Qinglong Compound
Many of the names given to the hutongs in Beijing are very interesting, and some are incredible, such as the courtyard. Why the Hutong is called a courtyard, these are two different concepts, I have always been unclear. I know it's called the courtyard, the old Beijing has the garden compound next to the stele alley, the manure yard compound east of the grass factory Shitiao (later changed to the Fenzhang compound), the locust tree compound near Qiaowan'er, the loess pit compound near the Baita Temple, the Xinglong compound near Shichahai Houhai, the Chenghou compound in the west of the North Chizi, the stele compound in Xizhimen, the Gangjia compound in North Xinhua Street, the Luojia compound in Chaoyangmen Street, the bell compound in Chongnei Street, the Xinglong compound in Dengshikou Street, the Xinyi compound, the rich compound, etc., are very young and old.
It is very close to my home when I was a child, and there is also a Qinglong compound, walk East Xinglong Street, a little west of the public theater, and the road is north. As soon as I entered this alley, I don't know why there was a stone slab roof. The alley is very short, not straight, the south is fresh fish mouth, the north is Luanqing Hutong, the middle of the chamber is very large, like a person's suddenly bulging beer belly. In this place of beer belly, a spacious empty space is formed, with a bath on the west side and a high wall on the east side, planted with a half-wall creeper. When I was a child, my father used to take me here to bathe; My classmates and I often play football in this empty field after school or during the holidays.
I haven't been to the Qinglong compound for many years, and I came again, in the winter of 1972.
I returned to Beijing from the Great Northern Wilderness to visit relatives, and suddenly I wanted to see the eldest sister of the Lian family. Lian family lives in three main rooms in the front yard of our compound, with spacious eaves and high stone steps in front of the house. In my impression, there are no men in the Lian family, only Lian Jia's mother and Lian Jia's eldest sister, and Lian Jia's eldest sister is the only child of Lian Jia.
Lian's mother is from Guangdong, her health is not good, and she lives in a simple place, so I rarely see her. The eldest sister of the Lian family is much older than me, I just entered elementary school, and she is already in high school. I don't even have any impression of what my mother looks like, but the strange thing is that I always remember the appearance of my eldest sister. He is very tall, with a fair face, two long braids, and speaks softly and softly, in authentic Beijing dialect, unlike Lian Jiamu's mother who can't understand Cantonese.
I don't know the eldest sister of the Lian family very well. What impressed me the most is that the eldest sister of the Lianjia family, who has been doing her homework very well, failed the college entrance examination, and the reason for the failure was that before the exam, the mother of the Lianjia family specially gave her a Parker gold pen that was treasured at home, and I hoped that this gold pen would bring her good luck and get good results in the exam. Who would have thought that when answering the paper, Parker's pen could not be watered, and she could not write at all, so anxious that she shook the pen vigorously, and the ink finally threw out, but it was thrown on the test paper and her clothes. In the unexpected chaos, the eldest sister of the Lian family panicked and did not do well in the exam. Failing the college entrance examination is okay, but what I didn't expect the most was that the eldest sister of the Lian family has suffered from schizophrenia since then. At that time, no one knew about this disease, and it was too late for Lian's mother to take her to the hospital. When she came out of the hospital, she stayed at home all day. I met her by chance when I went to middle school, and she was already a little out of shape, and the beautiful eldest sister of the Lian family suddenly aged a lot.
One night in the spring of the year I graduated from high school, I was lying on my desk reviewing my homework when my eldest sister suddenly came to my house, which made me very strange that she had never been to my house in the backyard. She ignored my parents' greetings to her, walked straight to the table, and said to me: When you take the college entrance examination, don't use a fountain pen, you must use a ballpoint pen or pencil! This is said in a divine way, and I was stunned. After she finished speaking, she turned around and left, walked to the door, and turned back to me and said: Now we have the best study for you in the whole college, you must be admitted to a good university, don't repeat my mistakes! I was so moved by the fact that I hurriedly stood up and took a few steps to see her off. She's been a gust of wind and gone.
Before that, I didn't have much contact with the eldest sister of the Lian family, but the impression she left on me was very unforgettable. Probably because it was unforgettable, I thought that I should go to see the eldest sister of the Lian family.
At this time, Lian's mother was still there, and she and the eldest sister of the Lian family depended on each other. Lian's eldest sister's illness has been cured, do the math, she is thirty-five or sixteen years old, and she has never had a partner, and she has become the third big headache for Lian's mother after being sick and not working. I went to Lianjia's house, and Lianjia's mother told me that the sub-district office had found her a job a few days ago, and she was looking at the bicycle storage area. After that, Lian's mother sighed and said: I finally have a job, or I will leave, what will she do! Then tell me where the car is stored in the Qinglong compound, and ask me if I know where it is.
