From "chasing the top" to "chasing the ancients", visiting ancient times and tracing traces has become a hot topic nowadays——
Why do young people fall in love with "visiting ancient times" (Youth Observation·Decoding Youth Cultural Trends)
Put a pot of wine in front of the tombs of ancients, leave a handwritten letter in the former residence of the sages... In recent years, a craze for visiting ancient times has quietly emerged among young people. More and more young people who once pursued the "top-notch" entertainment are turning their attention to the depths of history. They go to historical sites, search for memorial venues, visit ancient villages, seek spiritual solace in the millennium cultural context, and feel the power of culture in the smoke and dust of history.
Why do contemporary young people fall in love with “visiting ancient times”? "Visiting ancient times", what is being visited? What did they get from "visiting ancient times"? The reporter got close to these young people to see how they talked with history in a more vivid and personal way.
Chase the "stars" from thousands of years ago and beat the "cards" of the long history
"The ground is farmland, and the ground is history." Starting from Luolong District, Luoyang, Henan at 7 a.m., Xiao Jiu, born in the 2000s, visited the Tomb of Ban Chao, the Tomb of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, etc. Until nightfall, he came to the Yongchang Mausoleum and Yongxi Mausoleum of the Northern Song Dynasty in Gongyi City.
Walking between fields and historic sites, Xiao Jiu from Dalian, Liaoning spent 11 hours on a "special forces-style visit to ancient times" to appreciate the long history from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty.许多墙垣与碑刻在时光流逝中消失，与自然融为一体，与农田连成一片，但历史的厚重感让小久感到震撼。
"From these relics, we can clearly see the context of cultural inheritance and evolution, and national integration and development." Xiaojiu said.
追千百年前的“星”，打历史长河的“卡”。如今，像小久这样的年轻人越来越多。每到节假日，不仅热门古迹一票难求，以往鲜有人问津的那些散落乡野的古迹遗址也迎来打卡“大军”。小红书平台上，“我的访古巡游”话题累计浏览量已超7900万次，互动讨论超50万条。
追寻“古流”的过程中，年轻人看待历史、传承文化的方式也在发生着转变。
Different from traditional tourism, these young people's "visiting ancient times" has their own unique way of expression: different from the solemnity of traditional sacrifices, young people used ibuprofen to pay homage to Cao Cao to "relieve" his head wind disease; in front of Huo Qubing's tomb, they placed spicy sticks, candies and other snacks; in front of the Changling Monument of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, a banner with the words "Ambassador of National Integration" was hung in front of it to "reward" him for his efforts to promote national integration...
In the eyes of these young people, "visiting ancient times" is not just a "visit here", but a kind of "dialogue" on an equal footing: using one's own ideas to respond to the situation of the ancients, communicating across time and space with a level-headed attitude, and changing history from "past tense" to "present continuous tense".
视角更加微观，情感更加充沛，也意味着更浓厚的兴趣、更深入的钻研。
Da Qi, born in the 1990s, is a history enthusiast of the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms. During this year’s National Day holiday, he set out from Beijing to visit the Cao Cao Gaoling Ruins Museum in Anyang, Henan Province, and then went all the way south to Xuchang, where he wandered around the memorial venues and ruins scattered in the countryside.出发前，他查阅历史人物的生平、轶事，甚至研读论文，规划好参观顺序，细致程度堪比田野调查。
Carefully studying ancient books, hand-drawing "visiting ancient" maps, researching historical details, and creating secondary content... There are many young people like Daqi in this trend of "visiting ancient times."社交平台上，寻找“访古搭子”的帖子屡见不鲜。线上“访古”社群自发整理考据笔记、分享实地走访心得，小众文保点位、冷门寻访路线不断被发掘。社群里，大家一起讨论历史人物的趣闻轶事，分享自制祭品的攻略，甚至组织线下祭扫。
"You can find answers on how to determine the order of tours, how to choose transportation, and what points are worth taking a closer look at." Daqi said that netizens will consult or add suggestions under posts and in the community, thus driving more and more people to embark on the road of "visiting ancient times."
"'Visiting ancient times' was born out of interest and has become a popular spiritual and cultural life among young people today." said Zhang Yiwu, a professor in the Department of Chinese at Peking University. "Young people visit historical sites and touch history from a personalized perspective, breaking the stereotype of the 'old minority' in history and culture, and gradually evolving into cultural practices of various forms, integrating thousands of years of culture into contemporary life."
