Nostalgia

Author: Zhou Zuoren
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: Zhou Zuoren is a modern prose writer, poet, and literary translator, as well as the younger brother of Lu Xun. He served as the editor and one of the main contributors to the Yusi Weekly. He wrote a large amount of prose with a calm, understated, and elegant style, making him one of the key figures of the New Culture Movement. In the 1930s, he advocated for the leisurely and humorous prose style, and until the 1940s, his prose took on a "new turn, becoming dry, aged, and refined, belonging to the path of classical elegance and vigor."
Zi Rong Jun: Upon receiving your letter, I learned that you are coming to my hometown and asked me to offer some guidance. To be honest, the part of my hometown that I truly cherish is not there itself. However, since I grew up there and lived there for over a decade, I do have some understanding of the place, so I’m writing this letter to tell you. What I want to share with you is not the local customs or culture, which are too vast to describe, but you’ll understand it once you see it for yourself, so there’s no need to elaborate. What I’d like to talk about is something quite interesting—this is the boat. Back home, you usually take rickshaws, trams, or cars, but in my hometown, none of these exist. Besides sedan chairs used in the city or on the mountains, ordinary transportation is by boat. There are two types of boats: the common ones are "wupeng boats," while the white-panted ones are mostly used for navigation. Taking a night boat to Xiling also has a special charm, but you probably won’t be able to do that, so I can skip that part.
The wupeng boat comes in two sizes: the larger ones are called "Simengoa," and the smaller ones are foot-paddled boats (paddled like "uoa"), also known as small boats. However, the most suitable ones are the "sandao" (three-pant boats). The sails are semi-circular, woven from bamboo strips with bamboo leaves in the middle, and coated with black oil. Between the two "fixed sails" is a sunshade, also semi-circular, made of wooden lattice embedded with small fish-scale pieces, each about an inch in diameter, somewhat transparent, resembling glass but sturdy and durable—this is called "mingwa." The "sandao" refers to the two sails in the middle cabin and one in the rear cabin. The boat is propelled by oars, usually two, and a bamboo pole is used at the front to steer. The bow is adorned with "eyes and brows," resembling a smiling tiger, but it’s quite humorous and not intimidating—white-panted boats don’t have this feature. The height of the sandao’s sails is about enough for you to stand up, and the cabin is wide enough to fit a square table, where four people can play mahjong—though I hope you’ve already mastered it by now? The small boats are truly narrow, like a leaf floating on water. Sitting on the floor cushions, the top of the sail is only a few inches above your head, and your hands can rest on the sides of the boat, still visible outside. In such boats, it feels like sitting on the water’s surface. When nearing the shore, the soil comes close to your eyes and nose, and if you encounter waves or aren’t careful enough, the boat could capsize, posing a danger, but it’s also quite amusing—a distinctive feature of the water country.
Still, you don’t have to take this kind of boat—preferably, sit in the sandao. If you go out by boat, you can’t be as impatient as when taking a tram, expecting to reach your destination quickly. If you go out of the city, it’s a journey of thirty or forty "li" (our li are very short, one li being only one-third of an English mile), so you’ll need to prepare for a full day. Sitting in the boat, you should adopt a leisurely attitude, observing the surroundings—mountains are everywhere, the paper trees by the shore, the red reeds and white water lilies by the river, fishing houses, and various bridges. When tired, you can take a nap in the cabin, reading essays or brewing a cup of clear tea. The area outside the gate, such as Jianhu Lake, Hejia Pool, and Hugang, are places I particularly enjoy. Alternatively, you could ride a donkey to Loutong to visit the Orchid Pavilion (but I’d advise you to walk instead, as riding a donkey might not suit you well). As dusk falls, entering the city through the eastern gate draped with creeping fig is quite an interesting experience.
If the road is calm, when you’re heading to Hangzhou, you can set off in the afternoon, and the scenery at dusk is particularly beautiful. Just regret that the names of these places...