Chapter 39 1. Split jade

I can't snub my father.I want to go back to the inn of my childhood and walk with my father all the way. Compared with uncle, uncle and their family, father is a lonely and vulnerable "heterogeneous".He has no prominent family background and manor that can shelter him from wind and rain, no "comrades" of his own and the "isms" shared by comrades, no sacrifices through fire and water, and no victories to show off.But he "shared" the wars that belonged to the whole nation in the 1930s and 1940s, walked alone amidst the prayers of the priests in black, and followed the distant stars that belonged only to him.

I remember that in the courtyard in Luohe Youfang Hutong, after my mother received and sent off my uncle and third aunt, the mice began to come out at night, biting and "thumping" on the broken suitcase left by my father. race.The little black donkey, who had been locked in the broken suitcase for two years, also kicked the lid of the suitcase, ringing the bell on his forehead, ready to get out.At that time, I was already a student in the second grade of elementary school, and my eyes could penetrate the suitcase, and I saw Aunt Wan'er in the thick book blinking her eyes desolately.

Father finally came back from Peking. On December 8, 1941, the "Pearl Harbor Incident" occurred when Japan attacked the US military base in Hawaii.On the morning of the 9th, devil military police suddenly broke into Yenching University, announced the closure of the school, and arrested the principal, Leighton Stuart, as well as many faculty members and students.With the help of the post office, his father disguised himself as a postman and escaped from "Yanyuan" alone.When my father walked into Luohe Youfang Hutong, he was wearing the grass-green uniform of a postman, and all he carried with him was a mail bag hanging on his shoulder.He took the mailbag off his shoulder, held it in his hands as if he had picked up a big bargain, and boasted to my mother: "Two years of hard work, all in this bag!" What my mother took out of the mailbag was just a large stack of manuscript paper. , that was the lecture notes my father wrote while teaching "Introduction to Literature" at Yanda University.

My father went to teach at H University with this stack of handouts on his back. H University has been exiled to a village named Tantou in the mountainous area of ​​western Henan.My family lived in a small farmhouse close to the gate of the village.There is also a rich man's house that has become a "professor's compound".Together with the professors of the Faculty of Literary Arts, each of them had a study room with clean white window paper, and could enjoy two taels of lamp oil and two lamp straws uniformly rationed by a worker named Wang Xii every night.My father used up two taels of lamp oil every day, and then sat quietly, looking at the gradually dimming oil lamp with tired eyes.The lamp grass lay in the lamp bowl that had run out of lamp oil, screaming "squeaky", flashing the last light, burning itself instantly.At this time, my father was still sitting in the dark.I can hear the heavy beating of my father's heart in a distant place, and I have also heard his mysterious whisper many times: "Splitting the jade, splitting the jade..."

At Tantou, and at every station from which we were forced to flee, I heard my father shouting to the hermit and the scholar, to the blind luthier and the entertainer, to the clouds in the sky and the fireflies in the ground, to the moonlight outside the window and the firefly inside the window. The oil lamp utters the same whisper: split jade, split jade... as if calling a mysterious witch or deciphering a beautiful riddle, chasing a magical dream or lamenting a broken piece of rough jade. Father is obsessed.Whenever the school is on vacation, he will carry an umbrella in an umbrella cover and hold a cane with natural patterns in his hand-professors of H University almost all find the source from the firewood bundle. The canes with different patterns in Funiu Mountain are said by farmers to be "magic wands" that can prevent mountain ghosts and drive away wolf insects.My father carried a black leather bag with a cane, braved the wind and snow in the mountains or the scorching sun in the clear sky, crossed mountains and ridges, ate the wind and slept in the dew, and searched hard in the folds of the earth in the south of Funiu Mountain and north of Tongbai Mountain. That's where the "Splitting Jade" hides its secrets.

