Chapter 5 "Things of the past" why should we have known each other

Why should we have known each other when we met? Why should we have known each other before When one day our group is really old, seventy, eighty, even ninety years old, gray-haired and on a walking stick, the world is not ours after all, we are already (summer time) at seven or eight in the evening The sun of Zhong, even at that time, if we meet strangers, we will still "why meet each other" because we are both "old three".So no matter where we are, let's sit somewhere out of the way--and it's quiet, anyway. "Which year are you?" "Six or six. What about you?" (The word "you" was used back then, but "you" was used at that time, which shows the role of time.) "I am six or eight." "Sixth day of junior high school Eight high and six eight?" "Old senior one." "Then you are one year older than me, and I am third grader in junior high." If a pair of young people passed by at this time, the young man might pull the girl up and walk quickly, wondering what the two old guys were reading. what spell. "Where did you go at that time?" "Yunnan (or Northeast China, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi). What about you?" "Northern Shaanxi, Yan'an." That's enough, and most of our backgrounds are clear to each other.This will always be the kindest greeting and the most effective way of communication between us, and it is the patent of our generation.Six Six, Six Seven, Six Eight, what a distant era.If the pair of young people had studied history, they might suddenly understand that it was not a spell, it was a very unusual few years in the twentieth century, and recalled a few awkward words they recited during the exam: jumping in the queue, educated youth, accepting the poor Re-education of the lower-middle peasants... If they just study history, if they come and discover us like a living fossil, I don’t think we mind too much, history will go on, we don’t want to hinder it, Happens to also want to have a little use for the "after all not ours" world.

What can we say?Those who have made it to the official history must have already entered the official history.The joys, sorrows, sorrows and joys of decades ago are the same as the joys, sorrows, sorrows and joys of hundreds of thousands of years ago.We can tell a little bit of wild history beyond the reach of the imagination alone. For example, if it is written in the official history that "millions of educated youths rushed to the countryside and frontiers with revolutionary pride", you believe half of it is enough, and those who remember this official history must have emotions.I remember clearly that one day at the end of 1968, our school specially invited a labor propaganda team leader from another school to give us a mobilization report.When he came to the stage, he first said: "Whoever wants to make trouble, we have a way to deal with him." The audience was very quiet.Then he said: "Now it depends on whether we are loyal to Chairman Mao or not." There was almost no breathing from the audience, and then someone took the lead in shouting slogans.His last sentence was particularly concise and powerful: "If you sign up, we don't necessarily ask you to go. If you don't sign up, we will definitely tell you to go." This caused a historical mystery: how many people who signed up really wanted to go What about?

There are also brave people at any time, if you say that Datian is coming, he will not go, not going, not going, not going!Wei Heru, the leader of the workers' propaganda team, retreated instead.There must be a comforting logic in this. I went to Yan'an.I changed from being afraid of going to wanting to go, mainly because of curiosity, the habit of daydreaming that I have proved time and again in the future, and the cowardice of not daring to go against the trend.Only when I got on the train going west and the truck going north over the mountains and mountains did I feel a ray of revolutionary pride.Only when I got out of the car and saw some peasants begging for food, did I suddenly think of revolution again.It was on that road that my classmate Sun Lizhe embarked on his destined path.That was the inspiration from a "Rural Medical Handbook".He held the book and read it all the way, and said, "Let's be a barefoot doctor." Everyone agreed.

Lizhe later became a well-known model of educated youth throughout the country, which is an indispensable page in official history.But if the official history says how high his political level is, you can't even believe one-tenth of it.If Li Zhe was good at politics, the "Gang of Four" would also be able to understand humanitarianism.What Li Zhe has is unbreakable professionalism and inexhaustible human touch, that's all.Coupled with the lack of medical treatment in our area, it was the poor, sick farmers who sent him to practice medicine.So when the "Gang of Four" fell, and some people wanted to turn Li Zhe into a "Feng Pai" and "Nao Pai", several letters signed (or entrusted) by hundreds of peasants were sent to Beijing to guarantee that he was a poor man. The favorite of the lower middle peasants.

