An old boatman
Remembering the "rewind" of life in Jialingjiang
Zheng Xuechao
The river breeze blows, and the thoughts linger. He-Xu Fangqiang is a wanderer in Langzhong, a scholar, when he is old, the more homesickness becomes, "kissing the fallen wood, intoxicated with the vinegar fragrance of the city." He was born and raised in Langzhong, and settled in Nanchong in 1994, both of which are famous historical and cultural cities along the Jialing River. Xu Lao was born in 1947 and has been adrift on the Jialing River for many years. The "past and present life" of the Jialing River, "one side of the water and soil to raise the other side of the people", the coexistence of farming culture and modern civilization, he recalled a history of Jialing River shipping as a boatman, I believe that readers will be able to touch the river when they read it.
The statue of "Jialing River Women's Picker Team" on Binjiang Avenue in Nanchong City
"Life doesn't have a draft, and life can't be repeated." Xu Lao borrowed the term "rewind", just like a movie, sometimes clear, sometimes blurry, as if in another world. Xu Lao recalled his youthful years: his home was originally in the East Wanshou Palace of Langzhong City, adjacent to the Caotang Temple. Wanshou Palace is the site of the Liqun Silk Factory. The factory was opened by Xu's grandfather in the 40s of the 20th century, and after his grandfather died of illness, the factory was run by his grandfather's apprentice Feng Huankui. Wanshou Palace is a memory of his childhood, and the Jialing River Dam was born to be a children's paradise for their generation. The ancient embankment, the willow trees and hemp willow trees by the river have become a beautiful landscape. In the evening after school, I play hide and seek in the woods, startling the birds. In the summer and autumn season, sticky cicadas, chasing butterflies, catching dragonflies, catching grasshoppers, and not returning home. At night, fireflies fly in groups, a dream, these interesting scenes of childhood, Xu Lao vividly remembers. In his mind, he can only see these scenes of life in fairy tales and cartoons.
On the opposite bank of Yuwang Palace is Tazi Mountain. On the second, third and fourth days of the first lunar month, he would go with his parents to climb Tazi Mountain. Take a boat across the Jialing River by Ma Yongxi, only a stone's throw away from the shore, the river water is crystal clear, you can drink it with your hand, and it will not hurt your stomach. The road to the top of the mountain is a mountain stone, the width is unequal, about five feet, the stairs are artificially excavated, because there are many people walking, the edges and corners have been polished, and it is light and slippery. The White Pagoda is located on the top of the mountain, under the sunshine, the whole body is silver, which is lovely.
Baita Bridge on the Jialing River in Nanchong City
Ximen Hao, for the Jialing River flows through the ancient city of Langyuan in the west to form a drain Hao, about three or four kilometers long, about forty or fifty meters wide, the water of the Haonei River is turquoise, the place where children play in the water. Green mountains and green waters, wild geese in the sky, a red strip on the beach, fine and slippery little guys, and slim as if the next world, a generation of poetry saint Du Shaoling's "Langzhong victory can be broken, Langzhou city south of the world is rare" is the singing of this mountain and river shape of the place.
As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, there were Ba people who operated self-driving boats on the Jialing River for waterway transportation. The Jialing River has become an important water transport route in Pakistan, and in the Qin and Han dynasties, it became one of the important passages for the southwest ethnic groups to Guanzhong and the Central Plains. "Jialing Station" is an important post station on this post road. When did "Jialingyi" get its name? Nonsense. However, during the Changqing period of Tang Muzong (821-824 AD), Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhi and others compiled and printed the "Changqing Collection" recorded: "Today's Jialing Station is located here (Guozhou)." The Yuan Dynasty attaches great importance to post transport, set up 14 post stations in the Jialing River, 96 ships, to the Ming and Qing dynasties, all set up the Jialing post in Shunqing, and there are two water stations in the north and south. In the late Qing Dynasty, the post station was gradually reduced, and the post transport was abolished in the second year of the Republic of China (1913).
Between 1932 and 1933, when the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army marched into northern Sichuan, the Kuomintang authorities wantonly destroyed wooden boats in Peng'an, Langzhong, and Cangxi in order to prevent the Red Army from crossing the Jialing River. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Nationalist Government carried out Sichuan-Shaanxi water and land transport, and the Jialing River became an important channel connecting Sichuan and the northwest provinces. From Chongqing to the Jialing River, through Hechuan, Nanchong, Langzhong, Cangxi, Zhaohua up to Guangyuan. The road is two: one route from Guangyuan to Baoji, along the Sichuan-Shaanxi highway to use vehicles; Second, it was transported by Guangyuan to the Pingguan of Suyang. Yangpingguan car transport through Lieyang Highway to Liejinba, in order to reach Baoji. In addition to the land transportation above Yangping Pass, the water transportation from Chongqing to Yangping Pass is 1099 kilometers long. This line was an important passage between Sichuan and the northwestern provinces during the war. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Nationalist Government returned to Nanjing, and the military transportation institutions set up in Jialingjiang were successively dismantled. The Kuomintang unleashed a civil war, social unrest, economic depression, heavy taxes, a drastic reduction in the supply of goods, and a declining shipping line.
