Sheep totem
The sheep is the totem of the village, with the compassion and kindness of the Holy Son, eating the endless grass on the old river beach, contributing to the tender mutton and warm woolen clothes. It would be good if everyone had the feelings of sheep, and each took care of his own home, pasture and pasture, but some people showed the nature of wolves, sharp teeth and sharp mouths, and the world changed from then on.
The sheep is the totem of the village, docile, bowing its head and bowing its eyebrows, with an almost maternal gentleness. A pair of sheep's eyes are like a pool of clear lake water, with a blue sky on the surface of the water and green aquatic plants and reeds on the water's shore. The sheep's footsteps are light, and they can't bear to startle even a small flying insect, and the curled posture is almost godlike, and the red dust rolls by, and it doesn't make too many waves.
This is somewhat similar to the norm of the village, starting from the distant matriarchal clan society, the meaning of home is born, a green fence, a low house, blocking the ups and downs of the world, and embarking on an ark leading to today and the future. Sheep is the animal most closely related to human life in ancient times, and it stretches little by little with the footsteps of the village. Can you imagine the scene of the first sheep approaching the human settlement, led by the grass, into the hinterland of life, and it asks for too little, a handful of grass, and a simple sheep pen, perhaps just to stay away from the roar of the beast, lying next to its mother. In the near future, the smooth fur will become a warm garment, and the gentle flesh and blood will be served on the table as a delicious food.
Sheep know that in the process of taming each other, they never suspect and avoid, no matter how they die, it is better to lie down and die quietly in the eyes of the person they love.
There is a habit in our village, which has not been broken for almost a thousand years - every Chinese New Year, almost every family has to kill a sheep. Sheep have become an indicator of a family's living standards and hospitality for a period of time. When I was a child, I followed my father to visit relatives, and my aunt's house was on the bank of the turbid Yellow River. In fact, the real situation is that they do not have such a custom there, and say: "We really can't live like this, a good sheep will be killed if we say it, and if we don't eat sheep, we will celebrate the New Year?"
Don't eat it? It really doesn't look like it's going to work. As soon as they enter the wax moon, people's appetite seems to be bigger, busy after five springs and six summers, people seem to shed a layer of skin, all pointing to the New Year to recharge and replenish the body. The history of eating sheep has a long history, and it is reflected in words. "Beautiful, Ganya. From sheep to large. "It's about the beauty of the sheep's demeanor. Luscious and connected. A sheep walks in front of him with the demeanor of a woman, "the ploughman forgets his plow, and the hoe forgets his hoe". Fresh, fish and sheep are fresh. It is said that the people on the seaside do not know the delicacy of sheep, and the people in the inland areas know less about the deliciousness of fish. This is the piety of the ancestors, expressing the devotion to life through a sheep.
I also looked forward to killing the sheep, and even though the butcher Hu Dahai had to shout at me to pull the leg of the mutton, he still couldn't resist the deliciousness of the mutton soup. Killing sheep is actually not tragic, and butchers who have come home with kung fu can often kill with a single knife. But my hands were trembling, my legs were turning, and I turned my face to one side so as not to see the desperate eyes of a sheep. Sometimes I think humans are hypocritical, and I leave a few crocodile tears behind while feasting on delicious food—and it seems that I am nothing more than that, seeing my hypocritical self in the story of a sheep. I also think of the images when I was herding the sheep, a cloud falling in the water, a flock of sheep walking in the sky, the water is far away, the clouds are cruising on the water—but where did the sheep I grazed go?
There are too many ways to eat sheep, braised and stewed whole sheep is too luxurious, and sheep soup is more common. Over the years, I have traveled to many places, and I have drunk the mutton soup in many places, although each has its own beauty, but it is not as cordial as the mutton soup in our village, I can't favor one over the other, just like the sheep in the world are the same ancestor;
The large pieces are put into the pot, and the stove fire reflects the red father's face, showing the ravines and ravines of the past. The fire should be fierce, the fragrant flesh and the balsam of the flesh should be boiled out, and the ingredients should be complete, and the grass fruit, star anise, bay leaves, ginger, and cumin should be encapsulated in gauze, which is the refinement of the essence of plants and trees. After my mother inserted the mutton with chopsticks, she said, "It's thorough, and then I dropped the jade white mutton fat—one year I heard a friend in Anhui Province say that they never eat mutton fat when they eat sheep, and most of them are used to make candles. If I think about it carefully, I once saw a flock of sheep grazing in the local mountains, all of them in thin form and with a strong smell of sheep's body. According to local customs, their free-range sheep are never castrated, which will inevitably lead to inbreeding and breed degradation.
