Excerpted from "Raising Your Head and Wife Bowing Your Head Han" Feng Jicai
Today, as soon as the sky was numb, Wood took two corn tortillas in his arms, and hurried to the Niangniang Palace outside the east city. In fact, he didn't close his eyes all night, lying on the kang, waiting for the dawn, and the more he waited for the dawn, the slower it became. He was eighteen years old, and his father finally agreed to let him go to the Imperial Society. I didn't dare in the past, for fear that something would happen to him. The imperial council squeezed the wounded and killed every year. For this, the government has banned the meeting many times. Forbidden and opened, opened and banned. The ban is afraid of accidents, whether it is open or not, it is not good, and there is no emperor like no New Year.
Tianjin is near the sea, so that there are many people on the boat, and they take this sea goddess Niangniang seriously. Niangniang can bless the people who go to sea to be safe and sound. The sea is black and white, and if you can't get it right, the boat will capsize, and all the people in the boat will feed the fish. Therefore, Tianjin people eat fish, eat the above, when the fish is turned over, never say "turn over", taboo the word "turn", must say "row over". The word "rowing" is the "rowing" of "rowing". The common people have the attention of the common people.
On March 23 every year, Niangniang's birthday, Tianjin people must hold a Niangniang meeting, burn incense and kowtow to Niangniang for several days, and carry the statue of Niangniang out of the temple, parade all over the city, and scatter blessings to thousands of families. There are hundreds of flower fairs inside and outside the city, all of which have to go to the streets to display their talents, each to show off his abilities, to show off his unique work, and to show his strength to celebrate. For a time, the merchants closed the market, and thousands of people were empty, competing to watch and celebrate.
The so-called imperial meeting is because Emperor Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River, passed through Tianjin, and was just in time for the Niangniang Temple to go out of the meeting, and he was happy to see it, and gave the old people a yellow coat, a gold collar and two dragon flags. The little people have been rewarded by the emperor, and as soon as they are favored, they will come to the energy, and since then the flower club has been renamed "the imperial meeting". The move of going out of the meeting is getting bigger and bigger every year. If you live in Tianjin and haven't seen the Imperial Meeting, you will live in vain.
Wood's father is a doctor who practices medicine, and he is like giving medicine to a patient, cautious. In the eyes of his father, his son will never grow up, not to mention that wood is wooden by nature, how dare he be asked to go to the imperial meeting. This year, others reminded him that his son is eighteen, don't always tie it with a rope, so he was released.
But as soon as the wood came out of the east gate, he squeezed into the crowd, and by the time he squeezed into the square in front of the Niangniang Palace, it was already dawn. At this time, all the houses and storefronts that surrounded the square were given up to the various elders in disguise and waiting for the meeting. The utensils and ceremonial guards of each meeting were neatly placed outside the door. These guys are all hundreds of years old, flags, umbrella covers, all kinds of utensils, very beautiful. The wood squeezed around in the crowd, and it was a real eye-opener.
Suddenly, a man on stilts came up in front of him. The man was on high stilts, but he walked on the ground. He looked up and saw that the person on the stilts was a woman, dressed in white and blue flowers, with flowing ribbons, and a circle of pink and white moon flowers on her head, which brought out a playful little face bright red and delicate, with clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, and a cherry mouth, which was extremely handsome. Suddenly, as if she had stepped on something, she tripped and tilted her body as if she were about to fall. The wooden head quickly grabbed her arm and held her. As she straightened up, she turned her head and smiled at the wood. This smile thanked him, but his expression seemed to be a little shy. The wood had never seen the world, but he lowered his head with a hot face, and when he raised his head, he saw some tall stilt people standing far and near, but I don't know which one was the woman who was walking on stilts just now.
The sun rose, the drums and trumpets sounded in unison, the atmosphere was solemn, and the meeting was gone. The crowd in the square generally rushed to the Niangniang Palace. If the wood is in a big wave, he doesn't work hard, and others help him work hard. But he was still far from the temple, and he was stuck in the middle of the people and couldn't move. He is not tall, thin and tired, he can only hear the shouting of people in front of him and the sound of drumming, from the heads of the crowded people can see some flags, chandeliers, sedan car tops, spires, flower poles passing in front of him, the top is strange is a few iron pots for many people to hold, black and strange, the people have thrown copper coins into the pot, this money is merit money. The money fell into the pot, and it was like rain. Later, he learned that this was the mother's drive. The elders of the various escorts will take the lead.
The route of the meeting is different every year, and the wood doesn't understand, so he can only follow the **, asking people to push his back and squeeze forward. For a while, he was pushed to the front. Suddenly, some people, wearing yellow shoulders and yellow buns, stopped him with a thick yellow rope. A big man in yellow clothes and a black face shouted at him: "Squeeze!."Stand back!The man also held a small triangular yellow flag in his hand and waved it at him, and three black letters were embroidered on the flag: Yellow Dragon Society. It turned out that this was also a meeting, and the road was clear when the meeting was opened. At this time, the Yellow Dragon Society seems to have great power, and everyone has to listen to them.
