When the Tianzhou-1 and Tiangong-2 overhead were successfully docked, I was "treasure hunting" at the Longgang Village rock dump on the ground. I came here just after a heavy rainstorm last night - this is the basic common sense of "rookie" stone pickers: rain washes out the original appearance of stones and avoids the pain of dust. From time to time, cars, motorcycles, and pedestrians pass by. A funeral convoy passed by, a Harley convoy passed by, a bicycle convoy passed by, and several rural aunts passed by carrying Qingming offerings. None of them stopped to look at me. Until Kuang Ziting appeared.
He is about 30 years old. Tall, with a long face and a shy look. His family is in Dajiangpu, his wife is from this village, and they have a son and a daughter. The son is in junior high school. He is the director of a trolley bag factory and went to a friend's house in Longgang Village during his vacation. He was curious when he saw me, so he came over and asked: What can I pick up from a pile of "random rocks"? Before I picked up the two little stones of "lean meat" and "indescribable", I was timid to answer. But now I feel confident. I said, there are "interesting" rocks hidden here. I further summarized the "three methods" of stone selection in an expert tone: "one quality, two patterns and three shapes." Kuang Ziting's face stretched longer. I began to explain, firstly, the quality of the stone: like Conghua yellow waxstone, which looks like wax and feels like jade, as yellow as wax and as transparent as jade; secondly, the texture: like Conghua yellow waxstone, with an ever-changing surface, like pig skin and like running water. , chicken feet are the same, money is the same, knife chops are the same, honeycomb is the same, millet is the same, pearls are the same, bamboo leaves are the same, bitter melon peel is the same, Shaqima is the same; again, the stone shape: like Conghua yellow wax stone, food is the same, animals are the same, and utensils are the same Similarly, they are angels with broken wings, disguised as "food", "animals" and "objects" and fell into the world. Kuang Ziting seemed to understand, and started picking up stones with me. He picked up dozens of small stones and showed them to me for verification, but I basically threw them away. He is silent and shy to express himself. What a shy man! But the last words Kuang Ziting said when they broke up shocked me.
Conghua has a Liuxi River that runs through the entire territory, and there are many "interesting" stones in the world. The most famous one is the yellow wax stone from the hot spring section of Liuxi River. Above the river bed is river water, and below the river bed are hot springs containing various minerals, gushing out in Weidong Village, a hot spring town. Under the simultaneous action of river water and hot springs, it has been nurtured, refined and penetrated by long-term geological processes, and finally turned into a wax-like jade-like yellow wax stone. The various minerals brought into the stone by the hot springs form yellow, white, red, black, green and other colors, becoming rare "colored wax stones". As early as more than ten years ago, the entire village of Weidong Village's three-story economic cooperative was a "stone village." The villagers used hook machines to dig in the river and became the first farmers to become rich from stones. There are almost no traces of large colored wax stones, and they are basically stored in villagers' homes, players' hands, and strange stone shops. Most of the "fish that slipped through the net" are small wax stones that are visible to the naked eye, but they are hidden in mountains and river bottoms. Every true "treasure hunter" hopes for a heavy rainstorm to wash down the strange rocks on the mountain and turn up the strange rocks at the bottom of the water. The sand pumping ship continuously pumps up the river sand, and the loading truck continuously transports the sand and gravel to the rock dump, and then separates the sand and stone. The rock dump is a transfer area for rubble. They are only worth 100 yuan per ton here, which is even lower than the day's wages of workers who pick up rocks at the rock dump. Then they are continuously transported to roads, dams, gardens, and residences to be used as paving stones. If you are lucky, it will be used as a paving stone, if you are unlucky, it will be used as a base stone. Covered with thick cement, the yellow wax stone that may be worth a year's salary of a stone picker will never see the light of day.
