Yan Bing‖ "Blood Veins of Mountains and Rivers": Thick and vivid historical pictures (book sound/review)

Deep, thick and vivid historical picture - reading Mr. Zheng Wanli's "Blood Veins of Mountains and Rivers" has a feeling

In the afternoon of January 29, I reluctantly put down "Blood In the Mountains and Rivers" and finally finished reading this deep and thick long-form documentary literature. However, my mood was still not calm for a long time.

Zuobu Village is my mother's hometown, and the Ou Clan Ancestral Hall records the rise and fall of my mother's clan, the Ou Family. Every inch of land there bears the imprint of mama's people. How many times have I wandered in Zuobu Village, touching every brick, every tree, every flower and grass there, tasting the tempting food of Zuobu Village, pride and happiness overflowing my body and mind, and I was also immersed in the history and culture of Zuobu Village from time to time, and I could not extricate myself.

Zheng Wanli's long-form reportage "Blood In Mountains and Rivers" was recently published by Guangdong People's Publishing House

First, the ancient village left step ancestors gathered, the Ou family has a long history

Zuobu Village was founded in the Ming Yongle period, with a history of more than 600 years, ou, Sun and Ruan three surnames of villagers, is the ancestral residence of Sun Yat-sen, rich in historical and cultural resources.

To the west of Zuobu Village, a group of Ethnic Europeans gathered, who for hundreds of years inherited the ancestral precepts of "DunShi Saying Ceremony and Unity of the Yan Ethnic Group". Less than 50 meters from the village committee, there is a square planted with three large banyan trees, and at one end of the square is the Ou's Ancestral Hall, which looks quaint and elegant under the green foliage.

"Blood in the Mountains and Rivers" presents many sages and celebrities in Zuobu Village, in addition to Sun Yat-sen's ancestral home, there are also Chinese national industrial pioneers Fang Juzan, Sun Jinfang, sun Diefang; Ou Gengxiang, premier of the Yuelu Company; Ou Chu, the first captain of the Pearl River Column during the Chinese Anti-Japanese Period; and Ruan Zhang, the fourth representative of the CPC. Regarding Ruan Zhang, all kinds of existing humanistic materials on Zuobu are difficult to find, he was one of the ancestors of Zuobu Village who participated in the revolution very early, in 1921 he participated in the creation of the Tangshan Workers' Library, issued the "Workers' Weekly" to promote Marxism-Leninism, and carried out the workers' movement. In 1922, the workers of the South Factory, Kailuan, Qixin, Huaxin and other factories and mines were organized to form the Tangshan Labor Legislation Grand Alliance, leading the workers' strike of the South Factory and winning victory. In 1925, he was appointed deputy inspector of the Jinzhou Aircraft Maintenance Section in northeast China, using this as a cover to carry out revolutionary work.

Ou Gengxiang led his neighbors to devote themselves to the cause of railways on the mainland and provoked the construction of the Guangdong-Han railway; Ou Chu actively participated in the Pearl River Column, heroically fought against the invaders, and became one of the revolutionary forces in Guangdong Province under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and they all made outstanding contributions to overthrowing the imperial system and building a new China. They are outstanding representatives of the Ou clan. There are also movie star Ruan Lingyu; cartoonist Fang Cheng, and so on, too many to list.

In addition, at a time when the motherland and hometown were in danger, there were many sons and daughters in Zuobu Village who stood up in righteousness, and they were Lin Dixing, Ouyang Yu, Ou Xiangfa, Ouyang Jinyi, Ou Mankuan, Sun Lie, Sun Xinqian, Ruan Risheng and many other revolutionary fighters who saved the country and the people.

In the third chapter of "Blood In mountains and rivers", "Guangdong-Han Railway Construction Elite", it is specifically introduced to Ou Gengxiang, a member of the Ou clan, who is my mother's grandfather's contemporary. This section recreates in detail the story of Ou Gengxiang shoulder to shoulder the construction beams of the Guangdong-Han Railway.

As the second premier of the Yue Lu Company, Ou Gengxiang was influenced by Sun Yat-sen's "therefore transportation is the mother of industry, and railways are the mother of transportation", and led his relatives and friends to devote themselves to China's railway industry. At that time, Ou Gengxiang sent people back to his hometown to recruit villagers to build railways, and the Ou and Sun clans in Zuobu Village and the Yakou Lu clan and Tan clans participated the most, which led relatives and friends from nearby villages to successively devote themselves to China's railway cause. The general training stage is: the first to leave their hometown and gather in Huangsha, the South Railway Station of Guangzhou, transferred to Tangshan in 1917, and after two years of training in Tangshan, they went to Wuhan in 1919, unveiling the prelude to the construction of the Guangdong-Han Railway.

