Recalling the Year ｜ Wang Shuixiong： The ＂Year Taste＂ I experienced in those years

[Editor’s note]

North and south of the great river, inside and outside the Great Wall, the customs of different regions are very different. What is displayed behind the Year is an epic of the life of China people. The Paper, please speak column launched a special topic of "Remembering the Year", telling about those years, that city, that village, and those people and things related to the Year.

The Paper Gongwei Cartography

First, the "taste of the year" and the year

When this article is published, my daughter will be three years old. Yes, she was born in January 2016.

My daughter is now attending a nursery near her home and can sing "Happy New Year, Happy New Year, Happy New Year to everyone".

Come to think of it, during the New Year, except for the one in its infancy, the other two Spring Festivals she spent were not at home, so she could not feel the "flavor of the year" of family reunion in a larger family; In fact, I have done the same in recent years, because I am more than forty years older than her, and I have failed to feel the "flavor of the year" more times than her.

I failed to feel the "flavor of the year". On the one hand, I failed to return to my hometown and was in a different place. On the other hand, as far as personal experience is concerned, the "taste of the year" in the Spring Festival itself has also faded.

Second, Nian is a monster.

As a male, in the childhood concept, celebrating the New Year in the countryside has a series of benefits, the first of which is to set off firecrackers in a big way. Unlike girls, they seem to pay too much attention to new clothes and wear red and green.

Adults set off firecrackers in the hall house (the house of the older generation in our village is usually shared by two households, and later it gradually became an independent hall house for each household), and the little boys in the neighborhood will step on it. At that time, firecrackers were not as violent as they are now, and many urchins stepped on them together. After a hanging firecracker was trampled out, they could pick up a lot of unfinished firecrackers. Take them apart and set them off one by one, so they can play for a longer time.

Such behavior, of course, is dangerous, and it is not pleasing-the incomplete setting off of firecrackers is not always auspicious; But firecrackers are scarce, and boys are eager for them, so adults can’t stop them, and they are not likely to stop them. The reason should not be that adults are ashamed of their own pockets; More likely, during the Chinese New Year, especially on the first day of New Year’s Day, adults are afraid of children’s crying. In this way, the only thing they can do for such "urchins" is to warn them in advance.

When I was very young, I seemed to cry once on New Year’s Day because I didn’t get the firecrackers I wanted, and my demands were soon satisfied. This surprised me. At that time, I thought, maybe adults are afraid that the monster "Nian" will be attracted by my crying.

I saw the power of this monster on New Year’s Eve. On the morning of New Year’s Eve, my mother had an important job. She filled a sea bowl (a big bowl) with almost stewed pork and chicken, walked to the shrine with incense sticks in the hall, faced it, and held the sea bowl high above her forehead, mumbling something. After reading in front of the shrine, I went to the gate of the hall house (the gate of the hall house is usually opened when I get up and lasts until I go to bed) and repeated it in the middle. After that, pour the meat from the sea bowl back into the pot.

At that time, I thought it was probably to use the aroma of meat to feed the monster Nian. Later, I learned that my mother was "worshipping God" and praying for the blessings of our ancestors. Before "respecting God", people can’t touch the meat in the pot, not even taste the salty soup. The priority of commanding his ancestors at this time made me misunderstand the power of the monster "Nian" when I was young, so that I could control my desires with fear even though my mouth was full of saliva.

At that time, many people in the village still had the standard portraits of Chairman Mao and Chairman Hua above the shrines of their halls! Later, it was worn out, leaving only white traces that were not cleaned. I don’t know whether the mother’s "mumbling" content, in addition to the blessing of the ancestors, will bring the protection of the two chairmen.

After the portraits of the two chairmen, the position above the shrine has been vacant for so many years, but people’s lives are getting better day by day.

Third, New Year’s Eve "Group annual lunch"

Hot air fills the air, red candles are flourishing, and after setting off firecrackers, every household has lunch on New Year’s Eve.

