Recalling the Spring Festival when I was a child, it was quite interesting to write and post Spring Festival couplets.
In our hometown, couplets are called "Di Zi Gate".
At the end of the twelfth lunar month, the Chinese New Year is coming. Neighborhood folks will ask each other when they meet, "Is your family's new year over?" . Generally, the other party will reply, "It will be easy in one year, and it will be done as soon as it is received." It used to be easier for rural people to buy new year's goods during the Spring Festival. Most things are produced by ourselves, and they are usually reluctant. They only take them out to enjoy themselves on holidays. Keep whatever you want, and you rarely buy it in the market. But "d-door" can't be saved. No matter how poor the ordinary people are at home, they should stick to the door for thirty times.
At that time, after crossing a bay, it was difficult to see any family posting posters with the words "Door Di Zi". I really can't find anyone to write, so I can only wait until the afternoon before New Year's Eve and spend money on the streets to "pick it up". Because at that time, when the owner saw that the goods could not be sold, he would handle the inventory at a low price. At this time, he can save some money by buying. "Pick up" is actually spending money on the street, and it is impossible to pick up for nothing.
It is not difficult for my family to write a door, because my sixth father, who is "close to the door (not out of the house of five generations)", is a genius in this field. He and his father are brothers of * * * Ye, older than his father, ranking sixth, so they call him "Six Dad".
It is said that Liu's father studied in a private school for two years and is a "scholar" in the Bay. Three-character classics, hundreds of surnames, are memorized by heart. At that time, rural people liked to sing minor songs. Dad Liu could sing any word he saw, which was very rhyming. When I was in high school, I watched the performance of Taiwan Province singer Johnny on TV, and naturally I thought of my sixth dad. Dad Liu likes to play charades for his children when he has nothing to do. When everyone was playing together, Dad Six came over: "Come, come, come, let me give you a riddle. Guess who will give you a candy? " "Solve riddles, three strands (x √), go far, have no footprints, and play with a tool." Everyone wants to eat candy. Some people say it's a "shoulder pole", some people say it's a "laundry list" and some people say it's a "bucket". Six dad has been waving his hand beside him. "No, no, you have it in several rooms, and then break it." Look at everyone "broken"! Six dads said, "There is another one: the two brothers run as high. You stab me, I stab you. This is easy to break, you have several rooms. " In the end, nobody can "break" it. But whether it is broken or not, everyone can get a "candy".
I didn't "break" it either, and then I asked my sixth dad privately. It turns out that the former answer is "Zi Yuan (a bamboo woven transport tool for carrying excrement in rural areas)", and the latter answer is "bolt". What an image!
Puzzle is not Liu's strong point, but his specialty is calligraphy.
In the words of the Bay people, he can write "strokes", that is, he can write Chinese characters with a brush. It's a writing brush. In fact, it's made of a bamboo stick tied with a pinch of hemp rope through simple processing. If there is a wedding in the Bay, such as "proper drinking (engagement of young men and women)" and "delivery date (engagement period)", people in the Bay will ask him, "Old Liu, write me a post". The "six guys" were very happy and readily agreed. To write these things, he doesn't charge money or eat, and he brings his own pen, ink and paper.
Naturally, every year during the Chinese New Year, Wan Li writes Door Di Zi. In my hometown, I usually have dinner in the morning and finish it at twelve o'clock. Someone has set a square table in the village clearing, and asked six dads to write down "Door Di Zi". Everyone in the bay got together to watch the calligraphy performance. Dad Liu cut paper directly by hand, and someone next to him said, "You can read high, and you don't need a knife to cut paper." Whenever this time, his face will be filled with a happy smile. "Old six, just write my things by hand." Dad Liu looked up and thought for a few seconds: "Your family will write seven pictures." Dad Liu knows exactly how many doors, gates and gates there are in the bay, including pigsty and cowshed. In fact, in the end, the "door dzi beads" in the bay were all written by six dads.
At that time, I couldn't afford to buy couplets, and it wasn't like the contents of couplets found online now. The contents of Di Zi written by Liu's father are usually accumulated and then created on the spot. He thought to himself what to write at the front door and what to write at the second door. For example, the front door reads "Faithfulness and faithfulness are handed down from family to family, poetry and calligraphy will be handed down forever", "Door to green hills and tiger land, households to green water and phoenix pool", "Beautiful spring, many happy events in the world", the kitchen door reads "One person can cook food for thousands of people skillfully, but five flavors can be exchanged for hundreds of flavors", and at the door of the room reads "Tell children to get up early and work hard, and teach them to stay up late for self-study". Horizontal batch is generally "spring returns to the earth", "spring is full of buildings", "flowers bloom" and so on. Six dad's calligraphy attainments are really extraordinary! In particular, the written points are standard "melon seeds" and are said to be the highest realm of calligraphy. I remember friends often draw pictures of melon seeds on couplets. These "dots" are exactly the same as the shapes of melon seeds, just like copywriting!