In the first section of the fourth chapter of "Blood in the Mountains and Rivers", "Five Gui Hymns", it is specially written that Ou Chu, a handsome guerrilla leader of Xiao Yong, is also my mother's family relative, and during the War of Resistance Against Japan, Ou Chu was already the captain of the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Brigade of the Zhongshan People, and his legend is almost well known in Zhongshan and even Guangdong.

Ou's Ancestral Hall was once an important red revolutionary stronghold in Zhongshan, where Ou Chu engaged in revolutionary activities in the early years.

On October 21, 1938, after the fall of Guangzhou, Ou Chu returned to his hometown zuobu village to teach, and soon after joined the Communist Party of China, after which he turned to the battlefield behind enemy lines in the Pearl River Delta, participated in and commanded more than 140 large and small battles, the troops threatened Zhongshan and even the Pearl River Delta, Macao, Zhongshan guerrillas wore bamboo hats and rubber shoes, also became the popular fashion of the masses at that time, called "Ou Chu hat", "Ou Chu shoes".

In the second section of the fourth chapter of "Blood in the Mountains and Rivers", "Battlefield Rose", the deeds of my little aunt Ou Ba (O Baoxia) are introduced, which mentions the past of my mother's family, which makes my heart excited.

My mother's grandfather, Ou Kaixiang, was a contemporary of Ou Gengxiang, the premier of the Guangdong-Han Railway Company, who studied mechanical design and weapons engineering in the United States in his early years, and was hired by the Preparatory Office of Shimen Arsenal in Guangzhou after returning to China, and later, he was transferred to Hanyang Arsenal and became the technical director of Hanyang Arsenal. That was the mother and the family of nine in Hanyang relatively solid life record. Until the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, her mother's family returned to her hometown with her grandfather Ou Kaixiang's family of nine, Zhongshan Zuobu. As a result, on the way home, he was blocked by war and robbed by bandits, and his family was destroyed.

Back on the left, only Grandma and Fourth Aunt Ou Baoxia were left. After liberation, I found my aunt, mother and third aunt one after another, and only my grandmother and her four daughters were left in a rich family.

At that time, the fourth aunt was only 14 years old, and she often went with her grandmother to live with relatives at yakou, and often helped her aunt to see the pharmacy and deliver some medicines and other cartons. Over time, the fourth aunt learned that her aunt was an underground worker of our party, and was introduced by the aunt to join the Pearl River Column Observatory organization.

The Observatory is a department set up under the Zhongshan Independent Regiment of the Guangdong-Gansu-Xiangbian Column of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, which mainly undertakes the propaganda and printing tasks of the Zhongshan Independent Regiment and concurrently does the mass work around the station. Named the Observatory, the first is that as the propaganda mouthpiece of the county party committee, it often engraves mimeographs to publish the news of our party, so that the people can understand the revolutionary situation in the whole country. So it's an important mission. The fourth aunt ranked eighth in the observatory, so her name was changed from Opelxia to Ouba, until now.

The fourth aunt said that on the eve of the liberation of Zhongshan, they successively compiled and printed the "Battle Bulletin," "Bulletin to the People of Zhongshan County," "Letter to the Officers and Men of the Kuomintang," "Eight Points of Attention to Three Major Disciplines," and so on. Even the armbands, badges, notices of collection of military food, and banknotes used inside the troops were printed by the soldiers.

In addition to engraving and writing propaganda materials, the team members often traveled between Wuguishan and Shiqi to pass information, and sometimes completed tasks alone.

"Once it was raining heavily on one night, and the fourth aunt alone completed a mission and rushed back from Shiqi to the Wuguishan Observatory. Because it was dark, cold and tired, she couldn't walk, so she jumped into a pit on the side of the road to rest and wait for dawn. Unconsciously fell asleep. When I woke up, the rain had stopped early, the sky was already bright, and the fourth aunt quickly climbed out of the pit and subconsciously looked down, this look did not matter, her scalp was numb. The place where the original hiding overnight was a collapsed grave. Inside the pit were rotting coffins and bones. The fourth aunt quickly left and ran to the Wugui Mountain station..."

Speaking of it now, it's creepy!

