charm of ancient song dynasty lingers in ningbo -k8凯发官网

△museum of fine arts (mfa) boston displays buddhist painting luohan manifesting himself as an eleven-headed guanyin drawn in ningbo during the southern song dynasty.

what is the charm of china’s song dynasty (960-1279 a.d.)? how should we define it and where can we find it? for the past few months, these topics have been under lively discussion among the literate community in zhejiang.

“宋韵”是什么？宋韵是哪种“韵”？“宋韵”往何处寻？大概是这几个月浙江文化界讨论最热闹的话题。

on august 31, 2021, the culture conference held by zhejiang provincial committee of the communist party of china announced the implementation of a major project to revive china’s song dynasty culture (song culture). as a cultural hallmark with distinctive zhejiang characteristics, song culture deserves to shine not only in our times, but also in future generations.

2021年下半年举行的浙江省委文化工作会议提出，宋韵文化是具有中国气派和浙江辨识度的重要文化标识，要实施“宋韵文化传世工程”，让千年宋韵在新时代“流动”起来，“传承”下去。

in 1127, the imperial zhao family retreated south when the original capital in the north was captured by jurchen invaders. later, hangzhou (then known as lin’an) was designated the new capital city of the southern song. never had ningbo been so close to the central authorities. during the dynasty, the royal family introduced a high taste in art to zhejiang: in addition to the love of calligraphy and painting, it features the minimalist aesthetic for ceramics and furniture, the exquisite pursuit of incense burning, flower arranging, tea etiquette and guqin music. there was also an inclusiveness to the lively academic trends that included confucianism, buddhism and taoism. this temperament imposed a significant impact upon literati as well as scholars and contributed to the flourishing of civic life to an unprecedented degree.

靖康之难，宋室南渡，以临安（今杭州）为都城。临安周边，包括今天的宁波，皆成京畿之地。宁波历史上，从未如南宋，距离王朝的中心如此之近。赵宋朝廷，从北方带来了从他们祖先身上承袭而来的一以贯之的“文艺范”，对于书法、绘画的爱重，对瓷器、家具的极简化审美，对焚香、插花、茶道、琴学各种生活细节的雕琢，对儒释道以及各种活跃的学术思潮保持一定接纳度的胸怀……这种气质影响到整个文人士大夫阶层的选择，也让市民生活繁荣到前所未有的地步。

thanks to the era and its geographical advantages, ningbo – known as “mingzhou” during the southern song – saw the culmination of its full development in politics, the economy and culture. for politics, the shi family of siming, ningbo had been playing a decisive role in the southern song court for over 80 years; this case was traditionally invoked as the saying “aristocrats in purple share the same origin in mingzhou.” in relation to the economy, the port of mingzhou – as the economic anchor of the southern song – made a great contribution to foreign trading and customs revenue. in terms of culture, great local educators like the five masters of the reign of qingli (1041-1048) and the four masters of the reign of chunxi (1174-1189 a.d.) in southern song planted the seeds of education from which grew the tree of knowledge in ningbo.

在时代影响下，同时得益于地理位置，南宋的宁波无论在政治、经济还是文化生活方面都迎来全面发展的高潮。“满朝紫衣贵，尽是四明人”。四明史家掌握了南宋超半数时期的政治话语权；因为坐拥良港，南宋的外贸、关税收入很多时候依赖明州港；包括文化，宁波教育史上鼎鼎有名的“庆历五先生”、“淳熙四先生”皆诞生于宋朝。

the contemporary revival of song culture is no mere backsliding of modern chinese society into an ancient period but, rather, an acknowledgement and appreciation of song’s lingering charm. back then, our ancestors pursued an exquisite material life as well as a spiritual one. hence, they cultivated a high-level aesthetic taste for philosophy, art, literature, and creatively sought deep insights into everyday life. their advancements in technology and cultural refinement – from so many decades ago – have profoundly affected the life and temperament of their modern chinese descendants.

当今我们讲宋韵，并不是要让人们“穿越”回那个时代，宋韵的重点在于“韵”字。宋代人对生活的雕琢、在物质生活之余对精神文化的追求，他们的审美情操、艺术感官、文学素养，对日常生活纯粹、丰富、多样的洞察力和创造力，很多时候感染、浸润、滋养着千载之后的我们。

in ningbo many precious remnants of ancient song survive. the baoguo temple, built during the northern song, is the second oldest preserved wooden structure in zhejiang as well as regions south of the yangtze river. by dongqian lake, a stone sculpture park accommodates china’s largest and most exquisite tomb passage relic and showcases the most intact stone carvings from the southern song. not far from the park, hengsheng and miaogouhou stone archways are still standing as the first of their kind in china. in addition, a large batch of southern song artifacts had been excavated from tianfeng pagoda in downtown. among other song relics around the city, ships, bridges, pagodas, tablet memorial monuments and ceramics are the most typical.

细数下来，宁波尚能见到的宋代遗存并不少。全省乃至江南数一数二的北宋木构建筑保国寺大殿在宁波；填补南宋皇陵石像艺术空白的南宋群臣墓道石刻在宁波；全国最早的石牌坊——宋代横省、庙沟后石牌坊在宁波；还有代表性的宋船、宋桥、宋塔、宋碑、宋瓷，包括天封塔地宫出土的一大批南宋文物，珍贵无比。

there are other representative cultural relics that have left the area but which remind the world of the heights achieved by ningbo’s culture and art during the southern song dynasty. the highly renowned six chronicles of siming compiled in the song and yuan dynasties is one example. its block-printed edition in the song dynasty is still preserved in the national library. the five hundred luohans, a collection of rare buddhist paintings from the southern song dynasty, is now stored in japan and the united states. in further reference to the buddhism, ningbo was also responsible for the passing of buddhist teachings from tendou yuwang to japan over thousands of years.

还有些文物，它们离开了宁波，但同样在世界不同角落代表、彰显、提醒着世人南宋宁波文化艺术达到的高度。在全国地方史志上都能够引以为傲的“宋元四明六志”，至今仍存有珍贵的宋刻本，收藏于国家图书馆；美术史学界绕不开去的南宋佛画珍品《五百罗汉图》，而今分藏日本与美国；更不必说从天童育王传至日本的佛学宗脉，历千年香火不息。

“mingzhou”, the ancient name of ningbo during the song dynasty, embodies the memory and the history of this city. on november 11, ningbo evening news released the first episode of its short film series “the charm of song culture in mingzhou” through yongshang app. scan the qr codes below and join us in the journey to unveil the elegant spirit derived from ancient ningbo.

宋朝，宁波很长时间都被叫作“明州”。这是一个刻印在宁波人记忆深处的名字，代表一个古老的过去。近日，《宁波晚报》和甬上app已开设了“寻宋·明州”栏目，寻找这个名字背后代表的风雅。

by gu jiayi

translator: pan wenjie（intern）

proofreaders: puyang rong, huang dawang, jason mowbray

editor: shi yiqiu

senior editor: ren xiaoyun

editorial director: zhao peng