Central Plains culture in Wenzhou.
The practical significance of the exchange and cooperation between Central Plains culture and Ouyue culture
Since Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty "ousted a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone", especially after the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Confucianism has been able to occupy the orthodox dominant position in the ideological field of feudal society for a long time. The Central Plains region is located in the hinterland of the political and economic rule of dynasties, and its cultural foundation, Taoism, was neglected by the ruling class, and its influence gradually declined, and it retired to the mountains in the form of religion. After a long period of subtle influence, the Confucian thought of the doctrine of the mean gradually controlled the general cognition of people from all walks of life and followed it from generation to generation, and gradually formed a relatively unified value orientation and an indelible "official standard" thought. Coupled with the special agricultural geographical conditions in the Central Plains, agricultural nationalities attach importance to and rely on agriculture, and over time, they have developed into the concept of valuing agriculture over commerce and it is difficult to move their homeland.
The wild land of Ou Yue, which Xie Lingyun once defended, happily absorbed and accepted the nourishment of many cultures, learned from the strengths of many families, and embraced the cultural blending caused by three large-scale population migration and overseas trade in history. It has gradually evolved into the spirit of being practical and daring to be the first in Wenzhou today, as well as the market economy characteristics of "fickle" and "contending" in Ouyue culture.
It is worth noting that the practice of learning Wenzhou spirit in many parts of the country is essentially a phenomenon of cultural feedback. Although Ouyue culture is a native regional culture, it has benefited from the nourishment of many cultures, especially the Taoist culture in the Central Plains. Many connotations of "Wenzhou Model" and "Wenzhou Spirit" are permeated with the potential of Taoist thought. Today, when she is prosperous, it is undoubtedly of great practical significance for the strategy of the rise of the Central Plains to repay the nurturing that the Central Plains culture once had and to transfuse oxygen for the Central Plains culture.
taking Xie Lingyun, the prefect of Yongjia, Zhoukou, as the medium, it is of great positive and far-reaching practical significance to explore the origin between the Central Plains culture and Ou Yue culture, and to analyze and compare the different internal attributes, advantages and disadvantages of the two cultures, so as to promote exchanges and cooperation between the two cultures, fundamentally find out the reasons for the backward economy of the Central Plains and realize the complementary advantages between the two cultures.