A few days before the liberation of Zhongshan, the Zhongshan County Party Committee ordered the Observatory to make a five-star red flag to welcome the People's Liberation Army into the city.

So the observatory began to make a five-star red flag in the cave.

The red color of the national flag is dotted with five yellow stars, symbolizing the great unity of all nationalities in the Chinese revolution. The fourth aunt's task was to sew the five-pointed star on the red flag. The fourth aunt carefully sewed the five-pointed star on the red flag one stitch at a time, and she was particularly excited! This task is so glorious. Huang Yuntai looked at the fourth aunt sewing carefully and carefully, and praised: "Old Eight, the stitches are sewn finely, good!" ”

On October 30, 1949, Shiqi was liberated, and the city was empty. The fourth aunt and her comrade-in-arms Pan Xisi (Pan Yan) walked at the front of the parade, guarding their own national flag on both sides of the national flag, and did not expect that this shot was also taken by the journalists at the time, although it was a black and white photo, but this was a historical moment, very precious.

The fifth chapter of "Blood in Mountains and Rivers" mentions Ou Renpu, who met Sun Yat-sen in Canada in his early years and joined the League, and after the victory of the Xinhai Revolution, Ou Renpu returned to Zuobu Village and took the lead in surrounding the sea to build land. After three years, the Great Wai was finally closed, and Ou Renpu decided to sell the "Seven Iss Wai" and continue to encircle the sea. Therefore, the 700 acres of "Seven Acres of Wai" fertile land was sold to Ou Kaiwen (Hong), the major shareholder of Weihai.

Ou Kaihong is the grandson of Ou Jieshan, the former secretary of the party branch of Zuobu Village. It was he who corrected the above error.

My grandfather and Ou Jieshan's grandfather are both "Kai" characters: my grandfather Ou Kaixiang, he is too grandfather Ou Kaihong; my grandfather and his grandfather are both "Qing" characters: Ou Qingshi, Ou Qingming. We are close relatives of the same race.

I remembered that I once saw a Ou family tree from an Ou parent, and the original Ou surname, the district surname, and the Ouyang surname were the same ancestors.

Later ou surname branches: The Ou surname Wang lived in Pingyang (southwest of today's Linfen); another branch of ou surnames was located in Xinche Village, Ningyuan County, Hunan Province, and according to genealogy records, it moved to Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, more than 600 years ago. Therefore, the Ou Clan Ancestral Hall wrote that Zong Kai territorial sea, send Yan Pingyang. On the wall are written commemorative verses such as "Haizhou Gualing vein is the same stream, the sect is opening the left step head, Ken Kentang Jin lineage, Guangqian Yuhou enjoys spring and autumn" and other commemorative verses, and the ancestral precepts are printed on the Yang lian: Pai Yan Pingyang traces the source to find the source of nostalgic virtue, and di Yi Ren Li Dun poems say Li Zhen literary style. As if to remind future generations not to forget the fundamentals, the unity of the clan.

Nowadays, the door of the Ou Clan Ancestral Hall is impressively printed with several big characters of "Zong Kai Ling Hai, Pai Yan Pingyang", which is also the provenance of the Zuobu Ou clan recognized in the clan, "Ling" refers to Tugualing, "Hai" refers to the ancient town of Haizhou, and the Ou clan of Zuobu Village is actually migrated from the Tugualing District clan and the ancient town Haizhou Ou clan successively. The ancestor of Kaicun was Ou Guanqing, a ceramic merchant in the Qing Dynasty, who also funded the construction of the Ou Clan Ancestral Hall by summoning his neighbors. The construction area is about 200 square meters, and the two-bay and two-entry building layout is a mixed building structure with hard mountain ridge and brick and wood platform beams. The green brick walls, hard mountain tops, Bogu ridges, stone eaves pillars on the porch, wood carvings of flowers and birds, and murals of landscape poetry and poetry all have typical Qing Dynasty architectural characteristics.

The Ou Ancestral Hall was the site of the first domestic revolutionary war and the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to publicize the revolution, and it was also the base for the Wuguishan guerrillas led by Ou Chu to organize propaganda activities to resist Japan and save the country. It was rebuilt in 1999 and identified as an immovable cultural relics unit by zhongshan municipal people's government in November 2004.

Second, it lingers between history and reality, bringing people a strong visual impact

Zuobu Village has a rich history and culture, material and cultural resources are also very rich, the village also retains the tower residences, ancestral halls, village temples, historical streets and alleys and other characteristic buildings, is a typical representative of Zhongshan and even the Pearl River Delta region Cantonese style historical architecture, with high cultural relics value.

