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The famous scholar Ding Fan's column "Rural Scenery" ends.
The series uses six essays to look back on his experience of going to the countryside as an educated youth, and uses famous landscape paintings in the history of world art as a reference, re-examining the landscape and human customs of the times from the countryside to the township and then to the county seat, and dedicating a unique "literary landscape".
Column: Rural LandscapeA melancholy town drifting through the cloudsWen Dingfan.
In fact, after entering Baoying City, there are inconspicuous stone arch bridges and brick arch bridges in the river, although dilapidated, there is still some melancholy mood, with a trace of antiquity, a touch of melancholy romance of a classical town.
In the past six years, I have been to the county seat no less than 20 times, in addition to the tolerance of meetings and delivery of documents, in the agricultural slack season, I will ask friends to accompany me to visit the county, the small city, less than an hour to visit;There are also a few times when I traveled nearly 100 miles alone, just to buy a new book, which was the ** station of spiritual rations. More than half a century has passed, and the yellowed books such as "Li Bai and Du Fu", "Cotai Avenue", "Children of Xisha", "Zaolin Village Collection", "Red Flowers Full of Mountains" and other books are still lying quietly on my bookshelf, looking at the historical dust of the old days.
The footprints of my youth have been left on the only stone-paved street and east-west avenue that runs from north to south in the ancient city of Baoying: the gentle spring rain has smeared the smooth pavement into a layer of light makeup;Under the scorching sun, the white canopy outside the shop is like a white sail anchored in a harborThe bleak autumn wind gently cruises and licks the streets and alleys with the gloomy night rain, kissing the old houses of blue bricks and black tiles;A touch of the slanting sun in that winter, lazily falling into the depths of the side street, gave the melancholy shop a vitality that pierced through time and space. These long historical shots of entering the city still flash back in my dreams like scenes of cinematic narration.
The year before last, I returned to Baoying County, the lens of the old days has disappeared, the north and south bluestone slab streets that run through the mouth of the fish market, only a section of asphalt pavement alley, the shadow of the memory from here anchor, the slightly gloomy melancholy ancient meaning and romance, away by the sail of poetry, leaving a piece of spiritual grievance and melancholy.
The camera switches, and time and space shift.
Go to Dongfeng Hotel with friends to have a meal, two stir-fried vegetables, a plate of peanuts, two bottles of two two or five Baoying "Lotus Brand" Daqu for one person, round is a curtain of dreams in the wine industry of the youth era, that is because the curtains in our house are woven with reeds, and the reeds of thought are attached to food;When you are full of wine and food, go to the huge "Baoying Barber Shop" to shave your head and enjoy a luxurious haircut procedure, which is a must, because there is only one barber shop in Xiashe Town, and the young shaver with a flamboyant tongue, like many rural shavers, will only shave the "toilet hoop" head shape of the "second brother" in the countryside, and go to the city to shave his head is considered a formal haircut, what he wants is to keep his sideburns as long as possible, like the protagonist Walter in the movie "Walter Defends Sarajevo". Lying on the flat barber chair in a daze, I only heard the click of a razor shaving in the blindfold, just like the echo of the harvest made by a farmer when cutting wheat straw, until the hot towel with Shanghai sandalwood soap wiped my face, and the barber crackled and slapped your shoulder with his empty palm.
Then go to the "Baoying bathroom" to take a bath, that is the last enjoyment, in addition to the supply and marketing cooperatives, grain management all their own small bathroom, there is no public bath at all, Caodian Town has a very small size bathhouse, ten people crowded in it is full, do not change the water for several days, its milky white soapy water is comparable to milk, is jokingly called the milk soup bathhouse, the old farmer in the countryside said, the muddy soup water is to raise people.
What I didn't expect was that the "Baoying Bathroom" located in the East and West Streets was not much worse than Nanjing's "Health Pool", "Sanxin Pool" and "Daming Lake", of course, it was also graded, the first class seat was a couch with a clap, the second class seat was a long wooden seat, and the third class seat was a standing seat.
