Chapter 24 postscript

Almost on the first day of living in the small town, I vaguely had this idea: use words to describe the small town.At that time, I had very little hope. I came to the small town to apply for a job from the countryside where I had been in the queue for many years. I blindly searched for someone who could help me in the winding and narrow streets of the small town, but I was first confused by the small town itself.Before that, I grew up in the provincial capital, and after less than ten years of reading, I went to a sandbank with vast water and sky in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.Never in my life have I experienced such a small town.Everything is so strange and new to me: its crooked and dilapidated houses with carved arcades; every uneven stone in it is an extremely smooth gravel road; its restlessness and noise caused by cramping, The dampness and tranquility brought about by the depth; and the dullness, honesty, simplicity, or Shrewd, vivid, or cunning, but all appearing somewhat weird and distorted, all of a sudden invaded my heart and made me strongly feel its peculiarity.This peculiarity makes people believe that people can find the origin of modern survival in every alley covered with moss at the bottom of its walls and flickering with lights; The gray and mottled doors and windows hide a mysterious hall that is cold and refreshing, exuding a musty smell.When you walk into those alleys, you are walking into a certain clue of history; when you push those doors, you are overturning a certain page of history books.

Since then, I have lived in this small town for nearly ten years.Before that, many vicissitudes evolved in my personal experience.At that time, I often unconsciously had the vision and mood of a clerk, silently paying attention to all kinds of gossip and gossip, life and death and joys and sorrows, righteousness and generosity and elegy, mediocrity and hustle and bustle... ... Then one day, I actually held the pen and started this project that was initially hazy and then gradually became clear, but it will eventually prove that I may not be able to do it.This is writing a history of customs for a small town.

The work begins with the difficult carving of one stone and one wood.I wrote one thing at a time, but focused on one person at a time.That is to say, people are used as the longitude and events are used as the latitude.This way, on the one hand, is more in line with my narrative habits; on the other hand, with the continuation of the town's fireworks, it retains the possibility of supplementing its history. What needs to be explained is that the biggest reason for me to have the courage to write the book is the stubborn impulse to sing or cry, or to be happy or sad for the fate of the town and its people.Because of this impulse, this so-called history of customs no longer retains its original meaning.And this little town couldn't be just the actual little town I once lived in.

There is no other way to do this. First Draft November 16, 1997 Finalized in Nanchang, Jiangxi on February 6, 1998