This photograph was taken in November 2023. However, the highlight of the image is not the people at the front, but the tree at the back.

The tree is a century-old camphor tree. When construction work began on Phase lll of Westlake University’s Yungu Campus, the camphor tree suffered badly. Dead branches appeared in the crown, bark began to fall off, and the root system was damaged. The construction team noticed this and immediately reported it to the authorities. The Hangzhou Bureau of Gardening and Cultural Relics, the construction headquarters, the university, and the construction team met to discuss possible treatment solutions. To better protect the ancient tree, the architectural design was changed to move the buildings on the north side 3.85 meters further away from the tree.

The people in the photo include the tree’s former owners, Guoxiang Jiang, Hongchun Jiang, and Guojian Wang, who returned to check on the tree and make sure it was safe and sound.

From a village to a university to a land that hosts two centuries of history, they are keeping an eye on far more than just the tree.

A Fragrant Gift for the University
During the treatment of the camphor tree, Guoxiang Jiang, who is now an elderly man, often came to see it. He is the former owner of the tree.

This chapter of the tree’s story began in 1983. Back then, in the countryside, farm output quotas had been fixed for each household, and production teams were busy selling off assets, including old houses, tractors and other equipment, tools, and all kinds of other materials, including plants and seedlings. Although the camphor tree has long been revered, it is not a popular choice for ordinary gardeners. However, at the sale, Guoxiang Jiang, who was then 26 years old, stepped up and said, "I'll buy it, even if just to look at it.” It cost him more than 200 yuan, but the tree was no longer the property of the collective; it was his alone.

Many years later, when the tree was ailing, Guoxiang Jiang did not care about anything else. He could tell the tree’s condition just by looking at the leaves. He said, “We put in our efforts to help it live well.” The villagers used to scatter ashes beneath the tree to fertilize the soil, so it grew lush and green and became the tallest object in the village, facing the nearby Fangshan Mountain. Fangshan is diagonally opposite the south gate of the Yungu Campus. It looks like a Chinese seal, square and stout, hence its name, “cube mountain.” The Golden Seal Temple on the mountain was built in the Song Dynasty and named after the mountain’s shape. However, over the years, the vegetation on the mountain has become overgrown, and the square mountain rounded.

In 1990, Hongchun Jiang and his two brothers wanted to get together to buy the tree, with Hongchun claiming that the tree had been planted by his ancestors. In fact, this was true in a sense, as Guoxiang and Hongchun are cousins. However, there are different opinions as to why they bought the tree as a group. Some say that that summer, the big tree was struck by lightning and a section fell off, and that something bad happened afterwards. When asked about this, Hongchun just shook his head and said that no such thing had happened at all.

Before New Year's Eve that year, the Jiang brothers and cousins finally finished their busy year. They sat down together to discuss the matter of the tree, and agreed on a price of 480 yuan, divided equally among the four. They signed an agreement that, as long as one of the four was alive, no one could cut down the tree. As for what would happen after they had all passed away, the next generations would figure that out for themselves.

This gradually yellowing, thin paper shows that people are guarding the tree and that the tree is sheltering people.

In 2017, land requisitions for the construction of Westlake University’s Yungu Campus began, and Shanlian Village was included. Guoxiang Jiang remained silent but went to find relevant departments to discuss what would happen to the tree. The village would be demolished, but what about the relationship between the people and their tree?

The villagers learned that a university would be built on the land after the village had been demolished. Guojian Wang, the village party secretary, was more informed than the other villagers and already knew that the name of the university would be Westlake and that it would be a place to train scientists.

Perhaps due to their unconscious admiration for culture and academics, or simply their reluctance to allow the place where their ancestors had lived to disappear without trace, the villagers decided that they wanted to leave something behind at Westlake University.

During the demolition, Wang's office was full of drawings. When an area of the village was demolished, he would make a mark. As a former soldier, he explained that the demolition was like a battle and that the drawings were like the sand tables used by the army for planning maneuvers.

At the end of May 2017, the working group began to discuss the demolition with the villagers. It took only seven days for all 827 villagers to sign the contract. On July 15, all the villagers moved out into rented homes. Wang had not expected the villagers to be so cooperative and efficient.

Why a camphor tree? Wang said that if you give something to a university, it should be fragrant.

Encouraging Learning: Lanli and Sandun

The block where Shanlian Village was located is where the Yungu Campus is today. It is now called Sandun. Xunzi, who wrote "Encouraging Learning,” is said to have planted orchids in the north of Sandun. The area north of Westlake University is therefore called Lanli (Orchid Land). No one would have expected that, over 2,000 years after Xunzi, there would be a university in the same place.

A tree is like a coordinate; it marks the past stories of the land. But parts may gradually be forgotten and replaced, just like our misunderstanding of the place name Sandun, which means three piers.