The parking lot is located in this open field, next to the east wall. Those who park their bicycles here mostly visit the fresh fish mouth and Dashilar during the day; In the evening, it is a person who goes to the public theater to watch a play. When I was a child, there was no parking lot here, and there were fewer people with bicycles at that time, and there were more and more bicycles, so this empty space came in handy.
When I came to the Qinglong compound, it was easy to find the eldest sister of the Lian family, and she recognized me at once. I saw that she was much better, but the marks on her face and body were too deep after the years. She was wearing a gray-blue overalls, which hid her youthful face. It stands to reason that thirty-five or sixteen is still a good age, but he looks so old. Thinking of her beautiful appearance before, I felt a little sad in my heart.
After she got off work, we went back to the old home together, talking while walking, and felt that she talked more than before, and the whole person was much more relaxed. I'm very happy for her. She said she didn't expect you to come and see me! After speaking, she smiled, and then said to me, when looking at the car, I am especially afraid of meeting acquaintances, you are here, I am not afraid! Then, she said, I heard your father say that you have published an article in the Great Northern Wilderness, I am really happy for you! It's a pity, just like me, I just didn't make it to college! Hearing her say this, I couldn't help but think of how she failed the college entrance examination back then. Her life was a bend from that time. If you are admitted to university, it will be a different way, how can you come here to see the bicycle?
It was a dusk after the snow, and the snow was thick, covered with branches, covering the roof, and in the reflection of the setting sun, the awe-inspiring white light that is unique to winter. The road was icy and a little slippery, and I helped her walk slowly, and the afterglow of the setting sun hit behind me, casting two shadows in front of us, thin and long, more than double our bodies. The shadows, dangling in front of us, could never step on them, let alone walk in front of them.
Fresh fish mouth
There is a couplet that strings together the names of places in Beijing: fresh fish mouth in Caoqiao in Huashi, and Madian Dayangfang in Niujie, which talks about fresh fish mouth. In the old city of Beijing, the fresh fish mouth is very famous. In the beginning, the Sanli River used to flow here, and there was a fish market on the bank, and the vendors who sold fresh fish often shouted here, and people called this place the fresh fish mouth. In the area of Xianyukou, after the first fish market, the meat market, the cloth market, the firewood market, the hat market, the shoe market, and the fruit market came out one after another, and it was a matter of the future (the meat market alley, the cloth alley alley, and the fruit market alley, which still exist).
Where there is water, it was once a thriving place, and the history and reputation of Xianyukou are earlier than the Dashilar opposite. The commercial center of the capital has moved south from the Gulou Shichahai area in the north of the city to outside the front gate, and the fresh fish mouth and Dashilar have been facing each other from east to west, echoing each other from afar.
The fresh fish mouth that has been opened again with heavy drums has been open for more than 10 years. Of the 12 time-honored brands that were originally claimed to have been newly opened, only three were the old stores, namely Cheap Fang, Tianxingju and Jinpu Zhang, and the remaining 9 were not.
In my childhood and even my youth, fresh fish mouth was not like this. At that time, if you only take the current golden cake Zhang as the starting point, to the west exit of Xianyukou, the south of the road is the golden cake Zhang, Lianyou photo studio, hotel, black monkey department store and Tian Laoquan felt hat shop; To the north of the road are Tianxingju, Huaqingchi, Cheap Square, Tianchengzhai Shoe Store, and Ma Juyuan Hat Store.
There are many time-honored shops in Xianyukou, and the shops are lined up one after another, although there is no Dashilar with the same big business as Ruifuxiang and Tongrentang, but there are no fewer shops than Dashilar.
The fresh fish mouth should not stop at this section of the street today. During the orthodox period of the Ming Dynasty, because of the flood discharge in the southeast moat of Zhengyangmen, there was only the river water, which was later called the Sanli River, and the West Grinding Factory and the North Xiaoshun Hutong flowed through this place, and there was a fresh fish mouth, and there was the place name of the small bridge and the ladder Hutong. Ladder Hutong is named after the river embankment that climbs up in the shape of a ladder; The place name of Xiaoqiao is born by the edge of the river, and there is this place name in the Ming "Jingshi Wuchengfang Lane Hutong Collection", which shows that it has a long history. In the past, there was a small bridge non-staple food store, operating daily department stores such as meat, eggs, fish, shrimp, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar. It refers to the Kobashi Grocery Store. The Kobashi store existed until around 2006. It is said that the small stone bridge is buried under the grocery store. Fresh fish mouth actually refers to the east and west banks of the small bridge. Today, the newly developed and renovated fresh fish mouth is only a part of the west coast.
