Mother's Home (I)
Instruction
After my mother passed away in April 2016, we buried her in the ancestral grave. Because my grandparents were buried there, and my father was buried there too. There, the mother and father reunite, and the mother and grandparents reunite are the mother's best destination.
My family’s ancestral tomb is in the direction of the north of our village, along the exit of a large alley to the east of the north of the village, and is about two miles east. It can be reached by a few meters of steep slope a little south. Although this place is not a Feng Shui treasure land, it has a high stunning and a broad vision. Looking south at Zhongzhai, the towering green mountains are like picturesque; looking north at 接本 , the fields are crisscrossing. It is my common wish to keep my mother's home here so that she can see the scenery of her hometown all year round.
Mother is a person who is deeply influenced by traditional cultural concepts. Although she had no culture, in the era when she grew up and in the era when she experienced her life, traditional ideas and secular norms left a profound imprint on her and influenced her entire life.
I remember when I was a child, every Chinese New Year, half a day before the first day of the Lunar New Year, the children of several large families in the alley took turns to greet the families in groups. My mother was very envious and always chanted in front of us. In my mother's ideological and spiritual world, a prosperous family and a strong family are her yearning and hope for life.
When I was a child, every time I visited the grave during the Qingming Festival, the rich families in the alley were their children as usual. 2 people went to the ancestral grave to sweep the grave in groups, which made my mother envious and jealous. At that time, because we were young and my father worked in another place, my mother always took us to visit our ancestors’ graves. Compared with the wealthy families, we mother and son seem weak and embarrassing.
When I go to my ancestral tomb to visit my ancestral tomb, I have to pass a large dam. Under the ancestral tomb, there is a large family of other people's ancestral tombs. At this time, my mother will always say to us, look at how well the ancestral tombs of other people are built, round and tall.
My father died in early summer 1990, and we buried my father in the ancestral grave. At that time, unlike now, all excavators were working on graves. After the tomb was dug, the tombs were built with cement mortar and bricks were built. The excavator hung up the coffin and put it in, covered the prefabricated cement board , and then filled it with an excavator. At that time, it was all artificial, and after the tomb was dug, the kiln had to be dug, sealed the coffin in the kiln, and then filled it with land.
Due to the kiln being dug, the ground is empty. When the rainy season or watering the ground, the tomb chamber often collapses, and my father's tomb collapses once. That year, my son was going to Jishan Normal University and was already a 17 or 18-year-old man. My brother and I worked in the field all morning. We used a small flat cart to pull soil and carried out a major renovation of my father's grave.
With the implementation of the rural land contract system, the land of the ancestral grave has also been replaced by several owners. Due to mechanical tillage, the grave of grandparents and father's grave was eroded and smaller, and later it could only be said to be a few small mounds. My mother was very worried when she saw it. She mentioned it many times before me that she asked me to renovate the ancestral tomb. In those years, because of the burden on work, my children had to go to school, arrange work, find a partner, and get married, so I didn’t take my mother’s words seriously.
Until her old age, my mother still missed to repair the grave and told me many times that she must repair the ancestral grave in a hundred years, and plant forsythia on the grave and plant cypress trees next to the grave. This is my mother's last instruction to me. After every instruction from my mother, I would solemnly say to my mother, Mom, don’t worry, I will definitely repair your grave and make it round and high, so that you can be satisfied and happy. In my mother's thoughts, if the ancestral tomb is well cultivated, the younger generation will prosper and prosper.
Resatisfaction
In most of the years after her mother left, her last advice often rang in her ears. As a child, I should obey my mother's orders. I must never let my mother's wishes fail. During the time my mother left, the thing I thought about the most was to build graves for my grandparents and parents.How to repair
and when to repair it, several solutions have appeared in my mind. Finally, I decided to build a large oval grave circle with large stones, and the graves of my grandparents and parents were integrated into this circle, including the monument I erected for my grandparents in 2009. Then in this big circle, enclose two graves of , with the grandparents' graves on the east and the parents' graves on the west. Although they are in one circle, the graves of two generations of people are independent. After the grave circle was repaired, a tomb monument was erected in front of the grave for his parents. After discussion with my sister, brother-in-law, brother-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law and our whole family, the time for repairing the grave was set on the 16th day of the first lunar month of 2017.
Anything, as long as the days are certain, you will feel very fast.
