Xintian Baishuixi

Author: Wang Yipeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: After traveling in the Three Gorges for many years, I suddenly felt a deep sense of regret: although I had recorded fragments of history from the submerged areas, compared to everything that had disappeared, it was just a drop in the ocean. Now, the water level is still rising, and it is rising, just like the changes of the times, and along with our own lives, we are also disappearing day by day. So, in this era, what can you still do? In quiet contemplation: great perfection seems imperfect, great straightness seems bent; if you can't remember the flowing Yangtze River, why not record a sunken ship or a fish; if you can't preserve the overall image and long memory of the submerged areas, why not record the living history of an ancient town; and by recording with heart, this process itself becomes a form of creation, a re-discovery and re-realization of one's own life—exploring the history and fate of the ancient town while rediscovering the journey of one's own growth, and hearing the lost legacy of one's ancestors clearly. What kind of ancient town is this? What will it tell us? Not far upstream from Wanzhou in Chongqing, on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, there is a small town called Xintian (originally named Xinkaitian), where a white water stream flows, and people live there like the stream—among them are the descendants of Wen Tianxiang, Wen Suhan, and your spiritual siblings. The moment you meet them, you find yourself back in all that you have lost; with them, you lack nothing. Yet even this ancient town and this white water stream will disappear within a few years as the Yangtze River's water level rises; including Wen Tianxiang's descendants, they too will move together with their neighbors to a new home in Guangdong. Rather than saying you chose them, it is they who chose you, and at this moment, the journey is no longer filled with sadness or nostalgia, but with blessings and praise. So I told myself and my family: no more complaints, no more regrets. Learn from Wen Suhan, the descendant of Wen Tianxiang, who silently carries water from the white water stream year after year, bringing clear stream water into ordinary households, seeking clean food and clothing, and passing down a pure soul, generation after generation.