Unlike many places where we eat "New Year’s Eve", the lunch at noon on New Year’s Eve in my hometown is a grand family reunion dinner (the dinner at night is a simple meal for small families themselves). This lunch is cooked by the brother who is the best cook in the family, and the women help. The cooked dishes can be served all over the table. Brothers (whether separated or not), sisters (unmarried), sisters-in-law and sisters-in-law, including grandchildren, all come to the appointed place for dinner, usually the "living room" of their parents’ house (let’s use this name). After the death of their father, the place for the reunion dinner is often chosen at the brother’s house who cooks the reunion dinner.

The so-called "living room" is directly connected with the living room, which has the functions of kitchen, dining room and small living room at the same time (large banquet guests are usually in the living room). In the corner near the window, there are often large benches that are basically fixed against the wall on both sides, and the center of the square they enclose is a kitchen stove. Ground stoves can be used to keep warm at ordinary times; When cooking, you can go to the iron pot; When eating, put the table on one side directly above the kitchen stove, with a wide bench on the edge and parallel to it, and then put a smaller bench on the remaining two sides of the table, so that the family can sit down and eat around the table.

When eating this meal, my father and brothers go to the table together, sit on the first wide bench against the wall, and drink some wine; Women and grandchildren, on the other hand, have to squeeze into the next narrow bench. When there are many people, they can’t even sit in a fixed seat. They can only stand by and eat, and sometimes they have to help their uncles who have finished drinking on the big bench.

This "Group annual lunch" will set off firecrackers when it is eaten. Apart from being serious, it may have a special function now: it is to prevent others from visiting at this time-visitors only need to look at the firecrackers set off in the hall to know that the family is eating "Group annual lunch".

The reason why it is a "group annual lunch" is that after lunch, you have to work until you fall asleep at night. After cleaning the front and back of the house, we should also clean the inside of the house. After that, the family has to take turns to take a shower, so they are often busy until eleven or twelve at night.

The cleaning in front of and behind the house needs the cooperation of the neighbors, and it is often started the day before New Year’s Eve. The focus is on road cleaning and dredging of ditch silt; After cleaning, you need to rinse it with water. Everyone swept, picked, rushed, and worked hard.

Fourth, killing pigs and smashing.

Similarly, uncles, brothers and sisters-in-law need to work together, as well as the preparation of Chinese New Year food and important food that can still be eaten for a long time after the spring of next year; This started as early as the off-year period.

What is particularly lively in my impression is killing pigs and smashing rice cakes.

These two characteristics of adults’ collective labor are: high labor intensity; High technical requirements; It involves a wide range-in addition to uncles, brothers and sisters-in-law in the extended family, it also involves children.

Before killing pigs, the pigs should be driven from the pigsty to the front of the main house. This matter needs the cooperation of a number of able-bodied laborers. In addition to the surgeon controlling the pig’s head, two or three people are needed to control the pig’s front legs, waist and hind legs, lift the pig and move it to the bench placed in advance in the hall. The pig will bark extremely bitterly at this time; After the surgeon tied its mouth with hemp rope, its cry became muffled.

When the housewife or her children are signaled, they have to set off firecrackers in the hall (which may be intended to cross the soul of the pig), and the butcher leans over and takes out the pig-killing knife from the basin with clear water placed under the bench in advance, aiming at the pig’s throat, and the white knife enters and the red knife exits. Blood spurts out and falls into the basin under the control of the surgeon.

The pig’s muffled sound will slowly sink and gradually become quiet. The surgeon loosens the rope at the right time and shakes the pig’s front leg. Occasionally, a sound or two can be made in the pig’s throat, and the residual blood flows out with the shaking of the front leg, which tends to be sporadic. The housewife stepped forward again and opened the basin of steaming blood. When the men released their hands, the pig fell over the bench. On one side is pig blood spilled out of the basin.

Then, the dead pig was moved to the gate of the hall. At first, it was scalded with boiling water (the saying "dead mouse feels no cold" may have originated from a wise man’s personal observation of this real life), and then it was shaved. After that, the pig’s two hind feet were hooked up with a shelf, hung upside down, cut open, and finally split in half.

