Tao Siyan: the watcher of Chinese cultural heritage
——Interview with Professor Tao Siyan, director of the Institute of Oriental culture and member of the Central Research Institute of culture and history
Electronic edition of Southeast University Newspaper No. 1153 (2011-05-10)
Author: Congjie
Tao Siyan is employed as a librarian of the Central Research Institute of culture and history
(the picture is from the network, the same below)
This article is from the southeast university newspaper. It was reprinted in "Nanjing No.1 middle school, the third senior school" in Xici. Now it is reprinted here to look back on the style of our alumni.
Tao Siyan, born in March 1947 in Nanjing, graduated from the 66th Senior High School of Nanjing No.1 middle school, and joined in Hongqiao commune in Hanjiang County in 1968. He graduated from the Department of architecture of Nanjing Institute of technology, the Department of Chinese language of Nanjing Normal University and the Department of Chinese language of Beijing Normal University successively. In December 1989, he obtained the doctor's degree of literature of Beijing Normal University, the first doctor of folk culture in China. Since 1982, he has been teaching in Jiangsu Institute of education and Southeast University. Now he is professor and doctoral supervisor of Art College of Southeast University, director of Oriental Culture Institute of Southeast University, vice chairman of China Folk Artists Association, vice chairman of Jiangsu Federation of literature and art, and chairman of Jiangsu Folk Artists Association. In 1993, he was granted special allowance by the State Council, in 1999, he was awarded the title of "China People's Union" and "Jiangsu Federation of literature and art" and "advanced worker of philosophy and social sciences of Jiangsu Province" in 2001.
Tao Siyan has a wide range of research contents, mainly involving the protection of China's intangible cultural heritage, China's folk custom and folk culture, the excavation and protection of marine culture, the study of ethnic minority culture in the land and the study of Chinese character cultural circle. He has published nearly 200 papers, and more than 10 papers abroad, mainly including applied folklore, Chinese auspicious things, etc.
Tao Siyan is now vice chairman of Jiangsu Provincial Committee of Zhigong party and deputy to the 11th National People's Congress. He has provided many opinions on the construction of spiritual civilization and the development of socialist cultural undertakings in the new era. On April 14, 2011, he was hired as a librarian of the Central Research Institute of culture and history. At the letter of appointment ceremony, Premier Wen held his hand and said, "welcome to work.". Tao Siyan believes that this is not only honor, but also responsibility.
On the morning of April 14, Professor Tao Siyan of Art College of our university attended the awarding ceremony of the letter of appointment of the new counselor of the State Council and the librarian of the Central Research Institute of culture and history held in Ziguangge, Zhongnanhai. When Professor Tao Siyan received the letter of appointment from Premier Wen Jiabao, the 64 year old professor Tao Siyan became the youngest librarian of the current Central Museum of culture and history. Since the establishment of the museum, 290 librarians have been employed successively. At present, only 54 are still alive. In addition to 5 librarians from other provinces, the other 49 are from Beijing. Professor Tao is the only one out of the five librarians selected.
Opportunity favors only those who are prepared
Professor Tao Siyan still doesn't know the opportunity for him to be selected as a member of the Central Museum of culture and history? This sudden honor and responsibility came out of Professor Tao's surprise because he didn't go through layers of selection, no recommender and didn't know in advance. However, looking back, it is not without trace. Professor Tao Siyan, as a deputy of the 11th National People's Congress, proposed in the proposal of the 2009 National People's Congress: strengthen the protection of cultural relics (and intangible cultural heritage). One of the seven amendments to the government's work report was proposed by Professor Tao.
Professor Tao recalled that when he shook hands with Premier Wen Jiabao and just started to introduce himself, Premier Wen said, "I know you." At that moment, Professor Tao was very surprised. After receiving the letter of appointment from Premier Wen and taking photos with him, the premier stressed: "welcome to work." This sentence made Professor Tao realize that it is not only an honor, but also a mission and a responsibility to be elected as a member of the Central Museum of culture and history. I should make more suggestions and suggestions for the development of our country and the rejuvenation of our nation.
Be the watchman of Chinese cultural heritage
At the appointment ceremony, the premier told the librarians to dare to tell the truth, to open up their minds and to speak freely.
As a librarian of the Central Museum of culture and history, he should write a research report every year to draw lessons from history and foreign experience, and put forward reference and criticism for the State Council from the perspective of national culture, national security and other major issues from the policy level. The premier asked all the librarians to dare to tell the truth, to speak widely and to speak freely. Professor Tao was told by an old generation that their comments were sent by direct train to the relevant leaders of the State Council. Therefore, we are required to have real talents and practical learning on the one hand, and on the other hand, we should use our own knowledge to care about national affairs, jump out of our own professional scope, and focus on the whole country from the policy level and national interests, so as to serve the development of the country.
In fact, Professor Tao Siyan has been striving to be a watchman of Chinese cultural heritage with his professional knowledge in recent years. He has his own unique perspective and interpretation on the functions and properties of the newly built Jinling weaving mansion and its Cao) Qin memorial hall, Hongloumeng literature hall and Nanjing Yunjin Art Museum, as well as the historical and cultural buildings or blocks such as XINANLI commercial street community in Nanjing. He dared to say that he played a positive role in protecting the historical and cultural heritage from the interference of artificial fake antiques and excessive commercialization and opening.
