"Hey-bang!" The sound was deafening, and it shocked me! That voice, I am deeply impressed! "Hey-bang!" A feeling of tightness in the voice, still ringing in the ear from time to time; "Hey-bang!" Voice seems to be its strong and unyielding spirit of not bowing to fate; It seems that hope and expectation call our voice in time and years: be brave in innovation, never be rigid and never stagnate; That voice connects the original rhyme of "food is the most important thing for the people" with the rice bowls of thousands of families, extending the lives and dreams of farmers. It has become an eternal ballad in my memory.
One day, at the invitation of Director Chen of Sizhou Village Committee of Sizhou Island, Changzhou Town, Changzhou District, Wuzhou City, I visited his home on the island. When I set foot on the cement road into the village, I heard "squeak-bang!" Sound. This sound is a magical thing! I am interested in this kind of sound.
I walked lightly, observing and exploring. Close to "squeak-bang!" I heard voices coming from the woodshed by the roadside. The woodshed is located on the right side of the main house. Director Chen secretly explained to me that our country talks about Feng Shui, and the location of the woodshed is on the white tiger evil spirit of the house. Look at the name "White Tiger Evil" and you can imagine its terrible place. White tiger evil is the most harmful figure in geomantic omen. After listening to this, I was more curious about the mystery of the woodshed, so I stepped into the woodshed to find out. On the left of the woodshed is a pile of wood, and on the right are two middle-aged women who are playing rice. After greeting them, I realized that they were making glutinous rice flour and mugwort.
I looked at this stone vessel, which was sitting by and working silently. This kind of appliance is called "Shijie", which is a common household appliance of working people in China in the farming era and the crystallization of the wisdom of our national ancestors.
In household appliances, the stone pheasant is the simplest and most durable thing, the main tool for shelling and mashing grain, and it is a combination structure of stone and wood. It consists of a nest, a head and a body.
The "bird's nest" is a round nest carved by masons from the middle. It is 50-60 cm deep, with a funnel-shaped top, a small bottom and a very smooth surface. For stability, it was buried in the soil. Due to the long-term use of the nest, the color of bluestone has darkened, and it has a quaint beauty. This characteristic thing also adds a heavy historical and cultural charm to this village.
"Cradle head" is commonly known as "flat head", that is, the carpenter made a crab cone with the size of a mortar nest out of hard and wear-resistant rosewood, but it is 20 cm higher than the mortar, and its diameter is also a circle smaller, which is convenient for turning things around without hurting fingers.
The "body", frame and pedal are all made of wood, which is very thick. Then use a 2-meter-long piece of wood to connect the hammer head with the pedal to play the role of a connecting rod. The pedal is fixed with two stone rollers, and a small pit is dug under the pedal. When operating, one foot steps on the ground and the other foot steps on the ground pit hard. When stepping on the pedal, the hammer head is lifted, and when stepping on the pedal, the hammer head pecks at the socket. Maybe it's been used for a long time, and the wooden column in my hand is extremely round.
The pedal squeaked in the blink of an eye. As soon as the pedal was put down, it gave a "bang" as soon as it fell into the socket. After falling together and repeating, the grains will be shelled and blown to get clean rice.
The working principle of Shijie is the lever principle of utilization. It is hard to imagine who invented Shijie, a labor-saving mode of production, to solve the problem of farmers' grain processing, and who formulated a set of technological schemes to make the grain processing procedure almost scientific and reasonable? Although I can't study the birth age and evolution of the ancestor of Shijie, I am really moved and impressed by the wisdom of farmers from the bottom of my heart. Looking up at the sky of wisdom, we have to admire the innovative ability of our ancestors and sincerely admire the innovative spirit and creativity of contemporary China people.
Speaking of feng shui, now I understand why people hate white tigers so much. Judging from the overall image of Shijie, it is like an "eagle", spreading its wings and crawling on the ground. With the strength of my feet, I held my head high, as if I would never stop until I discovered the new continent. With the profligacy of power, the hut trembled with a bang. The eagle-like beak pecked on the head of the "white tiger" and stepped on it one foot at a time. This kind of venting is hatred of evil forces in the old society and yearning for a better life. Isn't it just for one wish?
Also, you can't point at the front door of the house, because "head" and "head" are homophonic, and "head" means "conflict", which will remind me that as a daughter at home, when we grow up, there are meticulous care from our parents everywhere. Every time I think about these folk customs, I can't help but admire them.
