Reading essays, love is an article that does not retract - a brief reading of Xiangxi under the stilts"

"Xiangxi Downstairs on Diaojiao" is Teacher Fan Cheng's seventh collection of essays, which is amazing.

Some people may say that there are many writers who have written seven books, but they are not very powerful. However, if his seven books are all about the same place - Xiangxi, and there are about 60 articles in one book, that is to say, more than 400 essays are just to describe the same landscape and tell the same local customs, you can only say that he His writing skills are great, and I definitely want to ask, how many times has he walked on that land, how many times has he read about that scenery, and how much does he like the mountains and rivers of western Hunan?

Don’t know.

It is said that no one’s youth is confused. I think Teacher Fan Cheng’s youth is not confused. Xiangxi is the western part of Hunan, a countryside in deep mountains and dense forests. The countryside can only attract people from the city, and of course it can only attract people for a few days. Too many people in the countryside hope to go to the city and hope that their descendants will leap out of the countryside.

Teacher Fan Cheng was born in the countryside, a poor farm boy, the kind of boy who had to rely on the only way to earn a living by studying. In the 1980s, there were not many college graduates, and there were very few college graduates from rural areas. There was only one college graduate who chose to go to the countryside despite clearly being able to go to the big cities, Fan Cheng.

What makes a young man raise his hand to start writing ink, change the direction of writing youth, and go straight to Xiangxi without hesitation? literature! Teacher Fan Cheng said in the postscript: I was influenced by Mr. Shen Congwen’s works and entered western Hunan with a literary dream. I refused to listen to any dissuasion and stubbornly went to Xiangxi.

The beginning of a literary person is silly and stubborn. Charm and spontaneity are the qualities endowed by later writing.

27 years, I admire you! Teacher Fan Cheng's literary talent, with his best years and black hair covered with frost, stayed in the mountains for 27 years. What was not his hometown has become his hometown, like a fish in a river. The joys, sorrows, and warmth of the river system and the green mountains, he spent 27 years of breathing to measure the ups and downs of Yu Ge. The persistence of youth turned into a love as deep and mellow as a mountain. The melancholy dream blooms in the fragrance of ink that stretches like water. So, there is a seventh book.

Let’s not read Teacher Fan Cheng’s first six works for now, but just read the newly published book “Xiangxi Hunan Downstairs on Diaojiao”.

It has been seven or eight days since I received this book with over 300 pages of elegant and simple cover. I work during the day and can read the text at night, and I am slow at reading, so I have only read a very few pages. . When I read a book, I like to read the preface or chapter, the table of contents, and then the postscript, and then read from the first article to the bottom without cutting off the text midway. But reading "Xiangxi Hunan on Diaojiao Downstairs" changed my habit. I read the last few articles in the book in advance, because they were all about Xiangxi special snacks. People who eat well tend to focus on food and neglect other things.

What is the appearance and customs of mountains, water, cities, residence, food, and transportation in western Hunan? The first article in the book, which is also titled "Xiangxi under the Diaojiao Downstairs", tells you one by one.

Mountain.

Western Hunan is very mountainous.

This is located in the east of the Wuling Mountains of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau is like a group of huge horses, galloping from the southern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the vast plains in the east. The tall and tall peaks along the way are the heads of horses. The winding mountains are like the back of a horse.

Water.

On the banks of streams, there are always layers of stilted buildings. These houses are backed by green mountains and face clear water. It is precisely because of the availability of water and the convenience of life that the stilted buildings are reunited and the people in the mountains are invited to be one.

City.

On the rippling blue water of the Tuojiang River, rows of seemingly loose but very delicate stilted buildings float. Although they are not carved beams and painted buildings, they are better than the beautiful buildings.

Residence.

In winter, when the fields are idle, a ray of setting sun shines on the stilted building, and I see only Tujia and Miao girls, in twos and threes, each with a wooden stool, sitting on the stilts, embroidering, tying flower belts, and Those who make cloth shoes and those who put insoles, they are like sparrows, talking non-stop, and from time to time they let out hearty and cheerful laughter, as if they are trying to coax the eucalyptus to be lifted up...

Eat.

It’s Chinese New Year, so we kill New Year pigs and make glutinous rice cakes. The terrace of the Diaojiaolou was crowded with adults and children. Relatives and friends, those who helped and those who watched the fun, all gathered together.

OK.

Water is the source of life. In front of the Diaojiaolou is the creek. Not far away, there is a ferry and a pier.

Just a few picks. At the beginning, Teacher Fan Cheng used eight pages of text, such as meticulous paintings and ink paintings, to spread the beauty of western Hunan to people outside the mountains. No matter which scenery or angle, they are inseparable from the small stilted buildings that have flourished for a generation. Another generation of Xiangxi people’s stilted building.

Skipping three hundred thick pages, I smelled the delicious aroma of food. I am also from Hunan, and I really didn’t know there were such strange foods in the world. Let me talk about what I feel I have learned. I will try it during the long vacation.

Social meal. The main ingredient is glutinous rice, which is also my favorite grain. Soak, wash, filter, boil and then filter. Cut the bacon into cubes, drain the oil, stir-fry with the shallots and water wormwood, then mix evenly into the glutinous rice, add salt, and steam over high heat. It's delicious just thinking about it. The craftsmanship is not difficult, and the shallots from Dongxiang are well known, but we don’t seem to grow wormwood here. It doesn't matter, it should taste pretty good if it's one less thing. Teacher Fan Cheng said that after eating three bowls for the first time, I will have two bowls.

The bacon, rice noodles, kiwi fruit, and cantaloupe mentioned in the book are all good. I haven’t tasted them in western Hunan, but we also have them in eastern Hunan. But I have never heard of "yin oil" and "grain cake". Teacher Fan Cheng explained the ingredients process in detail and vividly, but most people still can't make it. Why?

Do you think that after reading Xiangxi on Diaojiaolou, you will become a Xiangxi expert like Teacher Fan Cheng? 27 days and 27 years are the difference between heaven and earth. He read "Xiangxi on Diaojiaolou" thousands of times without getting tired of it. The value of prose is to be watered with emotion. The words he wrote have their own unique characteristics and are undoubtedly worth reading. The yearning for that magical land that was born from the words can be set off with the power of these words that are watered by passion.

Just as Teacher Zhou Zhenhua wrote the preface to the book: It can be seen that he has read a lot of books and traveled a lot. His dedication and diligence have enabled him to gain a lot of academic and literary value. Word. To literature can be regarded as awe and loyalty.

Teacher Fan Cheng is a loyal and respectable person. He now lives in Changsha. I am a writer with relatively little experience in writing. We have never met, but we missed two opportunities to meet. The first time was when I went to Luanzhou, Hebei to collect folk songs. The journey was too far, and I wanted to go with him as a road-crazy person. He happened to be unable to spare the time, but he did not forget to introduce me to another teacher from Hunan so that I could take care of him during the trip. The second time, on the contrary, he strongly invited me to go with him, saying that it wouldn’t be long, so go ahead, but I couldn’t leave and would not go. Before reading this book, I had read some of his prose, which was like the person he was, low-key, calm, and erudite.

Although Teacher Fan Cheng said that he has grown from a young student in his prime to a writer with gray hair on his temples (he is mocking himself for being old, he is tall and elegant in his fifties), although he has already written for Xiangxi He has written seven collections of essays, but his writing road is still long. I look forward to reading his next book and the next one. And I believe that even if he no longer writes specifically about Xiangxi, the imprint of Xiangxi is indispensable in his writings, either shuttled or looming. Because, Xiangxi has been burned into his life.