【Prologue】
Tonight, I sat alone under the moonlight in the Hexi Corridor. There was silent in all fields, and the snow lines in Qilian Mountains were shining with a faint blue light, like a silver chain that stretched across the ages and presents. The wind blows from Yumen Pass, carrying fine sand and dust and smoke from Huo Qubing's army two thousand years ago. I suddenly realized: On this land, every grain of sand recognizes the word "family and country", and every gust of wind will recite "Every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the world." This is not rhetoric, it is gene. There are 7.8 billion people around the world, only the Chinese nation has carved "family and country" into its bones, carving it so deeply that the enemy has to secretly copy it.
1. Home on oracle bones, country in bronze
On the tortoise shell of Yinxu, the earliest character "home" is to raise a pig under a roof, symbolizing abundance and bloodline; the character "four" is to guard a piece of land with a mouthful of spear. Although the roof is small, it shelters from wind and rain; the land is inch, but it carries mountains and rivers. A set of passwords from the sword and pen three thousand years ago carved a set of passwords on the tortoise shell: where there is a roof, there must be guards; where there is a guarded territory, there must be a heart for home.
So, the women of the Shang Dynasty could wear armor to go to war, or comb their young children's hair in front of the altar; so, the Zhou people made rituals and music, expanded the "home" into "the world", and refined the "country" into "country". Since then, "family and country" is no longer two single characters, but a dark river, sneaking in bronzes, bamboo slips, inscriptions, poems, and even drums and horns that change every time.
2. The Great Wall: A crack that was repeatedly painted by tears and sweat
Western people look at the Great Wall and say it is a miracle in the era of cold weapons; Chinese people look at the Great Wall and see a family tree that has been torn and sewn.
——Meng Tian of the Qin Dynasty led an army of 300,000 to "stop the Huns for more than 700 miles", and the Great Wall stood up for the first time, like the backbone of his father.
——Li Guang, Wei Qing and Huo Qubing of the Han Dynasty went out to the frontier, extending the Great Wall into a rushing blood vessel, allowing the heartbeat of the "family and country" to reach the northern desert.
——Qi Jiguang trained troops in Jizhou in the Ming Dynasty, filling the gaps in the bricks and stones of the Great Wall with glutinous rice slurry, and also filled the sigh of "I don't want to be a marquis, I hope the waves will be smooth."
To this day, if you stroke a blue brick in Badaling, you can still touch the slight salt stains on your fingertips - that is the sweat shed by the soldiers guarding the pass during the night patrol, and the tears shed when the mistresses sent their cold clothes for thousands of miles. The Great Wall is never cold, and it has survived in its body temperature for two thousand years.
3. Letters from home and mountains and rivers: a "WeChat Voice" that has been late for two thousand years
A broken Han Dynasty piece was unearthed from the Xuanquan site in Dunhuang, which was written in official script: "Feng Jin asked you a question to Chun, fortunately, don't forget each other."
This is not an ordinary love letter, but a "family letter" written by the border guard to his wife. In just twelve words, it contains a jade pendant (symbolizes peace) and a sound of "Don't forget each other" (prepare the "forget-me-not" after a thousand years).
A "Tianzhang Book" was also unearthed at the same location:
"Tians soldier Feng Wuzhe, Changpingli, Huaiyang County, has six family members and eat eight dou of food."
It turns out that border soldiers of the Han Dynasty could receive "family food" every month. The state supports his parents, wife, and children for him, so that he can keep the pass with peace of mind.
Two thousand years later, we told the soldiers guarding the border in the mobile video that "everything is fine at home" and reached a time travel with the "fortunateness" on the Han bamboo slips.
"Family" and "Country" have never been zero-sum: the country holds the country on its head, and the family holds the country on its chest.
4. The enemy is also stealing his troops: from "The Art of War" to chip warfare
The American West Point Military Academy listed "The Art of War" as a must-read book. The famous Japanese general Takeda Shingen wrote "Wind Forest Volcano" into the military flag. After Napoleon was defeated in Waterloo, he sighed: "I read "The Art of War" early, and it will not be today."
Today's chip war, Chinese engineers translated "soldiers are the tricks" into "iterative trial and error, small steps, and quick runs"; and translated "soldiers and plan" into "patent layout, standards first".
The enemy has learned our words, but cannot learn the warmth behind them. Because they don’t have a Great Wall, they can put every drop of sweat into the cracks of the bricks; they don’t have a letter from home, so that the garrison soldiers can be willing to “wipe golden armor through battles in yellow sand.”
