Chapter 4 third chapter

In the early morning of the next day, Zhou Ligong boarded Huanglongyuan.Every time he goes home, as soon as he puts down his luggage, as long as there is nothing to get in the way, Zhou Ligong will impatiently climb to the commanding heights of this village.Although he met a wolf here and was almost eaten by a wolf, this still couldn't stop his wish to climb high and look far.Only by standing here, condescending, can you have a panoramic view of Zhoujiazhai and see clearly the corners of this village. Zhou Ligong misses this place so much! This is a very funny thing in the eyes of Zhoujiazhai people.What's there here, except the loess is a ditch, a place where rabbits don't shit!But Zhou Ligong has a different feeling about this place: this is his hometown.Hometown is for wanderers. Except for Zhou Ligong, no one in Zhoujiazhai has ever wandered outside, so they have no concept of hometown, and they will not have the feeling of hometown.But having said that, even if there were other drifters in Zhoujiazhai, he might not feel like Zhou Ligong.Because hometown is not only a geographical concept, but also a cultural concept. People who have not read Tang poetry and Song Ci will not feel nostalgia.In Zhoujiazhai, there are only two educated people, Zhou Kewen and Zhou Ligong.Zhou Kewen lived in his ancestral house all his life and never went anywhere, so he couldn't taste the taste of the word "hometown" at all.

Then the sun came out.Standing on a high place, you can see the Qinling Mountains in the distance clearly. The snow on the top of Taibai Mountain is shiny and dazzling. Below the snow line is a dark forest sea, which spreads all the way to the Weihe River tidal flat at the foot of the mountain.The fifth month of the lunar calendar is the rainstorm season in Guanzhong. The ferocious river roars down with foam, and the rumbling sound can be heard even standing on Huanglongyuan.From the north bank of the Weihe River to the foot of Huanglongyuan, there is a wide and flat fertile field. This is the richest Weihe Plain in Guanzhong Road.Now the summer grain has been harvested, and the hard-working farmers are sowing the next grain in the field.

Turning his eyes back, Zhou Ligong saw the Zhou Family Village under his feet.The Zhoujiazhai under the sun is full of vitality.The chickens are out of their nests and roaming the streets.When it was time for the pigs to eat, they yelled loudly, arched the gate with their pointed mouths, and slammed into the trough with their fat bodies to protest the late breakfast.The oxen have already put on the yoke and are ready to go to work. They stretch their necks and groan in a deep low voice, begging the master not to whip too hard today.The hosts were eating breakfast, and the peasants of each family were kicking around in their own yards, forming a circle, and their chopsticks took turns poking at a large thick porcelain plate in the center of the circle. The plate was either blood-red pepper strips or black mustard. Pimples, this is their side dish.With these spicy and sour side dishes, they drank the corn grits like a tsunami.

Zhou Ligong turned his eyes back, and saw his own yard.The courtyard is surrounded by earth walls. The earth walls are thick and high, like the Great Wall. This method of building walls with rammed earth was handed down from Qin Shihuang, and it has not changed until now.There are four-hole kilns in the courtyard, and these four-hole kilns are chiseled side by side on the back of Huanglongyuan at Zhou Ligong's feet.In the center of the courtyard stands a big house facing south, with two rows of buildings on the east and west sides.The big house was where his parents lived, and it was also a public place for the whole family to gather. His father named it "Mingde Hall", and wrote it on the lintel with a thick and solid font.Zhou Ligong knew that the word "Mingde" originated from "Great Learning", which embodies his father's ideal of self-cultivation, family governance, country and world.On the door frames on both sides of the lintel is a pair of couplets: first-class people are loyal ministers and filial sons, and two things are reading and farming.The east building is the bedroom of the elder brother Zhou Lide, and the west building is usually vacant, and occasionally he and his third brother Zhou Liyan come back to live.

Standing on the flat ground, this kind of courtyard is not much different from other people’s houses. The tall courtyard walls block the layout inside. Unique.Most people in Zhoujiazhai can only afford to live in cave dwellings, and very few build houses.As for the few families that have houses, they are all thin and simple side buildings. The imposing double-span house like his house is unique in the whole village. It really stands out from the crowd, so Mingdetang became Zhou Kewen's house. on behalf of.Most people can see the differences in these buildings because they are tangible, but Zhou Ligong feels that there is an invisible difference between his house and others: Mingde Hall is not only a house, but also carries a kind of spirit. , this spirit is his father's lifelong pursuit and ideal.In the eyes of others, his father built such a house to show off his wealth, but in his view, his father was building a temple in his heart.Such a solemn building will always remind his father that it is the greatest responsibility in life to be kind and benevolent.

