Walking out of the Beidi Ancient Temple in Xixiang, Baoan, I remembered the handwritten scroll hanging on the patio wall.
The tour guide can't tell the exact name of the author of this painting, except that he is a returned overseas Chinese. Many people who left home decades ago and crossed the sea from Baoan to Beijing with their wives and belts will make the same decision after returning one after another. They will come to the ancient Beidi Temple.
The ancient temple of the Northern Emperor is the starting point of their departure and the end point of their return.
The changes in Baoan may be far beyond their imagination, and no matter how big their eyes are, they can't find the memories that once existed. Perhaps, only the ancient temple of the Northern Emperor remains unchanged, which is the place where they relive their old dreams. In fact, this ancient temple has been changing. It was built in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1537). After about 500 years of wind and rain, wasted years, walking back and forth, polishing on bluestone boards, patina on old objects, and mottled time that can't be left behind have all changed.
I stood in front of the temple, and the bustling crowd, many sidewalks and long streets were covered with the lush leaves of this tall phoenix tree. A voice came from the ear:
"Out of the gate of Beidi Temple, it is the sea!"
But I can't see the sea or the river. The traffic is busy and the city is prosperous. I stopped talking when I walked to this ancient temple in Xixiang Old Street. It is the torrent of time that alluvial history to this corner and origin. When the epidemic occurred, the temple gate where the dragon and lion sat was closed, and the lion body was carved from marble, showing fine carving of hair and tongue lines. The dragon patterns, moire patterns and figures on the dragon columns on both sides are lifelike. We entered the temple through a side door. The brick-wood temple is very small, 7.8 meters wide and 14 meters deep. The layout is three bays, two entrances and a patio. There is a concave bucket door in the front hall, and the wooden plaque of "Jade Palace" is hung on the screen door. The pen is heavy and strong. On both sides of the patio, there are roll-shed top corridors, and the "God of the North" enshrined in the temple sits on the altar in the back hall. According to the records of Xin 'an County Records during Jiaqing period, the Beidi Temple was listed as an officially recognized temple alongside Confucius Temple and Guandi Temple. Time to scrub, but the ancient temple was only renovated for eight years (1828) and 1994 twice. The current situation is complete, indicating that protection is appropriate.
In ancient times, the belief in the Northern Emperor also originated from the worship of the stars, while the folks said that the Northern Emperor was in charge of water and was in awe of Shui Xin, and was also regarded as seeking refuge from the great housekeeper of the North-Storm God. This made me believe that "going out is the sea". The only connection between people who go to sea and those who wait at home is the stars that can be seen in the sky. Relatives who miss each other and care about each other are looking at the brightest stars in the night sky and praying for a good weather and a safe reunion.
I studied for a long time before the hand-drawn picture on the wall. You can see the Shenzhen River and the Pearl River Estuary, opposite Hong Kong, and there is a huge "Nanyang" in the distance. 1983, returned overseas Chinese drew this bustling scene of Xixiang in the late Qing Dynasty with the help of memories told by their mother and the elderly in the neighborhood. Street view, scenery, architecture, folk customs, personnel, and the old days of Xixiang are all laid out and painted, which is quite similar to Zhang Zeduan's famous Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival. I really see from the picture scroll that this used to be the huge noise of a small fishing village near Lingdingyang, and I also see that people who live on water and cut waves are coming from here to towards the distant.
How far is it? The people who left and returned were covered with wrinkles scratched by the sea breeze. Wrinkles are connected, and no one has measured the distance. But no matter how far it is, I will come back, go back to my hometown and see the "sea" again.
"Sea" is a grand temple fair. On the third day of March, Beidi's birthday, various cultural performances and folk songs and dances turned Xixiang into a "sea". The parade set out from the back door of Xixiang Park, passed Liyuan Road and Chengnan Bridge, and returned to Truth Street, which was full of gongs and drums. In front of the ancient temple, there was another uproar, with dragon and lion dances and dazzling jumps. Amid the rumble of guns, people carried and pushed a small stage called "color cabinet", and a group of children dressed in fashionable clothes stepped on the "steel seat" hidden in long skirts and short robes, holding their heads high and heroic. This traditional performance called "Gone with the Wind" is actually a folk art that combines magic, acrobatics, music and dance, and it is a story of a group of people "going back" to the past. This reminds me of Changle Story Club, which is surrounded by stilts and platforms in my hometown, and it also has a group of similar historical "narrators".
The history of the "narrator" and the historical "narrator" seem to be helping people to keep time and present legends in time. Those who look at the sea from here and go out to sea, who thought they would become legends? I also remembered the prosperity of Xixiang in the long handwritten scroll. In the thick ink and light pen, there are rows of buildings, large and small boats on the shore, the ups and downs of the sea, and symbolic crowds.
Out of the Beidi Temple, I walked a few hundred meters to the west, and I found the Yun Qi Library in the long scroll. The eaves are upturned, the corners are flying and the doors are wide. This is a building adjacent to the local Zheng ancestral hall. The late Qing Dynasty in Xixiang presented by an anonymous painter is the age when it was born. In the 11th year of Guangxu reign (1885), "Zheng's Handmade Works" has become the largest private library in Shenzhen history.
Its owner, Yao Zheng, is a good carpenter and a famous real estate agent in Guangdong and Hong Kong during the colonial period of Hong Kong. In my eyes, this is a sailor who can talk to wood and stone. When you enter the door, the wood carvings in the front, middle and back halls, the stone carvings and brick carvings in the East Boat Hall, the West Bookstore and the garden all reveal exquisite craftsmanship. The column beam in the house is a whole mahogany, which is still as strong as ever after a hundred years of wind and rain. If you are not a foreigner, how can you have such courage and spirit to build a library? The grand scale of more than 3,000 square meters represented the top level of architectural art at that time, and it was the open mind and keen vision that returnees only had. In his later years, Yao Zheng built this library into a lighthouse on the sea. He knows that the real spire is talent, and the cultivation and moral education of family children and neighbors' descendants will be completed in this library. He lit the "lighthouse", which not only showed the sailors the way home, but also showed them the light in the distance.
The reputation of the library is also related to another fisherman of the Zheng family. She is Yao Zheng's granddaughter Zheng Yuxiu-14-year-old Du Dong Fusang studied, 15 joined the League and participated in several anti-Qing assassinations; He went to Paris to study for a doctor of law, then returned to Shanghai with her husband Wei Daoming, and became a famous lawyer in 1930s. After the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Wei Daoming took over as Hu Shi's ambassador to the United States and went to the United States to attend War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Following her footsteps, there are too many long narratives. The first place on her resume is enough to make people gnash their teeth: the first female doctor in China, the first female lawyer, the first female dean of the local court and the director of the two departments of trial and prosecution, the first provincial female administrative officer in the national period, and the first female diplomatic envoy who was informally sent to France ... This life is like a legendary sailor, who received enlightenment education in the Yun Qi Library and boarded a ship in front of the ancient temple of the Northern Emperor.
An ancient temple, a picture scroll, an old street, a building and a life at sea are all narrators of this land, past lives and earth-shaking founders of this land. Shenzhen is completely transformed from Baoan. The sea in Xixiang is the sea in Baoan and the sea in Shenzhen. "Those who get the treasure are safe and the people are healthy." This land is called Xixiang and Baoan, also known as Shenzhen and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. I think about their complex and simple mathematical formulas in my mind, and the answer seems to be only one: born in the sea, prosperous in the sea. I seem to hear another voice, that is, people who come back from watching the sea from generation to generation say the same thing: the mountains should rise, but the sea should be mighty!