The small river in my hometown
Text/Li Sanxiang
My hometown is a small mountain village. The village is not large, with more than 30 inhabitants. The village is located on the sunny slope, and the courtyards of each family follow the natural pattern of the mountain-shaped topography, in the open area near the south of the mountain beam, along the high direction of the dustpan-shaped surface, with the steps as the upper and lower boundaries, and on the slightly arc-shaped strip-like ground extending from east to west, the people of the village gather to form a neat and distinct village appearance.
The old people in the village put an image called "nose bridge" in the ridge area near the west, and the area that turned over the nose bridge was naturally called behind the nose bridge.
Standing on the bridge of the nose in the village, looking west, under the mountain opposite, there is a faintly visible deep ditch. Shanggou Brain is located in the northwest direction, where there is a funnel-shaped hillside area, the local people call Shanghe. Several nearby villages, Hejiashan in Beishan, and the area at the bottom of the ditch are Luojiataizi and Lijiagou Village, and the locals are accustomed to blurting out the name, so they call this area Luoli Shanjiagou.
The small river in my hometown is the river that flows at the foot of the West Mountain, and the people in the village call it by its name and casually call it down the river.
At the bottom of the ditch leading to the bottom of the mountain, there is a zigzag mountain road that goes down the bridge of the nose and runs between the hill and the dam. This is a descending path along the sunny slope of the mountain, which is artificially split and paved. From the nose bridge to the west winds down to the bottom of the ditch, out of the valley mouth, is the river beach area.
In my impression, the small river in my hometown is a very ordinary river. From the source of the upper river area of the beginning, all the way flow, along the northwest to southeast direction out of the valley mouth, along the way to accept the stream from the bottom of the ditch in the south of Guantong Village, the branch veins converge, the amount of water becomes larger, and then at the foot of the West Mountain not far away, bypass a land, turn south, rush all the way, through the river beach ground of the valley between the two mountains, about six or seven miles of flow, out of the Menniugou, in front of Jiang Weibao, and flow through the Zhaojiayao Village of Pingnan Town, the West Han Dynasty Tietang Gorge water intersects, flows out of the canyon, and reaches the Tianshui Guanchuan Road.
In my memory, at the foot of the West Mountain near the upper river, there was a water mill built by the locals. It was the period of the agricultural society in the past, and there was no electricity in the local area, and there was no electric mill later, and the existence of the water mill became a traditional standby for grinding noodles in the life of rural people. The operation and management of the mill is the responsibility of the custodian or special person designated by the production team, who is called the watchman or the grinding teacher. When it is necessary to grind the noodles, people will dry the rations stored at home in their own yards in advance, and then use seven catties of buckets to measure it, say hello to the grinding teacher in advance, make an appointment, and then tie the bag containing the grain with a rope, carry the grain on their backs, and carry it to the mill to grind the noodles by manpower.
The procedure of grinding the surface should be weighed before grinding. In the early days, they were weighed with a large pole and lifted by two people to weigh them, and the number was used as the basis for recording the work points and paying for the grinding money.
The water mill is used as a traditional mechanical power, which facilitates people's lives, but as a primitive operation that drives the grinding wheel with the impact of the water flow, it is particularly important to ensure the normal water flow of the water. In my memory, once I encountered heavy rain and disastrous weather when the river rose, the special water mill water source channel would be cut off due to the river erosion. I have the impression that at that time, people called the work of repairing and connecting the channels of the water mill canal as the old eye.
Decades later, when I look back and return to my hometown again, the rapidly changing rhythm of the times has made the once familiar hometown change far away and unfamiliar. Brushing away the veil of reality that obscures the path of memory, the footprints of childhood have been deeply sunk in the hillside meadows of his hometown, and the small river that still flows in front of him but seems a little weak.
