Hou used to be a unified surname in the village. Later, when two girls recruited sons-in-law, they added two surnames, Wei and Lan.
My grandfather's great-grandfather, the first two brothers, came to this remote mountainous area from far away and spent a lot of money to buy a large barren hill and wasteland from the local big landlord. The two brothers divided the mountain and the land into two halves, one in charge of the other, built a house under a mountain and lived a farming life of raising children for generations. It was not until the people's commune was established after liberation that the land and mountains were owned by the production team, and then the land was divided according to population.
How many generations have lived in this small village? Tomb-Sweeping Day, we didn't know until we went up the mountain to sweep the grave. In which grave lives my grandfather, in which grave lies my grandmother, my great-grandfather, great-grandmother, and their father, mother, grandfather and grandmother. They live on the windy mountain and on the grave. They watch the sunrise and sunset in Shan Lan and listen to the birds and insects at night. Only in Tomb-Sweeping Day every year, as their descendants, we seldom go up the mountain to visit our ancestors' graves. A group of people cleared the weeds on and around the grave, and the ancestors' graves became shiny in the sunny and shiny season.
The mountain behind the village is what we used to call the mountain behind the village. From the front of the village, I only think that the mountain behind the village is an independent gable. Actually, it is not. Walking through the small depression behind the village and along the path, I found that this is a mountain that stretches for miles. On the top of the mountain behind the ridge, there is a big cave that passes through both sides of the mountain like a bright eye. Fiona Fang people call this mountain a hole-piercing mountain.
The path leading to the outside world through the cave mountain, hunched in the middle of the mountain, like a winding snake. Standing on the path halfway up the mountain, you can see the surrounding mountains, one next to the other, airtight, and there are villages or paths at the foot of each mountain. Our ancestors were buried in those mountains. Whenever it rains or is foggy in Tomb-Sweeping Day, people in mountain villages will take cooked chickens, ducks, geese, pork and rice to those mountain roads to pay homage in nature.
My grandparents are the most delicious food in Tomb-Sweeping Day. They were buried at the foot of the mountain behind the village. The houses in the village are concentrated at the foot of the mountain and surrounded by several hills. The old tile house left by grandpa is next to the mountain behind the village, with a piece of land in the middle. My uncle's house, my house, my uncle's house, whenever Tomb-Sweeping Day's sacrifice is ready, I will go to the grave of my grandparents to pay homage. We visited the grave from near to far in Tomb-Sweeping Day.
The graves of my grandfather and grandmother lie in a dry place, and the two graves stand side by side. The cliff above the grave is sheltered, and it hardly rains all the year round. Grass can hardly grow in that dry place, and there is no need to weed or add soil to the top of the grave every year. Two tombs built of stone, with mud piled at the top and rounded at the top. The grave of my grandparents at the foot of the mountain behind the village is the grave of the second burial. According to the custom in our hometown, people should be buried twice after death. The first burial was after death, and they were buried in coffins. In a few years, three years, five years or more, but it must be more than three years, so we must find a good place for the deceased and bury it again. When you bury it for the second time, you should buy a Jintan (a ceramic altar for holding bones), and dig out the grave buried for the first time to see if the coffin is rotten. If the coffin is not corroded, directly open the coffin lid and pick up the human bones in Jintan, first pick up the bones from the feet and finally pick up the skull. After the bones are put in the Jintan, cover the Jintan and put it in the back building. The children and grandchildren carried the back building with the golden altar, and a group of people first chose the second burial place for their ancestors. If it's mud, dig a hole in the soil, put the Jintan down, build a circular tomb with stones on it, and pile soil on it. If it is a stone ground, it is impossible to dig a hole. Directly surround Jintanlei with stones, and then directly add soil. After the second burial, the ancestors' graves were more luxurious than the first burial. From the beginning to the whole process, they are very particular about it. The tombstone should be carved by a stonemason. The inscription only records who the people in the tomb are, when they died, and who their descendants are. Of course, some families with poor conditions can't afford a stonemason to find a good stone tablet to carve, and there may be no written record on the tombstone.
My impression of my grandmother is vague, but clear. I crawled on the ground before I learned to walk when I was a child. My memory seems to be those days when my grandmother was going to die, probably during the holidays. I can't remember clearly. I climbed on grandma's sofa and grandma was lying on the bamboo sofa. My uncle tore the chicken with his hand and fed it to her. My grandmother's mouth is squirming, chewing the chicken slowly. I only remember my grandmother that once. I don't remember when my grandmother died, nor when she died.
