Guang Zhi Yi.
It is said that during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, my Taizhou sage, Mr. Wang Shixing (1547-1598), wrote a book called Guang Zhi Yi. After personal experience and on-the-spot investigation, he used the eyes of researchers to write down the differences between geographical environment and regional folk customs. Mr. Zhou Zhenhe thinks that the geographical and humanistic investigation of Wang Shixing has taken shape in modern geographical evaluation research, and his thought of analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of geographical background has directly influenced the writing of Gu Yanwu’s book on the diseases of the world’s counties and countries (Zhou Zhenhe’s geographical thought of Wang Shixing and its influence, Southeast Culture, No.2, 1994).
The book of diseases in all counties and countries.
According to Wang Shixing’s description, the same Zhejiang people are actually different in each region. West Zhejiang, that is, Hangjiahu area, is rich in plain land, so there are many rich people. "Rich and courteous" is the reason, so "human nature is delicate and elegant". However, in the mountainous areas of eastern Zhejiang, such as Taizhou, Wenzhou and Chuzhou, there are many mountains and barren soil, and fishing, hunting and farming make a living. The style of painting has become: "vulgar and simple, human nature is frugal, ancient and pure, and emphasis on simplicity." Geographical environment is not only a blessing given to us by God, but also a fate given to us by God. We often think that one hundred years is too long, but the fact is that after five hundred years, it is sometimes the same.
Therefore, the result of Mr. Wang Lao’s self-effacing investigation of "traveling" (of course, some people in the Qing Dynasty went on to criticize the "easy travel" of the Ming people without modesty) is still not easy to overturn. Zhang Xuecheng said: "Expertise in East Zhejiang, Shangboya in West Zhejiang, each learns from his own habits." It is true that he summed up the ideological fashion of eastern and western Zhejiang from the school inheritance, but this fashion itself is also consistent with the influence of human geography. Later, Mr. Lu Xun commented that Rou Shi had "Taizhou-style car-scrapping", because he thought of Fang Xiaoru, who was punished by ten families in the early Ming Dynasty. Looking back at Wang Shixing’s observation of eastern Zhejiang, it is not bad. It can be seen that the environment plays an obvious role in people’s temperament and even the cultivation of local folk customs, and it is not easy to change. For this regional difference, hundreds of years seems to be just a blink of an eye, which doesn’t make much sense.
The customs of Jiangxi are written in Volume 4 "Jiangnan Provinces" of Guangzhiyi:
Jiangyou’s common customs are hard-working, frugal and simple, and they are covered with numerous teeth and barren soil, so everyone has their own thoughts of sorrow. It is also good at saving money, and the skilled workers return. It counts as a family of several people, and how many grains are used in the year. You must pay the full fee, and if there is no home, then the bedside bottle is nothing more than a millet. The rest will be used to heal the wounds and conquer the losses, and will never be used for the drama of angry horses and banquets. That is to say, those who have no money in their pockets, and who are close to their neighbors for a while, count the population of their families, and the men will sue again for more than ten days. Therefore, there are no hungry people in the wilderness, and the wanderer has no internal care. It’s the beauty of vulgarity to cover your worries and make a living. It’s the wind of crickets and filariasis.
Wang Shixing only makes an objective observation and summary here. Because of poor land and large population, Jiangxi "has a sad thought" and has developed a frugal and simple folk custom. If you have surplus food on weekdays, you will not use it to enjoy or improve your life, but save it for a rainy day. The advantage of this frugality is that there are no hungry people even when famine comes, which is a great self-management and self-help in ancient society where famine is frequent! Therefore, Wang Shixing thinks that its folk customs are "the most beautiful", and comparing the poems of tang style Cricket with those of July is of course the highest praise, which is the fundamental purpose and spiritual aesthetics of "attaching importance to agriculture" and "worrying about civil affairs" in agricultural society.
At the same time, Wang Shixing wrote about the folk customs in Hangzhou: "Hangzhou customs are clever and prosperous, evil and frugal, but they are happy to travel, and most of them are gradually infected with the lessons of traveling in the south, and the mountains and rivers are enough to inspire them." However, everyone is diligent and self-sufficient, and the rest are happy. Men and women over the age of five have no jobs, that is, the gentry family. ….. People have no money to bear, but they don’t mean to save. That is to say, the husband and servant are working all day, and at night they go to the market to cook and drink, and the couple are drunk. " ("Guang Zhi Yi" Volume 4) This style of drinking today and getting drunk today is in sharp contrast with the customs in Jiangxi. Imagine that at that time, if a girl from Hangzhou went to a guy’s house in Jiangxi, she would have come back overnight, because the habit of "being frugal and having fun" could not be changed. On the other hand, Jiangxi guys are also likely to criticize Hangzhou girls and regard them as evil women and avoid them.
Although Wang Shixing did not imagine the scene conflict caused by regional differences, what is certain is that his old man’s house will not fill the pit of regional differences with "political correctness". At that time, the political correctness should focus on agriculture, oppose commerce and oppose luxury. And Mr. Wang’s thought is not against business, nor against luxury, and there is still a certain distance from "political correctness" In his view, the differences created by geographical environment are objective, related to economy, not to morality. He said: "Although the concept of sightseeing is not simple and vulgar, the West Lake has become a tourist destination, so it is profitable for the fine people. It is not only a thousand dollars a day, but it is forbidden at times to change customs. However, fishermen, boaters, performers, market participants and drowning people have lost their jobs, which is not convenient for this generation." Extravagant play indirectly supports employment and prospers the market. This is obviously different from the general "orthodox" thought of rejecting commerce and opposing luxury at that time. Of course, this thought of Wang Shixing has its advanced points. When researchers discuss the ideological habits of the late Ming Dynasty, especially the debate on "luxury and rationality", they often cite this passage as evidence (see Lin Liyue’s "Luxury, frugality, origin-the order mentality of Ming and Qing societies").
It is obviously not a good way to fill the hole of dissatisfaction with "political correctness", taking morality and even refining it to women’s morality. The author has always believed that Kong Old Master Q’s statement that "only women and villains are difficult to support" is true, and that when Confucius said this, he pointed at women clearly, without any derogatory meaning. Women and villains, who move only for profit, are often separated from the "ideal" and "sacrifice" of the master, who only stated the result of this objective observation. Although women can be educated, countless facts have repeatedly proved that education is a bad business with disproportionate input and output.
Mr. Huang Renyu summed up the failure of Ming Dynasty in his book "Broadening the Horizon of History", and thought that "the government’s economic policy at that time was based on the situation of low-developed areas, not on the situation of high-developed areas". Still taking Jiangxi as an example, the author’s "over-interpretation" is that instead of advocating Jiangxi to overcome the disadvantages of the original geography and region and develop possible industries to catch up, it is necessary to let the whole country learn the spirit of Jiangxi’s "cricket fire". Therefore, he further concluded: "The authority under China’s imperial system, in the eyes of Westerners, obliterates the individual character of each region, ignores its natural endowments, and advocates cultural coordination in a huge area." (Huang Renyu’s "Broaden the Horizon of History") The gap of regional differences is tried to be filled by cultural coordination, which is not far from the bad customs such as "there is not enough drama, and women are together".