中华文明厚重绵长，满足了年轻人对精神文化的深度渴求
"If you could give Zhuge Liang a gift, what would you give him?"
In the class of Xiao Huang, a history teacher born in the 1990s, the students' answers were full of imagination: Some wanted to give him a high-speed rail ticket so that he would no longer be trapped in the "difficult road to Sichuan"; some wanted to give him a handful of sand from Dujiangyan to pay tribute to his efforts in protecting the weir.这些回答让小黄十分惊喜，她真切感受到了年轻人与历史的共鸣。
小黄在四川成都工作，学考古出身，也是一名“访古”达人。 Xiao Huang said frankly: "When I was lonely, I didn't want to pour out my negative energy to others, so I had a 'dialogue' with historical figures. The ancients had a lot of wisdom, and during the process of 'visiting ancient times', I had a spiritual exchange across time and space, and the answers benefited me."
Xiao Huang's favorite ancient person is Su Shi: "Reading his works, you can feel a living person - fragile and helpless, but they are all left magnanimously in the words." Near the Su Xun family cemetery in Meishan, Sichuan, she saw a sign that read "Ten years of life and death are boundless", juxtaposing rural life with famous quotes through the ages. Later, when she went to Huanggang, Hubei, she discovered that Dinghui Yuan and Chengtian Temple were also inseparable from modern life. "The places in these ancient poems have been integrated into today's life, which made me feel that the continuation of traditional culture is real."
Why did the "visit ancient times" boom?张颐武认为，首先是因为它契合了年轻人的情绪需求。现代社会节奏快，学业的压力、生活的烦恼、工作的挫折，都迫切需要纾解焦虑、安放心灵的出口。 The Chinese civilization, which has accumulated for thousands of years, is rich and long. The deeds and characters of the ancients are fixed spiritual resources. This certainty can provide long-lasting and reliable emotional support for young people.
Zhuge Liang's generosity, Li Bai's chicness, Huo Qubing's youthful heroism...the power generated by the deeds of these historical figures satisfies the spiritual longing deep in the hearts of young people.
The deeper reason lies in the improvement of national cultural confidence. "Today's young people sincerely recognize the value of Chinese cultural heritage, creating a spiritual need to proactively trace their origins." Zhang Yiwu said, "Cultural self-confidence has taken root in the hearts of young people. A large number of Chinese-style film and television works are frequently released, and the active promotion of cultural and tourism departments in various places has stimulated the interest of the youth group. Young people are no longer satisfied with passively accepting knowledge from textbooks, but actively go out of the classroom, get close to historical sites, interpret ancient people, and spread culture."
Located in Pujing Temple in Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province, the wooden architecture is magnificent yet elegant, which amazed Xiao Zhao, a blogger from "Ancient Times" studying in Shanghai. In the past few years, Xiao Zhao has been promoting ancient buildings and sharing "visiting ancient times" routes on social media. Shanxi is a frequent destination for Xiao Zhao. Not only can you feel the continuous inheritance of cultural heritage, broaden your horizons and experience, but also make like-minded friends. This is what many "visiting ancient times" enthusiasts yearn for.
24-year-old Ye Zi is studying for graduate school at Xiamen University, and his undergraduate degree was in Chongqing. In the past few years, Ye Zi has traveled through the Three Gorges Reservoir area, went to Shanxi to see ancient buildings, and visited ancient capitals such as Beijing and Nanjing. Along the way, Ye Zi chatted with new friends about the beauty of ancient buildings, shared their travel experiences, got to know each other while walking and talking, and even made plans to travel together in the future. "You can not only enjoy the beautiful scenery, but also make new friends." This kind of unexpected surprise makes Ye Zi full of expectations for the next trip.
Love without losing rationality, and go to the vast world with a broad vision
Downstairs in Yueyang and in front of Prince Teng's Pavilion, he recorded his experience of climbing the stairs for free and stumbling to recite classics; thousand-year-old buildings have been successfully "resurrected" with the help of modern technology... In recent years, young people's "hard-core" behavior of "visiting ancient times" has frequently emerged.
Wang Jiang, deputy director of the Frontier Research Institute of Zhejiang Normal University, believes that "playing jokes" and "making things happen" can become a way for young people to get close to history and express their thoughts. The youth group uses familiar language to dialogue with history and establish an emotional connection with the ancients. Relaxed and interesting expressions can become an entrance to further understanding of history, and can be regarded as a vivid exploration of the popularization of traditional culture.
