Chapter 14 East Changjie

East Chang Street in Qizhou Town runs from east to west, with a length of 2,000 steps.Near the north gate, there is a narrow street branching off, called Dongchang Back Street, which still retains the old style.At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Dongchang Street was destroyed by war, so that Gu Jingxing, a generation of celebrities, built a cottage with stone as a table, and people and tigers lived together in the same city.In the mid-Qing Dynasty, it was common practice to choose Jinshi as neighbors, and merchants and rich men competed to move in. Yang Qingfeng, Liu Daxing, Yu Hengfeng, Zhang Jusheng, Li Dayou, Wang Yuanfeng, Liang Taihe, Wang Banqiao, Liu Bingfu, Yuan Huan, Wang Mianwu, Wang Songwei, Wang Nanru After building shops and building houses, the popularity of Dongchang Street, a quiet place for literati and students, soared. In the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, both reading and business flourished.The Japanese army invaded Qizhou City, and the popularity plummeted. Qi people had to bow to the Japanese sentinels when they entered and exited Qizhou City.As the sun sets, Dongchang Street flourishes again. In 1958, residents learned from the modernization of the Soviet Union and built the street with bluestone slabs (mixed with sand, lime, and loess). In the 1980s, Dr. Street was repaired, most of which were paved with cement, tiled buildings, and shops with rolling gates.

Going east from the north gate of the old city, it is a bustling street with various shops, daily groceries, restaurants, pharmacies, bathhouses, dental clinics, electrical appliances stores, rice noodle shops, clothing and silk shops, bicycle shops, and motorcycle shops. , credit unions, banks, gas appliance stores, hairdressing salons, and dental clinics hang up the signboard of Dr. Street Dentistry; there are also car repairers, tinkerers who knock on tin buckets to repair steel pots, shoe repairers and umbrella repairers, and lock and key repairers. , Those who sell Houttuynia cordata and buy hair, and those who buy hair go to the street.There is a vegetable market in the middle of the street, where fresh vegetables, fish, chicken, duck, fresh eggs and braised vegetables are traded. There are more braised vegetables and ducks, as well as pig intestines, pig tails, shunfeng and mouth strips.Sellers of stewed vegetables hang a small electric fan above the stalls. The fan blades have been removed and replaced with a foot-long steel wire. A red silk is tied at the end. The red silk flutters when the electricity is turned on to drive away the flies that flourish in summer.The vegetable market squeezes this section of the street very narrowly, and most of them are agricultural and sideline products grown and sold by nearby farmers, such as peppers, eggplants, beans, amaranth, loofah, winter melon (wax melon is a summer vegetable), gourds, potato vines, edamame , lotus root (nine-hole lotus root produced in Qizhou), shallots, garlic, ginger, as well as lotus pods, sugar pears, watermelons, plums, muskmelons, and apples.There was an old lady from a farmer who sold shallots, but the buyer did not clean up the shallots. The old lady apologized and said, "Yesterday, I played mahjong after tearing up the shallots. I forgot to clean them up. The shallots are good." Here is a stall selling dried cloves and tofu. Many Qi people like to eat dried cloves, tofu and oily ginger.

After the vegetable market, in the middle section of Dongchang Street, there are Li Shizhen Hospital, Town No. 3 Primary School, Hemp Spinning Factory, Combustion and Chemical Machinery Factory, and Glass Factory. From the gate facing the street, the hemp spinning factory and the Combustion and Chemical Machinery Factory have closed down, with lush weeds and birds. The sparrows are playing, and the campus returns to tranquility during the summer vacation.Going further east is the residential area.The residential area in this section has the same architectural style as the commercial area. As usual, there are small buildings with two to three houses, the tallest of which has six floors. The floors are all covered with white tiles, aluminum alloy window frames, and light green metal doors.The street in front of the gate has been widened in a renovation project of Doctor Street, and it has three lanes and a cement street, which is no different from the streets in towns and counties in various places.There are flowers and trees in some courtyards, and there are also flowers and plants planted in washbasins and flower pots on some balconies and walls, such as dayanghua, money orange, clivia and cactus.On the eastern section of Dongchang Street, you can vaguely see the old appearance. This section of the old street is 290 steps long and 7 steps wide, ending at Dongmian New Street.Xinjie is an avenue leading to the countryside. To the north is the lotus pond of Qiyang Ten Scenic Spots. In summer, there are white and huge lotus flowers blooming among the light green lotus leaves, swaying in the dry wind accompanied by the sound of cicadas.

