Chapter 37 Xiangshi

After the "Qingming Festival", there is a so-called "fragrance market" in our town as usual, about half a month from the beginning to the end. The masses who chased the "fragrant market" were mainly farmers. The location of "Xiangshi" is in the temple.In the past, when the countryside was still a "Taoyuan", this "Xiangshi" was the "Carnival" in the countryside.Because during the 20 days from "Qingming" to "Grain Rain", the wind is warm and the sun is beautiful, it is the season for "carpe diem", and it is also the eve of "silkworm busy", so half of the farmers who come to "Xiangshi" are praying for gods. Half of the blessing (24 cents for silkworm flowers) is prepaid for the hard work of Silkworm Festival.The so-called "borrowing Buddha to travel in spring" is also true.

Therefore, the main programs in "Xiangshi" are nothing more than "eating" and "playing".Temporary tea sheds, juggling halls, cooking pots and meals, rope walking, three-hanging martial arts classes, tigers, dwarfs, string games, fashionable children's shows, dioramas——crowding the large square of fifty or sixty acres in front of the temple be full.The protagonists in the temple are Baicao pear paste candy, floral paper, all kinds of clay, paper and metal toys, the "candle mountain" that is as bright as stars, the sandalwood smoke that makes eyes cry, and rows of kowtowers on wooden worship mats.Inside and outside the temple, human voices, gongs and drums, as well as the sounds of small trumpets and whistles in children's hands, mixed into a commotion that could be heard three miles away.

The "fragrance market" I saw when I was young was so lively.In this "fragrant market", I not only appreciated the so-called "national skills", but also got to know tigers, leopards, monkeys, and pangolins.So "Incense Market" is also a carnival for children. After the "revolution", it is said that in order to "get rid of superstition", the "incense market" was not allowed to be held for two consecutive years.The left house of the temple was borrowed by the "Public Security Bureau" as a yamen, and a fence was built in a corner of the square in front of the temple. It is said that a park will be built.From the left of the temple, there is a signboard of "Silkworm Egg Improvement Institute" on the hall.

However, since last year, this "superstitious" incense market has suddenly been allowed to be held again.So I had another chance to relive my childhood dreams, and I was very happy to go to the incense market with my three cousins ​​(unlucky for them, they have never seen a decent and lively incense market since they were born). Although the weather is good, the "market" is not good.Although there were many more people than usual in front of the temple, the air seemed gloomy.There was actually the sound of gongs and drums.But the voice was monotonous.The clear water of the Wulong Pool in front of the temple is still as before, but the stage behind the pool has collapsed, and the rafters of the house are exposed to the "bright weather" like the ribs of a thin man.Everything is not like the Xiangshi I saw in my childhood!

So let's go to the only place where the gongs and drums sound.I thought that the sound of gongs and drums was some kind of trick, it must be a yakuza-style thing.However, unexpectedly, this is the "Nanyang Martial Arts Class", and the strongman who "lying on the bed of nails" published in the 62nd issue of Shanghai's "Liangyou Pictorial" is one of them.That's not the nameless "jianghu class".However, they only sell sixteen copper coins at a par price. There are very few spectators, less than two hundred (when I went in, there were only about fifty or sixty).The people in the martial arts class seemed a little disappointed, but they still seriously performed the five or six routines in the preview: circus, through the sword gate, through the fire gate, lead wire walk, Hercules... They said: "Today is the first time, there are few people, But don't dare to be sloppy,—"There are a total of thirty men, women, children, and children on the three of their boats!

In my opinion, the so-called "Nanyang Martial Arts Class" sets of styles are much more attractive than the fist-fighting and plastering stuff in the "Xiangshi" in the past.If it was placed more than ten years ago, wouldn't it be crowded with no gaps?But today, on the first day, there were only 200 visitors.In the past, the protagonists of the "fragrant market" - farmers, are almost invisible today. Later I learned that the small businessmen in the town were the ones who took the initiative to revitalize this "incense market"; they wanted to attract tourists to "revitalize" the market, and they planned to squeeze a few pennies out of the farmers' shriveled bags.But their plan failed!