The important thing is the chili, and the soup is soup, and the chili pepper is the chili, and you can push it in front of the customer, and you will put as much as you want. The chili pepper in our village is the highlight of the mutton soup, so it is also called red oil mutton soup. Boil the mutton fat thoroughly, remove the seeds of the pepper and put it in water for three to five minutes. During the Chinese New Year, you often hear the sound of clanging from someone's house, mostly chopping boiled chili peppers and mutton fat together. The mutton is out of the pot, and the dismantled mutton bones are still tumbling in the water, and the mutton soup at this time has been milky white, rich, and has a light herbal fragrance. In addition to salt, there is no need to put other things, ginger slices and green onions are fresh, and they can be eaten and put away to avoid losing their true taste.
Sheep and auspicious characters are fake. Dong Zhongshu Youyun: "Sheep, auspicious, so auspicious gifts are used." "Hanshu Nanyue Chronicles" recorded: "At the time of Wei Tuo, there were five-colored sheep, thinking that they were Rui. It shows that the sheep as a totem is an ancient thing, and the ancients will hang a sheep's head on the door during the New Year, or take the sheep as a gift in the exchange, showing blessing and sincerity.
Our blessing is in a bowl of red oil mutton soup, the firecrackers to welcome the New Year are blown up, and the mother has already prepared the mutton soup. Red on top, like a layer of red flame-like clouds, there are vermicelli, cabbage, and of course, there is fragrant and soft mutton. This sheep is a sheep wandering in the mountains and fields, born and grown under the starlight and sunshine of the old river beach, and then contributes all its body and mind; this person is a person who has been running on the earth for generations, and is grateful for the food given by heaven and earth after hard work; this heaven and earth is an open and broad heart, and spring comes and winter solstice in the trust and companionship of people and living beings.
When the snowflakes fall, the tourists gradually return home, and the family sits by the red stove, talking about the present and the past, gathering and parting. A sheep wanders outside of time, looking at the grass and trees in the countryside with gentle eyes, not to mention returning. In a snow-white patch, the soul of the sheep always accompanies the village. We will also take our souls on the road, push away the heavy snow flying in the sky, and walk towards the land of abundant water and grass.
It's rare to get a bowl of good confusion
Porridge has a porridge road, to drink a bowl of good porridge, you must attack with fire, you must be calm, you must have three points of moonlight, seven inches of soft intestines, in order to taste the meaning of "rare and confused". Zheng Banqiao is in Shandong, the breeze has two sleeves, and the paper repairs a thousand bamboo poles, probably drunk out of the confusion, a scoop of Weihe water, two pieces of large potatoes, and a pot of boiling is so confused.
There are people with human traces, and porridge has porridge roads.
The wind blew outside the window, the snowflakes fluttered in the sky, and the lonely branches whistled and were carried far away by a gust of wind. At this time, the old river beach is empty, only see the thatch standing upright in the gloom, how long will it be spring to wait, and how long will it take for the pen of time to start coloring on the empty earth?
No one answered, but the warmest thing at this time was the country stove, and the mother threw a handful of dry wood into the stove, and the flame hissed and burned, and the tongue of fire licked the bottom of the pot. There was a gurgling sound in the pot, similar to the solitude of sound. The content is very simple, add a few scoops of water and cut in a few pieces of red taro (our village calls sweet potatoes red taro.) When I was a child, I listened to books, and Liang Hongyu, the heroine of the anti-gold war, rushed into the enemy camp with a big knife, like chopping melons and vegetables, and followed her husband Han Shizhong to fight in the south and the north, and made great achievements. Red taro has a chivalrous style).
