analysis on the characteristics and causes of folk culture in zhangjiagang

zhangjiagang has a long history of development. As early as the Neolithic Age more than 8, years ago, there were human activities in the southern part of China. In the second year of Taikang in the Western Jin Dynasty (281), Jiyang County was established in the territory, and Yang Shezhen was governed by the county. In the long history flowing for thousands of years, Zhangjiagang people not only created rich material civilization, but also created splendid spiritual civilization, including varied and colorful folk culture. Judging from the relevant information and social reality that the author knows, choosing the important ones can be roughly summarized as the following eight aspects:

First, emphasizing teaching and promoting learning

Since ancient times, there has been a trend of emphasizing teaching and promoting learning among the people in Zhangjiagang. "Yang She Fort City Records" said: "Step by step towards sages, sharpen famous festivals, and those who are above the scholars are also; Self-cultivation and eagerness to learn, the second person is also; Being well-known, those who are under the scholar are also. " All the famous families in China are based on learning books, studying and passing down their families, and have set up private schools, voluntary schools and academies to educate their descendants with Confucian classics. Ordinary people also take the sound of reading, weaving and crying of children as the superficial basis for judging the prosperity of their families. Typically, taking Jinjia Village in Miaoqiao as an example, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there was a saying that "more than 2 wells were flowing and more than 1 families were literate", and Weng Tonghe had a poem praising Jincun "a collection of cavalry literati, and cows were old and virtuous." The wind of emphasizing education and promoting learning can be seen.

The wind of emphasizing education and promoting learning has given birth to a large number of dignitaries who have entered the official career. From the Tang and Song Dynasties to the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were 2 champions, 1 second place, 4 flower hunters and hundreds of scholars in China. Among them, Zhang Qing's Zhao family produced 37 scholars from Song Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, Luyuan's Qian family had the reputation of "nine scholars in one door" in Ming Dynasty, and the port Jiang family produced father and son prime ministers during Kanggan period in Qing Dynasty. There are many officials, scholars, ministers, censors, governors and governors in China. The trend of emphasizing education and promoting learning has also created a large number of famous scholars who are good at classics, history, literature, calligraphy, painting and seal cutting, and proficient in medical music. Their deeds are recorded in national history or local records, so I won't repeat them here.

The social trend of emphasizing education and promoting learning has been passed down from generation to generation in China and has never been cut off. Extending to the contemporary era, the most representative is the area along the river in Shazhou. Before liberation, the Yangtze River floods frequently occurred in this area, and people's lives were difficult. In the 195s and 196s, the living standard of ordinary farmers was only above and below the subsistence level, but the people believed in reading and longed for "turning over their schoolbags", preferring to "live in a thatched cottage, eat wheat and drink pickles and watercress soup" and tighten their belts to provide schooling for their children by all means. A group of poor children have become well-known experts and scholars at home and abroad through hard work. Among the six academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Zhangjiagang, Hexing Cao Chunan, Sanxing Zhangshen and Zhaofeng Xue Yongqi all come from poor sandbar areas. Among the intellectuals who are full professors in Zhangjiagang, the children of Shazhoupian account for a considerable proportion < P > Second, they are brave enough to serve the country < P > Zhangjiagang is located at the head of the river at the end of the river, which is the throat from the sea to the river, and the military strategists must fight for it. Frequent wars have brought great disasters to the people in China, and also created a generation of folk customs of the people in Hong Kong City who resist foreign aggression, are not afraid of power and rape, and are loyal and brave to serve the country. In the face of the danger of a strong enemy, no matter the scholar-officials or the common people, they are the same enemy, and they advance wave after wave. In the tragic and fierce battle, "there are those who have given their lives generously, and those who have gone to justice calmly, and those who have the sincerity of a man and the fierceness of a woman are even more numerous."

in the third year of jianyan in the southern song dynasty (1129), Han Shizhong led troops to the front line of jiangyin and Changshu, which won the support of the people in China, and the military and civilians worked together to resist gold, leaving behind historical sites and legends such as Ma Si bridge, Fuling mountain, Qinghan town and celery in Lane. In the first year (125 ~ 127), the powerful minister Han Tuozhou was defeated by the army and the division was defeated, which led the nomads from the vortex to the Jianghuai area. Qiu Chong, a family member of Nansha Dune in our city, was then the Xuanfu envoy of Jianghuai. He led his troops to fight against the enemy and personally supervised the battle. Finally, Jin Bing failed to cross the Jianghuai defense line and became a generation of anti-Jin generals. The villagers were proud of it.

