What is a wall note?

On the doors of old houses, there are often four characters on the doorsteps, such as "Ju Ren Yu Yi", "Gong Du Heiren", "Heng Feng Lu Tai", "Diligence and thrift are treasures" and so on. There is an old well with the words "Draft allowed, washing of dirt prohibited" engraved around the well. Such things are probably the originals when the old house was first built. Most of the calligraphy in regular script and ink are from the hands of folk craftsmen, but their attitude is respectful and lawful. The meaning of the words is also very clear. I think it was only a hundred or two hundred years ago, but it is as elegant as an extremely distant thing.

More wall writings are products of the "Great Leap Forward" period. The most common is "People's Commune is good", in the form of couplets, the first couplet is "I am for everyone", the second couplet is "Everyone is for me", and the horizontal comment "People's Commune is good" is often covered on the forehead of the old title. Others include "Resolutely implement the general line and make the output rocket", "The boldness of the people will make the land more productive", "Men grasp the steel, women grasp the grain", "Plow the land deeply and plow one foot deep", etc. It is said that the yield per mu in those days was often tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, but there was a slogan that said "Fight for a thousand catties of yield per mu".

The tone was very small, maybe it was done by an honest person. Different from the four-character slogans of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, most of these slogans are written in Zhu script, imitating the artistic calligraphy of the Song Dynasty, with large-diameter rulers, edges and corners, and a vigorous look.

The following wall slogans are from the 1960s and 1970s. Such as "Block the road to capitalism and take the step of socialism", "The Foolish Old Man moved mountains and transformed China", "Dig holes deeply, accumulate grain widely, and do not seek hegemony", "Learn from Fengqiao, ensure safety and promote production", "Learn from Dazhai in agriculture", etc. , to name a few. The font is the same as before, imitating Song Dynasty and Zhu calligraphy.

The text on the wall further down is familiar to me. “People’s education is run by the people, and education is run well for the people.” “×× is my family, and we rely on everyone to create a safe life.” “New trends in marriage and childbirth have entered thousands of families, bringing civilization and happiness to you, me, and others.” “Control the population and improve the quality of the population.” etc. Of course, there are more advertising slogans in recent years, some promoting nearby businesses, and some shouting out to businesses in other places. According to my rough statistics, "King of Hearts" has the most advertisements. The large, bright red sign shaped like a comma on the wall is extremely eye-catching. This is a nutritional product that is said to be able to produce blood and nourish blood (in case future people are confused, I will note this). The calligraphy of the above-mentioned wall inscriptions has greatly deteriorated compared with the previous ones. Most of them are random cursive characters, with a mix of traditional and simplified characters and typos. Of course, there are no simple regular scripts, and rigorous artistic calligraphy is also very rare. What I mean is that when you advertise on the wall, ask others to be civilized and polite, and implore others to buy your own things, your attitude must first be correct and courteous. If your handwriting is sloppy, regardless of whether it is good or bad, the first impression will be unsatisfactory.

Leaving out of the town is a simple road large enough for two cars to pass each other. There are some low-rise houses nearby, which may be in the way. There are several big words "Demolish" written on the walls - this is the simplest wall writing in the town.