Text: Hou Guizhen (Narcissus in the pond)
Figure 23: Vulgar photography
The town of my hometown is not only the birthplace of the ancient Dawenkou culture, but also the important place of commerce and trade since ancient times.
In order to promote trade exchanges and eventually lead to the vigorous development of agriculture, every spring, the crops are sown, that is, after sowing the hope of a year, people begin to idle for a while. Therefore, the "Spring Mule and Horse Material Exchange Conference" marked by the local government came into being. The traditional days of "one, three, six, and eight" in the lunar calendar every month have become the days of "catching up with the market every day" within a period of time.
Another kind of material exchange conference is to wait until after the autumn harvest.
And such a "material exchange conference", whether in spring or autumn, before it was officially held, must have done enough advertising, and even neighboring counties and neighboring provinces knew that individuals or cultural groups kept coming, which was a miracle in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the information dissemination speed was not fast.
The general environment is publicizing, and the respective families in the town are also responding positively, making preparations before the "meeting": the conditions are better, use their own land to row cars to invite the old relatives in the villages around the town, most of them are elders, like grandmothers, uncles and aunts, aunts and cousins, in a word: "There will be an exchange meeting, go to my house to live and listen to the play!" ”
Those who are invited to feel respected; inviting people shows that they have this ability: eating, living and accompanying time, which is indispensable. So they rejoiced. When there is a play, go to listen to the play; when you don't listen to the play, you are at home, drink a few glasses of wine at dinner, drink a few cups of tea after the meal, talk about the meaning of the play sung before, and tell the old story, talk about the parents in the short, it increases the affection between each other, and there is a special way of filial piety between the juniors and the elders. The days passed softly in such contentment.
In the spring, the mule and horse festival is mostly bought and sold in exchange for mules and horses. At that time, farming was all artificial, and it was common to buy a cow or a donkey and help pull carts and plow the land. In the autumn, the main agricultural work of the year is completed, and the performance of the livestock during the year is the only criterion for whether it will go or stay. And in a long winter, idle livestock just eating grass is a big thing, keeping it is only a kind of consumption, it will be disposed of in time, and it will temporarily unload a major event that is pressed on the hearts of farmers.
Although at that time, when the town rushed to the market, the grass market was very large - mostly hay, but it was all for money. There are also half-dried and half-wet autumn grasses, and industrious women and children go to the ditch in the wilderness, work hard for most of the day, carry them to the grass market at the market and venue, and have a happy pocket money in their hands. More or less, it all depends on the degree of effort.
Since it is marked as a "mule and horse material exchange conference", it is inseparable from mules, horses, cattle, donkeys and other large livestock, pigs and sheep, and also inseparable from the "knitting broom and field shovel, melon fruit pear peach, clothing, shoes and hats" and other daily necessities. This is a great event in the life of people in the town and around the town.
In the choice of seasons, there is basically no choice in winter and summer. Hot times and cold times are not suitable for rushing to the "exchange meeting". Although the common people are in the agricultural leisure area and have time, it is probably difficult to be able to sit safely and steadily on the field of storytelling and singing, and to listen to books and watch singing and opera quietly. There are mosquitoes in summer and cold in winter, which are all reasons to sit still.
"Material stage, cultural singing" is a must for the exchange conference, and it is almost one of the main themes to increase popularity. Opera is mostly local drama, like Xuzhou's "Ding Ding Cavity", a moon qin, there is a bowl beating tone, crisp and pleasant; Shandong's Liuqin opera, also known as the soul cavity, a willow leaf piano accompaniment, a long tone, miserable and mournful, even if it is a lively and positive play, it can not get rid of some of the bottom of the grievances, almost let people's souls fly away.
This kind of local small drama, just like the northeast two-person turn, is mainly based on two husband and wife. The personnel is simple, mostly literary drama, rap and singing, or joy or anger, or resentment or anger, and do not need much venue, it leads people's eyes and thoughts. Often, houses on the street are temporarily rented, and a brown leather curtain hangs from the door.
Singing outside the door is not the main play, or just a small part of the main play, which only plays an advertising role. If you want to listen carefully, or if you want to listen to a play completely, you have to spend fifty cents to go to the door, lift the curtain, hand over the money, enter the house, sit there and stop and listen to it, that is a real enjoyment in the strict sense.
But many croppers know that money is not easy to come by, and if it can be spent, it will not be spent. Not to mention that in order to achieve the ultimate goal of stimulating the economy and promoting prosperity, the organizers have spent money to invite people not to pay for it! That is mostly Henan Yu opera, or Henan Zizi, there are also shandong Zizi troupe, the old feel and Henan Yu opera tone is difficult to distinguish. Lu Opera Troupe, sometimes invited, like "Little Sister Xian" is the famous drama at that time, lively, agile, kind, everyone is happy, suitable for the appetite of the people.