During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the enemy repeatedly invaded the south of the Yangtze River. Qian Pan, a member of Heyang Bridge in our city, and Xu Cha, a member of Shao Sheren, were in Sanzhangpu with the Japanese. Xu Rong, a native of Yang She, led the soldiers in the countryside and fought decisive battles with the enemy for many times in Yang She. Although his home was destroyed, his fighting spirit continued unabated. In the process of building the anti-Japanese project, Yang She Fort City, Jiangyin county magistrate was at a loss because of the serious lack of funds. It was also initiated by Xu Rong that Yang She and the surrounding people generously donated money and volunteered to go to work, and this epic project was completed in just 9 days, which showed the popular will of the people, Qi Xin, to work together to resist foreign enemies, and the traditional consciousness of patriotism, hometown love and loyalty to the country.

During the Wanli and Apocalypse years of the Ming Dynasty, the eunuch was in power, and the Donglin Party members Miao Changqi, Li Yingsheng, Huang Zhao and Gong Anfu, who were officials in Yang She and its surrounding areas, took offence and fought to death, eventually leaving a name in history, which became another example of the village sages' loyalty and courage to serve the country. Ye Tingjia, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, praised: "My Jiang Qingshu is famous for her beauty and humanity. For example, in the previous dynasties, famous sages lived all over the world. Gong Gong gave birth to a scholar, Huang Gong gave birth to Yang She, Li Gong gave birth to a bare bank, and Miao Gong gave birth to a white deer. For more than 1 years, the sages and noble people lived quite well, and they were all twenty miles away in Yang She, which can be described as flourishing. "

In the Qing Dynasty, Shunzhi Yiyou (1645), Yan Yingyuan, the canon history of Jiangyin, defended the city for 81 days, and more than 14, people were martyred inside and outside the city. In Zhangjiagang, there are countless people who stood up and fought in the war and died in the city. Only the Miao family in Dongxing, Bailu Township, 17 people died at the same time. "The dead father, the dead husband, the dead brother, and the servant all died."

Third, be pragmatic and start a business

Most of the clans in Zhangjiagang have moved in from other places since the Jin and Tang Dynasties. According to his genealogy, except for a few ancestors such as Zhang Qing's Zhao family and Yang She Guo family who came here to serve as officials, others all settled here because of political turmoil, displacement, or to support their families and make a living everywhere. Because of this, these families are quiet, diligent, down-to-earth, and hard-working, thus forming a pragmatic wind of starting a business.

Take Ponzi as an example. His ancestor Baiyuangong came to Tangqiao from Wujiang at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and he was just a civilian who had left his hometown and had no money. At first, I worked as a domestic helper in Pan's tofu shop, and my son-in-law became my husband. Later, I went into business for several generations, and my family business was greatly boosted. It was not until the middle of the Qing Dynasty that I won the title in the exam and became a noble family. Ye moved to his ancestral home, Ai Shangong, and in the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty, he picked a burden of herbs from Shou Chang, Zhejiang Province and settled in Yang She. By making a good relationship and farming, his descendants began to flourish, and the largest library in Jiangyin, Ye's Jingguan Building, and Ye's "The History of Fort Yang She" were recorded in history. The Zhang family in Nansha moved from Jingjiang to the south of the Yangtze River in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, and settled in the northern foot of Xiangshan Mountain. The descendants of the family reclaimed the river beach and dug a river to develop irrigation and transportation. This river is the predecessor of Zhangjiagang River today. There are countless examples in Zhangjiagang where our ancestors worked hard and set an example, and our descendants followed their ancestors' instructions and passed on their work.

This pragmatic and entrepreneurial trend developed into modern times, and a number of industrialists and businessmen were created. Before liberation, Jiaoshi Cloth Factory and Zhaoshi Iron Factory in Yang She, Tangshi Winery and Zhushi Hat Factory in Houcheng, Ponzi Oil Factory in Tangqiao and Xushi Rice Factory in Tangshi, as well as the operators of famous firms in various towns in China, all made a fortune by poor management and pragmatic entrepreneurship.

After liberation, the customs of the people in Gangcheng have not changed. At the end of the 195s, there was a community-run industry in China, which developed in a tortuous way in the 196s. In the late 197s, it was proposed to "concentrate on getting rich and seize money with confidence", and to run township industries in a big way with the spirit of "44,", and to develop an export-oriented economy with the spirit of "breaking into the world with mud legs". In practice, the folk custom of being pragmatic and industrious has been sublimated into the spirit of Zhangjiagang, which is "United and struggling, forging ahead with heavy burdens, exerting self-pressure and daring to compete for the first place", resulting in brilliant achievements that the economic strength has leapt to the forefront of county-level cities across the country