The father returned empty-handed again and again, but brought back stories that surprised the family again and again. My father said that one evening, when he passed by a mountain temple, a few "swordsmen" who cut paths suddenly jumped out of the temple gate.He bowed his hands to the swordsman and said, "Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you!" He hurriedly gave away the travel expenses hidden in his leather bag.The swordsman said: "You are a cheerful person!" He took off his glasses and put them on the bridge of his nose.The father hurriedly took off the long gown again and said, "Heroes, I gave you the glasses, but I have to use this long gown to redeem them right now! Without it, I would be almost blind!" said the swordsman. "I became blind when I put on your glasses!" Then he returned the glasses, looked at his long gown and said, "You have a pen stuck in your coat, you must be from that university, come here What's going on in this barren mountain?" My father said, "I'm going to Biyang to find treasure!" The swordsman asked, "What treasure?" My father said, "It's the 'split jade' left by the ancients." The swordsmen said : "I only heard that Biyang's donkey is good, but I don't know what Biyang's 'broken jade' is?" My father said: "It can't be eaten or used. It was left by the Ming Dynasty and has more than 450 years. history!" The swordsman sneered and said: "Everyone in your university hall is crazy, there is a person like you who bought a treasure in the village, hugged it happily in his arms and trotted all the way. We stopped at the mountain pass He asked him to hand over the treasure, and when he saw it, it turned out to be an earthen jar for scooping manure from the cesspit. He said that it was an earthen jar from three thousand years ago, and it was a rare treasure! But we only want money, not an earthen jar, nor scholars. your blue shirt.” The swordsman threw down his long gown and said, “For the sake of Confucius, you put on your blue shirt, carry your purse, and go find your jade from the Ming Dynasty!”

The father said to the mother: "It can be seen that swordsmen also have a conscience!" Mother asked: "What about 'Pu Po Yu'?" Father said: "It doesn't matter, I will find it!" During the winter vacation, my father went to Nanyang Shiqiao to look for jade, and when he came back, he said that he met a wolf unexpectedly in a ravine, and the wolf stared at him, and he stared at the wolf.The wolf jumped up behind him and followed him. He turned sharply, waved his "magic wand", and said to the wolf backwards, "Have you seen it? I came prepared!" But the wolf didn't buy it, and his head followed Drawing circles with the cane, he followed him step by step, as if he wanted to take advantage of the loopholes, and slipped through the circle swung by the "magic wand".The father said: "Didn't you see that I am as thin as a stick, and I am not a material for toothbrush sacrifice?"My father hastily took out the umbrella, and let the umbrella open and close continuously. The wolf hit several limbs again and again. I don't know what kind of monster it was. It jumped like a spring and disappeared into the jungle.

Mother's face turned pale with fright, and she asked again, "Where's 'Yu'?" The father said again: "Don't worry, I will always find it!" The mysterious jade tormented our family for a long time.But I can't guess what kind of jade it is.I just felt that my father's nerves seemed to be stimulated by Guoyu, and his eyes became confusing.Moreover, when he mentioned "jade", I could always see a pair of almond-shaped eyes winking in that thick book.  One day, when my father opened the mail, his eyes lit up, "Oh, here comes a silly big sister!" My mother asked, "What silly big sister?" Father shook a stack of manuscripts in his hand and said, "It's the silly big sister in Although she is not as good as 'Pipayu', I am looking for her too, and she came here by herself!" It turned out that "Silly Sister" was still missing in the manuscripts of Nanyang Guzi songs he collected. A song friend sent this song.In 1943, girls from University H performed to celebrate the "March 8th" Festival. The manuscript was provided by their father. They moved the Guzi song sung in the village and the teahouse in the market to the opposite of the Guandi Temple. Originally known as Guan Yunchang A stage for singing.

As I recall, the show was such a hit.The teachers and students of H University living inside and outside the village embraced the villagers.The exotic flowers and plants moved from the greenhouse of the Department of Horticulture to the stage very "realistically" present a scene of late spring.Baochai flutters butterflies.Rhododendron dance.Daiyu came late carrying a basket of flowers.The silly elder sister cried and complained to herself on the painted "Qinfang Bridge".Daiyu fainted on the green grass made of straw thatch.Baoyu knelt down before the white curtain spirit.Shanfeng also ran over to participate in the performance at the right time, lifting the white silk in front of Daiyu's spirit and rustling.It was the first artistic enjoyment since the teachers and students of H University went into exile in the mountains.I saw my father with tears in his eyes, sitting on a small bench in the middle of the square.

My father temporarily gave up the search for "Splitting Jade" and served as an art consultant for the drama club of H University. After performing classical works on the small stage of Guandi Temple, the purpose of art changed, and he began to produce a series of works belonging to "pioneering jade". The "big names" star of "Pai". The primary feature of the "avant-garde" has already been demonstrated during the performance. It was a gas lamp hanging in the center of the stage, and now another one is added, hanging on both sides of the stage, illuminating the stage brightly.My father taught me, you know what?Gas lamps, also known as gasoline lamps, have a history of more than 100 years.But it is still very "pioneer" here!When the students "chucked" to pump up the gas lamps, the peasants gathered around to see the "rare".This one asked: "Why can't the gauze cover on the lamp burn out?" The other said: "It's much brighter than the 'Old Turtle Drinking Oil' lamp, why can't I find the lamp?"

