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Yue Culture

Three Discussions on Yue Culture—Yue Su, Yue Yi, and Yue Xue

The study of Yue Culture may be considered in terms of Yue Su and Yue Yi. The three aspects of Yue culture and Yue culture are the focus. The connotations of these three aspects are very rich and can well show the characteristics of Yue culture. If they are systematically sorted out and summarized, it will help to comprehensively understand the overall style of Yue culture and grasp its inner spirit. .

Yue customs

Yue customs refer to the folk customs of the Yue region. They are the most distinctive part of the Yue culture and retain the traditional genes of the ancient Baiyue customs and culture. This is not limited to the primitive customs of the ancient Yue people recorded in the classics such as cutting their hair and tattooing, chiseling teeth into conical buns, sitting on a dustpan, and even liking raw food, being fond of wild music, and focusing on witches and ghosts. It also includes various folk customs of the Yue people that have been passed down to later generations. , etiquette and customs, food, clothing, housing and transportation and other lifestyles and folk beliefs, especially the simplicity, bravery and pioneering and enterprising psychological characteristics of the Yue people reflected in these customs and beliefs, a spiritual temperament with a somewhat wild element. It is this temperament that makes Yue culture not only significantly different from the Chinese civilization in the Central Plains that emphasizes rituals, music, and decorations, but also shows its own personality compared with the Wu culture in neighboring areas.

We know that the ancestors of Wu are the Gou Wu tribe, which is also a branch of the ancient Baiyue tribe. Therefore, the customs and habits of the Wu people are similar to those of the Yue people. However, Wudi is close to the Central Plains, was developed earlier, and was deeply infiltrated by Chinese civilization, so the genes of its Baiyue culture are not prominent enough. In addition, it is located in the plains of the Taihu Lake Basin, which is a typical "land of plenty" with a prosperous economy and a happy life. Stability can also easily develop people's conservative mentality of seeking stability and fearing chaos. Let’s look at the regime established in the Wu region. Since King Fu Chai of Wu failed to go north to fight for hegemony, the rulers of all dynasties have had a "peaceful" complex. They were often satisfied with separatist control of Jiangdong without thinking about progress. Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded, there was still a "southeast" complex. The call for self-protection was launched. The residents of Wudi are often satisfied with living their own "small life" and are not used to leaving their hometown to start a new business. The situation is different for Yue people. The economy and culture of Vietnam mainly developed between mountainous areas and islands. The reputation of "narrow land and poor people" did not change until the Southern Song Dynasty. This forced the residents of Vietnam to devote themselves to struggle for survival, and it was far more difficult to take risks and forge ahead. Wu people are accustomed to it. "The Book of Yue Jue" records the revenge of King Gou Jian of Yue. There are many stories of resistance and struggle in folklore. When combined with the various traditions of sword making and martial arts and the thoughts and characters of modern people such as Qiu Jin and Lu Xun, the Yue people It’s not hard to see that unique and brave temperament.

The Yue people are also good at expanding outward, especially along the sea route, either going north to Shandong, Liaodong, the Korean Peninsula and even Japan, or going south to Fujian, Taiwan, Hainan and Southeast Asia, spreading Vietnamese culture everywhere. of imprints. As for Japan, we used to pay more attention to its acceptance of the influence of Chinese civilization in the Central Plains, but that was only after Prince Shotoku came to power in the 7th century AD. Long before that, Japan had already formed its own folk culture. The lifestyle of food, clothing, housing and transportation (such as raw food, frugal clothing, stilt-style buildings, tombs and tombs) and various folk customs and beliefs (such as the relatively open love between men and women, the prevalence of witchcraft and ghost beliefs such as spirit summoning, ghost spirits, ghost marriages, etc.) and the strong and enterprising folk customs etc.), they are not similar to the Chinese civilization that emphasizes rituals and music, but is close to the folk customs of Jiangnan and Yue. Is this closely related to the introduction of rice cultivation and iron tool making techniques from Jiangnan to Japan in 200 BC?

