In China, the problem of agriculture has never been a simple agricultural problem, nor a rural problem, nor even a peasant problem, but the lifeblood of the Chinese nation.

Thousands of years of Chinese civilization history, the root vein is our ancestors in the process of farming, close to nature, observe the law of heaven and earth, and then apply the law of heaven and earth to the agricultural counter-test, and slowly to the historical process of superstructure above agriculture. This historical process has doomed the Chinese nation to be in harmony with nature, the model gene of Chinese civilization is the unity of heaven and man, and the Chinese people, no matter what kind of confusion they experience, will eventually choose a way to live close to nature, return to nature, and harmonize their mind and matter with the law of unity of nature. Path.

General Planning Map of Hexi Village Pastoral Complex

When we look at China's rural problems, we should not only look at them in history, but also in the world. Only in this way can we rationally see the current situation of our country's rural areas, and can we fully understand the advantages and disadvantages of our rural work, and find the real development path in the future.

Historically, from the Qing Dynasty to today, the great changes that the countryside has undergone in the past 100 years are unprecedented. In the Qing Dynasty, the rural order in China was relatively stable, but the peasants lived in extreme poverty.

There are two main reasons for the stability of the order. One is that the traditional culture was dogmatized in the Qing Dynasty. The ruling class of the Qing Dynasty ruled for hundreds of years. The understanding of the traditional Chinese culture is not based on the real innermost feelings of heaven and man. It is more about the application of traditional knowledge to people's ruling level. The fundamental reason is that the ethnic minorities have been nomadic outside the Customs for many years and have no deep historical experience of contacting with nature, so they do not have a clear understanding of the essence of the traditional culture of the Central Plains. Although the Qing Dynasty also established its country with Confucianism, it followed doctrines more than acted from the heart. Therefore, the dogmatic ethics of the ruling class, the moral orientation and the rules of conduct have become the norms of life in most rural areas of China. They have gradually penetrated into the hearts of the people and become norms, which gradually contributed to the ignorance of the rural areas. Second, with the gradual development of a society, the distribution of wealth and power is gradually stable, and social hierarchies are gradually established. The gap between the strength of ordinary people and the financial stratum is widening, and the level of information accepted is then divided. This absolute disparity of power is also one of the main reasons for the relative stability of social order.

Because of the above reasons, the Chinese people at the bottom of the society at that time were very poor from thought to life. Of course, there are a few villages with good customs and materials, but they mostly rely on one side of the wise men, or the characteristics of water and soil, which is not very representative.

Speaking of this, there is a cultural phenomenon in Chinese rural areas, which is the rural differences of different cultural ecology. The administrative planning that China has continued to this day is mostly a cultural ecosphere inherited from history. The cultural ecology of different provinces is different. Different cities in the same province have their own characteristics as well as the same provincial characteristics. This is fundamentally different from the American artificial administrative division. China's rural cultural ecology is the most obvious brand of regional cultural ecology. We will find that, wherever sages, virtues and celebrities have appeared in history, they are relatively good in terms of village customs. At least, they can be orderly and respectful of filial piety and etiquette. This is what is said in 'The English Version of the Great Learning', 'What the Great Learning teaches, is to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; and to rest in the highest excellence. .' Practical results.

During the period of the Republic of China, the situation of the Chinese countryside did not change qualitatively. The reason is that the revolution of the Republic of China was from the top to the bottom, and the people's ideological understanding and life style were basically not involved. There are also some university scholars engaged in rural construction research and practice, such as Liang Shuming, whose knowledge is extraordinary, but based on the uneven season, it did not have great effect at that time. Looking at the 'Rural Construction Theory' now, it is also much more profound than the current pattern of some scholars.

It was not until the Communist Party of China began its bottom-up revolution that the seriousness of China's rural problems was truly recognized. To be precise, it was Comrade Mao Zedong who guided the Chinese revolution to a fundamental revolution, and only such a revolution could solve the serious problems left over in the countryside in China for hundreds of years. Many people believe that the Communist Party's revolution was too radical and broke the inherent order of the Chinese countryside. This kind of understanding is narrow, neither objective nor macroscopic. Objectively and macroscopically, the inheritance of Chinese culture by the Qing Dynasty itself is unhealthy. The suppression of rural areas in China has made rural culture extremely poor and weak. Without a thorough revolution, there is no way for China's real traditional culture to return. Moreover, the deep foundation of Chinese culture will not be undermined by any revolution in a short period of time.

