Building a beautiful countryside cannot be taken for granted

The one-sided understanding of rural construction is mainly manifested in three aspects: the first is to think that foreign is beautiful, the second is to replace rural culture with urban culture, and the third is to attach importance to appearance rather than content. To understand the value of the countryside, we must first realize that the village is an indivisible whole, and pay special attention to the differences of the countryside and the irreplaceability of the value of the countryside. In this way, the construction of beautiful villages will take fewer detours.

According to the concept of beautiful China put forward by the 18th CPC National Congress, the No. 1 document of the CPC Central Committee in 2013 put forward the goal of building a "beautiful countryside" for the first time, and beautiful rural construction has become a hot topic. People began to think about where the "beauty" should be in the beautiful countryside. It should be said that the establishment of beautiful villages has both joys and sorrows. The good news is that a lot of experience has been created in various places, and a number of most beautiful villages with natural beauty, life beauty and social beauty have emerged. The worry is that there are many mistakes in people's understanding of the beautiful countryside, which leads to the transformation of the countryside by taking it for granted, resulting in the destruction of a large area of the countryside, laying hidden dangers to social stability.

The one-sided understanding of rural construction is mainly reflected in three aspects:

One is to simply think that foreign is beautiful. Try to replace China's "native" villages with "foreign" villages. In the planning of beautiful rural construction, foreign rural dwellings are moved to Chinese villages, such as "Dutch towns", "Swiss dwellings", "Japanese style", "extraterritorial tribes" and so on, without the value of China's own villages. Little do they realize that the countryside is a cultural collection, and some empty shells have been brought in far-fetched, which makes it difficult to adapt to Chinese rural life and culture.

The second is to replace rural culture with urban culture. Regard the countryside as a synonym for backwardness and ignorance, and think that everything in the city is good and advanced, and the countryside must be replaced by the city. It is proposed to transform the countryside in accordance with the idea of urban construction, such as thinking that buildings are better than bungalows, launching a large-scale village demolition campaign to force people to go upstairs, and that good urban sanitation should eliminate the rural family breeding industry and lead to the problem of rural garbage; and copy the urban culture in the countryside, while ignoring the protection and development of local customs. As a result, the rural culture has been built into a rootless culture.

The third is to attach importance to appearance over content. Pursue the brilliance that can be seen, but do not understand the connotation of beautiful rural construction. Keen to build new houses, "paint", engage in a variety of image projects. The inner beauty of the beautiful countryside is a harmonious way of life, which is summarized as self-cultivation rooted in the heart, self-consciousness without reminding, freedom based on restraint and kindness for the sake of others. In the final analysis, the inner beauty of the beautiful countryside is represented by people's spirit and attitude towards life.

In addition to the above three manifestations, there are also people who oppose village protection and rural development, no matter which kind of performance, the reason is the lack of understanding of rural values and functions. In the process of its long-term development and evolution, the countryside has formed a specific structure and function, and has its specific law of development and evolution. Rural value is integrated with village architecture, form, natural and social structure, culture and so on. Even every plant and tree is endowed with profound cultural significance and local feelings.

How can we recognize the value of the countryside? First of all, we should realize that the countryside is a multi-functional and indivisible whole. Rural tangible and intangible, material and spiritual elements, including mountains, water, fields, forests, roads, houses, villages, public facilities, as well as customs, beliefs, habits, way of life, spirit and attitude. These elements are intertwined, embedded and dependent on each other, and the organic combination shows a series of functions such as production, life, ecology, society, culture and so on. If a certain element is changed arbitrarily, it will affect the exertion of its overall function. Take the form of folk houses as an example, the typical rural houses are farmhouses, which are not only suitable for rural production, but also constitute specific rural social relations; the transparent characteristics of farmers are the basis of rural public opinion, education and integrity culture and harmonious social relations. If we change the farmhouse into a unit building, it will completely change the rural production, life and social structure. The phenomenon of "going upstairs to return to poverty" is a typical example of livelihood damage caused by the change of residential form.

Secondly, in order to understand the countryside, we should pay special attention to the difference of the countryside and the irreplaceability of the rural value. Due to the differences in history, environment, resources and way of life, different customs, beliefs and local knowledge have been formed, which constitute an important part of the treasure house of Chinese culture and contain important value to production, ecology and life. if the stereotyped countryside is copied according to a preset model, cultural differences will be eliminated, cultural carriers will disappear, and rural culture will cease to exist. When we re-examine the value of the countryside from the perspective of ecological civilization, we will find that the countryside carries a new form of civilization. Only by recognizing this, can beautiful rural construction have a foundation and goals, take fewer detours, and make rural construction better.