I went to Qizhou and lived at No. 212 Dongchang Street (Old Street). The hostess, Yu Shuixian, is hospitable, easy-going, straightforward, and quick to do things. Her family never accepts money for meals, so I call her my cousin.His husband-in-law and eldest son work in Shenzhen, and they bring their youngest son to manage the house. There is a corner-shaped counter in the hall, selling candy, biscuits, noodles, cold drinks, beer, matches, candles, cigarettes, exercise books, toilet paper, washing powder and other daily necessities , to maintain daily meager expenses.My cousin likes to play mahjong, so she plays in the hall. The sound of mahjong is endless from morning to night, and it can be faintly heard upstairs.When playing mahjong, the neighbors who bought items put all the money on the counter, said to take a tube of noodles, a pack of cigarettes and a pack of matches, and then took it away, or said to take two bottles of beer and send it later. It doesn't matter.My cousin has an account book to record the money owed by the neighbors for shopping. Often, the neighbor's Huangkou children will take it and kick it on the ground. Don't be annoyed, they will pick it up and pat it on the counter when the show is over.The mahjong game on Dongchang Street is also called "Da Huang Huang". This game requires more than five people, four of whom play cards, and the rest wait at the table. Waiters can't help dangling around, looking east and west, hence the name.After staying for two days, we gradually became acquainted with people. People in Dongchang Street knew our purpose of coming, so they provided some information. Talking about the scholars on Dongchang Street, the older generation worked in Beijing, in the United States, in Taiwan, Those who are in Europe or Japan can be counted one by one, and they can know a little bit about a lot of historical information and current situation. The personnel and affairs of the first street are reviewed in jokes, and the anecdotes of scholars are also told.As usual, I want to return the focus to those self-taught writers on Dongchang Street. The neighbors think that those who have never published and never stopped writing are weirdos. This kind of thinking is not derogatory. They insist that I should interview those weirdos , because they are all people with ideas, and they always stick to their ideas.

On the old street of Dongchang Street, No. 197 is an old house. The first floor is a blue brick structure, and the second floor is a wooden plank structure, but the second floor is no longer liveable, and the first floor is relatively shady. motor tricycle), the two households also do business on the street, and the next household lives in the alley and does potted flower business. The couple pulls a cart to the street every day to set up stalls and sell flowers. Their two children have graduated from college and parted ways. Working in Beijing and Wuhan.The road surface of the old street is still muddy and sandy, and the modernization of the triadic soil seems unreliable. After a shower in summer, the gutter overflows with water, and the potholes on the road are smoothed out by the accumulated water. The moon is embedded in it, and the moonlight There is the sound of frogs chirping and crickets playing in the grass beside the street.There is a large pond in the southeast of the old street, which is in the shape of a crescent moon. A bend of bright water is as quiet as a mirror. Beans, loofahs and vigorous climbing pumpkin vines are planted around the water.There are still wooden boats moored at the entrance of the alley, and women squatting on bluestone slabs to wash clothes.The water body of Datang used to be drinkable. It was an important source of water for Dongchang Street, and it also contained the happy childhood memories of many students on Dongchang Street.Across the embankment of the big pond is the Yuhu Lake, which used to have lotus, but now it is divided into two parts by a flood.

At the junction of the old street and the new street, there is a house with a full wooden structure. This house is no longer lived in, so it lost its doors and windows. The weeds outside the house carefully climbed over the threshold and leaned into the house, enjoying the empty space inside the house. shade.Chen’s dried clove shop is not far from here. I once photographed the process of making dried cloves by old man Chen. Old man Chen’s dried dried cloves are known as the best in Qizhou. Unfortunately, they will be lost because they are unmarried. There are no descendants, and there is a nephew who is his apprentice, but he is not satisfied with being the son of Lilac.People in Dongchang Street said that the real dried cloves should be added with sesame oil and honey. The top dried cloves also have ham and sausage inside. Think about it, is this the dried cloves of literati?

There is no shadow of the prosperity of the past on the old street. Sitting on the street by the door at night, the old neighbors tell about the past prosperity of Dongchang Street, pointing out the oil shop, rice shop, tobacco shop, biscuit shop, silk shop, etc. on the street. , the former wealthy family is nowhere to be seen, or it has grown into a barren grassland, and there are also a few neighbors who plant a few melons and vegetables sparsely, and poultry haunts here.There are some empty houses on the old street, with an iron lock that has been rusted for countless years hanging on the door, and some have no doors and windows at all, and the windows facing the street are empty and blackened by time.On Dongchang Street, including the renovation, most of the young and strong men and women have left temporarily or for a long time. They have two life paths, one is to go to university and then work in different places, and the other is to go to the south to work. Most of the factories in China have closed down, and the daily life has entered a state of cautious maintenance. If you want to support your children to go to college, you must work hard to go out to work.In fact, there are many foreigners living in the old street. It turns out that the people on Dongchang Street are prosperous and have gone across the ocean. The old houses built in unknown ages are like empty nests, and the latecomers will choose to live there.Now many later foreigners have also become Dongchangjie people. They introduce themselves as Dongchangjie people frankly, know some fragmented history of Dongchangjie, know that some people developed in the United States and Taiwan, and have doctorates.Even so, there are still some famous figures living in Dongchang Street, such as Mr. Wang Shouyue who lives in the middle section of Dongchang Street. I also want to recall Mr. Wang Shouyue. He used to teach in Wailinggong Primary School (now the third primary school in the town). He has passed his 88th birthday. He has been in love with his wife for 60 years. For the doctors and professors walking out of Dongchang Street, visitors can find him and get his character list printed on red, white, yellow and blue paper.