When you ignore the concrete on the landscape, the Sandun (three piers) reveal themselves. Wenxing Dun (Literature Star Pier), Dengcai Dun (Lantern Pier), and Shuiyue Dun (Water Moon Pier) will protrude from the river like an ark after a great flood recedes.

Dengcai Dun (Lantern Pier), the largest of the three, is in the middle. During festivals, it looks dazzling, decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations. Shuiyue Dun (Water Moon Pier) is to the west and has a crescent shape when viewed from above. The Shuiyue Nunnery is on the pier, with a pond next to it. The pier is in the water, the moon is on the pier, and the Buddhist sounds still linger. East of Wenxing Dun (Literature Star Pier) there once stood the Temple of Guan Yu and the Wenchang Pavilion. Then there are the Wenxing Bridge (Literature Star Bridge) and the Wuxing Bridge (Martial Star Bridge) leading from this pier. Balancing literature and martial arts, life cannot be more fulfilling.

The economy here is based on the land. In a sense, the vast countryside here contributes to prosperity in distant places. Historically, Sandun was an important food-producing area, growing rice, rapeseed, and bamboo shoots and producing fresh fish. In modern times, a variety of handmade food industries have emerged. Soybeans grow well in Sandun Nanyangba, so it produces excellent tofu. During China's Republican Period, there was a famous restaurant in Shanghai that only used Nanyangba tofu skin to make fried stuffed tofu rolls, a Hangzhou speciality.

During the Japanese occupation, Sandun was a border town outside the Wulin Gate. It had no garrison and prospered for a time as a result. Paper and mountain goods from western Zhejiang province were transported along the Tiao River and stored and in Sandun. To the east, Wulitang was connected to the Grand Canal, which extended in various directions. Merchants came to Sandun to seek refuge and do business, and the population increased sharply from 9,000 to around 20,000. However, in 1940, the Japanese army occupied the town, and the economy went into decline.

After the victory in the Anti-Japanese War, there was a pavilion on the way from Sandun to Xiangfu Bridge that fell into disrepair. A Mr. Chen from Sandun initiated its reconstruction. Mountains and rivers were shattered, and family and nation regathered. A set of couplets was carefully selected in honor of the pavilion:

Faced with ups and downs, take a seat and walk away

Committed to the big or small, have a try and set off

Before liberation, there were fire meteorite hammer performances in the Sandun area. Performers walked in front of their teams, spinning ropes with wire cages tied at both ends, with burning charcoal inside, while dancing. Perhaps these grand marches once passed through the archway across the wide stone road and illuminated the camphor tree as they went by.

Behind the fire meteorite hammer performers were rattle tridents, stilt walkers, rattle guns, and martial juggling, and behind them were drummers and lanterns. Drum pavilion music became popular in Sandun long ago. Four people would carry the pavilion, with five or six young people sitting inside and beating the drums. The pavilions were gorgeously decorated with auspicious patterns such as bats and ceremonial scepters. Drums and gongs, and big and small cymbals, beat out a resounding and steadfast rhythm.

One of the young drummers was called Gongbai Chen. In 1998, the 76-year-old Chen recreated the Drum Pavilion based on his memory. However, young years are hard to regain, heroes grow old, and no one plays the beats together anymore.

The Camphor Tree Remains the Same

In 2023, the relocated villagers of Shanlian Village gradually moved into their new community, to the east of Westlake University. Many villagers—hundreds, according to some—found jobs on the campus. Other places perhaps offered better conditions, but they did not want to take those jobs. In their spare time, they took their babbling children back to the campus. They pointed, drew, and traced in the air what the village had looked like before.

The village has become a university, but the camphor remains the same.

In time, people’s memories of the land beneath became vague. Everyone’s story is different. There used to be an archway next to the camphor tree, and under the archway was a wide stone road. Some people said it commemorated a widow; others said it commemorated a young girl.

In the 1970s, Shuangqiao Middle School stood at the foot of Fangshan Mountain. There were agriculture classes at that time, and the terraced fields on Fangshan Mountain belonged to the school. The seedlings were nourished by the spring water from the mountain. However, the spring water was warm in winter and cool in summer, so it was not suitable for growing rice. The teachers and students dug a pit at the foot of the mountain, burned firewood below to boil water above, and built a greenhouse. The head teacher went to Gudang Commune to learn how to cultivate seedlings without soil, but the people there were surprised, saying, "We didn’t even succeed. Why did you visit us to learn?"

Back then, every household in the village had a loudspeaker. One day, the loudspeakers suddenly rang out: Please send someone from each production team to Shuangqiao Middle School to collect seedlings. The teachers and students had succeeded—they had really made it happen.

