Pictured: The new appearance of the Chikan Village Group in Xiaobu Village, Xiaobu Town, Ningdu County, Jiangxi Province. Photo by Lai Yuhua: The former site of the Central Bureau of the CPC Central Committee of the Cpc Central Committee and the former residence of Comrade Mao Zedong of the Chikan Village Group. Photo by Zhong Xiaochun
The Chikan Village group overlooks the panoramic view. Photo by Lai Yuhua
Wuyi Mountain is located in Gannan Province, and between the mountains are small plains, where the Hakka people have lived for generations in ancient villages. The solemn ancestral halls in the village record the history and glory of the village.
In Chikan Village, Ningdu County, Jiangxi Province alone, there were once more than 30 ancestral halls. More than ninety years ago, the Red Army was stationed here, leaving countless propaganda slogans in the ancestral hall.
A few years ago, when I returned to Chikan Village, I saw an ancestral hall with a wall several meters high standing majestically, on which was written a large-character slogan, "Strive for the First Victory of Jiangxi."
This Red Army slogan makes this wall a unique red cultural landscape and a business card of the village.
One
"Strive for the first victory in Jiangxi" and "Welcome the brothers of the White Army to become the Red Army", these Red Army slogans have aroused people's attention because of their important historical position. It is written on the high wall of the gong ancestral hall of the Chikan Village Group of Xiaobu Village, Xiaobu Town, Ningdu County, the birthplace of the Central Bureau of the Cpc Soviet Union.
The slogan is eye-catching. Some people keep it in mind, and some people explore and study it. For example, Xie Fanyun of Ningdu County is one of them, making the study of slogans a science.
Xie Fanyun is a delicate cadre stationed in the village, who loves to write poetry and is also interested in calligraphy. After he saw this slogan, he gradually became attentive, like a word for word to cut the "poetic eye", one stroke at a time. Carefully considering the use of pens, calligraphy structures, styles and other different angles, and then from the history of the Central Soviet Region and local history, he finally judged that the writing time of these dozen slogans was 1931, and the author should be Shu Tong, who later became the chairman of the Chinese Calligraphers Association. To this end, he found two strong bases.
Shu Tong, a native of Dongxiang, Jiangxi, joined the Red Army and entered the Central Soviet Region at the end of 1930 as the secretary of the Political Department of the Fourth Red Army, living in the area of Xiaobu Town, Ningdu. His job included the task of writing slogans, and he was good at calligraphy, so he wrote a large number of propaganda slogans. And those slogans are very "Shu Body" unique style - standing "seven and a half minutes" font. This "seven and a half points" can be said to be the essence of the Shu characters, that is, the five bodies of the knot body are taken one point each, the five bodies of the knot body are taken one point, the style of the Yan body and the willow body are taken one point each, and then half of the style of the late Qing Dynasty calligrapher He Shaoji is taken, collectively known as "seven and a half points".
As professionals, Zeng Chenying and Wang Hong, staff of the Ningdu County Museum, believe that it is their responsibility to find more and more powerful evidence. They filmed these slogans and went to Beijing to find Shu Tong's son, Shu An, for verification.
For Shu'an, who inherits his father's inheritance, this is a surprise that falls from the sky. In the face of the photos, he immediately confirmed that these Su District slogans were the early handwriting of his father Shu Tong. In August 2014, Shu An, who was very excited, made a special trip to Chikan Village, Xiaobu Town, Ningdu County, to find his father's combat footprints. He carefully tasted the dozens of Soviet slogans preserved on the walls of several old revolutionary sites in Chikan Village, and confirmed that nearly ten of them were his father's handwriting.
In Chikan Village, Xiaobu Town, when Shu An saw a clear red banner on the lintel, "Preferential treatment of White Army prisoners", his eyes lit up: "This slogan is very Shu Tong calligraphy style, with round and strong pen lines, wide knots, a beautiful style of calligraphy, and the characteristics of the penmanship are consistent with Shu Tong's calligraphy style." ”
Walls are connected to walls, and slogans are connected to slogans.
Just one room away, in the former site of the General Political Department of the Central Revolutionary Military Committee of the Chinese Soviet, several large-character slogans painted on the wall with white lime water can still be distinguished after more than ninety years of wind erosion, such as "when the Red Army" and "divide the fields".
