Xiyan Media Huining No. 1 No. 90, 2022
· Mother's funeral ·
Author: Wang Zhi
On the fifteenth day of the first month, when the snowflakes are lighting, you are experiencing half a life of poverty, overwork, illness and pain, and looking forward to your family, with your reluctance to your children, quietly leaving.
When I arrived at my home, the folks were about to fence down your spiritual hall. They said that this year is the year of the back, and you are highly respected, so they surrounded you with flower spirits. This is our hometown's highest praise for you. You are lying on your head and feet, and I opened the mask paper to see that you are sleeping peacefully. Your daughter has renewed your head incense, and your son has lit a long lamp for you. Of course, they have not forgotten the upside-down meal dedicated to you. In the spiritual hall, there are the relics of me carefully taken for you, and just like before you died, you still look so kind in the photo. Looking at it, I seem to think that you have also seen that I have just returned from the provincial capital to see you. However, I still feel particularly guilty and sad that I was not able to stay by your side on your deathbed, even though I stayed with you for a few days during the Spring Festival. I cried out in sadness, tears blurring my eyes. My second sister, brother and sister, also cried like me. The simple and generous villagers also accompanied us to mourn a few children, guarding your soul for a whole night without sleep.
The next afternoon, the sky was silently drifting with snowflakes. The snow that fell on the morning sun soon turned into rain, and the relatives and friends who heard the news that had come to mourn for you earlier said that this was the heavens shedding tears for you! My brother and I accompanied Mr. Luo to survey the cemetery for you, and he immediately fell in touch with the place. He couldn't help but say: The main mountain is beautiful, the mountains and rivers are surrounded by water, the elevation is far away, and the bright hall is bright. What a feng shui treasure. This is also the place where my brother and I have visited you many times - Dongpo Wa Yi Shan Xin Xiang and Xin Ji Xin You. According to the custom, this place is not empty years ago, and the first month and your genus coincide with auspicious occasions. This is a good location. At eight o'clock in the evening, the snowflakes were larger than one, and the slopes behind the houses in front of the house were soon covered with thick snow on the beams of our house, inside the courtyard and outside the gate beach. We swept over and over again, falling more quickly than we swept, and we couldn't sweep the snow in and out. Neighbors say, God doesn't want you to go!
On the day of the memorial, the blue sky that you once had above your head looked a little gloomy, and the land you once worked and lived in was even more vast. The villagers in the north and south mountains helped us set up tents and set up dining facilities early. The neighbors living in the city were worried about the slippery road, did not dare to take a car, and had to rely on two feet to step on the snow for more than twenty miles of mountain road in time. Relatives and friends from distant villages, even those who are over the age of flower armor, rushed to the snow drifting, traveled more than 100 kilometers, and also came to our unknown village to give you a ride. In accordance with your teachings, we discussed with the housekeeper to replace the carp with a locked fish, so that the villagers would not be stuck by the fish bones when eating. The chefs have been working all night, busy washing, cutting, and steaming, afraid that the meals they make are not delicious enough and snubble the guests.
The ladies and lords held up the "Tokuzawa Akira" banner, and when they arrived sadly, we had already welcomed you with three people and one horse and a blossom flower flag. Accompanied by deer cranes, the joint is low hanging. The solemnity of your spiritual hall and the mournful bells and drums cause infinite sorrow to those who come.
The family sacrifice begins with the compassionate "Song of Hanging Filial Piety". The mourning was everywhere, making people feel sad, and all the guests were moved by your sorrow. Your children and grandchildren, nephews and nephews have all taken on filial piety for you, kneeling for half a courtyard and crying. Your great-grandson, who had just passed the first birthday, was replaced by your grandfather with a pillar of incense, burned a piece of paper, laid a bottle of wine and toasted a cup of tea. Folks say that your old man is really powerful. The Qin-style bitter music song "Ghost Grievance" resounds throughout the valley to the high-pitched sound of banhu playing, stirring up your children's deep sorrow and deep memories of you. Entrusted by filial piety, I recited the "Mother Sacrifice Text" carefully polished for you, and counted your virtue, ability, filial piety, virtuousness, diligence, and the pain and hardship you have endured in this life. But I still feel that my heart has a thousand words, which cannot be expressed by writing; the pain of thinking about my mother is not knowledgeable and can be fully described.
After the end of the ceremony, we refer to the ceremony that once held the eightieth birthday for you, and the filial pieties took photos with their families and mothers and visitors. With the eastern slope as the background, our feet stepping on the place where you once sweated, and under the reflection of the snow, my heart was filled with infinite sorrow. However, you can no longer be seen in the photo to accompany your father, in the center. Another thing that is deplorable is that the puppy that accompanies you to the last days can be invited to take a group photo. When you're gone, he doesn't think about eating, he's sullen, he's listless, he just can't put his sadness into words. At the time I write this, you have been away from us for more than three or seven years, but I still have tears in my eyes.
