The taste of childhood

Article | Hu Xiaowei

Reminiscing about the Spring Festival when I was a child, I still wrote and posted couplets to feel like the New Year.

In our hometown, we call the couplets "mendìzi".

It’s the end of the twelfth lunar month, and the Chinese New Year is almost here. Neighbors and villagers will always ask each other when they meet, "Have you finished the New Year celebrations for your house?". The other party will usually answer, "It's easy to do it in the new year. It can be done as soon as you pick it up." In the past, it was relatively simple for rural people to get New Year's goods during the New Year. Most of the things they produced were produced by themselves. They were reluctant to part with them and only used them to enjoy during the New Year and holidays. What I want to buy is what I can save, and I rarely buy it in the market. But the "family boss" cannot be omitted. No matter how poor the people are at home, they will have to "stick to the door" on New Year's Eve.

At that time, it was best to write "mendìzi" as much as possible. It was difficult to see a family with a printed "mendìzi" on it. I really couldn’t find anyone to write it, so I had to wait until it was dark in the afternoon before New Year’s Eve and spend money to “pick it up” on the street. Because at that time, the cargo owners saw that they could not sell out, so they would sell the inventory at a low price. You can save a few cents by buying at this time. "Pick it up" actually means going to the street to buy it with money. You can't pick it up for nothing.

"Writing a eldest son" is not difficult for my family, because my sixth father, who is "close to the family (not five generations from the family)", is a genius in this area. He and his father are brothers of Mr. ***. He is older than his father and ranks sixth, so he is called "Sixth Dad".

It is said that Sixth Dad attended a private school for two years and was a "scholar" in the bay. "Three Character Classic" and "Hundred Family Surnames" can be recited by heart. At that time, rural people liked to sing minor tunes. Sixth Dad could sing whatever words he saw, and he could sing them in perfect rhymes. When I was in high school, I watched the stand-up performance of Taiwanese singer Zhang Di on TV, and I naturally thought of Liu Daddy. Dad Liu likes to "give riddles (riddles)" to the children when he has nothing to do. Everyone was playing together, and Sixth Dad came over: "Come, come, come, I'll give you a riddle, guess it, whoever guesses it will give you a Tangtuo (tangzi)" "Riddle riddle" , three-strand system (xì), walking a long way, leaving no traces, just pick up a tool.” Everyone wanted to eat Tang Tuo, some said it was a "pole", some said it was a "basket", some said it was a "bucket", Dad Six kept waving his hands aside, "No, no, you have them in several houses." , then cut it off." Seeing that everyone can't "cut it off"! Dad Six said: "One more thing: two brothers are of the same height. You stab me, and I stab you. This one is easy to break, and you have them in several houses." In the end, no one could "break it." "come out. But regardless of whether the "break" comes out or not, everyone can get a "tangtuo".

I didn’t “break it off” either, so I asked Dad Six for advice in private. It turns out that the first answer is "Yuanzi (a bamboo woven transport tool used to carry dung in rural areas)", and the second answer is "Latch". It’s so vivid!

Solving puzzles is not Liu’s forte. His specialty is calligraphy.

In the words of Wanli people, he can write "painting stick", which means he can write calligraphy with brush. It is said to be a writing brush, but it is actually made of a bamboo stick tied with a bunch of hemp rope and made through simple processing. Whenever there is a wedding or wedding event in the Bay, such as "drinking with wine (young men and women getting engaged)" or "parting off the day (engagement period)", people in the Bay will come to him and say: "Six Guys, write me a note." "Six Guys" were very happy and readily agreed. He neither charges money nor accepts meals for writing these things, and brings his own ink and paper.

Naturally, Wanli’s father Liu is indispensable when writing “mendìzi” during the Chinese New Year every year. In my hometown, we usually have New Year’s dinner in the morning and finish it at twelve o’clock. Someone had already set up a square table in an open space in the village and asked Dad Six to write "men dizi". People in the bay gathered together to watch the calligraphy performance. Dad Liu cut the paper directly with his hands. Someone next to him said, "If you read well, you don't need a knife to cut paper." Whenever this happens, his face will be filled with a happy smile. "Lao Liu, just use your hand to write about my house." Dad Liu raised his face and thought for a few seconds: "You have to write seven pictures about your house." Sixth Dad knew exactly how many front doors, second doors, and house doors, including pig pens and cattle pens, and how many "door codes" had to be written on each house in the bay. In fact, in the end, all the "men bosses" in the bay were made by Liu Dad.

At that time, I couldn’t afford books on the collection of couplets, and it was not like now that the contents of the couplets can be found just by searching online. All the content Liu Dad wrote about "dìzi" was accumulated in daily life and then created on the spot. He had planned in his mind what to write on the first door and what to write on the second door.