As for the building materials used for grave repair, the craftsmen's reservation, I have implemented them one by one before the Spring Festival in 2016. Our village is backed by the mountain in the south, and it is convenient to transport stones; it is close to Yuxiang , and cement and steel can be pulled as you arrive. The sand and gravel used for concrete were pulled from the material yard in the south of Tanchao Village, but this was not a problem.
problem is that the blue bricks (blue bricks) used to erect monuments, and there is no source of goods in our Yongji . I asked my friends and classmates to inquire at Linyi and Wanrong , and I also said that no one burned the blue bricks at all now. Finally, my daughter-in-law said that there was a steam machine brick factory next to Yongji Power Plant that burned blue bricks, which were often used by their construction team. But I was afraid that the steam machine bricks would not have enough strength, so I found Master Tong who had built a house for me and asked. Master Tong said that steam machine bricks are stronger and have better quality than the traditional wheel kiln bricks in our past. The antique street buildings in the "Shentan Grand Canyon" scenic area of Shuiyukou use steam machine bricks from the power plant.
Master Tong is a craftsman I trust, and I heard that Master Tong is right. So soon contacted the power plant steam machine brick factory and booked two thousand blue bricks. Later construction confirmed that the steam machine bricks are not only strong in pressure, but more importantly, they are neat edges, square, beautiful in color, beautiful and generous in appearance, and are the most ideal bricks.
All preparations are in place, just wait for the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in 2017 to start construction. It can be said that everything is ready, only the east wind is insufficient.
After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, at noon of the 16th, I made an appointment with the speaker and the contractor to meet at the cemetery. Because the middleman had already made the agreement with the other party in advance, when everyone arrived, the middleman broke a branch and drew a large oval circle along the grave of grandparents and parents. After seeking the other party's consent, he determined the boundary line of the grave circle.
On the afternoon of that day, the craftsmen came to the cemetery, including three major workers, two minor workers, a total of five. Since the craftsman who was in charge of the worker was my brother-in-law and a student when I was a private teacher in the village, I was very dedicated and very satisfied.
The one who pulled the material was also my student. His family had an agricultural transport truck converted from a small four-wheel tractor. When the workers had not dug the foundation of the grave circle, the first truck of stone had already been pulled to the ground.
This oval foundation is 80 cm wide, digging down forty cm forty cm. After tamping the foundation with a pestle (a pestle, a round drum -shaped stone connected to a wooden handle, is a tool for ramming the foundation), and then a concrete cushion layer is laid. In order to prevent the grave circle from breaking, three twelve-centimeter-sized steel bars were laid on the cushion layer, and then built with stones.
The foundation width of the grave circle is eighty centimeters. The outer ring is vertical, and the inner ring is slightly recycled when it is built upward, and the width is 60 cm when it reaches the top. The height of the grave circle was not determined at the time. After discussing with the craftsman, he stopped when he thought the height was appropriate. When it is built to 70 cm, we unanimously agree that adding the cast-in-place surface with a height of 15 cm, the total height of 85 cm is the most suitable.
This surface of the grave circle with a thickness of 15 cm cast-in-place is the core part of the entire grave circle project. First, it is required to have an edge that exceeds the outer ring five centimeters, extending outward like the eaves. This style adds artistic beauty, but when casting in place, a circle of model boards should be placed inside and outside the grave circle, which requires a certain number of triple boards and glue boards to be prepared.The key is that the template with five centimeter edges extending outward is difficult to support, which is technically difficult; second, a circle of steel bar mesh must be set up to be the same as the steel bars laid on the foundation cushion to prevent the upper part from breaking. However, the circle of steel bars above is to frame the square steel bars and four twelve centimeter-thick steel bars, and then connect them together with electric welding. During construction, it is necessary to use welding machine ; third, it is necessary to vibrate when pouring the surface of the concrete. Whether it is an electric welding machine or a vibrator, electricity is required. To solve this problem, a generator must be obtained.
Whether it is a triangular board, bakery board, or generator, it must be implemented in advance, otherwise the construction period will be delayed.
At that time, three generators were contacted in Yongji and Yuxiang, but for various reasons, none of the three did not implement them. The final implementation was that my cousin married to in Dingyuan Village. Her family had an old generator. Although it was bulky, its horsepower was enough for us to use. A relative of Sanhe Yongji had it at home, and he could pull it at any time when he was used. A familiar villager in Dongrenli Village of Gumbo Board specialized in managing the scrap bakery board that had been retired from the construction site, and he also pulled it at any time.
All preparations were in place. On the day of the watering, my son and my wife set out from Yongji in Tiangangming and arrived at the construction site early. Fortunately, my son changed his car in September 2016. The new car is an off-road American Ford brand with a large trunk. The first night I installed more than a dozen trim panels from my relative's house.
Shortly after we arrived at the construction site, the workers arrived soon. Not long after, my cousin's son-in-law drove a four-wheeled car with a generator behind her, just like the People's Liberation Army pulling a cannon in the war.
