Huzhou: the place where the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal passes.

Huzhou, where the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal runs through. I want to see what this once prosperous ancient land has become.

At six o'clock in the morning, I opened the window and walked on the terrace above in my coat. Compared with the temperature shown in the weather forecast, the temperature is higher than expected. It's almost dawn, and the sky in the distance is fish-belly white. The dark outline of the house is the last darkness before dawn.

The noise in the street is like the rustle of a radio suddenly turned on, surrounding people. On the left is the broadcast of the "Double Eleven Limited Time Special" in the small commodity market, and on the right is the crying of the children in the Taekwondo training class.

Melodious harmonica sounds came from the square below.

First, the lake pen is good: does "eternity" really exist?

Shanlian, a small town once famous for making lake pens, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal passes through the town, bringing smart charm. A hundred years ago, every household along the street made a living by making pens, which could earn several times more than farming.

Now, walking into the oldest street in town, there are all kinds of mother-baby stores on both sides.

"Wow, the decoration outside that building is beautiful." Walking in the old street, I suddenly noticed that there were carved windows on the building, layered on top of each other. Every family is different, and the patterns are numerous and regular, without losing their articles of association. It must have been around for a long time.

"That is a new installation. Don't you see that they are all aluminum alloys? " The big brother who made the pen ruthlessly interrupted my fantasy.

An awkward silence.

From prosperity to desolation, old memories come back. Crowded with people, it becomes ice charcoal.

There is a shop called "Shiji Noodle Restaurant" on the old street, which deals in Huzhou's special wonton. When eating wonton, I heard from the boss that their parents and grandparents both set up shops in the street, and half of the wonton skins in Huzhou city belonged to their family.

Romantic people always look forward to eternity in their travels, just like the cathedral and obelisk in the holy city of Rome, like the poems written on the stone spire houses in Alberto Bello village, like the people in red cloaks and the roaring herds in Masai Mara. But is there really something eternal in this world?

This is an ancient town famous for its pens since the Yuan Dynasty. It has an epic glorious history-"If you shake hands with Yutang, don't hesitate to ask for a pearl." The ancients took their daughters to Huzhou for a writing brush.

In the small town of Hubi culture, we saw the ancient method of making Hubi. Although pen makers live in specially planned antique buildings, they are scattered in various shops as a family. The front hall is a showcase of all kinds of brushes, pen containers and inkstones, followed by a small pen-making workshop.

Very quiet-except for an occasional rhubarb dog, the street is quite quiet, and the hearts of pen makers are also quite quiet.

The ancient method of making tiger skin is divided into eight major processes and more than 120 minor processes. The big brother who makes pens said that in Jiangxi, which is also famous for making pens, each pen maker can make a pen from beginning to end, and each person can make hundreds of ordinary brushes every day, while the pen makers of Shanlian are only good at one craft all their lives.

The material of pen, Puton, basin, knot, sleeve, inlay, pen selection and lettering, each process has different descendants.

Brand-new and shiny things, such as the brush in the gift box of ordinary stationery stores, are placed in a conspicuous position, carved with golden characters and decorated with various decorative patterns and lines-cheap and rough wood is their base material.

Irregular patterns, quaint curves and dull colors on those pens are unobtrusive and subtle, and they are sincere when hitting the floor, symbolizing the wear and tear that can withstand years of use.

"At present, most calligraphy training classes teach simplified Chinese characters, and relatively thin brushes are not suitable, so most of them are brushes produced in batches in Jiangxi, and they are often changed.

"Maybe students can write a fairly beautiful word after practicing for a few months, but the simplified Chinese characters lack changes, so it is difficult for students to continue to improve. None of the words written by ten people are different. This can't be said to be a' good' word, and the potential has been invisibly killed. "

The big brother who made the pen told us.

The aunt at the door of the pen factory is making a "basin" by herself, soaking the brush hairs in the basin again and again to remove the miscellaneous hairs. We wanted to go up and experience it, but our eldest brother stopped us:

"Be careful not to touch the water. This process is the most complicated. There are many chemicals in the water, which will corrode hands. People who do the' water basin' process are used to it. "

When I left the town, I couldn't help thinking of the sentence in Flying Westward at Night: "There are many kinds of silences in the world, and each silence has a different meaning." If the time spent alone has made people form the habit of silence, why is the temperature still passing on the pen tip?

The scenery has changed, but people's local nature still exists. Let time carve your eternal face.

Second, bamboo forests and rivers: the time of stillness

I heard that the Datang Gongcha Courtyard in Huzhou is very famous, so I drove to the nearby Guzhu Village.

At the moment I got off the bus, I seemed to have an illusion: I walked into a lively market, not a village, but the sound of selling, which was very similar to the vegetable market I visited with my grandparents in the morning when I was a child.

Grandparents come and go in an endless stream, and everyone carries two or three bags of local products in their hands. Yes, they came from Shanghai on holiday with a tour group.

