Duty Big TalkEr: Autumn Deep Moon Shadow
Figure 1: "Li Shizhen Deep Mountain Medicine Collection Map"
On the occasion of the Spring Festival, I read the famous female writer Chi Zijian's new work "Memories of New Year Goods", sharing her joy of buying New Year goods in Daxinganling Mountain Forest Town thirty or forty years ago, and the long-lost New Year flavor came to her face. She and the neighbor girl braved the cold of thirty or forty degrees Celsius to go into the city to buy New Year paintings, which evoked the memories of my childhood when I bought New Year paintings and pasted New Year paintings.
Figure 2: "Straw Boat Borrowing Arrows"
New Year painting is a kind of Chinese painting, which is posted in the New Year (Spring Festival), so it is called New Year painting. The Song Dynasty has been documented. Traditional New Year paintings, mostly woodcut watermarks, simple lines, vivid colors, lively pictures; the themes are mostly grains, spring cattle, babies, landscapes, flowers and birds. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, it was most popular in Places such as Yangliuqing in Tianjin, Weixian County in Shandong, and Taohuawu in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. After the founding of New China, the New Year paintings were innovative and colorful on the basis of tradition, and were loved by the broad masses of the people. Forty or fifty years ago, I couldn't see TV programs in the New Year, and I felt really New Year's by pasting a few bright New Year paintings on the New Year. Buying a New Year painting can be compared with setting off firecrackers, pasting spring leagues, and eating dumplings, which is not an exaggeration at all.
Figure 3: "Three Dozen White Bone Essences"
Figure 4: Dream of the Red Chamber
My family buys New Year paintings, generally around the twenty-third hour of the Waxing Moon, and I am reluctant to paste them when I buy them early. At that time, my father, who worked in the railway, was busy working all day, and my mother, who was busy at home, had almost no time to buy New Year goods, and since I was in the fifth grade of primary school, I was responsible for buying New Year paintings at home for the New Year. Every time before going out, my mother would always instruct me to buy koi and fat dolls, which meant that the family was prosperous and the life was rich; to buy flowers and grass, it seemed that there was a book aroma in the house; I also wanted to buy students who loved the motherland and studied hard, and my mother hoped that our children would become dragons and hope that we would grow up to become talents. My mother usually lived frugally and hated not being able to break a penny into two petals of flowers, but it was very generous to buy a New Year painting every year. After that, I partnered with my neighbors and ran happily to the Xinhua Bookstore in Nangang, despite the cold road.
Figure 5: "The Five Heroes of Wolf's Tooth Mountain"
Figure 6: The Story of Sima Guang
Harbin Nangang Xinhua Bookstore, as soon as the New Year is crowded, the New Year painting counter is surrounded by water, more than 100 colorful New Year paintings are hung above the hall, the theme is rich and diverse, dazzling, customers can choose according to the number on the painting. There are four classical Chinese stories "Grass Boat Borrowing Arrows" and "Three Dozen Zhujiazhuang"; there is a revolutionary story "Five Heroes of Wolf Tooth Mountain"; there is a historical figure story "Li Shizhen Deep Mountain Medicine Collection Map", a mythical story "Chang'e Running Moon"; there is a historical story "The Story of Sima Guang", and there is a new fashion story "Particle Return to the Warehouse" and so on. My friends and I were in the Hall of New Year Paintings, tasting the stories on the paintings, wandering in the temple of knowledge, looking forward to a better tomorrow, and not wanting to leave for a long time.
Figure 7: "Mother-in-law's Thorn Letter"
Figure 8: Chang'e Running Moon
I remember one year, I also found two new year paintings on railway themes in the bookstore, one painting called "Three Teenagers Heroic and Witty Rescue Train", which painted the faces of three teenagers holding flowers like apples; the other painting was called "Heroes and Three Teenagers", three teenagers wielding red scarves, not afraid of the flood under their feet, running to the oncoming train. I felt very kind to these two New Year paintings and did not hesitate to buy them at home. After decades, the two pictures have been engraved in my mind.
Figure 9: "Every Year there is more than enough"
Figure 10: "Sister-in-law's Choice of Pens"
On the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month, dust sweeps the house soil. After my family swept the house, my mother began to put on new year paintings. The New Year paintings I carefully bought back, my parents were very satisfied. Especially when I bought back the "Three Teenagers Heroic And Witty Rescue Train" and "Hero Three Teenagers" New Year paintings, my father saw it after work and praised me for buying well. My father told us that the two New Year paintings were based on the same true story, depicting the story of three "red scarves" from Xisha Primary School in Erdaohezi Commune, Hailin County, Heilongjiang Province, who bravely rescued the forest passenger train. Father told us to learn from the three teenagers in the painting. I ascended and pasted the New Year paintings that emitted the fragrance of ink on the wall, and the house immediately lit up, full of splendor! On the first day of the Chinese New Year, when relatives and friends came to my house to pay respects to the New Year, they praised the New Year paintings on the wall. At that time, there was a shortage of food, and chicken, fish, meat and eggs were served by ticket during the New Year, and only the New Year painting brought joy and spiritual satisfaction!
Figure 11: "Three Young Men Heroic and Witty To Save the Train"
Figure 12: "Three Heroes"
The years have changed, and the New Year paintings have gradually drifted away. With the improvement of people's housing conditions, The New Year paintings have gradually been replaced by wall calendars, and movie stars and handsome men and women have become the protagonists. Later, the wall calendar gradually faded. Teacher Chi Zijian sighed in the text: "As for the New Year painting pasted on the wall, it has become yesterday's landscape, and it is difficult to find its brilliant face." "I miss the strong Taste of the New Year when I bought and pasted the New Year paintings when I was a child, the mother's instructions and dings when I went out to buy the New Year paintings, the laughter of my younger siblings when I pasted the New Year paintings, and the happy time when my family ate Chinese New Year's Eve meals around the table!"
(The pictures of the New Year paintings are from the Internet)
Spring Festival 2022