For example, what is written on the door is "Loyalty is passed down to the family far away, and poems and books will last forever", "The door is opposite to the green mountains, dragons and tigers, and the house is facing the green water Phoenix Pond", "The earth is beautiful in spring, and the world is full of blessings and happy events." The kitchen door is written "One person skillfully cooks food for a thousand people, and the five flavors blend with the fragrance of a hundred flavors." The door of the room reads "Instruct the children to get up early and work hard, and teach the children to sleep late and read at night." Horizontal comments are usually "spring returns to the earth", "spring fills the world", "a hundred flowers bloom" and so on. Dad Liu’s calligraphy skills are indeed extraordinary! In particular, the dot mark written is the standard "melon seed dot", which is said to be the highest state of calligraphy. I remember that my friends often used melon seeds with plump seeds to draw on the couplets. These "dots" exactly matched the shape of the melon seeds, exactly like the photocopied ones!

At that time, the "doors" were all small in size, which not only saved paper, but also saved pen and ink. Unlike today, where large-scale couplets are posted, some are even written with gold powder. Some units even spent huge sums of money on advertising companies to produce couplets, which were hung for ten and a half months and thrown away as garbage. This was something that was unthinkable at the time. There was not enough ink, so Dad Liu found some charcoal from the stove, crushed it, stirred it in boiling water, and made ready-made ink.

In addition to pasting the couplets on the "men square (door frame)", some miscellaneous couplets must also be posted. The size is the same as the horizontal batch size, but they must be posted vertically. For example, on the pig pen, it is posted "The trough head is prosperous" and "The pig grows a thousand catties"; on the chicken coop (chicken coop), it is posted "Chickens and ducks in groups"; on the cattle pen door, it is posted "Six Livestock are safe"; "Round utensils)" are posted with the words "Food Harvest", and prominent places in the living room are posted with "Gold Every Day", "Safety in and Out", "Full of Gold and Jade" and so on.

After the New Year's dinner, every household is busy "making paste" and "sticking dizi". Making slurry is very simple, just add a small handful of gray flour to cold water and mix evenly, then put it into a pot of boiling water to mix. Some add some anti-rodent poison inside. The "door opening" pasted with this paste is both strong and protected from being bitten by insects and rats.

I heard people in the bay say that the sooner you post "mendìzi", the better. After posting it, you don't have to worry about anyone coming to ask for money. At that time, the economic conditions in rural areas were poor, and it was common for people to borrow money from the east and pay for the west, and borrow money from others. People who have debts are eager to collect their debts before the end of the year, because one year is a matter of one year. When I walked to the door, I saw that someone had put a "door sign" on it. In order to bring good luck to others, I was too embarrassed to go in and ask for money: "Go away the Qi Qiu, change the Qi (go), and ask for it again next year." I don't know when this rule was passed down, but it does make sense in taste. Of course, people who owe debts do not want to default on their debts by "posting debts" in advance. Most of them have their own difficulties: "If this year is not good (the recession is bad), then there will be another year (another year of debt) and the door will be closed (next year)." "Strive to repay", in fact, I have always been thinking about repaying the debt as soon as possible.

There are not many people in the bay who can read. To "write dizi" and hire someone, and to "post dizi", you have to trouble Liu Dad, because if you post the wrong dizi, you will make a joke. For example, posting "One person can skillfully cook food for a thousand people" and "The world is full of happiness and happiness" are obviously inconsistent. I remember there was a family who posted "Caotou Prosperity" on the bedside to save trouble. However, Father Six found out early and replaced it, thus avoiding a joke.

There is also a custom in my hometown. Generally, people put up "Red Gate Flags" during the Chinese New Year. But if someone dies that year, they put up burning paper or not. Cut the couplets into the size of mixed couplets with burnt paper. There is no writing on them. One is affixed vertically on the left and right door frames, and the word "cross" is affixed to each of the "door saints (gods)" to show the memory of relatives. In the second and third years, "lower color" is applied, usually yellow or purple. People who are close to this family will post "low color" in the first year. "Xiase dizi" generally refers to the content of Chinese filial piety culture, such as "Three years of keeping filial piety is easy to complete, missing relatives for a thousand years is the most unforgettable", "Meng Zong cried for bamboo shoots in winter, Wang Xiang lay on the ice for his mother" and so on. From these "low-grade sons", I got to know several famous filial sons such as Dong Yong, Meng Zong, and Wang Xiang.

Although my grades in school were not very good at that time, under the influence of my sixth father, I was quite enthusiastic about writing "mendìzi" every Chinese New Year. A little bit of common sense. From the first day of the first lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, while the friends were playing in the bay, going door to door and reading the contents on the "door code" became the most unforgettable folk activity to celebrate the Spring Festival.

Sixth Dad has always been single, relying on his "painting pole" to establish a reputation in the bay, adding a festive atmosphere to the annual New Year, and making the traditional culture of "mendìzi" pass on to the next generation. transfer.

What is sad is that in his later years, he went out begging for food due to mental disorder, and finally died of illness in the wilderness. I was studying abroad at that time, and I heard from people in the bay that the person was discovered by passers-by. I often think in my heart: If he lives in the new era, he may become a famous calligrapher or literary talent. With his talent and character, he will definitely live a good life and enjoy a happy old age.

In my mind, Dad Six will always be the most respectable elder!

#宇西X 红云生生#.

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