一
I curse the ruins, and I love the ruins.
The ruins swallowed up my hopes, and I remembered them clearly. Pieces of rubble were scattered among the grass, broken stone pillars stood in the sunset, and the records in the book and childhood fantasies were all in the ruins. perish. The glory of the past has become a mockery, and the entrepreneurial ancestors roared in the cold wind. As night fell, the bright moon, which I had never seen before, smiled bitterly and hid in the clouds, casting a shadow on the ruins.
However, the accumulation of generations is not history. Ruins are destruction, burial, farewell, and choice. The power of time should leave traces on the earth; the wheel of time should break the unevenness between lanes. Without ruins, there is no yesterday. Without yesterday, there is no today and tomorrow. Ruins are textbooks, allowing us to read geography as history; ruins are a process, and life is about starting from old ruins and heading towards new ruins. At the beginning of the construction, we thought about its future decay, so the ruins are the destination; the updated construction is based on the ruins, so the ruins are the starting point. Ruins are long chains of evolution.
A friend told me that once, when he walked into a famous ruins, he looked up and his eyes were filled with tears. The ingredients of these tears are very complicated. They are hatred and loss, but not completely. The ruins show stubbornness, like a disabled tragic hero. The ruins reveal the vicissitudes of life and allow people to peek into the shadow of the nation's behavior. The ruins are the instructions issued by the dying old man, which makes you unable to remain unmoved.
Ruins have a formal beauty that transforms the beauty of being separated from the earth into the beauty of being attached to the earth. In a few more years, it will turn into soil and completely melt into the earth. The unmelted stage will be ruins. The mother encouraged her sons to create with a smile, and then accepted the creation with a smile. The mother was afraid that her sons would be overworked and the world would be too crowded. Have you ever seen the fluttering yellow leaves in autumn? Mother was afraid that they would be cold and kept them in her arms. Without yellow leaves, there would be no autumn, and ruins are the yellow leaves of buildings.
People say that the meaning of yellow leaves is to nurture spring. I say that yellow leaves themselves are also beautiful.
Two friends were arguing in front of me. One said that he most likes to walk alone among the ruins at night when the stars are sparse and the moon is waning, either reciting poems or singing loudly until the east turns white. Another said that with the expectation of the morning light, such night walks are lost. For affectation. His habit was to take advantage of the dim light of the waning moon to find a path and walk back quietly.
As for me, I am older than them and no longer have such passion and spirit. I am afraid that people will renovate, repair and rebuild all the ruins.
2
Cannot be imagined. The ancient Roman Coliseum needed to be rebuilt. Pompeii needs to be rebuilt, Cambodia’s Haoge Caves need to be rebuilt, and Mayan cultural sites need to be rebuilt.
It is impossible to imagine that ancient bronzes need to be polished, broken halberds need to be nickel-plated, Song edition books need to be sculpted, and the old lady of the Han Dynasty in Mawangdui needs skin grafting to enlarge her breasts and reshape her body. Wear heavy makeup.
As long as history does not block it and time does not go backwards, everything will age. Let's be old when we are old, and peacefully hand over to the world a kind and beautiful look. Pretending to be innocent is the cruelest form of self-destruction. A grandmother without wrinkles is terrible, an old man without gray hair is a pity. Life without ruins is too tiring, the land without ruins is too crowded, and the act of covering up ruins is too hypocritical.
Return history to truth and life to process.
This is the great wisdom of mankind.
Of course, not all ruins are worth preserving, otherwise the earth will be scarred. Ruins are envoys from ancient times to the present, selected and selected by the kings of history. The ruins are feats carried out by our ancestors, gathering the strength and essence of the place at that time. Ruins that are broken into pieces are not ruins. There should be the strongest ligament in history among the ruins. Ruins can provide the possibility of reading, and they exude a magnetic force that makes people linger. Yes. Ruins are a magnetic field. Extremely ancient. Extremely modern. The compass of the soul should be strongly sensitive here. If it loses its magnetism, it will lose its life, and it will soon be eliminated by people.