Once upon a time, as a child of a peasant family, when I was a child, like my peers of that era, I had the same life experience of herding cattle and sheep. Whenever he drove the sheep, he waved his whip and walked along the road by the river, which was trampled by passers-by, and then crossed the river and continued until he drove the sheep to the ideal grazing ground to graze.
During the time of herding sheep, the hillside pasture and the flowing water of the river beach became the scenery under my heart. The river flowing in his ears, the lawn of the river beach scattered with rocks in front of him, the cattle and sheep grazing on the hillside, the teenager who rolled up his trouser legs and sleeves, bare feet, cats bent down, and caught fish in the sparkling river, all these make the growth time of childhood full of innocence and fun. Such a scene has been for a long time in the past, and with the passage of time, I have left my hometown and gradually returned to the land of memory.
The footsteps of the times are deep and strong. The past is gone.
The vicissitudes of history have smeared a layer of colorful and vigorous cultural background on this endless hometown river. The pace of social development, marked by the historical node of 2011, has lifted the mystery of the humble river in his hometown.
During this year's "May Day" long holiday, I went back to my hometown to visit my parents. In the midst of chatting with his parents, he learned from his father that people were building roads in the Xiahe area. The mother went on to say that the outsiders who were building the road, after taking a break from work and eating every day, set out in groups from the construction site in the river dam area and walked along the mountain road leading to the village for sightseeing.
When I met people in the village, I said that the place and scenery of your village are really good. When I returned, I asked my parents if I could sell them some spinach and green onion seedlings from the vegetable garden. The mother picked out some of the vegetables she had grown for them, thinking that the people who went out to work were the same as her own children, and some of them took their families to cook for themselves, which was not easy, and confiscated their money. Soon after, a simple road about three kilometers long was built between the rivers.
On October 1, 2015, the Shitian Expressway connecting Tianshui and Shiyan, Hubei Province was opened to traffic. The breakthrough of the highway has resounded the new wind of the ancient road across time and space. Since then, the road to Shu is no longer difficult. This is a road of rejuvenation from Qin to Long and Jianghan. The rolling traffic in a flash, when it comes to modern people, I am afraid that it is not only the Longxi cloth clothes in the Tang Dynasty who raised a glass to invite the bright moon, but even the down-and-out wanderer who passed by Tietangxia in the winter of 759 in the Tang Dynasty will also rewrite the "heart of the Tietangxia Wind Wanderer".
"The mountain wind blows the wanderer, and the ethereal ride is desperate. The gorge-shaped Tibetan hall god, the wall color is iron. The trail is full of sky, and the stone is cracked with the thick earth. Repair the fiber of the boundless bamboo, embedded in the beginning of the snow. Wei Chi was sad and unhappy. The water is cold and the ice is crossing, and my horse is broken bones. The career is against the arc, and the thieves are not extinguished. Fluttering for more than three years, looking back on dry lung fever. "Reading Du Fu's poem "Tietangxia", suddenly people have a sense of epiphany that wakes up the person in the dream.
Wei Wei Ridge Tomb Mountain, Long Western Han Water. Guantun Ridge, a watershed. Ten miles of Changban Slope Beam, Menniugou, Jiang Weibao, Tietangxia, Tianshuiguan, Yanjing and Lucheng, Fajing Temple and Qiuchi poems, a series of landscapes and geographical thoughts, in a moment of triggered wonderful feelings, clearly present a sense of transparent historical context, so that a glance at the thousand-year-old human cultural traces, reveal the historical face hidden in the ancient road.
In retrospect, because I was too familiar with this river, and because of my ignorance and stupidity, I once erroneously regarded it as an ordinary and unsightly river.
This hometown river, this small river that has flowed for thousands of years, after reading the local historical records since the Qing Dynasty, I know that it is called Xixi Water in the written records of the ancients about the landscape.
At that time, it was normal only to say. This small river, which is called Xiahe or Menniugou by the villagers, shows the depth and vicissitudes of its history. From the past all the way, in the background of witness and precipitation, the humanistic waves about the ancient road have been nurtured and born.