Essays on Memorizing Prose at the Beginning of Autumn

In beginning of autumn, hot flashes are getting hot, and it will get cold sooner or later. Sitting in front of the window, sipping a cup of fragrant tea, blowing a cool evening breeze, watching the rainbow and sunset on the horizon after the rain, a kind of tranquility arises spontaneously, and there is an impulse to kill time.

"Since ancient times, autumn is sad and lonely. I say autumn is better than spring. A crane in the clear sky walks on the clouds, which brings poetry to the blue night. " Although Liu Yuxi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote this autumn poem after being relegated, it is full of positive optimism, boldness and broadmindedness. Putting it in early autumn and spreading it on rice paper again, although I consciously can't reach the artistic conception of the original poem, it also has a unique charm in my heart.

Literally, the word autumn consists of two words: grain and fire, indicating the maturity of five grains. Therefore, autumn is a season full of expectations for people who eat for themselves, with golden everywhere and countless fruits waiting for the harvest of life; In the fields, people are crowded and sweating. What fell was a crop, but what piled up was a gratifying harvest.

Autumn is also the most comfortable season of the year. The sun is shining, the sky is high and the clouds are light, and the golden wind is cool. The formation flying south flew over his head, making a few hoarse voices, which made people feel sad. Autumn is also a season of transition between cold and summer. As soon as autumn passed, winter came, and everywhere in full of green, I was unhappy. In the ice and snow, people will dress up as pandas or zongzi. Those beautiful and colorful singlets lost their performances, which is why autumn was so sad in ancient times.

Beginning of autumn is the thirteenth of the twenty-four solar terms and the first solar term in autumn. Beginning of autumn marks the beginning of spring and autumn, when everything gathers and the midsummer is drifting away.

Although beginning of autumn is the beginning of autumn, it is essentially different from the real autumn. Beginning of autumn still can't see the shadow of autumn visually. Not to mention the south, even the northeast is full of green, short clothes and thin shirts. The afterglow of midsummer is still daunting enough. Look at the few pedestrians in the street at noon and the whistling air conditioner outside the window, and you will know the strength of the autumn tiger.

At this time, the rain also has the shadow of summer rain, which comes and goes quickly, and you can't feel cold when you are drenched. After the rain, the hot air around me is mixed with moisture and sweat, which is as oppressive as summer and even steals people's appetite. It is slightly different from summer, that is, the rain in beginning of autumn season doesn't feel like a continuous summer, but it is rushing, as if a teenager lost his temper and couldn't tell when it would come soon, and it stopped raining every so often. Unexpected rain has cooked countless drowned rats, and at the same time, it has pushed the weather forecast to the forefront. The phrase "rainstorm is to forecast rain" frequently appears in the circle of friends, full of ridicule, but it also confirms the mantra of many people: "I don't know if there is rain."

(2)

There are many customs in beginning of autumn, and the north and the south are different. But the custom in Northeast China is that beginning of autumn wants to eat jiaozi, which shows that I haven't explored it deeply. However, from the analysis of many people kneading jiaozi into the shape of wheat ears, there should be a feeling of expecting a bumper harvest. Nowadays, jiaozi has plenty of food and clothing, which is not worth mentioning. Pack it yourself and buy it in the supermarket. You can eat it at any time. But in the 1970s and 1980s, it was not easy to eat jiaozi. At the turn of summer and autumn, the old grain bottomed out, and the new grain was not harvested. Some people had problems eating. I remember when I was a child, I had the experience of borrowing food from my family. Although it is not rich, this jiaozi in beginning of autumn still wants to eat. The fillings are all made from local materials. Celery, leeks and zucchini can all be used as fillings, but meat, oil and other seasonings are used sparingly, and some people simply stick to them and eat them, which is called "vegetable jiaozi" in our local area.