Mr. Zheng Wanli is a very pragmatic writer, he did not shut himself in the study, but from time to time into the zuobu village, measured every inch of the ancient village with his feet, searched for every grass and tree in the ancient village with his eyes, saw the villagers and went up to nag a few words, and inadvertently obtained precious information. At the same time, it also runs non-stop between Shanghai, Tangshan and Wuhan, and gets a lot of first-hand information, making "Blood of Mountains and Rivers" more plump and thick.

And when I am deeply immersed in the hundreds of years of history of the ancient village, I will be pulled back to reality by the writer from time to time.

From the end of 2020 to 2011, the writer's footprints have spread across Shanghai, Tangshan, Wuhan and Zhongshan, and this year Mr. Zheng Wanli wrote, ran, interviewed, and collected, how tense the schedule was, and how full his life was. The "Blood of Mountains and Rivers" was officially published in October 2011. A work of more than 200,000 words, Mr. Zheng Wanli only took eight months to complete, if it were not for his interviews everywhere to collect first-hand information, with hills in his chest, how could he be so quick?

I remembered that every time I went to Zuobu Village, I would stay for a long time under the only blockhouse.

After watching "Blood Veins of Mountains and Rivers", I finally knew that the owner of this watchtower turned out to be Eun Seolzhao. In his early years he left the village of Zuobu and went to Hawaii. His older brother Ou Renpu, who had returned to China, often wrote to ask his brother to donate money to help the villagers, and Ou Renzhao generously donated every time. Later, Ou Renzhao entrusted his brother to help him build a four-storey watchtower in the left step, the watchtower was built, and in December 1941, just as Ou Renzhao packed his bags and prepared to return to China, unfortunately, the Pacific War broke out, Ou Renzhao was killed in the war, but the tower downstairs lamented for a hundred years.

The flow between history and reality brings me a strong visual impact.

Third, the back wave pushes the front wave

The seventh chapter of "Blood Veins of Mountains and Rivers" tells us about Feng Jianwei, a typical representative of the young generation in Zuobu Village.

The writer begins this chapter with a clear meaning: Feng Jianwei is the first college student in Zuobu Village to return to the village, and calls him "college student cultivator". I have heard of scientists, artists, singers, calligraphers, painters, writers, etc., and for the first time I heard of "cultivators", writers here are full of praise, it can be seen that Zuobu Village not only has so many sages and famous artists in history; the young generation that has grown up is by no means inferior, just like Feng Jianwei, Sun Guiman and so on.

I was pleased to see that in this beautiful and simple land of Zuobu, a young native like Feng Jianwei had a love, stepped on his father's footprints, inherited the traditions of his predecessors, integrated new agricultural knowledge, used advanced machinery and equipment, and cultivated and cared for this land.

Sun Guiman is a typical example of the young generation in Zuobu Village, he has been wandering outside for many years, and after returning to zuobu, he built a grass shed and opened a "Manji" gourmet restaurant. The operation was booming, but unexpectedly a typhoon, the grass shed was uprooted. Sun Guiman was not discouraged, he said that the grass shed was gone, and he was building an iron shed. After several years of operation, the iron shed was full of customers. However, Zuobu Village was close to Linglingyang, and after another bigger typhoon, the tin shed was also reduced to ruins. This time Sun Guiman was even happier: start the villa, once and for all. As a result, the "Manji Banquet Shop" stood proudly in Zuobu Village, showing Sun Guiman's strong will and strength not to accept defeat, like the sages and celebrities in the history of Zuobu, which was impressive.

Now Nanlang has designated Sun Guiman's restaurant as a canteen for the elderly. His "full memory" of customers continued. He said that what a restaurant does is not a meal, it is credibility. I was once again touched by the excellence of the younger generation in Zuobu Village.

In chapter seven, verse three, I read again a surprise.

There is a 5100-square-meter private manor in the southeast corner of Zuobu Village, and the owner is a young generation of Zuobu Village, named Huang Xiaowen. The name didn't catch my eye, but to my surprise, Huang Xiaowen turned out to be the prototype of the pearl-covered statue of the Fisher Girl on the zhuhai seashore.

This is also a kind of pride of Zuobu Village.

Now that Huang Xiaowen has immigrated to Australia with her husband, her private estate has now become a place for several retired "Kochi" to retire.