Fourth, thrifty housekeeping

is the traditional virtue of the Chinese nation, and it is also the folk custom and traditional concept of Zhangjiagang people since ancient times. Chronicles of past dynasties recorded the clothing, food and shelter of ancestors in China as follows: "The houses are still simple, with three rooms and five racks, and the system is very narrow. Dressed in plain cloth, the elderly wear purple cloth, gown and flat headscarf. When a few people travel in the city and see a beautiful dress, the city people are strange and stunned. " "Managing the family in the city is more simple, and clothes and banquets are not light. However, if there is a family celebration and a trip to Panxiang, it is a Cambodian invitation, with eight plates and eight discs as the feast. " The wind of ancestors' thrifty housekeeping can be seen.

the ancients knew that "diligence" was the key to "managing the family diligently". If you are not diligent, it is difficult to find a livelihood and support your family. Therefore, farmers "look down on livestock, work hard for three hours, and dare not swim idly"; Tile carpenters go out to work at four o'clock, "diligent and meticulous"; Brokers are "cautious, lest they lose money." Because laziness and extravagance will lead to the decline of the family business, there is no lack of inculcation in the "Zuxun" of all genealogies in China, such as "diligence to manage the family and frugality to maintain honesty". Take Zhang Qing's Genealogy of Zhao Family as an example, and its "Zuxun" article reads: "I have thousands of surnames of Zhao's Jiang Changzi, so it's important to keep your profession and do your duty. If you are used to wandering around, indulging in drinking, and wasting your time, you will pass on the clan to the ancestral hall and punish you with family law. "

Careful calculation and living within our means is another key to managing the family diligently. There is a folk proverb in Zhangjiagang: "If you are not poor in food and clothing, you will not be poor all your life." In the 195s and 196s, most farmers were living in poverty. After taking part in the collective labor of production teams, they began to engage in small-scale handicraft industry and family breeding industry from morning till night. Even in the years of "cutting off the tail of capitalism", they remained infatuated. At that time, there was a jingle "spring plants, summer melons and autumn cabbages, winter kills mutton to make extra money", which is a true portrayal of farmers using their private plots and winter leisure time to engage in family farming. Until modern times, many families, while making reasonable arrangements for their daily lives, consider the expenses of buying a house, schooling their children and supporting the elderly in the future. They often scrimp and save for the future, rarely spend more than they want, and strive to make ends meet and steadily improve their quality of life.

The doctrine of Confucius and Mencius has been followed in China for thousands of years, which is reflected in folk customs. One of the manifestations is the respect for religion and harmony that people generally agree with and practice. As the old saying goes, "there is a great relationship between the two, saying that you are close; There are big festivals in life, loyalty and filial piety. He who is a minister and does not do his best is not a loyal minister; It is still a traditional concept that people in Zhangjiagang firmly believe that being a son without careful pursuit is not a dutiful son. < P > According to the custom of celebrating the New Year's Day recorded in the annals of Fort Yang She, its main content is to worship ancestors devoutly. For example, on the first morning of the New Year's Day, cakes are cooked and incense candles are lit to worship the ancestors of the family; "Sili" Day and Winter Solstice Day burn incense and worship the ancestral hall; Tomb-Sweeping Day's family went to the grave to sweep the ancestral tomb, which was called "floating mountain"; In Zhongyuan (the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month), we eat eggplant cakes, offer sacrifices to ancestors and have family dinners. The new moon in October (the first day) offers sacrifices to sweep the ancestral graves like Tomb-Sweeping Day. Up to now, most families in rural areas of Zhangjiagang still keep these customs, hoping that ancestors will bless future generations with peace and happiness in the spirit of heaven. Even if some people live in the city, if they meet the above festivals, they will make a special trip back to the countryside to fold ingots and burn paper to worship their ancestors, and their manners will not be slightly reduced.

Another manifestation of respecting the clan is compiling genealogy. The common people think that genealogy is an important basis for tracing the roots and contacting the clan relatives. The so-called "nothing in the world is more important than respecting the clan, and respecting the clan is more important than collecting the clan. Those who receive the family, thousands of children and grandchildren are all from the ancestors; Those who worship the Sect, the woody water source is what children and grandchildren should worship. It is immortal, but only the spectrum. " In the "Cultural Revolution", genealogy was regarded as the feudal "four olds" and most of them were burned. After the reform and opening up, 56 genealogies have surfaced in Zhangjiagang, among which Houcheng Town collected 24 genealogies in the process of compiling toponymic records in 23. Most of these genealogies began to be revised in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and were generally revised or rebuilt seven or eight times or even a dozen times. Their styles are complete, their branches are clear, and they have condensed the painstaking efforts of dozens of generations. There are many famous people writing their genealogies, images and descriptions, which are of extremely precious historical and literary value. Since the beginning of the new century, the wind of continuing to repair genealogy among the people in China is in the ascendant, and village party secretaries and entrepreneurs are willing to spend hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars to promote it. Some families have no big boss to support their funds, that is, they adopt the method of raising funds from each household. Enthusiasts volunteer to compile, interview and take notes from door to door, and it will take two or three years to come naturally. According to the author's incomplete statistics, there are no fewer than 2 genealogies being compiled in China, among which three genealogies of Chen, Ding Shi and Pan Shi have been compiled in Deji, and some of them have been officially published by publishing houses, with exquisite binding

