Cultural Profundity

It has been universally recognized of the magnificence of Hangzhou. Bai Juyi, a great poet dating back to the Tang dynasty some 1,200 years ago, once gave a comment that the city was the place most adorable in his memory. Hangzhou was honored as the “paradise on the earth” around 800 years ago, and in the note of Marco Polo, an Italian traveler about 700 years ago, the city was the “most splendid one in the world”. The China-born Taoism, as well as Buddhism, Islam, Catholic Church and Christianity, have all taken roots in the city with profuse existence of relics. As a key destination of scenery for tourists and one of the first Chinese cities of historical and cultural significance, the nationwide popularity of Hangzhou comes from the profusion of cultural heritages, the prosperity of silk and tea trade and the wealth of local specialties. Today the city is home to two sites of UNESCO’s World Heritage, thirty eight key cultural relics under state protection and forty three national items of intangible cultural heritage. Hangzhou also boasts fifteen public libraries, fifteen cultural centers, eighty four museums (or memorials), twenty theaters and two concert halls. One may read the city’s profundity of culture just from the numerous figures and their exploits in history. Da Yu, a king back from remote antiquity, devoted his life to reining the floods. Gou Jian, the king of the Yue state, was said enduring hardship for years to seek his state renaissance. Sun Quan, the king of the Wu state, ruled and guarded his land with great intelligence. Emperor Qian, the local ruler of the city, tried to save his possession and people by swearing his allegiance to the Song dynasty. Yue Fei, a general of the Southern Song Dynasty, served his motherland with unswerving loyalty. Yu Qian, a statesman of the Ming dynasty, served for the imperial court with long-term reputation of integrity. Zhang Cangshui, a national hero fighting against the invaders, treaded his path of virtue unflinchingly. Zhang Taiyan, an outstanding scholar in the period of the Republic of China, stayed unconventional all the time to the outdated society. Shen Kuo, an erudite of the Ming dynasty, spent all his life on scientific study with his records handed down for centuries. Zhu Kezhen, the ex-president of Zhejiang University, was known to seek truth merely from the facts and save his motherland with modern technology. Bai Juyi and Su Dongpo were famed for their literary works of noble ideology, while Zhou Bangyan and Zhu Shuzhen’s works both had the reputation of being subtly narrated. The Lady White Snake came across the very man in a romance on the Broken Bridge, while Su Xiaoxiao, a young and talented prostitute, was buried along the lakeside for people’s memory. Wang Yangming and Gong Zizhen, the two ancient philosophers and poets, were critical to the conventional wisdom, while Cai Yuanpei and Jing Henyi, the high-profile educators in modern China, committed themselves into the cause of enlightening people and the country as well. They are just a small part of the legendary characters on the scroll of fame. People of Hangzhou, in a word, are forever in pursuit of public well-beings and bound to rational thinking for pragmatic approaches and self-motivation. They are open-minded and creative, and are friendly to the environment and seeking in harmony with the nature. They are loyal to friends and, being armed with individual integrity of righteousness, aspire to head for success with stamina and diligence. The virtues of them may come from the prolonged history back to the Liang Zhu period, from the privileged writers like Lu Xun, from the breathtaking landscape of the West Lake, and from the legendary tale of the romance between Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. Today, Hangzhou is reputed, and will continue, to be a city with polish, harmony, magnanimity, and openness.