How old is Xi 'an?

It bears the 5,000-year civilization history of 13 dynasties.

Like a well-preserved thread-bound book,

It records the traditional culture with the most China characteristics.

Ancient historical landscape

Infiltration has cultivated the unique cultural life of Xi citizens.

Even in 2 1 century,

The changing Xi 'an is still full of ancient rhyme and meaning.

Even in petty bourgeoisie's red wine coffee,

There are poems of Tang and Song Dynasties. ...

The sound of clouds can best blend in with the peaceful atmosphere.

Scene 1: City walls and mounds.

Xi 'an is a square city surrounded by ancient city walls, and the walls built by Qin bricks and Han tiles bear the Millennium culture of Chang 'an. Xi people shuttle between city walls every day, just like walking in a deep and long tunnel. People in this world are tired, irritable, narrow-minded and short-sighted. It doesn't matter. Let's quickly climb the city wall, have a look at it, take a walk, look up and sigh, and suddenly there is a noble atmosphere that spans ancient and modern times and time and space, and those trivial grievances and troubles in our hearts will disappear.

When I saw the city wall, I couldn't help thinking of a series of ancient musical instruments with China characteristics: Sheng, Guan, Xiao and Di. In fact, what can really play the sound of the city wall and the soul of peace is an ancient musical instrument called rhyme. Xun was unearthed in Anbanpo site and made of loess. It makes an earthy sound, stiff and muddy. Xi people generally like to blow, especially like to climb the city wall at night. A person blows on the wall like a shadow and a ghost, so many people gather under the wall to listen. It is so profound, mysterious and penetrating that some young girls are scared to cry. The voice of the cloud can best express the character of the Chinese nation and blend in with the peaceful atmosphere.

Scene 2: Calligraphy and painting at the entrance of the Academy and the plaque at the entrance of the North Academy.

Shuyuanmen archway

Xi people usually refer to the academy gate, which refers to the pedestrian street from the forest of steles to the entrance of Guanzhong Academy. The street is paved with bluestone slabs, and there are some antique buildings on both sides of the street. There are many shops in it: those selling lake pens and inkstones, those selling celebrity calligraphy and painting, those selling ancient books, and those making prints ... Every shop is antique. The boss is sitting in the room with his hands in his sleeves, or holding a teapot, or turning two jade health balls in his hand, squinting and never shouting.

Xi people generally like ancient cultural relics and calligraphy and painting. They just walked into the home of an Xi person. They may not have laptops or big-screen color TVs, but they must have some ancient coins, some tiles, some stamps and ancient books, and some calligraphy and painting by Yu Youren or Shilu. When someone decorates a house or moves to a new house, they usually go to the entrance of the academy to choose some famous calligraphy and painting today or rubbings of ancient celebrity calligraphy and painting to decorate. In the homes of many ordinary citizens, banners such as "Reading is a blessing, opening books is beneficial" and "There is a golden house in the book, and there is Yan Ruyu in the book" are hung on the nave.

Among the major cities in China, Xi 'an has the largest number of handwritten bookshops, and the most concentrated place is a street that bypasses the bell tower and passes through the north courtyard gate of the Drum Tower. Shops imitating Tang or Ming and Qing Dynasties on both sides of Shiban Road are dotted with folk handicrafts, traditional daily groceries, various local snacks and various time-honored brands. Shops are no longer humble, and plaques or signs are written by ancient and modern celebrities. Even those snack bears that flow in the streets and lanes, such as mirror cakes, cage meat, candied cakes and rice skin with sesame sauce, are often marked with the words Yan Zhenqing or Dong Qichang on the small wooden boards hanging around the bear's head. The old man selling mirror cakes sheltered from the rain at the entrance of the Drum Tower, holding a plastic bag in his arms. When the rain stopped, the old man opened the plastic bag carefully, revealing a small rectangular board with the words "mirror cake" written on it. Actually, it was written by Mr. Yu Youren. When you ask while buying mirror cakes, the old man talks about etymology, analyzes the romantic school of words, and even forgets to sell mirror cakes. Xi people not only have a hobby of collecting antique calligraphy and painting, but also have the pleasure of reading signboard plaques from door to door, reading tranquility and freshness in the noise.

Scene 3: Yi Sushe and Qi Leban.

In the self-learning class of Qin opera, the actor is the audience, and the audience is the actor.

Xi people along the way from Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang dynasties dare to despise anything. Rock bands from Beijing and Guangzhou come to perform, but generally they don't pay much attention. They think that they have learned Shaanxi Opera and are their grandchildren. They are infatuated with Shaanxi Opera, not because of its original ancient sound, but because of its groundbreaking tearing and roaring, which can best express their soul's longing and trembling. In this city, there are temples on the ground where the emperors' tombs are buried. Yin is more important than Yang. People use the masculinity of Shaanxi opera to make ghosts and gods cry, so as to balance the gloom and ghosts that have been stagnant for thousands of years, thus achieving the balance of yin and yang.

Yi Sushe Theatre, which has a history of one hundred years, has staged the classic plays of the traditional passbook drama "Three Drops of Blood", "My Beauty Case" and "The Butcher and the Champion" day and night. The famous cast on the stage was beautifully performed, and the audience under the stage watched it in full swing. Going to the opera, the public, the theatre and singing for fun have become an important part of life, so countless folk self-help classes have been formed spontaneously. In the hot summer, under the city wall, beside the moat, under the shade of the park and in front of the hutong, impromptu performances of Shaanxi Opera can be seen everywhere. The audience is the actor, and the actor is the audience. Men, women and children can go in and shout. In fact, they all have clear pronunciation and mellow voice, and their level is no less than that of professional actors in Yi Sushe.