Nanchong City Nanmenba Ecological Park "War of Resistance to the End" statue
In April 1975, several wooden shipping companies in Langzhong went to the countryside to recruit workers, and Xu Lao (then 28 years old) turned from a young man to a boatman, and went to Langzhong County Dongfeng Shipping Company to pull a boat on his back, and he worked for 13 years, floating on the Jialing River and the East River all year round. The boat on the river is busy, the mountains on both sides of the river are reckless, the winter and spring are covered with snow and frost, the summer and autumn are chasing the waves, the laundry girl, the vegetable girl, whose girl and daughter-in-law? Rushing people, seeing patients sometimes take the river and the boatman's number......
Nanchong Binjiang Avenue Sculpture "Jialing River Goddess"
In the eyes of Xu Lao, the Jialing River is a river for food and livelihood, Repin's world-famous oil painting of "The Slender Man on the Volga", the old photos taken by Nanchong photographers on the "Longgan" (embankment) on the back of the slender boat, they are a condensed group portrait of the slender man's life, but it is only a silhouette section, the difficulty of the slender road is not in the river beach and "Longgan", but on the steep rock wall, when the boat is pulled up, the slender man has to land on the ground with his hands and feet to climb over, on one side is the slippery cliff, on the other hand is the surging river, with "fear" It's not an exaggeration. The boats on the beach are desperately pulling together, and the boats on the East River are still trampled on the water to carry and top. The ship on the water is basically an empty ship, from Langzhong to Guangyuan, it generally takes six or seven days, if the water, the wind, the fog, etc., ten days and a half months are not accurate. Launching a heavy ship and crossing the dangerous shoal is a fight for life. The ship carries thousands of pounds, and a rudder is the mainstay, which is about the relationship between the captain and the safety of a boat. But the captain alone is not enough, but also to put down the mast of the ship, tie an oar to the top, stretch out the bow of the boat, when going down the beach, listen to the captain's shouting command, pull the oar together, so that the boat is aligned with the correct channel, to avoid bad luck (gun, trapped bay). Xiangyan Buddhist Temple, Steep Beach, Yangjia River, Lao Ya Rock, etc. are all famous dangerous beaches, and the death of people often happens when the boat capsizes, Xu Lao said truthfully.
Nanchong Binjiang Avenue "Slender Man Statue"
When he was a shipwright, life was still very difficult, rations and non-staple foods were all rationed by fixed people, and the supply of vegetables was also very tight, mainly vegetables from the vegetable society, which had to be bought in line, and there were very few farmers who sold agricultural and sideline products. There are more than 200 shipwrights and logistics workers in Dongfeng Society, most of whom live in rural areas, and only two or three people live in Langzhong County. Although the life of a shipwright was very hard, but at that time there was a shortage of materials and means of subsistence, and the fact that a rural woman could marry a shipwright meant that the family had a supplementary source of fuel and food, firewood and coal could be brought from the ship, and meat (pigs, cattle, sheep) and eggs could be bought from the black market, and life was much better than the whole family working in agriculture.
At that time, Xu Lao pulled the boat from Wencheng to Wangcang Jiachuan, or from Langzhong to pull the boat Guangyuan, together with waiting for loading, a voyage was as little as ten days and a half a month, and more than half a month or even longer, and his mother was at home, hanging every day, hoping for the safe return of his son. He brought back some firewood for his family, and bought some eggs, bacon, and the like. But a few times, when Xu Lao came home, his mother fried rice with eggs, knocked the eggs open, and found that the eggs had gone bad, only to realize that Xu's mother was reluctant to eat them, so she kept them for her beloved son, and they were spoiled.
From the memory of Xu Lao, he carried the fiber on the side of the Jialing River, paddled on the river, the sails in the river were dotted, and the ships in the port could not see the end, and from the late 70s to the early 80s of the 20th century, it once flourished in barge transportation. The gradual decline of Jialing River shipping, or even silence, should not be regarded as a decline, but the completion and curtain call of its historical mission.
In the past, when bulk cargo mainly relied on water transportation, the state invested a lot of manpower and material resources to improve and maintain the waterway of the Jialing River, blow up reefs, build embankments, dredge, place navigation beacons, repair fiber roads, set up signal stations, and improve navigation conditions. Nowadays, with the Jialing River shipping gradually drifting away, the Jialing River cascade canalization, the rapids and rapids have become a thing of the past, the fiber road is more out of sight, Langzhong Shaxi to Jinyintai, the name has been crowned Jinsha Lake, yacht painting boat, jade. The boatman's horn, some people sing and no one roars.
"The trees are high on the hills, and the leaves fall in the wind. Once you have gone thousands of miles, why should you return to your old place?" Thoughts, tired of farming, leaves falling, flying to find roots, benevolent mother earth, must accept me this grain of dust, I don't know if the majestic sky, can I tolerate this wisp of smoke—— this is Xu Lao's extremely sad words.
In the study, his thoughts were like wisps, as if he was in the cabin, listening to the tide of the beach, the waves of the pillow, the waves of the pine, and the excitement of his heart! The poems are bubbling, half relieved, half melancholy!
This is an old boatman's long memories of life on the Jialing River.
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Source: Sichuan Provincial Office of Local Chronicles
Text/Photo: Zheng Xuechao (working for the People's Government of Jintai Town, Shunqing District, Nanchong City)