Leather is an essential and important raw material in jiaozi. Nowadays, dumpling wrappers are basically white flour with fine processing such as jiaozi powder and high gluten powder, and the cooked jiaozi is bright and attractive. As for some people who mix corn flour or buckwheat flour into white flour to make skin, it is purely arty to preserve health or add color, and it has nothing to do with the rich and the poor. There are also skins made of vegetable juice, cuttlefish juice and white flour. , is the icing on the cake. Very novel and creative. As for how much nutrition can be supplemented and how much health care effect it has, in fact, no one really cares too much. After all, health care is about persistence, not a meal.

Speaking of cornmeal, soba, jiaozi. It was not uncommon when I was a child. At that time, as a key grain-producing county in the main grain-producing areas in Northeast China, corn was the only crop in the field. Even if someone interplanted some wheat in the corn ridge, it was to solve the ventilation problem and the yield was very low. Therefore, fine foods such as rice and white flour have to be bought or changed. But in an era when they don't want to eat their own eggs, who wants to buy and store white flour with little money and food? Most families will buy more when they buy new year's goods, and then eat them carefully. Usually, before and after beginning of autumn, there is little ammunition left, or even all ammunition is gone. In this way, buckwheat and corn planted sporadically in the fields and on the beach beside ditches will come in handy. They will be ground by machines and screened with a fine grate, and then the fine dark brown buckwheat powder or bright yellow corn powder will become the coating of the filling. Generally, jiaozi of buckwheat noodles or corn bread can't be made, and it can only be steamed. This is not a tradition, let alone a custom, but buckwheat flour and corn flour are not gluten and viscosity enough to cook. The skin made of pure buckwheat flour or corn flour is still relatively hard, and it tastes bad in the mouth, and the astringent taste is a bit pungent. The white flour of that era was different from today's, and it was mostly ground by older flour mills. A bag of wheat needs to be ground three or four times and broken and peeled once; Coarse flour comes out twice, and its color is darker, like buckwheat flour; The refined flour is made three times, and the color is white, like the whole wheat flour now; It takes more than four times to get white refined powder. Fine powder is expensive, and I can't bear to part with it. The next fine powder is cost-effective and naturally becomes the choice of most families. Some families grow their own wheat and grind it for their own use. Because of the small amount, they mostly grind it two or three times, so that they can have more flour and less wheat bran. So, at that time, even if jiaozi was made of white bread, most of his face was dark, even with obvious chaff spots, like a pockmarked face. However, this does not affect the taste. Soft glutinous rice flour can often hide the dullness of the stuffing and make the faces of adults and children show happy smiles.

Jiaozi is a complicated process. The panel is aligned with the edge of the kang, and the repeated movement of the rolling pin extrudes round dough pieces. The stuffing is made quickly, and only a few times, the skin and stuffing will be combined into a wheat ear or ingot. Children don't want to be lonely, so they learn to roll skin with medicine for a while, and then pick up chopsticks and pull them twice in the stuffing pot. Anxious children will secretly grab a handful of stuffing and stuff it into their mouths. According to the old rules in the village, children's actions will be beaten, but at this time, most parents will turn a blind eye and even lead to sad tears and gentle sighs. It is a hidden pain in parents' hearts that children suffer because of poor conditions. Children with empty stomachs at ordinary times can't wait for jiaozi to serve food, how can they bear to be rude! From time to time, parents will cook some first to meet their children's needs. The parents' eyes softened when they watched the children gobble. Maybe this is the meaning of Bao jiaozi.

Speaking of Bao jiaozi, there is an interesting story. My uncle's cousin was sent to Iraq by the company to drive his employer when he was seventeen. Employers all know that jiaozi is a traditional food in China, but they don't know how the stuffing is stuffed into the skin. So he asked my cousin to go to his house and pack him jiaozi. Cousin is very good at cooking. Jiaozi's steamed stuffed bun is fashionable and delicious, which makes his employer give a thumbs up. He kept praising his cousin's craftsmanship and marveling at the magic of China cuisine. My cousin is very proud, but she just can't eat jiaozi, because her employer keeps all the leftover jiaozi away from her cousin. Once or twice, my cousin put up with it, so it's time to promote China culture. Three times and four times, my cousin put up with it and laughed at himself for doing his craft so well! Later, my cousin couldn't bear it anymore and put a lot of salt in the dumpling stuffing. ...