The book "Jingchen Miscellaneous Records" said: "In the old days, the stall class was mostly in the fresh fish mouth outside Zhengyang Gate. "Tianyuan is the public theater after the founding of New China, in the east of Xiaoqiao, which shows that the old Xianyukou is a continuation of the Tianyuan area (now the newly built Tianyuan is no longer in the original site, but moved far to the west, and the appearance is unrecognizable).
On the east and west sides of Tianyuan, there are the famous pharmacy Changchun Hall and the dumpling shop Zhengming Zhai, both of which I was still alive when I was a child. Tianyuan was first opened in the 50th year of Qianlong, that is, in 1785, and is one of the oldest opera gardens in Beijing. Changchun Hall was opened in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, and was famous for inventing the plague to avoid dispersion and selling well in the capital, defeating the popular Japanese Rendan at that time. Zhengming Zhai was opened in the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, and was famous for the Manchurian pastries that the Empress Dowager Cixi and General Zhang Xueliang and Hao Shouchen and other artists loved to eat. Without these three, the fresh fish mouth would not be so lively.
When I was a child, my father often took me to the Popular Theater to watch Pingju, and Xin Fengxia and Xiao Bai Yushuang were flourishing there at that time. I have also been to Changchun Hall to buy anti-plague powder, to Zhengmingzhai to buy dim sum, to the golden cake to buy hawthorn cake. About 20 years ago, the carved brick walls and the second-story building of the Changchun Hall with arched doors and windows were still there; The lintel of the lacquer painting under the eaves of Zhengming Zhai is still there; The two-story octagonal corner building of the golden cake Zhang, although the old dragon clock is still there; The wordless vicissitudes of life are all telling the glory of the past.
Another feature of the Xianyukou shop is that there are many hat shops and shoe shops, not just the current snack street. In the early days of the peaceful liberation of Beiping, there were still 7 hat shops and 9 shoe stores. The most famous shoe store is, of course, a few days of fasting; The most famous hat shop is Ma Juyuan. There is a folk proverb in old Beijing: the pedal is inline, and the head is worn by a horse to gather the source. Although it is not said that Tianchengzhai is here, it has double face cloth shoes, foot green cloth surface, all-inclusive soles, and two leather faces in front, which are good-looking, sturdy and not expensive, and are the first choice for ordinary people in old Beijing to buy shoes. There are also two old shops in the hat shop, Yang Xiaoquan and Tian Laoquan, because there are wooden black monkeys in front of the two stores, they are called the old black monkey shop, and they have almost become a symbol of fresh fish mouth. Until the founding of the People's Republic of China, the black monkey shop is still operating in the fresh fish mouth, and even in the 90s of the 20th century, although it changed its name and changed to sell haberdashery, it still stands tenaciously in the same place, the old neighbors buy cloth, buy cotton, buy needles and threads, and will still greet each other cordially: go, go to the black monkey!
Books such as "Chaoshi Congzai" and other books have records of fresh fish mouths. Let's make up for the shops that we have forgotten. The most famous in the southwest of the intersection is Yang Xiaoquan's black monkey felt hat shop, in the southeast there are socks Guo, Nanjian shop Yihehao, there is Kui Yi Zhai who specializes in selling Wowo bee cake, there is Yu Sheng Zhai who specializes in vegetarian dim sum, there is Tianfutang that specializes in medicinal liquor, and there is Dongyang Hao that specializes in Jiangmi liquor. To the west of the small bridge, the Lianyou photo studio opened behind the former site of the original Xianju; The north of the road is close to Ma Juyuan, and there is Tiancheng Zhai. To the east of the small bridge, there is a monopoly on Beijing's eight famous East Daxing by Zhengming Zhai. Old Beijing, large and small eight pieces are particular about selling, can not be eggplant gourd together, reflecting the art industry has a specialization and food exquisiteness, so, it and Zhengming Zhai although next to each other, but because it is not homogeneous and parallel, each has its own business.
In particular, it should be said that there is a small alley as narrow as a leek next to the east side of the original site of the cheap shop (this alley is still there before the renovation of Xianyukou), don't look narrow, but there is a hole in the sky, there is a quyi club inside, talking about cross talk, singing big drum books, similar to the small theater of the front door that once existed in Dashilar, it is an entertainment place for ordinary people.