Its meat is first "divided" among several uncles and brothers at preferential prices, and when it is spare, it is sold in the market. After each family is given the meat, it will be divided into several portions according to seven or eight pounds, and sent to the relatives’ homes such as their grandfathers, uncles and uncles. These families will either transfer the meat they received (sometimes the same piece of meat will even return to the original transferor after several transfers) or cook directly for guests. Or cut into pieces the size of a fist, fry them thoroughly, put them in an urn, sprinkle salt layer by layer, cover them and put them in a cool place, so that they can be stored for months at room temperature without deterioration.

In the case of killing pigs years ago, my father was often the mastermind of the big family. One year, when he was helping one of my cousins to kill pigs, he bit one end of hemp rope with his mouth in order to tie the pig’s screaming mouth. As a result, the pig’s head swung and brought out a few of his teeth. However, he still insisted on killing the pigs. As a result, while he made the pig bleed, the pig also made him bleed a lot.

Afterwards, although my cousin apologized deeply, my father didn’t ask this cousin for any compensation for medical expenses.

Killing pigs is a potential safety hazard, and the dazzling pig-killing knife makes me a little psychologically stressed as a bystander.

It’s much better to pound Ciba-while watching the collective work, you can also taste glutinous rice and soft Ciba with the smell of glutinous rice steaming. At this time, it’s really delicious to put some sugar in my mouth.

When making Ciba, a large amount of glutinous rice must be washed with clear water in advance, soaked for at least one night, taken out and drained, and then steamed in a large steamer to make glutinous rice; Then put it in a stone trough and pound it into mud; Then press it into a round cake with the size of palm open; Finally, several small red flowers are printed on it, dried and put away.

Among them, steaming glutinous rice in a big pot and mashing it into mud are all men’s jobs; After that, the women are in charge.

When ramming Zanba, it is necessary to place the washed stone trough in the center of the hall. The stone trough is very heavy, and the outside is round-the inside is a hemispherical groove, which often needs two lean men to hold it with hemp rope before it can be carried into the hall.

Steaming glutinous rice was put into the stone trough, and four lean men each took tamping tools and began to work around the stone trough. These four tamping tools are all made of wood, two straight and two curved. "Straight" is thick at both ends and small in the middle (easy for two hands to hold), like an elongated and enlarged circular seal; The "bent" person, like an enlarged mallet, has a thick and deep head. After hitting the glutinous rice in the stone trough, the handle can still be a lot higher than the edge of the stone trough.

When operating, stand on the four sides of the stone trough and strike the head of the tamping tool against the glutinous rice in the stone trough in turn in a counterclockwise direction. At the moment of hitting the glutinous rice, the hitter also shouted "Hey!" At this time, the sound of pounding and shouting came one after another, which merged into a busy scene of harvest.

The glutinous rice was pounded more and more sticky, so that when it was taken out by the pounder again and again, the beating work could almost stop. At this time, the people holding the "curved" tamping tools retreated to one side, and the people holding the "straight" tamping tools stepped forward and put the top of their respective tamping tools into the stone trough. While the people turned counterclockwise around the stone trough, the tamping tools were constantly twisted in their hands.

In this way, the quickly rammed and sticky "Ciba" was "scooped" out of the stone trough by two rammers and placed on a plastic cloth sprinkled with oil on the table against the wall. At this time, the women hurried forward and took the "Ciba" from the tamping tool with their oiled hands and piled it into a ball.

After that, the hall was filled with the laughter of women and children. Women will knead the rice cake into the shape of a round cake and dot some "flowers" on it with red ink. In this process, some scraps will be picked up for the children. Children usually can’t wait to eat some, and when they have a bottom, they will pinch out various shapes to play with, and then eat them after playing to a certain extent.