Then, he saw a series of old associations that he had never seen before, acting, playing, singing, dancing, and walking in front of him. Every time you change a meeting, you change the scenery. The flags are different, the costumes are different, the performances are different, the tunes are different, where else can you see such a scene except for the imperial meeting?The people who went out of the meeting were strong, and the people who watched the meeting were also strong, and soon, some people with hard arms and hard arms squeezed him to the back, and Ren Ma couldn't see it.
Out of the meeting today, out of the temple gate, first to the north of the palace. The wood had been squeezed to the front of the lantern shop, and he had no strength to squeeze to the front, and when he was in a hurry, a voice said to him, "Do you want to go up there and see it?"There's just an empty space there. ”
He fixed his eyes and saw that the person who was talking to him was a middle-aged man, who looked strong and strong despite wearing a jacket. The man grinned at him with a mouthful of white teeth. There is a lot of alkali in Tianjin, and there are not many people with white teeth. Where the man pointed was a low wall, with four or five people standing at the top of the wall, and a small open space right on the side. The walls are not high, but the wood does not go up. And he said, Thou hast stepped on me, and I will send thee up.
The wood refused, but the man was bold, crouching down on one leg, with the fingers of both hands crossed, palms facing up, forming a nursery, and placing it on his lap, and he insisted that the wood be stepped on the palm of his hand. The wood couldn't resist him, and as soon as he stepped on it, his body rose off the ground, like a **, and lifted him all the way up the wall.
What surprised Mu Tou was that the panorama of the meeting on the main street in front of the palace was all under his eyes. When he suddenly thought of thanking the man who helped him, the man was gone.
If it weren't condescending, ** could see such a formation of the meeting. From the south of the palace to the north of the palace, on this narrow and crooked long street, the procession of the meeting passed through the crowd of black and oppressive people in a colorful way, like a huge wriggling dragon. Standing tall, you can see the whole thing, and even the name of the old church written on each flag can be seen clearly. The flying cymbals of Liu Yuan's Dharma drum, the tuotou and tea urging of the Bairen Elders' Association, the "Heluo Great Music" played by the Tongshan Great Music Club, and the "Crane Age Song" and "Longevity Song" sung by the Xichi Eight Immortals Association all made Mu Tou want to have one more pair of eyes and ears, but he walked over without seeing clearly. When the mustard garden flower drum flower elder will come over, Eight sedan chair-sized flower seats, filled with five-colored flowers, the wood looks strange, Where are the chrysanthemums, azaleas, lilies, and peonies in this season?Is this flower fake or fresh?I only heard one person next to him say, "Don't just look at it, smell it with your nose." He spoke in a hoarse and heavy voice.
Before he could breathe, the thick fragrance of flowers came to his face.
Only then did he see a chubby old man beside him, seventy miles away, with a small jacket and a head-buttoned ear cap, not standing, but sitting on the wall. How did he get up to the wall at such an age?I only heard this old man say, "I wait for this meeting every year." This season, raising these flowers, and telling them to bloom at this time, is not something that mortals can do. If you listen closely, there are a lot of insects in there. Then he said to the wood, "All right, I've finished reading this old meeting, and it's time to go back." Can you help me down?”
Mu is an honest man, I didn't expect how to come up again after jumping off the wall. He nodded at the old man, jumped off the wall, and then carried the old man down, he didn't expect that the fat old man was heavier than the mouth tank, and pressed on him, almost crushing him down, thanks to the force of his feet, the old man fell to the ground. The old man thanked him, and then asked him:
How many times have you watched it?”
Head back. The old man smiled and said, "I'm playing." Then he said in a hoarse voice, "I'll tell you what you think." We will have more in Tianjin, one or two hundred, no one can see them all. If you want to see which way will be good, follow it. It walks on the inside, you walk outside. The old man pointed to the crowd, and then said: "Let's see that there will be rules in Tianjin, no matter how many people there are, we can't block all the roads, and there is always a narrow road next to the wall." You just go along. Okay, it's time for me to go home and eat, it's almost noon. ”
It's noon so soon?
Wood thanked the old man for his guidance and walked along the wall. Suddenly, a group of people came out of a horizontal alley, I don't know who and what, this group of people came very violently, rushed him into the middle of the street, and sat on the ground with a butt. He fell this way, and he was a little confused. When I looked down, I was surrounded by stilt legs jumping and jumping. In a panic, a cat on stilts reached over and pulled him up. When he looked at it again, it was the woman in white who had almost slipped and was helped by him in the square in front of the palace before the meeting.
