My hometown of Dashan
Back then, in order to escape poverty, I left Gulang at the age of thirteen. I left Dashan and went to study and then work in other places. I have spent decades in a foreign land.
Someone once said that when you often recall the past without knowing it, it is a sign of old age. Isn't it? I have entered old age.
Whenever I have free time, I always exile my heart to my hometown and my childhood.
My hometown is in the Hexi Corridor of , in the folds of the Wushaoling mountains of . It is an ordinary small mountain village. It was also the location of the " brigade headquarters ", the most basic administrative organization at that time.
When I was a child, I was still an ignorant " frog in the well ". I often look at the surrounding mountains with curiosity, and have endless strange reverie, wondering what kind of world is outside the mountains.
Whenever the sky in the east shines brightly in the early morning, I often run up to the "Zhuangtou Terrace" and look at the thin and winding Huangyang River at the foot of the mountain, meandering unhurriedly to the northwest horizon.
In the evening, the afterglow of the setting sun dyed the mountain ridges in the west red. The protrusion on the top of the mountain and the crown of a big elm tree, in the backlight, formed an old horse monkey squatting on the top of the mountain holding an umbrella. People call this hilltop "Monkey Holding an Umbrella".
At the foot of the Western Mountain Liang, there is a village called Xia Huangtuzhuang. Xiahuangzhuang is not too far from our village. I have been there many times. People in our village say that the people in Xiahuangzhuang are "harsh" and can use "adobe nails to hammer their navels". Work and deal with things, never give up. There are about ten families with the surname Cui in this village, and people call them the "Cui Houhou" family behind their backs. The Cui family is very taboo. As long as anyone calls the word "monkey" in front of them, they will definitely disagree with you. They can't even say the name of the mountain "Monkey Holding an Umbrella". I still don’t know the deeper reasons, and people seem to be “hidden behind the scenes” and haven’t said it clearly.
The "Zhao Mountain" in the south of our village is called "Xianhua Mountain". Here, pines and cypresses are evergreen and the mountain flowers are blooming all year round. "Gulang County Chronicle" writes that it has been a scenic spot in the county since the Ming Dynasty. There is a temple on the main peak, and the Taoist priest in the temple is very knowledgeable. It is said that one year, a farmer at the foot of the mountain lost his cow, and the owner went to the temple to ask the Taoist priest for "divination" (divination). When the owner enters the temple, he wears a straw hat tilted on his head and holds a whip pole across his waist with his arms. When the Taoist priest met, he said: "Donor, no need to elaborate, I know you are here to find the cow. The cow will naturally return after noon." The master said: "I didn't say anything yet, why did the Taoist priest predict the future?" "The way you dress and move today is like the word 'noon'. After noon, 'cow' comes out. Go home!" The master said. When we got back, we found that the cow had gone home by itself and was lying in the yard chewing its cud. Later, the temple was destroyed and the monk left, but this wonderful legend still circulated in his hometown.
On the western slope of Manifestation Mountain, there is a village called Guojialing, but there is not a single family in the village who does not have the surname Guo. These twenty or thirty families have lived and thrived here for generations. The land here is vast and fertile, and water is relatively convenient. People from this village come to the brigade headquarters to do business and also go to the supply and sales department to buy daily necessities. Children, to study in the primary school here, you have to walk at least half an hour on the mountain road. There is a "landowner" named Wang in the village who has read many books and lives an extremely cautious life. He is a very capable veterinarian. Whenever the entire brigade of mules, horses, cattle and sheep gets sick, he relies on him to treat them, and nothing goes wrong. When someone is sick, occasionally, he will secretly prescribe Chinese medicine, and the patient will take it and it will have very good curative effects. Therefore, all the people in the brigade secretly admired him, and all the livestock could not live without him.
After leaving the village "Beihuoxian", layers of terraced fields and mountain roads came into view. In years with good rains, the crops in the fields are covered with green waves in spring and summer. In autumn, the patches are golden and bright, like landscape paintings. In drought years, the crops in the fields can become like plague - there is one patch, there is no patch, they grow sparsely and unevenly, and the farmers look sad.
Climb up Beidaling and look northwest. Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway and 312 National Highway meander through Gulang Gorge.The Laojun Temple on the top of "Iron Cabinet Mountain" looks like a small matchbox. It is said that Laozi rode an ox westward and passed by the foot of the mountain. In order to commemorate this ancient thinker, people built a temple at the entrance of a cave on the top of the mountain. The cave is called Laojun Cave, and the temple is called "Laojun Temple".
When I was a child, I heard my grandma tell a story: "Iron Cabinet Mountain" is a Wanbao Mountain . There are twelve small mills hidden in the mountain. They grind golden beans and push silver leaves day and night. But only when "catching mountain birds" grabs the peak of the iron cabinet and "supports the mountain's foot" can one pick up the treasure... In the 1960s, my third uncle Zhao Yanyi , according to this legend, He created the fairy tale "Golden Melons and Silver Beans" with beautiful plot and sonorous language. Since then, the golden melon, silver beans and iron cabinet mountain have spread throughout China. Later, this fairy tale was translated into English, French, Japanese, Russian, , Vietnamese, and other languages, and even foreigners knew about Iron Cabinet Mountain. There are gold and silver treasures in Iron Cabinet Mountain, maybe it's just a legend. But its mountains are mostly made of limestone. People burned lime and built cement plants here, creating a lot of wealth for the Gulang people. This is an undoubted fact.
The mountains to the east of the village are closely connected to the "rapeseed mountain", "rapeseed ditch" and "rapeseed mouth" - it is the place where rapeseed is abundant in Gulang. In summer, rapeseed flowers bloom all over the mountains and plains, and they are golden, attracting bees and butterflies to fly straight into the heart of the flowers. It also attracted many beekeepers. Rich honey source, beekeepers will shake out vats of high-quality honey in a few days. After autumn, people here squeeze out bright yellow rapeseed oil in the oil house and enjoy it at home. Most of them have entered the circulation market.
My hometown is in the mountains. The mountains are connected with the mountains, and the sky is vast and endless. There are dense forests, crisp bird songs, cunning foxes and running deer. The wheat, peas, highland , potatoes produced in the fields, mountain spring water and the sweet "Di Piao'er" ( wild strawberry ) in the mountains, the sweet and sour "sour wine bottle"... ...raised me.
Time flies, time flies, I grow old, and my youth is gone forever. But the mountains and rivers of my hometown, every ditch and ridge, every grass and tree, a white cloud and a wisp of smoke, are all deeply imprinted in my heart. It will always be a paradise for me, a wanderer, to soothe my homesickness and a paradise for my soul.
Reviewed by: Han Tianmei
Brief comment: Telling legends and recounting past events, the cultural landscape of the hometown is vividly present, the homesickness of the wanderer permeates between the lines, and the hometown is always the destination of the wanderer's soul. The writing is smooth and enjoyable to read.
Final review: Yan Jingxin
Author: Zhao Zhiyuan, a native of Gansu Gulang, has been engaged in journalism, education, publicity, literature and history. Chinese rural writer, member of China Essayists Association, member of Gansu Provincial Folk Writers Association and Journalists Association. Retired from the post of director of the Yongdeng CPPCC Culture and History Committee.
Editor: Bu Yi
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Disclaimer: This article is published in China Xiangmei's original works may not be reproduced without permission.
