A cloud from the Ming Dynasty

Chongzhen two years (1629), Zhang Dai visited the Confucius Temple, saw the palace wall above the "Liang Shanbo Zhu Yingtai study place" a large plaque, could not help but be amazed. After some appreciation, and wrote down the words of the Confucian family: "the world only three families, my family and Jiangxi Zhang, Fengyang Zhu only. Jiangxi Zhang, Daoist gas; Fengyang Zhu, burgeoning family, small family gas." This means that the world is divided into three families: the Zhang family in Jiangxi is in charge of heavenly matters, the Zhu family in Fengyang is in charge of earthly matters, and the Confucian family in Qufu is in charge of both, both ideology and cultural rituals.

What about outside the three families? The three families are just slaves. The Confucians did not say so explicitly, but that's what they meant. Some cultural people keep calling others "three surnames family slave", count back more than a hundred years, even if you ranked in the top of the hundred surnames, what "Zhao Qian Sun Li Yao Shun Yu Tang", as usual, is also the family of the world's minions. Don't complain about the snobbery of the Confucian family, really, after the Southern Song Dynasty, the surname Zhao also can not - so, Lu Xun with the surname Zhao is not worthy of the matter, the argument is not so adequate. The same is the descendants of Yanhuang, why you are so show? Because of the control of the right to speak.

The Confucian family is snobbish, but also forget to ridicule the countryside from the family of the bumpkin, that the Feng Yang Zhu family is a rich family, unlike their noble family noble, but a small work, not enough atmosphere. Even "temple where the Ming dynasty seal, all placed without, always to see its big also." Zhang Dai this visit from the death of Ming but fifteen years, it can be seen that the end of the Ming dynasty, did not get the positive approval of the Confucian family, not yet as good as the play dream of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, actually the drums and banners to win favor. This is also enough to see the adaptability and secularization tendency of Qilu culture.

It is important to mention that in this year, Li Zicheng, a small civil servant in the post office, was laid off and lost his rice bowl.

Two years later, Zhang Dai visited Yanzhou and recorded a military parade. The scene was very lively. First, the troops were lined up in different formations, and then the plot was developed according to a rehearsed one. The scouts alerted the police, the middle army set up an ambush, and lured the enemy deeper into a capture. After the victory is the acrobatic performance, the senator bred maiden beauty butterfly shuttle, fully demonstrated the art of horsemanship and song and dance. The whole parade, the essence of the word "performance", the so-called Fisherman's Drum at that time was just a fancy article in the officialdom. The figure is to look good and lively, in order to show off the power of the flame and wealthy pomp and circumstance. At this time, the nameless junior who was laid off, "you smash my bowl I smash your pot", has become the captain of the pot smashing team, and gradually show military leadership skills. So much so that the Kong family would almost say something like, "There are only three families in the world, my family and Jiangxi Zhang and Mili Li only".

The parade in Yanzhou, despite being written by Zhang Dai in a meteorological way, was already heroic. The same is true of the "Andong parade", which I wrote about in "The Reverse Traveller". The account is not a fiction, but also a performance to please superiors. The late Ming coastal guard city armament has been generally slack, aging weapons, the city in disrepair, despite the thin camel than the horse, but after all, is a paper lantern bluff, inevitably be a poke that is broken. Read the military such as reading the dance, the performance is no longer lively, is also a lonely performance.

Those Ming civil servants and military generals do not understand the "reasoning" in this? But no one will break the "rules" and let it rot from a small mold until it rots to the roots.

I have several friends who are very fond of the Ming Dynasty, its apparatus, its writings, its customs and even its system. But although I am not a Confucian, I am not a fan of the Ming Dynasty like the Confucians. Because I know very well what kind of empire Zhu Yuanzhang built. At the time of this empire, the evolution of world civilization had already started to accelerate, but this empire pulled back the time, institutionalized the blood relations of people, and circled the rivers and mountains with high walls and fortresses. And almost all the successive emperors had different morbid temperaments, sudden hysterics and inexplicable habitual hobbies. How do I like it? It is too far from the Song Dynasty and too close to the contemporary era. In my opinion, this "small family atmosphere" is the lack of outward-looking mind and broad-mindedness, especially after Yongle, and it is not difficult to understand that it is regarded as a rich family, as it amuses itself behind closed doors and even fights in the nest. It is not difficult to understand as a mob.

Zhang Dai said in the preface to "Taoan Dream Memory": "the rooster on the pillow, the night air back, because I think the rest of my life, prosperity and beauty, the eyes are empty, fifty years, the assembly of a dream. Reading it, my heart feels sad. At the time of the revolution, it is like being a human being in two lives; the feeling of dream is a pain in the skin. People's life "from frugal to extravagant easy, from extravagant to frugal difficult", the economic reasons are secondary, the key is the spiritual stimulation. Everyone understands the reason, but it's hard to understand when it comes to yourself. Why me? But why wouldn't it be you? Who can relieve the epidemic?

On the afternoon of the day of summer, the weather was a bit cloudy. I was standing on Phoenix Ridge when I overheard a cloud of white clouds gathering in the direction of People's Square. The square was in a depression, with many modern buildings lined up around it. The cloud was slowly coming down from the north at Guanshan, and almost poured into a lake of clouds against the ground. At that moment, images of the Ming Dynasty suddenly came to my mind, as if the cloud came from the Ming Dynasty and marched in the midst of the grass. So the buildings and the hustle and bustle of the city instantly disappeared, replaced by the shouts of the soldiers on the schoolyard and the echo of the evening bell of the upper temple. The city of Andongwei is located in the midst of wild nature, like a fixed star at the mouth of the Dixi River on the border of Lusu. Aye Mountain, on the other hand, swallows the sea water and then exhales a mirage that spreads through the space and time.

I seemed to be in a dark forest, sighing in silence at a time called Ming Dynasty.