Porridge has a history, just from a literal point of view, it was originally made as a mustache, and the rice was boiled in the mustache, and then simplified to porridge. Because boiling rice makes it erosive, it is also called milde. There are many kinds of porridge, and if you write a single name, I am afraid that you will exhaust the grain and rice in the world. Li Shangyin has "porridge fragrant white apricot blossom day, provincial convection warbler sitting on a feast". It is written about the spring of March, the apricot blossoms are white, the bean porridge is fragrant, and it is suitable for reminiscence. Lin Hong has plum porridge in "Mountain Family Qing Offering": "Mei Luoying, wash it cleanly, boil it in snow water, wait for the white porridge to cook, and cook it together." "What is boiled is a pot of high and feelings, and the fragrance of plum and porridge is entangled, most of which are the legacy of the idlers of the previous dynasty.
The most classic in our village is sweet potato porridge. In the early morning, he walked into the alley with a coarse porcelain bowl, met on the other side, and said to the noodles: "What kind of rice are you eating?" and "red taro is confused", and the other party replied simply, without the slightest ambiguity. Walking down a street, it was much the same, and the bowls were all red taro mush. At this time, the porridge was close to the people, and it was never expressed by porridge. A bowl of sweet potatoes and a plate of radish sauce beans are the perfect pairing. It happened that the Zhou Xiangyou of Qianzhouzhuang knocked on the bangzi and passed by, and the oil pump was pulled, and a few drops of small grinding sesame oil were dropped into the saucer, and the fragrance wafted out of the two miles.
The porridge lies in the heat, and the grass and trees in the countryside are mixed, all of which can be used by me. At first, the fire was fierce, and the boiling water wrapped in sweet potatoes rolled in the iron pot. The sweet potato was harvested this autumn, and the taste was not good at first, so it was necessary to put it into the sweet potato cellar three feet underground, and slowly raise, and so on, and the temperament converged into the pot, and the sweet potato porridge cooked out was soft and sweet. Then came the slow work, where my father filled in a handful of firewood and lit a pot of smoke with a branch at the mouth of the stove. Seeing that the heat was almost over, he called his mother to stir the noodles. Then a few more handfuls of firewood were added, and small bubbles began to bubble up in the pot.
After the foam, everything is light and breezy, do not lift the lid for the time being, and simmer for a few minutes. At this time, the sweet potato porridge has been integrated into the taste of mountains and rivers, the fragrance of the earth, the wind and the moon, once the lid is lifted, the aroma permeates the whole kitchen. Drinking porridge, Mu Genye used the method of suction, held the bowl with one hand, first twisted half of the strength, and slipped along the edge of the bowl, and then turned half a circle in the opposite direction, and slipped another bite. After repeating this, I couldn't stand a few slips, and the hot porridge in the bowl had bottomed out.
"Eating Tea Porridge" is a poem by Chu Guangxi in the Tang Dynasty: "Drowning in the tea porridge, I have a fern with rice." We are not far away, and we are slowly returning at dusk. "A cup of tea, a bowl of porridge, a plate of wild vegetables, after eating a whole day, returning at dusk, there is a feeling of drunken porridge. This is a poetic porridge, a bend of the bright moon in the Tang Dynasty, a cool in the old days, it is suitable to eat porridge to escape the summer, and the friends in the mountains are happy.
Zheng Banqiao has inscribed many plaques, the most famous of which is "rare and confused". At that time, he was doing a county in Weixian County, Shandong, and it was a year of poor harvest. This county, which is good at depicting the style of bamboo, has actively carried out disaster relief work. "Persuade the large households in the city, open a factory to cook porridge, and feed it in turn. This pot of porridge was cooked so deeply that the people were deeply supported, and when the donated prisoners came to see it, Zheng Zhixian was so angry that he scolded his mother: "What is there to say about the mule carrying the money?" "The rich are feared for a while, but the poor are not counted for survival. ”
This is a bowl of innocent porridge, and a bowl of porridge serves the suffering of the people. And writing down the words "rare and confused" was when I stayed at Yunfeng Mountain in Laizhou at night. The owner of the house is an elegant old man, who calls himself a "confused old man" and has an extraordinary export. Zheng Banqiao splashed ink, and wrote "rarely confused". The old gentleman began to write, and the signature was "the first in the hospital examination, the second in the township examination, and the third in the palace examination". Zheng Banqiao was taken aback, so he filled: "It's hard to be smart, it's especially difficult to be confused, and it's even more difficult to turn from smart to confused." Put it down, take a step back, feel at ease at the moment, and not plan to be blessed later. ”
I think the "confused old man" that day must have also boiled a pot of confused porridge, and the two wiped their mouths after eating and started a paper conversation. During the conversation, the mountains and rivers were silent, and the confused fragrance floated in the mountains.