Zhou Ligong finally set his eyes on his feet.The Yellow Dragon Plateau at the foot rises from the ground, tens of feet high, stretches for hundreds of miles, with ravines and girders, like rows of huge yellow waves bumping up and down, and people feel dizzy after standing for a long time.It was this Huanglongyuan that turned Zhoujiazhai into a half-baked mess. Half of the land in the village is on the tableland, half is under the tableland, half is paddy field, and half is dry land.At best, this kind of pattern is drought and flood protection, and at worst, it is half-starved.From Zhou Ligong's memory, it seems that the latter situation is far more than the former, and there will always be a famine every three to five years.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ligong's excited mood calmed down a little. He realized that he might have committed the old problem of traditional Chinese literati, always poetizing rural life.However, he understands his excitement. After all, he hasn't been home for four years, and his hometown is always in his dreams.Professor Hu Shi introduced the aesthetic distance of the British Dr. Edward Blow in class, saying that the distance of time and space can produce beauty.In this sense, it is inevitable for him to be Tao Yuanming and praise the pastoral scenery.However, he knew that he couldn't really become Tao Yuanming, his father might be able to, but he definitely couldn't, otherwise it would be tantamount to negating his purpose of resolutely returning to his hometown.

Zhou Ligong went to Peking University, and he first studied Chinese literature, which was obviously influenced by his father, but later he felt more and more that literature was vague and ethereal, unable to deal with the chaotic reality at present.The revolutionary army in the south is disturbing one after another, the Beiyang government in Beijing is changing its doors like a lantern, and the labor movement and student movement in various places are one after another. Facing the reality of such chaos, if you are a student with a little sense of responsibility, how can you still immerse yourself in the poetry of Tang and Song Dynasties? Beautiful world?Although Zhou Ligong was not an active member of radical thinking in school, he was not a nerd who just buried his head in old papers. Although he did not participate in various demonstrations organized by the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, he did not leave any of the various lectures and speeches in the school. .No matter what doctrine they promote, the Three People's Principles or communism, liberalism or fascism, anarchism or nationalism, he listened with great interest.In addition to the courses of the Department of Literature, he also elects and audits courses in other disciplines such as history, philosophy, political science, and sociology. He went to Beijing Women's Normal School to listen to Lu Xun's class, because he especially liked Lu Xun's short stories describing rural life in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.After a period of depressing wandering, Zhou Ligong turned his interest completely to sociology, and studied rural society under the tutelage of Professor Tao Menghe.There are two reasons for his choice: first, he believes that sociology is a real knowledge with practical operability; second, he is a child of the countryside, and the countryside is his root.

After studying sociology for a year, recommended by Professor Tao Menghe, he got to know Mr. Yan Yangchu who came back from the United States, and joined the China Civilian Education Promotion Association organized by him, and followed Yan Yangchu to conduct civilian education experiments in Changsha and Yantai.Before returning home, Zhou Ligong had just gone to Dingxian County, Hebei Province, where Yan Yangchu had developed a simple literacy campaign for the common people into a systematic rural construction movement to control ignorance, poverty, weakness, and selfishness, and achieved considerable results.It was the changes in Ding County that affected Zhou Ligong at the moment of graduation. He gave up the idea of ​​finding a job in Beijing, and also declined the invitations of former students who had worked in various levels of government in Shaanxi to join him. He resolutely returned to his hometown to develop Rural Construction Movement.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ligong understood all his feelings for this land.He loves her, so every time he comes back, he can't wait to climb up to Huanglongyuan to admire her, take her in his eyes, and hold her in his chest.This habit has been developed since he was in middle school. Even if he leaves his hometown for a month, he will not be able to restrain his thoughts on her.It is precisely because he loves her that he carefully avoids her ugliness and poverty, and the best way to avoid her is to look from a distance, to grasp the outline and discard the details.At this moment, Zhou Ligong suddenly understood the mystery that he had to climb high and look far away every time he went home.In the past, his actions were all subconscious, and he never thought about the reason, but now he suddenly understood.He knew that if he didn't climb up immediately and stay in the village a little longer, his good mood would be spoiled in no time.There are tall dung piles piled up at the door of every house, and the dung pile emits a pungent smell, and the flies are buzzing and buzzing, hitting people's faces unscrupulously, crackling like flying sand and rocks.Due to the drought and lack of water, both men and women were unkempt, and they hadn't washed their faces for an unknown period of time. The thick scales made everyone's faces turn black.The children dragged thick snot, like two earthworms crawling out of their nostrils. If the earthworms crawled from the upper lip to the lower lip, they would suck the earthworms into the hole suddenly.If they can't take it in, they will rub it with the back of their hand and wipe it on their buttocks.They were almost naked anyway, and the dolls basically had no clothes until they were old enough to be ashamed.Occasionally someone wears clothes, and those clothes are treasures. This habitual action of wiping your nose immediately attracts curses from adults. Following the scolding was the sound of the baby's father's fists and feet, and immediately after the sound of fists and feet were the shrill cries of the children...