The duration of an exchange meeting, at least one week, is almost half a month if it is long, no more, no less time, ten days. The time is shorter, most of them do not invite well-known drama teams to lay the groundwork and render, and it is difficult to be popular, so the planned ten days are shortened to one week.
Of course, there are exceptions, such as sudden changes in the external weather, and no one in the venue has to patronize and have to be interrupted. For a longer period of time, it often shows that all parties have the conditions and are very successful, so the ten-day plan is extended to half a month. This was extended for a few days, and it was also a summary and continuation of the previous unsuccessful experience.
And the next extension of half a month to twenty days has shown that the strength of material exchanges has not diminished, at most, there is even a month, every day people come and go, endless, people walk in artificial prosperity, such as poetry, picturesque, and dream.
So in this half month to twenty days, or even a month's time period, after the meal, the neighbors on the left and right each took a small bench, or a horse, and those with inconvenient legs and feet also had to take a cane.
The younger ones went to the appointment first, stood down at the door of the neighbor, and shouted loudly: "Big Grandma", "Second Aunt", "Three Big Niang", or "Four Great Masters", "Let's go?" Hurry up and listen to the drama! So three, three, two, or side by side, or back and forth, wave after wave, followed by each other, with a contented smile and full of expectations, and said that they arrived at the venue.
Home is only three or four miles away from the venue, from the northeast corner of the town to the southwest corner of the town, everyone goes like this, you can occupy the best position slightly in the front and in the middle. Seeing that the time was still early, the women continued to relax and scatter their minds, and the men began to smoke bags of dry cigarettes to calm their minds, and soon the guys sounded "Ding Ding" sounded, and it was going to ring for a long time, and it was to beckon the people who listened to the play to be ready to listen.
I saw that the stage began to sing "Mu Guiying Hangs the Marshal", holding up a flag with a big "Mu" character written in the middle, or "Silang Visiting Mother", or "Yang Family General", anyway, almost all related to the Yang family.
In fact, not only at night, but also in the daytime, there are people who come to listen to the play. It is just that at night there are more people in the town, most of them are sitting; during the day, there are more people in the three miles and five villages and ten miles and eight townships around the town, sitting in the middle and standing on both sides. Tall, how to say it is all stained.
At night, don't worry about not seeing the stage with a low stool, everyone is half a pound, they are sitting there and spreading out, they are very conscious, and they are not loud.
Only children on the edge of the stage, running back and forth to play with them, or running to the sides of the stage, can see the actors before going on stage and the ease of the moment after leaving the stage. Occasionally there are martial arts movements on the stage, And Mu Guiying has many small flags hanging behind him, which will attract the attention of children; as soon as Old Lady She appears, she is on dragon head crutches, and there are people next to her, shaking three times in one step.
The children are all eye-catching a few martial arts moves, waiting for the "ding-ding" fierce fight past, they do not forget to continue to play their own, and when their adults have finished listening to the play, people will also go home because they are sleepy.
Peking opera, as a national opera, is generally unpopular, and in a town that still belongs to the countryside, where is the leisure, solemnity and pride of the actors when sitting in the courtyard of the city opera like a decent? It is worthy of its name.
And the average person does not read the reminder of the words, and they can't understand what is sung in the play, but only feel that they have pulled a long "straw" (tone), and they are not uncomfortable enough not to change their breath, which is particularly anxious. Children do not understand the hardships of life, the uncertainty of the world and the desolation of life, and the charm hidden in the play. Therefore, people who listen to the play often desert their thinking.
One year, the organizers paid for the Peking Opera troupe in our city. Although I was invited, there was a scene I couldn't remember exactly what was being sung, and the stage was singing lively and lively, and most people in the audience were willing to listen to the sad and miserable tone of "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
But there were two people who drank wine at dinner, they were not very old, and the wine was heroic and courageous--you hero, I am a good man, very angry, and the two people somehow quarreled, and among the people who sat and listened to the play in a well-behaved manner, they were particularly conspicuous, and the more they quarreled, the more fierce, no one let anyone. Later, one stood up, the other did not show weakness, and after both stood up, both sides actually moved their hands, and they saw that they were about to pick up the stool.
This naturally affects the people around them to listen to the play.
The people on the stage naturally looked in their eyes, and one actor jumped off the stage at once, but gently landed on the ground, without a trace of movement, in public, walked towards the two people who were fighting in the middle of the field, did not say a word, and grabbed the back of one person with one hand - and those two people looked more robust and burly than he was, and he also had a figure of one meter and sixty-five, but lifted them up facing the sky.
The two men were still struggling and unconvinced at first, saying that they were going to throw them out, they became honest, and it is estimated that they finally woke up!
This is actually an extremely humiliating thing in our civilized ancient town, which has attached importance to etiquette since ancient times, and it has also provoked the anger of the public...
