The first time I saw Mr. Yu's cultural journey was in the middle and late 1990s, when I just graduated from university and was assigned to teach in a prison primary school in northern Jiangsu. I was the only undergraduate in the school at that time. Although I majored in physical education in college, I still pretend to be a "cultural person" from time to time. At a school meeting, the then deputy section chief of the Culture and Education Department, a typical intellectual woman, highly praised Mr. Yu's book A Cultural Journey. At that time, a colleague asked me if I had seen it. I feel very ashamed because I know nothing about this book. As soon as the meeting was over, he was the first to rush out of the meeting and run into the library, leaving a room full of surprised leaders and colleagues.
When I first read Cultural Journey, I was deeply moved by the profound historical and cultural connotations contained in the book, and I couldn't help but follow Mr. Wang's pen and ink to see how he explored the historical destiny of China culture and the personality composition of China literati through the beautiful scenery of China with his profound knowledge of literature and history, so as to get a profound reflection on history and culture.
The book is borrowed from the library, and I have to return it after all, and I really can't refuse the desire to keep this book for myself. I'm very glad that I soon found a book "Yu Wen Ji" on the bookstall, which is probably pirated, because there are many typos in it, but because there are not only "Cultural Journey", but also famous articles such as Notes on Mountain Living, first frost River and Fragments of Civilization, I can't care so much.
After reading it carefully, perhaps because of preconceived ideas, I found that my favorite is the cultural tour. Every time I finish reading, I can't get rid of an insoluble depression and heaviness. I always take a long breath and try my best to get rid of my anger or impulse. But despite this, there is still a lingering sigh in my ear. I know this is Mr. Yu's double sigh for China's history and culture. It is full of his lament over the history of national humiliation and the destruction of splendid culture, his regret over the fate of intellectuals and his accusation against the society that created this tragedy.
Opening the "cultural journey", such sighs are endless. "When the adventurer Stan was ready to start with a team of ox carts full of boxes, he looked back at the sad sunset in the western sky, where an ancient nation was bleeding" (Tudor Dynasty). The ancient nation left a spiritual wound that was difficult to heal. Scholars like Mr. Yu Can can only shout out from the heart: "I hate it!" . "Even the mounds and Shicheng can't stand so many sighs, and the sunshine has collapsed in the spiritual territory of a nation. It will eventually become a ruin and become a wasteland (Yangguan Snow). " "I advise you to drink more wine. People have no reason to go out to the West." Yangguan no longer exists. No one expected that this mound, which has collapsed by more than half, had verified the grandeur of life and artistic feelings more than 1000 years ago. "Yes, it is just a library, but it has actually become an extremely difficult and sad cultural miracle" (stormy days). The Collection of Tianyi Pavilion has yet to be sorted out. However, in modern times with dense cultural information and convenient cultural exchange, its main significance is not to impart knowledge to the society with the actual contents of books, but to exist as a symbol of classic cultural undertakings, which reminds people of the arduous course of China's cultural preservation and dissemination and how sad and sacred an ancient nation's thirst for culture is.
Throughout the book "Cultural Journey", there are not many rhetoric, but many wise words and well-known stories. Mr. Yu rarely gives a detailed description of the scenic spots, but often uses a stroke of a pen to artificially construct a rich and profound humanistic picture scroll, and then goes into straightforward chanting, and then exudes various reverie and comments on China's ancient culture and history with momentum in all directions. It explains the desolation of history and the rise and fall of the Yellow River civilization in the desert for every reader, so that readers are infected by the emotion of the article and unconsciously accept the author's voice, thus thinking about life and the future with a brand-new attitude.
Mr. Yu once said: "Passion for history will always increase the load of life", in fact, reading his books will have the same heavy feeling. Every time I read about the tragic experience of Dunhuang Grottoes, the Chinese nation with bleeding wounds, the bleak wine cemetery and the stormy Tianyi Pavilion, I always feel an impulse to be vividly portrayed, and it is difficult for me to "close my eyes, calm my heart and return to historical indifference and rationality" like Mr. Yu. I really want to be an aspiring young man described by the poet, fighting with all the dissidents who plundered and destroyed our civilization in the twilight of The Dark Castle and the wilderness.
Watching the natural landscape, enjoying the outstanding scenery and participating in various "seminars" held in turn in various places are the best ways for Mr. Yu to release himself to the sky and restore his youthful vitality. Who would have thought that when he stood on the land where the ancient literati once stood and merged with those landscapes, he was not fascinated by the superficial scenery, but touched the right and wrong hidden behind the scenery more deeply, so his mood changed. Fortunately, as a reader, I read the book "Cultural Journey", and reading itself has become my learning process. I look at it bit by bit, I am impressed bit by bit, and I am moved bit by bit. Cover the book, everything that happened in the past, with the passage of time, gradually becomes blurred, while the aftertaste and feelings left in my heart are more and more clear.
Someone once said this analogy: the long Chinese civilization is like a vast desert. Scholars of all ages have left their footprints on it, some have been submerged in the sand of history, and some are still deeply rooted there. While exploring the footprints left by the ancients, Mr. Yu also left his own footprints in this desert. He stood in the direction that the ancients must have stood, looked at the natural landscape that rarely changed with black eyes similar to those of his ancestors, and listened to the sounds of the wind and birds that were no different from those of thousands of years ago. In this seemingly ordinary moment of standing, people, history and nature blend together in chaos. As a result, the cultural connotation that has been sealed for a long time rushed out and rushed to the pen, becoming today's "cultural journey."
In fact, there are too many comments on Mr. Yu, both positive and negative. I know I am not qualified to comment on who is right or wrong. However, through reading "Cultural Journey", I clearly saw the deep sense of hardship and strong sense of historical responsibility contained in Mr. Yu's works, and heard the heartfelt sigh and cry of a lonely modern literati. In a sense, this has surpassed one.
In my opinion, every time I read "Cultural Journey", it is like following Mr. Yu's footsteps and making a long trip in the history of mountains and rivers. In the trek again and again, I am like a child picking up shells on the beach, picking up fragments of civilization with a dignified face all the way. These fragments are the most authentic portrayal of China's splendid culture in historical sites, and they are the historical accumulation and cultural reflection handed down by a nation through thousands of years of vicissitudes.
"Castle Peak cannot be covered, after all, it flows eastward". The dust of the Tang Dynasty and the wind of the Song Dynasty have all dispersed far away. Although historical regret, pain and indignation will not go with the wind, different times are carrying their own special missions. Grandma without wrinkles is terrible, and old people without white hair are a pity. Maybe all kinds of sufferings are doomed, maybe everything is logical, but history is not only suffering, but also joy, pride and pride.
Wang Wei's poem says, "I will walk until the water checks my way, and then sit there and watch the rising clouds." If it is a sad morality to feel sorry for the decline of humanistic spirit and the annihilation of human civilization, then it is a painful awakening to think rationally about the reality we are facing and the future we are about to face. Yesterday's history has become the past, and today's history is in our hands. Today, we will become the ancients one day. We sincerely hope that the historical tragedy will not be repeated in our generation, just as Mr. Yu hopes: "I dare not pray for our super-large culture, but I hope my words can have a bitter aftertaste, anxiety, relaxation after meditation and youth after old age."