Qinghai News Network · Damei Qinghai Client News China's great rivers north and south, clothing, food, housing and travel habits are very different, just to sleep, there is a difference between the southern bed, the northern sleeping kang. I believe that every authentic Qinghai person grew up in a sleeping kang and is not unfamiliar with it. In the severe winter season of counting nine, the north wind outside the door whistles, as long as you lie on the hot kang, you immediately feel warm and melted; the cropper who returns home from work and fatigue lies down on the kang, stretches out his limbs, and for a while the body and mind will be relaxed; in his leisure time, he wraps the futon, lies on the warm kangtou, quietly flips through the reading materials, and sighs at the comfort of time; in the winter vacation, he lies on the kang, wraps the quilt while watching the drama while eating snacks, and is at ease; a family of old and young people huddled on the hot kang, gossiping and homely, while eating a pot of hot potatoes, Life was so comfortable... In retrospect, those years spent on kang are probably the most memorable memories of many Qinghai people.
Nowadays, even if the rural wooden houses have become brick houses and cement houses, and even many farmers have relocated to live in high-rise buildings, the room will still make a kang, even if it is not the kind of hot kang of the farmhouse, you can see the old woman sitting on the kang, half leaning against the stacked futon, wearing reading glasses and doing needlework sharply by the window. In fact, Kang is the continuation of the traditional customs left over from generation to generation in this land, and it is also the fiery feeling of Qinghai people for life.
Qinghai is located in the high cold, summer is short and winter is long, the temperature difference between morning and evening is large, and it is not easy to heat, so in the past, people of all ethnic groups formed the habit of sleeping kang, and every household had a soil kang. With the improvement of heating conditions, the habits of some urban people sleeping on kang have changed, but so far the hot soil kang in some farmers' homes is still one of the essential products for winter heating, especially the homes of the elderly must have kang.
Most of the kang in Qinghai is made of grass mud, so it is also commonly known as mud kang. The characteristics of mud kang are practical, economical, long thermal insulation time, and are not prone to fire. There are not many materials needed to make mud kang, just some stone slabs, mud, kang soil, broken grass and so on. When doing mud kang, first determine the kang cave door outside the house, and then use the soil block to build a rectangular kang circle, and then make a channel for sending kang soil, broken grass and fire in it, divide the small partition wall on the top of the kang board, and then place the stone slab steadily on the kang circle, and then smear it with grass mud and wipe it out. When the grass mud is drying quickly, rub the kang noodles with a unique plant leaf until the kang surface turns green, and then apply flax water to make the kang noodle smooth, shiny and seamless. When the mud kang is basically dried, send the sun-dried kang soil to the kang cave, about two inches from the bottom surface of the kang, send dry grass, dried horse manure, sheep dung, and then put the fire on it, the fire will slowly ignite but there is no flame, the smoke will float out of the kang cave, the fuel will not burn out quickly, and the kang noodles will slowly warm up. Finally, spread dry wheat grass on the kang noodles, suck off the moisture of the kang noodles, called damp sweat, and burn them for a few days until the kang noodles are all dry before they can sleep.
Qinghai people call kang kang simmering. The fuel is generally wheat clothes, broken grass, horse manure, sheep dung, etc., of which the strongest firepower and heat durability are counted as sheep dung, so there is a folk saying: "Sheep dung slept on the kang for one night, burned the jiri and burned the back." ”
Simmering is a technical job. First of all, dry wheat grass, dry bark and other flammable firewood are stuffed into the kang cave and lit, these things must not be damp, otherwise they will not be lit. When the wheat grass is burned, and then covered with cattle and sheep manure, so that the firepower will be maintained for a longer time, there are also good conditions for people to use coal, generally coal is warmer than other fuels, and after these things are finished, they will use a long ash rake to evenly poke the ashes to each corner, and then gently plug the kang hole, and the thin air in the kang can basically keep the unburned firewood to continue to burn. After a while, the kang slowly became hot, and the whole house warmed up.
In some areas, the mud kang is more characteristic, the kang cave is left in the room, next to the chimney connected to the pot stove, wait for the rice to be ready, the kang is also hot, put on the kang table, put the meal on the kang table, the whole family can eat, this is the so-called: "the pot head is connected to the kang, eat and sleep connected." ”
In the past, many rural families could not afford to lay a good cover, and there was not even a piece of felt on the mud kang, but it was wiped clean. And Shangkang is the most enthusiastic etiquette for hospitality. Relatives and friends visit, neighbors visit the door, the host first invites guests to the hottest place to sit in kangtou, the elderly or elders naturally sit in the middle of the kang, called the seat. Then let the guests and hosts sit next to each other in turn, and the host then set up a Kang table in the center, brew strong tea, put on a steamed bun or a plate of soybeans, and say warmly: "The poor family has not eaten anything, and sat down on the hot kang to say a word." "The guests smoked old dry cigarettes, drank tea, chewed fried soybeans, ate coarse tea and light rice, talked unrestrained, and were like family.
Unconsciously, this mud kang has become the main place for the villagers to entertain guests. In the village, whenever there is a wedding or funeral matter, a special day or a big or small matter between the neighbors, the family members will gather together to discuss together, and the mud kang is the "discussion hall", the kang table is the "conference table", and many major events are finalized on this mud kang table.
Of course, in the long-term practice of life, people have gradually found that there are many uses in the mud kang in addition to heat preservation. The people believe that kang ash is the raw material for the farmer to fill the circle of fertilizer, in the spring, the kang ash shovel is put into the small vegetable garden and mixed with the soil, and then sprinkled with vegetable seeds, the vegetable growth will be very exuberant this year; the family woman gives birth to a child, this mud hot kang is the best place for confinement health, will not fall disease, but also help to treat arthritis, rheumatism, etc.; some hostesses will put the noodles into the pot mold, with ash rake sent to the hot kang hole, and soon the fragrant pot steamed bun will come out of the pot There are also some Hui compatriots who warm soup bottles at the entrance of the Kang Cave for bathing in the early morning; if the weather suddenly becomes cold, shovel a few shovels of wheat clothes or dry horse manure in the Kang Cave, after the smoke rolls over, the mud kang will become hot, and the room will be warm as spring; if it rains for consecutive days, the young daughters-in-law and girls will snuggle on the hot kang, tearing wool, twisting wool, rubbing hemp thread, embroidery, mending clothes, and shoe soles, and rushing to make needlework; once the autumn rain continues, the bundles on the wheat field are damp and cannot be milled, and the hot kang becomes a drying box, and for a few days, The wet ears of wheat become dry.
Nowadays, although the countryside is gradually urbanizing, and the mud kang is becoming less and less, but recalling the days when the economic conditions were relatively backward in the past, the mud kang has indeed brought endless warmth and happiness to the hard-working people.