Imagine, if these old stores can be excavated and developed one after another, what kind of situation will it be? There are eating, drinking, and playing, listening to operas, listening to operas, and taking photos to leave a memorial of old Beijing. Such a street scene with a market atmosphere and civilianism is the characteristic of Xianyukou, which far exceeds the characteristics of today's snack street. This feature is different from Dashilar across the street, which is also a commercial street, Dashilar is led by Ruifuxiang and has many large businesses, while Xianyukou is a gathering of many small shops with their own selling points. Taking selling shoes as an example, the old Beijingers said that officials and bosses buy shoes to go to Neiliansheng, and they work hard to buy shoes to go to Tianchengzhai. It can be seen that the commercial culture here pays attention to the neighborhood relationship, pays attention to the small profits and quick turnover, pays attention to the fragrance of flowers, and the people are virtuous.
For the old Beijingers, they miss the civilian characteristics of fresh fish mouth even more. For our old neighbors, we will say to visit Dashilar, but we do not say to visit the fresh fish mouth, generally only say to go to the fresh fish mouth, the difference between the word, especially reflects the ease of the fresh fish mouth, it is closely related to the ordinary life of the people.
When I was a child, on Sundays, my father would always take me to the Xinghua Bath to take a bath, and then go to the Tianxingju next to the east of the bath to eat a bowl of fried liver. It costs five cents for a dime to take a bath (children don't need money), and it costs 8 cents to buy a bowl of fried liver, which is not expensive. In the 60s of the 20th century, in the summer, there was a stall in front of the Xinghua Bath, specializing in selling shaved ice, which was poured with brightly colored juice, and it was particularly dazzling under the light at night, which was also an unforgettable scene.
Before I left Beijing for the Great Northern Wilderness at the age of 21, almost all the photos were taken in Lianyou Photo Studio. At that time, every time my sister came home from Inner Mongolia, she would take my brother and me to Lianyou Photo Studio to take a group photo. Before going to the Great Northern Wilderness, my father took me to Ma Juyuan to buy a leather hat, and I have been wearing it in the winter of the Great Northern Wilderness for six years, which is so warm that I always think of home.
The black monkey is very kind to me, it is the store that my mother has been to the most, and the black monkey gives her the greatest trust and convenience. The deepest impression is the year when the cotton ticket was used last, half a pound of cotton, and my mother also had to run there to buy it, a piece of bean yellow straw paper was wrapped in the middle, and the cotton exposed at both ends was stained on my mother's body, as if she had just come out of the cotton field.
Later, when I moved far away from Xianyukou, I often went there, sometimes to buy things, sometimes to buy nothing, but I always felt that I could still see my mother's shadow. I remember that my son had just entered middle school and was going to military training, and the teacher asked to buy a military kettle, and almost half ran to Beijing City, and finally I said to the black monkey to see it, and I really bought it there. That was in 1992. In a flash, the days flew by, and when it came to the black monkey, it was still so kind, as if it was my neighbor.
I have to talk about bargains. The old bargain shop, originally in the rice market alley, closed down during the Japanese invasion of Beijing in World War II, and later moved to Xianyukou to open the old banner. The wooden two-story building stood until it was demolished in 2008.
In the 80s of the 20th century, after having a child, I once took him there to eat roast duck. Interestingly, that day, I happened to meet a deserted friend who was also in the Great Northern Wilderness, who made a small fortune in business after returning to the city, and married us "a flower on Daxing Island", a beautiful Shanghai educated youth. He saw me from afar and got up from his seat and walked over to me. I haven't seen you for many years, but I'm very happy. After greetings, he pulled me aside, pointed to a man in his seat and whispered to me that he was inviting this wild friend who is also in the Great Northern Wilderness to eat roast duck, this wild friend works in the Education Bureau, and asked me if I knew each other? I looked closely, and I really knew each other, not only did I know, but I also knew my classmates in middle school. He immediately said, "Then you are really too coincidental, you have to help me today!"
It turned out that a few days ago, he did not forget the old feelings, and specially went back to his alma mater to visit the teacher, and saw that his homeroom teacher's family lived in a crowded small house. Seeing that the road was uneven, he drew a knife to help, he found this wild friend who was a small boss in the Education Bureau, and asked him to help dredge the relationship with the principal, saying that how much money it would cost, he would pay it, and he would have to let his teacher share the house. Interestingly, when he was in school, he was a mischievous Ga Zazi Liuqiu, and the head teacher didn't want to see him.
