In the early summer season, the rain nourishes the earth, sometimes pouring down heavy rain, and sometimes welcoming sunny weather. In this season of both clear and cloudy days, the little hands of the chopsticks came to the ancient town of Yaoba, located at the junction of Sichuan, Chongqing, and Guizhou.
The new Yaoba town runs parallel to the ancient town, which is not a past tense for Yaoba, but a parallel time and space.
Along the cement road, the new town has small buildings and young people wearing slightly outdated school uniforms; on the bluestone slabs, the old ancient town has green stone steps and grandparents playing mahjong. The two scenes are separated by only one alley, giving you enough time and opportunity to love again in another parallel time and space.
The name "Yaoba" comes from the fact that there were many Yao people living here in the past. Later, because the villagers pursued a more magnificent name, according to the legend that this was the site of the Dragon Court Mansion, which was once a candidate site for the "Yao King", it has been called "Yaoba" since the Northern Song Dynasty. It used to be a military stronghold called "Yaoba Fort" and a transportation hub called "Yaoba Post". Today, it is a nationally protected cultural heritage site, Yaoba Ancient Town.
The "Xieshan" style of architecture can be seen everywhere here, with a scattered and well-preserved layout. Most of the ancient town is in the typical style of southern Sichuan residences, with the majority of buildings dating back to the Qing Dynasty and the Republican era. The ancient residential area is located on both sides of the ancient street, with a total length of over 1,000 meters and more than 2,000 small blue-tiled houses.
The houses on the upper street are built against the mountains, with a scattered and orderly arrangement, while the houses on the lower street are horizontally and vertically aligned, with the ridges of the roofs forming a continuous line. The cold and rigid buildings suddenly gain a sense of rhythm. On rainy days, when you overlook the entire Yaoba Ancient Town from a high place, it feels like listening to the ancient music played by a chime.
Walking in the ancient town, the leisurely pace reminds me of the alleys in the back streets of Xijie when I was a child. At the corners and ends of the streets, children play and frolic on the bluestone roads. Some jump rope, some play hide and seek, experiencing the joy of life through games. No matter how complicated the world is, fortunately, everyone has had a period of innocent and pure time. The naive soul will be reborn in honing and suffering, polished into a smooth white pebble.
Last time I visited the "Fobao Ancient Town" in Luzhou, I had the pleasure of eating cheap and juicy longan; this time I thought I would have the opportunity to taste lychee, after all, I had already eaten the first lychee of 2023 from Lingnan. But I didn't expect that the lychees in Hejiang would ripen late, and I could hardly eat them until July or August. As the only lychee-producing area in China outside the coastal subtropical regions of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian, Hejiang in Luzhou is undoubtedly a "lychee enclave".
Yaoba also has several places that surprised me, such as being the filming location for the movie "Crazy". This movie was shown in my classroom when I was in school, and I have a deep memory of Xu Qing's graceful image. Later, I read Li Jieren's original work "Dead Water Ripples" and watched the adapted dance drama, which further deepened my understanding of the characters. "Crazy" is a film directed by Ling Zifeng in 1992, adapted from "Dead Water Ripples".
Ling Zifeng's grandfather was a government official in charge of money and grain during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, and his father, Ling Wangchao, served as the director of the experimental factory at the Beiyang Industrial School. His sister, Ling Meilin, and brother-in-law, Li Kuchan, were both disciples of Qi Baishi. At the same time, Ling Zifeng is also the elder brother of contemporary actor Ling Xiaosu, and Ling Xiaosu is the ex-husband of actress Yao Chen.
Influenced by his sister, Ling Zifeng applied to the Beijing Fine Arts School when he was in college. As the third generation of Chinese directors, his most famous works should be "Border Town" and "Rickshaw Boy". In 1990, Ling Zifeng returned to his ancestral hometown of Yaoba to shoot "Crazy". This film is the "grand finale" of his artistic career and his last masterpiece in his lifetime. Ling Zifeng has won the "Struggle for Peace and Freedom Award" and has won several "Hundred Flowers Awards" and "Golden Rooster Awards" for Best Director.
But regarding the relationship between Ling Zifeng and Yaoba, the Ling Zifeng Memorial Hall states that when Ling was in college, he had a classmate from Yaoba. One time, when he went back to his classmate's hometown, he fell in love with this place and changed his birthplace to Yaoba. The truth of the story is unknown, but it is a fact that Ling Zifeng really loves Yaoba. Otherwise, he wouldn't have stayed in a courtyard here for a period of time just to shoot a movie.
After enjoying a bowl of red soup lamb and dipping the rice pudding in water with a lot of ginger oil, you can eat two bowls of zengzi rice with distinct grains. After a refreshing rain, when we left, the ancient town became new again. We have all experienced the baptism of early summer, proving that we have passed through the colorful spring and entered the bustling summer. There are no flowers here, only clumsy trees by the roadside and an ancient town without poets.
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