Old yard
Text/Zhang Zhenfeng
(Image courtesy of the author)
Built in the early 1990s, these houses in the old courtyard are the most common peasant houses in the villages with a history of nearly a thousand years, and they are also the almost smallest social cell units that highlight the remarkable results of rural reform and opening up.
For the owner of this house, my parents, it is a record of their youth and the vicissitudes of their lives, and when they reach middle age, they live with their sons in the fourth-tier town. The years are like a stream, time is like water, and it has been more than twenty years since I left this old courtyard in the blink of an eye. But this old courtyard has always been connected to their hearts like a string, and the memories of life for more than seventy years are like notes, playing soul-haunting music from time to time, pouring out thousands of strands of tender feelings that are constantly separated from this old courtyard. A few years ago, my parents, who were in their seventies, came back to live for half a month and renovated the somewhat dilapidated yard. It can't be fixed, but that part of the plot can't be abandoned. It seems that they themselves think that this is a responsibility that they must pass on perfectly, because when I came back to visit during the renovation, my mother said, "Your father and I will give you this time, but this time, there should be no big problem for more than ten years." Hearing my parents in their seventies say this, although I had a smile on my face, my heart was very heavy. Secretly blaming time for being so useless, in the blink of an eye, my parents who gave birth to me turned white, and this place called home became hometown.
The old courtyard also records the youthful past of my second-generation owner, where I have the joys of my childhood and the troubles of my youth. The taste of reminiscing about those joys and troubles is as sweet as the water of home. "If only time could really be turned back, I would like to return to the tenderness of the past..." The lyrics echoed over and over in my head.
The old courtyard is also the third-generation owner of this family, where my son's roots are located, which is engraved with wonderful fragments of the good years of his father and grandfather, and the short journey of finding roots during the New Year's Festival is a baptism of soul for him. On the second day of the first year after the Spring Festival, the local custom is that when the ancestors are worshipped (for the family hall), basically every year we return to this old courtyard on this day, and take a few pictures in the courtyard and at the gate, so this old courtyard also records the growth of the third generation of owners with images. In a way, this is the holy place of his soul, and once he comes, it should be a sincere pilgrimage, and as long as there is still this old courtyard, the devotion in his heart will never be extinguished...
The north house and the east and west rooms in the courtyard are faintly marked by the marks of time, but the brittle date trees, persimmon trees and pomegranate trees in the courtyard are irrepressible vitality and vitality. They have been freed from the weakness and greenness of the fine branches and veins, and they do not have the grace and old state of the old tree. Each tree is in the midst of youth, with a tall trunk and beautiful branches, standing proudly in the cold of early spring. The full leaf buds are like hide-and-seek children, hiding the laughter that reaches the throat eyes, and the gentle east wind calls far away, and their silver bell-like laughter will spread in the spring wind. That purity, innocence, and the spirit of primrose, will surely amaze the world...
Back to this old yard, leaving this old yard, the memories are more than the longing. Memories are like fishing hooks, when they are at ease, when they are happy, when they are worried, they can fish the Cold River alone, and they can also walk slowly in the courtyard of their hometown like now, while throwing countless fishing hooks into the ocean of time. The swimming fish of the river of time ring my heart bell from time to time. A wave of joy came with the tide of memories, the sea of hearts fluctuated, and a feeling of soft happiness surged up to the peak of the waves for a while, and gathered in the valley of the waves for a while. At this moment, it is as if there is a spiritual exchange with Tao Yuanming, china's first pastoral poet, through a thousand years of time and space. The spiritual enjoyment defined by Tao Gong as "there is a true intention in this, and the desire to argue has forgotten" has also grown continuously in our hearts. Unfortunately, without the literary skills of potters, he can only use two ancient poems to seek a breakthrough for the surging passion: What is the joy of life? Lotus hoe picking chrysanthemums in spring and autumn!
Fortunately, I still have my hometown, and there is such a small courtyard to pin my spirit and body, and my son can still come here to find his roots. Unfortunately, many people have lost their homeland and can only rely on the concrete jungle! Maybe in a few years, a dozen years, I will also lose this home. That's something I can't sway, but it's not something I'm willing to do. My personal short-term opinion is: unified scientific planning and layout on the original site, independent renovation, and special government support. Under the blue sky, there are still small farm yards, or natural villages, or this piece of fertile wilderness, a new generation of new people are cultivating happiness and sowing hope...
I firmly believe that the wonderful countryside and the wonderful era of the countryside are coming. The concept of beautiful rural development is the prelude to this great movement. We look forward to it, we look forward to it firmly...
The era of the countryside, the era of the countryside must be wonderful!
【About the author】Zhang Zhenfeng, project manager of Liaocheng Transportation And Automobile Group Hongyun Jian'an Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd., a member of the Communist Party of China, a literary enthusiast, and a member of the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Society. Essays, novels and modern poetry are scattered in paper journals and platforms such as "Ginseng Flower", "Literary Hundred Flowers Garden", "Young Literary Scholars", "Luxi Poets", "Qilu Literature", "Mountain Pomegranate", "Yangtze River Writers", "Southwest Literature", "Light Taste Tea", "Chinese Poetry Network" and so on.