Ciba is dried, stacked together and placed in a vat. It needs to be soaked in water before beginning of spring, covered (it is said that it will not crack), placed in a cool place, and then covered. When the water smells a little, change it again. Ciba preserved in this way can be eaten until almost the Dragon Boat Festival!

Five, that year’s "booming"

On New Year’s Eve, there is another activity called "Sticking Red" (writing and pasting Spring Festival couplets). Compared with killing pigs and smashing rice cakes, the neighborhood involved is limited to the cousin’s house in the same room.

At first, my cousin was in charge of writing and pasting. My cousin was the headmaster of the primary school in our village at that time, and he wrote well in calligraphy. This work is not too tiring, because there are not many Spring Festival couplets to be posted: two doors running through the hall, two doors directly facing the outside of the two "living rooms", plus the door facing the outside of the hall and the shrine; A total of five pairs of small couplets, one pair of big couplets, plus one horizontal batch each, will be done.

Probably after I went to high school, I took on the task of writing and posting Spring Festival couplets for my extended family. At that time, my eldest brother, second brother and third brother were all married and moved out to live in a newly built house. The new house is connected together and divided into three buildings, one for each person, with its own hall, living room, bedroom connecting the hall, and so on. The number of doors that need to be pasted with Spring Festival couplets will also increase greatly.

Therefore, "writing and posting Spring Festival couplets" is enough for me to be busy all day on New Year’s Eve.

"Sticking red" means that the new year is booming, and the memory is also booming, as well as the fire of the kitchen stove in the "living room" on New Year’s Day.

Although I go to bed the latest on New Year’s Eve, my father always gets up the earliest on New Year’s Day. All the vents of the stove are opened, and the coal inside will be burned very brightly, reflecting my father’s bright smile. It is rare to waste coal like this at other times.

The year before my college entrance examination, my father got up early and got greedy for the dark even harder, regardless of his nose cancer. After he married his daughter (my sister) with great prosperity, he was busy planning the tuition fees for me and my little brother (who took the college entrance examination with me that year because he was repeating his studies).

Later, according to the second brother, my father picked a load of cabbage in the early morning of autumn and winter, took a dirt road of five or six miles, and waited for the bus by the asphalt road; Later, I got on the stopped dump truck with the young people and went to the market twenty or thirty miles away. There was no shelter in the car, and when the cold wind blew, his sweat became ice. I caught a cold when I came back from selling vegetables, and my nose cancer turned into liver cancer.

In the early morning of the New Year’s Day in the year of the college entrance examination, I heard firecrackers ringing in my own hall for two or three times, thinking that it was difficult for my father to get up. It is estimated that the firecrackers were set by my little brother except my cousin.

When I opened the door, I still saw my father sitting by the fire. Although the smile on his thin face was no longer bright, his eyes were full of warmth.

"I wish my father a happy new year and good health!"

"good! I wish Xiongxiong a high promotion! "

After a simple conversation, my father took out a hanging 1000 rings and asked me to set them off in the hall.

Stop! Recalling "Nian" was an easy topic. How can I write more and more heavily? At this point, my eyes are full of tears.

I remember that Mr. Jiang Xueliang, the head teacher who had some knowledge of my father’s situation that spring, also asked me during an evening inspection of the dormitory: "Shuixiong, is there any news about your father’s health at home?"

"No news!" I went on to say, "No news is the best news!"

However, about two months before the college entrance examination, the situation of "no news" was broken, and the news from home was brought to school by my second brother.

The second brother said that the reason why he didn’t keep secrets from my little brother and me and risked affecting our college entrance examination was to tell us the "news from home" and take us home for fear that we would blame them for not giving us a chance to give our father a ride in the future.

As for whether this "news from home" has affected my college entrance examination, I think it still has some influence.

After I finished the first course, Chinese, I knew I didn’t do well. Because after writing the composition and checking the answer sheet repeatedly, it was not until 3 minutes before the end of the exam that I found that there were two whole pages, and about 30 points of reading comprehension questions were blank, and I didn’t do them … Finally, I could only fill them out at random while holding my urine!