Shu An looked up and said, "Because of the poor conditions of the Red Army at that time, writing such a large character could only be made from local materials, using brown handles and brooms as brushes, so the details of the pen could not be so fine, but the strokes and structure of these words were consistent with the style of my father's writing." ”
Leaving the former site of the General Political Department of the Central Revolutionary Military Committee of the Chinese Soviet, only a few tens of meters away, the former site of the Central Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in the Soviet Union is a national key cultural relics protection unit. This is a magnificent Gong Ancestral Hall, although it has gone through hundreds of years of history, the ancestral hall still maintains its original appearance.
Stepping into the courtyard of this old site, on the large wall about one and a half high under the eaves of the main hall, the eye-catching large-character slogan "Strive for the first victory of Jiangxi" comes into view first. Shu An blurted out: "This slogan is like the father's handwriting!" The accompanying personnel were then analyzed together with the pen characteristics and structural characteristics of the slogan.
Careful observation, the slogan material is also very distinctive. When the Red Army had little ink, it used local materials and used lime water to make ink; red powder stone was picked up from the river and pounded into powder, and when water was added, it became "red ink"; scraping pot ash from the bottom of the rice cooker and stirring it into "black ink"... "ink" is an unusual ink, and "pen" is also an unusual pen. Because of Shu Tongshan's books, most of his pens are simple brown handles, brooms, and sometimes soft grass. In order to facilitate the military and civilians in the Soviet area to understand the content of the slogan, Shu Tongduo wrote the slogan in block letters, and arranged the slogan according to the length of the wall, the wall was long, the long slogan was written, the wall was short, and the short slogan was written. Inadvertently, there were so many Red Army slogans in Chikan Village with rare ink and unusual colors.
Two
In March 2022, I walked into Chikan Village again. The Qiu Ancestral Hall, which has just been repaired, has several brown-red Red Army slogans that stand out. In front of the house, a monument marked "Zhu De's Former Residence" was erected.
I have interviewed the eighty-year-old villager Xiong Lanting who lives here many times. Many of the old man's fathers participated in the revolution, the second and fourth uncles joined the Red Army and died gloriously, and his father was also a cadre in the Soviet Union. Before his death, his father often told him about commander-in-chief Zhu De and others living in his house. After the Red Army moved, the White Army occupied the place, shouting that they wanted to set fire to the house, and Xiong Lanting's grandmother desperately stopped it, only to keep part of the house and the Red Army slogan intact.
Since then, the Xiong family has gone through three generations and guarded the old house for more than 90 years. In the meantime, countless tourists came to visit.
With the rapid development of the economy, the appearance of Xiaobu Town has undergone tremendous changes. Xiong Lanting's three sons grew up and built new buildings in another place. They repeatedly persuaded Xiong Lanting and his wife, Lin Changxiu, to leave the damp and old house and go to their new house to enjoy their blessings. However, no matter how much persuasion the sons and daughters-in-law, the old couple is still reluctant to move away, and they are afraid that the house will not be repaired after they leave.
"We need to take care of it, and this old house and the slogan need to take care of it." Xiong Lanting and Lin Changxiu said many times. The care of the house is a trivial detail accumulated over time: the wall is broken to be repaired, the roof is leaked to be repaired, the bricks are loose to be built, the spider webs are swept, the floor is swept, the ditch is dredged... People from the village also often come to help. Once, when the two gates of the ancestral hall were about to collapse, the village committee asked someone to help repair it. The Qiu Ancestral Hall is low on the ground, and every year during the rainy season, the rain is poured back, and the water in the house can soak the calves and stomachs. The two old men hurriedly brought basins of water and scooped out the water basin after basin. Day after day, year after year, they have already integrated their lives with the old house.
As the years passed, the old people and the houses and slogans continued to grow old. When I came to interview last year, Mr. Xiong was in a wheelchair because of a stroke, and he was pushed by his wife and pointed to me two broken slogans on the big wall in the sun and rain.
"This slogan will be gone if it is not repaired." Old Bear said sadly. Soon, with the efforts of the village committee, the wall slogans were repaired, and the old man's wish was fulfilled.