The actor who jumped off the stage didn't look like the protagonist at the time. He wears a hat in the shape of a yuanbao— also like a small boat, and the back half of the hat has a wide strip of cloth exposed, which flutters naturally with the wind of walking. The clothes on the body are different, white background, blue ripple decoration - like fish scales, wide rims at the cuffs, tightly hooped around the neck, looking capable and powerful, is a real martial art.
Since then, the Peking Opera Troupe in our city, at that time, has not seen many people in the city, and has become a long-term talk: that actor is really powerful, and he can lift a person with one hand!? Acting - especially singing Peking Opera, that is a real kung fu, not just a flower rack...
In the storytelling field, the most famous are the two old brothers surnamed Song from the city. My brother was blind, in his fifties, of medium stature, not fat or thin, and he was mainly rapping—that is, talking for a while, singing for a while. With an erhu in his hand and a small shelf in front of him, a small rosewood was tied to his left leg, and the rosewood was already glowing with light.
The mechanism is under the feet, and with a strong step down, the sandalwood tied to the calf knocks on something on the shelf in front of you, making a crunching sound of "梆". That's all the accompaniment instruments.
At that time, I didn't know what they were singing, what they were talking about, but I just felt sad and sad, but I saw that they sang with great taste, taste, and joy, so devoted. Later, I realized that they were singing other people's stories, but they were telling their own lives.
The younger brother was in his forties, a little broader than his older brother, and his main thing was to take care of his brother, and he was the eyes of his brother.
That time I understood, it was said that the "Biography of Yue Fei", the loyal minister Yue Fei was "loyal to the country", but he was killed by the traitor Qin Juniper. I knew that I was sad and indignant at a young age. At that time, my father often took me with me to listen. When he was working in the city, in his spare time, he often went to the square to listen to the old Song brothers talking. Since childhood, my father, who liked to hear books and sing operas, rarely returned to the town from the city to celebrate with his family and the whole town, which was only twice this year.
As a warm-hearted and chivalrous person, as well as a person in his hometown town, my father would do his best to do the friendship of the landlord, and give the two old Song brothers a thermos, and also take the tea leaves and teapots. In the old Song they rap to dry mouth, give them a pot of tea.
Then, when they were idle, they would exchange the songs he had heard in the storytelling field of the market as a child, such as "Great Five Righteousness", "Little Five Righteousness", "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness", and "Seven Heroes Column". Speaking of happiness, my father once invited them to the house for a meal.
In addition, there are circuses from nowhere, there are big lions, monkeys, crocodiles, and also perform equestrianism, mostly on display.
There was also a middle-aged man, lean, dark-skinned, in a corner of the venue, casually set up a venue, painted the ground as a prison, and broke the arm of a black loach-like male child of seven or eight years old, or about ten years old, and the pain was so that his eyes were full of tears, he wanted to cry but did not dare to cry, only to endure, and when a slightly older girl next to him who was also loach-like had finished receiving the money with a heavy heart, he would put his arm back on the boy.
In order to shorten this process, kind bystanders often rush to pay first. When someone made a sympathetic voice, he further whispered with the psychology of exploration: "This child must not be his own child." If it is your own child, how can you give it up? I don't know where it was stolen! ”
More kind and righteous people denounced this anti-humane practice for money, reported it to the organizers, and drove them away.
All the people who sang and talked about books in all the venues, and even juggling, were the times when there were very few televisions and movies—or only on time, and the people, especially half of the female audience, who did not have much literacy, and the meeting twice a year became a concrete embodiment and concentrated display of all cultural life, or the most abundant spiritual feast of the people in a year.
As for the clay people on the spot, the syrup blows out big roosters and small monkeys, carp, butterflies and other small animals, making rattles, selling sugar melons, pinching mud whistles, and making mud tigers - with various colors written in front of the forehead, the word "king" is written on the forehead, and the body is the pattern between the black road and the zodiac.
The tiger's body is divided into the front half and the back half, and the middle part is connected by thick kraft paper, which can hold the front half in one hand and only the back half in the other, and then straighten the body first, and then punch in the middle, and immediately make a festive sound that wants to laugh. Even with the fight, the festive sound is also connected to the slip, can't tell whether it is similar to the puppy's "Wang, Wang" sound? It is still close to the "whine, whine" sound emitted by the tiger, and it is not too much to imagine.
As long as the tiger toy makes a crisp and refreshing sound, the children are all happy.
In short, a variety of folk traditional crafts can not attract the interest of middle-aged and elderly people who listen to the play. But it attracted more big girls and boys of about twenty years old, three or three pairs of companions, a circle of tirelessly around the entire town's assembly hall back and forth, want to eat to buy, want to see enough, full of novelty in the eyes ...