Dongchangjie people seem to be thinking about people who have gone far away, including those who have gone overseas. Their resumes are accurately copied in the brain grooves of the neighbors, and they are repeatedly discussed, supplemented, judged and pondered. Their stories Just like Qizhou's famous oil ginger, it can suck out endless flavors.The strange thing is that there are no high-ranking officials among Qizhou people. This is obviously a shortcoming in their hearts. When talking about Qizhou students, they can’t help sighing, just like their eyes wandering behind the sunset when they see the dilapidated old street It was not the twilight and gloomy look they had when they were talking about the Ten Scenes of Qiyang and King Jing's Mansion in the Ming Dynasty.Thoughts like blue bricks, simple feelings as long as black tiles, we had many long talks on moonlit nights, the moonlight sprinkled lightly on the street and the old camphor trees beside the street, insects sang in the garden, and sometimes a wild dog walked along He walked away leisurely by the wall.The people shaking cattail fans are mostly old people in Dongchang Street, and they are probably old women. They have clear thinking and loud voices. Many of them are bringing their grandchildren and granddaughters. The children are playing on Dongchang Street, and there are few scuffles and During the fight, a shirtless boy hit another boy on the head with an empty, soft plastic Coca-Cola bottle, and the remaining Coca-Cola splashed into his eyes. Expressing her concern: you child, how do you tell him to study when you hit someone on the head like this?

The old man is thin and his skin is dark brown. He has the bony demeanor of the iron tree facing the wind, which is in contrast to the strong old woman and the lotus root white complexion. This is not only Dongchang Street, Qizhou City is about the same.Men have the least strength to drink. They use three small bubbles (cups) for three coins, one or two bubbles per meal, and some drink three meals. It is not difficult to see drinkers at breakfast stalls.There are more and more men drinking beer on Dongchang Street, and there are small shops nearby. They just take an empty beer bottle before dinner and exchange for a bottle of beer. If they have a drinking heart, they also pick up a bottle and saunter. Shaking, like a bottle of light maroon days waiting to be opened, the men on Dongchang Street only drink one bottle of beer for a meal, and they don't distinguish between old, middle-aged and young.Old women believe in Buddhism, chant scriptures, and knock wooden fish. They have electronic chanting equipment, and knock wooden fish completely by hand.Under the moonlight, "Namo Amitabha Buddha" recorded by bel canto floated in the empty Dongchang Street, accompanied by the coolness of the stars and night dew for a long time, bathed in such a pious melody for a long time, the depression in my heart gradually faded, It turns into thin clouds in the distant sky, just like the clear waves and light mist on the lake, disappearing between the willow branches.The sounds of wooden fish and chanting sutras are the only sounds in the old street at night, and only a few windows still have quiet lights at night.During the day, you may hear someone from the neighbor sitting in the attic blowing the flute. The melody is melodious and poignant. The main theme is the chirping of cicadas. They chirp sharply under the shade of the trees under the scorching sun, interspersed with the smug singing of hens after laying eggs.

Behind every door on Dongchang Street, there are a series of stories about scholars.When I was playing chess, the old man next door gave me advice. He is a purchaser of a town-run enterprise. He is retired. He talked a lot about Dongchang Street. He has lived in Dongchang Street for 60 years, and the years have bleached him. sideburns.He likes to squint and smile, with crow's feet in the corners of his eyes, and his teeth are white and neat. Suddenly he said, "I was admitted to Tsinghua University." Hanging around with laid-off workers, I didn't expect that there would be a person who won the gold list. He was the second brother's unjust case that affected his future.His daughter is studying at Wuhan University of Technology, and he hopes that his daughter will go to graduate school.He said that everything is fate. My daughter refused to go to the three types of universities that she was admitted to in the college entrance examination. When she took the exam again, the car that sent the examinee to the examination room had a car accident. The classmate was injured. The daughter sent the classmate to the hospital and rushed to the examination room. She was half late In the hour, it was a Chinese test, so I missed my daughter's composition. The composition was the same as her award-winning composition, but I didn't have time to finish it.She turned out to have the best grades in liberal arts, so she had to apply for science.Playing chess, one sentence here and another sentence, push the scales and ask him to return to the original paper, the old man does not say anything, as most people in Dongchang Street do not ask questions, talk to themselves, ask them not to speak, or answer non-questionable questions, very angry, but also have no choice.He just praised his daughter. The daughter recommended her wife to the university to be a janitor and manage the girls' dormitory. He thought it was not easy, which shows that her daughter is amazing.