At noon that day, there were 10 or 20 people in the construction site, and the construction site suddenly became lively. There are electric welding, motor development, neighbors in the alley to help, sparks splashed and generators roared. This situation is always exciting when you think about it.
Although it was originally said that I would not care about the meal, in order not to lose work, every day at noon, I always take the workers to Yuxiang Street to eat mutton, one serving per person, and enough cakes. Lamb is our local Chinese fast food, and it can solve the problem in half an hour of a meal. That day was no exception, and we led everyone to Yuxiang Street to eat mutton. After dinner, I returned to the construction site, took a short rest, and then started working. At about four o'clock that afternoon, the grave circle was poured and the tense atmosphere slowly relaxed, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
The next project is to use cement mortar to grave the stones built around the grave circle. This is a technical job, and it is also an artistic job. It can only be fine, not rough. It first wipes the stirred mortar on each rock crack, and then uses special tools to cut out circles of lace patterns on the cement surface. Only major workers can do this process, and small workers dare not take action.
When the laces of the grave circle are hooked, the project of the grave circle is completed. Only at this time can the overall effect of the grave circle be seen. At that time, the foreman asked two small workers to use a tape measure to pull the circumference of the oval grave circle, which was as much as twenty-six meters. Standing a little further apart, this oval grave circle is like a huge oval jade plate, coupled with its stone lace, and its agile eaves. It is cleverly designed, appropriately high and low, solemn and elegant, and beautifully shaped. It is no exaggeration to say that it is an exquisite handicraft.
My mother was diligent and kind throughout her life, virtuous, benevolent and righteous, adhered to the rules, loved life, and especially respected filial piety. She was a loyal inheritor and practitioner of the Chinese filial piety culture. The grandparents never gave birth in their lives, and they adopted their mothers since childhood. Most of the biological daughters cannot do the filial piety that mothers do to their adoptive parents. My grandmother passed away when she was 35 years old due to illness. I was not at all at that time, and of course I could not see my mother's filial piety to her adoptive mother. But I was ten years old when my grandfather passed away. My mother's care and filial piety to her adopted father who was sick in her later years were deeply in my memory.
Mother has no education, but she has taught us since childhood to abide by the rules, be polite, learn culture, and follow the right path.Although she did not understand Confucian culture , she knew sage Confucius and knew that ancient sages should educate people to respect their parents and the elderly. Her traditional education for us is mainly practiced and there is no big reason. Her behavior, her words and deeds are all role models for us. She is not educated, but her behavioral norms and conduct are the best interpretation and inheritance of traditional culture.
Today, I built a tomb for my mother and built a home for my mother. This is not only a fulfillment of my mother's instructions before her birth, but also a realistic education for my children and their children to inherit the Chinese filial piety culture. I firmly believe that since the start of construction, my mother has been watching us every day, especially on the day of the cemetery construction circle, can my mother not see such a big noise in the cemetery? I firmly believe that my mother will be relieved when she sees this scene.
grave repair project has been completed and the construction of the stele building project has started.
It turns out that my plan is to start construction at the same time as the tomb repair and monument erecting, which will shorten the construction period. However, after exchanging opinions with the craftsmen, the craftsman said that the construction of this kind will interfere with each other and affect the quality of the project, so he can only wait until the grave repair project is completed before the stele building is built.
The craftsman who built the stele building is my aunt's cousin's eldest son, and the tiling craftsmanship is very famous in our Yu Township area. After the grave repair project the first day, he led a large worker and two small workers to the construction site early the next morning, digging the foundation and ramming the stones. The monument was built and formed during breakfast.
In order to erect a monument for my mother, I visited the stone monument in Ximenkou, Yuxiang in the second half of 2016. I visited the stone monument several times, but none of them were my favorite. My thought was to make a monument, and then use blue bricks to build a monument and inlaid the monument. The entire monument was completely built in an ancient style, so that traditional culture can be demonstrated.
According to my requirements, the boss selected a piece of bluestone 1.8 meters high, 70 cm wide and 10 cm thick for me as the inscription, and made it for me in advance according to the inscription I provided.
erected a monument to commemorate our ancestors and is part of the Chinese culture of filial piety. In the 1960s and 1970s, the economy was backward and life was difficult, so who would have spare money to erect a monument for his ancestors? The popularity of monuments should have happened after the 1990s. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1978, the reform and opening up, the responsibility field was reached, and the productivity was liberated, and the lives of the people gradually became rich. Only when you are rich and have loose hands can you have spare money to erect monuments for your ancestors. Especially in recent years, more and more people have erected monuments for their ancestors, and the business in the Yuxiang stone tablet market is very prosperous.