One of the few pieces of "lean meat" that complies with the "three laws" that I have on hand was lying quietly in my husband's Jiulong Villa as a "paving stone" before he met me. Husband's Jiulong Villa is a restaurant farm with two football fields opened by my classmate Mr. Li Puxiang. Men over forty like to play football here, and men under forty like to drink here. I don't like playing football or drinking. I like picking up rocks. More than a dozen cartloads of gravel were pulled to pave the rotten land here. I thought about how many "interesting" stones were buried under the rocks, in the mud, and beside weeds. I only determined to be an "interesting" person a few years ago. They determined to be an "interesting" stone thousands of years ago.
Before the sun went down, I had picked up a small bag full of stones and prepared to go home. I was resting under a small banyan tree, my hands habitually playing with the grass on the ground, and suddenly I found a corner of red. My heart tightened, and I pulled out a piece of red frozen wax. Wax stones are divided into coarse, fine, crystal, glue and frozen according to the wax quality. Red wax stones are rare, red and frozen wax stones are even rarer, and red and frozen wax stones that resemble something are even rarer.
This piece of red frozen wax looks like a small piece of freshly cut "lean meat". Thick dark red "meat" fibers are visible, and a thin layer of white stone skin "pores" are visible. What's even better is that there are one or two "blood stains" on the pigskin stone. With this piece of treasure to "hold the line", my confidence to "pick up rocks" suddenly rushed to my head.
But a year ago, before I had an insight into the "three methods", and before a few generous seniors in the "stone picking world" donated stones, I was a "rookie" in the "stone picking world". Even though my home is filled with small stones, my circle of friends is exposed to the sun every day. One day, Sister Yun, whom I had met on WeChat not long ago, called me and said calmly, my villa is going to be renovated, and the stones I have cleaned will be given to you. Sister Yun's yellow wax stones were piled randomly in every corner of the villa garden. When we met, we found out that she was a veteran figure in the "stone picking world" - twenty years ago, she had been picking up stones in Liuxi River. In the past, fine large wax stones were everywhere, and large stones weighing tens to hundreds of kilograms were carried back on motorcycles, and several motorcycles were damaged. In the end, I just couldn't keep it at home and bought a villa. Any piece of yellow wax stone for Sister Yun is better than the best one in my house, and she couldn’t stand it even when I dried it. I carried hundreds of kilograms of stones. After getting these stones, I can see further, because I am suddenly standing on Sister Yun's "shoulders of giants."
Meng Qi is the second senior person in the "stone picking world" that I have met. His surname is Li, and he is the eldest in the family. He is often full of weird ideas, so he gave himself the nickname "Meng Qi". He once dreamed of going to a pink planet, touching countless sticky pink bubbles and a pink girl. At fourteen he predicted that he would be an interesting man at forty. As a result, by that year, he, who was studying fine arts, studied under the famous Guqin master of the Lingnan School. Not only could he play it, but he could also play it. Every time I went to his studio, he would give me a piece of yellow wax stone as a gift. He knew every beach on the Liuxi River where he could pick up rocks, and encouraged me to pick them up together. Meng Qi often took me to the Macun Stone Field by the Liuxi River to pick up rocks. There were dozens of piles of large and small rocks piled here. The most exaggerated one was picking up rocks at night. Meng Qi said that it is easy to find transparent stones that glow under low light. I didn't pick up many luminous transparent stones that night, but I knocked down a few luminous fireflies.
