Father’s Abacus
Author: Haobo
Among the old objects preserved in my family, there are grandpa’s wooden wheel wheelbarrow , grandma’s loom, father’s rubber-tyred bicycle, mother’s spinning wheel , and a fire bellows, and my father's abacus . Although they are not valuable, they are passed down from generation to generation. It is also a kind of longing, seeing things and missing people.
Father’s abacus has been with him all his life. My father never went to school when he was a child. In order to make a living, his family sent him to work in a cotton shop. He is diligent and studious. He has learned a lot of words in a few years and has also become good at writing. More importantly, he is more precise in accounting abacus . Later, he worked as an accountant in our Daming Shangpian Yuchi District. I don’t know any of this, it was the elders in our village who told me.
As long as I can remember, my father has been the accountant of the production team. When the team distributed things, he was always waiting for his account books and abacus. When the team divided summer grain and autumn grain, it was usually at night. My father always held a lantern in one hand and an account book in the other. At that time, I felt that my father was quite impressive, with a kind of docile spirit.
The end of each year is the busiest time for my father. During the day, he works in the production team, and at night, he writes non-stop under the light and thinks about the abacus. The light fingers are like a musician playing the piano, and the sound of the abacus beads is as beautiful as a song. There was no television at that time, and it was very cold at night in winter and I went to bed early. I fell asleep listening to the sound of the abacus beads, and I didn’t feel noisy or bothered. I am used to it every winter. When I wake up, I see my father still busy under the light, sometimes rubbing his hands and sometimes stamping his feet. It got late at night and even colder. Sometimes my mother and I urged him to go to bed. He always said he would go to sleep, but he didn't move. He was busy calculating his debts. I fell asleep again while listening. The next day he returned to work in the production team as usual.
Year after year, day after day, eventually he also wore glasses on his back and his eyes were clear. In this way, he did not quit his accounting job until the land was distributed to households, and the land of the production team was classified into upper, middle, and lower households, and the land was divided into remote and near households. Many years after my father left, I often saw those neatly tied accounts at home. How many trees were allocated to each family are all there, how many work points were allocated to which family, how much grain was allocated, and how much money was paid for the work points, all at a glance. Looking at these tears, my eyes wetted again, as if I could see my father still sitting under the lamp, busy.
My father’s abacus is very delicate and grand, and every bead is bright. Nowadays, people no longer need an abacus, but it was the most accurate and simple and calculator of that era. Like the old ancestral objects in my family, it is a symbol and a microcosm of the progress of the times and social changes.
My father’s abacus has accompanied my father throughout his life. It records his father’s sweat, father’s hard work and father’s wisdom. When I saw it, I felt like I was seeing my father, walking slowly with a lantern in one hand and an account book and abacus in the other...
2022, 6, 18, late at night in Xi'an
About the author: Haobo, Weinan, Shaanxi Province A native of Fangzhai Administrative Village, Daming Town, Huazhou District, born on June 7, 1957. He graduated from Gaotang Middle School in 1975. In 1976, he served in the 84653 unit of the Ningxia Military Region and then went to Gansu. In 1980, he was demobilized and returned home. He joined the party in the army. After returning home, I kept walking on the way to work. He has written the youth trilogy "Fa Xiao", "Standmates", "Comrades" and "Liangjiahe", "I am a Migrant Worker", "I really want to be with you", "Speak out the love in my heart" , "Father, My Favorite Person", "Mother's Tears", "Father and Son Love", "Father and Daughter Love", "The Most Beautiful Chinese Years" and other works.
Source of pictures and texts: Yuanshang Renjia
Original author: Hao Bo
Edited by: Yuanshang Renjia, Huazhou Literature and History Collection