The inner remorse can be imagined! Sitting in an empty classroom before lunch, my mood fell into a trough. After the silence, there was a strong heat flow in my heart: my father died, and I didn’t have the opportunity to repeat my studies like my little brother. This college entrance examination is my only opportunity, and it may also be the only opportunity to leave my hometown to study. At present, the only thing I can do is to do well in every course behind.

Such an idea may help me seize the only opportunity. In fact, this college entrance examination has indeed become the only college entrance examination in my life-because I was admitted to Jilin University.

According to the second brother, "at that time, some people in the village said sarcastically:’ I passed the exam, but I still can’t afford it!’" It means: after I die, my brother and sister-in-law may not pay for you to study, so wait and see a joke. I told my family at the time that we must fight for this tone. "

As a result, my three brothers and sisters, my mother and my sister’s brother-in-law, each went out of 400 yuan, totaling 2,000 yuan, which was enough for my school year’s expenses (including tuition and fees in 800 yuan each year). My little brother went to a local teachers’ college that year (later upgraded to a university) and spent a lot of money.

This is 1994.

Six, Nian and "Nian Wei Er"

Originally, it was an article recalling "Year", but Lala was miscellaneous, and actually wrote a lot of "heaviness" under the name of "lively" and "prosperous". I hope I won’t leave you with the impression of "sadness and sorrow".

To sort out my thoughts, in fact, I think what I want to express is that in my heart, and possibly in the hearts of people my age, the "taste of the year" is precipitated in the communication between people. It is not only a "human taste", but also a "human touch" for people to communicate and communicate with each other.

This kind of "human touch" of neighborhood cooperation and family reunion embodies and strengthens a small social trust and support system in the form of "reciprocity" to a certain extent, which constitutes a kind of social capital in the countryside-a social relationship that can be used as a resource by people, thus bringing benefits to people.

Of course, "reciprocity" doesn’t mean that there is no "friction", no "war", no "haggle over every ounce" and no "clear accounts with brothers"; Moreover, this "human touch" will change with the general trend of society.

When there is more and more money, people’s lives are getting better and better, when fresh pork can be bought in the village at any time, and when the machine can easily mash glutinous rice into glutinous rice, the lively collective labor at the end of the year has turned into a noisy individual market at ordinary times, and the small social exchange system of "neighborhood watching each other" in rural areas has been replaced by a larger market trading system.

No wonder the old people in the countryside say that nowadays, every day is like Chinese New Year!

Today’s small families, in order to make "Year" look different from usual, will take advantage of annual leave to go out, travel and relax.

Society is becoming more and more modern, communication is becoming more and more transactional, support is becoming more and more systematic (non-interpersonal), family is becoming smaller and smaller, life is becoming more and more personalized, and Chinese New Year is becoming more and more tourist. Even in today’s rural hometown, it is rare to see big guys killing pigs and smashing rice cakes together.

"It is better to forget each other in the rivers and lakes"; Generally speaking, a year without "flavor of the year" means that people as social individuals have more space and greater freedom.

However, I think that the "flavor of the year" in my memory has its own value, especially when "it is necessary to hold a group to keep warm when the winter comes". After all, a systematic (non-interpersonal) social support system may not hold up one day or become a monster to bite itself.

Seven, "Happy New Year to everyone!"

My daughter is three years old. She was born in January 2016 and can already sing "Happy New Year to everyone".

Since she went to Sanya, Hainan for the Spring Festival when she was just one year old, I guess, in her mind, "Year" may mean the sea, beaches and waves.

But when I was her age, all I could think about was: "Nian" must be a "monster" that only adults were afraid of. If I was a little careless, the whole family would be punished by Nian.

I have to say that our days are getting better, although our memories are getting "old".

I wish that "the sea, the beach and the waves" will always accompany the memory of the new generation about "Year".

When Wang Shuixiong’s daughter just turned one year old, the whole family spent the New Year in Sanya.

(The author is a researcher at the National Development and Strategy Institute of Renmin University of China)