Village Chief Go is the third veteran in the "stone picking world" that I have met. His surname is Li, and he is well-known as the founder of "Goose Pot" in Conghua's catering industry. All day long, he hangs out with the black-maned goose under the pseudonym Qinlongtan, and is known as the "Chief of the Goose Village". Twenty years ago, a hotel fire destroyed the popular "Goose Pot". However, Village Chief Go didn't believe in evil and believed that the situation would become more and more prosperous, so he moved to Guangzhou and failed again. After washing away all the troubles, I realized that Conghua was the best, so I started "Goose Pot" from scratch. The hotel's military merit medal for bringing back the dead is half of the contribution of Elf Goose's pet "shrimp dumplings". Back then, a child downstairs in the hotel forgot to bring his key. He shouted "Daddy, open the door" three times downstairs, and the "shrimp dumplings" in the cage responded three times in a row. The village chief marveled: He couldn't even be its "father", but instead it became the "father" of others. From then on, "shrimp dumplings" were treated as little ancestors, and eventually became a "signature" to attract customers. He became enlightened because of the enlightened Mr. Goose. When Dahongying and Aman, I, visited the village chief and visited a room full of stones in his country villa, the village chief said to me sincerely that people have karma, and stones have karma, and only when people are "enlightened" can they form a karma with the stone. 20 years ago, Village Chief Go went to various battlefields, bringing a bag of fruit to coax the aunts attending the battlefield, and then brought back several large bags of strange stones. What he has become most associated with are dozens of strange stones with "indescribable" organs of men and women. The flowers are long and short, and they are piled up in blocks. "The flowers are in disorder and become charming to the eye." If you have too many stones, place them freely outside the house. Village Chief Go pointed at a pile of rocks in the corner and said, "Go and pick out a few." Aman and I ran forward and backward. As a result, I picked up a black pebble of the male's "indescribable" organ 20 seconds faster than Aman - I verified the importance of the "stone edge" on the spot.
Luo Minghui is the fourth veteran in the "stone picking world" that I have met. He is a man with both civil and military skills. Wen is calligraphy, martial arts is Taekwondo. Because he opened classes to teach disciples, he was known as "Luo Jiao". Luo Jiao must drink when writing calligraphy, and must not drink when doing Taekwondo. The shochu heats up the veins, and the meaning of the calligraphy breaks through the cage. With a flick of his wrist, he let out a loud roar. He was half-drunk with wine, happy and childlike, and he was so powerful that he suppressed Wei Li and made him clumsy. Luo Jiao loved wine, books, tea and stones. Others pick up stones on the shore, Luo Jiao picks up stones in the stream; others pick up stones without getting their feet wet, but Luo Jiao picks up stones and his body gets wet too! Picking up a good stone, hehehe; hitting the water with his palm, it makes a splash. In fact, what he picked up was not a stone, but the landscape. He said to me sincerely that people are nature and stones are nature. Only when people "have nature in their hearts" can they become attached to stones.
With the enthusiastic encouragement of the veterans in the "stone picking world", I finally "solo". I "walked it again" along the route Meng Qi pointed out. I took advantage of the Dragon Boat Festival, when everyone was busy soaking in water and eating brown rice, to visit the Macun Stone Field again. This time, I saw a child squatting on a pile of rocks from a distance. When I looked closer, I realized it was a short young man about 20 years old. I remember Meng Qi mentioned that his name was Binzi, and he often wandered alone along the Liuxi embankment. He has the face of Jack Ma, but only has the IQ of Jack Ma when he was 5 years old. If you ask him how old he is, he will always answer 5 years old. But he has a super memory, and he will remember the age, name, and measurements of any strange woman brought by any strange man, provided that you bring the woman with you. His eyes were dark and blinking. He squatted on the pile of stones, often playing with a stone in his hand, which looked like it was about to fly out at any time - unless he asked for a few cents in change.
Binzai reminds me of a "lone ranger" I met from time to time in the city in the past ten years. He always walked silently on any road in the city. What never changes is that he wears a yellow plastic safety helmet, covering half of his face, and his dark eyes are revealed in the shadow. What is always changing is what is held in the right hand in various ways: sometimes it is a stick, sometimes a weight, sometimes a knife, sometimes a bottle, sometimes a ruler. In the past ten years, his walking posture, eyes, and clothes have never changed. What has changed is that Lazha's black beard has turned gray. Their lives wander between enlightenment and unenlightenment, and no one can understand them.
