Qingwei | Shan Liwen: Childhood Tiger Fun
"When I was young, I didn't know the moon, and I called it a white jade plate." Childhood memories are deep and long-lasting.
To the north of Gaomi City is the former site of Baimai Lake. Baimai Lake, also known as Xiluo, before the Yuan Dynasty, was a vast low-lying swamp with both zeal and abundant water and grass. From the Ming Dynasty to the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, ditches were continuously dug to drain water, and fields were built to cultivate crops, creating a field. By the middle of the Qing Dynasty, it became an agricultural area with grain and oil harvest and villages.
My hometown, Aiguo Village, Jiangzhuang Town, is five kilometers north of the county seat, which belongs to the silt area of Baimai Lake and is a fertile black clay. But on dry days, it is easy to settle, and you can't pull out your shoes on rainy days. The cattle ploughed the land too late to rake, and after a few days they were dried into dirt. The village often organizes students who put wheat and autumn breaks to carry rammers and go to the field to make mounds. When you enter the city on a rainy day, you have to carry your bicycle to the mouth of the pingri highway in the east of the village, then ride into the city, come back and carry the car home barefoot from the intersection.
I remember when I was a child, every rainy day, the children would go to the West Bay to dig up black clay, and then shoot it into squares on the edge of the pool, and cut it into mud pistols with broken glass pieces. Smart children are often made like real guns in movies and are often proud.
In 1976, when I was just ten years old, in the third grade, there were young people in the village who used marathi to drive (marry) their daughter-in-law, catch up with the rainy day, can not change the wedding date, to the weekday intersection, mud sticky feet, horse-drawn cars do not move, can not enter the village. The driver of the car returned to the village to say hello, and more than a dozen stick boys came down, unloaded their horses, pulled the belt and carried them, and forced the wedding car into the village.
The black clay road is not easy to walk, but the harvest crops. One of the four high-density (paper-cutting, ash-throwing New Year paintings, clay sculptures, Mao Cavity,) of Jiangzhuang Town, Niejiazhuang Clay Sculpture, benefits from the natural advantages of siltation in Baimai Lake. The local soil is better, viscous, and will not crack after drying. It has the reputation of "Nie Jiazhuang, facing south, and every household kneading clay people". To this day, clay from the fields is still used in the production of clay tigers and clay sculpture crafts.
The clay sculptures of Niejiazhuang (Nie Dong Cun, Nie Xi Cun) originated in the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli Dynasty, and the earliest clay sculptures were originally the mud coat of the lihua fireworks, made into the shape of mud dolls, and were used as toys or ornaments after the fireworks were released. In the late Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, (east and west) Niejiazhuang were all kneading clay sculptures, and folk rumors such as "children cry, find their mothers, mothers buy a clay doll, and make children happy haha".
The Niejiazhuang mud tiger is the toy I remember the most in my childhood. Every Spring Festival, the elders of the family will buy a pair of mud tigers for the children, which are both decorations and toys, with a strong New Year's flavor. The image of the mud tiger also contains the expectation of blessing peace and avoiding evil. Because the tiger has a majestic image in the local area (the tiger is called the king of the beasts, the only one), it is regarded as a symbol of peace and good fortune.
In that era, despite the hardships of life, parents did not forget to buy mud tigers for their children in the New Year, and everyone was happy to add to the festive atmosphere of the New Year. "Little children, don't cry, your father went to Dengzhou Capital, flower sticks, mud tigers, gollum and gollum." It is the most popular folk song for children. During the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, the children in the village almost all have a pair of mud tigers, and the most prosperous play.
The current mud tiger is the only clay sculpture that can be called in the traditional clay sculpture in the country, and has become the most distinctive folk art in Gaomi. In June 2008, it was listed by the State Council as one of the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage expansion projects.
The tiger of Niejiazhuang grinned, there were two small holes in the corners of the mouth, there was a whistle in the stomach, grabbed the head and tail with his hands, pulled one by one, the air rushed, the whistle sounded, grunted, and could make a "whine, whine" cry, which was favored and loved by children.
The mud is called the tiger's head and tiger's tail to make mud blanks in advance. In the past, it was kneaded out by hand one by one, but now it is all made of molds, and the shape is the same. The reed whistle used by the tiger whistle is fixed to the rear tail of the tiger, and the tiger's front chest part is empty to amplify the sound. In the production, the tiger head and tail are connected with leather. After the "three points of plastic, seven points of color" of the color, and finally dry, the vibrant mud called the tiger is made.
When you coax a child, you sing "Little child, don't cry, buy you a mud tiger, gollum and gollum." "Mud tiger is cheap and good, full of local characteristics.
"One family has a hundred female families to ask for, and one person has a tiger to snor (play together)". The New Year children played, compared, raced, and sang: "From the south, a vegetable seller, the mud tiger barks obediently." From the north came a fish seller, and the mud tiger barked suddenly. From the east came a chicken seller, and the mud tiger screamed dripping. From the west came a melon seller, and the mud tiger called out to the land of dei." The tiger is tired and whimpering, and the child is tired and whimpering, and the child is tired of the soil.
When you are a little older and have played with mud tigers, you will play "paper tigers". Elementary school students often gather to play "tiger eats child" chess. In books, on paper, but more often on the spot, on and off the ground. Draw a box with three horizontal and three vertical lines inside. The tiger is two large stones, symbolizing a male and a female. Folklore says: A mountain cannot accommodate two tigers, unless there is a male and a female. The child is a group of three small stones in five groups, which means that the puppy (described as a naughty child, the dog is also suspected) fight in groups. Whether the child walks horizontally or vertically, as long as there is a gap in the back, the tiger can eat the lonely child.
"One chopstick is easy to break, ten pairs of chopsticks are not easy to break." One by one, the children, lined up step by step, marching in unison, could block the two tigers to death. Playing the "tiger eats children" chess piece is a test of the wisdom of both sides. The tiger should be wise and courageous, rush and kill, and eat all the children. The children should echo from end to end, hug tightly, and use the position of surrounding the middle to eventually surround the tiger to death. Cutting grass and collecting dung space, primary school students often enjoy it, killing inextricably, and enjoying it!
Childhood, warm tiger rhyme has become an unforgettable memory.
Nowadays, the craftsmanship of Niejiazhuang clay sculptures has become a local tourism exhibition project. As a clay sculpture brand, mud call tiger set up stalls in Mo Yan's former residence, carry forward folk cultural traditions, characteristic skills pyramid schemes at home and abroad, mud call tiger has become a golden lump flying out of the fingertips, and more locals have embarked on the road to prosperity by relying on mud sculptures.
Shan Liwen (ZiWenfang) male, born in March 1966, graduated from Shandong Agricultural University in 1987 with a major in rural finance. He is a member of the Agricultural Bank of China and has published and awarded literary works in newspapers, magazines and other media
Editor: Ma Xuemin
One point number Qingwei Heze creative base