Xinhua Bookstore is also located in the east and west streets of the small city, it is a store, of course, the people who go there are the cultural people who are eager to read in the era of the uselessness of reading, every time I go there, there are few customers in the empty store of more than 300 square meters, but there are a few beautiful girls in the ear to hand, Hee-hee-ha, when I see a customer with two or three pens in my jacket pocket, I will immediately greet him with a smile, those people are not cadres, or primary and secondary school teachers, especially when I see the teacher of Baoying County Middle School in the highest school in the county, the respectful look is more vivid than Bai Meisheng's retrospective.
In the winter of 1972, when I went to the county seat to buy Guo Moruo's new book "Li Bai and Du Fu", I asked the girl with Li Tiemei's big pigtails to bring me the book. I was young and crazy, I slapped the counter, and theorized, the girl said, I'm afraid that you will stain the book, I was immediately angry, obviously it was a book of five or six cents, I deliberately slapped ten yuan on the counter, and scolded: "Dogs look down on people!."I'm a farmer, so I can't readWhen she heard my accent, she immediately froze there, at a loss. At that time, the reputation of Nanjing educated youth was not very good, and the incidents of fights and brawls in the small town often occurred, and it was estimated that the one next to him was a middle school Chinese teacher, and hurriedly came over to play a round, saying that I also liked this book, so I took out a dark green flower pole "Guan Leming" brand fountain pen, and looked at the pen hidden in my trouser pocket was exactly the same, that was when I was in junior high school, my grandfather bought me a fountain pen, and my heart couldn't help but move. The teacher immediately signed the date and place of purchase at the bottom left of the title page, and signed his name, which is the same Xi I used to buy books back then. In this way, I have a good impression of this teacher, who is also a scholar in the world, so why should I have met before. Although he was scorned and neglected, he didn't care about the big braid, and took the book and left.
At that time, there were indeed too few literary books that could be bought, every time I went to the city, I prepared some saved silver to buy books, and when I was a teenager, I read ancient poems pessimistic and gloomy, and recited new poems with passion, in addition to He Jing, I also secretly looked down on the poetry of workers, peasants and soldiers, Byron couldn't understand it, but Shelley and Pushkin's were easy to understand, but unfortunately there were very few underground circulation versions, and there were originally some at home, or hardcover, but it was a pity that "the four olds were broken" When I sent it to the scrap yard, I occasionally saw Li Ying's new poems "Zaolin Village Collection" and "Red Flower Mountain" in the Xinhua bookstore in the county, and felt that the poems were not ordinary, so I immediately paid for it, and the books at that time were very cheap, only three or four cents a piece, however, I could buy good books when I went to **In Baoying, Xinhua Bookstore is a must-visit place for me every time I go to the city, although I have had an unpleasant experience of buying books, but it is also the palace of literature in my heart during those years. Thinking of the girl with big pigtails, she must have already had a full house of children and grandchildren, and now she is in a small town
"Popular Cinema" is the most luxurious entertainment venue in Baoying County. In 1972, North Korea's widescreen color film "The Flower Girl" was screened in this cinema, which was unprecedented, and the characters with heads and faces in various towns and villages were not far away, carrying towels and handkerchiefs to go here**. This film not only earned enough Chinese yuan, but also earned enough tears of the Chinese people, because after watching enough of the "model drama" and the "three wars" ("Mine Warfare", "Tunnel War" and "Southern Expedition and Northern War"), the aesthetic tentacles were uncontrollable once they were moved by the human power of this tragedy. Two of my friends and I rode a borrowed permanent brand 28 bar to the "popular cinema" in the county, which was a cinema with flap seats, although it was not a sofa chair, but it was luxurious enough, much more advanced and comfortable than the very simple benches in the Great Hall of the Baoying. However, that movie saw a movie that broke the historical record of the screening of this cinema in Baoying City, and the screening continued for many days, so that the countryside rushed into the city to watch the movie, and the empty space in the back row of each show was full of audiences.
