中国文化之旅 作者：罗学锋 开 本：16开 书号ISBN：9787511635730 定价：50.0 出版时间：2018-05-01 出版社：农业科技

中国文化之旅 节选

Part IGeography Part I Geography Chapter OneHeart of the Dragon 1.1The last hidden world——China For centuries,travelers to China have told tales of magical landscapes and surprising creatures.Chinese civilization is the world?s oldest and today——it?s largest,with well over a 1.3 billion people.It is home to more than 50 distinct ethnic groups and a wide range of traditional lifestyles,often in close partnership with nature. We know that China faces immense social and environmental problems.But there is great beauty here,too. China is home to the world?s highest mountains,vast deserts ranging from searingsearing:炽热的 hot to mind?numbingmind?numbing:令人头脑麻木的 cold,steaming forests harboring rare creatures,grassy plains beneath vast horizons,and rich tropical seas. Now for the first time ever,we can explore the whole of this great country,meet some of the surprising and exotic creatures that live here and consider the relationship of the people and wild life of China to the remarkable landscape in which they live. This is wild China. 1.2Rice and swallow in the warm subtropical south of China Our exploration of China begins in the warm,subtropical south.On the Li Riverthe Li River：里河（古文明发源地之一）漓江,fishermen and birds perch on bamboo rafts,a partnership that goes back more than a thousand years.This scenery is known throughout the world,a recurring motifmotif:主题 in Chinese paintings and a major tourist attraction. The south of China is a vast area,eight times larger than the UK.It?s a landscape of hills but also of water.It rains here for up to 250 days a year,and standing water is everywhere.In the floodplain of the Yangtze River,black?tailed godwitsgodwit:黑尾鹬(一种鸟) probe the mud in search of worms.But isn?t just wildlife that thrives in this environment. The swampy ground provides ideal conditions for a remarkable member of the grass family——Rice.The Chinese have been cultivating rice for at least 8,000 years.It has transformed the landscape. Late winter in southern Yunnan is a busy time for local farmers as they prepare theage?old paddy fields ready for the coming spring.These hill slopes of the Yuanyang County plunge nearly 2000 meters to the floor of the Red River valley.Each contains literally thousands of stacked terracesterrace:台地 carved out by hand using basic digging tools.Yunnan?s rice terraces are among the oldest human structures in China,still ploughed,as they always have been,by domesticated water buffaloes,whose ancestors originated in these very valleys. This man?made landscape is one of the most amazing engineering featsfeat:功绩 of pre?industrial China.It seems as if every square inch of land has been pressed into cultivation.As evening approaches,an age?old ritual unfolds. It?s the mating season and male paddy frogs are competing for the attention of the females.But it doesn?t always pay to draw too much attention to yourself.The Chinese pond heronheron:鹭 is a pitiless predatorpredator:捕食其他动物的动物.Even in the middle of a ploughed paddy field,nature is red in beak and claw.This may look like a slaughter but as each heron can swallow only one frog at a time,the vast majority will escape to croak another day. Terraced paddies like those of the Yuanyang County are found across much of southern China.This whole vast landscape is dominated by rice cultivation.In hilly Guizhou Province,the Miao minority have developed a remarkable rice culture.With every inch of fertile land given over to rice cultivation,the Miao build their wooden houses on the steepest and least productive hillsides.In Chinese rural life,everything has a use.Dried in the sun,manure from the cow sheds will be used as cooking fuel. It?s midday.And the Song family are tuckingtuck:吃，喝 into a lunch of rice and vegetables.Obliviousoblivious:不注意的 to the domestic chit?chat,Granddad Guyong Song has serious matters on his mind.Spring is the start of the rice growing season. The success of the crop determine how well the family will eat next year,so planting at the right time is critical.The ideal date depends on what the weather will do this year,never easy to predict.But there is some surprising help at hand. On the ceiling of the Songs? living room,a pair of red?rumpedred?rumped:红尾巴的 swallows,newly arrived from their winter migration,is busy fixing up last year?s nest.In China,animals are valued as much for their symbolic meaning as for any good they may do. Miao people believe that swallow pairs remain faithful for life,so their presence is a favour and a blessing,bringing happiness to a marriage and good luck to a home.Like most Miao dwellings,the Songs? living room windows look out over the paddy fields.From early spring,one of these windows is always left open to let the swallows come and go freely.Each year,granddad Gu notes the exact day the swallows return.Miao people believe the birds? arrival predicts the timing of the season ahead.This year,they were late.So Gu and the other community elders have agreed that rice planting should be delayed accordingly. As the Miao prepare their fields for planting,the swallows collect mud to repair their nests and chase after insects across the newly ploughed paddies.Finally,after weeks of preparation,the ordainedordained:判定的 time for planting has arrived.But first the seedlings must be uprooted from the nursery beds and bundled up ready to be transported to their new paddy higher up the hillside.All the Songs? neighbors have turned out to help with the transplanting.It?s how the community has always worked.When the time comes,the Songs will return the favor. While the farmers are busy in the fields,the swallows fly back and forth with material for their nest.

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