(Original prose)
Author: Lu Dinglian
In everyone's heart, there is a softest place that cannot be easily touched, and when it is touched, it is difficult to calm down. Although, every day, looking at the babbling bahe river, it is almost guarded at the doorstep of the hometown. However, when it comes to hometown, there are still too many words.
In the 1950s, I was born in a village called Liaoyuan on the banks of the Bahe River. According to the old people, this village was first called a half-cut ditch, which seems to originate from the short and steep ditch in the middle of the village. Until a few years before liberation, it was famous for its filial piety. As far as the origin of Xiaoyigou is concerned, I still know a little bit about it. When I was in elementary school, there was a single-family family outside the school wall, and the owner's surname was Li Ming siming. He built a few thatched huts in a deserted garden of two or three acres, and the whole family of nine lived in it. What terrified us, the elementary school students, was that there was a large tomb in his yard, planted with tall pines and cypresses, with a dense canopy, which always gave people a gloomy feeling. Every day when we passed by his door to school, we all trotted by with our breath held. My father, who was similar to him, told me that every day when the sky was bright, your uncle Siming (called according to rural customs) wore a black coat, went to the cliff beam called the half-cut ditch in the village, picked up a load of good loess, went home and lit a pillar of incense, and then knocked a ring of gongs along the grave, and then sprinkled the soil on the grave of your father's mother, even if it was to pay tribute to the undead of your parents. When he said this, his father's face was calm, and he could not see his praise or disparagement. From my father's story, I knew the origin of the name of Xiaoyigou Village. Later, when I graduated from high school and returned to my hometown to work as a farmer, I once teamed up with Uncle Siming, and followed him to the oxen plough and whip, while sowing wheat seeds and collecting red amaranth, while listening to him say books and preach the scriptures, I even gained a lot of insight. Later, Xiaoyigou was broken as the four olds, and became a liaoyuan village with the times. The graves and wastelands that once terrified us were rightfully killed by the Red Guards.
Speaking of which, our Liaoyuan Village is really a treasure of feng shui. It lies prone on a dustpan-shaped cross-section, backed by a thick and majestic white python, with dustpan-like beams about 100 meters high in each side. Two hundred meters in front of it, there is a national highway that runs through Lantian and Xi'an, and half a mile to the south is the Bahe River, which flows for many years. Looking up to the other side of the river is Balingyuan, where the Han Dynasty benevolent and fraternal statesman Empress Bo and her children and grandchildren are buried. The Naha Lingyuan was later known as the White Deer Plain. The name of the White Deer Plain is extremely mysterious and symbolic. It is said that a few years ago, on a sunny morning, a white deer, symbolizing holiness and lightness, jumped from the bahe river to Balingyuan. Since then, everything has been abundant here, people are thriving, and grass is long and warblers dance. The fame of Bailuyuan has a close relationship with Mr. Chen Zhongzhong. No matter where we stand in our village, we can see the slightly steep original slope of The White Deer Plain, and some vague unknown trees that are not luxuriant on the edge.
When I was young, my favorite thing to do was mow the grass. Because I can earn work, although I cut a large cage of more than 40 pounds of grass, and then carry it from the Bahe River to the cliff feeding room called the half-cut ditch, there are more than two miles of uphill road, but I can earn five divisions of labor. At that time, ten labor days were counted as one working day, and one working day of our production team was worth three and six cents, and I could earn almost two cents for my family. Besides, at that time, grain, oil, firewood, and cotton were all distributed according to the working day, and the two brothers were not at home, and my family earned less on the working day, and everything was divided less. I worked desperately to cut the grass to earn a job.
Located on the south bank of the Bahe River, Maoxi Village under the White Deer Plain, across a river from our village. There are lush water and grass, and the rice fields are lush green. During the summer holidays of the early seventies, I used to wade across the river with my friends and carry the big old cage to mow grass by the rice paddies. I remember one day in the sky in the direction of The Blue Field, dark clouds rolled over. Parents who were hoeing the ground on the north bank of the Bahe River ripped open their voices and shouted: "It's going to rain white, the Bahe River is rising, come back!" The children! Where can we, who are intoxicated in the rich green grass, hear the call of the adults? The people working in the fields of Maoxi Village heard the call on the north bank of the river and promptly reminded us to return quickly. As soon as we heard that we nervously picked up the big old cage, we retreated and ran. Watching the river become muddy, the water level little by little did not pass the thighs and waist, the eyes widened, even the face was frightened white, some simply threw the grass cage sickle, dialed the surging yellow muddy water, and kicked and ran towards the shore. Some of them threw their tears into the arms of their parents who greeted them in the lower river... That thrilling scene, still thinking about it, still has palpitations.
Today, the past events that happened when I was young have long disappeared in the long river of time with the water of the baba river that runs all year round. But the unique feeling that once remained in the soul, like an ink painting, was imprinted in the depths of memory.
【About the author】Lu Dinglian, a native of Baqiao District, Xi'an City. Retired teacher of Qinghua Middle School, famous teacher of composition tutoring, member of Shaanxi Writers Association, columnist of Xi'an Evening News and Huashang Daily, he has been opening a college entrance examination essay counseling column in Xi'an Evening News for 12 years. At the invitation of China Business Daily, he has presided over the student composition edition and conducted composition lectures. Participated in the compilation of more than ten educational and teaching books. He specializes in prose and literary criticism. There are hundreds of works published in "Chinese Monthly", "Xi'an Evening News", "Xi'an Daily", "Teacher's Daily", "Culture and Art Newspaper", "Sunshine News", "Financial Daily", "Huizhou Evening News", "Sanqin Metropolis Daily", "Middle School Language Teaching Newsletter", "Self-study Examination Newspaper", "Writing Herald", "Secondary School Students' Literature Collection", "Baliu Literature", "Culture Baqiao" and other major newspapers and periodicals. In the October 2020 issue of Chinese Monthly, he featured the cover of the chinese monthly magazine and focused on the introduction of writers. He has been hailed as "the enlightener of literary youth" and "the role model of language teachers". He is the author of Education, Literature and Me.