Our village is called Guanjiazhuang, eighty miles away from Yanchuan County, thirty-five miles away from Yongping Oil Mine, and ten miles away from the commune.On the way from the commune to the village for the first time, we half-jokingly created public opinion for Li Zhe: "He is a doctor." "Doctor?" The fellow asked, "Can you cure the disease?" "Of course, it's nothing if you can't cure the disease." Doctor." "Yes. Just put it in our village, right?" "Yes." "Cough——, that's good." So someone came to see Lizhe the next day in the village, and we all had Bajiao will be his helper and adviser.The first patient was an old woman—fever, chills, red blotches all over her face.Li Zhe finished reading the "Rural Medical Handbook" and said: erysipelas.So everyone took out all the antibiotics they brought from Beijing, as well as brown sugar and pork floss.The wife thought it was medicine, and asked in a panic: "How much is it?" Everyone replied: "No money." The wife was already sweating in surprise, and the first round of medicine was enough.But the erythema all over the face lasted for a long time.Li Zhe went to read the book again, and wondered if he had lupus erythematosus.That's when I remembered to ask about the medical history.The wife rubbed her face: "Are you asking this? He sat in the womb." "He was born with it?" "Oh—well!" Of course, Lizhe's medical skills became more and more sophisticated later on, and his reputation was well-deserved.

Speaking of the hardships of life in northern Shaanxi at that time, later generations may think it was a rumor. "Half-a-year food with bran and vegetables" is close to the dream, and the truth is to remove the vegetables and replace them with the word soup. "Break a penny in half and spend it in half", I'm afraid that if it is really broken, it will be invalid, so it is not practiced.How do you count as a home?One glance at the kiln, one kang at the entrance, the top of the kang is connected to the pot platform, and on the opposite side is a table, on which are placed two wooden boxes and several earthen pots, and a grain storehouse is set up in the kiln palm, which is all the belongings.How to support a family?Men go to the mountains with the moon on their backs, and come back at night with the moon on their backs, and spend their whole lives in the blue sky and loess in exchange for the rations that are less than three hundred catties per person per year.In folk songs, it is sung that "a man depends on his clothes and a horse, and a woman depends on a man." In fact, this does not explain other than the importance of food. The suffering of women is no less than that of men. Feeding pigs, raising chickens, Cooking, men rest on the kang at night to smoke, they have to spin, weave, and make clothes, and when the farm work is tight, they also have to go up to the mountains to suffer, and they still wake up in the middle of the night to silently calculate the expenses of the family.The folk song sang "Light the lamp with egg shells and half the kang, and measure the rice in the wine cup, so I don't think my brother is poor", which is almost true.Fortunately, our place is close to the oil mines, and we can save some money by taking some dark crude oil from the abandoned oil wells and bringing them home to light the lamps.Is it an exaggeration to say that the folk song "brings out horsepower and eats pig and dog food"?That's because the cattle and horses at that time and place suffered more. If the cattle and horses on the grassland were replaced, it would be hard to say who is exaggerating who.Pigs are the family's year-round expenses. They would rather be hungry than starve them. They would rather be fattened if people lose weight, and then sell them for money to buy salt, needles and thread, agricultural tools, paint for dyeing cloth, and dolls. Books and pens for school, the rest are accumulated year by year, and will be used when the baby grows up and knows that he will be a mother-in-law.Only dogs can be ignored, so it is difficult for the whole village to find a dog capable of fighting wolves.However, dogs are still the most warm animals, and they still value friendship even when they are hungry, which is naturally worthy of praise; Look at yourself contemptuously—full of shame and self-blame, which may not be a good quality.I absolutely hate the theory that "a son is not too ugly to his mother, and a dog is not too poor at home".Humans are not meant to be sons (or grandchildren) all their lives, firstly; human beings surpassed all animals hundreds of thousands of years ago, secondly; What is the original reason for the revolution?Searching all the folk songs in northern Shaanxi, you can't find such words as "a dog is not too poor at home". Some of them are people's unyielding longing, parting in suffering, tormenting deep affection, and bold and lawless love: "Three I haven’t seen my brother in the sky, and the passers-by on the road have asked all over.” “The wind and dust don’t move the treetops, and I can’t dream of you coming back.” “Baige is full of vines and green tassels, and a big woman is born to raise a baby.” "I hid my brother in my house, poisoned my man, don't be afraid." "Liu Zhidan came out of northern Shaanxi, and he took the team to Hengshan." "After washing his hands and making white noodles, the third brother ate and went to the front line." Thinking of you makes your eyes dizzy, and the soil looks like a bay red horse." "Blossoms bloom on the edge of the cliff and red on the edge of the cliff, and the suffering people live a good life." All hopes flow freely with the help of the melody of ancient love songs, on the yellow-brown plateau Wandering in Shangsuntian.When we were suffering in the mountains, the folks loved to hear us talk about Beijing. They were envious but not jealous, admiring "Oh, oh, oh," and looking at the endless mountains, rivers and ravines, they had some longing and said, " When will our ride be like Beijing..." Then he sighed: "It's not the same as it was back then, people just forgot about us." So he continued to swing the old shovel weighing seven or eight catties, and sang: "Cucumbers were off the shelf in June, and the one who was so clever said something deceitful." Sing again: "Oh, oh, oh ho, oh ho ho, oh ho ho—! If you say yes, there is no spirit in the sky. , when the wind blows and it rains, there is a roar of thunder, and if I ask you, I will know if I don’t know it..."

