Original: Liu Weibing
At the end of last autumn, our whole family went to Subei Dafeng to visit relatives and friends, and our relatives and friends were very enthusiastic to invite us to taste the fried buns and fish noodles with Jiangnan characteristics in northern Jiangsu. Early this morning we came to the old shanghai snack bar of the old city Paramount "Zhu Family". Although the store is not large, as soon as I entered the door, wow, there was a large hook scale with a length of three meters hanging on the right side of the door, which immediately aroused my curiosity.
I saw a large round basket hanging from the scale, and many diners with children played there. Looking at the scale, I was pondering, I hadn't seen such a big scale pole in more than fifty years. I remember when I was in the agricultural society, the most eye-catching thing in the courtyard of the autumn harvest was this big scale, and there were two strong boys carrying it, a sack, a pocket weighing. The cadres or custodians of the team specially carried the weighing rods, loaded the weighed grain parcels on the large carriages, and sent them to the grain depots of the communes. At that time, the slogan was, "Those who have enough to pay to the state, those who have enough to keep the collective, and the surplus is their own", that is, according to the equivalent of the work earned at the end of the year, the rations distributed to the members for one year are calculated, and the remaining grains should be returned to the warehouse. What the members of the club work hard for a year to expect is to receive enough rations for a year. I also hope that the cadres of the team of the scale rod will move the stalk back a little and raise the scale pole a little. This big scale, put it down, get up and put it down, busy all day long... At this time, I only heard my granddaughter call out to my grandfather: "It's time for us to eat, you are staring at the big pole scale, what are you thinking?" I said I hadn't seen it in more than fifty years, and I wanted to go over! "Then how does this stalk weigh things?" Who invented it? Is it more accurate than an electron stalk? "She asked this question, I am really blind, such a scale thing can tell her a rough idea, but this stalk came from what dynasty and who invented it?" I really can't answer it for a while. It was embarrassing. I have known the scale since I was a child, but I can't say a meridian when I am old. Doesn't this drop the chain?
I thought to myself, I really still have to live to learn from the old, I must be a good teacher of this scale to the old man, and afterwards I specifically consulted my uncle and several big brothers who are older than me. They also did not say clearly the invention and history of the stalk pole. This is not to blame people, you think, since the seventies by the mechanical desk case scale instead of the large rod scale, and gradually developed double-sided spring degree plate stalks and electronic scales, they are not only stable and clear and accurate digital measurement, profiteers are not easy to cheat. According to the data, the principle of leverage came out earlier than in Europe, and the three major pieces measured in the mainland are ruler, bucket and straw. Literature records that the creation of the rod scale should be in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Among the cultural relics excavated from the Chu Tomb in the eastern suburbs of Changsha, Hunan Province, before 700 AD, there are already various refined weights, weighing rods and weighing pans. In 1989, a complete wooden pole scale relic was also found in a Han Dynasty single-kiln brick tomb in Yaoshang Village, Changxing Town, Mei County, Shaanxi Province. So, who invented the scale rod? Search Baidu is so expressed; there are two theories about the production of the pole, one is invented by Lu Ban, the other is made by Fan Li, when Lu Ban invented the wooden pole scale, it was based on the Big Dipper and the South Dipper Star carved 13 star flowers on the scale pole, set 13 two as a pound. After Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, he added the three stars of "Fu, Lu and Shou", which was exactly 16 stars, and then changed one pound to 16 and issued an edict for unified measurement. Another theory is that Fan Li got the inspiration from a fishmonger, that is, using a bamboo rod, while putting a bucket, while putting fish, using the principle of leverage to invent, and later he carried out a transformation, according to the Big Dipper Seven Stars and the South Dipper Six Stars on the scale restrained 13 star flowers, set 13 two to 1 pound, but because some traders often lack two pounds less, they added, "Fu, Lu, Shou" three stars, which shows that such as short one or two less Fu, missing two or two less Lu, missing three or two minus life. Rod scale is composed of scale rod, scale, weighing pan, etc., the ancients will weigh the scale called "right", it is made according to the Regulus constellation, belongs to the stars, is the main thunder rain god, the scale rod is called "heng" symbolizes the ziwei constellation, so as to weigh the "weight" is also derived from this. Therefore, the birth of the basic measuring tools of the Chinese nation condenses the wisdom and blood and sweat of the descendants of Yanhuang, reflects the development of commerce and trade and science and technology in the ancient civilization, and uses the scale as a mascot in the folk, which is regarded as a kind of god who is in charge of financial management, which means that there is a scale to be the home, the meaning of the prosperity of the family, and a family member can only manage the money if he knows the scale and will use the scale. And there is a saying called "it is difficult to be homeless without knowing the scales". There is also a proverb in the folklore, called "There is a scale between heaven and earth, and the scale is our people." As one of the national essences of the mainland, for thousands of years, people have continuously given it cultural connotations, and it is also used as a symbol of fairness and justice, taking it as a yardstick for the conscience of heaven and earth. The scale rod says a lot, not only to measure the weight of the object, but also to measure people's hearts, whether it is the person who makes the scale, the person who uses the scale, must be fair, just, fair, put the heart right, and weigh the integrity, honesty, sincerity and justice of the people's hearts through the scale. This is also the inheritance of the connotation of Chinese tradition.
Leaving the snack bar, I looked at the large scale pole again, and suddenly found that on the wall on the right side, there were vaguely about a few lines, "Zhu's Recipe" was trained by the merchant; the scale, called gold, called silver, called conscience. Weigh heart——— be honest and trustworthy. There is a way, do things for people, put the heart on the scale star, just and upright, down-to-earth, the human heart of a scale, weighing not only the weight of things and people's hearts, nor the weight of gold and silver, but the blessings of you and me!
May all the business people in the world treat every customer honestly, honestly and sincerely, as Zhu Jiaxun said, only in this way can we show the profound righteousness and virtue of our Chinese national culture.
(The author was the former Ninth Railway Division)
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Source: Veterans Original House
Editor-in-Charge: Dream Wake Up
Braided Hair: Iron Friend