Hu Lu in Canada quoting Chinese classics about gourds
扈鲁首先拿从中国带来的一个葫芦瓢说起，葫芦一分为二即为瓢，关于瓢，《论语》中有一个“箪食瓢饮”的故事，《论语·雍也》有云：“一箪食，一瓢饮，在陋巷，人不堪其忧，回也不改其乐。贤哉，回也！”讲的是2500年前孔子最喜爱的弟子颜回艰苦求学的典故。颜回生活简朴，平日用竹器盛饭吃，用葫芦瓢舀水喝，住在曲阜简陋的小巷，这是别人难以忍受的艰难生活，但他依旧跟随老师孔子孜孜求学，最终取得了辉煌成就。
Hu Lu began his speech with a gourd ladle brought from China which can be got when one gourd is divided into two parts. There is a gourd ladle story in The Analects of Confucius.The Analects of Confucius·Yongye says, "Yan Hui lives simply on a bamboo dish of rice and a gourd of drink in a poor alley. Few people can bear it while he doesn’t change his positive attitudes towards life and happiness. What a noble person Yan Hui is!" This is an allusion to the diligence of Yan Hui, the favorite disciple of Confucius 2,500 years ago. Yan Hui lived a simple life in an alley of Qufu, eating with a bamboo utensil (Dan) and drinking with a ladle, which was unbearable for others. However, in the circumstances, he followed his master Confucius, studying assiduously. Eventually he made brilliant achievements.
扈鲁引经据典，娓娓道来。《诗经·幽风》：“七月食瓜，八月断壶。”这里所说的食瓜，即农历七月就可以食用甜葫芦了，而苦葫芦是不能大量食用的，否则会导致身体中毒。《论语》中有一个故事就谈到了苦葫芦。《论语•阳货》：“吾岂匏瓜也哉？焉能系而不食？”，即：“我难道是个苦葫芦吗？怎么能够只挂在那里而不让食用呢？”充分表达了他积极入世，“行义以达其道”的思想。
Hu Lu spelt it out by citing the classics. The Book of Songs · Youfeng says, “Eat melon in July, break pot in August.” Here “eating melon in July” means that the sweet gourd can be eaten in the seventh lunar month, while the bitter gourd cannot be eaten in large quantities, which may lead to body poisoning. There is a story about bitter gourds in the Analects of Confucius. The Analects of Confucius ·Yanghuo says, "Am I a bitter gourd? How can I be hung up out of the way, unable to be eaten?" It fully expresses the speaker's wish to actively enter the society and practice what he stands for in accordance with righteousness.
扈鲁谈到，葫芦造型圆润，上下球体和谐，具有鲜明的和谐意象，与人们祈求福禄祥和、追求生命和谐圆满的美好愿望相一致。在中华民族的精神谱系中，葫芦被赋予了平安吉祥、美好和谐的人文寓意，已经成为中华民族最重要的吉祥图腾之一。在民间有床头悬挂葫芦可促进夫妻和睦和谐的美好传说，这一典型的民族和谐吉祥图腾文化符号，同儒家思想为主流的中华传统文化核心思想“尚和合”理念高度契合。如“四海之内，皆兄弟也。”（《论语·颜渊》）协和万邦的世界和谐思想，“君子和而不同”的人际和谐思想，“人法地，地法天，天法道，道法自然。”（《道德经》）天人合一的人与自然和谐思想等等。这都充分展示了葫芦文化与儒家文化的深厚渊源，希望能够通过葫芦这一中华民族古老和谐的吉祥文化符号，讲好中国的葫芦故事，传播中华优秀传统文化，促进家庭和睦、社会和谐、世界和平。
Hu Lu said that the gourd is round in shape, harmonious in upper and lower spheres, and has a distinct image of harmony, which is consistent with people’s desire for happiness, fortune, auspiciousness and harmonious and perfect life. In the cultural life of the Chinese nation, the gourd is a symbol of peace, auspiciousness, beauty and harmony and has become one of the most important auspicious totems. There is one beautiful folklore that hanging gourds above the bed can promote harmony between husband and wife. Such an auspicious totem is highly consistent with the concept of "Appreciating Harmony", the core of the traditional Chinese culture of Confucianism. For example, the idea of harmony among all countries in the world is embodied in such an expression as “Within the four seas all men are brothers” (the Analects of Confucius · Yan Yuan), the idea of harmony between people is embodied in such an expression as “A gentleman seeks harmony but not uniformity,” and the idea of harmony between man and nature is embodied in such an expression as “Man follows the earth, earth follows the heaven, the heaven follows Tao, and Tao follows the nature” (Tao Te Ching). All the above can fully demonstrate that gourd culture is closey tied to Confucian culture. We hope that through gourd, the ancient Chinese cultural symbol of hamony and auspiciousness, we will tell China's gourd story, spread the excellent traditional Chinese culture and promote family harmony, social harmony and world peace.