The confusion and simplicity of our village do not have so many metaphysical meanings, the burning is the heaven and the earth, the cooking is a pot of jade white and muddy, the wheat fragrance is mixed with the sweet potato fragrance, and the sweet potato fragrance is entwined with the taste of grass and trees. When Mu Genye left, he was ninety-eight, and when he came, he pointed to the location of the kitchen, and Mu Gen understood that there was a burst of bellows, and a pot of sweet potato porridge was cooked. Mu Gen Milk trembled and said, "Drink it, drink the red taro and go on the road." "I can't hide the sadness of the countryside.
Nowadays, it is rare to have a bowl of good confusion, most of the villages use coal, electricity and natural gas, the color of the porridge is not good, and the thickness of the aroma is also poor.
Tofu House
The change of tofu lies in the brine, and the brine points to the tofu, and one thing drops one thing. The tofu of the second brother Yang's family has been inherited, and Yang Chenglu is not bad at being ugly. King Huainan wanted to live forever, and ordered a pot of good tofu in 7749 days of alchemy, which is the story of "unintentionally inserting willows and willows". The tofu noodles are soft and soft-hearted, and they don't want to see the tofu scum project made by the sons and grandsons of the evil children.
The night is full, and the fragrance of bean juice wafts from Brother Yang's house, I have always wanted to describe this fragrance, but I have not found the right words until now, not because of the lack of vocabulary, but because I have not yet comprehended the essence of time. There is only one wall, there are holes in the wall, and I am too lazy to repair it, so I only need to take a little body to come to the tofu workshop of Brother Yang's house. Wood is burning in the hearth, bean juice is boiling in an iron pot, and it needs to be quiet, and it needs to be careful not to wake up a dream of a country with a white texture.
Second Brother Yang was not stingy, and brought out a bowl of fresh bean juice for me to taste, similar to frankincense, with appropriate shades. A bowl of bean juice goes down to the stomach, like a fragrance, and it can also fill the stomach. The first type of soy product should be tofu skin, and the first layer of tofu skin should be removed when the temperature gradually cools. Tofu skin, also known as tofu coating, is as thin as a cicada's wings, and its transparency and tenacity will bring a little satisfaction to the palate. This scene is recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica": "Those who condense on their surfaces are removed and dried, and they are called tofu skin." "If tofu is the flesh and blood of agglutination, then the skin of tofu is the spirit that will not be dispersed. But take a small amount, otherwise the tofu will lose its true taste.
My family is struggling, but my mother has her "tofu scum project", which is different from the current meaning of the word - some bad people extract steel bars from the concrete, cut corners, and cause trouble. Mother asked for bean dregs from Second Brother Yang's house. You can stir-fry vegetables - radish tassels green, bean dregs white, green and white, without losing the flavor of the countryside. You can wrap steamed buns - soak soybeans in water and grind them, chop them into pieces, mix them with tofu residue, and you can eat the taste of meat. You can boil porridge - put the bean dregs into the pot, cut the vegetables, and shake the egg flowers, which is more flavorful than the spicy soup. These are the days of picking, we don't dislike it, at least in the innocent years, the okara as a companion, accompanied us through the difficult time.
After the second brother Yang left, within a few years, his nephew Yang Chenglu returned to his hometown from the Northeast. Second Brother Yang had no children, so a courtyard was idle. There are many people who come, Yang Chenglu's newly married daughter-in-law, an old man who suffers from hemiplegia, and a mother-in-law who is not too old, and a chubby sister-in-law, which will not be mentioned later.