I was chatting with a middle-aged woman standing on a raft and learned that the raft didn't know the date. It was originally a living appliance handed down from the Neolithic Age in primitive society, but it also experienced vicissitudes. To this day, this is the only person in the village who still lies quietly in this small room ... as if telling the posterity about its prosperity and the vicissitudes of time. So, I stared at Shi Jie and told him that you are an eternal song intertwined with life and expectation! Shiqiao, please allow me to step on your foot, "Zhi-Bang!" This is the call of mankind to the earth, and it is also the cry of that era ... step on one foot again, "squeak-bang!" " This voice connects the farmers' yesterday, today and tomorrow ... Step on your foot again and I won't leave you! At that time, or no one in my heart could understand it.
Listen to the voices of the villagers! "Hey-bang!" The voice is dull, rough, rapid and long ... as if I were talking silently, talking, talking. ...
The middle-aged woman said with a sad face, stepping on cymbals is the heavy physical labor of women in the village. A person working at the same time is labor intensive. It would be much easier if two people worked together. When rice is poured into a stone mortar, one foot stands on the rice bowl and the other foot is suspended. Using the weight of their bodies, they lifted the rice bowl, then let go of their feet, and the rice bowl suddenly fell and went straight to the rice bowl. In this way, rice becomes rice. Treading is not only laborious, but also time-consuming. Because rice has to be screened besides rice. Screening is divided into two steps: one is screening chaff, and the other is screening rice. It is very troublesome to pound the screened "grain head" (rice that has not been pounded into rice).
I looked at the headscarves on the heads of the two middle-aged women and asked curiously why you were wearing headscarves. Another middle-aged woman talked about it. In the process of sieving rice with rice sieve and plate sieve, tiny chaff flew up, and a layer of white chaff was covered on the headscarf, clothes and hands. The floating chaff dust stained the whole body, and the eyebrows and hair were all white. If you stand still, it is like a kind new moon sculpture. Especially in winter, stepping on rice is even more difficult. My hands and feet will freeze for a while in the cold north wind. If you grind rice all the way from the valley, you can't finish grinding it in two or three hours 100 kg of rice.
The middle-aged woman also told me with a sigh that my mother has green juice of wild vegetables in her blood; Mother's bones, with fern starch; Mother's skin is covered with the warp and weft of banana scalp. She went on to say: during the natural disaster, my mother pinched a basket full of banana heads or corncob to fill our brother and sister's stomach and asked me to go with her. Finally, my scrawny little feet couldn't step on the heavy bird's mouth and slammed into my mother's hand. My heart suddenly burst into tears like a knife. At that time, my mother just looked at me. But what I get from my mother's eyes full of pity and helplessness is warm, tolerant and encouraging eyes. At dinner, I ate banana velvet and corncob powder mixed with my mother's blood and sweat, and I couldn't swallow it. Hey! I can't forget that year "squeak-bang!" Rice milling site. With the ups and downs of thousands of thoughts, I don't feel hazy in tears. After all, this is a period of history, and it is a long and unforgettable history.
Ah! The stone tablet represents thousands of years of rice culture, and anyone can forget it, but history will not forget it. Like many historical remains, they will be recorded in the history of production and life in China with a long history! Yes, we can't forget the road we have traveled; No matter how far you go, you can't forget the past. Think about the past and look at the present. We should cherish today's happy life!
Later, a rice mill was built in the village, so they didn't have to step on rice, but on holidays, they would step on rice, and the taste was deep and long. In fact, glutinous rice cakes such as mugwort leaves or glutinous rice balls are really delicious, soft, soft, slippery and marshmallow. Later, rice mills and flour mills driven by electricity suddenly appeared in the village. A load of grain was ground into rice in less than ten minutes, and ten catties of rice soon became powder. It was not until the 1990s that Shijie basically withdrew from the historical stage.
This time, I was lucky enough to watch the whole process of Shijie's work and understand its history and use. Although it is a backward living appliance, it is an indispensable part in the history of human development. We also have to sigh the greatness of human beings, so we should strengthen our courage and strength and forge ahead in the future.
Shijie keeps creaking! In the sound, the sound of years has gone away, the history of human progress and civilization has been drawn, today's happiness and duration have been drawn, and a better future will be drawn tomorrow! It smashed the stubbornness of food, but left the softness and length of life; Grinding off the roughness and hardness of the grain, but also grinding off your own water chestnut, which not only rounded people, but also repaired yourself. It presents a silent musical instrument, which has a heavy cultural accumulation, but contains an unyielding soul. Isn't this a true portrayal of character?