Chapter 62 rich neighbor

On the way from Hamadan to Tehran, I was in a very happy mood. Now that I have turned the first and second pages in Hamadan, I continue to stir the history of Iran in my heart.First, I recalled that when I was in Greece, I saw a bay where Greece and Persia fought fiercely. I looked back and forth for a long time, and knew that the more intense battle took place in Marathon.The Greek-Persian War is the pride of the Greeks, and they are good at writing. I don’t know how many history books and literary works have expressed this theme.The ancient Persians looked down on writing, thinking that it was the entertainment of a few women, and the serious business of men was martial arts and hunting.As a result, the triumphant article of the Greeks has become the final word of history.

In fact, the Persians were still very powerful. Cyrus had established the largest empire before Rome, and Darius was even more ambitious. He marched northward to the Volga River Basin and eastward to capture the Indus River Valley, and finally traveled long distances. The expedition to Greece was a complete failure. The administrative management structure of the Persian government was very good, and Rome later followed it in many ways. However, as a regime whose main business was war, the army with great power corrupted quickly.I have read in some history books that many generals in the Persian army brought a large group of wives and concubines with them when they went to war.I remember a crucial battle in which Greece lost only a few hundred people, while Persia lost a hundred thousand troops. The contrast was too great.

Fortunately, the victor Alexander was a student of Aristotle after all, so he was more rational and didn't want to use the enemy's blood to describe victory. He married a daughter of Darius III as his wife, and the relationship is said to be harmonious. After Alexander's death, the political situation here was chaotic.In the third century BC, the nomadic peoples in the northeast established a dynasty, and the leader was Assassin. China took the sound from the leader's name and called this place Anxi.The Parthian dynasty lasted for more than 400 years and was replaced by the Sasanian dynasty in the third century AD.

The Sasanian Dynasty made great achievements in civilization construction and almost laid the foundation of modern Iranian culture, but was defeated by the Arabs in the seventh century AD, and Iran entered the Islamic period.Later, it encountered the attacks of Turkic, Mongolian and Timur, especially the attack of the Mongols in the 13th century.However, Iran unexpectedly became an important town of Islamic culture amidst such many disasters, and entered modern times at a unique and slow pace. When it comes to the defeat of the Sasanian dynasty in Iran by the Arabs in the seventh century AD, it involves us in China.China originally had a close connection with Anxi in the Han Dynasty. At that time, Anxi was a transit point on the Silk Road.It was already the Tang Dynasty when the Sasanian Dynasty fought against the Arabs. The Sasanian Dynasty once asked the Tang Dynasty for help, but the journey was too far, and the Tang Dynasty could not help for a while.After the demise of the Sasanian Dynasty, Prince Belus continued to ask for help. The Tang Dynasty first appointed him as the governor of the Persian capital, and then appointed him as a general. However, he had no hope of returning to the country and died of illness in Chang'an.Even his son, the Tang Dynasty also appointed a general, but eventually died in China.

At that time, there were still many Persians doing business, serving as officials, worshiping generals, and writing in China.For example, the Persian named Aluohao who discovered the tombstone in Luoyang at the end of the Qing Dynasty was a big official in the Tang Dynasty.According to the research of modern scholars, his name may be Abraham. Now the translation of Abraham, a common name for Jews, is probably a Jew living in Persia. As for literati, the most famous one is probably the late Tang Dynasty poet Li Xiao who was called Li Bosi. After he became a Persian businessman, his poems and essays have already captured the essence of Chinese culture. It was specifically discussed in the article "Complex".

Thinking about it this way, the land in front of me has multiple charms for me.The real giant of ancient Asia swallowed mountains and rivers for a while, but when China really touched it and called it, its most powerful limelight has passed away.Its second brilliance once stood shoulder to shoulder with our Tang Dynasty, but the Tang Dynasty witnessed the extinction of this brilliance with great regret, and tried to comfort it again and again to no avail.This is a big family that is very close to us and has a lot of contacts. I roam here, like visiting an old friend of my grandfather.The two families were both rich, and the paths they followed were so different.

Iran has been conquered so many times, some so thoroughly, that I guess it is unlikely that there will be as many ancient ruins here as in Egypt and Greece.But there will always be some, for example, in Hamadan yesterday, I saw two places. Well, let's take a closer look at the land.All stories and all interactions take place here, and this is the eternal background of all history.As far as natural landscapes go, I really like Iran. Its biggest advantage is that it is not monotonous.It is neither an eternal desolate desert, nor an eternal green grass, but it is varied and extremely rich.The snow-capped mountains are bright and holy in the distance, but they are yellow in the vicinity.Rows of trees don't have any other colors, but they are all smoked, set off, coaxed and protected in the same tone.

Sometimes it seems that the creator is afraid of monotony, so a row of poplar forests of more than ten kilometers, like the white marks drawn by an oil painter with a thin and tough brush.Sometimes a little light green or wine red is added to blend into the overall color spectrum of camel yellow in patches, without jumping or dazzling at all.A snow-capped mountain melted water across the forest, glowing with silvery white sky light, but soon disappeared into the wilderness without a trace. The main theme of the Iranian land is not the desolation of bluff, the mystery of mystery, or the secular sense of smoke.A bit desolate, a bit mysterious, and a bit mundane, everything is synthesized into a kind of poetry waiting to be manipulated.Such rivers and mountains must be magnificent when they appear great, sad when they suffer disasters, and indifferent and indifferent when they are peaceful.It doesn't have much of a main theme, just waiting for history to play it up.

Repeatedly extended by great wealth, great wealth and great disasters, its poetic flavor becomes an ethereal form. November 21, 1999, Tehran, Iran, overnight at Laleh Hotel