During Chinese New Year, I usually have dinner at my father's house, spend the first time with my grandparents, and then go to my mother's house to visit my grandparents on the second and third days of the year. On the first day of the new year, my parents and grandparents will use wangcao and orange peel to boil a pot of "good luck" water. After taking a shower with it, I can put on new clothes and play with my friends. When I was a child, my mind was always full of brilliant and unscrupulous fantasies. When I saw grasshoppers and lizards wandering in the grass, I imagined them holding swords, conquering their kingdom, fighting for butterflies attacked by ants, and laughing at dung beetles's clumsy movements. During the Chinese New Year, fireworks and firecrackers continued one after another, and I, whether it was a crackling "thunderbolt whip", a colorful fireworks fountain, a rattlesnake cannon with a long tail sound, or a thunderbolt exploding in the night sky, covered my ears and danced through it, playing with my friends in the village until I was exhausted. Try our best to make every inch of memories of the fabric dyed with the fiery red and noise of the year, filled with warm warmth and joy, and the complexity of the year returns to the original purity at this moment.
As the years passed, childishness gradually turned into ice crystals, which condensed in my heart. My smirking face seemed to have more edges and corners, and my eyes showed a little sad blue, which turned and disappeared, and was quietly covered with a smile at the corners of my mouth. The fantasy world is no longer a majestic world without lines and reversed colors, but a world with increasingly clear lines and substantial existence, which is clearly a projection of reality.
In this increasingly clear world, the figure of an ancestral temple becomes clearer. It is neither high nor low. The entrance is opposite to an artificial pond. People cross two thresholds and walk along the edge of the square "Lingchi" with no water on both sides, and then enter the lobby. The lighting in the ancestral hall is very good, and the sun easily shines into the open-air lobby, seeping through some cracks in the tiles and greeting the dust that brushed the ancestral shrine. Every year before the first day of the Lunar New Year, different families will arrange appropriate days to worship at the ancestral temple according to the time when their children come home. Every family will never be crowded, and they will greet them warmly when they meet. Worship started from the Buddha and went all the way to the ancestors along the shady path in the countryside, which was carried out in the order of status and kinship, from low to high, from far to near. Carrying a burden on one's shoulder, the laundry list contains firecrackers, incense sticks, flourishing paper, tea, wine, fruits, cigarettes, chickens, ducks and fish, and so on. Every time before going out, everyone reminds each other, snapping their fingers and counting materials, which one can't be missing.
Before the worship, my parents and grandparents basically arranged it, but I followed behind, wading in the stream, picking up leaves, stepping on branches, listening to the broken "click" and laughing. When I gradually became sensible, I basically became my parents' right-hand man, serving tea and wine, lighting a fire and lighting incense, hanging firecrackers and carrying loads, and I became a "professional household". In my memory, my parents seldom talk. My father will light a cigarette during the break and look at me with a smile. My mother stands by with her waist inserted and asks from time to time, "Is my son tired?" . It seems needless to say that at this time of the year, walking on a road that I don't know how many times I have traveled is the best tacit understanding. Where to stop, where to avoid mud, and where to cross fields, I am already familiar with it. The right hand side is still familiar farmland and streams; Listening attentively, it is still the familiar whispering wind, even the tone and expression have not changed; Or knee-high wheat awn grass, the needle point across the bare feet and arms caused by blowing itching; Passing through the dark place of a bamboo forest, I can't help but be afraid, and I can still capture the faint "hissing" sound of the snake; Footprints left on the ridge, in the soil and the year before last are faintly visible.
in this way, year after year of worship has never stopped. My father is a man who is very filial to the elderly. When my grandparents were alive, they ran home every week, leaving them at their disposal. The nanny can't change, not yet. Keep changing until you are satisfied. After grandparents passed away one after another, the home became an empty house. Father and mother discussed it together, invited brick and cement workers, renovated the old house, and still opened the window for ventilation and cleaning every year to prevent dust from accumulating, in order to leave a warm harbor for parents. Even if the body has settled down with the soil, the soul can find its way home and a place to live when it is raining, lost and sad.
In the land where parents moved to this city, the elves named "Day" waved goodbye to yesterday day by day, but the next day was left behind by today? . The elves danced in the city and crossed between cities, seemingly forgetting their mission and leaving the train that set foot on time yesterday. When the music sounded, they took the city's hand and danced a gorgeous waltz. I lost myself in the brightly lit streets, merged into the back of the city, built skyscrapers by the sand of time, performed magic in the underground railway, listened to the knocking of steel day and night, and watched a small fishing village grow into a modern city.