According to people in the village, there are more than 400 homestays and farmhouses in Guzhu Village, and almost every household has built three or four-story buildings, decorated with wooden fences, climbing vines and wooden doors.

A few hundred meters further up, it is Datang Gongcha Courtyard. Burned down in the 1930s, the green pavilions and pavilions in the bamboo sea are now reconstructed according to historical materials.

Thousands of years ago, there stood more than 100 bakeries and more than 1000 tea makers here. Literati in the Tang Dynasty carved stone carvings on cliffs, and horses galloped to the capital with tea on their backs. The newly built cement road conceals the old rut that has been repeated for many years in the Spring and Autumn Period.

As a scenic spot, Gongcha Courtyard is surrounded by mountains and waters. Although it's already afternoon, without the fairy spirit of Shan Lan in the morning, we can still feel the charm of the prosperous Tang Dynasty from the majestic mountains and rivers in the pavilions.

So we drove into the mountains. There is a stream in the valley, which has dried up, revealing uneven gravel at the bottom. Summer should be a flowing water, carrying lush bamboo-so there is also a nice name, "Jiangpai Village".

Walking through many villages in China, I stopped making a fuss about what I saw: three or four-story European-style buildings with high walls and iron gates, which were as imposing as villas in the suburbs of Shanghai.

However, there is no one in this village. It was clearly Saturday afternoon, and the dense bamboo forest blocked the sunshine, which was cool and comfortable. But instead of the children's frolicking, the geese flapped their wings and stared at us viciously.

Electric cars and cars roared by, and only one stopped in front of a slightly old house. The middle-aged man in a suit and tie is helping the old man cut wood-he probably doesn't even have time to change clothes. There are no street lamps in the mountains, and he has to continue his journey before the sun goes down.

He Xuefeng pointed out in The Last Kilometer Village that the typical villages in the central region of the Yangtze River Basin are "scattered villages". Every household lacks the ties of clan and blood, acts independently, and travels all the year round because of business tradition. The only thing that can reflect their local imprint is probably the villa in the village.

"They built such a nice house, why don't they come back to live?" Asked the lady in the same trade. She doesn't think it's the same as the imagined countryside-Chai Men's light smoke, rural farming, criss-crossing paths and people chatting under big trees, instead of mixing the styles of farmhouses and modern buildings.

"Because it is not built for permanent residence. People who come out of the countryside have a complex, and they are proud of returning to their hometown and wearing clothes. So when they developed in the city, they went home to build a big house. The bigger and more imposing, the more they can show their presence in the village, and it is also the only way for them to keep in touch with their hometown. "

I said, "So, this is the country. Peeling off the shell, you can still see the spirit and temperament of this country. Rural people are attached to the land because their roots are in it. In the city, who do you see lingering on a piece of land instead of moving to a more luxurious location once you have money? "

Just like the author's mother in Skin, her husband died of disability and her son is still in college. Even when I learned that the government was going to demolish the building, I managed to build a four-story building. She said, "No one here has built it to the fourth floor. When we do this, we will really stand up. " The purpose of building a house is "to have a home in this life."

In Jiangpai Village, time stood still. The firewood flies away, but the outline of "home" is fixed in the quiet bamboo forest and clear stream.

Third, the new town and ancient town: this is a life worth living.

The last stop is Nanxun and Xinshi, two ancient towns in Huzhou.

At dawn, we came to the new town. It is said that it was once the largest water pier of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and it is known as "Millennium little shanghai, Broadway in the south of the Yangtze River". Nowadays, even if three people walk side by side in the street, they will feel a little embarrassed.

On the edge of the old bridge, a big brother is sitting on a small bench knitting bamboo art.

Go to the water, there is a teahouse. The owner of the lake pen shop reads a book while making tea.

There is a tea cake shop next to the bridge. At first glance, I was attracted by the four characters of "century-old shop" hanging on the house number.

Generally, a shop that claims to be a century-old shop will always be antique in store decoration, and there are some calligraphy and paintings that I don't know where they came from, but this shop is different. Apart from the word "century-old shop", there is nothing, even the facade is very simple-a tray, a few freshly baked tea cakes and a stack of business cards.

"The production process of this kind of tea cake has been passed down for 400 years. We have been here for more than 30 years. " It's a shop run by a couple. They seemed to see my confusion and started talking.

Tea cakes originated in the Southern Song Dynasty. It was originally a snack that people ate with tea while listening to books and watching plays. Nowadays, there is no place to listen to books and watch plays. The cultural center in the ancient town is filled with traditional folk customs and famous paintings such as brick carvings and eggshell paintings, which are hidden in the attic. Most tourists abandon it because of the trouble of going upstairs.

"There are very few tourists coming, mainly people who live. The mutton over there is very good, and it is also an old shop. You can try it, and there are many ancient bridges and temples worth visiting. " Big brother enthusiastically showed me which direction to go and what to see.