At that time, the "doors" were very small, which could save paper on the one hand and ink on the other. Unlike now, they all put up couplets, and some of them are written in gold powder. Some units also spent huge sums of money in advertising companies to make couplets and throw them away as garbage for ten and a half days, which was unimaginable at that time. There was not enough ink, so Dad Liu found some charcoal from the stove, crushed it and put it in boiling water to make ready-made ink.
In addition to pasting couplets on the "door side (door frame)", we should also paste some miscellaneous couplets, which are the same size as horizontal ones, but should be pasted vertically. For example, the pigsty is labeled with the words "the trough is thriving" and "the pig grows a thousand pounds", the henhouse (henhouse) is labeled with the words "chickens and ducks flock together", the barn door is labeled with the words "six animals are safe", "oblique crossing (round utensils for storing grain)" is labeled with the words "five grains are abundant", and the living room is labeled with "daily fighting for gold" in a prominent position.
After the New Year's Eve, every household is busy making paste. The preparation of slurry is very simple. Add a handful of flour to cold water and mix well. Stir in a boiling water pot. Some add some rodenticide to it, and the "door" pasted with this paste is very firm and will not be torn by insects and rats.
Gulf people say that the sooner you hang up the "door", the better. After you put it on, you won't worry about someone asking for money. At that time, the rural economic conditions were poor, so it was common to borrow from the Lord and borrow from the west, rob Peter to pay Paul, and borrow money on credit. People who want an account are anxious to come back years ago, because a year is a year. Walking to the door, I saw that people had posted the "door gate". In order to make others lucky, I am embarrassed to go in and ask for money: "gas (go) ball, turn gas (go), next year." I don't know when this rule was handed down, but the taste does make sense. Of course, people in debt don't want to default. Most of them have their own difficulties: "If we don't take care of this year (recession), we will find a way to pay back next year (next year), and we will find a way to pay back the debt as soon as possible."
There are not many people who can read in the bay, so someone is needed to write a dictionary, and dad has to be bothered to paste a dictionary, because posting it incorrectly will make a joke. For example, it is obviously wrong to put "one person cooks food for thousands of people skillfully" and "rich people are happy" together. I remember a family put it up by themselves to save trouble, and put it on the bed. As a result, Dad Liu found out early and changed it to avoid jokes.
There is another custom in my hometown. Generally speaking, people will paste "Red Gate Di Zi" on New Year's Day, but if someone dies that year, don't burn paper. Cut it into a jumble size with burning paper, and there is no word on it. Stick a piece vertically on the left and right door frames, and stick the word "door saint" with a "fork" to show the memory of your loved ones. In the second and third years, the paste is "down color", usually yellow or purple. People close to this family posted "down color" in the first year. Generally speaking, "Xiase Di Zi" is the content of China's filial piety culture, such as "three years of filial piety is easy to get full, and a thousand years of homesickness is the most unforgettable", "Meng Zongdong cries bamboo shoots, and Wang Xiang lies on the ice as his mother" and so on. From these "rosy Di Zi", I got to know Yong Dong, Meng Zong and Wang Xiang, the famous big filial sons.
Although I didn't do very well in school at that time, under the influence of my sixth dad, I was keen on writing Door Di Zi every year. I am usually the deputy next to me, and I know a little about the basic knowledge of writing. From the first day of the first month to the fifteenth day of the first month, it is the most unforgettable folk activity for friends to read "door to door" when they are playing in the bay.
Dad Liu has always been single, and he has established a reputation in the Gulf with his "painting pole", which adds a festive atmosphere to the annual Spring Festival and also allows the traditional culture of "Door" to be passed on to the next generation. Sadly, in his later years, he was begging outside because of mental disorder, and finally died in the wilderness. When I was studying abroad, I heard from people in the bay that people were discovered by passers-by. I often think that if he lives in the new era, he may become a famous calligrapher or literary talent. With his talent and personality, he will certainly live a beautiful life and enjoy a happy old age.
In my heart, Liu Dad will always be the most respectable elder!
# Yu X Hongsheng #.
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