The "fire eye tip" on the earth kang
Written by Wang Zheng
At the foot of the Qinling Mountains, the earth kang is generally connected with the pot stove, and a wall is spaced apart, separating the earth kang and the stove room into two spaces. The fire under the pot can not only boil water to cook rice, but also the fire in the hearth can also heat the kang through the passage connected to the kang. Therefore, the earth kang connected to the pot stove also has the warmest name: fire kang. The hottest place on the fire is undoubtedly the one against the partition wall, which the villagers call "fire eyes sharp".
In the summer, instead of kang heat, people use bricks or huji to block the passage connecting the stove to the kang. In winter, remove the brick huji, as long as you cook, the kang is hot. In the past, there were no stoves in the countryside in winter, and the fire was the paradise of the farmers in the winter. As long as it is okay, people are sitting on the kang, women are doing needlework, men are gossiping, and even eating is on the kang. A small window was opened in the middle of the partition wall, and the meal was handed over from that window, and a small table was placed on the kang, and a small family feast was opened. The people who came to visit the door in the village were beckoned to the edge of the kang, and put their hands under the futon on the kang, "Oh, Kang Mei Di Tai!" "Can't stand the invitation of the master, but also take off the shoes on the kang." Needless to say, the "fire-eyed tip" piece must have been reserved for the dolls. Sit for a while, the bottom of your ass is hot, and you can't leave. At that time, there were many dolls in the family, and several people often competed to sit on the "fire eye tip". I remember when I went to school in winter, when I came back from school, my feet were cold and painful, and as soon as I entered the door, I went to the kang, lifted the mattress with "fire eyes pointed", sat on the kang mat, and my feet warmed up for a while. The feeling of comfort is the same as the feeling of eating a candy sweet to the heart.
The memory of the "sharp eye of fire" is more related to the New Year. In those days, it was steaming again, it was cooking again, and the fire in the hearth was not extinguished all day, and the "sharp eye of the fire" was always hot. The adults were busy in the stove room, and we sat on the kang, or waited for the hot buns that came out of the new pot, or waited for the tofu brains that came out when making tofu, or waited for the hemp leaves and twist flowers fried in the frying pan. It was a day so happy that I could compare with the gods. The deepest memory is eating tofu brain. Ordering tofu is generally at night, often waiting for a few of our brothers and sisters to fall asleep on the kang, and the tofu brain has not yet been pointed out. In the middle of the night, the tofu brain was lit, and my father woke us up one by one. Tofu is only made this time during the New Year, and there is usually no tofu brain in the countryside. At the beginning, one by one, they all swore to wait until the tofu brain came out, ate it, and then slept. At this time, he was woken up by his father, but his eyes were hazy, and the hungry worm could not beat the sleepy worm, and he said that he would not eat or eat in his mouth, and he fell asleep fragrantly.
"Fire-eyed sharp- and sharp-pointed" not only brings us happiness, but also brings convenience to adults. In the winter, it is cold, and the noodles of the steamed steamed bun are not easy to ferment, so the mother put several large pots of steamed steamed steamed noodles in advance in the "fire eye tip", and covered the quilt on it, which greatly shortened the time of fermentation of the noodles. New Year to soak bean sprouts, mother also like to put the bean sprouts pot in the "fire eye tip", bean sprouts will grow day by day, to the Spring Festival, not only we can eat bean sprouts, guests are also a good hospitality dish.
The most interesting thing is that near the Spring Festival, afraid of the firecrackers bought early at home to be damp, the New Year is not loud and bright, people are accustomed to placing firecrackers in the "fire eye tip" where the partition wall and the root foot of the kang surface, neither occupy the place, nor affect people's sleep. However, from a very young age, I often heard my mother say that my grandmother put the cannon on the "tip of the fire eye", and one day in the stove room, only listening to the beeping sound of the kang, it turned out that the cannon on the "tip of the fire eye" exploded due to the high temperature. I heard that the cannon battles that were released in the "fire eye tip" sounded loud and bright, and I liked to put the firecrackers I bought early every year on the "fire eye tip", but every time I put it, I would think of my mother's words about the cannon fight explosion, and I always went to look at it every once in a while, fortunately, it did not explode once.
It is precisely for this reason that when steaming steamed in the New Year, my mother will sometimes specially roll up the futon on the "tip of the fire eye" to let the kang mat cool and warm. Even so, in the village, because the fire is too hot, the kang mat is burned, or the futon is put on, and it always happens every three to five minutes. Although it is not a good thing, it will not cause any serious consequences. Because when the "sharp eye of the fire" is hot to that extent, people must be busy in the stove room, and they will always find and deal with it in time. In that year and month, there was nothing new in the village for a year, and occasionally it was reported that the kang of whose kang was too hot and the news that the futon was roasted would become an interesting news that people in the alley talked about after tea and dinner, adding a hint of flavor to the monotonous day.
In today's village, there are still tukang, but most of the people who sleep in tukang are outside all year round. In the hearth of the kang, the fire is not so strong, and even for many days there is no fireworks. Tu Kang is Tu Kang, few people call it "Fire Kang", the "fire eye tip" that position is still there, but it is not as hot as it used to be, and no one is scrambling to sit. At most, the New Year's Day is hot for a while, and it is not as hot as in the past. On the winter fire, there are old people sleeping, but they are covered with electric mattresses.
Tu Kang is a period of time, and the "fire eye tip" on the earth kang is a flower in that year, forever blooming in my memory.
About author:Wang Zheng, a native of Huaxian County, Shaanxi Province, graduated from college, is a member of the Communist Party of China, and a member of the Weinan Writers Association. In July 1995, he joined the work in Chengcheng County, and successively served in the office of the Chengcheng County Party Committee and other departments. After work, he writes essays, essays, miscellaneous essays, etc., expresses his feelings about life with words, expresses the taste of life, and enjoys the spiritual pleasure brought by words. Articles have appeared in shaanxi daily, xi'an evening news, weinan daily and other newspapers and periodicals inside and outside the province. In 2013, the Shaanxi People's Publishing House published a 190,000-word collection of personal essays, "Shallow Streams and Traces".
Source: Huazhou Audio-Visual
Original author: Wang Zheng
Finishing editor: Huazhou Audio-Visual, Huazhou Literature and History Collection