Perhaps Locke's greatest achievement lies in his good relationship with local warlords and chiefs, which is the basic guarantee for all his exploration activities. Wherever he goes, he calls himself "Dr. Locke". There is evidence that he forged a diploma from the University of Vienna in order to get a teaching position in the university. Although he has never obtained a formal degree and an honorary degree, he is so complacent about the title of "doctor". Locke's geographical exploration in Yunnan was completely concentrated in less than 10 years in the 1920s. As far as time is concerned, he is later than botanists such as Goldward and George Forrest and other four-way adventurers such as French Henry Orleans. In addition, geographically, the scope is mainly limited to the northwest of Yunnan, while Major H·R· Davis of Britain visited Yunnan four times on foot from 1894 to 1900, with a journey of thousands of kilometers. Kinton Ward and Major Davis visited Muli long before Locke knew it, but Locke's inflated vanity made him unable to flatter himself. In a letter to Gilbert Tegdoswin, editor of National Geographic magazine, he proudly and evasively wrote, "During the eclipse at the end of February, no white man set foot in Muli Kingdom." Vanity is largely related to his white supremacy, as long as it is where white people have never been. Mount Animaqing is located at the corner of the upper reaches of the Yellow River. Here, Locke, who feels sorry for himself, can't help but write: "Since the creation, no white people have ever stood in this place." This may be the same feature of all western geographical and cultural discoveries at that time. On the other hand, this white man with a sense of superiority is hard to get along with most white friends, and every time he walks with white friends, he ends up unhappy.
In Yunnan at that time, apart from a rickety Yunnan-Vietnam railway, the only means of transportation that could be unimpeded on the plateau from ancient times to the present was caravan. For western readers, Locke's caravan tour showed them a mysterious field. Edgar snow, who traveled with Locke in Yunnan in the 1930s, had such a feeling: "Caravan, this is a charming word, which contains mysterious and unknown driving forces." Locke is unique in that he often carries the most basic lifestyle of civilized society, which is too extravagant for outdoor life. Si Nuo once wrote: "Locke is used to living outdoors. He has all kinds of ingenious devices that can help a lonely wanderer forget that he is far away from his family, relatives and delicious food. He has many genius inventions, such as folding chairs, folding tables, folding bathtubs, thermos bottles and so on. No wonder everywhere he went, the locals regarded him as a foreign monarch in awe. I am deeply honored to be his entourage ... this life is really fun. Now I understand Locke's love for this kind of life. He leads his caravan and enjoys a special and exciting sense of responsibility, because you are responsible for your subordinates and your own life. Set out an hour before sunrise, ride a horse in the hazy fog, climb the mountain on foot, and get tired of climbing, and arrive at sunset. These are the simplest and most primitive needs, but the excitement and excitement gained after meeting these needs will never be felt by those who live in the city all the year round and only deal with the main roads. "
There is no doubt that Locke's walk in Yunnan was originally based on the commercial purpose of plundering plants. When his curiosity swept through the natural scenery and the primitive living conditions of the aborigines, he keenly realized that this was just the "commercial material" needed by the western media, and he made money and became famous. When he discovered the infinite charm contained in the local national culture, he asked National Geographic magazine to fund the research of Naxi Dongba's prose, but the magazine only cared about readers' interests and the commercial value brought by articles and pictures, and Locke's request ran counter to all this, so he flatly refused Locke's request. At this time, the work of collecting plants reached the point of "a wily rabbit dies and a running dog cooks", and Locke's cooperation with the US Department of Agriculture and Harvard Botanical Garden ended in discord, which made Locke hate the ruthlessness of western industrial society. Although the political situation in China is turbulent and the people are poor, compared with the cruel modern war machine in Europe, Locke thinks that the war waged by bandits and warlords in China is amateur, and in a sense, the distant Yunnan is still a peaceful paradise.
In the early 1930s, Locke had no source of income at all. But he did not hesitate to sell all his possessions and returned to the southwest frontier of China with all his savings. Since then, he has parted ways with botany, which makes a living, and devoted himself to the study of Naxi culture. After 1930s, Locke lived in Kunming for most of his life. In order to find relevant information about ethnic studies, he traveled again and again, roaming in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Nanjing and other places, and sometimes returning to Europe and America. Traveling is his way of life, and sometimes the cost of this way of life will become incredible. 1February 3, 936, sunny. On this day, Locke chartered a China Airlines plane "Kunming" from Yunnan Province to Lijiang, and stayed in Lijiang for several hours, without any special reason, just to overlook the mountains and the earth in the air. During the Anti-Japanese War, Locke encouraged American pilots on Hump Route to take him across Tiger Leaping Gorge, saying that Tiger Leaping Gorge was only 12 meters wide (the narrowest part of Tiger Leaping Gorge is now 27-30 meters), and ordered them to fly low and take photos. The pilot later recalled that it was a good thing that the wind was strong and they didn't fly very low, otherwise this guy named Locke would definitely kill them.
From arrogant white people to lonely cultural relativists.