Why should we have known each other when we met? Why should we have known each other once when we met (2) The year we just went was a good harvest year with good weather and good weather, but the public grain harvest was hard, and the public grain owed by the famine in the previous year had to be made up. As a result, the farmers had a bumper harvest. In winter, I took the whole family out to beg for food.Bold and scheming people engage in a little "speculation". In fact, speculation is nothing more than steaming a little white flour that they can't bear to eat at home, and selling it at a station dozens of miles away for a high price, in exchange for more corn and sorghum. If you come back, you will risk going to prison for this.Those with craftsman go out to play crafts in the winter leisure time, such as carpenters, stonemasons and painters.I also worked as a painter for a few days.The skills of those painters from outside are really not worthy of compliments, so I volunteered to draw wooden boxes for the villagers.After the wooden box is finished, paint it with bright red paint. After the paint dries, paint some flowers, birds, fish and insects on it, and write a few auspicious characters.A painter from outside costs more than ten yuan to paint a pair of wooden boxes. I only need the owner to pay me for a day's work, plus a meal of mixed noodles.At that time, I was really greedy, and the educated youth’s stove could not make such delicious mixed noodles; the small garlic dug from the mountains was smashed, and a kind of seasoning called CeMa (can’t figure out which two words) was really delicious. It was delicious.My drawing skills are not bad, really, not bragging.The fellow villagers carried the wooden boxes I painted to the market for sale, and they all sold for a good price.After drawing more than a dozen pairs, I can't draw any more.Everyone thinks that painting a pair of wooden boxes for home use is considered a good deed for the poor and lower-middle peasants, but it is not socialism if someone carries them to the market to make money.It's hard for me to eat the hot and fragrant mixed noodles anymore.