For many young people, "visiting ancient times" is not just a person's arrival, sharing and passing on is also an important meaning of the journey. Ye Zi will take videos to record the feelings of "talking to himself" for future memories; Xiao Jiu and Xiao Zhao both continue to update their travel records of "visiting ancient times" on social media; Xiao Huang's sharing in class is also affecting more students - some students sent her pictures after entering the museum, "There are some details that I have never noticed before, which are very interesting."
As for young people's practice of improving social and historical awareness through innovative expressions and popular science transformation, Zhang Yiwu believes that young people who are familiar with the communication logic of new media can transform what they see and think into easy-to-understand, vivid and vivid content to achieve mass communication. This is not a simple reproduction of content, but a personalized expression of young people after thinking, incorporating their own historical perceptions, making historical communication more warm and vital.
But along with the craze, there are also phenomena worthy of vigilance. On the Internet, some extreme historical content has spread through algorithm recommendations and short videos, and has entered the information field of ordinary people on a large scale.
Some people give perfect plots to their favorite dynasties, use filters to replace historical facts, and simplify complex history into "cool stories"; others turn historical discussions into a "pull and bully" style of party-to-party opposition - pulling people in, criticizing, reporting, and besieging. This set of processes has become quite proficient. Xiao Huang has also seen similar situations online. "Some people extremeize historical figures or interpret history in a very extreme way. I think this is not good."
"This kind of false historical rhetoric relies on algorithms to push targeted information, and it is dressed up as a novelty and eye-catching one, which is very misleading." Wang Jiang said that young people's historical cognitive framework is still under construction, and their ability to identify information is still insufficient. It is easy to be biased by scattered and false information, giving rise to one-sided and erroneous historical concepts; in the long run, it will also cut off the cultural memory passed down from generation to generation, weakening the public's cultural identity and sense of belonging.
Zhang Yiwu suggested that to deal with these chaos, we should strengthen platform governance and strengthen general history education for young people; guide young people to establish a rational view of history and view history with an objective, reverent and dialectical attitude. "Let 'visiting ancient times' return to the essence of tracing the origin of culture and inheriting culture, let real and profound history occupy the mainstream position of the Internet, and truly realize educating people with history and educating people with culture."
From reading thousands of books to traveling thousands of miles, from finding oneself to spreading culture, young people use their own ways to connect with history. "This is the confirmation of 'roots', and it is also a way to find a cultural belonging for oneself in a mobile era." Looking back on the process of "visiting ancient times", Xiao Huang was full of emotion.
"Visiting the Ancients" not only visits historical stories, but also cultural roots; it seeks not only historical relics but also spiritual homes. Let love maintain its temperature without losing rationality, and go to the vast world with a broad vision. The fire of civilization that has lasted for thousands of years will eventually continue to exist in the exploration and protection of generations of young people.
(The interviewees in this article are all pseudonyms, and Wang Xinyi, Chen Ziyu, and He Zhonghuan participated in the interview)
Reporter's Notes
Seeing the calmness of “looking at the world” upon arrival again and again
During the interview, it can be clearly felt that for "antiquity" enthusiasts, "visiting antiquity" is never just about looking at old sites and taking photos - what they go to are specific and tangible historical coordinates: those moments that have touched them with words, buildings and stories. And when more and more young people are willing to go to a city for a historical site and walk a journey for a past event, history is no longer in the past tense, but is activated every time they arrive.
The craze among young people for "visiting ancient times" reflects their increasingly firm cultural self-confidence, shows a calm attitude of "looking at the world head-up", and also demonstrates the breadth and depth of Chinese culture. Young people take the initiative to go out of books to search for historical sites, touch the traces of civilization brick by brick, and deepen their identity and find themselves in the dialogue between ancient and modern times. In the process of searching, feeling, and sharing, more and more people understand the thickness of civilization, cultivate the open pattern, and gain spiritual enrichment and growth.
The majority of young people are not only recipients of history and culture, but also inheritors and guardians. It is expected that more young people will be diligent in thinking and innovative, tell the story of Chinese civilization with moving words, and inject abundant youthful vitality into the promotion of China's excellent traditional culture.
Reporter Liu Botong
