A trip to Suzhou, a water town, Lu Zhi's prose

Prose of Luzhi, a water town in Suzhou

Among the many water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, Luzhi is a typical small town in the south of the Yangtze River. The ancient town has a history of more than 2,500 years and is famous for its historical sites. It is located in every corner of the town, with dense water alleys, intersecting river networks, surrounded by clear water, and bridges facing each other. Some Qing Dynasty houses are still well preserved, and the streets are mostly paved with pebbles and granite. Walking in the ancient streets, the mottled white walls, gloomy black tiles, green moss at the corners, and brown dust stains on the eaves all indicate the long history, and it feels like walking into a rural town during the Republic of China.

My first understanding of the ancient town began in the late 1970s, when I left home and went to Luzhi Middle School in the ancient town. At that time, due to inconvenient transportation, it took more than an hour to walk to the pier at the entrance of Gaodian Village. It took about two hours by boat to enter the small town along the Wusong River. All you saw along the bank were old houses and old buildings. There is nothing new in the streets, only the clear river flowing leisurely, injecting the vitality of life. After abandoning the ship and landing, I walked along the narrow streets and saw that the houses scattered on both sides maintained their natural shape. Some shops contained daily necessities. The doors and windows were all faded old wooden boards without luster. It looks old and simple. The school is located at the east end of the town, close to Nangang in Kunshan. The large campus is empty and quiet. Most of the classroom buildings are old. The trees beside the road are lush and vibrant. The playground is overgrown with weeds. There are only basketball hoops on both sides of the playground. Looking at each other from a distance. Occasionally I go to town for a walk in my spare time, and all I see are old shops and houses, as well as bridges crossing the streets and riverbanks, connecting the passing people. The impression of the town is generally the same. The memory remains in the depths of my mind, and sometimes the familiar but slightly unfamiliar memory will flash back.

Now, precisely because of historical changes, those so-called monuments that are slightly older have become folk features that display regional culture and are the charm of a small town. They are competing to attract people with novelties about them. It inspires tourists to feel nostalgic and nostalgic. The local government took this opportunity to spare no effort and money to collect relevant celebrities and famous stories, build a memorial hall, repair the residences where they once lived, display the objects they once used, and preserve their original state and characteristics as much as possible. , as a memorial to them, as well as their glorious history and achievements.

Of course, the ancient town has its own natural and unique water town characteristics that are different from other places. Some buildings still maintain the shape of the time, and have the unique folk traditions of Jiangnan rural areas, especially the many shapes and postures. The unique stone bridges best represent the history of the ancient town. It is not an exaggeration to call it the "Bridge Capital". There are many river forks in the town. The history of bridges can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. Most of them are plank bridges and arch bridges. There are also single-hole small stone bridges, narrow flat-top bridges, and uniquely decorated twin bridges, also known as sister bridges. The town There is a large porous stone bridge outside. The bridge is unique and has different shapes. Some large stone bridges have stone animals on both ends, and there are stone carvings of different patterns on the bridge railings. It can really be called a museum of bridges. Walking on the street, boating on the river, you can see everywhere the stone bridges and the river, the mottled and somewhat incomplete bridge body, moss and weeds growing in the gaps between the bridges, and the skewed and damaged stone benches on the bridge railings. This is exactly what the bridge has. symbol of the era.

Most of the alleys in the ancient town are narrow and deep. Some old houses can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty, and most of the Qing Dynasty buildings are intact. The deepest alley is 150 meters long. It is like "listen to the spring rain in the alley all night, and the deep alley is bright Selling apricot flowers in court." Walking in the deep alley, stepping on the blue bricks and stone slabs, the sound of footsteps will echo in the alley, especially on rainy days, when water drips from the eaves and stone steps, the sound is clear and sweet. Looking at the end of the alley, the rain and mist are hazy and deep. unlimited. The patterned walls and bricks are another characteristic of the ancient town. The various patterns are clear, and they have experienced the simplicity and tranquility of the times. If you look carefully, you will feel nostalgic for no reason.

The traditional regional culture is best reflected in the clothing of local women. Their outfits have complete local customs from head to toe. Women follow the dress of the early rural areas, wear their hair in a bun, tie their hair into a knot at the back of their head, cover their net pockets, insert hairpins, and wear headscarves. They usually use blue Shilin cloth, with the two back The sharp corners are then combined into other colors, forming a figure eight under the bun, and the front becomes an arc from the forehead to the ears, setting off the simple face.