The endless flow of vehicles, the flashing lights at night, the increasingly prosperous CBD mall, Korean bibimbap, fried chicken beer, the sizzling barbecue on the iron plate, the smell of alcohol in the bar, and the "scratching" sound of popcorn in the cinema are no longer the patent of urban people. The elves infected simple rural people with warm dance steps, which aroused their yearning for a better life. Gradually, there were fewer people in the village, and everyone went out. On New Year's Eve, my father and I turned on the New Year's lights for the renovated old house. Looking around, there was silence. The once noisy front and back of the hall no longer existed, but the once light had been swallowed up by darkness, and we couldn't help but feel inexplicable disappointment.
However, no matter how deserted the village is on weekdays, during the Chinese New Year, people will always come back to worship their ancestors. Whenever they see familiar faces, their worries will disappear. When the villagers gradually moved to the city, the repair work of the ancestral temple was gradually carried out. A piece of red paper was pasted in the lobby, and the handwriting written with a brush commended the villagers who publicized and donated money for the repair work. After the first phase of the project, the ancestral temple was reinforced, the tiles were re-attached, and the gate was completely new. In the second phase, turf was laid on both sides and trees were planted.
I don't remember the morning when I strolled by the renovated ancestral temple pond. The green water reflected my father and me. My father waved casually, turned around and straightened up. "This is our ancestral temple, Yang's!" At the end, I looked proud, and my eyes felt stronger than I had ever felt before. I have never seen my father so high-spirited, and he was the kind of energy that was only available when he was young.
Standing in front of the ancestral temple, I carefully looked at the plaque-"Four Knowing Hall" for the first time. In the lobby, the couplets on both sides of the statue read: "Economics pushes the three aspects, and innocence keeps the four knowing". My father loves to talk more than usual. He talked about Yang's family style and family precepts. Although I listened, I didn't pay attention to my father's words. After so many years of accompanying my parents to worship their ancestors, the scenes of my grandparents' lifetime came to my eyes. The words were really pale, too pale. Is it a matter of family style and family training in a few words?
At the New Year's dinner, you should sit against the wall according to the needs of high generations. When you are young, you need to pick up vegetables for your elders. When you sit around the table, you need to pick up the bowl, put your arms away and leave enough space for people around you. Every new year, I worship my ancestors, burn incense to my late grandparents, and tell the wonderful things of the year; Although "man struggles upwards" and walks out of "Xinpo Village", he still refurbishes old houses and lights up all night during festivals to provide shelter for the soul of heaven. Although the former site of the village was desolate, when the seminar was held, the villagers suddenly got together, and everyone generously donated money to contribute to the repair of the ancestral hall.
My parents have already impressed the blood of Yang's family style and family precepts on me with their actions and silent language. At this time, "nagging" seems to be redundant ... I looked at my father's "nagging" and froze for a moment, smiled. Maybe my father would be proud of how his words made his son mature and steady, and the result was indeed so, but it was not the effect of this speech, but the latent experience of the past years.
As for the "Four Knowing Chapters" and couplets on the plaque, perhaps because the folks are not good at expressing them, I have never met anything like what I have seen in history books: my husband holds a ruler in his hand, asking the younger generation to recite the family precepts, or passing on the family spirit by debating at home. However, from what they say and do, they all reveal the internal influence of family style and family precepts, the principle of being a man flowing in the blood of our Yang family, and the power to unite the whole family quickly at a critical moment.
I read slowly:
When I went back, I looked up the relevant information. The "Three Phases" refers to the sages of the Ming Dynasty, Yang Shiqi, Yang Pu and Yang Rong. They were also famous for their participation in the cabinet as university students, so they were called "Three Yang" and "Three Phases" in history. The "Four Knowledge" comes from the story of Yang Zhen in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Yang Zhen was known as "Confucius in Kansai" when he was young and eager to learn. He has served as the secretariat of Jingzhou, the prefect of Zhuojun, Situ and Taiwei. According to the records in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Wang Mi wanted Yang Zhen to recommend him as the county magistrate of Changyi. He came to Yang Zhen's mansion with ten Jin of gold in the middle of the night and tried to bribe Wang Zhen on the grounds that no one knew it in the middle of the night. Wang Zhenyi refused verbally and said, "What is ignorance?"
facing the vast internet world, what information can't be found? What's the use of endless family stories? It's better to have a heart that inherits family traditions and family precepts.
Maybe when I look up these materials, I will no longer be what I used to be. I am immersed in the fantasy world, and I am a friend of insects, fish, birds and animals. These things have turned into wind, memories and treasures today. At this time, I seem to have more responsibility and responsibility on my body. Whenever I walk on the road in my hometown and see the plaque and statue of my ancestors' hall, the couplet will emerge in my mind, and all the beautiful qualities of Young's will lead me and go on and on.