Cooking jiaozi is also a technical job. Jiaozi is cooked in a large iron pot in the northeast rural area of China. Iron pot is the main cooker for rural farmers. It is made of cast iron with a big mouth and a small bottom. It sits on the stove and keeps warm by burning straw, chopping wood and other firewood. As long as there is enough water, an iron pot can hold hundreds of jiaozi at a time. Jiaozi asked for the boiling water in the pot, and then gently stirred it in one direction with a bamboo shovel or spoon to prevent it from sticking to the pot. In the process of cooking, filling fire is very important. Keep enough fire in the furnace cavity so that the water in the pot can boil quickly. Otherwise, it will increase the cooking time, and jiaozi can be easily boiled into soup. In case of fire, boiled in cold water twice or three times, jiaozi will float on the water and swell up. Then, a grate with a big basin mouth was slowly fished out, and plates of jiaozi were steaming in front of the family. Sitting indoors, the aroma is overflowing and the mouth is fragrant, and the originally empty customs suddenly become alive.

(3)

In my memory, the beginning of autumn is also the time to harvest wheat. Although corn is mainly planted in Northeast China, there are also cases of interplanting wheat, the main purpose is ventilation, and by the way, some flour and rice can be harvested. The so-called interplanting means planting a ridge of wheat every few ridges of corn. This method was popular for a long time when I was a child. Later, with the improvement of planting methods, it is basically invisible now. Wheat is ripe, the golden color is mixed with thick green, looming, like a girl to be married, with a layer of gauze on her face; Also like a sandwich biscuit, it overflows with faint wheat fragrance. The breeze blew, and the full ears of wheat nodded in the wind, causing waves of wheat and rustling, as if a lonely singer was humming in a low voice. This scene, for the literati, is undoubtedly full of early autumn poetry and painting, and may even be a masterpiece, but for the cultivators who have been watching for a season, it is a dream, and it is time to open the sickle.

Harvesting wheat is not an easy task. First of all, because a ridge of land is too narrow, machinery can't be used, so we can only use manual methods. Secondly, bundles of wheat need manual handling, and the feeling of scorching sun, sweat and thorns is particularly uncomfortable. Therefore, many wheat harvests were carried out in the early morning. Many people often get up at dawn to make a fire, prepare cars, draw water and sharpen sickles. After breakfast, everyone hurried to the fields. I admire the ability of the cultivators to distinguish. In front of a crop, you can find your own field accurately through simple identification, and the accuracy is extremely high. I once asked my father the secret. Father smiled, pointed to the tree by the roadside, and pointed to a stone under his feet. It turns out that this is the landmark of the cultivators. No wonder the land is like our home to the cultivators. Even remote or hidden, who doesn't know?

Before harvesting, smoking a cigarette or drinking a little water is a ceremony or a symbol. As far as I can remember, every time I open a sickle, it is like this. Then tighten the cuffs and bend your body into an arch, just like the full grain of wheat in front of you. Before waving the sickle, carefully collect a fluffy wheat under the ribs, stick the root, cut it off, and then gently put the wheat across the ridge. Even a stout man will do this very gently, just like a father putting a sleeping child on the bed. This process is only a moment, but it is an eternal moment. Wheat thus bid farewell to the land and completed the sublimation from nature to the dining table; Farmers greet autumn in this way and turn their expectations into reality. At this time, Xiao's murder scene, with a cold knife light, suddenly became gentle and beautiful. The crackling sound of the brush is like a soft dance music, which makes the boring reciprocating full of movement, ignites the mood of the wheat harvester, and soon cuts a long piece. With the deepening of harvest, the sun gradually climbed high, casting mottled light and shadow on the wheat field, and the original coolness no longer existed. The narrow space has been baked into a steamer, and the sultry feeling is getting heavier and heavier. Wheat awn mixed with hot and humid sweat sticks to the skin, which is very uncomfortable. The original dew on the corn leaves evaporated in the sun, and the withered leaves were as sharp as swords. I stretched my waist over the wheat ridge and tried my best to stretch it, like a sword lane in a martial arts film. When the wheat cutter shuttles, if he is not careful, he will leave a series of scratches on his face, neck, body and hands, which are red, low-paid, soaked in sweat and itchy. Bending for a long time can also make people feel sore and uncomfortable in the waist and neck. The taste of wanting to break is biting, and most people simply don't understand it. But this is a common practice for cultivators who deal with crops all the year round. When grinding your teeth, stand up straight or sit sideways, then pat for a while, then bend down and wave the sickle. Some people will use this time to smoke a cigarette and drink water, and talk and laugh with people on the wheat ridge next door. In smoking and laughing, physical fatigue and pain are temporarily forgotten and the spirit is mobilized again. This is a self-regulation method commonly used by farmers, which is very rustic but very useful, especially after a burst of laughter, the sickle in the hand seems to be covered with blood, the frequency of wheat harvesting will be obviously accelerated, and the brushing sound will be even and dense. The atmosphere will be dull and the sickle will become heavy. Those with poor physical strength will even take a posture of half kneeling or even squatting, completely ignoring the usual narcissistic appearance and expression.