6. It is a Buddhist doctrine to accumulate virtue and do good deeds

and widely plant Futian, but it has a broad market among the people in Zhangjiagang. In the Ming Dynasty, Xu Zhuang, a squire in Yang She, wrote "Worrying about the Far Collection", the preface of which quoted Sima Guang's famous saying: "If you accumulate money, your descendants may not be able to keep it; Storing books for future generations may not be able to read them. It is better to accumulate yin virtue in the dark, and future generations will be rewarded by it. " This kind of folk concept and vivid examples, which regard accumulating virtue and doing good deeds as the code of conduct and the blessing of the family, can be found everywhere in the history of Zhangjiagang.

The establishment of Yi Zhuang, Yi Shu, Yi Xue and Yi Tombs is the main form for the gentry and wealthy families in China to accumulate virtue and do good deeds. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were basically villages and towns in China, which were used to help the poor. Among them, the larger number of villages, Yangshidun Benyizhuang, had more than 2, acres of farmland. Tangqiao Pangshi Yuhou Yizhuang is nearly 8 mu. There are four righteous villages in Xixu City, Fenghuang, including Zhou, Miao, Wang and Lu, with a total area of more than 2, mu. Yi Shu and Yi Xue are the forms of running schools that help poor children in the ethnic group to study and make progress. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, there were two teaching points at Yang's Yi School in Tianzhuang, each of which invited 1-2 teachers to recruit middle-aged and poor children. Yizuka is a local public cemetery for the burial of unowned bodies. On November 2, 1937, the Japanese invaders burned and looted ports and Tianzhuang, killing hundreds of innocent people and soldiers of the national army, among which 18 bodies without owners were buried in Yizong.

worshipping God and Buddha is another important folk custom to accumulate virtue and do good deeds. For thousands of years, the folk worship of God and Buddha in Zhangjiagang has been enduring for a long time. Good men and women are eager for the blessing of the Buddha, and they are willing to donate money to help their fate. For example, there are not a few people who donate hard in Lu Xun's works. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, from offering sacrifices and burning incense to temple fairs and festivals, the idol developed from indoor offering to going out for a cruise, with more and more people and larger scale, becoming a beautiful landscape in local folk customs. Take the "February 19th" Temple Fair in Henan Temple, Yang She as an example. From the first day to the 19th day, there were no fewer than 1, people going to the temple to worship incense organized by Fiona Fang Baili, and on the 18th and 19th days, there were crowds of people and drums. What's more, a large-scale incense worship team organized by local gentry in Yang She performed "Zharou Xiang" and "Dapan Xiang" along the street, with young men and women sticking steel hooks into their arms to show "repay their mother's kindness", followed by colorful lanterns and sedan chairs, which toured during the day and night. The annual "February 19th" temple fair turned out to be a grand festival loved by ordinary people

VII. Martial arts and fitness

. In addition to farming, farmers carry stone shoulders, throw stone locks, carry Shi Ding, top stone mortar, push stones and roll them, pinch stalagmites, and some even dance knives, make guns, and practice fencing and stick. The wind of practicing martial arts and fitness has given birth to a number of military commanders and martial artists. In the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, there were 25 military commanders listed in the Annals of Fort Yang She, among which Yang She Chua's family produced six commanders or commanders in Xianfeng period of Qing Dynasty. In addition, Shaoxiang Village in Sigang produced five martial artists, including Shao Yongfu, during the Ganjia period of the Qing Dynasty, and Shao was praised as a "martial family" by historian Miao Quansun. There are still many people who have practiced kung fu. Although they have not been promoted as officials, they have left many touching legends in local chronicles. Yang She, such as Gu Yuchuan in Ming Dynasty and Jing M.Guo in Qing Dynasty, were all chivalrous, with unique skills. They liked to suppress the strong and help the weak, and punished the villains and cunning. Among them, Gu Yuchuan is also good at miraculous lightness skill. In those days, Qian Muzhai was sent back to his hometown Luyuan on foot from Beijing to report good news. Qian Muzhai was specialized in it.