He was so righteous and touched me. I followed him straight up to this classmate of mine. My classmates saw it was me and sat there smiling at me. I was about to speak to him when he spoke first: Reinforcements are coming! Then he pointed to this desolate friend beside me and said, did he invite you here? Stress me? I hurriedly said to him: coincidence, pure coincidence. It's not pressure, it's motivation! He waved his hand and said with a smile: Okay, don't say anything. You two don't worry, okay?
Speaking of this, after chatting with him for a few words, I asked the two of them to continue eating and drinking, and then discussing specific matters, walked aside, and took the children to sit down and order.
After eating the roast duck, he waved to the two of them from afar, and left with the child after settling the bill. Unexpectedly, a waiter in the back chased out of the door and chased him all the way to Xianyukou Street, holding a roast duck in his hand, and said to me: It was given to you by your friend.
Because of such a special experience, the wilderness friend of the Great Northern Wilderness made me have an indescribable feeling for the cheap square.
The renovation of Xianyukou, for some reason, demolished the cheap shop of the two-story small building and moved east to the edge of the current east side road. This makes me a little disappointed and sad for the bargain. The old store is most afraid of moving, and the content contained in the old store is integrated, including the old brand, the old recipe, the old cooking method, and the old address. The old store has changed places, and its vitality has been greatly damaged, or even completely gone.
I've never been to the bargain shop again, but I often think of the little two-story wooden building.
Six must live
Liubiju, renovated a few years ago, fortunately still in the original site, has become one of the few old shops in the Qianmen area to check in.
Liubi lives in the grain store street. This is an old street, not wide, in the east of Dashilar, together with the hand jewelry market, and the coal market street west of Dashilar is two symmetrical lines, guarding Dashilar, like two moats of the canal, or like the two thresholds before and after, so that Dashilar is not so open-minded, unobstructed. This is the ancients' emphasis on building streets and alleys, staggering horizontal and vertical lines into a chessboard-like layout, with the feeling of blood connection and deep winding paths, rather than opening up any street into a spacious street.
Nowadays, the coal market street has existed in name only, and when the west side road was expanded a few years ago, it was basically demolished. The grain store street is fortunate to have been preserved to this day, although it is dilapidated, and the low-end vendors are as crowded as the garlic cloves in the small shops, but it is not easy to have all the beards and tails. However, although it is an old street, there are only two remaining remnants on the street, one is Zhonghe Cinema, and the other is Liubiju, and the two are close to each other.
Nowadays, the Liubiju store is equipped with a light box of "Liubiju: a time-honored Chinese brand, founded in the ninth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1530)" in a conspicuous position. In fact, such a date is just a legend, and there is no exact research, some people have verified that Liubiju actually opened in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, and the difference between Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty is more than 100 years. However, even if it is more than a hundred years late, the years are old enough.
In the old days, the Beijing Sauce Garden was divided into the Old Sauce Garden, the Beijing Sauce Garden and the South Sauce Garden, as well as the Beijing Sauce Garden, the South Sauce Garden and the Shandong House. If the division of the latter is taken as an example, Liubiju belongs to the Jingjiang Garden; The representative of the South Sauce Garden is Tianyuan of Xidan, which opened in the eighth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1869); The Shandong house was opened by Shandong people, represented by Gui Xinzhai in Tiemen Hutong, which opened in the Qianlong period (1736-1795). It can be seen that if you look at it from the perspective of the year, Liubi Juzu can firmly sit on the top spot in the pickle garden in Beijing.
From the history of staggering to today, the original capital of many including the so-called five sauce gardens (Liubiju, Tianyuan, Tianzhangyong, Tianyicheng, Baorui), only Liubiju and Tianyuan are left, and due to the expansion of Xidan Road, the old site of Tianyuan does not exist, Tianyuan is like a lonely ghost drifting to a corner of the mouth of fresh fish. Only Liubiju is a monopoly, standing on the site of the old street, sitting and watching the clouds roll up for hundreds of years, standing still. Not only that, but also magnificently renovated, old trees and new flowers, heavy spring breeze, it should be said that it is not simple, and it is not easy.
Historically, Liubiju has been reopened four times, one is in 1900 when the Dashilar fire affected the grain store street, burning down the old Liubiju store; One was during the Republic of China, Liubiju accidentally caught fire; One was in 1989, which lasted two years to paint and decorate the old and new looks; Once again, it was a major overhaul from previous years.
Two days ago, I went to Liubiju again and saw that scaffolding was erected in front of its door and it was being renovated again. The original pickle brewing workshop behind the store has now been transformed into the Liubiju Museum, and the façade is also being renovated. If you do the math, this is the fifth renovation, which is enough to show that it is not willing to be left behind in the new era.