But I am quickly understanding the stones in my hands and the "interest" in them. I often meet "stone pickers" who are hard-working, solo, and eager like me, but they often come back in vain. If you only pick up stones that look like wax and jade, how many more will there be? They wake up earlier than the chickens? Or is it more tiring than an ox? But I always come back happy. I have read the four major classics, and I understand that the protagonists of both masterpieces are "transformed" by stones; I have read Aeschylus's "Prometheus Bound", and I understand that tragedy produces beauty, just like the interlacing of canine teeth on stones of different textures** *Yishi; I have seen "Venus with Broken Arms" (picture) and understand that beauty comes from imperfection. Stones with missing heads and legs can stir up your imagination at any time; I have read "Meditation of Beauty" by Jiang Xun, and I know that leaving blank space creates beauty. The literati of the Song Dynasty left behind the "non-violent non-cooperation movement" to escape the barbaric rule of the Yuan Dynasty and created a large number of landscape paintings with blank spaces. In my hand are sandwiches, braised pork, cakes, roast goose, sesame cakes, chestnut-like stones, stones with patterns of tigers, dogs, dragons, snakes, wind, bamboos, mountains and moons. The artistic conception is inferior to the small stones with the pattern of one-leaf bodhi; I have read Laughing Life "Jin Ping Mei", I know that women are beautiful for those who please themselves, and stones are opened for those who appreciate themselves. Pan Jinlian, who was born in a poor family, wanted to please Ximen Qing in every possible way, so she secretly smeared jasmine stamens all over her body. "It was white, greasy and smooth, with a pleasant fragrance." Isn't this just like me "raising stones"? Caress and rub it every day? I have read the Book of Changes, and I understand that the best stones always appear when people are most desperate; I have read the Bible, and I understand that "when God closes a window for you, he will definitely open another door for you." The so-called "ugliness" of holes and wrinkles is exactly the "beauty" that stone idiots dream of; I know the science of relationship, being kind to others will sow the fruits of blessing, everyone gives me stones and I give them to everyone; I know materialism, Human beings are flesh, and no matter how awesome they are, they cannot be compared with the length of a stone. I once learned to let go; I know the "Six Paths of Reincarnation" in Buddhism, where life and death continue without end, and every pebble hints that "life will eventually return." "Original Point"; I know that on the auction list of ancient Chinese paintings, Shitou and Shi Tao are both named Shi. Who is sure that Shitou cannot fetch the price of Shi Tao's painting? Besides, I still have "three methods"! Do you think you picked up just a stone? Not only do you need to know a little bit about aesthetics, philosophy, literature, history, theology, customs, psychology, humanities, relationships, materialism, and idealism, if you pick it up like this, how can you return home without a load?
In the past month, I have opened up a "new battlefield" - there are a lot of river rocks on the river beach downstream of the Weidong Power Station Dam. The last stone in the upper reaches of Liuxi River here was fixed in 1978 after the dam was built. A small river bank tore the green silk-like river water into two pieces, quickly washed the river beach and then flowed into the distance. There is a row of neat and thin eucalyptus trees on the left bank, standing tall and distant. The hot and humid river beach breeds a large number of small mosquitoes that are almost invisible to the naked eye, and stone pickers will suffer from mosquito bites. After turning over the stone, you have to endure the fright of centipedes, crickets, and frogs jumping out from underneath. Sometimes there will be a sudden sharp pain in the toes, which is caused by black ants the size of sesame seeds. Bend for a long time to pick up stones, old back problems arise. But all of these are nothing compared to the loneliness of picking up stones alone.
I was thinking about the meaning of picking up stones.
In fact, what I picked up was not stones, but self-cultivation. When you realize that a vast pile of stones, strange rocks, wonderful rocks, and interesting rocks may be buried for a lifetime, you will sigh at how unbearable they are; when you stand in the water, you realize that your feet cannot step into the same stone twice. River, you will lament that "it is so dead"; when you realize that getting it is accidental and losing it is inevitable, you will lament that no matter how good the stone is, we can only accompany it for a short period of time. The stone cannot speak but it can speak. Stone can endure the most humble trampling, but also does not hesitate to show off to others in the most magnificent way. You have to sigh, "Shi De is a worthy teacher"!
I suddenly remembered what Kuang Ziting said to me last: Stones are nothing but imagination.
Isn’t this the ultimate truth of stone?
? 2017.7.14