Not all repairs are ridiculous. Carefully cleaned, reinforced without leaving any trace, and painstakingly designed to maintain its original appearance while being easy to view. This kind of labor is a favor to the ruins. The end point of all the work is to make it a veritable ruin, a ruin that everyone is willing to pay respect to. Repair always means a certain degree of damage, and minimizing damage is the long-cherished wish of all real ruin restorers. Nor does all reconstruction require denial. If even the ruins are gone and a new one is rebuilt to realize modern people's ambition of swallowing up the past and embracing the present, then it doesn't matter. However, that is just the classical style of modern architects, using an ancient name out of humor. If the Yellow Crane Tower is rebuilt, an elevator can be installed; if the Epang Palace is rebuilt, it can be used as a hotel; if the Xiwang Pavilion is rebuilt, a shopping mall can be built. This has little to do with history. If there are ruins and they need to be rebuilt, then I suggest that we keep the ruins and rebuild next to them. It was heart-wrenching to drive on the plane in the ruins.
Whether it is repairing or rebuilding, the key to ruins is preservation. The ruins of the Old Summer Palace are one of the most historic cultural relics in Beijing. If it were completely demolished and a brand new Old Summer Palace was built, it would be a waste.
The Qing Dynasty is gone, the blazing fire is gone, the national anger is gone, the historical perception is gone, the story of last night is erased, and the leftover dreams of the night before are cleaned up, but what is cleaned up is not the leftover dreams of the night before, but today game.
Three
China has always lacked a culture of ruins. The word "ruin" in Chinese is frightening. Either it’s nostalgic in a wintery way, or it’s pragmatic and trendy. Those who nostalgic for the past only want to use the past to present the present, and those who follow the times only want to use the present to destroy the past. As a result, the two sides are fighting each other, hurting both sides, hurting history and hurting modern times. Drenched with blood and riddled with scars, this huge nation has no ancients in front of it and no newcomers in the future. Thinking of the long journey of the land of Yao, alone weeps with sadness.
Leave some space in the hearts of Chinese people! Let ancient times leave a few footprints in modern times, and let modern people look at ancient inspirational poems calmly. Ancient times, ruins are not worth being ashamed of, and ruins do not need to be covered. We are too good at covering them up.
Chinese history is full of tragedies, but Chinese people are afraid of seeing real tragedies. There is a happy reunion in the end to gain emotional comfort and psychological satisfaction. Only Qu Yuan did not want a happy reunion, Du Fu did not want a happy reunion, Cao Xueqin did not want a happy reunion, Kong Shangren did not want a happy reunion, Lu Xun did not want a happy reunion, and Bai Xianyong did not want a happy reunion. They preserved the ruins and purified the tragedy, and a truly profound literature emerged.
Without tragedy, there is no tragedy, and without tragedy, there is no sublimity. The snow peaks are great because the remains of climbers are buried all over the slopes; the sea is great because there are shipwrecks floating everywhere; the moon landing is great because of the demise of the "Challenger"; life is great Yes, because there are gray hairs, farewells, and helpless loss. Ancient Greece lived by the sea, and countless warriors who longed for the other shore rushed forward and followed each other in the wild waves, thus creating a Greek tragedy that will shine for generations.
If we sincerely admit the failure after struggle and the loss after success, we will only become more calm. If the Chinese want to become more generous, they can no longer drive away all the ruins.
IV
The preservation of ruins is a symbol of modern civilization.
The ruins reflect the self-confidence and self-confidence of modern people.
Ruins will not block the market and hinder progress. Modern people have profound eyes and know where they stand in history. He will not have the delusion that his feet are a high platform rising from the ground. Therefore, he enjoys looking at all the steps in front of and behind him.
It is modern historical philosophy that enlightens the ruins, and historical philosophy also needs to find materials. Only in the hustle and bustle of modernity can the tranquility of ruins be powerful; only in the contemplation of modern people can ruins rise to the level of allegory.
Therefore, ancient ruins are actually a modern construction.
Modern times are not just a period of time. Modernity is tolerance, modernity is magnanimity, modernity is vastness, and modernity is vastness.