坐著慢船走運河

周維強

這樣閑逸和藝術地在運河上慢慢旅行的體驗，讓豐子愷終生念茲在茲。1972年，豐先生75歲了，還回味著寫下了隨筆《塘棲》。

兩岸山水徐徐展開如長卷

專注于研究中國古代美術史的傅申先生說，董其昌的很多畫是在船上創作而成的，這條船便是“書畫船”。在古代，江南的交通“靠天然河道和密如蛛網的運河”，自繪畫中心南移后，書畫家出游每以水路為主，船的容積可以比較大，能夠放置書桌;船行河上也比較平穩，適宜寫字繪畫，所以在“書畫船”這一流動的畫室上進行創作，就慢慢成了古代中國書畫家特有的一個傳統。宋代的米芾如此，明人董其昌更成了這一個傳統的代表。

船行于平平靜靜的河上，固然是可以作畫的一個外部條件，而畫家恬適的心境，更是形成“書畫船”傳統的精神因素。明代陳繼儒《巖棲幽事》里說：“住山須一小舟，朱欄碧幄，明欞短帆，舟中雜置圖史鼎彝……”這是一種對應于這樣的精神氣質的文化趣味。

中國山水畫還是一種“散點透視”，坐在船上，隨著船行，兩岸山水徐徐展開如長卷，這也適合了畫家的山水寫生。黃公望《富春山居圖》，焉知不是融會了他自己行船看山水的經驗呢？

在20世紀中國文藝家里，能夠遺傳中國古代書畫家的這份精神氣質，得了這份坐船趣味的，豐子愷可能是一個顯例。

大運河流經浙江桐鄉石門，由南朝東拐了個彎，此地人稱石門灣，清光緒二十四年，農歷九月廿六日（公元1898年11月9日），豐子愷出生在這個江南水鄉的石門灣。

豐子愷后來離開故鄉外出工作，總是常?；叵肫疬\河畔的生活。

“運河大轉彎的地方，分出一條支流來。距運河二三百步，支流的岸旁，有一所染坊店，名曰豐同裕。店里面有一所老屋，名曰惇德堂……”這是豐子愷1939年9月6日寫成于廣西思恩的隨筆《辭緣緣堂——避難五記之一》里的文字。豐同裕是豐家的產業，惇德堂是豐家的住所。豐先生說他抗戰流亡中，每逢在報紙上看到關于石門灣的消息，晚上就會夢見故鄉平居時的舊事。

豐子愷30歲時，靠了自己的一支筆，在惇德堂里面蓋起了緣緣堂。

堂名“緣緣”，也屬無意。豐子愷在小方紙上寫了許多自己所喜歡且可以互相搭配的漢字，團成小紙球，兩次抓鬮，拿起來的都是“緣”字，于是就有了這個堂號。雖說是無意，但也未嘗不含著“天意”，“緣”是豐先生所喜歡的，“緣”又是佛教的觀念，而豐先生恰好又信佛，莫非這也是“緣”么？

這座閑閑地立在運河旁的緣緣堂，如豐先生本人，儒雅、素樸、明爽、軒敞，是大運河畔本色的江南水鄉民居。房內家具也是他親繪圖案，請木工特制的“最合理的中國式家具”。院內種櫻桃、芭蕉，門外植桃樹、楊柳。豐子愷在這里春聽燕語呢喃，看桃紅柳綠，孩子們在秋千架下開心地戲耍;夏日黃昏則在芭蕉樹下悠然小酌;秋夜明月照高樓，釋卷聽四面蟲聲唧唧;冬日寫作至深夜，則每與孩子們在火爐里煨年糕。豐子愷和家人在緣緣堂里度過了近6年的頗富閑情逸致的歲月。他在這里畫出了《紅了櫻桃，綠了芭蕉》《瞻瞻底車》等上百幅情趣盎然的漫畫，寫出了《楊柳》《山中避雨》等20余篇膾炙人口的散文隨筆，后分別收入開明版的《緣緣堂再筆》和天馬版的《隨筆二十篇》。直到抗戰軍興，先生一家辭別故鄉開始逃難……

豐子愷說他走過五省，經過大小百數十個碼頭，才知道故鄉石門灣真是一個好地方。這個位于嘉興和杭州中間的地方，離開滬杭鐵路15公里，這15公里有小輪船可以通航。早晨從石門灣搭輪船走運河便到了滬杭鐵路上的長安車站，由此搭車，南行一小時可到杭州，北行一小時可到嘉興、三小時可到上海。豐先生說他自己還是更喜歡坐著船走運河到杭州或者嘉興。這些客船，朱漆欄桿玻璃窗，開船時間由客人自定，行李也不必用力捆扎、用心檢點，客人但把被、褥、枕頭、書冊、煙袋、茶壺、熱水瓶，甚至酒壺、菜榼……往船艙里送，船家自會給你布置在玻璃窗下的小榻及四仙桌上?？腿恕跋麓瑫r仿佛走進自己的房間一樣”。

豐子愷回憶說他最喜歡的是坐著這樣的船去杭州，中間可以在塘棲住上一宿，上岸買些塘棲名產糖枇杷、糖佛手;再到靠河邊的小酒店里去找一個幽靜的座位，點幾個小盆：冬筍、茭白、薺菜、毛豆、鮮菱、良鄉栗子、熟荸薺……燙兩碗花雕?！澳惚M管淺斟細酌，遲遲回船歇息?！奔偃缣焐舷缕鹆擞昴兀磕且部刹还?，“因為塘棲街上全是涼棚，下雨不相干的?！薄斑@樣，半路上多游了一個碼頭，而且非常從容自由。這種富有詩趣的旅行，靠近火車站地方的人不易做到，只有我們石門灣的人可以自由享受?！?/p>

