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The Yellow Crane Tower, built on Snake Mountain in Wuchang, is majestic and towering, overlooking the mighty Yangtze River and Wuhan's millions of towers. In comparison, the Yueyang Tower in front of me, overlooking Dongting Lake, seems too cramped.
With Dongting Lake as the boundary, Hubei Province is to the north of the lake, and Hunan Province is to the south of the lake. Both provinces belong to the Chu region and are the cradle of the magnificent and magical Chu culture. There are many similarities in the cultural spirit, such as admiration for martial arts and admiration for martial arts. Officials are more sophisticated, while literati are more arrogant. Due to the natural division of geography and administration, the folk customs of the two provinces derived their own lines from the Chu culture. Hubei has many wealthy people and is fond of fighting, so it is known as "the nine-headed bird in the sky and the Hubei guys underground"; while the people of Hunan are curious and litigious, and their overall sense of honor is stronger than that of Hubei, so the "Hunan Army" founded by Zeng Guofan was born. ".
The Yellow Crane Tower in Hubei and the Yueyang Tower in Hunan are also three-dimensional expressions of two cultures. The Yellow Crane Tower is steep and independent, with heroic spirit and clouds; while the Yueyang Tower has a lot of Confucian roots, and the flavor becomes stronger with age, which is consistent with the familiar clear and open environment of Xiaoxiang Night Rain.
Among modern Chinese, as long as they have attended junior high school, there is probably no one who does not know about Yueyang Tower. This is because Fan Zhongyan's "Yueyang Tower" is a middle school text. In the long history, the value of this article should exceed the Yueyang Tower itself. This is exactly the case, so what the two-story wooden eaves building in front of you projects outward is the seriousness of the Chinese humanistic spirit.
In recent years, the contradiction between tradition and modernity has often troubled me. Considering the national economy and people's livelihood, it is undoubtedly very important to cater to the modern trends of the world. However, considering the cultural characteristics of the nation, maintaining tradition is in line with the psychological needs of the people. Whenever I walk in open cities such as Shenzhen and Haikou, I am excited by the thriving prosperity there, but also pained by the distortion or loss of traditional culture there. I know that modern cities are the destroyers of traditional culture.
Tradition is continued by family. Without family, there would be no tradition, and without tradition, there would be no nation.
The family has lived together for generations, there is a family cemetery, and there are stories about the family ancestors. There are old houses where several generations have lived, a few old books passed down from ancestors, and a few pieces of old-fashioned furniture. When you look at these, you sink into the memory of your ancestors, and you feel yourself from the long history. position and responsibilities. As a result, a sense of worry arises, morality arises, love arises, and hatred arises. The West values reason, while the East values emotion, but maintaining tradition is consistent with both emotion and reason.
It is with such a feeling that I drove to visit Yueyang Tower. Yueyang Tower is a piece of history, and history itself is a tradition that no one can erase.
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The huge wood carving in the nave of the hall downstairs is engraved with Fan Zhongyan's popular "Yueyang Tower".
"If you are strong, you can help the world; if you are poor, you can only take care of yourself." This is the Confucian quality of life. Fan Zhongyan wrote this article precisely out of his Confucian embrace. Interestingly, Fan Zhongyan had never been to Dongting Lake in his life. He actually wrote Dongting Lake so realistically. I often tell my friends: Nature is the Tao, man-made is false. This is the same as what the ancients said: "Clear water brings out hibiscus, and nature removes the carvings." Although Fan Gong's articles do not break away from the stereotype of "writing to convey the truth", they are indeed not blunt preaching. In this article, his emotional senses, thoughts and desires are integrated with the vast Dongting Lake. As the saying goes, a husband's spirit and a bright mind.
Continuing from the previous words, Fan Gong has never been to Dongting Lake but he wrote about it vividly. This is a peculiar aesthetic phenomenon. This is what is called "wandering in the mind". The ancients said: A scholar can know the affairs of the world without leaving the house. This is the result of being well-read. Similarly, a scholar can travel all over the world without leaving his house. I often sit alone in my study and do this kind of free spiritual travel. This kind of travel actually applies the various related experiences he has obtained to the objects of appreciation. Fan Gong did not swim in Dongting Lake, but he must have swam in some other large lakes. His lake scene is an analogy. Of course, this kind of analogy shows the difference between genius and mediocrity.
