01
In the past few days, it has been nearly the last lunar year, and the north wind has indeed been tight, and the temperature cliff has dropped to only a few degrees.
Remembering a poem "The cold should be close to the fire, nothing can be opened", the body and mind are warm, and I can't help but think of the winter fire in my hometown.
In the winter of Jiangnan hometown, it is really cold, and the snow is so deep that it can not exceed the knees.
At that time, the days were poor, the food calories were insufficient, the clothes were thin, and the shivering south did not have the heating of the north, and there was no electric oven, warm air conditioning, down jacket today, even cotton clothes and sweaters and thick socks, which were not ordinary people's children could wear.
In my memory, the winter in my hometown is always particularly cold and specially long.
But when I was a child, I didn't find it difficult. Because, in the winter of my hometown, in addition to snow, there is also a roasting fire.
There is no shortage of firewood in the hilly area of Gangnam. In its own way, the earth gives the people in the mountains a bit of cold, but also a fierce warmth.
It's late winter again.
The house is a mud brick wall covered with green tiles, film paper attached to the wooden window, a few large holes have been broken earlier, and the whistling north wind has penetrated through the cracks in the window holes and doors, whizzing, snapping, and ringing. The world outside the house is cold, and as dusk approaches, the snow like goose feathers is falling.
Inside the house, the farmers have already set up a pond fire.
Farmhouse fire pits, often against the corners of the wall, one side is a wall, to block the spread of fire, and the other side is a window, giving a meager light to the house. Digging a few inches deep into the ground and enclosing the upper half of the circle with burned green bricks is a safe and reliable fire pit.
Firewood burned in the fire, and the heat filled the whole house in an instant with the fireworks.
The peasants put on wooden chairs and small stools, sat around together, stretched out their frozen red cracked hands, and approached the red fire and roasted the fire for warmth.
From time to time, the Lord's house added firewood and fire, and the fire burned vigorously and cheerfully, and in a short while, the person who roasted the fire was also warm and baked.
Not only for heating, in order to make full use of fire, farmers have enough wisdom in life to achieve "one fire for multiple uses".
There is a hook hanging on the top of the fire pond, which can hang a kettle, a copper stove, and an iron pot for boiling hot water, cooking rice, stir-frying, stewing meat, and boiling soup; the fire pond is about a meter up against the wall, and a shelf is set up, and the split pine wood is neatly stacked, one firewood is dried and burned, and the other is convenient to add firewood; further up, there are more hooks, and the wax flavor in the cold winter is patiently smoked there to produce the most attractive aroma.
It can be said that with the passage of time and the leap of the flames, the chai rice oil and salt of life and the taste of full warmth can be interpreted in this small fire pond.
For a long time, the hand that added firewood to draw the fire was inevitably the same as the charcoal, and the person who roasted the fire also had a lot of fire ash on his hair, his eyes were occasionally smoked to tears, and his forehead was also warm and sweaty, and the whole person emitted a strong smell of firewood.
The fireworks in the world are the most soothing to the hearts of mortals.
I think that those who have experienced the winter roasting of the fire in the fire pit, those who have been smoking and burning in the pond in the cold world, understand the true meaning of this sentence the most.
That kind of pond roasting fire, together with the snowflakes flying in the winter, constitutes the most romantic time of winter.
02
Winter roasting fire, in addition to warming up, but also warm the stomach.
It's dark, the snow is bigger, the temperature is lower, and you can't go out. Winter is a god-given holiday, and idle farmers rarely stop the fire.
Wang Zengqi once said, "The family sits idly, and the lights are amiable", which is probably the scene at this time.
Grandpa picked out a few sweet potatoes from the cellar, simmered them deeply in the fire ash pile, and after about half an hour, he turned over, and in an hour, the whole sweet potato was baked soft and cooked.
Such roasted sweet potatoes are particularly delicious to eat. Hungry children, simply can not care about cleanliness and safety, just pulled out of the sweet potato in the palm of the hand, but also particularly hot, only to quickly flip the left and right hands, and blow air to accelerate cooling. Then, pulling in two from the middle, the aroma of sweet potatoes immediately rushed to the nostrils and filled the room. Take a bite, sweet, soft, fragrant, hot, refreshing, comfortable, many years later is still the taste of nostalgia in the wanderer's dreamland.
Such roasted fire snacks, as well as roasted eggs and grilled rice dumplings. The egg is simmered in the hot fire ash, and when it is cooked, it will often explode, and the sound of "splitting" is a little scary.
In the waxing moon, the family's New Year's rice is also ready, but the sticky rice cannot be buried in the ashes, because the sticky rice will be stained with ash. In the countryside, there is a kind of kiln-fired adobe, in the shape of an "L", with a base one inch thick and three inches in length and width, which is placed next to the pond fire and is specially used to roast rice dumplings.