There are more details. Zhou Ligong, who grew up in the countryside, knows a lot.But all of this was filtered out when he climbed high and looked far away. What he saw was the pastoral scenery of "picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence and seeing Nanshan leisurely".This made Zhou Ligong happy. Anyway, he didn't stay in his hometown for a long time. Before his good impression was destroyed, he left his hometown and went to the city. good feeling. But this time is different, he is no longer a passing visitor in his hometown, if he wants to stay here, all those hidden ugliness will definitely surface, he must be fully prepared. At the moment when Zhou Ligong was full of thoughts, a sharp wolf howl suddenly sounded behind him, Zhou Ligong was taken aback.He subconsciously touched his feet, but what he was wearing now was not sandals, but leather shoes, and leather shoes could not be used as weapons at all. At the critical juncture, there was laughter, and it was a woman's laughter.Zhou Ligong, who had never dared to look back, looked back now, and it turned out that she was Yinwa, and she was learning how to howl like a wolf.Zhou Ligong was a little embarrassed and angry, pointing at her and said, look, you girl... Yinwa laughed even harder, and she said, look at you, how scared are you by wolves, you can't even speak, you've messed up your seniority.I am not your aunt or your mother, but your sister! Yinwa obviously misunderstood what Zhou Ligong meant.There is no word "girl" in their hometown, and the corresponding name is Nvwazi.This misunderstanding made Zhou Ligong realize how difficult his future work will be.Young people like Yinwa don't know anything, they are like frogs in a well. He has to teach them to read and write first, so that they can open their eyes to see the world, and then educate them with modern civilization, make them educated and reasonable, and become new citizens.This is not something that can be accomplished in one, two, or even ten or twenty years. Creating new citizens is the foundation of building a new country, which requires long-term, hard and meticulous work.Just because he saw the difficulty of shaping people, Zhou Ligong opposed all stormy revolutions, whether led by the Kuomintang or launched by the Communist Party. It is also big, but it comes and goes quickly. The rain hits the ground wet, and the water has no time to penetrate, so it flows away along the surface, and the soil is still dry.The Revolution of 1911 is an example. The emperor was beaten away, but warlords came. Although the common people had their braids cut off, they were still obedient citizens under the tyranny. Lu Xun's novel "The True Story of Ah Q" has already explained this clearly.What is needed to build a new country is the rural construction movement advocated by Yan Yangchu and Liang Shuming. It starts from the most basic eradication of illiteracy, attention to hygiene, improvement of crop varieties, and transformation of farmers' lifestyles. It seems trivial but it actually lays the foundation for the new country. . Realizing the extraordinary significance of his work, Zhou Ligong immediately had spiritual motivation, and he was determined to continue working without hesitation no matter what difficulties he encountered.Then let's start with introducing the baby, Zhou Ligong thought, she doesn't know a word, she is basically a wild girl, first make her a model, teach her how to read, and then turn her into a gentle and elegant lady, so that I can let the whole village Let us witness the miraculous effects of the rural construction movement. With this thought in mind, Zhou Ligong planned to get in touch with Yinwa more.He asked Yinwa, what are you doing on the plateau? Tell you to eat, Yinwa said, uncle is calling you from the bottom of the table, but if you can't hear me, I will come up and call you. The uncle Yinwa mentioned was Zhou Kewen.Only then did Zhou Ligong feel a little hungry. In school, he would eat breakfast in the morning, but it was different in his hometown.Breakfast in the rural areas of Guanzhong is usually at nine or ten o’clock. Peasants get up early in the morning to work for a while and then come back to eat. They insist on turning the two in the city into three in the morning, and squeeze out a few hours for themselves to work hard. time. On the way down Yuanpo, Yinwa said to Zhou Ligong, "Second brother, take off your strange jacket." This strange jacket, of course, refers to the suit.Zhou Ligong asked, why? People scolded, cited baby said. What are you scolding?Zhou Ligong was very interested. He wanted to know how far the villagers could resist the new civilization. Like a filial robe, Yinwa said. This is obviously what you scolded, Zhou Ligong said, I heard it yesterday. Someone scolded even more!Yinwa said. Zhou Ligong asked who it was, but he didn't tell the baby. Arriving at the bottom of the plateau, passing by the gate of Yinwa's house, Zhou Ligong asked Yinwa, is the second dad at home, and I will go in to say hello.Zhou Ligong's second father is Zhou Shuancheng, according to the rules of the country, the younger generation should greet the elders when they return from going out. Don't go, Yinwa said, he scolded you like a pig or a dog.