Chapter 42 public

The paddy fields in Maqiao are of different shapes and criss-crossed, lying in a valley between two ridges, step by step, slowly falling towards Zhangjiafang, towards the floating cooking smoke or the moonlight at night.It is called Da Pangchong here, and outsiders will know that there are many fields in Pangtian when they hear it.The so-called Pangtian is a kind of paddy field in mountainous areas, soaked in more water than running water, so the mud is cold in nature, and there are many hidden deep downholes. Once people fall into it, they can hardly be seen. Only those who often go to the fields will be familiar with their positions one by one.

The cows in Maqiao also knew where the plow eyes were, and when they walked somewhere they suddenly stopped moving, so the plow man had to be very careful. These days have their own names, or are named after their shapes: turtle mound, snake mound, loofah mound, silver carp mound, bench mound, bamboo hat mound and so on.Or named after the weight of the required grain: Sandouqiu, Badouqiu and so on.Others are named after political slogans: Unity Hill, Yuejin Hill, Siqing Red Flag Hill and so on.In this way, the names are still not enough to cope with the too fragmented and too many fields, so we have to borrow some names, or add names in front of some field names to distinguish them, such as "Original Yoshika's Sandouqiu" and "Zhihuang's family's Sandouqiu" refer to two fields.

It is not difficult to know that these fields used to belong to private individuals, or were given to private individuals during the land reform, and it is natural for them to be associated with the names of the landowners. Counting it, it has been more than ten years since collectivization, and I am surprised that they still have a strong memory of the fields that used to be their own.Even the older cubs know where their fields used to be, and they don't want to grow crops there.When fertilizing, if you get there, you are willing to put more.After holding back my urine, I was willing to go there and untie my pants.Once, a cub stepped on a piece of porcelain in a field and nearly scratched his foot. Angrily, he dug it out and went to another field.A woman next to her immediately glared: "Where are you throwing it? Where are you throwing it? Do you want to be beaten? I will stab you to death with two chopsticks!"

That mound field originally belonged to her family - a long, long time ago. This woman is thinking about her family's private land, which proves that the public ownership of land in Maqiao was only an institutional existence until the early 1970s, and it has not yet soaked into an emotion, at least not all people's emotions.Of course, the system and emotion are not the same thing, and they are not the same thing as all the facts surging under the system.Under the marriage system, there may be different dreams of the husband and wife who are in the same bed (could it still be called "marriage"?).Under the system of imperial power, there may be power behind the party behind the curtain (can it still be called "imperial power"?).In the same way, when many people in Maqiao want to relocate to their former private fields after holding their breath, their public ownership, their concept of "public family" may have to be discounted.

Of course, it cannot be said that they are wholeheartedly yearning for private ownership.As a matter of fact, Maqiao had never had sufficient private ownership.The villagers told me that even before the Republic of China, their private power could only control the three inches of "mud" on the surface of the field, that is, three inches of floating mud.Anything under three inches has always belonged to the emperor and the country.In the whole world, it is possible that the king's land, the officials can do whatever they want, and the landlord has no right to stop it.Knowing this point, outsiders may be able to understand that Maqiao later implemented cooperatives. Although some people inevitably complained privately, as long as the government gave an order, everyone would smoothly join the government.

On the other hand, they talk about "public" and "private", followed by the word "family", which is different from Western languages.Selfishness in the West refers to private individuals.Between husband and wife, between father and son, there are clear boundaries of private rights when it comes to property.Maqiao people's private family is private with public.Within a family, there is no distinction between each other and you and me.The public in the West refers to the public society. The so-called public in English is a horizontal combination of equal private entities. It usually only has political and economic meanings and has nothing to do with private matters such as privacy.In the public house of Maqiao people, there are private affairs within the public, husband and wife quarrel, young people fall in love, old people live together, children read books, women dress, men brag, hens lay eggs, mice drill walls, all private affairs are taken care of by the public. , and the public bears full responsibility.The public has become a big private.

Because of this collective sense of family, people generally refer to cadres as "parent officials".Ma Benyi from Maqiao was only in his thirties and had just married his mother-in-law. Because of his status as a secretary, many people respectfully called him "Benyi's father" or "Benyi's father". This is close to the original meaning of the Chinese word "公".The original Chinese character "gong" does not refer to public, but refers to tribal leaders or national emperors, and is a synonym for "jun".Strictly speaking, it is not appropriate to use the word "public" to translate Westerners' public.The simple transfer of Western terms such as "private ownership" and "public ownership" to Maqiao seems to be in danger of estrangement from the name and the reality.

The original meaning is "gong (in the sense of ancient Chinese)" of Maqiao, and it also represents "gong (in the sense of English and some Western languages)" of Maqiao.