The land of Lu Yao: from Wangjiabao to Guojiagou

Old photos of Lu Yao. Data map

Lu Yao has been away from us for thirty-one years. I've written a lot about Lu Yao, and this time I'm talking about the land where he was born and raised, and the people on that land.

I have always believed in the existence of destiny and that everyone lives in their own destiny. God wants to create a character, which will make him taste all the hardships and give him a lot of experience. If you can't withstand these blows, you will fall on the road, and God will look for new candidates, and if you can withstand them, you will become strong if you use these sufferings as spiritual nourishment and milk.

Lu Yao was not defeated by the difficulties of life, and carried out overloaded literary creation with strong perseverance, becoming a "chosen son".

Lu Yao has a consciousness that he will never let himself be mediocre. Once mediocre, he will return to the survival state of his ancestors "facing the loess and facing the sky". The local qi accumulated by a family for several generations, or even dozens of generations, has finally given birth to such a character, and it will be beaten back to its original form at any time and return to its original class. Writing is a kind of self-salvation for Lu Yao. All the ascending passages in the world are blocked, and only a pen can change fate. Every work he publishes, every time he wins an award, he escapes that tragic fate.

Before Lu Yao died, I was the last person to visit. I just walked on the front foot, and Linda came on the back foot to sign the divorce agreement. As soon as Linda left, Lu Yao fainted, and after two days and two nights of rescue, he finally died. In Lu Yao's ward, I wrote this paragraph on the prescription slip: Brother Lu Yao, listen to Zhao Xi, your illness has returned. You are a strong person. Remember you said that you are invincible! All your friends prayed for you. You'll be able to cross this hurdle. Your good friend and good brother Gao Jianqun, November 15, 1992 at 10:30 a.m.

On the tenth anniversary of Lu Yao's death, the world was quiet, and there was no sound. Only Professor Liu Lu of Shaanxi Normal University held a memorial service at the school and invited Lu Yao's daughter Yuan Yuan (now called Lu Mingming). I speak on behalf of the Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Provincial Writers Association. I said to the child, Lu Yao wants you to grow up to play football, but if you break your leg, you will kick it into the net with your leg. The child took my hand and said shyly that I was weak and did not choose to play football.

I have basically read all the county chronicles in northern Shaanxi. The preface to the revision of the "Yan'an City Chronicles" in Yan'an that year was drafted by me on behalf of the Yan'an City Compilation Committee. Reading through these county chronicles made me understand that a history of the northern Shaanxi Plateau is half a history of hunger, half a history of war, and the whole is a history of suffering! Lu Yao also felt this way back then.

During the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, the great drought that Li Zicheng uncovered is still often talked about by people in northern Shaanxi. The drought in Shaanxi in 1929 was worse than the drought in Chongzhen. On the ground in northern Shaanxi, seventy percent of ten adults starved to death, and the common people called this "the eighteenth year of the Republic of China". It is recorded in the county chronicles that there is a great drought, cannibalism, and easy children to eat. I have children and I can't bear to eat, you have children and you can't eat them, exchange with each other, cook and eat. There is a folk song in the countryside of northern Shaanxi: "People eat people, dogs eat dogs, uncles cook nephews in pots, and sons-in-law boil in people's pots."

The Yanchuan County Chronicle records a conflict during the Tongzhi period, which was no less tragic than the war, and some counties disappeared from the map. Gulin County, which was briefly restored during the Yan'an period, was later Nanniwan. It is possible to cultivate rice here. The reason why there was no population to live for a time may be the conflict during the Tongzhi years, when the population of this land was extinct, the fields were barren, and the administrative system was abolished. The conflict stretched from the Xiuyan River valley to the Wuding River valley, and many counties were even worse. There are still many legends in the area. Hengshan County used to be called Huaiyuan, there is a village called Zhangjiapan, it is said that the people on the ground are dead, there is a family surnamed Zhang's two sons, went to the salt pond to sell salt, escaped a catastrophe. After returning, in the original site of the rebuilt Zhangjia, the later surname Zhang family was formed. Zhangjiapan is today's Jingbian County. In the early years, salt merchants went to the salt pond and Dingbian to sell salt, and entered Zhangjiaban from the Qingyang ditch. Northern Shaanxi folk singing, I got up from Zhangjia, Liujiayuan station, and I looked at the kiss at the bottom of the mountain.

I lived in Fu County as a child. When I was a child, I went up the mountain to chop firewood, often turned a mountain col, passed through a little forest, and found a kiln courtyard, the kiln cave was neat and tidy, and there was a grinding plate in front of the kiln, and it looked barren for many years.

According to the Yanchuan County Chronicle, after the county seat was breached, the county magistrate drew his sword and killed himself, and the county magistrate's wife committed suicide by jumping into the well. The common people were almost wiped out.