The explorer's lifestyle made him choose celibacy, but what made him feel lonely was his research work. No one can understand what he did. This work exhausted his energy and brought him to the brink of bankruptcy economically. When he is old and ill, he often feels desperate. Locke often writes in his diary: "Today, I have an unspeakable loneliness." In the late 1930s, he often thought of suicide. In order to prevent suicide, he asked Paul Mailer, the American consul in Kunming, to keep the pistol for him. Si Nuo said that he is a wonderful combination of cheerful spirit and lonely personality. After experiencing pessimism and despair, he often recovers quickly.
Locke knows that some ancient traditional cultures are disappearing in the fierce social and cultural changes, and his research is very important to preserve these things. In the process of studying Naxi culture, the lonely Locke also found his own home. 1947 The Kingdom of Southwest Ancient Naxi was finally published after many disasters. Locke wrote affectionately in the preface of the book: "When I described the territory of Naxi nationality in this book, all those lost things reappeared in front of my eyes, such beautiful natural scenery, so many incredible and wonderful forests and flowers, those friendly tribes, those arduous journeys in those years, and those Naxi friends who accompanied me through a long journey and forged deep friendship will always be remembered in my happiest memories."
Locke is very sympathetic to the oppression and discrimination suffered by ethnic minorities in the southwest of the old society. 1949, Locke finally saw it in Lijiang: "The red regime liberated the people of all ethnic groups and declared that it enjoyed the same rights as the Han people." However, as an "imperialist", he had to leave China. By this time, he had lost all his money to learn Naxi culture. In his later years, he had to rely on his friends to help him live. In order to get the monograph published, he had to sell his last "property"-thousands of volumes of Dongba Sutra. During his 27 years in China, Locke collected more than 8,000 Dongba scriptures, which were later collected by major libraries in Europe and America. After liberation, Dongbajing living in Lijiang was burned as a poisonous weed of feudal superstition, and those beautiful forests disappeared one by one under the chain saw of forest industry enterprises that rose in the 1960s. Today, when we judge Locke's merits and demerits again, it is inevitable that we will not leave bitter memories.
Locke's cultural journey not only changed his life, but also changed his cultural outlook. Before he died, he sighed: "I met many unimaginable difficulties." At that time, everything was not peaceful, and one country wanted to impose its values on another. I have experienced countless hardships: "For example, I was harassed by bandits, trudged long distances, wartime, atomic bomb explosion, inflation, cholera, and the ship carrying my translation of Naxi manuscript was sunk by Japanese warships in the Indian Ocean. "Unlike white centralism in his early years, Locke in his later years opposed imposing foreign values and lifestyles on any nation. Locke never liked the spread of western religions in the southwest frontier of China. He opposes the "pollution" of this area by all foreign cultures. This view is sometimes extreme and cynical. Locke sarcastically said in Naxi People's Life and Culture: "In transforming Naxi people into Christian, Protestant and Catholic missionaries, no Naxi people are willing to work for foreign missionaries or attend their parties. There is only one Protestant mission in Lijiang, which belongs to the variant of Holy Spirit Christianity. They employ opium, alcohol, tobacco and ghosts in Sichuan as assistants, or lazy vagrants abandoned by Tibetans. These people become Christians one day and followers of Lamaism some time later. " Locke added: "Naxi people have little entertainment. They oppose missionaries' interference in their family life and violate their very moderate entertainment. They were told not to drink, smoke or dance. Naxi nationality is a moderate and modest nation, and its moral standard is higher than that of most whites. "
It can be said that the Hilton-style illusion of Shangri-La, the author of Lost Horizon, exists in the value core of western culture. In Locke's view, in the beautiful natural scenery, indigenous culture is the real essence. In the preface of his posthumous Encyclopedia of Naxi English, he wrote emotionally: "What I really want to thank is those Naxi priests who slowly broke their hidden ancient traditions and patiently began to teach me. Naxi people outline their inner life in this way: the power of nature inspires their emotions, the eternal theme of life and death, romantic love stories, their attitude towards nature, and the daunting power of natural philosophy make them fight against countless evil creatures-demons, elves, ghosts, and even gods. They are closely connected with God and live in harmony with nature by stimulating their imagination. " Perhaps this is the difference between Locke and many foreigners who have been to Yunnan.
The destination of this westerner's soul is Lijiang, Yunnan. For him, this is not only a quiet life home, but also his spiritual home. When he was seriously ill in Hawaii in the 1950s, it was impossible for him to return to China at this time. In a letter to a friend, he wrote: "If all goes well, I will return to Lijiang to finish my work ... I would rather die on that beautiful mountain than wait for the call of God alone in a ward surrounded by white walls. 1962 65438+On February 5th, Locke finally ended his lonely life journey in Hawaii. When he lived and died for a long time, his achievements in anthropology were not accepted by the mainstream of American anthropology, and his monographs were only published in Europe. The lonely man left only one monograph after another, and only a few simple lines were written on his tombstone:
Dr Joseph F. Rock.
Botanist-explorer
1884—— 1962