Riding the wind of rebirth

After reciting the scriptures, Chi Ri signaled everyone to raise their wine bowls and take a big sip together. This officially marked the start of the feast.

Zhou Zhi then remembered that he still had a letter of introduction from Shu University in his bag, and asked Tu Liangzhi: "I have a letter of introduction in my bag, do you want to see it, Uncle Tu?"

"Eat, eat. It's not the right time to read documents in the dark." Tu Liangzhi picked up the wine bowl and said, "Come on, welcome Zhou Zhi to our remote place."

"Uncle Tu, when you mentioned Zhouzhi, it sounded like you were talking about pork elbow." Wu Renzhong said with a smile.

"My classmates and teachers in my hometown actually call me that." Zhou Zhi said with a smile, "It's quite intimate to hear Uncle Tu calling me that."

Everyone took another big gulp of wine, and after two sips, Zhou Zhi felt a heat rushing from his stomach directly to his forehead. He felt a little overwhelmed, so he quickly had a bowl of sauerkraut pumpkin soup to fill his stomach.

Meals are served late in the countryside, and even later in Lianhe Township. The grain station was the only place with electric lights, but Tu Liangzhi was reluctant to turn them on, not even to light the oil lamp. Everyone ate by the light of the fire pit. The light shone from below upwards, making the lighting conditions in the room a little weird. Add to that the large wall of ritual instruments and utensils, and if someone was timid, they might not be able to finish the meal.

However, Zhou Zhi did not have this problem. He was not used to it at the beginning, but after living as a Tujia guest for several years, he had already gotten used to it.

So now I am very calm.

Chi Ri and others were used to how the work teams looked when they first came. Now Zhou Zhi acted like one of the family members who was not shy about it. Such performance certainly surprised everyone.

It should be said that as long as there is enough oil, Yi food is not too bad, especially the bamboo shoots and ferns in the light pickled cabbage, which are actually quite crispy and refreshing.

As the wine started to flow and the food started to eat, everyone started talking.

As a great Bimo, Jikechiri is a very wise man, and his life experience also tells him that the attitudes of people who come to the village from outside will often turn 180 degrees.

Hearing that Zhou Zhi was interested in Bimo culture, Jikechiri was not very happy. He had been to similar information collection activities in the county and state cultural centers before and had collected a lot of information bit by bit. He also had some introductory books on the Bimo system, but they were still rough.

Anyway, Jike Chiri just kept shaking his head when he talked about it.

Zhou Zhiyi found out the dates when the information was compiled and it became clear: it was in the 1950s and 1970s.

The perspectives on traditional culture during these two periods are different. Materials are organized more with a critical attitude, or the focus is more on those areas that deserve criticism, while there is a lack of sufficient attention and understanding of traditional culture as a whole.

Such books are obviously biased and not comprehensive, not only for ethnic minorities, but also for the Han people themselves. Zhou Zhi discovered this when he was studying the old version of Jiachuan County Annals. However, Zhou Zhi also found a benefit in the process of studying local historical records, that is, although the local comrades at that time had a very biased perspective when writing, they were very serious and meticulous when conducting field investigations and collecting materials.

In other words, when they were writing their books, their perspective and focus may have been problematic, resulting in very little material for them to cite. This caused a large amount of field survey data to be piled up in the county cultural center and the county annals office's reference room, and perhaps less than one-tenth or one-twentieth of the data was used in the book.

A lot of information collected in that era became valuable materials later.

Because with the passing of the parties involved and interviewed at that time, many historical materials have been buried with them in the long river of history. Only these materials, with a glimpse of the history of that year, remain in the world.

Zhou Zhi had a rough idea in his mind and was wondering when he could go to the county cultural center again.

"Why would Elbow be interested in these?" Tu Liangzhi picked up a piece of braised beef with his other hand and picked up the wine bowl with his other hand.

The braised beef and the aged wine were so delicious. He had eaten it last year at the county people's congress. Now he couldn't stop his chopsticks from moving, so he had to interrupt himself by constantly toasting.

"Brother Tu, have you read the news about the country's recent UNESCO initiative in the newspaper?" Zhou Zhi and Tu Liangzhi asked as they clinked their wine bowls.

"We only have the People's Daily and Sichuan Daily here, and Liangshan Daily, which is delivered every two weeks." Wu Renzhong said, "But we haven't seen any of this initiative you mentioned."

"Then let me give you a brief introduction." Zhou Zhi said: "Our country advocates that everything that has been passed down from human ancestors around the world can be called historical heritage."

"These heritages can be divided into three categories. One is natural heritage, which is mountains, rivers, forests and lakes. The other is cultural heritage, which is what our ancestors created artificially from the day they became human beings, and has been passed down from generation to generation and still exists in the world today."

"This type of heritage can be divided into two categories," Zhou Zhi explained. "One is cultural heritage that exists in material form, that is, the tangible, physical part, including ancient sites, ancient tombs, ancient buildings, grottoes, stone carvings, murals, important modern and contemporary historical sites and representative buildings, and other immovable cultural relics; important physical objects, artworks, documents, manuscripts, books and other movable cultural relics from various periods in history; and historical and cultural cities with outstanding universal value in terms of architectural style, uniform distribution or integration with the environment and scenery, etc."

"Another category is called intangible cultural heritage, which refers to various social practices, expressions of ideas, forms of expression, knowledge, skills, and related tools, objects, handicrafts and cultural sites that are part of the culture of various communities, groups, and sometimes even individuals."

"This kind of intangible cultural heritage is often passed down from generation to generation and is constantly recreated in the process of building society and interacting with nature and history. It not only provides a common sense of identity and historical continuity for a specific group of people, but also helps to maintain the cultural diversity and human creativity in the world. It is the most dynamic and important component of cultural diversity, the crystallization of human civilization and the most precious common wealth, carrying the wisdom of mankind and the civilization and glory of human history."

"Elbow, I don't quite understand what you're saying." Tu Liangzhi felt that this kind of words and phrases were too confusing and even more intoxicating than 70-proof corn liquor.

But Old Chi Ri was looking at the fire pit quietly. If you looked closely, there seemed to be some light in his eyes. (End of this chapter)