Wen / Feng Jicai
I have a number of different tiger pillows, probably because I have too many entanglements with folk culture. Among them was a cloth-stitched tiger pillow, in the corner of the house, under a small table.
In the past, tiger pillows were often seen in villages around the central and southern parts of Shanxi, but now they are rarely seen. Tiger pillows are pillows for children to sleep on, sewn from cloth and filled with buckwheat husks. A vivid tiger head is made at one end of the pillow to protect the child. Northerners see tigers as masculine, used to drive away evil spirits and scare demons. This tiger pillow country woman mostly does. But now no one uses it, and young women can't do it.
In the past, the villages were closed, and the tiger pillows in each village had their own styles and practices, which were inherited from generation to generation and were different from each other. At the end of the last century, there were hundreds of tiger pillows and cloth tiger styles in the Jinzhong area of Shanxi. Now there is only one kind of Lihou tiger listed as a national intangible cultural heritage, which has become a tourist souvenir.
In 2001, before we carried out a comprehensive rescue of the folk culture in the land of China, we had to find a village with various cultures that were "complete", conduct sampling surveys, and make a standard "Census Manual" for everyone to use. At that time, we chose a small idyllic mountain village hidden deep in the Mountain Pass of Jin, Hougou Village, and went deep into it. That survey is memorable and rewarding. To this end, I also wrote a long article, "Yuci Hougou Village Sampling Expedition", which recorded the whole process of that fieldwork in an essay way.
At that time, in a family in the mountains, a middle-aged woman was sewing a tiger pillow. She uses various colors of rags to spell out the body of the tiger, one end of the tiger head is very careful, the square of a tiger face, colorful and distinct; horizontal eyebrows, grinning teeth, pig mane for tiger whiskers, colored thread for ear hair, all splicing, are outlined with yellow needle embroidery, really a little exquisite! This tiger is majestic and festive; at the other end of the tiger pillow, the tiger's tail is high and upturned, and it is more and more vivid.
I like, love its childishness, its real life emotions. Because this woman was so happy, she had to give it to me.
It's been almost two decades since that happened. It had been lying motionless and silent under my little table. But to this day, what it remembers is clearly the day of the month of the year in which our "rescue project" began.
Text/ Feng Jicai
I have several statues of Guan Gong. I like the folk definition of Guan Gong – loyalty, masculinity, exorcism. But this one in my study is a little special. One foot tall, stone carving, colorful, weathered, the left side of the face is even a little pastey, with a strong atmosphere of vicissitudes.
This is a pure folk deity, carved freehand, but extremely expressive, without a little artificial deliberateness, ghostly work, a natural. Guan Gong sat with his eyebrows furrowed, looking solemn and majestic. The only strange thing was that he held a short sword in his right hand. Generally, Guan Gong held a long-handled large sword, but he once held a sword?
The vendor who sold the idol said it was not a sword, it was a knife. This deity is engraved with "Guan Lao Ye Sharpening The Knife". I know that folklore says that the thirteenth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar is "Guangong Sharpening The Day", is it not water to sharpen the knife? Therefore, the day when The knife is sharpened by Guan Laoye is the rainy day of the old days. On this day, there is a custom in the Central Plains and the north, where villagers kneel to worship the heavens, perform Guan Gong dramas, eat noodles, and pray for rain; the broader meaning is to pray for the wind and rain and the abundance of grain. But who in ancient times has ever seen the statue of the god "Guan Lao Ye Sharpening the Sword"? I will believe it and invite it to my home. Some of the statues of Guan Gong in my collection are placed in the living room, and some are placed in the museum of the college. Only this "Guan Lao Ye Sharpening Knife" has been placed in the study for more than twenty years.
Not to pray for rain, nor to make this image rare, but because this statue is full of folk simplicity, frankness, childishness, casualness, and debauchery; the left half of the face may often be blown by the wind, weathered for a long time, the face is blurred, but the look is still there. Whoever has this temperament is the supreme beauty.
Published by Writers Publishing House in January 2020
Click to read "One World in the Study":
Self-prologue "The Study Says"
"Xinju Wang Mengbai Festival"
"Hardwood Stump, Tang Tank, Sanlao Dao Xitu"
"Small Window in the West Sun, Wild Birds, Scenery of the Four Seasons"
"Italian Little Book, LetterBreaker, Wind Chimes"
Books on the Shelf: Aftermath of the Aftermath and Potential Reading History
"The Revolution of the Study, The Moving Study, the Music of the Study"
"Idle Chapter, Pen Holder, Old Ink"
Manuscript · Self-Illustrated Illustration
Family Comics · The Original Manuscript