China News Agency, Guizhou Sandu, July 24th: "Mr. Water Book" Yang Shengzhao: Let the non-legacy water book survive first
China News Agency reporter Pu Wensi
The interview time agreed with Yang Shengzhao coincided with the hottest dog days of the year. The reporter couldn't help worrying about whether the elder, who was nearly seventy years old, could bear it, but the reply on the other end of the phone was very straightforward: "It doesn't matter. Mr. Shuishu promised others. I will definitely keep the promise.”
When I saw Yang Shengzhao, my concerns were also dispelled - a white polo shirt and casual trousers, although the hair and beard were white, the steps were still vigorous.
At the age of 13, he learned water calligraphy from his grandfather and uncle, and after the age of 22, he began to independently host local water calligraphy custom activities.
In China's only Shui Autonomous County, Sandu Shui Autonomous County in Guizhou, no one knows about Yang Shengzhao.
Yang Shengzhao is almost involved in folk activities such as divination, date selection, and ancestor worship in the Shuizu area.
Today's Yang Shengzhao is the representative inheritor of the custom of water calligraphy in Guizhou's provincial intangible cultural heritage.
In addition, he is an educator and has taught at Yangweng Primary School in his hometown since 1970.
"Mr. Shuishu is a mysterious and formidable profession. Shui people must ask Mr. Shuishu to decide according to the prompts in the book when they get married, build houses, and even start planting in spring." Yang Shengzhao According to the introduction, Shui Shu is a text created by the Shui Tribe, and it is also an ancient cultural classic that records the ancient astronomy, geography, calendar, history, philosophy and other information of the Shui Tribe.
Speaking of which, he took out an ancient ancestral water book from the bag he carried with him and showed it to reporters. On the yellowed pages were columns of handwritten characters mixed with pictographs and reversed and slanted scripts similar to regular script. A puzzling "book from the sky".
In fact, Shuishu was included in the first batch of "Chinese Archives and Documents Heritage List" as early as 2002, and was collected as a key national ancient book.
Approved by the State Council of China in 2006, the custom of water calligraphy was selected into the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
"The discovery of the Shui script was earlier than the oracle bone script. It has only a few hundred characters, but one character has multiple sounds, multiple meanings, and multiple uses." In order to facilitate the reporter's understanding, Yang Shengzhao pointed to a paragraph of text in the water book and recited it. , In just a dozen or so words, he actually recited it for a few minutes.
"The text of the Shuishu that you see is just a condensed piece of content. There are a lot of oral transmissions behind it, including the interpretation and practical application of this text. This part of the content is stored in the mind of Mr. Shuishu. Without Mr. Shuishu's interpretation, even if you know the words in the Shuishu, you will not be able to decipher the secrets in the book."
"Let's pass on men, not women, and not pass on inside" is the "iron rule" of Shuishu iterative inheritance - Mr. Shuishu can only select men with good character and high understanding as apprentices from the family.
However, in the past ten years, due to the strict rules, it was difficult for Mr. Shuishu to find a suitable inheritor. In addition, the older Shuishu masters passed away one after another, and the content of Shuishu that was passed down by word of mouth also disappeared.
In addition, as many young people go out to study and work, there has been a fault in the inheritance of Shuishu.
"The reality is like this, then let Shuishu survive first." In 2015, Yang Shengzhao broke the rules of thousands of years under pressure and recruited female apprentices for the first time, which caused a sensation.
In fact, as early as 1998, Yang Shengzhao set up a water calligraphy class in Yangweng Primary School, teaching primary school students to recognize and read the Shui script and recite the water calligraphy.
Until retiring from the position of the principal of Yangweng Elementary School, there was no interruption in the water calligraphy lessons here.
What makes Yang Shengzhao gratified is that the central and local governments attach great importance to the protection and inheritance of the history and culture of ethnic minorities. "Rescue protection" is currently being done in Sandu County and even in the entire Guizhou ethnic culture and academic circle. The work of translation and annotation and application for the World Heritage List is in full swing.
After retiring in 2015, Yang Shengzhao devoted himself to the social practice, translation, research and inheritance of Shuishu customs.
Over the years, he led the translation and publication of the water book "Sixty Dragons Preparedness", a list of precious ancient Chinese books, and guided and helped researchers to translate more than ten volumes of water books.
In 2018, Yang Shengzhao was hired by Guizhou Minzu University as a Distinguished Researcher, and is currently the only Mr. Shuishu who has been specially appointed by a university in China.
What makes Yang Shengzhao happy is that at present, the application of Qiannan Prefecture's water scriptures has achieved phased results, and the application for the "Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Region Directory" has entered the acceptance stage.
"I will do my best for the rest of my life to protect the precious culture of our aquarium." After speaking, Yang Shengzhao closed the yellowed water book in his hand and carefully put it back into his bag.
(Finish)