After the wheat is cut, the process is bundling. Pick a bunch of wheat stalks with ears, hold the lower part of the wheat stalks for several turns to make them tightly wound, then move the wheat stalks down and stick them on the wheat stalks, and then split a bunch of wheat stalks in two to form a simple long-tail bow, which is called "winding" in our local area and is the main tool for binding the wheat stalks. Anyway, "winding" depends on winding on the ear of wheat. The correct direction is that the ears of wheat on the "winding" should be in the same direction as those to be bundled, and should be as close as possible, so as to facilitate threshing and reduce waste. Binding is also a bit tricky. Tie the "clockwork" to the wheat pile from above and turn it over, so as to ensure that the bow will not loosen. Then, the tails of the two wheat straws are crossed and tightened, wound into a knot, and stuffed under the winding along the gap between the winding and the wheat bundle. This process seems not difficult, but it is not easy. It takes a long time for a novice to complete a bundle, but it is often difficult to guarantee the quality of the bundle. As soon as it is mentioned, it is just the old saying that "water has activity, trees have roots, and it makes sense to do it or not."

Carrying wheat is also a chore. Due to the limited space, it is necessary to manually transport the bundled wheat to the field or roadside, and then take it home to dry. There are many ways to transport wheat, such as carrying, transporting, carrying and dragging. The difference lies in carrying it on your back, shouldering it, holding it in your arms or dragging it on the ground. Either way, the narrow space, bloated wheat sheaves, such as sweat, sharp wheat stubble and a spent force, all seem to be deep ditches and high ridges, and the handling process is difficult. Every step forward during this period is a test. Dead leaves are like knives, even if they are frequently blocked, it will not help. Stabs, scratches, sweat stains, bleeding, redness and pain can cause serious damage to bare skin. Every round trip is a torment. The road is getting longer and longer, the teeth are getting tighter and tighter, and the mood is getting more and more anxious. I don't even bother to open my mouth. I have experienced this feeling personally. 16, 17 years old, I couldn't bear it, so I ran away early, leaving my parents alone. Now that I think about it, I not only blame myself for my ignorance, but also deeply realize the far-reaching significance of the famous saying "Who knows that every meal is hard".

When the last bundle of wheat was carried out, I could finally breathe a little sigh of relief, but the work was not over yet, so I had to take a break and load the car. The loading process is relatively easy. One person stands in the car, others deliver goods and pick goods, and everyone can work together for a while. The tall wheat pile marched on the way home, like a huge golden brick shining golden in the hot sun. This is a monument forged by the cultivators with sweat and physical strength, and it is also the feedback of the love of nature. The family members sitting in the car or walking around are undoubtedly heroes and winners, although they are covered in mud, sweaty and heavy-footed. Look at that happy and satisfied expression, pure, simple, happy and serene.

A wisp of kitchen smoke rises, and the blue-and-white porcelain-like sky is hazy, like my still flowing memory. ...