汉字的书写艺术——书法也与葫芦密切相关。扈鲁说，汉字的最初形态是一些刻画的符号，即象形文字或图画文字，在汉字发展的阶段能明显地看到葫芦形象………许多学者认为，汉字“卣”在七千多年前就已指代葫芦了。可见汉字形态的演变过程无不有着葫芦的烙印。草书这种书写形式最能和葫芦藤的写意性相吻合，草书的笔势环转之妙尽得葫芦藤蔓的缠绕蟠曲之美，那种起落断续、辗转腾挪，顾盼映带、偃仰向背、上覆下承、垂缩收往，绵密疏阔，正如葫芦藤蔓的盘曲萦绕之盎然妙趣。王羲之的老师卫夫人就有这样的表述：“横如千里阵云、竖如万岁枯藤。”这万岁枯藤形态、情境、场景的呈现，正如苍茫老辣、厚重古拙、蟠集曲结的葫芦藤蔓的造型，“寒猿饮水撼枯藤”与葫芦藤“诡形怪状翻合宜”的艺术触角非常契合。
The writing art of Chinese characters – calligraphy – is also closely related to the gourd. Hu said that the initial form of Chinese characters are inscribed symbols, namely hieroglyphics or pictographs. The image of the gourd can be clearly seen during the development of Chinese characters. Many scholars believe that the Chinese character "卣" was once used to refer a gourd more than 7,000 years ago. It is clear that the image of gourd can be identified in the evolution of Chinese characters. The writing form of cursive script can best match the freehand brushwork of the gourd vine. The sketch of the cursive script twists up and down intermittently, swaying, looking forward, squatting back, overlying the underside, hoisting and contracting, being dense and wide, just like the winding gourd vines. Mrs. Wei, teacher of the great ancient calligrapher Wang Xizhi, once described the strokes of Chinese characters as follows: “A horizontal stroke is like a thousand li of clouds while a vertical one is like a long-lived withered vine.” The shape, situation and scene produced by the long-lived vines are just like the appearance of gourd vines which are old and hard, thick and elegant with vines twining themselves around each other.
2018年7月6日，扈鲁在《光明日报》上撰文《一带一路与葫芦文化》，其中说：“不仅我国人民喜爱葫芦，‘一带一路’的许多沿线国家人民都对葫芦与葫芦文化有共同的情感基础。我国人民与非洲人民有着源远流长的葫芦种植历史，同时，历史文献表明，印度人民对葫芦‘多子多孙’的文化寓意与中国人民有共识，这一点可以由季羡林先生所翻译的印度大史诗《罗摩衍那》第一篇第三十七章第十七首诗所记载的‘须摩底呢，虎般的人！生出来了一个长葫芦，人们把葫芦一打破，六万个儿子从里面跳出’，给予证实。蒙古的民间故事《金鹰》同样表明，葫芦在蒙古民间具有繁衍生息的含义。葫芦作为日用品和吉祥工艺品，受到‘一带一路’沿线各国人民广泛喜爱。中亚的阿富汗人惯用葫芦做喜庆场合用的化妆品容器和鼻烟壶。在以色列、土耳其和一些阿拉伯国家，常见葫芦用作烟具和装饰工艺品。在美国、日本、韩国、南美洲诸国，随处可以见到葫芦文化的踪迹。”
On July 6, 2018, an article entitled “‘Belt and Road’ and Gourd Culture” by Hu Lu was published in Guangming Daily. The article said that the Chinese people love the gourd, so do the people in countries along the “Belt and Road”. Both Chinese people and the African people have a long history of gourd planting. At the same time, historical documents show that the Indian people share the same common understanding of the gourd’s cultural meaning of “multiple sons and grandchildren” with Chinese people, which can be verified by Ji Xianlin's translation of the seventeenth poem in the first thirty-seventh chapter of the great India epic Ramayana, "Sumati, a tiger-like person, gave birth to a long-shaped gourd. When people broke the gourd, sixty thousand babies jumped out of it". Gold Eagle, the folktale of Mongolia, also shows that gourd is an embodiment of breeding in Mongolia. As daily necessities and auspicious handicrafts, the gourd is loved by people from all walks of life in countries along the “Belt and Road”. Afghans in Central Asia have the habit of making cosmetic containers and snuff bottles out of gourd on festive occasions. In Israel, Turkey and some Arab countries, gourds are commonly used as smoking sets and decorative handicrafts. Gourd culture also boasts a long history in the United States, Japan, South Korea and South American countries.
扈鲁认为，习总书记2013年提出“一带一路”倡议，以建设和谐共存的“构建人类命运共同体”的理念，已经被联合国写进了决议，得到了国际社会的普遍认同，充分彰显了和谐的魅力，而“最葫芦·葫芦文化丝路行”走进加拿大这一活动正是贯彻落实“一带一路”倡议的有力体现。
General Secretary Xi’s proposal for the “Belt and Road Initiative” in 2013 to build a the community of shared future for mankind has been written into resolutions by the United Nations and has been widely recognized by the international community, which fully demonstrates the charm of harmony. Mr. Hu believes that “Glamor of the Gourd --Gourd Culture Tour Along the Silk Road into Canada” is a powerful manifestation of the implementation of the “Belt and Road” initiative.
“左瓢右瓢，可盛千百福禄；大肚小肚，能容天下万物”，谐音“福禄”的葫芦，代表着中国人对美好生活的向往。在扈鲁眼里，葫芦是一个大世界。
“Both the left and right gourd ladles can hold thousands of fortunes; Both the big belly and small belly can accommodate all things in the world”. The homophonic “Fulu” gourd represents Chinese people's yearning for a better life. In the eyes of Hu Lu, the gourd is a big world.
（逄春阶:《大众日报》高级记者，中国作家协会会员）
(Pang Chunjie: Senior reporter of Dazhong Daily, member of the Chinese Writers Association)