Scene 4: Coffee and red wine in Telford Lane

Like other big cities in China, Xi 'an has countless tall buildings, bars, tea rooms and cafes. Most high-rise buildings are concentrated in the high-tech development zone in the southwest corner of the city, while bars and cafes flock to a small street called Telford Lane.

Telford Lane is crowded with bars and cafes.

Like many existing place names in Xi, such as Zhuquemen, Duanfumen, Huajue Lane, Sifu Street, Zhuba City, Sajinqiao and Houzaimen, the name Defu Lane also originated in the Tang Dynasty, and the current buildings are all imitated on the ruins of the Tang Dynasty. The exterior building is ancient, but the interior decoration equipment is modern western style. Most of the people who come here to spend money are rich white-collar workers in high-tech zones and petty bourgeoisie and college students with little money but emotional appeal.

Petty bourgeoisie is also different from other places.

On the surface, the erotic men and women here are no different from other cities: fresh clothes and beautiful makeup, elegant sitting posture, decent jokes, sipping authentic foreign hand-ground coffee, and slowly stirring the ice cubes in red wine with a small teaspoon; Colorful flashing plastic paper on the Christmas tree; Adult toys, such as Italian building blocks, English puzzles and Nine Rings in Taiwan Province Province ... Wait a minute, look carefully, and you will see a thread-bound version of Tang poetry and Song poetry in the shadow of roses. From time to time, a sentence or two of Tang poetry and Song poetry is interspersed in the erotic and elegant vernacular English of men and women: "Raise a glass to relieve sorrow", "It was long before I met her, but after we parted, the spring breeze was weak and flowers were broken" and "How much sorrow can you have?"

Born in such a city, Tang poetry and Song poetry have been integrated into their blood since birth and become inexhaustible classical feelings and daily expressions. Coming out of Telford Lane, these white-collar petty bourgeoisie with gold collars may go straight to Laosunjia mutton paomo restaurant, Laofanjia Chinese hamburger shop, Jiasan soup dumpling shop and Qin Zhen rice skin stall, sit on a long wooden stool stained with oil, and eat a bowl of mutton paomo, a bacon Chinese hamburger, a cage of soup dumplings and a large plate of spicy rice skin in a smoke hood, which is different from other cities. What to wear, what to eat and where to spend seem to be fixed, and there can be no mistakes. Xi 'an's gold-collar white-collar petty bourgeoisie can do whatever it wants, because they are descendants of Qin Shihuang, Han Wudi, Emperor Taizong and Wu Zetian, and have royal blood.

Once a poor man is rich, he is most afraid of others' bad habits when he is poor. What are nobles afraid of? What is expensive is your own civilian consciousness and public consciousness.

Scene 5: Jia Pingwa and others

Xi is a city with heavy yin. There is no image of the sun in Tang and Song poetry with the essence of China culture, but the moon is cloudy and full, and Chinese characters are infiltrated by moonlight. Chinese characters constitute the feminine and complicated China culture, so China culture is feminine.

Such cultural infiltration in such a city has created cultural people who are either half-human, half-immortal or half-human, and writer Jia Pingwa is the most representative one.

Jia Pingwa's living habits and writing habits are quite different from ordinary people. He usually goes out at night. Before writing, he likes to climb the ancient city wall at night, fully absorbing the richness and treachery over the Yin City. That's not enough. He had to fill his study with pots of different sizes and shapes unearthed from ancient tombs. Each pot has a big mouth of Zhang Kuo, and it pours out Yin Qi which has been preserved for thousands of years. In this rich and profound Yin Qi, he was magically inspired, and his writing was like a ghost. His words have the original ancient sound and ancient meaning, and the language is ethereal, erratic and as cool as moonlight. There is still a little ghostly moonlight passing through the ancient city wall. He nourished and infiltrated his wonderful articles with this mysterious Yin Qi, and also cured his serious liver disease with this Yin Qi.

Let writers become stars

In China, only singers and skits who play movies in the entertainment circle can be praised as stars by the public, and writers can only wander around in the cultural or literary circles, which seems to be a rule. Even the influential Wang Anyi, Yu and Wang Meng have left this circle, and no one knows what they do.

But Xi 'an is different. Xi people always don't take the vocals and sketches in movies seriously. They made Jia Pingwa, who wrote pure literature and was ugly, a superstar. Everyone knows Jia Pingwa's name from senior government officials and business owners to street sweepers selling small milk cakes in the bell tower. There is no one who doesn't read his Three Stories of Shangzhou, The Wasted Capital, White Night and White Night. Making a writer a star can only happen in Xi.

Xi 'an also has a little-known person named Li Hongqi (pen name Tang Han). He rented a paper window tile house near Cang Xie Temple (the birthplace of Chinese characters in China) outside the city. After years of hard research, he took out ten thread-bound books, Tang Han Jiezi, which directly challenged Xu Shen's Shuowen Jiezi and Guo Moruo's Oracle Bone Inscriptions.

In Xi 'an, a mysterious and gentle spiritual place, there are countless such strange people. Fishing in restaurants, night markets and moats, I accidentally bumped into a person who is familiar with Zhouyi, studies astronomical phenomena, is proficient in Buddhism and Taoism, and can read fortune. They look serene and well-dressed, and never show their edge among all sentient beings, but they are all superb in skills and broad-minded.

Not leaves, not branches, but roots. Xi 'an is the bottomless root of China culture under this big tree. Come to Xi 'an in the autumn when the leaves are full of Chang 'an! You will feel the profoundness of this root more deeply in peace and cold.