In July, the sun scorched the earth, and the steaming heat made the dogs under the camphor trees stick out their long red tongues, and the neighbors "swayed" or "fighted the landlord" in the hall where the fans were running wildly, and the topic changed. As far as the college entrance examination score line is concerned, no matter whether it is a numb driver or a cart driver, everyone knows the key university score line, the second-class university score line and the third-class university score line, including the hot and cold of majors, but what is being discussed here is that the children of the neighbors are on the key points , Whose children are only enough for the second-class university, and whose children are determined not to go to the second-class university and have to wait for the next year to take the exam. The neighbors are deeply worried about this, so they have to pay for an extra year of repetition.On Dongchang Street, the college entrance examination is one of the most popular topics, but it is discussed while "shaking", but the casual life in Dongchang Street has not changed for a long time. The scholars have gone or are about to go away, and the migrant workers live far away. Another topic is remittances from scholars or workers. The postman sent a high-value money order to someone, and the neighbors would come to inquire one after another. The money order remitted from the south or the Pacific Ocean is also a stimulant. The people in the old street had a short-term excitement, and after that, everything in this 290-step old street was calm as before. On the newly remodeled Dongchang Street, people living in small buildings with luxurious exterior decorations also open the shiny iron doors and look inside. You can see the backs of the bamboo chairs near the door and the brown backs leaning on them. There are elderly people who have retired and returned to their hometowns. Some relatives earn US dollars, euros, yen, and pounds overseas. Some of the new buildings are tightly locked up for those who work on the Internet. That building was built by overseas Dongchangjie people who came back to build a missing space built by overseas Dongchangjie people in their hometown, and lock their thoughts with an iron lock , getting thicker and thicker.However, after a hundred years, will Xinjie become an old street?For example, they used to call it "Bashang" in the current old street. I made a special trip to Mount Luojia to visit Professor Tao Meisheng of the School of Humanities of Wuhan University. Professor Tao Meisheng recalled the scene of his childhood in Dongchang Street. Inscriptions, inscriptions, paintings, etc., give people a subtle influence, and people grow up in such an environment, which provides traditional nutrients for cultivating people's humanistic spirit.Professor Tao Meisheng believes that Qizhou food is a nourishment for scholars, oil ginger, dried cloves, etc., give people an unforgettable memory. Hao Xiang, deputy secretary of Wuhan University, mentioned the unique architectural system of Dongchang Street. Every household on Dongchang Street has a corridor leading from the front street to the back street. When this corridor locks the front door and the back door, the interior becomes The space of the family, each room in the house is an independent space, each house has an independent backyard, a well and a bathroom. It is convenient for outsiders to walk, front and rear streets.Hao Xiang believes that the architecture of Dongchang Street is worth studying by humanities scholars. For example, the counters at the front doors of shops on Dongchang Street used to be made of slate, protruding out by one meter, and the windows were closed. If passers-by have nowhere to live, they can sleep. On the counter of others, even if a beggar sleeps on it, the owner will not interfere.However, Chi Xiang criticized the character of the people in Qizhou, including Huanggang. He believed that the people in this area had a strong spirit of individual struggle and a weak sense of collective cooperation, so they had no effect on local economic development. Hao Xiang took Li Shizhen as an example. Li Shizhen used to be the official of the Taiyuan Hospital of the imperial court, but when he wanted to publish, he couldn't find a publisher, so he had to go to Jinling as a doctor in the rivers and lakes, looking for publishing opportunities. On the north side of Dongchang Street is the lotus pond, on the south side is Qilin Mountain, on the east side is Chidong Lake, on the west side is the mighty Yangtze River. upbringing.Therefore, the schoolchildren on Dongchang Street are always admitted to institutions of higher learning in batches, adding culture to Dongchang Street. It is said that in a certain year, more than 20 overseas doctors jointly applied to the Chinese government to name Dongchang Street as Doctor Street. There have been more than a hundred doctors and professors. These doctors invested in the construction, and the government allocated funds and named Doctor Street. I used to specialize in foot counting. The new and old streets of Dongchang Street are 2,004 steps long.