When the gas lights were hung high, the square was already crowded with teachers, students and family members of H University, who were all sitting on their own small benches waiting for the performance.Peasants inside and outside the village crowded in the night on both sides of the square, with cigarette pots flickering on and off.I am eight years old, and I am already a third-grade student in the primary school attached to H University.My father wanted me to learn the wildness of the children in the mountains, and he always encouraged me to squeeze into the ranks of the little farmers.I have already learned how to climb trees, so I rode high on the branches of trees with my farm friends and received the enlightenment of "avant-garde" opera art. I remember that the "big star" who played the female role was a boy from the foreign language department, surnamed Zhang, Mi Si Zhang.He is good at disrupting time and space, fighting big, and there will be a "meet you" as soon as he comes out.That night, "Fan Li Hua Marches to the West" was performed, and he played Fan Li Hua.I don't know where Fan Lihua is going to fight, but in short, I encountered a pass, and a black-faced warrior jumped out. After several rounds of fierce fighting, Fan Lihua's big sword was unfortunately lost, so I had to use Western boxing instead, including straight punches, jabs, Hook fist, move and jump with the "rabbit step" used on the boxing ring. After a long time of fighting, I had to ask for peace from the black-faced general, and sang with Henan opera "Erba Ban" or "Liu Shui Ban": "I will send you A 'Little Pink Packet', and a box of 'Big Victory' for you. 'Little Pink Packet', 'Big Victory', and I will call you dear again." Then there is an English sentence: "Darling (dear)!" Blowing kisses.The villagers all looked at the stage in a daze, but the intellectuals burst into laughter and applauded enthusiastically.Father also laughed happily.I just smirked and applauded courageously on the tree. The reason why I will never forget this libretto is because it once became the campus song of H University.My elder brother who went to middle school told me that "Little Powder Pack" and "Big Victory" were famous brand cigarettes at that time, and they were also the nicknames given to the two "school beauties" of H University.But I don't remember that there was a cigarette manufacturer's sponsorship advertisement posted during the performance of this play. Did Miste Zhang take a private advertising fee? Immediately afterwards, another "laughing star" was introduced. The "laughing star" is a student of the Department of Chinese Language and Culture. He is tall, slightly hunched, and has a simple and honest appearance. The peasant audience said he is "confused".He always interspersed in the middle of the official program, wearing a pepper-shaped red felt hat with a pointed peak and a white beard, a bit like a Western Santa Claus, but wearing a long robe-style gown with patches and a straw rope around his waist, making him miserable Words, just read but not sing: "There is a sweet potato on the cliff, and it turns out to be a radish. It is a gourd when it is put into the pot, and it is a chamber pot when it is brought to the table. " The audience burst into laughter. The "laughing star" didn't smile, and walked with sideways steps, saying "Lotus falls": "On the eighth, eighteenth, and twenty-eighth day of the lunar new year, the old couple discussed planting cucumbers. Cover a seed on the corner of the pot, and sprout a sprout under the chopping board. A seedling is dragged on the rolling pin, and a melon grows outside the shadow door wall. It looks like a big watermelon, but when it is split open it is an old pumpkin. It smells like loach in your mouth, but when you spit it out it's a toad. " It was another laugh, and I smirked again. The godmother who came to my house from the countryside to do housework heard this, and said: "Wrong, wrong! The last few sentences were originally 'Put Chinese cabbage in the pot and scoop it into the bowl. It tastes like jelly in your mouth, and you spit it out. It came out to be soybean sprouts." She laughed and said, "Look at this silly old man, why did he spoil all the good things?" But my father was very appreciative and said: "Who said that there is only 'absurdism' in the West? You see, the art of 'absurdism' that is purely in the Central Plains of China has already been born! The chance of existence, the unknowability of fate, and the implication of causality The unfathomable has been deeply and vividly expressed, which is the emotion born of troubled times!" Riding on the tree branch, I couldn't hear the profound philosophy, I only knew to giggle.Later, as I got older, I saw many times that those who grow melons get thorns and those who grow thorns get melons, and I remembered that what the "comicist" said was true.After graduating, he became a history teacher. He loved to write articles that contradicted the verdict, which contradicted the history books. He was dismissed from his teaching position and disappeared. Huang Tian has eyes, and let his father discover the clue of "Splitting the Jade" on this small stage. A "grass stage troupe" who sang operas came to