Some time ago, I came to a village called "Cixi" in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, surrounded by mountains on all sides, lush trees, just in the winter snow, wrapped in silver. A small stream trickles through the village, and when you push the door to get out of the car, you can hear the clear sound of the stream. A student who has just arrived here can't help but sigh: "This sound is so healing!" ”
Cixi Village, Zhejiang Province after the snow
In today's modern society full of uncertainty, healing is particularly important and precious. International conflicts, social problems, internal pressures ... All these cause negative psychological problems such as anxiety and loneliness of social groups. The mind is so tired that it wants to "emo", to "lie flat", to adopt "non-consumerism". In this regard, "healing" may be a cure.
From the perspective of spiritual healing, the word "healing" originated in Japan. At the end of the last century, Japan experienced a process of bubble economy from climax to bursting, social over-materialization, the pressure to survive increased sharply, and even the book "Complete Suicide Manual" was published, which became a bestseller in Japan in the 1990s. In 1999, the "Healing Department" music appeared, and then a large number of "Healing Department" cultural works were produced and swept through Japanese society.
These "healing" cultural works are often set against the backdrop of rural life far from the bustling and noisy cities, such as the healing film "Little Forest" directed by Junichi Mori in Japan, which tells the story of the protagonist's life of escaping from the city alone and living leisurely in the countryside. In other cultural works set in urban life, there are also value trade-offs that are consistent with the perception of rural life and spiritual pursuit.
It can be said that the countryside has its unique healing properties, embodied in the natural beauty and cuisine of the countryside, abstracted in the rural customs and folklore passed down from generation to generation.
Aerial view of Cixi Village, Zhejiang Province
Beauty and gastronomy are a direct perception of the healing nature of the countryside. The Tang Dynasty poet Wei Yingwu has clouds in the "Jian Lu Zhi": "The stream tree contains the morning rain, and the mountain bird is in the spring." I have a scoop of wine to soothe the wind and dust. "The beauty is not unique to the countryside, but the city also has its beauty and charm. The countryside is more of a natural beauty, a quiet beauty, a harmonious beauty. In urban beauty, people are the subject and the author of urban beauty; in rural beauty, people are objects and are the composition of rural beauty. Su Shiyun: "The Yangtze River goes around Guo Zhiyu is beautiful, and the bamboo and mountains are fragrant." "The cuisine of the countryside and the beauty are inseparable. Fish and sheep are fresh, sheep are beautiful, not artificial, not twisted, eat in season, full of the smell of fireworks, enough to comfort the wind and dust.
The wild vegetable knots and dipped water surfaces in Yuanjia Village, Shaanxi Province, are authentic Guanzhong delicacies
Rural customs and folklore are indirect experiences of rural healing. Simplicity is the highest praise for the rural style of a place, which lies in treating people with truth, treating people with courtesy, without a word of humor, without hypocrisy. The Song Dynasty philosopher Zhang Zai said: "The people, my compatriots; things, I and also." The countryside is precisely this kind of "pro-benevolence and love for things" rural style, which is intrinsic and natural, rather than external and contractual, pushing love to all things. The traditional folk customs of the countryside have been continuously created, shared and passed on by generations of villagers, and are rare cultural treasures. In the spring festival that just passed, relatives and friends were reunited, and firecrackers should be set off Chinese New Year's Eve and pasted on the Spring Festival, so as to drive away the new year beasts, so it is called "Chinese New Year's Eve night". If there is no such traditional folklore, there will be no rich "New Year's taste".
Not long ago, the Lantern Festival in Yuanjia Village, Shaanxi Province, was held
At first glance, I don't know what I like in the painting, but then I see that I am already a person in the painting. Whether it is the figurative beauty and cuisine, or the abstract rural customs and folklore, the healing nature of the countryside needs us to discover, to realize, to see more, not only the pastoral picture of the mountains and rivers, but also to slow down to listen to the sound of the stream, in order to truly feel.
The author, Zhao Pingguang, is a research assistant at the Institute of Cultural and Creative Development of Tsinghua University, and the article was originally published on the WeChat public account of the "China Cultural Exchange Association".