Pickles were born in the agricultural era because of the problem of preserving vegetables at that time to cope with the need for green and yellow. Nowadays, with the use of new technologies such as greenhouses, fresh vegetables are available all year round, and it is not a problem to transport vegetables from the south to the north; It is also said that nitrite in pickles is not good for health; It is very difficult for pickles to regain their vigor and come out of the rivers and lakes again. I believe that the appetite and taste of old Beijingers trained by Liubiju's pickles, spices and yellow sauce over the past hundreds of years will not be lost with time, nor will young people disdain. It is said that the taste of Beijing should include the taste of the yellow sauce and sweet noodle sauce in the old Beijing fried noodles, including the taste of chewing a few cloves of sugar and garlic when shabu mutton, including the taste of dipping a plate of vinegar when eating dumplings, and the taste of a plate of shredded pickles when drinking a bowl of gruel...... Then, as long as these flavors remain unchanged, Liubiju has the need for existence and room for development.
When I was a child, my home was very close to Liubiju, and my family, including many neighbors in our compound, was as familiar as visiting Liubiju, even if I bought a little yellow sauce and cheap mustard gnocchi, I also had to come to Liubiju. In fact, there is an oil and salt shop called Taishan Yong opposite our compound, and these things are sold there. However, everyone still believes in Liubiju, and the price is not much expensive. Interestingly, the neighbors generally go to Mount Tai Yongdu to buy pickles, and to Liubiju to buy pickles, the difference of one word, revealing people's preference for Liubiju.
There are many legends about Liubiju, the most famous of which is that the plaque of Liubiju is written by Yan Song, a traitor minister of the Ming Dynasty, which I have heard adults tell since I was a child, although it is just a legend, but it is a common word.
Secondly, why is Liubiju called this name? Legends are different, and there are different opinions. To sum up, there are several sayings: one is that there were six people who partnered to open a store, named "Six Hearts", when Yan Song was asked to write, Yan Song felt that six people and six hearts, how could this store open well, so he added an extra skim to the word "heart" and became the word "must". One is to open the door seven things, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar tea, except for the tea is not sold, the remaining six pieces are sold, and they are all necessary for life every day, so it is named Liubiju. One is that there are six rules that must be done before the opening of Liubiju, namely, millet rice biqi (referring to raw materials), qu tiller bishi (referring to the formula), Zhanzhi Bijie (referring to soaked koji), ceramic biliang (referring to the pickled vat), fire must be obtained (referring to the fire of operation), and Shuiquan Bixiang (referring to water).
There have always been many legends of Liubiju. Of these legends, the last one, in my opinion, is closer to reality. Because, the so-called Yan Song's inscription of the name of the store is originally a legend, and it is not true; When the store was first opened, the three Zhao brothers of Linfen, Shanxi joined forces, and it was impossible to say that the six hearts were dwelling. These last six things that must be done are said to be the rules set by the Zhao brothers when they opened the liquor shop before opening the Liubiju, and they have been consistent and continued to operate the pickle shop. This is the self-discipline of traditional merchants, and it is also the foundation for Liubiju to be able to stand alone in the pickle garden in Beijing.
Today's shop looks much like what I saw when I was a child, with a front row of counters, except that the original black lacquered wood counters have been replaced by glass doors. The most familiar blue and white porcelain pickle jars placed in the upper and lower rows in a stepped shape are polished with a bright straight reflection, and stand there steadily, as if they have been standing for hundreds of years. What makes me feel even more intimate is that the ingot-shaped oil basket also stands in the last row, which is a gift full of all kinds of pickles for the New Year's festival in the past. Sometimes, I really feel that what kind of things must have what kind of utensils to match, for the pickles of Liubiju, the sale must be blue and white jars, and the purchase must be ink-colored oil baskets, if the oil baskets are replaced with plastic bags to buy pickles, you can eat them yourself, and you will not fit if you give them away.