Tantou to perform from Nanyang across Laojie Ridge.A danjiao who is extremely romantic and appeals to both refined and popular tastes starred in "Second Sister Hu Opens a Shop", which won unanimous praise from the intellectuals of H University and the people of Tantou.My father was also overjoyed and said: "This troupe is amazing. They sang seven or eight Guzi tunes in one play, and they still retain the ancient rhyme of Ming and Qing Dynasties!" Next, the small troupe performed another unknown pantomime.There is no scenery on the stage, only a bamboo curtain propped up with bamboo poles.After Xiaosheng and Xiaodan'er eyeballed each other, they sneaked into Luo Wei's tent hand in hand.There was no one on the stage.Luo Wei's tent was trembling in the tension.Laughter and applause suddenly broke out.I rode on a tree branch and found that the blind luthier became the master on and off the stage.He bulged out his dull eyes, leaning forward and backward while pulling his banhu.The qin player and drummer sitting behind him leaned forward and backward with him, the sound of the music was like a torrential rain, and there were suona sounds bumping and falling in the high-pitched area.The more urgent the music, the more trembling the Luo curtains.The applause and laughter from the audience were louder and louder.The blind luthier plucks his bowstring fiercely, singing like a night bird.Luo curtains crumbling.The blind luthier lightly pulled the strings again, and all the musicians followed suit, leaving only the banhu sound as thin as a gossamer, broken and continuous.The trembling of the Luo curtain also eased from illness, and gradually stopped.The audience was still unsatisfied, and the applause continued for a long time.The blind luthier cheered up again, and all the musicians followed suit.Luo curtains set off another wave.If so, again and again.The blind luthier stopped abruptly, Luo Wei's curtain suddenly collapsed, Xiaosheng and Xiaodan'er rolled out from behind the tent, showing unbearable embarrassment.Xiaodan covered her face with her sleeves, and fled holding hands with Xiaosheng.Everyone laughed. For some reason, the girls from H University and the village girls who came with them all blushed, avoiding the lights on the stage and collapsing one after another.The male students and male villagers laughed strangely.The professors sitting in the middle of the square stood up with their small benches between them, showing embarrassing expressions and coughing dryly.Uncle Chen, who taught modern literature, said to my father: "Oh, this is an eye-opener. This is a masterpiece of 'symbolism'!" My father said: "Yes, yes, it expresses the eternal theme of human beings!" I jumped down from the tree and suddenly appeared in front of my father. My father stared at me and said, "What are you doing here?" "Watch a play!" "Children can't read it, you can't understand it." "I understand!" "Understand what?" "The old man Rahuhu is the most powerful!" "How is he so good?" "He was so frightened that those two people hid in the tent and shivered!" My father nodded in approval of my comment, and then gave me his small bench and said, "I'm going to visit that very powerful old man, you should go home and sleep." It was late at night when my father came back.He happily said to his mother, "I found it, I found a clue!" My mother asked, "What clue did I find?" My father said, "'Pu Po Yu'! Can you imagine it? A small theater troupe The blind luthier was able to connect the Ming and Qing tunes "Five Watches", "Pink Lotus", "Silver Twisted Silk", "Playing with Children", "Playing Jujube Pole", and "Jiejie Gao" in one breath. The misuse of performing obscene modalities also shows that the blind qin master has unique skills and is extraordinary! I asked him about "Pu Po Yu", and he said that there is no one who knows this tune, only his master Liu Erhu, who learned from Li Xiucai from Nanyang was fortunate to have this song, but he never showed it to others. I asked Liu Erhuqin where it is now? He said that the director of security in Luoyang invited him to be a family piano teacher, and taught the third wife of the director to learn the song. " Mother asked "Where is the director now?" Father said, "Still in Luoyang, only two hundred miles away." I finally understood that the "jade" my father was looking for was the lost "Splitting Jade" in Nanyang Guzi.My father said that before he went to Yanda to teach, Aunt Wan'er told him that the "Pushing the Boat" they found was very rare, but Aunt Wan'er heard from his father that there is another "Splitting Jade" which is a drum song. The "empress" in.At the end of the Qing Dynasty, this song was passed down by artists from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the west of the Yangtze River and passed down to Hankou, where it entered the Han River and went north to the Baihe River before flowing into Nanyang.Fifty years ago, Aunt Wan'er's father heard this song in the threshing field of Li Xiucai, the "Sage of Music" in Shiqiao Town, Nanyang. All my aunts were fascinated by it.A wealthy businessman in Nanyang offered a high price to buy this song. Li Xiucai said: "Qing operas do not enter the merchant's house." The wealthy merchant was turned