The adventurous and pioneering spirit of the Yue people has continued until recent times. Three examples are evident, namely the "Shaoxing Masters" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the "Ningbo Association" during the Republic of China and the current "Wenzhou Model". ". During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the economy and culture of Vietnam had developed, and the number of educated scholars increased suddenly. However, due to the implementation of a quota system in various places for imperial examinations, many Yue talents had no reason to advance into official careers through the imperial examination, so a considerable number of them were transferred to the staff. The team forms a unique "Shaoxing Master" landscape. "Master Shaoxing" is famous for his sharp tongue and cleverness in literary works, which is close to a bad posthumous title. In fact, it is not simple. To learn to be a "master", you need to abandon the eight-part essay that you are accustomed to, get familiar with various practical matters such as money and food, criminal law, etc., and also have a good understanding of the world and develop good writing skills for official documents. For those who practice industry, it is like a completely reborn person. A pioneering and enterprising spirit cannot do this. In modern times, after Shanghai opened as a port, immigrants from other places poured in in large numbers, with the largest number of people originally from Zhejiang Province. The Ningbo natives among the Zhejiang immigrants even established the "Ningbo Hometowns Association" in Shanghai, which not only played a role in liaising with each other and communicating with each other, but also fought against the concessions in Shanghai to defend the rights and interests of the natives, which created a great deal at the time. reputation. Then there is the "Wenzhou model" that has emerged since the reform and opening up. Wenzhou people made their fortune through individual small-scale production, and now their business footprints are all over the world. In many regions and cities, there are "Wenzhou Streets" and "Wenzhou Villages" where Wenzhou people live together or business premises, which has obviously become a model for adventurous and pioneering behavior. Everyone is familiar with this phenomenon, and if we observe it from the perspective of folklore and connect it with the cultural and psychological characteristics of the Yue people, we may gain a deeper understanding.

Yue Yi

Let’s talk about Yue Yi, which is the long-standing and prosperous art culture generated in Yue. Yue Yi is slightly different from Yue Su in that it is the product of the grafting of the Chinese civilization in the Central Plains and the culture of the Baiyue people in the south. The artistic form is shaped and influenced by the Chinese civilization in many aspects, and it is quite far from the original and simple style of the Baiyue culture. distant.

However, Yue art culture still has its own unique spiritual temperament in its bones. Zongshang can naturally be said to be a major feature of it. The anti-simple and return to authenticity reflected in it is also the same as the genes of Baiyue culture. blood relationship.

The emphasis on nature in Yue Yi is first seen in the development of landscape literature and art. The tradition of landscape literature in my country was formally formed in the Six Dynasties, and its origin is inseparable from the landscape of various places. For example, Xie Lingyun, the founder of the landscape poetry school, is well known to the people of Yongjia for his poetry. Another example is Sun Chuo's "Tiantai Mountain Ode", the earliest extant landscape poem, and Wu Jun's "Reflections on the Song and Yuan Dynasty" landscape sketches, both of which use the mountains and rivers of other places as the expression object. Landscape painting had its origins in the Eastern Jin Dynasty by Gu Kaizhi. Although the paintings do not exist, Gu Kaizhi commented on the beauty of Kuaiji's mountains and rivers, describing it as "thousands of rocks competing for beauty, thousands of valleys competing for water flow, and vegetation covering them, like clouds rising and rising clouds." We can also see the reason for its development. Landscapes and Yue art have an indissoluble bond. This trend has been maintained to this day, fully demonstrating the personality of Yue culture.

Zong Shang of Yue Yi naturally has another important expression, which is to express his soul. If landscapes represent the nature of things, then spirit means the nature of people, that is, the nature of emotions, and there is often a close connection between the two. Therefore, promoting spirit has become a tradition in Vietnamese art and culture. The origin of the spiritual trend seems to be traced back to Ji Kang in the late Wei Dynasty, and got a certain response from the social activities of the "Seven Sages in the Bamboo Forest". Let’s look at the five-character poems written by literati that emerged since the Han and Wei dynasties. The first wave of Jian’an poems had a heavy and strong poetic style, which was typical of Central Plains culture. The second wave of Zhengshi poems had the air of expressing one's own soul, a calm and contented state like "waving the five strings and watching the flying dragon", which was rare in previous poems. This is inseparable from the influence of Ji Kang, the leader of the literary world. Because Ji Kang himself can be regarded as the embodiment of this "Wei and Jin style". After Ji Kang, Guo Pu's poems about traveling to immortals may be mixed with shadows of the landscape and spiritual culture of other places. By the time of the Xuanyan poetry trend in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the purpose of speaking was completely shrouded in natural adaptability. A considerable part of Xuanyan poetry was developed during the Yue landscape banquet activities. The Orchid Pavilion Banquet is a famous example. This style has been derived from the rise of landscape poetry, and the spiritual orientation in Yue culture has also been influenced by it. Manifest. After the Tang Dynasty, the focus of the literary world shifted to the north, but there were still "four sons of Wuzhong" during the Kai and Tian years. Among them, He Zhizhang was from the Siming Dynasty. His poetry style was clear and natural, different from northern poets. During the Dali period, a group of poets from eastern Zhejiang also appeared. Many of them had a tendency to express spirituality, such as Qin Xi, Zhu Fang, Zhang Zhihe, Seng Lingche, Seng Qingjiang, etc., who were unique in the poetry world of the Tang Dynasty. grid. In addition, such as the "Yongjia Four Spirits" in the Southern Song Dynasty, who fought against Jiangxi and advocated the late Tang Dynasty, focusing on spirituality and affecting the whole country; such as Yang Weizhen and Wang Mian in the late Yuan Dynasty; Xu Wei, Zhang Dai, Wang Siren and Tao Wangling after the middle Ming Dynasty; until Yuan Mei and Zhao Yi in the mid-Qing Dynasty and Gong Zizhen later were all masters of spiritual literature. It can be seen that the tradition of emphasizing spirituality has a long history in Vietnam and is indeed a major feature of Vietnamese art and culture. Not many people have noticed this.

