Farewell to Melancholy - Inspired by the Water Town of Wuzhen

Author: Zhao Xinsan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: "What matters when I sing, I suddenly feel melancholy, the village bridge and original trees resemble my homeland." — Song Dynasty Wang Yu
"Farewell" is our destiny: "Cry three times when born, good or bad, fate is formed." First, we bid farewell to the mother body, this is the original farewell. Then, we bid farewell to our carefree childhood, and then to elementary and middle school. On graduation day, we don’t feel melancholy yet. Because we haven’t matured enough to experience the stage of life where melancholy arises. In the spectrum of human emotions, melancholy is a subtle, delicate, and highly refined feeling. When we graduate and approach the day of leaving school, a faint trace of melancholy begins to rise from the depths of our hearts.
When we bid farewell to traditional agricultural civilization and transition to a modern Western machine civilization lifestyle, the melancholy we feel becomes deeper, richer, and more profound. It is because it is fundamental. Melancholy has levels and ranks. The melancholy contemporary Chinese people experience as they gradually distance themselves from the agricultural civilization that has faded into the horizon, belongs to the highest level and the deepest tier. It is because it is philosophical. We are bidding farewell to the traditional agricultural civilization of China that spans thousands of years. The melancholy that rises in our hearts in this moment is bound to be profound, fundamental, and philosophical.
Suddenly, the melancholy of "As the year draws to a close at night, a million miles away, no one returns" emerges. A great melancholy, a high-level melancholy. The magnitude and level of melancholy born from farewell depend on the nature of the object being bid farewell and its position and scale. Bidding farewell to agricultural civilization ultimately means bidding farewell to a traditional way of life. This way of life has endured for thousands of years. The Chinese people have emerged from this ancient tradition.
The value of Wuzhen in the Jiangnan water towns lies in its becoming a striking symbol that fully and vividly embodies this tradition, a symbol of architectural space. Without the traditional Chinese architectural space language system (including stone bridges and pagodas), Wuzhen would cease to exist.