This small three-storey building is quiet and leisurely, surrounded by more than ten kinds of vegetables grown by their people who are huddled with pensioners, and the growth is very good.

The writer wrote in the book: Group pension is often a form of cultural pension, they are together in addition to entertainment, there is also the exchange of ideas, reading and learning, travel and walking, enjoy food, etc., these healthy and beneficial activities, enrich the spiritual life of the elderly, create a happy attitude, enhance the happiness of the elderly.

Undoubtedly, this place has become another beautiful scenery of Zuobu Village.

Outside Zuobu Village, a glass bookhouse with a green frame stands in the rice fields. All those who have been to Zuobu are impressed by the Green Book House, which has now become a famous Internet celebrity punching point in Zhongshan City, attracting tourists from all over the country to come and see the style of Zuobu Book House.

"Blood in the Mountains" gave me a surprise. It turned out that the owner of this bookstore was Xu Jiajie, another aspiring young man in Zuobu Village. Xu Jiajie took great pains to open his left-step bookstore in October 2019, when the rice was fragrant. Nowadays, the left-step bookstore is becoming more and more popular, and in the few days of the Spring Festival in 2021, the bookstore is crowded with people who come to read.

Undoubtedly, Zuobu Bookstore is not only a beautiful scenery of Zuobu, but also a cultural signboard of Zuobu Village.

Fourth, there is no shortage of vivid and beautiful language in quoting scriptures

I was impressed by the narrative style of "Blood in the Mountains and Rivers". This is a non-fiction literary work, mainly written in a narrative way, in the excavation and combing of the century-old history of Zuobu Village, the writer is basically a realistic narrative. As the writer said in the epilogue: Writing is the speech of thought, and the way of speaking well is a simple narrative. Mr. Li Chunlei, a famous writer, said in the preface to "Blood Veins of Mountains and Rivers": "The Veins of Mountains and Rivers obviously bear traces of realism, and are integrated in the treatment of spirit and flesh, and most of them are completed in one go without showing chisel marks, showing the high quality of a mature writer. ”

In the whole reading process, not only did I not feel the blandness of the narrative, but I was attracted by the writer's profound theoretical attainment from time to time, "Blood in the Mountains and Rivers" can be seen everywhere by the author quoting scriptures, ancient and modern Chinese and foreign celebrity quotes at will, increasing the depth and thickness of the article and readability, which is pleasing and convincing.

In addition, the language of "Blood Veins of Mountains and Rivers" is vivid and beautiful, and the description of the natural style of Zuobu Village is like a prose poem, like a landscape painting, as you read, it slowly unfolds in front of us: the sunset on the shore of the Lingling Ocean, Venus Island arches above the vast water like a dragon ball, and the two sides of the dragon ball are slapped on the embankment by the wind-blown tide, forming a dragon body surrounded by waves, and from a distance, it looks like a two dragon play beads. This natural landscape forms a great metaphor in Zuobu Village.

On the day we went to Leju Town, it suddenly rained heavily, and we entered the Sacramento Delta along the road, facing the Sacramento River, and the distant mountains and waters in front of us were covered with greenery, blue waves, and pear orchards, vineyards, and wheat fields in the rain came into view, a rich scene.

Wenyou Niguan said: "Blood Veins of Mountains and Rivers" is a long historical scroll of Zhongshan Zuobu Village! Show us the mysterious story of this magical land in Zuobu Village. One after another vivid stories of historical figures have given me many life insights and career inspiration! How could this not be the case with my feelings!

Mr. Zheng Wanli, a writer, said: "When the village is stable, the country is stable; when the village is rich, the country is rich." The big river has water and the small river is full, and the small river has no water and the big river is dry. The fate of the village and the country is the same, the country and the village are in harmony, and no one can do without the other. This may be the original intention of the writer to write "Blood in the Mountains and Rivers".

Today, my mother's hometown zuobu village, like a pastoral picture, has become a historical and cultural village also known as the Greater Bay Area, a bright business card for the construction of Zhongshan's beautiful countryside, like a vivid local museum in Nanlang Town, attracting many overseas Zhongshan people and foreign tourists.

Seeing Zuobu Village is like seeing a microcosm of beautiful China.

(Note: The views of all articles in this column do not represent this newspaper.) ）

◆ Zhongshan Daily Media Development Center

◆ Figure +1/ Xu Xiangdong

◆ Editor: Xu Xiangdong

◆ Second Instance: Xiang Caizhi

◆ Third trial: Huang Lianjie

◆ Material source: Zhongshan Daily