Later, people who fled and fled the famine, and displaced people from neighboring provinces slowly filled the river. Until 1940, the government of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Border Region was still calling for immigrants to this area, which shows that in that era, the ground of Yanchuan had not yet recovered its former prosperity. Wang Zaichao of Qingjian Wangjiabao brought his wife and three sons Wang Yude, Wang Yukuan and Wang Yufu to Yanchuan, ready to find a good family business for their children and grandchildren, and they settled in Guojiagou in Yanchuan.

Wang Zaichao is Lu Yao's grandfather, Wang Yukuan is Lu Yao's biological father, and Wang Yude is Lu Yao's adoptive father.

Born in this bleak wasteland, Lu Yao, like all people in northern Shaanxi, inherited the sense of urgency in his ancestors' genes, and he had to live tenaciously.

The hunger that the people of northern Shaanxi and the hunger that the people of Guanzhong say do not mean the same thing. The hunger of the people in Guanzhong is a full meal, and the hunger that the people of northern Shaanxi say is struggling on the death line!

There is an ancient proverb in northern Shaanxi: A pig baby has three liters of coarse chaff on its head! When a person is born, he has the right to live. People in northern Shaanxi often say that when a life is born, God must equip his life with dry food, so that he can have a basis for survival.

Lu Yao has a rather far-sighted grandfather, who is the guarantee for Lu Yao's survival.

Thinking back to Lu Yao's appearance, I can always think of Attila the Great, one of the world's three great steppe kings. After the Huns were exiled to Europe, Attila the Great swept across Europe and Asia to establish the Hun Empire. A priest examined Attila and detailed his appearance, "short stature, broad chest, large head and small eyes, sparse gray beard, flat nose, and unsymmetrical build". These are common physical features of the Huns.

Lu Yao is almost like this, medium height, disc face, brown skin, a little collapsed nose, small eyes often squint to see things, as if afraid of seeing the light, hook to look forward. The book "The Empire of the Steppe" describes Attila the Great, "standing on the banks of the Danube, squinting his little eyes, looking at the continent of Europa, ready to swallow it at any moment." It is common to stand on the ground, but once you jump on the back of a horse and form a combat unit with the horse, you immediately become vicious and unstoppable". Lu Yao's two arms are thick and powerful, very strong, and the lower limbs are a little shorter, a bit of a naro circle. The whole face beard, nostrils and ears are all over, especially the ears, and if you don't cut it for two days, the hair will grow.

Lu Yao's biological father is one size younger than Lu Yao, Lu Yao is 1.68 meters, and his biological father should be about 1.6 meters. A bouncing little old man, wearing a white hat on his head, often washed in the wind and sun, not very white, and a cigarette bag pot on his shoulder. In the areas of Suimi, Yanchuan and Qingjian, there are many such little old men, and they are all smart. During the Yan'an period, Guo Hongtao, who served as the secretary of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Border Region, was like this.

Helian Bobo died a year before the destruction of Tongwan City, and his burial should be very beautiful. There are many theories about his tomb, and the most recognized tomb site is Baifutu Temple in Yanchuan County. It is highly probable that the Lu Yao family has Hun genes.

Lu Yao's adoptive father resembles the image of most old farmers in northern Shaanxi. He is tall and tall, with a good figure and a good body, long cheeks, a high nose bridge, a full beard, a white sheep belly towel on his head, and a dry tobacco pouch on his shoulder.

Lu Yao's second brother is a little taller than Lu Yao, one meter seventy-two, and he doesn't smile. I've been here a few times, and I always wear a hat on my head. used to work in a factory in Xi'an, and later Lu Yao contacted Yan'an Erdao Street as a city manager, wearing a uniform and a clean beard, called Wang Weijun.

Wang Tianyun is Lu Yao's third brother, he is small, he has lived in my office a few times, and he is also a person. I said, I have to go to work during the day, you go to the street, and at night I get off work, you come to stay. My office is on the second floor of the Thin Shell Cave, and the first and second floors of the staircase are lined with brick walls. I came out to smoke and distract myself after compiling the manuscript for a long time, and saw the third child standing in front of the brick wall on the second floor, with his hands on his hips and his hair messy, making a great man, pointing out the country and the world. I laughed, walked up and said, you didn't study well when you were a child, you didn't write well, you see your brother Lu Yao, people have become a great writer. The third child said an astonishing sentence: I can't see that he makes a living.

Lu Yao also has a younger sister who married to Yan'an. Three years ago, I went to Yan'an Study Academy to give a big lecture, and the leaders of Yan'an brought a middle-aged woman over and said that she claimed to be Lu Yao's sister, and you can judge us. I said, girl, did you grow up in Yanchuan or Qingjian? She said Qingjian. I said that when you were the captain of the production team, you led the members of the commune to cut down dozens of trees next to the national highway and let the commune arrest them. Do you know this? The middle-aged woman said, "I know this." I also brought me food. Later, my brother found someone to fish me out! I smiled and said, "Your brother asked Zhang Tao to fish me." In this way, I said to the leaders of Yan'an, it is true, this is Sister Lu Yao.