The square rice dumplings with their backs against the adobe and facing the fire pond should be constantly changed and positioned in order to be heated evenly. Soon, with the soothing of the temperature, the surface of the white rice dumpling will gradually burn out golden brown, and at the very center, a golden rounded bag will be puffed up, which is the signal of baking.
It's the New Year, and brown sugar is rarely available at home. Tear open a small hole in the bulging golden bun, pour in a spoonful or two of brown sugar, melt it immediately when it is hot, and the glutinous sweet brown sugar dumplings are waiting for your gluten.
If it is the first month, there will be festive snacks at home, and when Grandma stays until late at night and hungry, she will choose a few dishes to come out, nothing more than melon seeds, peanuts, twist flowers, ear pieces and the like.
Mother had already hung a pot of water on the fire, and the kind of piercing pot is now rare. When the water boils, the water vapor will squirt out of the spout of the pot that resembles the mouth of a small bird, and the lid of the pot will suddenly rise, fall again, and click. I remember when I was in elementary school, the teacher taught Watt the principle of discovering the steam engine, which was also inspired by this kettle, which we understood as soon as we listened.
The water is brewed for tea. The tea is picked from the valley rain in the homeland, and the unique peppercorns in Jiangnan are placed, and the aroma is particularly mellow. Chew one or two peppercorns, the mouth is completely numb, and then take a sip of piping hot strong tea, quench the thirst and relieve the fatigue, the taste is endless.
Sometimes, I also brew "piercing tea" to drink. The piercing heart in the local dialect is actually the Chinese medicine "Sichuan Root", which can invigorate the blood and qi, dispel the wind and disperse the cold, and the fragrance is particularly unique, which is popular in the northern Hunan province.
Although it is drinking tea, it seems that it can also be drunk, and when it is drunk, it will yawn and tire. In the dim light and shadow, there is also the idyllic poetry of "late to the sky to snow, can drink a cup of nothing".
This kind of roasting fire gives people a unique memory of the taste buds, which goes deep into the bone marrow and is engraved in the mind.
I often think that it is the warmest and happiest taste. Bai Juyi's "melting snow fried tea, mixing crispy boiled chyme." Lazy and self-conscious, happy and self-aware", he said to the fullest.
For example, today, whenever I pass by a baked sweet potato stall on the street, I still can't help but stop.
Even if I smell the aroma on my nose, my heart is warm.
03
What is even more gratifying is that on that winter night when the north wind is blowing wildly and the snow is flying in the sky, the family sits around the fire pond, and they have to gossip about the past and the present.
At that time, safe, food and clothing, warm fire, family affinity, such a fire, in addition to warming the body and warming the stomach, more heart-warming.
I once called this the "Night Talk of the Pond" in the article "Thirty Nights of Fire, WarmIng the Heart of a Year". In addition to giving us physical warmth, it is more of a spiritual heat flow caused by family reunions and lively exchanges!
Night talk, and there is no specific theme.
But there is a point, don't look at the rural peasants do not read much, but also the south of the sea, the past and the present, everything to talk about, nothing to say.
After counting a year's field harvest, experiencing gains and losses, calculating the spring planting and autumn harvest of the coming year, and managing the days, talking about the short and new things in the parents of the eight townships in ten miles, commenting on the lessons of the world's gains and losses, the warmth and coldness of human feelings, and recalling the history of the family and the inheritance of the bloodline.
The one who talked the most was my grandfather. He is both a master of night songs and a well-known ancient master in the village, not only ancient, but also knowledgeable. Whenever there is a "night talk around the pond", we can't help but clamor for Grandpa to talk about a few ancient passages.
In the ancient times, there are classical masterpieces and historical legends such as "Empty City Plan", "Burning Chibi", "Wusong Fighting Tiger", "Jiang Ziya Fishing", "Three Dozen White Bone Essences", "Shanbo Visiting Friends", as well as some local talents and good stories, the deeds of landlords and long-term workers fighting wisdom and courage, as well as interesting stories such as "Blacksmith Burning Wisdom burning ancient tree essence" and "Foolish Son-in-Law".
Some of them are documentaries, many local loyalties and filial pieties in the feudal period, the chaotic career of the devils invading the homeland, the land reform after liberation, eating big pot rice, going to the Yangtze River to repair the ti, dividing the fields and doing it alone, etc., which all hide countless sour, sweet, bitter and spicy stories.
And such "night talk", imperceptibly, often teaches children to recognize people and judge things, act as people, and cultivate the feelings of reading in the home and the world!