So, they can only learn form but not spirit; they can only steal tricks but not heart.
5. Tears' scene: When the word "country" is written into the chip of the ID card
In 2011, Libya evacuated its nationality. 36,000 Chinese people boarded the warship in artillery fire, and a small yellow sticker was posted on the inner page of the passport: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China asked the military and political organs of various countries to provide convenience and necessary assistance to the licensee."
A middle-aged man cried with his daughter on the deck: "Dad takes you home."
At that moment, the word "country" on the passport was harder than the steel plate of any warship.
In 2020, Wuhan will be locked down. Community grid workers knock on each door and leave the last bag of rice to the elderly living alone; couriers speed on the empty streets, hanging medicines on the door handle; the construction sites of Huoshenshan and Leishenshan are brightly lit, and hundreds of millions of people are "cloud supervisors" online.
———The family is the smallest country, and the country is tens of millions of families.
When 1.4 billion people pressed the pause button at the same time just to protect the lives of strangers, Western media exclaimed: "Why are Chinese so obedient?"
We smiled: "That's not obedient, that's going home."
6. Youth and Ashes: Carve the name into the mountains and rivers
The Galwan Valley on the Sino-Indian border, Chen Xiangrong, a soldier born in the 2000s, died. The battle slogan he wrote during his lifetime was: "Clear love is only for China."
The place where he fell was 4,200 meters above sea level and no grass grew. The comrades took his ashes back to Pingnan, Fujian and scattered them in the stream at the entrance of the village. The stream flows into the Minjiang River, and the Minjiang River flows into the East China Sea, which is connected to the Pacific Ocean.
So, a stream continued to guard the border for him.
Guizhou Sky Eye FAST, scientist Nan Rendong left his last words before his death: "Let me be buried next to the telescope, I want to continue listening to the universe."
So, a radio telescope continued to watch the stars for him.
Under the Great Wall bricks, the Yellow River embankment, the South China Sea reef plate, the Everest base camp... Every inch of the mountains and rivers is buried with the Chinese name.
Ashes blend with the soil, and their names are with the mountains and rivers.
This is the ultimate romance of "family and country": life is the children of the country; death is the stars of mountains and rivers.
7. The "family and country" barrage of the post-00s: When "the rise and fall of the world" becomes the catchphrase
Boy's "Those Things That Rabbit That Year" barrage splashed: "I have no regrets in this life and I will still be in the flower planting family in the next life."
The Awakening Age was broadcast, and the scenes of Chen Yannian and Chen Qiaonian appearing to die. The barrage instantly blanked for three seconds, and then "our self-improvement."
Henan rains heavily, passengers trapped on Metro Line 5 were rescued. A teenager told reporters: "I have learned CPR. I am Chinese, and I have saved people."
——"The rise and fall of the world, every man is responsible for it" is no longer a bold text in the textbook, but a shortcut key on the keyboard of the post-00s.
They made "family and country" into emoticons: Wu Jing's "Chinese Passport" animation, accompanied by the text "Motherland takes you home"; wrote "family and country" into the game ID: Someone named it "The Great Wall Watcher" in Honor of Kings; sang "family and country" into Rap: "The Yangtze River and the Yellow River are my veins, and the Five Mountains Kunlun are my bones."
Is it light? Lightweight.
Is it heavy? Thicker than bronze.
Because light is expression, and heavy is genes.
8. Ending: Translate "family and country" into Esperanto
A couplet was posted at the door of the United Nations peacekeeping force's Chinese camp:
"Presist the sword to defend the country, and help the people with kindness and love."
Foreign soldiers asked: "What does it mean?"
Chinese officer translated: "We protect our home, and we also protect yours."
At that moment, the parallelism of Chinese and the plainness of English completed the handshake; at that moment, "family and country" had the first Esperanto version.
It is no longer a password that is exclusive to Chinese people, but a common emotion among human beings:
——Protect the lights under your roof and respect the stars outside the fences of others.
【Final Chapter】
Back in the Hexi Corridor, the night was already deep. I got up and patted the sand on the lapel of my clothes, and suddenly I heard camel bells coming from a distance. Dingdang, dingdang, like a string of upside-down time.
I think, a thousand years later, when the five-star red flag is raised at the Mars base and when the blue earth is reflected on the porthole of the interstellar spacecraft, those descendants who are traveling far away will also chant two words gently in a strange galaxy:
Home. country.
And tears.
Because these two words are always the birthmarks we recognize with the universe.
