Caption: Magnificent Wushan
Wuxi, Wushan, in the mountains and rivers, endless life
, it's old.
Leaning against a wooden chair, I sat down for an afternoon, facing the direction of the distant mountains.
There are cats, dogs, and loofah vines climbing along bamboo poles, and a few small yellow flowers are dotted on the green trellises.
The girl's hair was gray, and she no longer had the once dark braids, nor the dimples that had once been round. Of course, the girl can't be called a, she has become an old lady, just like a young man, she has become an old man.
Or call it Yatou, in front of thousands of years of Ningchang, Yatou, will always be Yatou.
The children have moved to the county seat, and the wife has been dead for many years and is buried on the opposite mountainside. Yatou only wants to live in the ancient town, sitting every day at the door of the hotel that he used to run with his grandfather, watching the spiders on the wooden board hanging silk threads, flicking and flicking.
If the silk thread is looming, it is also broken and connected.
Just like the history of this Ning factory, it seems to be inextricably linked, but the context is always clear.
Like this criss-crossing salt road, it looks like a broken tile, but it is always closely connected.
Magnificent scenery of the Three Gorges of Wushan Mountain
Finally, I have to talk about the mystery and infinite continuation behind this thousands of years of salt witch culture.
I have already said too much about the splendor of salt witch culture, which is epic touching and thick, which is the origin and continuation of civilization.
But in the end, the salt stove was extinguished, the salt road was disappearing, and the house chimney was collapsing, but this collapse made the Ning Factory rise in another way.
The demise of the material level has achieved the sublimation of the spiritual level.
So in the front, too many quotations, assumptions, or arguments have been made, including the elevation of this salt road to the height of the great passage of civilization for worship.
But worship is not blind, "bold assumptions, careful verification", is based on breaking the conventional argument, is the rigor after respecting the facts, is the consciousness and self-confidence of culture.
Therefore, this babbling salt spring, the long salt road, brings us endless thinking.
Thinking, let's continue to start with Ningchang.
Originated from The Ning Factory, and higher than the Ning Factory.
Ningchang is quiet, quiet place, suitable for thinking.
Ningchang is noisy again, and when it is noisy, it is even more necessary to think.
By the back stream in front of the salt spring, find a smooth stone, sit down, and continue to think about some topics.
The magnificent Goddess Peak of Wushan Mountain
First of all, let's talk about the supreme honor of Wuxi and Wushan, which share the birthplace of Witch culture.
Of the more than 2,000 county-level cities in the country, only Wuxi and Wushan are named after "Wu", which shows the origin of the two counties and the fate of the two counties.
This kind of fate began in the ancient Wuxian Kingdom, from the Yuyi Wu County of Xia Shang Zhou, and from the "Qin Li Wu County". In that year, in 227 BC, King Zhaoxiang of Qin took Chuzhiwu Commandery (楚之巫郡) and gave it to Qianzhong Commandery (黔中郡) and established Wu County, which included what is now Wuxi and Wushan. After the unification of the Six Kingdoms by the Qin, the county system was implemented, and Wuxi belonged to The South County. In the fifteenth year of the Eastern Han Dynasty (210), Wuxi was separated from Wu County and was set up as Beijing County. In the third year of the Sui Kai Emperor (583), Jianping County was established, and Wu County was renamed Wushan County. In the subsequent dynasties, the administrative management methods were different, and the two places of Wuxi and Wushan were also divided and merged, and they were divided into different administrative jurisdictions.
This process has been said a lot, and it is mentioned again because the foreigners who have come to the two places today often call Wuxi Wuxi Wushan, and often call Wushan Wuxi Wuxi. In fact, it does not matter what they are called, what is important is that they are all surnamed "Wu", and the administrative divisions cannot be divided into thousands of years of love.
The mountain is yang, the stream is water, the water is yin, and the yin and yang are one, which is a complete whole.
This is one of the core ideas of Witch culture, in the cultural connotation of respecting heaven and earth, opposition is the table, and integration is the essence.
Wuxi and Wushan, how can they be separated?
What cannot be separated is the interdependence of mountains and water, the mutual trust between mountains and water, and the sympathy of mountains and water.
What cannot be separated is the unity of the opposites of yin and yang, the interdependence of yin and yang, and the harmonious blending of yin and yang.
This fate is to thank the ten great wizards represented by Wu Xian, who created the witch culture of "animism" and "harmonious coexistence between man and nature", and created a mother culture of yin and yang opposition and unity, which has remained unchanged for thousands of years.
A Treasure Source Mountain, a pool of salt spring water, flows into the Daning River and joins the Yangtze River.
Wuxi, Wushan, in the mountains and rivers, endless life.
The mouth of the magnificent Wushan Gorge
In the face of this immutable change, we have to ask a second question: Since witch culture is a maternal culture, why is it now regarded by the secular eye as a manifestation of feudal superstition?