這樣閑逸和藝術地在運河上慢慢旅行的體驗，讓豐子愷終生念茲在茲。1972年，豐先生75歲了，還回味著寫下了隨筆《塘棲》：“吃過早飯，把被褥用品送進船內，從容開船。憑窗閑眺兩岸景色，自得其樂?！卑泶痔翖?，上岸去吃酒了，不求菜多，但求味美，“呷一口花雕，嚼一片嫩筍，其味無窮?！碧翖蔫凌耸怯忻?，在枇杷上市的季節，雨天坐了船，在船上吃著枇杷，看雨中風景，有著一種詩趣，“使人想起古人的佳句：‘人人盡說江南好，游人只合江南老。春水碧于天，畫船聽雨眠。‘閑夢江南梅熟日，夜船吹笛雨瀟瀟。古人贊美江南，不是信口亂道，卻是親身體會才說出來的。”

豐先生寫的這篇隨筆，開頭就引了日本作家夏目漱石的小說《旅宿》，說火車把幾百個人裝在同樣的箱子里驀然地拉走，毫不留情，幾百個人在這個箱子里又以同樣的速度奔向同一車站，火車代表了20世紀的文明，又是那樣地“蔑視個性”。在文章的結尾，豐先生說：“我謝絕了20世紀的文明產物的火車，不惜工本地坐客船到杭州，實在并非頑固。知我者，其唯夏目漱石乎？”

豐子愷先生當年在這樣藝術的船行里，焉知沒有構思了無量數的漫畫、散文的腹稿呢？這或者也可以說是20世紀的豐子愷的“書畫船”么？

我寫這篇隨筆時，真是想體驗一下豐子愷先生坐船到塘棲的趣味。可我也知道，這樣的船恐怕不易尋到了，但到塘棲運河畔老橋邊酒樓上，三五老友小酌花雕，或者還是有可能的。

Boat Travel on Grand Canal：Way to Live for Artists of Yesteryears

By Zhou Weiqiang

Mister Fu Shen， a specialist of ancient Chinese art history， once told me that Dong Qichang （1555-1636）， a great artist of the Ming Dynasty （1368-1644）， created many paintings while going on a river journey. Such a boat is referred to as “art boat” in Jiangnan， a region of rivers and canals and lakes in the south of the Yangtze River Delta. In ancient times， artists in Jiangnan frequently traveled by boat when rivers functioned like a network of highways or railways of modern times. While traveling on a boat， they witnessed the beauty of nature and they had all the time of the world in their hands. Naturally， scholar artists learned how to turn a boat into a floating art studio， with a full array of devices needed for painting： a table and stationeries， so that they would not waste godsend inspirations.

In traditional Chinese painting， there is a widely used technique called multi-point perspective. I have reasons to believe this technique might have yielded from boat travels： you move and you see and your perspective changes. I even have reasons to believe that ， a timeless ink-painting masterpiece by Huang Gongwang （1269-1354）， was an inspiration based on such a multi-point perspective.

The tradition of painting on a boat was carried on into the 20th century. Feng Zikai （1898-1975） is known to have liked boat travels. He was born in Shimen （literally， stone gate）， Tongxiang in northern Zhejiang. The town sits smugly at a bend where the Grand Canal turns from south to east. A professional artist whose paintings are still published today， Feng， when he was very young， prospered as painter of everyday life from a traditional scholars perspective.

His popularity spread and fortune accumulated. At 30， he was able to have a house built by the Grand Canal in Shimen. He designed all the furniture and refurbishment. An artist who traveled widely across the country， Feng Zikai commented that he became sharply aware that Shimen was a really nice place after he had seen more than a hundred river towns in five provinces. It was 15 kilometers away from a railway station on the Hangzhou-Shanghai Railway. The last 15 kilometers could be covered by a boat cruise. In his time， it took him about an hour to reach Jiaxing to the north by train and Hangzhou to the south by train. But he preferred to travel by boat if he wanted to go to Jiaxing or Hangzhou. The boat travel was really convenient and delightful. He could easily book a boat and decided when to leave. He could send in all the things for a trip to the boat in advance so that when he came to board the boat， all things were ready for a two-day river trip and it was as if he stepped into a hotel room furnished with all the necessities from home.

In his memoire， Feng said he preferred such a slow-going boat trip on the Grand Canal to Hangzhou. One highlight of such an unhurried trip was to spend a night on boat at Tangxi， an ancient river town on the way from Shimen to Hangzhou. In 1972， the 75-year-old artist and writer wrote an essay in which his memory of his boat trips on the Grand Canal from Shimen to Hangzhou is well presented in great detail. In Fengs description， we can learn that the artist loved to view the picturesque scenes on the canal from the boat， that he often sipped wine at a riverside restaurant in Tangxi， that he enjoyed loquat fruits in season at Tangxi， the best loquat producer in the entire Jiangnan， and that he always enjoyed a good night sleep on boat in Tangxi， fully believing ancient poems that described similar dreamlike experiences in Jiangnan. At the beginning of this memorable essay， Feng mentioned a short story by Japanese writer Soseki Natsume （1867-1916）. In that story， the writer dismissed modern railway travels which， in his opinion， disregarded individuality as hundreds of people in boxes were carried off at the same speed to the same next station. At the end of the essay， Feng said he was by no means a hardcore conservative even if he declined traveling by train and he preferred costly and time-consuming boat trips to Hangzhou. He wondered if Soseki Natsume was the only person who would have understood him so well.

I wonder if Feng got the ideas about his paintings and essays on numerous boat trips from Shimen to Hangzhou. Today it is not likely to find such a manually-rowed boat to travel from anywhere to anywhere on the Grand Canal， but it would be extremely easy to dine and wine with friends at one of the riverside restaurants in Tangxi， which is now a big tourist attraction.