Correctly grasp the origin of Chinese and foreign history and culture
After being hired as a member of the Central Museum of culture and history, Professor Tao Siyan's first task is to submit his latest article "Beware of the introduction and hot speculation of Japanese belief and culture" to the internal Journal of the central government, "State Affairs Consultation". Professor Tao Siyan pointed out in his article that in recent years, many Western cultures have been introduced into China, such as Christian Valentine's day, Christmas, Halloween and so on, which are known to all. However, the infiltration of Japanese culture, many people do not know, or even mistakenly think it is Chinese culture. For example, the traffic control bureau of Beijing Public Security Bureau cancelled "four" in the license plate number. In fact, like other figures, "four" is a valuable asset in China's intangible cultural heritage. As an auspicious number, "four" represents the integrity and comprehensiveness of Chinese traditional meaning, such as four sides of space, four seasons of time, four characters of ancient coins, four characters of idioms, four legends, four beauties, four Xi Tangyuan, four treasures of study and so on. Now because "four" is similar to death in Japanese, Japanese taboo four, so "four" is not used in China Even the traffic control bureau of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, our government department, abandoned the license plate number with the ending number of "four" by the user. In fact, it was the pawn of Japanese culture.
Another example is that on New Year's Eve, many Buddhist temples and temples are engaged in clock striking activities. Most Chinese people think that it is the restoration of traditional Chinese culture. In fact, it is a Japanese religious custom. In the past, it was taboo to go to the temple on New Year's Eve in China. The traditional division of labor in China is: Buddhism is in charge of the affairs of the dead; Taoism is in charge of the affairs of the living. New year's Eve is the last day of the year. It is also the time when the Yang Qi is the weakest and the Yin Qi is the most abundant. Therefore, there is no moon on New Year's Eve. Therefore, all the Chinese New Year's customs revolve around the center of "avoiding Yin". Setting off firecrackers, affixing couplets, affixing money, eating New Year's Eve meal, burning pots, drinking Tusu wine, beating drums to welcome new students and so on, all of which are aimed at "avoiding Yin". Although Buddhism and clocks were introduced into Japan from China, who would go to the temple with the most Yin Qi on New Year's Eve? "New Year's Eve crash" began in the late period of the cultural revolution in China. At that time, Hanshan Temple in Suzhou held a crash to take care of Japanese tourists coming to China. Unexpectedly, it was imitated everywhere and spread across the country in just over 30 years.
Another example: during the first and second famous city fairs held in Nanjing, thousands of paper cranes were hung on the walls of Xuanwu Lake and the gate of China. It is also a Japanese tradition to pray with thousands of paper cranes. There are also such phenomena as putting red belts on trees and hanging wooden signs, which are also the belief culture of Japan. In recent years, the belief culture of Japan has been widely spread in China, and its obscurity is very large. Many Chinese people, even some officials, can't tell which is Chinese culture and which is foreign culture. This kind of "cultural ignorance" indirectly helped the rapid introduction of foreign culture, and to a certain extent, squeezed the traditional Chinese culture.
To this end, Professor Tao Siyan called on government officials not to participate in such activities and to inform the people of the origin of these customs.
Explore and rescue China's marine culture
Talking about some ideas about the future, Professor Tao Siyan thinks that a new round of coastal development fever has been formed. From Bohai Bay to Beibu Bay, Jiangsu, Shandong and other coastal provinces have successively established coastal development zones, and some places have begun to build artificial islands. Professor Tao is very worried that China's coastal areas will become a large coastal industrial park without organized cultural protection. We must leave the space for cultural development in this round of development, so as to make the overall consideration of cultural protection and economic development. Especially since ancient times, China has always regarded itself as "Middle Earth", lacking systematic research on marine culture and the collection and collation of relevant data. We should mend the situation and carry out large-scale research as soon as possible. To explore and rescue China's marine culture is not only from the perspective of China's cultural protection, but also for the simultaneous development of economy, culture, society and politics. At the same time, more importantly, it is conducive to the maintenance of China's maritime rights.
According to Professor Tao Siyan, the subject of marine culture is very big and meaningful. It includes fishery, salt industry, transportation, immigration, myths and legends, products, charts, chronicles, military affairs, folk customs, etc. he hopes to mobilize the national strength to do this subject, and spend five years to research, organize, think, judge and research so as to produce valuable results 。
The year of Hua Jia has already passed the working time in the minds of many people. For Tao Siyan, 64, the youngest librarian of the Central Research Institute of culture and history, all this is just beginning. At present, Tao Siyan is also a consultant of China Folk Artists Association, vice chairman of Jiangsu Federation of literary and art circles, chairman of Jiangsu Folk Artists Association, and has been engaged in folklore and art research for a long time. For the future, he also has many ideas, such as the study of the national culture of China's inland areas, the comparative study of the culture of Chinese characters, and so on. Although these topics have already transcended his academic field, he wants to advocate, promote and participate, because in his heart there is always a responsibility and mission, and he will go forward for it!
Lion's head with mushroom and radish
Dried garlic has a chew
Stir fry a plate of Malan head
Stewed bone with Chinese yam and fungus
——13 April