History will always remember that a group of Beijing students once came to that ancient yellow land, they did some good things there, and they also encouraged some bad things.For example, we have vehemently opposed squad dividends.Guanjiazhuang occupies the best land in Sichuan, and the commune is here to carry out a trial of brigade dividends. We think that the smaller it is, the more it will breed selfish desires, and the bigger it will be, the closer it will be to the public. See Communism Tomorrow.Unexpectedly, the result of doing this would turn Guanjiazhuang into the poorest village in Sichuan.For another example, we yelled and yelled and criticized those who engaged in "speculation" or went out to make money by playing crafts, which frightened their wives and children to "good for you, good for you" all the time.Also, under the encouragement of "taking grain as the key link", educated youth took the lead in cutting down all the fruit trees in the village to grow grain.The owner of the fruit tree hid in the kiln and wept. It was as if Yang Bailao ran into Huang Shiren again after the rebirth.Fortunately, after a few years we knew we couldn't do that anymore, and we started to understand some things about China.After reading some history and seeing some history, reading some theories and experiencing some life, I knew that I couldn't do that anymore.In particular, the fate of the educated youth and the fate of the peasants have already been linked together. This is the unique advantage of our "old chaps". At least for the first two years, we have almost no hope of returning to the city, and I believe that we will multiply on the plateau. The children and grandchildren are gone, and whoever is in this position will suddenly realize that there is no way out for doing that.

Of course, whenever we have the opportunity, we still fly, flying back to the city, flying abroad, flying all over the world.This phenomenon is complicated to say, but if we want to explain the reasons, I am afraid that scholars from various fields will have to work together to write several big books. In 1984, with the help of several writer friends, I went back to northern Shaanxi again.Because of the improvement of policies, life in Guanjiazhuang is naturally much better than it was ten years ago. I dare not say that there is plenty of clothing, and the money is still not much, but after all, there is enough food.The folks welcomed me to the entrance of the village, and every family invited me to dinner, and all they ate were white noodles.I said I want to eat mixed noodles.Everyone said: "Oh, who knew you would like to eat that number?" However, the farmers were still worried, worried that if the policy changed, would they be poor?Worried that you will go hungry even in the event of a disaster year?In northern Shaanxi, on both sides of the turbid Yellow River and the bare Loess Plateau, we still depend on the sky for food.

That year I went to Nanniwan for the first time.She is sung in the song as "the good Jiangnan in northern Shaanxi". I always thought it was an artistic exaggeration, but after visiting the place, I realized that the people who wrote the lyrics hadn't learned to tell lies.The mountains there are green, the water is clear, and the air is humid. Rice is grown in the Sichuan fields. The car drives all the way. There are wild fruits and herbs in the bushes on both sides. Pheasants and wild pigeons flutter their wings at any time.Investigate the reason, because of the role of forests all over the mountains and fields.People who are well versed in history told me that hundreds of years ago, the vast expanses of northern Shaanxi were all virgin forests.But as soon as you leave the boundary of Nanniwan, the boundless is full of scorching loess.I think that if we had started planting trees and afforestation as soon as we came here, northern Shaanxi would already be a prosperous place.I want to be like that, the plateau has already turned green, and the Yellow River has already become clear.I thought, is this muddy river and this yellow land the pride of the nation?It's a sin, a disgrace.But after seeing Nanniwan, I have hope in my heart: let’s plant trees, let’s plant trees, let’s use the enthusiasm of the Red Guards to plant trees, let’s make the mountains and rivers of the motherland green!Not so enough to bring about a fundamental change in that poor land.

Space is limited, so I can't say more.I can't forget the years of jumping in the queue, and I can't forget everything, and there is no end to it.It is ridiculous to build a coffin for yourself. After all, history must be judged by future generations.Let me finish with a few more gossips: What if a can of green sesame oil is spilled on the yellow ground?Don't worry, dig up all the oil-soaked loess, put it in the pot and boil it again; that's how the folks lived back then.Furthermore, the phrase "talking about the mountains" is popular now. I wonder if it has anything to do with our land digging back then?Digging the ground is digging the ground, and it is really rounding the head to chop down all the stiff mountains; this is how we spent our youth.There is another thing worth recalling. When we went to jump in the queue at the age of seventeen or eighteen, the boys and girls didn’t speak to each other. They were so agitated in their hearts but they didn’t dare to speak. Hot all over but still afraid to speak; that's how we walk into life.These things are enough for the young people of later generations to ponder, if they are interested.