The evolution of witch culture has been elaborated in detail in the chapter of "The Mystery of the Salt Witch", and it is only briefly sorted out here.
Earlier, Wu was a person involved in the political management of the country, such as Wu Xian, who was both a great wizard and a tribal leader; for example, Qu Yuan, who had served as a Chu official and was also in charge of internal and foreign affairs, and some studies pointed out that he was a wizard. By the time of the Spring and Autumn Dynasty, ordinary people still believed in the legendary records of the gods of the ancients. For example, the legend "Four Sides of the Yellow Emperor" is a typical theory of witch culture in which people and gods are combined, and today's Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum is also a statue designed according to this saying. People in Confucius's time all thought that the Yellow Emperor was a half-human, half-god figure, but in the Analects Confucius interpreted the mythical "four sides of the Yellow Emperor" as "the Yellow Emperor sent four ministers to divide the four sides." Confucius deleted the classics and constructed Confucian teaching materials; Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty deposed the Hundred Schools and respected Confucianism alone, making the Spring and Autumn RamOlogy the most obvious Confucian doctrine.
The Han Dynasty became an important period of change in the development of Witch culture.
Since then, the primitive witch culture has existed in name only, witchcraft has become increasingly evil, and witchcraft has also decomposed in many directions. During the feudal dynasty, many palace coups were mixed with traces of witchcraft, so the ruling class began to "talk about witchcraft".
The wheel of history has advanced to today, science and technology are highly developed, many phenomena that cannot be explained in the early human culture have been scientifically expounded, and some of the "witchcraft" in witch culture have lost their living space.
In fact, any culture is not static, always developing in change, and changing in development; at the same time, any culture has both essence and bad, and culture itself is not "good" and "bad", but how users understand and use it.
In particular, as a juvenile culture, a maternal culture, and the origin culture of the period of human ignorance, witch culture has its supreme glory and inevitably has various limitations. The scientific view of culture cannot be excessively exalted, nor can it be arbitrarily suppressed. Removing the false and preserving the truth, discarding the dross, and retaining the true meaning are also a kind of cultural self-consciousness and self-confidence.
To study witch culture today, it is necessary to sort out this cultural phenomenon, sort out its essence, and remember the shock and emotion it has brought us.
This shock is a continuation of thousands of years of glory.
This kind of touching is the power of thousands of years of civilization.
Of course, it is not only witch culture that brings us this kind of shock and touch. In the Three Gorges, in the heart of China's territory, the study of witch culture must be accompanied by salt culture.
Magnificent WuShan
Then we have to talk about the third topic, which is about the relationship between "salt" and "witch".
Let's continue to repeat the three views of the historian Mr. Ren Naiqiang in "Speaking of Salt":
One is the area where salt is produced, or the area where the supply of salt is convenient, is the area where human beings are happy to live; the second is that salt is the first commodity to promote commercial development; and the third is that human culture is always the first to develop in the salt-producing place.
In the Vast Salt Road, in the Three Gorges, and in the Baoyuan Mountain of Ningchang, Mr. Ren's views have been confirmed by thousands of years of inheritance; with Mr. Ren's views, all the glory and magic have been reasonably explained.
From the beginning of the crustal movement hundreds of millions of years ago, to the uplift of the Three Gorges from the ocean to the land, to the first spring of salt water discovered and utilized by human beings, to the ancient kingdom of Wuxian, the salt capital of the Tang and Song Dynasties, the glory of the Ming and Qing dynasties, until the extinguishing of the last stove fire on the 29th day of the 29th month of 1996, salt, became the whole time through this region.
Like salt, which has been used by humans, there is also witch culture.
A material level, a spiritual level, has been with the people of the Wuba Mountains for thousands of years.
Salt, because of witchcraft, is given a deeper connotation.
Witches, because of salt, are more widely spread.
"Salt" and "witch" depend on each other and achieve each other.
This salt is the salt of The Baoyuan Mountain, and it is also the salt of the entire Three Gorges; this witch is the witch who came out of the Wuxian Kingdom, and it is also the witch who came out of the Three Gorges.
Academic research can neither be narrow nor arrogant.
Wu salt is not just talking about the salt of Wuxi Baoyuan Mountain, but represents the salts of the entire Three Gorges, and more importantly, "Wu" and "salt", the culture of spiritual and material coexistence.
I also have to talk about the issue of cultural evidence.
There are too many good things to say about Ningchang, but many materials lack more detailed cultural evidence, after all, the argument of history and culture needs historical relics in addition to the records of classics.
There are two main reasons for the lack of historical artifacts:
First, the special geographical location of Ningchang, the mountains on both sides of the river are steep, the mountain flood is extremely rapid, roaring, and the houses are destroyed.
There are such records in the "Wuxi County Chronicle" and the "Wuxi County Salt Factory Chronicle".