Mr. Yishan, who lived in the late Qing Dynasty, lived in Jingzhou Province, which is not far from my hometown. His "Night Talk on the Hearth" is known as one of the "Three Wonder Books of The World", and it was in the accumulation of days and nights of roasting fires to talk about the ancients and simmering potatoes, which was able to be rolled up.
At the beginning, he also states the reason for the book:
Cold night around the stove, the joy of the Tian family's women and children. Gu Bonfire sits right, or silently does not say a word, or giggles and says something inappropriate, it does not matter whether it is happy, will it not be a good night? Yu literate peasants also. Idle years and nights, family gatherings, phase and burn simmering potatoes, the heart has gained, recounting the mouths, the fate of the children to write and save, the inscription is the night of the hearth. However, they are all recorded with them, incoherent and shallow, mostly not the theory of faith, especially the class family to consume the night ear, not enough for outsiders. If there is a gentleman who is righteous and righteous, it is very fortunate.
In the book, every sentence is a simple truth for people to deal with the world, such as: "Poverty has no choice but to be frugal, and why should it be diligent", "Soldiers must take poetry as their lives, and people must establish a foundation from filial piety", "Do not fight with others for gains and losses, but seek their own knowledge", "Great calamities, from the intolerance of sustenance, must not be careless", and so on.
On a snowy day, in the middle of the night, a good fire and a cup of tea baked out the great wisdom of this life.
Such a winter night to roast the fire is a time to nourish the heart and warm the heart.
The heart is as strong as iron, the heart is as calm as a rock, the heart is as quiet as water, the heart is as bright as a mirror, the heart is warm as tea, the heart is determined, safe, calm, calm, calm, indifferent, in the meantime, everything is leisurely, life is floating and sinking, all purified in the rise of a pond of fire, and the floating and sinking of a cup of tea is settled.
04
I don't know, the first time the ancient people roasted the fire, what year and day? Is it next to a pristine volcano, or is it by an occasional wildfire?
At first, it must have been trembling and constantly trying, until I finally mastered the measure of distance.
Soon, Paleolithic people began to use natural fire, learned to live in caves, learned to grill cooked food, learned to use fire to illuminate, resist the cold, and expel jackals and leopards.
About 400,000 years ago, human beings began to master drilling wood for fire and knocking stones for fire, and since then they have opened the bud of slash-and-burn civilization.
At that time, human beings who had just evolved from the era of Ru Mao's blood drinking gathered around the roaring campfire in the middle of the night, just like warming their bodies, stomachs, and hearts.
Although in my memory, the winter fire is only a few decades old. But in the memory of mankind, it has been interpreted for a million years.
In a sense, I should still have that memory in my genes, but I don't realize it.
I sometimes think that everything in life should come from fire. The light and warmth of the earth come from the fiercely burning flames inside the sun. Because of the sun, this planet has the light of Pudu sentient beings, and only then has the hot energy of life.
And the love of roasting fire, in the dark, has become the refuge of human beings, the so-called "warm heart", is not the exclusive of today's people.
Turning over the poems in the long river of history, there are also many warm sentences of roasting fires on winter nights, and after thousands of years, they still carry the temperature of fire.
Bai Juyi's "Drunken Incense Pillow Sitting, Lazy Warm Stove Sleep", Ai Zhifu's "Spring Is a Furnace of Red Maple, The Late Man Sits Two Green Futons", Shu Yuexiang's "Soft Stove Spark, New Fragrant Ice Cream", Wang Yuan's "Fire Warm Stove Warms the Four Mountains, Qianxi Wind and Snow Back Window Lights", Wang Dao's "Burning Fire To Drive Away the Cold, Holding the Cup to Warm Back", Qian Xuan's "Sitting Alone in the Stove Simmering Wine, Listening to the Sound of The Window", etc., reading it, the body and mind seem to have a warm current, wandering by.
There is also the Southern Song Dynasty's Lu You, without mentioning his poems, just read the title of the poem, "The Five Nights of November Wind and Snow Are Cold and Even Burning Salary Heating Drama five words", "Night Cold and Guest Burning Dry Wood Heating Drama", it is "enough to comfort the winter cold".
Today, such a winter roasting fire past, with the pervasiveness of the scientific and technological era, has gradually become rare and almost extinct.
Only the indigenous tribes on the journey, or the nostalgic farms in the suburbs, or the left-behind families of their hometowns thousands of miles away, can briefly relive the warm scene of the flames rising and reflecting the red cheeks.
Everyone is only a member of all sentient beings; every era is only a scene in the long river of history. Even if these fires last for a million years, they will eventually be replaced by heating and air conditioning.
However, those warm memories that belong to all mankind, as they are looking back, will surely be remembered many years later.
After all, because of such a fire, human civilization can continue warmly!