This year, the old bear is no longer there, but I saw that the seventy-year-old Lin Changxiu, with his grandson, is still accompanied by the old house and the slogan.
Three
Pacing chikan village, reading slogans, the temperature on the words, the wind and clouds in the words, and the spring and autumn between the words, people are very emotional. Villagers told me that there were no less than a thousand Red Army slogans in the village, of which the Xiong Ancestral Hall was the largest, with more than three hundred.
Speaking of the Xiong Ancestral Hall, we must talk about Xiong Tianxing. Every time I went, I saw him pointing to the wide wall and limping back and forth to explain the Red Army slogan.
"The poor do not beat the poor, the soldiers do not beat the soldiers" "Welcome the brothers of the White Army to fight the local tyrants to divide the land."
Sixty-three-year-old Xiong Tianxing, the seventeenth generation of the Xiong Ancestral Hall, was born in this ancient building, and at the age of four he fell from the upper floor, causing his feet to lame. Grandma and parents have not read books, Xiong Tianxing is from childhood to read slogans to read, listening to slogan stories grew up. Later, the Xiong Clan Ancestral Hall changed hands several times, and Xiong Tianxing never forgot it. For him, there is both red history and family memories.
In 1980, Xiong Tianxing entered the Xiaobu Reclamation Farm to do some work to make soil paper, reclaim tea mountains, and maintain tea gardens. With a stable job, he couldn't wait to discuss with his father to buy the Xiong Ancestral Hall back. After several efforts, it finally succeeded.
Back in the familiar old house, Xiong Tianxing carefully examined the slogans of each room several times to give him the best protection he could. Because the damp wall surface is raised, it is stuck with glue to the bottom so that the lime does not fall; where the sun and rain are dried, paste newspaper to cover it to prevent weathering; discourage tourists from touching it with their hands... He also locked three rooms upstairs to reduce the number of visits. Xiong Tianxing is not stingy, but to try his best to protect those red slogans, so that experts, scholars and more people can study and visit.
Since 2000, Xiong Tianxing has taken the initiative to become a volunteer docent of the red slogan. In order to take care of the disabled, the village included him in the low-income household, and arranged a public welfare post for the cleaner in the village.
Since then, Xiong Tianxing has constantly changed between the two roles of cleaner and docent every day. He is a cleaner when there are no tourists; whenever tourists come, he is a docent. Later, there were more and more tourists, and the wife of the old bear made a cameo as a volunteer cleaner. The couple discussed well, not only to do a good job in slogan publicity but also to do a good job in cleaning work, publicity and cleaning are not wrong. At the beginning of 2016, with the construction of the old revolutionary site becoming more and more perfect, Xiong Tianxing's explanation workload doubled. He quit his job as a cleaner and became a full-time docent.
"Why do I have so many slogans in my house?" Because the General Traffic Corps of the Red Army was stationed here, the more traffic officers came and went, and more slogans were written. One person writes one, a hundred is a hundred..."
On that occasion, Xiong Tianxing had just finished his introduction, and a tourist told him: "A slogan is worth an army." ”
"Ah, there is such a thing?"
"Yes, this is what was said in the propaganda and mobilization order of the Committee of Former Enemies of the Red Army in 1930. Slogans are the propaganda tool of the Red Army to spread revolutionary ideals, and the power is great!"
The weight of the slogan in Xiong Tianxing's heart is even heavier: a slogan is worth an army, so how many slogans does my family have?
Xiong Tianxing stared at the densely packed house of slogans and began his statistical work. Some of the slogans are small, sticking to the roots of the wall, and some have slogans sandwiched in them. In order to get a conclusive number, he moved stools and climbed stairs, and he counted every brick and board of wood upstairs and downstairs many times—more than three hundred and ten slogans, a number that exceeded his original estimate.
A slogan is worth an army, and the slogan of a house full of slogans is a thousand armies and horses.
This is exactly what the three generations of the Xiong clan have done, guarding these extraordinary slogans and letting the red ink pass on forever.
More than 90 years have passed, the village embraces this precious reserve, standing simple and silent, silently showing the world the magnificent years of the village.
Draft: Zhao Kairu
People's Daily ( 2022-04-04 08 edition)