Two days ago, I went to Liubiju again, and although the door was being renovated, there were still many customers, and there was a queue of people buying pickles inside. I deliberately took a look at the mustard gnocchi, it is an old thing of Liubiju, it is the public's housekeeping dish, I sold 7 cents per catty when I was a child, and now, 7.8 yuan per catty, the change of numbers contains the vicissitudes of the world. The traditional black cabbage with soy sauce and sweet sauce has not been seen for many years, and now it is restored, which can be regarded as a long face for Liubiju. However, there are still not enough new varieties, and Liubiju once had more than 100 kinds of pickles and condiments. For example, I haven't seen its later innovative sweet and spicy osmanthus silk. I remember that more than 40 years ago, when I returned to Beijing from the Great Northern Wilderness to visit relatives, I went to Liubiju to buy eight treasure pickles, and when I was about to bring them back to the Great Northern Wilderness for the spring famine, I once saw the sauce bergamot, and I felt very fresh and deeply remembered. In recent years, I have come to Liubiju many times to look for sauce Buddha's hand, and this time I have been searching again, but I still haven't been able to relive my old dream.
This time, I only bought some sweet garlic and eight-treasure pickled melon. The taste of sweet garlic is okay, but garlic is not as particular as it used to be. In the past, the sugar garlic of Liubiju was different because all the garlic selected came from the "white skin six petals" of the Li family of Changxin store and the Fan family of Zhao Xin store. Each head weighs one, two, two, three, and seven or eight heads must be one catty. Moreover, the garlic must be taken out of the ground three days before the summer solstice, and it must be pureed so that it is fresh, and the pickled sugar garlic is crispy. The sweet garlic I bought, not to mention six cloves, is also the size of grandparents and grandchildren. Don't underestimate pickles, the things that our ancestors paid attention to, what you can see is the appearance, and what you can't see is kung fu and mental strength.
The eight-treasure pickled melon is really good. Salty and sweet, the melon is crispy and fragrant, after all, it is still Liubiju. Suddenly remembered such a past incident as Liubiju, during the fire during the Republic of China, an old man in the store broke into the sea of fire and risked death to snatch out the plaque of "Liubiju". The boss of Liubiju was very moved, and appointed this old guy as a "lifelong friend" and a lifelong "high fortune". It can be seen that both the guy and the boss value the brand of Liubiju. Because this brand has the history of the old store, the reputation of the old store, and the exclusive cheats and ethics of the old store itself. It's not just for the sake of profit, hang up the old store's sign to show off.
This is a real story, not a legend.
Village Restaurant
Country Restaurant, is a nice name. I have always believed that such a name was given after the peaceful liberation of Beiping. The yard was built after demolishing a low, dilapidated old house. The courtyard walls are made of concrete latte art, and there are several Western-style high windows on both sides of the gate, and the outside is equipped with wrought iron railings. The gate is painted bright red, which is different from the big red door of the old mansion of the palace in the past, there is no stone lion in front of the door, there is no hairpin on the door, and there is no drum stone pier on both sides of the door. The key is that above the gate, there is a big red five-pointed star, which is angular and angular, abrupt and three-dimensional, and an obvious sign of the new era, and all the old courtyards on an old street in the West Grinding Factory, showing a completely different style, quite a feeling of standing out from the crowd.
In the early days of the liberation of Beiping, the village hotel became a compound for the families of the troops, and all the people who lived in it were military cadres and their families and children. Probably because the West Grinding Factory is close to the imperial city and the railway station, many military personnel are willing to live in this old street after entering the city. To the west of the West Mill, there are several houses that resemble village restaurants, and some have demolished old houses and built buildings on flat ground. However, they are all guest houses for the army, and some of them are the residences of the military leaders. There is only one rural hotel where so many military cadres and their families live in a concentrated area. This kind of housing pattern has led to changes in the pattern of personnel composition, quite like the later popular "mixed sand", these newcomers who live in can be distinguished from the accent of speaking, the posture of walking, and the original old Beijingers on the street have formed two different groups, both on the surface and in the heart, are secretly working hard. Sometimes when walking on the street, each other will walk on both sides of the street, and they will not walk on the other.
The country restaurant has always been a bit of a secretion for me. There were a few of my elementary school classmates living there, and although I had a good relationship at school and could play together, I never went to the compound, and they never invited me to their compound.
Probably ashamed of themselves, there are all officers of the Communist forces living there, and even the old Red Army who participated in the Long March. Although my father also served in the army, he was in the Kuomintang army. The descendants of the two diametrically opposed camps, although they live in the same old street, there is naturally a clear distance between the people who live in the village restaurant and the compound of our Yuedong Old People's Hall, and an old street, like a river, separates us on both sides.
The "Cultural Revolution" broke out, and the courtyard wall of our Yuedong Hall was pasted with a big-character poster of "The temple is small and the magic is big, and the pool is shallow and the king is eight"; I saw with my own eyes that many people were pulled out of the courtyard by the rebels, and even some old Red Army soldiers were stuffed into the trunk of a car and dragged to be criticized. The messy old street has reached equal treatment for the only time.
