Chapter 39 Yan'an Street Market

The street market is at Chengdong Pass, narrow and narrow, on a gentle slope that is low in the south and high in the north; it is said to be a street market, but it is actually a river embankment, a very careless place.The Yanhe River turns eastward here, and the market bends like a bow; one side is facing the river, tens of meters below, the water is extremely deep, and the other side is the sheds and shops, which are slanted and slanted for business. People built it up, so small that they had to bow their heads when going in and out.In front of the shed door, there are almost small tables and low stools; they are put out during the day and retracted at night.The stalls of small merchants and hawkers can not be fixed in location, and whoever comes early will take advantage of it; often people occupy the space before dawn, or stretch a semicircle on the railing of the embankment with a rope, or move a few The stones are piled into one shape.The street is not very wide, and the slope is steep. If the vinegar seller stumbles at the north end, the vinegar water can flow all the way to the south end; if it is raining, from the river beach, it will be full of bare legs; if you look down from the Yanhe Bridge, One full of floating straw hats.On the plateau in northern Shaanxi, there is such a street market surprisingly, and I feel lively and fresh, and my emotions are quite provocative.

Standing on the market, you can see the outline of the entire Yan'an City.Looking up is the pagoda. It seems that on a sunny day, when you serve a bowl of wine, the pagoda's shadow will be in the bowl; to the south, you can see through the entire South Street; to the north, you can see the head of the Yanhe River.When I first entered this market, I felt that it was not very coordinated, but when I looked around, I immediately felt that it was very appropriate: there are mountains and rivers on all sides, modern buildings and ancient cave dwellings are intertwined. There is a difference in it, and there is a connection in it when it is scattered, and each of them behaves just right.

The market opened very early, and when it was dawn, people rushing to the market came one after another.It had just rained, and the mountains, rivers, and valleys had aura, and the vegetation was dark green and black, giving birth to a blue mist.The Dongchuanli River was originally used as an airport, but now the airport has been moved, leaving behind a road. What people like is the small road on both sides of the cement road. The grass is luxuriant, about a foot high, and the road surface is flat and smooth. It is clean and dust-free, and grasshoppers often splash from the feet, which is cute and humane. After walking ten miles and eight miles, the feet and legs will not be stiff.On the mountain, the road is thin and white. Someone came down and walked on a swamp by the river. The mud was covered, and it just supported the feet, and it was thin and did not stick to the soles of the shoes.A little donkey was running happily.Suddenly a jump, the body twisted like a bow.

As soon as they enter the market, people are hard to distinguish. The warm sun shines on them, and their faces are covered with oily sweat.They are all in a hurry, even those who are wandering have to be urgent, it seems that it is a world of competitors, and the greatest pleasure and the least instinct of people is to be crowded.The most prosperous ones are those vegetable sellers: the cabbage is washed without mud, but the cucumbers have stems, and the yams are strange, as big as a porcelain bowl and as small as a fist, and they are all purple.When buying and selling, the price is not negotiable, it is said to be high, and at the end add a little more, either three peppers or two shallots, before leaving, it is not the buyer who is grateful, but the seller who says "thank you".The ones who are constantly hawking are those who sell sunflower seeds and melons.The sunflower seeds in Yan’an are big and plump, and fried crispy; as the saying goes, you don’t eat what you sell, but the sunflower seeds seller popped one in his mouth and shouted for it to be sold.Generally, you don't need to weigh it, and if you grab one or two, the hand is more accurate than the scale.The claws are made of tiger skin melon, and when you punch it, it will open with a "bang", and the juice will flow out, sticky and gelatinous.

The restaurant is silent, even the sign has never been hung, the door is the earliest to open, and the latest to close.Most of the shopkeepers are mothers-in-law and aunts, clean and neat.In a small pot, you can cook both vermicelli soup and mutton noodles; eat now.Those who buy food sit at the table and eat with the bowl. When they are full, they count the money when they see the empty bowl. The donkey was thin and muscular, but it carried a heavy load, and was tied to the railing of the embankment. The owner bought a bowl of rice wine, stood against the donkey, a mouthful of wine, and a mouthful of dry food made of yellow-faced steamed buns.After eating, he led the donkey away, looked at the stalls on both sides, and licked his lips with his tongue.Still saying: good wine, good wine.

At noon, the market is in the flood season, and there are thousands of scenes, fashionable and outdated coexist: at the stalls, there are sellers of scythes and gas lighters; The old man who tied the hand towel, often selling tongue scrapers, leaned under the billboard that sold washing machines.People spoke in nasal tones, deep and coppery.Northern Shaanxi is the place where heroes and beauties come out. The young men are all tough and handsome, and the women are all plump and attractive.When men and women are young, they are the color of Shandandan, but when they are old, they return to the temperament of the Loess Plateau. The faces of the young are yellow but not swollen, the nose is high and pointed, and the wrinkles on the face are vertical and horizontal, just like a piece of loess. Plateau floor plan.