It was such a coincidence, he had helped her just now, and now she was pulling him. At this time, the woman in white also recognized him, and she actually snorted at him and ran away with a shy face. Wood was a little stupid, standing upright in a circle of characters twisting and turning on stilts. An onlooker shouted at him: "Come out quickly, they are Xu Xian's people, it's none of your business!."Everyone laughed. Wood then understood, ran down, plunged into the crowd, and then went into the alley, and came out for a long time.
When he returned to the street, the royal meeting was still performing one after another. The stilts will already be in the past. For some reason, all he wanted to see at this time was the stilt club. He didn't know the name of this meeting, he only knew that he was playing "The Legend of the White Snake". He remembered what the fat old man had just said, "follow the meeting," and he made up his mind to meet with this one today. The road has gone far, and it can only catch up quickly. But when they got to the exit of North Main Street, they got into a fight and blocked the road. He was in a hurry in the crowd, and it was useless to be anxious. The sun was gradually turning westward, and he came out of the house in the morning, and it was almost a day.
Only then did Wood feel that his stomach was empty and his legs were weak, so he hurriedly took out the tortillas in his arms and ate them. If you have to hold your urine, find a toilet and drain it. Then he found a stone step to sit on, and gradually felt comfortable and energetic, and just as the road opened, he came to the big alley. This area is wide and wide, and it is a good place for performances. In the overlapping crowd, he saw at a glance that a person on stilts was the White Lady's Dao. He ran over, but couldn't get in front of him. Luckily, the stilts are high, so you can see at least half of the top. From a distance, I saw the white lady stepping on the gongs and drums, like a small swallow in the clouds, fluttering in the wind, flying up and down, attracting bursts of applause. This woman has such good skills!
The guild route further ahead is from Dahutong, through Guodian Street, through Clothes Street, to Needle Market Street. This road is lined with large shops on both sides. The big businessmen sent people to some well-known old clubs in advance, visited the head of the meeting, posted a post, made money, and said that on the day of the meeting, they must intercept the meeting and watch the meeting. According to the rules, whenever someone intercepts the meeting, the team that comes out of the meeting has to stop, and people have to give a good performance for which meeting they intercept. This made the wood enough to see the white lady.
From the onlookers' discussions, they not only knew that this way would come from Gegu, and their stilts belonged to the "under the sea" faction, but also understood what the name of the woman who played the white snake was, kneeling forks, coiling forks, wrestling forks, jumping forks, turning back forks, lying on the ground tigers, and making thrilling, superb, strange, and elegant. Especially the figure twisted, strong and charming, which surprised and admired him. The more you look at the wood, the more you can't see enough, and this follows all the way to the intersection of Needle Market.
At this moment, it is almost dusk, and the interest of the various associations is still not over. The local associations also had to follow Niangniang's Luan into the city, out of the city, and back to the palace, and most of the associations from other counties who came to perform here were scattered here. Naturally, Gegu's stilts also withdrew from the ranks that had left the meeting.
Wood has been following behind this stilt meeting, and further west, gradually secluded. Not far away is a small courtyard. When the imperial meeting was held, the meetings in the surrounding towns and villages did not have a "nest" in the city, so they all rented a small courtyard on the edge of the city to put the guys, and then rented a few rooms to live in.
Wood watched them enter a small courtyard and sit on a high stool to untie their legs. Then get down from the high stool and sit on the low stool. After stepping on stilts for a day, I couldn't walk for a while after untying my legs, so I sat there drinking tea and smoking, resting my legs and feet. In the courtyard, some of the local women who had come with them waited for them, hung their sweaty clothes on ropes in the courtyard, and sprayed wine in large gulps to remove the smell of sweat.
Mu didn't dare to enter the courtyard, and kept hiding under an old willow tree outside, waiting for the woman in white to come out. He just wanted to see how handsome and extraordinary this man in his costume was so beautiful, charming, heroic, and wonderful.
He waited for the people in the courtyard to come out one by one, but he didn't wait for her to come out. He was a little anxious.
Until the courtyard is quiet and empty. When an old man guarding the door came out to close the gate, Mu Tou went to ask why the person who played the white lady just now didn't see her come out.
The gatekeeper said, "The last one to come out is yes." ”
Wood was surprised and said, "That's a tall, thin and sturdy man, wearing a green cloth jacket." ”
The gatekeeper said, "Exactly." ”
Wood was even more surprised, and said, "Why is it a man?".I'm talking about the White Lady – a woman!”
The gatekeeper was stunned when he heard this, and then smiled: "We stilt clubs never allow women to join the club. The women are all men.
Wood was still a little unwilling, and asked, "What does he do?"”
The gatekeeper said, "If the shipkeeper does not stand on the board and dangle all day, how can he have such good legs and feet?" The old man turned around and closed the door. The wood stood for a long time, his head full of flowers and green, and he was still in the clouds.