Most of the tops wear Chinese-style slanted-breasted blouses with buttons on the edges. The blouse is longer than the hips and reaches the wrist, and the skirt is tied at the waist. Blue printed cloth is often used. There is a four-finger-wide belt on the back waist, with various embroidery patterns on it. The embroidery technology is especially Exquisite, every stitch and thread is particularly fine, which best reflects the elegance and cleverness of rural women. The embroidery patterns are mostly peonies, roses or dragons, phoenixes, flowers and birds, and the thread colors are red, yellow, blue, purple and so on. After completion, tie it around the waist with a belt, and there are tassels hanging on the head of the belt. When walking, it may sway gently in the breeze, like a weak willow in the wind. The feet wear cloth socks, and the toes of embroidered shoes are embroidered with flower and bird patterns. The fineness of the hand-made needlework reflects the women's intelligence and dexterity. When they wear such clothes and walk on the ancient streets, it is a flowing scenery. They row boats, carry tourists, rock the boats through the rivers, and sing Wu Nong's soft-spoken folk songs, which will definitely make you forget your original worries and immerse yourself in the ancient streets and rivers, as if you have traveled through time and space. Back to the long past.

The delicacies in the ancient town can also satisfy your taste. The sauce made from soy sauce is not greasy, it is soft in the mouth, and the red color of the sauce attracts your attention. Dried radish has a local flavor. Various radishes are selected using the unique local traditional pickling process, and different flavors are pickled with different processes. It is salty but not astringent. You can hardly imagine the complexity of the pickling process, otherwise Where does such a taste come from. Various other folk delicacies, some are made and sold in shops. You can see the making process, and they have a unique flavor when you eat them fresh.

There is a dazzling array of products on the ancient street, most of which are local specialties. Some handicrafts are made with folk simplicity and calmness. Crafts and accessories from other places make the products on the ancient street more exotic and colorful. local scenery. Some shops still display tools from the farming period, such as plows, rakes, shovels and other agricultural tools. Today's young people rarely see such agricultural tools, let alone how to use them. There are also hand-cranked windmills, bellows, etc., which have been regarded as rare agricultural equipment for tourists to appreciate.

Straight straw sandals are also unique to local rural areas. They are mainly worn during daily life or when working in the fields. There are many pairs of woven straw sandals hanging in a shop. You can see the craftsmanship and skill of old farmers weaving straw sandals. The process, of course, is that no one wears it now, and some tourists take away a few pairs as souvenirs because of the novelty. If you are tired, you can rest for a while on the stone benches along the river and watch the boat girls rocking the boats and singing songs as they slowly sail away from your sight.

The ancient town has produced numerous celebrities throughout the ages. The tomb of Lu Guimeng, a poet of the late Tang Dynasty, is at the west end of the town. There are also many relics to be found. The old man was born in poverty and did not bow down to the powerful. It is said that he used the ox plow to turn over the soil. Invented, it was also called Puri there at that time, and he was respectfully called "Mr. Puri". Mr. Ye Shengtao, a contemporary educator, lived in Luzhi for a period of time in the 1930s and 1940s, and experienced the hardship and helplessness of farmers. "An Overcharge of Three to Five Dou" is based on the local rural background. It seems that the scene at that time can still be found at the wharf and stone bridge along the river at the "Wansheng Rice Shop" in the town. Today's "Wansheng Rice Shop" has become a tourist attraction in the ancient town, and some of the utensils inside are said to be still used in those days.

The Baosheng Temple in the west of the town was built during the Liang Tianjian period during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It is one of the "Four Hundred and Eighty Temples in the Southern Dynasties" and has a history of more than 1,500 years. Destroyed and destroyed many times, some sculptures of Arhats are still well preserved. The nine clay sculptures of Arhat in the Arhat Hall were sculpted by Yang Huizhi, a famous sculptor in the Tang Dynasty. The statue is a whole, with rocks, clouds, waves, and the fairyland on the sea. Many scenes are vivid in the mind, and it is really a paradise in the cave. Two Buddha statues are discussing Buddhist scriptures, and the rest of the people are sitting separately. Some close their eyes and meditate, some look at the distant scenery, some recline, and some stand sideways. Their expressions have different shapes, the images are lifelike and natural, and they are lifelike and fully reflect It showed the wisdom and talent of sculpture art at that time and became a treasure of Buddhist culture. There are four ginkgo trees in the temple. The trees are 50 meters high. They are tall and straight. They are said to be 1,300 years old. It has become a historical symbol of the ancient town.

The ancient town is not big, but it condenses human history in this land. With small bridges, flowing water, and old residences, you can find traces of history from a piece of brick and stone. These remnants are not the only ones created by our ancestors. Relics are also a kind of spiritual transmission.

The long river, the winding river channels, the narrow streets, the winding bridges, the long alleys, the mottled pink walls, the heavy black tiles, what you hear when walking here may be the heavy footsteps of history. Sound, those forgotten things have flowed away with the river, and the history in memory will be rooted in people's hearts for a long time, and will become an immortal historical treasure through the ages.