However, in the area of Fangyuan in our Yuxiang, most of them erected monuments for their ancestors, and they erected a whole stone monument. This cost less and was relatively economical, and few people built monuments. In order to choose a good style of the stele building, my cousin and I visited several stele buildings on the spot, and took pictures with our mobile phones for our reference.
Tomb repair is generally a stone life, or a rough life. The building of the stele tower is meticulous and vivid, showing the skills of craftsmen. Slow work and meticulous work can't be done quickly. The foundation of the stele building was built on the first morning and it was not until noon the next day that the stele body was built to the top. Although the effect of the stele building was not visible at all at this time, my cousin's exquisite tiling skills have been shown: the stele body is clearly and neatly angular, like a knife cut; the gray line between bricks is even and straight, like a thread is struck.
The body of the stele is relatively single, and ordinary craftsmen can do it. Only when the stele body is built to the top and goes out to the eaves can the craftsman show its level. This eaves are outward layer by layer, and the structures of each layer are different, with various shapes. My cousin made a layer, took a closer look from the tube rack, and then compared the picture on the mobile phone to make another layer. It was really meticulous and strived for excellence.
After the process of stele top and eaves was completed, my cousin said to me, "Uncle, come up and take a look. There is no problem with four people playing cards on it." But at this time, the overall effect was still not visible. The overall effect could only be seen after the roof of the Monument Building was built.
The upper part of the stele building is the four-corner eaves, the east and west ridges. The components used are glass tiles, chicken head ridges, fish body eaves and other components have been purchased according to the required quantity.But in construction, cutting machine must be used. If you use the cutting machine, you must have a generator. You call your cousin and pull the old generator up, and you have to make a fortune for noon.
The Monument Building was completed perfectly as scheduled. The newly completed stele building has three steps on the base, nearly five meters high, with green bricks and green tiles, flying eaves and corners, dignified and elegant, and antique. Under the sunlight, the light is filled with colorful light and shining brightly.
As the chief designer of grave repair and monument building, I fulfilled my promise to my mother and felt an irresistible pleasure in my heart.
At this point, the project of erecting a monument for my mother has been declared over. The construction period lasted thirteen days from groundbreaking to completion of this project, including auspicious snowfall and one day of suspension. I think this must be because my mother felt that we were tired and worked hard, so she intended to let us take a day off. Around the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, although it was early spring, the weather was still cold. One day, strong winds were blowing and the temperature dropped sharply. Everyone was covered in dirt on the construction site, but the work was still not stopped.
Brother-in-law is a cultural person in our village, and he has a deep study of tombstone culture. My mother's inscription was written by my brother-in-law. From planning and design to specific construction of grave repair and monument construction, my brother-in-law gave a lot of reasonable suggestions and on-site guidance.
During the entire construction period, my elder brother and sister-in-law accompanied me from beginning to end, wholeheartedly and devotedly, and were my capable helper.
During the entire construction period, my wife and son, rushed back every morning without knowing it. After finishing work in the afternoon, we returned to Yongji. There were already thousands of lights in the city. My son is young and strong, and works well. He does everything on the construction site, and is also my capable helper. On Saturday and Sunday, the daughter-in-law also rushed back to help, and she was not afraid of being dirty or tired when she was working, and was praised by the workers. My wife is diligent and capable. She not only helps the craftsmen on the construction site, but also provides temporary procurement and logistics support. She has never complained. My wife is rigorous and meticulous. The list of materials purchased during the construction, the list of craftsmen’s wage settlement, and the daily work records are still well preserved, providing me with detailed material basis for writing this article.
The entire tomb repair and monument construction project has been put into operation for nearly 100 projects.
Project materials: 4 carts of stone (stone), 2 carts of gravel, 150 yuan per car; 1 cart of stone powder, 150 yuan per car; 1 cart of sand washing with coarse water, 190 yuan; 1 cart of sand washing with fine water, 300 yuan; blue brick 2,000 yuan, including freight fee of 620 yuan; 1,513 yuan for cement, 960 yuan for steel, 800 yuan for stone, 700 yuan for glazed tiles; plus some sporadic materials, the total price of the material is 5,363 yuan.
Craftsman salary: 150 yuan per day for large workers, 120 yuan for small workers, 5 yuan for cigarettes per day for large workers, and a total salary of craftsmen is 5,150 yuan.
The total project cost is 10,513 yuan.
The mother's grave repair and monument construction project has come to an end, or it is a phase one project, so the next phase two project is the beautification and greening of the cemetery.
(The picture in this article is from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact us to delete it)
Editor
Yang Zhiqiang
Author profile
Luo Xiaofeng, born in 1952, from Yongji, Shanxi. Retired teacher. He has served as the Propaganda Minister, Organization Minister, and Principal of Children's School of Yongji Textile Factory.