Two old men, packed up and swollen, squatted in a corner of the market, pushing and pushing the buns in their hands repeatedly, and then stuffing lumps into their mouths, their toothless mouths were so muffled, and the wrinkles on their faces were They all gathered towards the tip of their noses, and the beards around their mouths sprang up one by one: "The new kiln is finished." "Ergel asked the children's family to book a date." This is a pair of in-laws who met in the street market and dragged each other.In the noisy world, looking for an open space, talking about the marriage of children.They talked very speculatively, and often raised their heads and laughed, spraying saliva and falling on their faces again.The donkey tethered to the railing of the embankment rolled on the ground and let out a cry; the whole market almost trembled.

In the evening, the sun slowly set to the west. The mountains in Yan'an were incoherent and rounded. The tops of the hills were reclaimed for winter wheat, and the sun was shining red there.In the river, the rows of river willows are also round, but they are all golden yellow.The market slowly dispersed, and finally a dog came up there, picked up a bone, and ran away quickly. Farmers in the north walked from the fields to the market, obtained the material and spiritual pleasures of life, returned to every cave dwelling, sat on the kang of every household, left the sunflower seed skins in the market, and left new life. Traces of life.On the Yanhe beach, there was an extra layer of solid footprints, and it became quiet.The water still did not fall, and waves came, coming from the distant fog, widening for a while, narrowing for a while, bending, straightening, and flowing deep.

(From "Jia Pingwa's Prose Selected Collection", Lijiang Publishing House, 1987 edition) Jia Pingwa is a famous novelist and prose amphibious writer.His proses draw on a wide range of materials, such as chanting things and expressing a certain philosophy of life; Local style....In short, he built a simple, magnificent, calm and profound art world by relying on line drawing to convey spirit. "Yan'an Market Records" is an article in "Eight Records of Northern Shaanxi", which is an authentic and delicate chronicle of local customs in northern Shaanxi.The object of the author's description is Yan'an, the "Holy Land of Revolution" in China. It should be said that this is not a new subject.For more than half a century, due to the special status of Yan'an in the history of Chinese revolution, many writers and artists have attracted many writers and artists to praise and praise it.However, most of the many works show Yan'an's performance in the Chinese revolution, its revolutionary spirit and tradition, and the selfless support of the revolution by the simple and kind peasants there.However, Jia Pingwa took a unique approach, avoiding the vulgar perspective of the predecessors, and chose "Yan'an Street Market", a new thing born in the tide of commodity economy, to write, which opened a window for us to understand the new face of Yan'an today.The geographical environment described in the article remains the same, but the cultural landscape displayed is brand new. "Old" and "new" are dialectically united here.The cave dwellings, Yanhe River, Pagoda Mountain, goat belly towels, etc. depicted in the works, these things that often appeared in old literary works, with Yan'an's special regional symbols, can evoke our familiar and kind memories.But today's Yan'an is not what it used to be. Outside the city gate, beside the Yanhe River, beside the river and on the embankment, "short and oblique" and "so small that you have to bow your head when you go in and out" have been built along the way. ", a rustic township bazaar appeared.People who come here to go to the market are bustling, shoulder to shoulder.If it is raining, if you stand at the head of the Yanhe Bridge and look down, you will see "full of floating straw hats"; if you stand on the river beach and look up, you will see "all of people's bare legs".Although this street market is simple but quite lively, it is a new thing brought about by the commodity economy in the 1980s.And the new things in Yan'an are not limited to these.The modern buildings mixed with ancient cave dwellings, women in high heels, lighters sold in the market, billboards promoting washing machines, etc., all give people a new feeling.The author seamlessly combines the new things in Yan'an with the old landscapes, bringing readers an aesthetic feeling that is both familiar, friendly, fresh and beautiful.

The author arranges the layout and organizational structure, which not only has the vertical passage of time, but also the horizontal transformation of space, criss-crossing, without trace, completely natural.In the arrangement of materials, the details are appropriate, complex and simple; the brushes are dense and dense, appropriate and natural.There are not only macro scans of the overall layout of the market, but also finely carved partial shots.Especially the vivid line drawing technique shows the author's solid skills.For example, the description of the buying and selling scene in the street market: "When it comes to buying and selling, there is no need to discuss the price too much. The scales are all raised high. I will add a little more at the end... Before leaving, it is not the buyer who is grateful, but the seller who says 'thank you. '", with a few strokes, the kindness and simplicity of the "businessman" in northern Shaanxi who has entered the market and still remains a peasant is outlined.The one that was written particularly wonderfully was about two old people squatting in a corner of the market talking about their children's marriage while eating their own steamed buns.Please look at the description of the facial details: "The toothless mouth is smacking, the wrinkles on the face are concentrated towards the tip of the nose, and the beards around the mouth are standing up one by one." When talking about happiness, "I often look up and laugh The saliva splashed out and landed on the face again", the characters' frowns and smiles, every move of the hand, every throw of the foot, the expression, the state of mind, don't they all appear in front of us vividly?Therefore, one cannot but admire the author's skillful and experienced line drawing skills.