In addition to landscape and spirituality, Yue Yi Zongshang naturally has many forms. For example, the celadon and white porcelain produced by the Song kiln are different from the "Tang Sancai", and the desolateness of the Yue Di Forest Garden is naturally different from the Summer Palace. The splendor and splendor of Suzhou gardens or the exquisite workmanship of Suzhou gardens, as well as the simplicity and popularity of Southern Opera in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the bold and bold folk songs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the vigorous and roughness of Shao Opera and Wu Opera all show the characteristics of returning to nature in various degrees.

Yue Xue

When studying Yue culture, we must pay more attention to the work of sorting out and summarizing the academic thoughts and results of Yue culture, because it has formed a system, which may be called " The more you learn.” It is true that culture at the academic level cannot have a distinctive and unique local flavor like customary culture and art culture, because academic ideas and results are always open to all regions across the country, and mutual exchanges and communication are inevitable. However, family connections within the region, inheritance from teachers and friends, and even the spiritual admiration and pursuit of the predecessors by the younger generations often play a role. This is the basis for the establishment of "Yue Xue".

The beginning of "Yue Xue" is roughly marked by Wang Chong's "Lunheng" in the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty. "Lunheng" targets the prophecy theology and other superstitions popular in the Han Dynasty, flaunts the purpose of "dispelling falsehoods, and seeking truth and sincerity", vigorously criticizes various conservative and ignorant habits, and promotes the cognitive spirit of seeking truth from facts. The guiding ideology laid the foundation for the future development of Yuexue. After Wang Chong, through the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, no great thinkers or great scholars emerged from Yue, and the inheritance of "Yue Xue" was in a state of flux. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi and others established schools in Yue, and the tradition of "Yue Xue" began to rise again. Confucian scholars such as "Four Sons of Mingzhou" and "Mr. Jiu Yongjia" appeared in the world, and they generally inherited the studies of Er Cheng and Luo. own characteristics. However, the true maturity of "Yue Xue" had to wait until after Qiandao and Chunxi in the Southern Song Dynasty. There were the Yongjia School represented by Ye Shi, the Yongkang School represented by Chen Liang, and the Jinhua School (or Wuzhou School) represented by the Lu Zuqian brothers. The Siming School represented by Yang Jian and other "Four Masters of Yongshang" emerged at the same time, and its prosperity was unprecedented. Among these schools, except for Yang Jian and others who directly inherited Lu Jiuyuan's philosophy of mind, Chen Liang and Ye Shi both took practical application of the world and emphasis on merit as their strengths, and adopted a critical attitude towards the orthodox Neo-Confucianism which only talked about the nature of mind; the Lu brothers Although the Jinhua scholarship that was spread was not as sharp as that, it still advocated the style of being knowledgeable and applying what one has learned, and advocated "telling the truth, cultivating practical talents and seeking practicality". Therefore, he was in a different school from Zhu and Lu. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the Neo-Confucianism circles formed a three-legged trend.

This practical line of Jinhua Confucianism continued to develop during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and through Liu Zongzhou in the late Ming Dynasty, it was connected to the eastern Zhejiang academic circles represented by Huang Zongxi, Quan Zuwang, Wan Sitong in the early Qing Dynasty, and even Ye Zhang Xuecheng in the middle Qing Dynasty. Tongxu, although the latter takes history as its main body, it has not changed its original intention of studying the customs of Bianstone through the ages. It has also shown a brilliance in addition to the Han and Song studies that were popular in the Qing Dynasty, and its staying power has directly reached the recent scholars Zhang Taiyan and Cai Yuanpei.

The above brief description shows that the Vietnamese academic culture does have its own inheritance system. This not only refers to the tangible transmission between family and teachers and friends, but also includes the intangible aspects of academic theory, academic style and even academic spirit. inherit. Generally speaking, its core is the word "truth", which is what Wang Chong calls "seeking truth and sincerity"; specifically, it is manifested in the critical spirit in concept (criticizing all false and untrue talk) and the historical theory in content. Combining practical principles with practical application of knowledge in style. This is the ideological value of Yuexue, and it is a precious legacy left to us by the ancestors of Yuexue scholars. Carefully summarizing and absorbing their experiences will play a good role in promoting today's academic construction.

Ningbo is a treasure land of Feng Shui, good in all aspects