Wang Tianle is the fourth, and the name Wang Tianle was given by Lu Yao. His original name was Monkey Man. Wang Tianle's recruitment of workers to Tongchuan Coal Mine as miners was an indicator given by my father. My sister cut the queue in the countryside and found a villager from the village, which was an indicator for him, but he didn't go. And seeing that the registration time was coming, I asked for this indicator and gave it to Tianle. My father was the executive vice mayor of Yan'an at the time. I've told a lot of his story before, so I won't tell it here.

The fifth child is called Jiuwa, and the Lu Yao brothers and sisters are counted together, there are nine, this is the youngest. When I went to Yulin, he came to me several times and said that he wanted to set up a "Lu Yao Research Association" and asked me to be the president. I told me I wasn't right. He also said, let me tell the leaders of Yulin and give them support. I said yes. I told him about it later. I also wrote him a picture: The Last Watchman of the Homeland.

Lu Yao's biological mother is a very shrewd woman who can be seen everywhere in northern Shaanxi, especially neat, and cleans herself neatly. Spit two mouthfuls of foam into the palm of her hand, wipe her hair one by one, and get a smooth haircut, and she is in charge of the whole house.

I have been to Lu Yaoqingjian's hometown several times. About 2001, I went to Yulin to pass by, from the side of the Sichuan Road, along the slope to the kiln yard, there is a mill in the yard, below is a waist-high mill, there is a mill on the mill, there are a few jujube trees and mountain peach trees against the courtyard wall, there are three-hole stone kilns in the south, I am very emotional when I see the three-hole stone kiln. "Life" made a movie and gave 30,000 yuan in royalties, and Lu Yao asked Tianle to carry the money back to Wangjiabao, Qingjian's hometown, and built a three-hole stone kiln. I said, Lu Yao, you are doing the right thing, filial piety to the elderly, improve their living conditions, people in northern Shaanxi said, Lao Tzu owes a daughter-in-law, and a son owes Lao Tzu a coffin, you can do this when they are alive, it is really filial piety to the elderly. Lu Yao said, no, this is not a matter of honoring the elderly, this is a declaration, I put the three-hole interface stone kiln to that hoop, and declare to the world: The father's son is older!

About 10 years ago, I went to attend the opening of the Lu Yao Memorial Hall. I remember that it was snowing, I rushed to Yan'an after dark, had a mouthful of food, and rushed to Qingjian before 12 o'clock in the evening and lived in the county seat. The next day, I went to Wangjiabao Village, Shizuiyi Town, to attend the opening ceremony, I made a speech, and had a meal there at noon.

In the past 100 years, there have been two foreign population shocks in northern Shaanxi, which have successively changed the concept of northern Shaanxi people and changed the fate of many northern Shaanxi people. In 1935, the Central Red Army went to northern Shaanxi, and in 1969, the Beijing educated youth went to Yan'an to join the queue.

People in northern Shaanxi wear old cotton jackets and pants, a sheep's belly towel on their heads, and older ones have a belt around their waists. Beijing's educated youth came and brought China's most cutting-edge fashion. Plastic-soled cloth shoes are the most typical, and the educated youth call them lazy shoes, which can be worn with hooked heels, and can also be worn like slippers.

In January 1969, on the occasion of the lunar year, Beijing educated youth should have taken a train from Beijing to Xi'an, and then a truck to Yan'an. Dozens of cars and dozens of cars were sent to Yan'an, and they were mighty. I was in Fu County at the time, and I also participated in the welcome. I remember that at the intersection of the tea house, the sky was very overcast, the snow was not very heavy, and it was snowing, and the northwest wind blew the snow seeds on the face, and it hurt.

The outfits of the educated youths who just came here are all cotton monkeys, the women wear flowers, the men wear blue, and they wear a Lei Feng hat on their heads. These newly arrived educated youths seem to have a naïve curiosity about the countryside, and they follow the donkey on the road, so cold that they jump.

Lu Yao is four years older than me, and many of my friends are looking for Beijing educated youth. Bai Shu's wife, Bi Yingjie, is a native of Beijing, and she cut the queue in the Xinshi River in Yichuan back then. A local youth, once combined with the educated youth, immediately has a relatively strong connection with the outside world, otherwise, you have to shrink into the cave, almost like your ancestors have faced the loess with their backs to the sky.

I asked Lu Yao, why do you have to find a Beijing educated youth, do you have to find such a reliable rope to climb up, so as not to fall into the original mediocre world? Lu Yao replied, this idea cannot be ruled out.

(Thanks to Shen Peichang, Lu Yao's counselor and former president of Yan'an University, Cui Haichao, president of Xi'an Innovation College of Yan'an University, Liu Xuan, editor of Northwest University Press, and Niu Yanning, assistant for their help in this article)

Gao Jianqun

Editor-in-charge: Xing Renyan