In the 1980s, the flavors that Guojian Wang missed the most were the many delicacies that used to be served at the Xiaqueqiao Bridge at the end of the village, such as youduner, youjiaoer, and hot rice noodles. Ships and barges shuttled under the bridge. Winter melon and sugar cane were carried on wooden boats. Brides were welcomed on cement boats. Cement ships also brought in ammonia and carried away rice. The smell of the ammonia drove fish and shrimp to jump out of the water, and egrets would fly down to fight for their share of the feast.

With economic development, many factories appeared in the surrounding area, and Fangshan also became a quarry. Gravel was used to pave roads to improve the transportation of local produce. Amid the explosions that blew open the mountain, the teachers at Shuangqiao Middle School worried about rocks flying into the school. The land and the mountains shook, and the spring water in Fangshan stopped, so the teachers had to carry water to the school.

If Sandun is like a border town in Hangzhou, then Shanlian Village is like a border area within the border town, located at the junction of several administrative blocks. The administrative divisions have changed several times since the founding of New China. In 2002, Shanlian Village was officially established by the merger of Fangshan Village and Shanqiao Village. At that time, the new community had a deficit of 250,000 yuan.

After the new administrative village was established, villagers began to renovate school buildings and build factories. By the time of its demolition in 2017, the village had grown a surplus of more than 2 million yuan in available funds. As a former agricultural village, Shanlian Village completed its transformation during the demolition and became Shanlian Community. However, the collective economy was still in operation, owning equity in some surrounding land plots and continuing to provide for local needs.

Taking Root in the Land

In the winter of 2023, the temperature in Hangzhou soared to 26 degrees, and the camphor tree sprouted new branches. It was rejuvenated, and its health improved day by day.

If we could go back in time, Guoxiang Jiang would become younger day by day, and his wrinkled skin would gradually smooth out. He was once a bricklayer in the village, and the houses he had built would stand straight once again. The cement would gradually moisten and soften, like soil, returning to his hands. The white walls and black tiles in the village were all his work.

Guojian Wang would go back to his childhood. When he passed the camphor tree on his way to school, he would raise his head and exclaim, "It's so tall, so big, and so fragrant." The tree would shrink, with the size of its crown spreading into the sky being the same as the depth of its roots in the land. The archway that was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution would fly together again out of its ruins, spliced and healed, accompanying the tree.

Time might keep rewinding, with the sun rising in the west and setting in the east. The four seasons would revolve in turn as the big tree relived the countless tests of its long life. It would again escape felling, turmoil, and war before eventually returning to its beginning. As a plant, the philosophy of its existence has always been deeply rooted in the earth. As the grandfather said to the young girl Cuicui in “Border Town,” a famous account of life in a similar community in the early 20^th century:

"You have to be stronger and tougher to deserve living on this land.”

In a flash, the tree would return to 1903, the year it sprouted. From a towering tree to a tiny seedling, it became green and as thick as a thumb again. In China at the beginning of the 20th century, many new ideas converged, and saplings swayed in the wind and rain.

In the 29th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, Qichao Liang boarded a ship to the United States. In the new world, he kept thinking about the differences between China and the rest of the world at that time. Reform had failed, his colleagues had died, and he fled to the end of the world. He bore the sense of guilt of a survivor. In the preface to “Memoirs of My Travels in the New World,” he wrote: "After it is completed, I beg you to publish it with this preface, so as to show my stubborn suggestions and redeem my guilt." Finally, in the spring of that year, 1903, the sapling would disappear into the ground and become once again a hard seed, waiting for its opportunity to reopen—just like Westlake University a hundred years later.

From Shanlian, Sandun, Xihu District and beyond
Countless unknown people have contributed in various ways.

For the establishment of this university
I would like to express my gratitude
to the land and the people of this land

for supporting Westlake University.

This article is dedicated to the Hangzhou Bureau of Gardening and Cultural Relics; to Mrs. (Yanhong) Zhu, director of the Sandun Town Cultural Station, and to her team, who are committed to the excavation and protection of Sandun Culture.

Agreement among the Four Jiang Brothers and Cousins

Agreement

Regarding the camphor tree, four of us finally negotiated as follows:
1. The camphor tree is located to the east of the original archway, southwest of the front of Huafa’s (villager) house, and next to Yuegen Jiang’s (villager) house. The original (production) team assigned it to Guoxiang Jiang. Due to various reasons, in the end, Guoxiang Jiang, Hongchun Jiang, Hongwen Jiang, and Hongxu Jiang negotiated and agreed that the price would be reduced to four hundred and eighty yuan, with each person taking an equal share of one hundred and twenty yuan.

2. After each person contributes money, the money belongs to Guoxiang Jiang, but the camphor tree is the common property of four people, and no party can cut it down.

The agreement takes effect within this generation and will be negotiated again in the next generation.

This agreement has been specially established as proof.

(Note: This generation refers to these four people when any one person among them is still alive.)

Hereinabove

Parties to the agreement: Guoxiang Jiang, Hongchun Jiang, Hongwen Jiang, Hongxu Jiang

February 12, 1991