As night fell, the snowflakes landed slowly again. The musician touched the song with one hand and played a melodious theme song. The song is poignant and delicate, like a gossamer that will not be broken. It will also rekindle our thoughts of you. In the presence of relatives and friends of our neighbors, we held a candlelight memorial party for you that we have never heard of in our neighbors and eight townships. Everyone mourns for you and prays for your blessings. I wish you a painless paradise and a good journey.
It's night, the Lord breaks the spirit. Our sisters, with the help of a few clan brothers, began to bury you. This is the last thing we can do for you before you go out. Clearing the coffin, sprinkling ash, laying braids, cushioning coffin paper, etc., into the funeral, the right body, the right clothes, the children's cover, and the mother's uncle, I am afraid that you will be frozen and cold. We routinely went through all the procedures, fearing that we would do something wrong and be rude until we were mourning.
At the time of the funeral, flying snow surrounded the entire village, wrapped in silver, the earth was like a white veil, and crystal snowflakes covered the courtyard and covered the roof beams. Our hearts became sad again. Some villagers did not even eat half a bowl of funeral food. When your coffin is carried to the gate beach and placed on a wooden bench, the speed at which the snowflakes fall even faster. The roommates said as they cleaned up, this is the day to let you stay a little longer! At this time, we cried thunderously, intertwined with the sad "Road Song" played by The Scream, which was really heartbreaking. On the road to the cemetery, paved with a layer of footless jade snow, coupled with the winding path, walking one foot deep, one foot shallow, one foot left and one foot right, it is very easy to slip. However, the villagers carried your coffin firmly on their shoulders, cautiously, lest they alarm you.
The melody is tighter than the "Burial Song", and the mourning section is also higher than the section. It's disgusting. We turned around the cemetery for a week, and then turned around the tomb again, looking down at the real and even deep. When the coffin was buried, near the rain festival, the heavens were merciful, and the spring snowflakes fell down. The breeze blows like a motherly caress. Look up to the boundless, enjoy the prosperity of the world, only the strength of the small, serve the country. In a few moments, the heavens and the earth are one and the same, and the sorrow is like snow. Mr. Concierge said, this is our whole village to give you filial piety. The younger brother personally stamps the inscription for you, the uncle cultivates the soil for you first, and the villagers seal the soil for you.
Heaven and earth take care of each other, and mothers bless them. Once in a hundred years, it is three wonders. The year, month, and day are the same as the heavens and the earth, and the auspicious days and auspicious days of the auspicious year are mutually born. National Fortune Hengchang, Zhaomin Fuxiang. My grandchildren, by chance, met Tianrui and bowed to the heavens.
The second sister cleaned up your clothes and placed them neatly on the pit head of the East Wing. Inside and out, up and down, single cotton, long and short, woven sewn, hand-customized or purchased from the mall, from head to toe, light or dark, large or small, up to dozens of pieces. It has not been stained, and the new trademark has not been revealed. Even more than thirty years ago, when we were living in a foreign country, the new suit tailored for you was like a first sight. Remembering Ci Yan's heart was sad five times, and the relics were sprinkled with tears in two lines. Even if my sister-in-law soothes me, I still can't stop the tears from gushing. According to the agreement, the crutches that accompany you through your old age have been treasured by your uncle; the shoehorns that you used during your lifetime have been preserved by me. I know that life is inseparable from promotion.
In the bright moonlight, a group of six of us went to serve you three. Snow reflects the grave, and the wreaths that the villagers cover on it, like a quilt tightly wrapped around you, to protect you from the cold. The two aunts gently cultivated the soil for your new home, and did not dare to make any noise.
Today is the Qingming Festival, and it is also your seven pieces of paper. You are bitter, you are carrying me animals, you have bred me, you have taken care of me and I am in and out of my belly. Thinking of this painfully, remembering the loving mother, the child has not fulfilled filial piety, and the navel is out of reach.
The epidemic control has been upgraded, and the on-site sacrifice has suffered inconvenience. Therefore, I would like to use this article to express my condolences.
The Mother rests, and your children prostrate to you.
Qingming Festival in 2022
About the Author
Wang Zhilu is a professor of internal medicine and chief physician of the Department of Cardiology at the First Hospital of Lanzhou University. In addition to practicing medicine, he occasionally writes short articles in the humanities. His representative works include "Reading is a Lifelong Thing" (published by Gansu Daily, reprinted by Guangming Network Literary and Art Review), and "Dingxi Second People's Hospital Endowment" (published on the WeChat platform and permanently collected by the hospital). Last year, the literary version of "Qingming Sentiments" published on this WeChat platform was selected by calligraphy creators.