Judging from the current historical period in which we live, the present historical stage is a cultural vacuum period after the revolution of rural order. The culture of other areas in this historical period will pour into the countryside of China. The state shown may be short-term self-confidence, and the behavior shown is to restore history. To imitate the West, to copy others, and so on. But in the long run, this process is the act of re-screening our own cultural veins. It is believed that there will be a group of great virtuous scholars all over the world who will sink down to do research, make clear the truth, review the ancient and modern times at home and abroad, lead the wave of cultural reconstruction, and determine their respective cultural genes for each region.

Therefore, I think this round of people's attention to the countryside is a process of remodeling and returning to traditional Chinese culture, as well as a process of cultural inheritance and rebirth of the Chinese nation, and also a process of great integration of world civilization.

However, any movement that does not have its own growth will have corresponding negative effects. At present, many villages are blindly listening to the wind, but they are not good at advocating and thinking about themselves, and the consequences will be bad. Summarizing several kinds of phenomena requires caution. Firstly, we should lay stress on short-term benefits and quicken profits while giving up fundamentals. In order to make short-term and fast profits, some places sell land, which deprives the village of land, culture, people and land. It is a last resort. Secondly, the consciousness of small peasants is too conservative. Some places overly see the value left behind by the context, but do not accept the information of the times, do not improve infrastructure, ignore the development of the times, some places left behind by humanities and nature are still good, but macroscopically it is not worth promoting. Third, we should not mobilize peasants or rely too much on them. It is impossible to revitalize the countryside without mobilizing peasants and letting them participate, relying too much on peasants, not introducing advanced social capital, high-end talents and too low the pattern of rural revitalization.

In this round of Rural Revitalization movement, it is also the stage when our country's basic economic factors tend to be complete and new and intelligent species begin to be created. A number of brands with cultural depth, experience and regional nutrient roots will gradually emerge. So this Rural Revitalization must aim at forming rural brand. To make a big design with the integration of the world, the whole country and the city and countryside. Deep excavation of brand connotations, so that culture, customs, rituals, music, production, life, goods, operations, construction, nature and other elements of the integration, interconnected to the rural brand of the ecological environment. Only by taking the road of rural brand is the real way for the village to survive, live well, and materialize the Chinese cultural brand. It is also a real way for China's traditional culture of the unity of heaven and man to better inherit and apply. In other words, the new commercial civilization is the new era path of faith preaching.

The work of rural branding is a series of complex and systematic integration, including cultural research and excavation, historical textual research, cultural creativity, aesthetic design, functional design, product design, architectural planning and design, human settlements order design, management order design, village style training and guidance, etc.

Hexi Village Village Vitalizing Brand System and The system of enriching the people

But from another point of view, the doctrine of the mean has a core will to say so, the status of heaven, the education of all things. The meaning of this sentence is that any ecosystem, as long as it finds the two major foundations of heaven and earth, stands firmly, and slowly in the middle of order and ecology will naturally grow. So what is the sky and the earth in the countryside?

In my opinion, the work of rural branding is the design of brand and the construction of village infrastructure. Brand design system, comprehensive and orderly, perfect rural infrastructure, clear land property rights. Industry grows naturally, commodities are naturally accessible, folkways are naturally enriched, and brands are naturally nurtured.

Specifically, a team that really concentrates on designing and researching villages is particularly important. At present, there are several ways of rural reconstruction that I don't think are worth advocating. One is to find a design institute and design the village without visiting the site several times, and then give it to the builder for transformation. After transformation, most of the villages become urban communities, or let people adapt to the new building pattern and bring about changes in habits; the other is to blindly go upstairs for centralized resettlement, unless necessary resettlement, for example. Necessary needs of superior planning, natural disaster avoidance, etc. Centralized resettlement destroys the village culture from its roots, and the relationship with nature and human relations has completely disappeared. It's no exaggeration to say that the village upstairs is a big tree uprooted, dead.

I think this round of Rural Revitalization in China should rely on the brand of rural areas. The process of branding must be based on the context of the village to do in-depth research, from the classics, literature and philosophy, to clothing, food, shelter and transportation, to ritual and music customs, to do a systematic and thorough reorganization. Then match the team of big design, do the symbolization and systematization of culture, combined with the actual congenital conditions, promote the employment of residents, grow the local industry. At the same time, the culture will be transformed into products, and then the brand will be formed, so as to realize the cultural export of Chinese culture with rural brand as the unit.

—— Zhao Xingpeng

October 27, 2017 - Book in Yihetang, Beijing