[Cultural Analysis]
Author: Li Sihui (Distinguished Researcher of Huazhong University of Science and Technology News Review Research Center)
In Suzhou, some ancient trees of thousands of years old are scattered in rural villages, temples and historic sites, and house gardens. They stare at the changes of seasons, read the vicissitudes of the world, and are closely associated with every generation of Suzhou people. A few days ago, the Suzhou Wu Culture Museum held an exhibition, focusing on the story of the ancient and famous trees in Wuzhong, to spread hundreds of ancient and famous trees, attracting attention.
From the juniper in Situ Temple, the vine and camphor in Luohan Temple, to the ginkgo in Dinghui Temple, and the beauty tea in Dream of Red Mansions, most of these ancient and famous trees in Wuzhong have high cultural value - ancient trees became independent painting themes in the Tang and Song dynasties. Wen Zhengming and other literati's Ji You paintings once set off an upsurge in the Wumen School of Painting. Today, Suzhou's relevant parties show the history and culture of "trees" by paying attention to "trees" in ancient poetry, calligraphy and painting. According to media reports, Suzhou also carried out a two-year field survey before the exhibition, and completed photography, literature retrieval, oral history interview, specimen collection and other work. It can be seen that the local "steles" for ancient trees are not only pursuing elegance, but also enhancing the public awareness of the protection of ancient and famous trees.
The ancient trees, such as Xuanyuan cypress in the Yellow Emperor Mausoleum in Shaanxi Province, Greeting Pine in the Yellow Mountain in Anhui Province, and the emperor tree in the Tanzhe Temple in Beijing, have been an important part of Chinese civilization for thousands of years; Populus euphratica forest in the deep desert, larch in Saihanba, Putuo hornbeam and other famous trees whose seeds "fly" into space are important carriers of Chinese people's struggle spirit. Most of the thousands of ancient and famous trees scattered around the country have important scientific value, ecological value, cultural value, landscape value, and economic value, which should be paid more attention and protected.
However, for a long time in the past, some places did not have a strong awareness of the protection of ancient and famous trees, and the protection was not strong enough. In addition, some criminals were mercenary, which led to many ancient and famous trees being artificially damaged, even felled and stolen, causing serious losses. The thousand year old "Ancient Nanmu King" in Jianhe County, Guizhou Province was hacked, many ancient camphor trees in Fujian Province were "poisoned", and the "500 year old trees" in Longshan Village, Guangxi Province were hacked without permission. All these things are distressing.
In recent years, various regions have increased their efforts to crack down on crimes that damage ancient and famous trees; For the first time, the newly revised forest law lists the protection of ancient and famous trees as a special provision at the legal level, and many places have issued relevant local regulations or management measures; In 2021, Beijing Agricultural University will add a new ancient tree protection orientation class to train high-level ancient tree protection talents. With the concerted efforts of many parties, we have systematically built a more powerful protection network for precious ancient and famous trees scattered around the country, and achieved certain results. However, due to the difference in economic development level and awareness, the protection effect of ancient and famous trees in different regions is also different, and some still need to be improved.
To protect ancient and famous trees, we need to find out the family background. The results of the second national survey of ancient and famous trees show that there are 5.0819 million ancient and famous trees within the scope of the survey. At present, a map, a set of numbers and a platform for the protection and management of ancient and famous trees have been initially built nationwide. The relevant national departments require all regions to "strictly implement the listed protection on the basis of understanding the resource background". If the implementation of "listing protection" in various places is a work arrangement at the institutional level, it is a kind of civic education to "build steles and biographies" for ancient and famous trees in the form of exhibitions and other literary forms. Let more people understand the preciousness of ancient and famous trees, and cultivate their artistic appreciation of ancient and famous trees, which will help to further enhance the awareness of protection and form a joint force of protection. At present, protecting the ancient and famous trees and inheriting the excellent Chinese traditional culture carried by the ancient and famous trees need more extensive social participation and joint efforts of more people.