The trend, speed, and gradient of the development of the times determine everyone's position at a given time in history. History has given Mao Fan Zhongyan the position of a demoted official with a strong sense of tragedy. Fan Zhongyan advocated reform. In China, which has a long-standing conservative tradition, it is natural for reformers to be demoted. Therefore, when Teng Zijing, who was also demoted from an official position, asked him to write an article "The Story of Yueyang Tower", he readily accepted the order and left behind an eternal masterpiece.
Speaking of tradition earlier, one of the best traditions of Chinese intellectuals is the “consciousness of worry.” "Every man is responsible for the rise and fall of a country", "If you live high in the temple, you worry about the king; if you are far away from the rivers and lakes, you worry about the people", "I dare not forget to worry about the country when I am in a low position", etc., these words and phrases picked up at hand are all illustrates this point. The word "worry", worrying for the country and the people, has become a strong center of gravity, attracting generations of Chinese intellectuals. From this point of view, Yueyang Tower is not so much a natural landscape. What it gives visitors is not relaxation and prosperity, but dignity and simplicity.
For a long time, I have been unable to get rid of the confusion of the word "worry". Until now, it is still a psychological complex that is very painful to me. Although, it took me four full years to change my Confucian personality into a Buddhist personality. Make time for Buddhist travel every year, burn incense and chant sutras whenever you have time, and replace the word "worry" in your heart with the word "silence". However, once you come to a specific place like Yueyang Tower, you still cannot avoid being a humble person who cares about the country and the people.
Speaking of which, there is still a sense of participation in history. Fortunately, I reminded myself in time not to play the role of "Heaven will send great responsibilities to this person" again. The anxiety and anger that had just emerged quickly subsided.
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I originally thought that Yueyang Tower was built for viewing Dongting Lake. Later I learned that its predecessor was the military parade tower built by Lu Su, a veteran of the Eastern Wu Dynasty, and later became the Baling (the ancient name of Yueyang) tower. In my opinion, the Yueyang Tower poems by Du Fu, Meng Haoran, Huang Tingjian and others should be used as evidence. "Smile before arriving in the south of the Yangtze River, facing Junshan from the Yueyang Tower" is the most direct description. However, when I climbed up to the Yueyang Tower, from the second and third floors, I could not see the magnificent scene of "Steaming Yunmeng Ze, Waves Shaking Yueyang City". It’s not that we can’t see the lake, but that we can’t see the magnificent Dongting Lake in Fan Zhongyan’s paintings. Junshan in the lake is actually accessible by dry road. You can go directly by car during the dry season. It was the dry season when I arrived. Therefore, it is impossible to see the beautiful scenery of lakes and mountains like "a green snail on a silver plate" from the Yueyang Tower.
Being at the top of the building, ready to feast my eyes on it, I feel a little bit regretful.
I also have several scenes of Dongting Lake in my mind: in the clear blue of Yinghu Lake, there are boats moving in, lotus flowers on the face, and lotus leaves on the clothes. The fresh and graceful lotus-picking song, suddenly far and suddenly near, turns the eight-hundred-mile Dongting into a Penglai wonderland with the sky and the sky; if the weather is cloudy, the kind of day where "the wind and rain are like darkness, and the rooster crows endlessly", the nine water flows in, and the lake When the waves are gone, a hunched fisherman walks back on the grassy beach, with a lonely dusk behind him; or after the frost, the grass and reeds on the bank are alternating with green and yellow. The wind and smoke are distant, and the mountains and rivers are of the same color. A meditating monk regards the mirrored cave as his futon in the paradise world.
When I believe in the Confucian personality, I pay attention to the world; when I believe in the Zen personality, I pay attention to nature. Once a person understands the mysteries of nature and realizes the beauty of nature as the Tao pioneered by Lao Tzu, he will definitely not be weary of life because of the honor and disgrace in the world and the gain and loss of everything. He will receive many beneficial revelations from nature. The majesty of the mountains, the firmness of the rocks, the surging sea, the vastness of the rivers, the vastness of the lakes, all the appearances of nature communicate human emotions. As long as the mind can reflect nature promptly and accurately, he must be a rich and noble person.
I believe there are many others who have climbed Yueyang Tower before me without caring about the joys and sorrows of life. Of course, the most famous one is Lu Dongbin, who was praised by the people. He visited Dongting Lake and wrote a poem called Qijue:
Traveling north and south in the morning, the sky is green at dusk, and the green snake in the sleeve is courageous.
Three drunk people in Yueyang didn't know it, and they sang loudly and flew across Dongting Lake.
Fan Zhongyan's joy and sorrow in his heart and Lu Dongbin's green snake in his sleeve are two completely different attitudes towards life. But they all happened in Yueyang Tower and became the two cultural pillars of Yueyang Tower.