Many years ago, I accompanied a friend from other places to visit the front door, and by the way, I took him to see the old street of the West Mill Factory, and walked to the gate of the country restaurant, and happened to meet a female classmate from primary school. Although they haven't seen each other for decades, they can still recognize each other at a glance. Most of the families who live in rural restaurants, after their parents implemented the policy, have already moved out of a new house, and for some reason, she still lives here.
She invited us into the hospital to sit at her house. I didn't go, and I felt that she wasn't sincere, just polite. As for why she still lives in a country hotel, I once asked a few old friends, some of them were at a loss, and some said that it might be that her parents had a problem, or died prematurely, or someone left the tea to cool down, or the official position was demoted, and so on. And so on. The vicissitudes of the world will only appear after the turbulent changes of the times, just like the dead shells and broken fishing nets can be seen on the beach after the tide recedes. The fishing net is no longer the fishing net in Pushkin's "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Goldfish" that can give you whatever you want.
In 2018, during the October Literary Activity Month in Beijing, I took a group of young people to visit the front door, walked to the West Grinding Factory, and walked to the Village Hotel, only to find that the Village Hotel had just been demolished, and the exterior walls were still there, the high windows were still there, the red gate was still there, and the angular five-pointed star was still inlaid on the wall. But the houses inside were all demolished. The group of young people looked fresh and rushed in, and I followed in. This was the first time I had entered a country hotel, and what I saw was a ruined wall and a ghost standing there. Think back then, compared with the crowded dilapidated old houses on the old street, how brilliant the red brick houses here used to be, and what a magical existence of an old street in the West Grinding Factory.
Stepping on the broken bricks and tiles all over the ground, I walked from the front yard to the back yard, only to find that its pattern was completely different from the old courtyard, and the rows of houses were the appearance of the army barracks. Such a new-style courtyard has coexisted with the old guild hall and the old inn compound for more than 70 years, which is a miracle of the West Grinding Factory. It is not only a miracle of architectural compatibility, but also a miracle of cultural coexistence and mutual penetration, as well as a miracle of class division, interweaving, reconciliation and tolerance.
These young men asked me to tell me about the history of the country hotel, and I talked about everything I had written earlier. However, I didn't say the following paragraph-
My first love when I was young used to live here. We are elementary school classmates, so we can say that we are childhood sweethearts. Her father used to be an old Red Army. My father used to be a soldier in the Kuomintang. When I was a child, I was carefree and unfamiliar with the world, and all this was not obvious; When I got older, I realized that this was an insurmountable distance, just like when she lived in a country hotel and I lived in the Yuedong Hall, although they belonged to the same street, the historical distance has been invisibly but intentionally or unintentionally widened.
The impression in my memory is so clear. By the time we were in middle school, our relationship grew closer. During the winter and summer vacations, she often came to my house to chat with me, or the snow and the red stove, or the hot wind and cold moon, and often chatted until she forgot the time. The feelings of youth are hazy, but they are as clear and transparent as water, so innocent and beautiful. In the summer vacation of my sophomore year of high school, I didn't see her for many days, and I really wanted to go to her house to find her and see if she was delayed by something, could it be that she was sick? However, when I walked to the door of the country hotel, I always stopped. I've never been in a country restaurant, and I'm a little timid, and the reason for my timidity is actually low self-esteem. After all, I live in the Yuedong Guild Hall, and the country hotel is a bit high-minded, and there is a sense of oppression for me.
Afterwards, she once laughed at me and said, why are you so timid, what's wrong with the big tiger in our yard? Can I eat you?
At that time, the country restaurant was a big tiger for me.
That summer vacation, I wandered in front of the country hotel many times, and I was afraid to move forward, but every time I thought in my heart, if she could come out at this time, it would be good to stand at the gate. However, at the gate, I never saw her once, but I saw her father once. At dusk, her father was walking out of the door with a banana fan, chatting with the neighbors. I was afraid that he would see me, so I fled. Actually, her dad didn't know me at all.
Today, the country hotel has been demolished into ruins, and I don't know what it will look like in the future.
The Yuedong Hall is still there, although most of it has been demolished, but it is still the same as the old, the pattern has not changed, and it is still the old appearance of the Yuedong Hall.
reminds me of an old poem written by Yu Dafu: A dream of fireworks in March, ten years of old things come back.
Not ten years old, but seventy years. Standing in the ruined courtyard of a 70-year-old rural hotel, my mind was chaotic.
Beijing Literature, No. 3, 2024