away.After Li Xiucai passed away, the whereabouts of this song was unknown, only that he had accepted a high-ranking apprentice in Biyang, and it turned out to be Liu Erhuqin, the master of this blind qin master. My father also discovered in the Yanda Library that "Pu Po Yu" was mentioned many times in Ming and Qing classics.The earliest record can be found in "Gu Qu Miscellaneous Words" written by Shen Defu in the Ming Dynasty. "After" evaluation.More than 120 years later than this book, in the seventh year of Tianqi in Ming Dynasty (AD 1627), there was another book "Fangru Yuan Yuefu", which said that "Splitting Jade" "does not imitate the Han and Wei dynasties, and does not learn from the prosperous In the Tang Dynasty, let the emotion flow, like the sound of nature in the wilderness, with a hundred responses." After more than 160 years, the "Yangzhou Painting Boat Record" engraved in the fifty-eighth year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1793) also said: "Pu Po Yu is the best of all popular tunes. There are those who sing this tune in Huqiu, Suzhou, and the Su people are amazed by it. Hundreds of people listen to it. Tomorrow, more people will listen to it. The singer will sing the famous song of Jiaofang The listeners left with a gimmick.” The above records are corroborated by Aunt Wan'er's words. My father believes that "Pi Po Yu" has a history of more than 450 years. It entered Jiangsu and Zhejiang from Bianliang, then entered Jingxiang from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and then entered Nanyang from Jingxiang. Absorbed the ancient rhymes of the Qing Dynasty from the Central Plains and the banks of the Yangtze River. After entering the Republic of China, he didn’t know where he ended up. He was afraid that he would never be able to get back. After returning from Yanda University, he took the search for "Splitting Jade" as his top priority after teaching. up. My father packed his bags and found the umbrella that scared off the big bad wolf. He was about to go to Luoyang to look for the Liu Erhuqin, but suddenly a shocking news came: the Japanese devils took over Luoyang and were advancing towards Song County and Tantou.The fleeing "National Army" passed Tantou like a tide and fled to the depths of Funiu Mountain. The teachers and students of H University were unprepared. When the incident came to an end, the school headquarters made a hasty decision. The teachers and students escaped separately and gathered at Jingziguan at the junction of the three provinces of Henan, Hubei and Shaanxi. My father temporarily gave up his plan to go to Luoyang to search for "Splitting Jade", and packed our luggage with my mother, when suddenly I heard a cry on the wall of the village: "The devil has entered the village!" My parents lost all their belongings and led us five children all night After escaping from Tantou, crossing the Yishui River in the south, drilling into a valley, and arrived at a village named Xiaohe.When gunshots rang out in the village, my father suddenly remembered that all the drum manuscripts and handouts collected in the past had been thrown into the village. He ignored his mother's obstruction, held his wolf-beating cane by himself, and turned back the gun as if fighting to the death. The noisy pool head went. Shocking news kept coming to Xiao He.Many teachers and students of H University who fled to the North Mountain of Tantou were brutally killed by devils.Dean Zhang, his wife and nephew of the medical school were captured by devils, and Dean Zhang escaped by chance. His wife was stabbed to death by devils, and his nephew was also stabbed to death and seriously injured.In order to protect his girlfriend in love, a male student in the Department of Education fought with devils with his bare hands, was stabbed to death by devils, and his girlfriend committed suicide by throwing herself into a well.Dean Wang of the Agricultural College was captured by devils as a porter, and on the way he jumped off a cliff desperately.It was raining lightly that day, and I saw Uncle Wang, covered in blood, being supported by two farmers to the creek.Our whole family waited for my father's return amidst the fear of blood. Father finally appeared at the head of the village.The landlord of Tantou picked up the mailbag his father had brought back from Peiping with the spear dropped by the rout soldiers, and followed behind his father in surprise.My father said that he hid on the mountain bag outside the village and saw the first group of devils looting Tantou and heading west, and the second group of devils marching from Dongshan to Tantou. Bring out all the manuscripts.A bewildered officer also fled to Xiaohe with his father. After breathing for a while, he satirized my father and said, "You are dying for a bag of writing paper!" My father got angry and said, "What did you say? Do you know that? It is your duty to defend the country, and it is my duty to protect this pile of writing paper, do you understand?" The officer was terrified and speechless, hurriedly changed into plain clothes, and left in panic. The next day, we climbed up Laojie Ridge, and my father looked at the sea of ​​clouds under our feet and said, "Hey, Pipoyu!"