Fantasy Travel (Ancient Town Volume): 20 Places of Ancient Charm and Romance

Author: Li Liwei, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: The Terracotta Army is history, Lishan is history, and the Horse Trampling the Flying Swallow is history. History always appears in distant places, separated from us by thick museum glass, rough metal railings, and dull history books, requiring us to rely on a considerable degree of imagination to reconstruct it. Our habitual understanding of the term "history" has made us miss many beautiful and valuable things around us. The twenty historical villages and towns selected by authoritative institutions and included in this book are themselves histories—in our midst, and on the verge of disappearing (if neglected and unprotected due to lack of attention), we may become the last witnesses to this history. On some day in the future, we might take out some old photographs and still-fresh memories to tell our children—by then, for them, we ourselves will be the "thick museum glass," the "rough metal railings," and the "dull history books."
In a certain sense, why "Feeding Horses and Chopping Firewood, Traveling the World" is poetic is because it is not the same as life, and it does not earn life's recognition. It seems to guide us in a direction, yet its brilliance makes it difficult to approach. Perhaps poetry exists because it excludes reality and is equally excluded by reality; it "misleads" life and is equally misled by life. It is a pair of powerful wings yet carries an ostrich's body; it is an exquisite artwork that exists only within the heavily guarded galleries of a museum.
So, when we finally reach an era and seize an opportunity to walk in the footsteps of a quiet Jiangnan water town with our own bodies, is it also an opportunity to make poetry equal to life, to let the wings of geese carry their bodies, and to become a true member of the Bloomsbury Group? To let the poetry and paintings of the Rossetti siblings, the Impressionism of Vanessa Bell, the stream of consciousness of Virginia Woolf, and so on and so forth—all the beautiful things—become part of our daily lives, and in turn, let us become part of them. Mutual inclusion, mutual recognition, and unity.