The mossy millstone collapsed, and grass grew more than a foot high on the donkey path, drowning out the sound of the donkey's hooves. No one could have imagined that Yang Chenglu would later grind tofu and use our village as a foothold to bring the Shannan and Haibei families together. I went on the day Yang Chenglu got married, and some people said that Yang Chenglu found a fairy in the sky. His father died very early, his mother remarried, and Yang Chenglu was left to wander the world alone, and he was not good-looking, short, with a long face, and two thick lips hanging on a big mouth, probably because the tongue was too short, and it always felt like it came out of the cavity when he spoke. It wasn't until one day that I saw a hemiplegic old man (later my father-in-law) lying at the intersection on a street outside the gate, helping him to pick up a tattered tricycle and send him home, that he had his current marriage.
For a period of time, Yang Chenglu's family was not having a good time, his father-in-law's illness was getting worse and worse, his daughter-in-law was pregnant with a child, and the family only relied on Yang Chenglu to do odd jobs to maintain the family.
When Second Brother Yang was there, I was still young at the time, and it was common for Second Brother Yang to write and draw in his notebook. The so-called writing is nothing more than keeping bills in your own way, Yang Cun drew a poplar tree, Li Cun drew a colored plum, and a few squares on the first few doors of someone's house represent how much tofu is owed. There are also some little people, such as a traitor with a shell gun, with a small split head, slanted eyes and crooked mouth, and a trumpeter who blows a trumpeter, with one hand on his waist, and blows a horn with a melody similar to that of an attack. Second Brother Yang cut off his fingers because he was in the team, and only six fingers remained, known as six fingers. The tofu made by Brother Yang is called six-finger tofu.
The turn of events happened two years later, because he had no money to buy medicine, Yang Chenglu's father-in-law died after another illness, and his mother-in-law lay on the bed crying. Yang Chenglu was bored, wanted to roll a paper cigarette to smoke, searched through the house and couldn't find a piece of paper, and finally found a yellowed notebook in the crack of the wall. Flipping through it, in addition to the bills, the traitors with separate heads and the trumpeter, there are also some processes that are difficult to decipher. There was a grinding disc, a steaming iron pot, and a net bag made of gauze hanging from the beams. Yang Chenglu seems to understand something, isn't this the tofu making flow chart left by the second uncle, why didn't he think about it when he put a good business.
When the second brother Yang was there, he dug a deep pit in the pond in the east of the village, we called it the tofu pit, it is said that only the pit water can be used to make better tofu, but now it is not possible, not to mention that the pit has been filled, and no one will eat the pit water tofu from the health point of view. Yang Chenglu began to clean up the tofu workshop, and the experiment failed once and once, I don't know if it was due to the omission of Yang's second brother or the water. At this time, Yang Chenglu's sister-in-law came back from the Northeast and joined her father-in-law, who had recently lost his wife. They are going to open a tofu factory in the county seat to sell tofu.
This is a coincidence of fate, which rises and turns in the recovery of mountains and rivers, and makes life brighter. In the end, there was a turning point, one in the county seat, the other in the village, and the two tofu factories took care of each other and began to operate normally. No one else, Yang Chenglu used the voice in the cavity to tell his mother-in-law and sister-in-law's father-in-law who were sitting in the light that they didn't talk too much, sometimes it was just a matter of a layer of window paper, and the two families became a family.
In the thin morning light, there was the sound of selling tofu, "Northeast tofu - huh", connecting the past time. When Xiaohan arrived, the water in the river had already been frozen, and what could not be frozen was a jade-white tofu heart.
Song Changzheng is a contracted writer in Shandong Province. The text has been scattered in literary journals such as "Prose", "Prose Overseas Edition", "Selected Prose", "Tianya", "Prose Hundred Schools", "Woodpecker" and other literary journals, and has been included in the annual literary anthology for many years. He is the author of a collection of vernacular essays, "Living in a Grain of Grain" and "Country Games". He has won many literary awards such as the 3rd Taishan Literature Award of Shandong Province.