In the sixth year of Qing Jiaqing (1801): The salt field was flooded with more than 100 salt stoves and many houses and shops.
In the eighth year of Qing Jiaqing (1803): The salt field was flooded, and the whole town was flooded; because it was night rain, the river rose sharply, the residents did not take precautions, and the houses were washed away by the water, drowning 417 men and women.
Qing Daoguang First Year (1821): In June, the great flood flooded the 7th stone steps of the county bureau head gate.
Thirteen years of Qing Daoguang (1833): Great drought, extinction of grain, cannibalism.
In the eighth year of Qing Xianfeng (1858): In August, long rain, Mao'ertan Mountain fell, more than 1,000 people died, and the river was cut off.
In the sixth year of Qing Tongzhi (1867): In the summer, it was rainy and rainy, the stream rose steeply for more than 10 long, the Yangqiao Dam flooded for more than a month, and the valley rotted; Ningchang rushed to the salt stove, more than 90 residents, and many dead people.
In the eighth year of Qing Tongzhi (1869): In July, the flood washed away the Longjun Temple of Ningchang, the north gate tower of the county town and more than 200 zhang of the city wall.
In the fourth year of qing guangxu (1878): In June, the river rose sharply, washing away more than ten stove houses, countless fuels, clothing, and appliances, serious damage to roads, and businesses had no money to turn around and production stopped.
Twenty-second year of Qing Guangxu (1896): 48 days of autumn rain, the following year of strange famine, Zhixian Xiong Fujing built the city wall with work instead of charity.
In 100 years, as many as 9 catastrophes have been recorded in the chronicles. If you go back to an earlier time, or even to the pre-Qin era, the ability to resist natural disasters is even worse, and everything is gone with the rolling flood.
The Daning River has given countless favors to future generations on both sides of the strait, and has also brought countless pains.
More importantly, the frequent floods are devastating for the Ningchang every time, washing away the property, washing away the life, and washing away a lot of memories of history, leaving only infinite reverie.
The altar jars, poems and allusions, historical memories accumulated by ancestors for generations, a river flood, will be wasted.
Another reason is the lag in archaeological excavations. Due to the late start of archaeological work in the entire Three Gorges area, and in order to meet the needs of the construction of the Three Gorges Water Conservancy Hub Project, the excavation focus of archaeological departments at all levels has been concentrated on the submerged area below 175 meters above sea level for decades, and the excavation of the "Wushan Ape" fossil was produced in this historical background. The territory of Wuxi is a non-submerged area, and archaeological excavations are progressing slowly.
There are too many secrets buried underground, and there are too many unknowns underground. What is left to researchers is only reasonable speculation and imagination.
If you are buried, there is a reason to be buried.
The unknown can only appear when it is reasonable.
From the Wushan Mountains to the Daba Mountain Range, and then to the Wuling Mountain Range, under the vast land, there are endless secrets buried.
On the ground, there are many ancient civilizations that have been dilapidated like the ancient town of Ningchang, and are on the verge of extinction or have been extinct, the villages, swinging hand halls, wind and rain bridges, ancestral halls, temples, Tusi Wangcheng and other architectural sites of many ethnic minorities, and the cultural phenomena that coexist among many ethnic groups such as Han, Tujia, Dong, Miao, Bai, Qiang, Dai, and Buyi.
Underground, there are countless unknowns.
Above and below ground, paved corridors of civilization, heavy salt.
To study these civilizations is to study the civilization of Chinese origin.
The topic is too thick, and it takes a thousand words to say.
Or go back to Ningchang.
Ning factory, see through everything, no need to be proven, no need to be elevated.
After all the vicissitudes, it is still plain.
Listen to the wind, listen to the water, listen to the sun, listen to the rain, listen to the changing of the seasons.
Look at joy, look at sorrow, look at the past, look at the present, look at the impermanence of the world.
Mountains, green and yellow, yellow and green.
Water, flowing and coming, coming and flowing.
Weining Factory, with its own posture, stood.
"Decon: The Continuation of Salt (I)" from "Wu Yan Tianxia"
- To be continued -
- "The World of Witch salt" its book -
Baoyuan Mountain, Ningchang, Wuxi County, Chongqing City, still preserves the only ancient surface salt spring in the country that is still flowing. The development of Wuyan culture has directly affected the development of Guyong culture and Cuban culture, and the Yandao civilization has promoted the intersection and integration of Wu culture, Ba culture, Chu culture, Qin culture and Yong culture, forming an important cultural sedimentation belt that affects the development of Chinese culture.
The long cultural essay "Wuyan Tianxia" for the first time put forward the concept of "'Wuyan Ancient Road' as a civilization channel that stretches across the heart of China's territory and connects the Yangtze River civilization and the Yellow River civilization", comprehensively summarizes and expounds the salt road civilization with the brushstrokes of prose, and describes the brilliant epic of the five thousand years of salt industry civilization in poetic language.