The ancient town is also home to titles such as Linjiabao in the Year of the Sheep, Silkworm Flower Girl and CCTV Spring Festival Evening. Walking by the river, residents wash clothes below, and the old man leans on the rattan chair to bask in the sun. Blinking means pressing the shutter once.

"This is a life worth living."

Fourth, scholarly Nanxun: On the river of time.

Leave the new town and go to Nanxun in the afternoon.

If you just look at the information on the Internet, you may regard it as a commercial "fake" ancient town because of the label of "five-star scenic spot". But when you really walk on the plank road next to a hundred buildings, you may have this idea:

"Compared with villas in the mountains, this is what rural areas in the south of the Yangtze River should look like."

Behind the rows of buildings, there are large vegetable fields, radishes, sweet potatoes, and embroidered brocade, a local specialty. Interestingly, embroidered brocade only grows within ten miles of Fiona Fang in Nanxun, but not many people continue to plant it now.

Baijianlou was originally built by Dong Dong, a senior minister of the Ming Dynasty, after he retired to Nanxun. In order to accommodate 65,438,000 ladies-in-waiting accompanying his grandson when he got married, 65,438,000 buildings were built by the river.

Triple firewall, arched portal, water column roof and water in the river reflect the years when the boat sailed in the pond.

"In the past, we often went out by boat. When we went shopping, we rocked the boat to someone else's shop. They hung vegetables in baskets and rocked their boats to Shanghai. It took two people three days to arrive. " The boatman shook the boat and said. He is 59 years old and will be able to retire with peace of mind in a few years.

People who live by the water don't paddle, but paddle, just like a fish wagging its tail. Paddling without water is more labor-saving than rowing. The boatmen just use their bodies to fight against the river and "shake" the ancient road of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in this side of the water.

If the new town is filled with the old lively atmosphere, you can smell the book fragrance in Nanxun. The history here is written in architecture.

As early as the Tang Dynasty, Huzhou was known as the "Hu Si", and the Maritime Silk Road opened in the Ming Dynasty began in Hu Si. In the Qing Dynasty, Huzhou people called some wealthy businessmen who started from Hu Si "four elephants, eight cows and seventy-two golden dogs", and their houses are still well preserved in Nanxun Town.

Liu Yong's Xiaolianzhuang and Chen Xiong's Cherry Blossom Garden both have their own study and courtyards, which are used for poetry and painting. Forty-five stone carvings in Wisteria Collection and Plum Blossom Fairy Collection, and Shi Mei Map by calligrapher Wang Li all left their own elegant demeanor and marks on Nanxun architecture from generation to generation.

Perhaps this is the spirit of "Confucian businessmen" in Jiangnan. No matter whether you have read a book or not, you always attach importance to the cultivation and edification of culture and make it a family tradition.

I thought it was just nonsense from history textbooks and academic circles. I didn't expect to really go to the old homes of these rich people before I really realized the cultural atmosphere of "cultivate one's morality first and then start a career".

End of movement

"The valley of Jiangpai Village, the cakes in Xincheng, and the fishing lights in Nanxun. I seem to miss it, just like I miss an old friend. "

Of all the scenic spots in the world, the warmest thing is to watch the fireworks all over the sky, the jingling bells under the eaves, the fishermen by the river putting away their fishing rods, and the people on both sides of the strait lighting up before leaving. Even the magnificent sunset on the grassland, the colorful cherry blossoms on Goushan Mountain and the excitement of positano seaside cave bars are not enough to compete.

No word can replace "warmth".

A cup of tea in the ancient town is a passage on the ancient Zhushan Mountain. The restless heart gradually calmed down.

A three-day trip is more like a short trip home for a traveler.

What is a real village? Some people say that "the earth" and "primitive people" are "villages". When I first arrived in Xiangxi last year, I thought that the village that could only travel by car and boat for half a day was called "Village".

But these descriptions are only superficial. It turns out that China is really big. Some villages are isolated after six hours' walk, some are less than twenty or thirty kilometers away from the city, and even hide in the city. People who live in different parts of the world have no different local nature.

As Tao Yuanming's classic poem said: "Building a house depends on human feelings, and there are no chariots and horses. What can you do? The heart is far from being biased. "

"Village" is different from "township". The latter is a concept based on modern economic model, productivity, population and many other factors, while the former is the foundation of China people's cultural tradition for thousands of years, the condensation of homesickness, and the attachment to human feelings, culture, market, skills, old rural appearance and lifestyle.

As long as these attachments are still there, as long as the land is still there, as long as this heart is still facing, it is the old forest and garden where birds, ponds and fish are homesick, and there will be a home in this life.

After dinner, in a short time, the music of the square dance is over, and there will be harmonica music. Looking for the source of music Walking in the lights of Nanxun, orpheus's golden harp can't call me back.

There is no bridge in the farthest place.

The most beautiful scenery can't be shared.

The deepest feelings do not wait for a response.

Because we're leaving

Not to arrive