With the development of the plot, as soon as the North Korean meritorious actor Hong Yingji, who played Hua Ni, appeared, the movie theater began to cry in a loud voice, of course, I also shed tears, only the Shanghai educated youth who went with him did not cry, and later asked him why, he didn't mind saying: The movies are all fake!We don't think he's human. How many years later, I learned that the original author and screenwriter of the work turned out to be Kim Il Sung, and the directors were Park Hak and Kim Jong Il, and I understood the true meaning of this film, but in those years, we didn't understand anything, especially what kind of value position should the aesthetic effect of tragedy be based on.
After the movie ended, we wandered in the melancholy bluestone alley of North Street, and came to the famous "Zhenfengyuan Dumpling Noodle Restaurant" in the small town that year, a plate of beef, a plate of peanuts, and a bottle of lotus brand "Baoying Daqu" of two or two five per person, drinking stuffy wine, no one spoke, after a few sips, each person hurriedly ate two bowls of dumpling noodles, wiped their mouths, and went to the Baoying lock.
Although the locks in summer were noisy, on the canal, the breeze was blowing, the river water was cool, there were no mosquitoes and no lights, we took off our jackets, spread them on the watered concrete floor, and found a brick to make pillows, which seemed to be much more comfortable than staying in a hotel. A few people were speechless, and I didn't know if they were asleep, I looked at the stars and a crescent moon in the sky, and remembered the storyline in the movie, the tragedy of Hua Ni's family, compared with our situation, of course, is more tragic, but what about our future?Think about it again, those poor middle peasants who have worked all their lives in the production team, some of them have never even been to the county seat, we only think about our own fate, is it a little selfish?However, the idea of survival of the fittest and the survival of the jungle has occupied my heart.
Looking at the crescent moon and countless stars, which one is the Wenqu star?I am a young man who aspires to be a writer, and my literary dream has already set sail, but can I write a tragic story like "The Flower Girl"?I look confused, I don't know where the future lies, in the vast universe, is there a small space to accommodate a dream of being a writer?
In Liu Yuxi's dream of "the stars and immortals listened to everything, but they flipped their wings to the five clouds", accompanied by the bubbling water of the Grand Canal, I fell asleep in the fog in the struggle to break free from the tragic fate of the flower girl.
That year, when I left the lower house to go to the Chinese Department of Yangzhou Normal College, I suppressed my tears, said goodbye to my fellow villagers and friends one by one, opened the diary with the silk cover, and copied my favorite poem "Send Du Shaofu to Shuzhou" again: "The city is auxiliary to Sanqin, and the wind and smoke look at Wujin." Parting with the king, the same is a eunuch. There is a confidant in the sea, and the end of the world is like a neighbor. Inaction is on the wrong path, and the children are stained with scarves. Instead, I deliberately changed it into a clumsy antique poem that did not conform to the rules: "The city is near the four waters, and the reeds are looking at the eight towns." Parting with you is also a sail far away. Everyone at home and abroad is a confidant, and the end of the world is longer. Inaction is on the wrong path, and life is in Weiyang. ”
Passing by the melancholy Baoying County, as a stranger who is no longer a foreigner, I tore off a cloud on the horizon of the water town, made a towel to wipe the sweat of the journey of life, and finally brought it to another world, and the mood was no longer melancholy.
For the full article, please see the June 2023 issue of Contemporary.
Ding FanBorn in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province in 1952, he is a professor at Nanjing University. Since 1979, he has published more than 500 articles in Literary Review and other journals, and published more than 10 collectionsHe has published more than 200 essays and more than 10 collections of essaysHe is the chief editor of 100 kinds of textbooks and monographs, with more than 10 million words.
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