"The wind sighs over the Yi River, cold and bleak; the hero sets out, never to return." Long ago, Jing Ke departed from here to carry out his mission to assassinate the King of Qin. The hero never came back. The Yi River remembered him, and so did the people who lived here.
The Yi River ends at what is now the Beihe Bridge. Stand on the bridge and look northwest, and you'll see the confluence of two rivers. It is not only the end of the Yi River, but also the middle stretch of the South Juma River. After joining together, the rivers pass beneath the bridge and continue southeast.
The Juma River, which took up the mission, has long since lost the tragic, desolate feel of that windswept autumn more than two thousand years ago. Its waters are not as cold as the poem makes them seem. Today, it flows gently, singing the hero's praises as it winds downstream. The hero's legend has lent the Juma River a touch of spirit. For generations, it has nourished the people on its banks and given rise to many stories, tragic and sorrowful alike, including those of heroes whose deeds deserve to be sung.
The river flows into Baiyangdian, naturally carrying the hero's spirit into the lake as well. The Yanling Team and the young soldier Zhang Ga are merely figures who represent the War of Resistance. What stories have unfolded over more than two thousand years? Surely far more than these.
The Juma River is like a relay point, taking up the unfinished mission and carrying it onward.
There are many villages, large and small, along its lower reaches. In the past, people lived by the river. Water was their lifeblood. For generations, they farmed this land and made their homes here.
History tells us that people moved here only a few hundred years ago, yet the Juma River has given freely, sustaining and nourishing them.
My hometown is here, in a perfectly ordinary village.
