Ma'anshan in the hometown
Text/Lin Dan
Ma'anshan is a small hill by the Fuyi River in the hometown of Shaoyang Town. Strictly speaking, it should be a small hill, less than a hundred meters above sea level. Because its shape is very similar to a saddle, even if reflected in the river, it is still clearly recognizable, hence the name.
The Fuyi River is a tributary of the Zijiang River, originating in guilin, Guangxi, and after entering Shaoyang, Hunan, the water gradually expands, all the way to the north, winding and twisting, the scenery is beautiful, quite a gentle and fresh charm in the Song Dynasty. It swirled sharply under the small town of Ma'anShan, rushing out of countless tumbling and agitating whirlpools, "rushing" and stumbling, staining a river of thick dark green, and then wrapped and whimpering and running downstream to the Zijiang River.
Many years later, I went to the Tea Horse Ancient Road in Yiyang with my friends, wandered on the bank of the Zijiang River in Anhua, and could not help but have the feeling of "I live at the head of the Yangtze River, and the king lives at the end of the Yangtze River". In the haze, I seemed to see the ancestors of the upstream hometown town making a living, at the ancient ferry port full of pebbles under ma'anshan mountain, stepping on the wet bluestone slab, carrying the squeaky pig cage, loading the slender bamboo, shouting the trumpet like a, holding up the black bamboo penny, swinging the emerald green of the river to Anhua Meishan, swinging to the Yueyang Dongting, and swinging to the three towns of Wuhan...
However, in the eyes of us in the past, Ma'anshan is so plain and unremarkable, making people feel like a water-stopping wave - the cuckoo that falls on the cliff in the spring, the rock eagle that hovers on the top of the mountain in the summer, the yellow leaves that float on the hillside in autumn, and the snow that stains the forest in winter... All of this is frustratingly tinged, repetitive, and tedious that something out of place is born of inopportune things.
In the sweltering summer heat, we sneaked out of the campus, and in the afternoon cicadas, we pulled up the legs of our pants, carried our shoes, waded through the shallow water of the pebble-covered Fuyi River, and let the slippery silk grass brush the bare instep of the foot, and the itchy crispness penetrated the bottom of people's hearts. On the sandbank where the sand was swaying like salt, reeds and grass, we quickly stripped off our clothes and plunged into the water one by one, and swam in dog planing and freestyle to the foot of Ma On Shan on the opposite bank.
The water in the main channel of the Fuyi River seemed to be calm, but in fact it was turbulent, and we choked on several mouthfuls of water in the river, almost letting our reckless crossing die in the middle of the river. In a trance, we suddenly glimpsed the wall-standing Ma'anShan in front of us, as if a strong boat within reach, and suddenly one by one the whole body relaxed, and even learned the skill of swimming in the river without a teacher, and drifted obliquely along the turbulent water to the dock on the opposite bank.
"Bottomed, bottomed, mo swim..." Someone in the river shouted weakly. Immediately, we put our hands on the bluestone slab of the dock in a daze, violently lifted the water-drenched heads, and took a big breath straight out, frightening the woman who was crouching on the dock under the Ma'an Mountain to wash clothes and exclaimed: "To die, the ghost on the back, don't hang a veil on your body..."
At that time, although we often recited the four rivers of "Xiang, Zi, Yuan, and Li" in class, we rarely explored the lower reaches of the Fuyi River as the Zi River, the lower reaches of the Zi River as the Yangtze River, and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River as the ocean... The place we looked at was the county no. 1 middle school and Ma'anshan on the banks of the Fuyi River; the place where our legs went was the hometown and urban area around the county seat. And Ma On Shan, like a natural black ray barrier, isolates us from the outside world. Fortunately, we still have people who cast their clear eyes on the world beyond the textbooks, and give our shadowy ideals a shaky wing.
On the banks of the Fuyi River in spring, patches of cow tendon grass wake up from the twilight of winter, and set a wide green grass edge to the Bituo Fuyi River. Clusters and tufts of lush thatch spit out white buds, swaying softly in the spring breeze, protruding and eye-catching among the cow tendon grasses. We lay on all sides on the grass, squinting our eyes at Ma On Shan on the other side, listening to the political teacher's son Lao Pan talk about Gromyko and the ministerial meeting, listening to the biology teacher's son Xiao Rong talk about aliens and "The Car of the Gods"...
"Where is the other side of Ma'anshan?" The son of the Chinese teacher chewed the fresh grass root in his mouth, and his face looked up at the sky with infinite longing and muttered to himself. "Yashantang Village Zhangjia Courtyard, our village." The son of the peasant couple, Yaohua, smiled and warmly invited us to his country home. So, Gromyko, aliens, and Maogen were left behind by us on this side of Ma On Shan, and a team of two or eight bicycles appeared on the other side of Ma On Shan. We hid from our parents, and several people in the group quickly disappeared into a cloud of dust, gradually moving away from the thick shadow of Ma On Shan under the sun...
Two years later, after the college entrance examination was over, Lao Pan went to the university in Wuhan, Xiao Rong went to the university in Guangzhou, Yaohua went to the university in Jinan, and I finally went to the teacher's college in Shaoyang, silently watching for them in Ma'anshan, where they used to live day and night. After many years, after several twists and turns, I finally settled in Jinan, thousands of miles away, and Yaohua had already graduated from college and went to Shenzhen on the shores of Dapeng Bay, and since then we have become more and more distant from Ma'anshan, and there is no chance to reunite at the foot of Ma'anshan.
As I grew older, Ma On Shan, which had been in my heart countless times longing to escape, now appeared in my dreams countless times—so vague, so clear; so far away, so close. I know that whether we once wanted to distance ourselves from Ma'anshan or now want to be close to Ma'anshan, Ma'anshan has always been there--the wind and rain, through the vicissitudes, quietly standing on the banks of the Fuyi River, quietly standing on the Zijiang River, watching us leave, watching us return. This is like our mothers, always treating their children kindly - I am not sad when you leave, I do not like you to come, but I hide a thousand reluctance and tenderness in my heart...
In a few years, we will not exist, and Ma On Shan will still exist.
About author: Lin Dan, a lover of words, is a member of the Chinese Prose Literature Society. He has published nearly 30 essays and essays in the supplement of Qilu Evening News, and nearly 10 essays and essays in the original edition of "Selected Essays", which is the creator of high-quality American literature in "Today's Headlines", and other texts are scattered on various online platforms. Advocate speaking people's words, writing about personnel affairs, and lyrical feelings.
One point number forest shattered and knocked