My grandfather's impression is very clear in my mind. When I came back from the market, I was on the same road with an uncle. He asked me which village I came from and whose son I was. I will answer them one by one. That uncle praised my grandfather, only to know that my grandfather likes hunting. At that time, my grandfather and hunters in nearby villages were carrying shotguns and hunting over mountains and mountains, shooting antelope and wild goats. The uncle said, my grandfather knows magic spells, hunters chase from one mountain to another, and several hounds bark and chase in front of the hunters. Later, when the hounds and hunters were sleepy and the animals disappeared, my grandfather would pick a handful of leaves and kneel on the ground to read silently, and the chased animals would appear and become hunters' guns. The hunters happily carried the victory back to the village, divided the meat of their prey into several parts, and everyone took one home. What a pleasant thing it was to eat meat at that time, and it was not easy to taste yellow meat and wild goat meat. There is a saying in our hometown, "If you go hunting in the mountains, you will get something". Whether you have a shotgun or not, as long as you see a hunter hunting, you will go up the mountain to chase the prey. The prey will be chased and panic, and the person with the shotgun will hide behind the rock when he sees the prey appear in front of the gun, and the prey will fall with a bang.
My uncle told me that my saliva was flying, saying that the most powerful thing was the wild goat. Some can't be killed with one shot, but they are injured and can't run. At this time, we must pay attention to it. You must make up the gun and kill the wild goat. You can't escape. In case the injured wild goat pushes people off the cliff, it will be miserable. Grandpa said it was mainly because my grandfather had read a spell, which made those animals unable to run away.
I don't know if it's true or not, but I adore my grandfather to death. I wonder why my grandfather didn't pass this spell on to his descendants. I have never eaten wild goat meat, but I have eaten yellow meat. In my memory, the yellow flesh is very delicious and soft, even more delicious than beef and horse meat. The yellow meat I ate was not ordered by my grandfather or the hunter in the village. I remember that although there were several shotguns in the village (shotguns were handed in later), I didn't see any wild goats or parents' yellow meat. They just called some birds or rabbits and wild cats.
I've never seen a wild goat look like in my life, but my mother has a wild goat horn. Is that wild horn my mother's dowry? Or did my dad leave it to my mom? I don't know. I didn't ask about the origin of the wild goat horn. My father died young, and I don't know what his father looks like in my memory. I was only a few months old, lying in my mother's arms and nursing, and my father left home. That wild horn is a treasure. Whenever someone in the village has a headache, they will come to my house to borrow it. The usage is to sprinkle some water in the wild horn, then pour out the water, then put one or two kindling objects in the wild horn, and then suddenly clamp the wild horn tightly between the forehead (above the eyebrows). The gas in the horn tightly pressed the horn of the wild goat against his forehead. People are like animals with horns. Stay for a while. I've seen my mother use it, so have people in the village, and when I have a headache. But my uncle uses it the most. My uncle often has headaches. When he has a headache, he will sit in front of my stove and light the horns of wild goats. Then he put the horn of the wild goat on his forehead, and his head felt better, then he went back to his home.
Yellow pulp was eaten when my mother took me to my uncle's house for Qingming when I was a child. I have never seen what my grandparents look like. They died long before I was born. My mother gave birth to me in her forties. It is said that my father is several years younger than my mother. But my two uncles, one is a big uncle, the other is a little uncle, and my aunt and aunt, and then there are several cousins, cousins. I don't eat yellow meat at my uncle's house. My uncles can't hunt and their sons can't fight. I haven't seen a shotgun in their house. I have a cousin whose grandfather's father is my great-grandfather's brother. He is the oldest cousin in the village. My mother asked me to call him big cousin. Big cousin likes to set wild animals with iron cats (iron clips for wild animals). Before Tomb-Sweeping Day, he got a yellow blanket. As soon as my mother and I arrived at my uncle's house, he called me and my mother to his house to eat yellow meat. The whole family has finished eating, and there is a big pot of yellow meat left. The most delicious meat I can remember is that time.
I met huangyan. When I was a child herding cattle, I sat on the cape and saw a high mountain top. The mountain was burned, and tender grass just grew on the top of it. I saw a little bull grazing on the top of the mountain. I pointed and said, "whose cow can climb to the top of the mountain to eat grass." Several adults smiled and said, "That's Huangyan." This is why I know that the place where Huangyan grazes is a place where cows can't climb. I have never seen people in the village fight with yellow leather because they know that yellow leather is not easy to catch. I have seen hunters from other villages pass through our village several times when chasing Huangyan, but they all returned empty-handed. So, I remembered the time I went to the market when I was a child. Grandpa told me the story of grandpa and his hunting party. I think grandpa is great.
But as far as I can remember, I have never seen my grandfather hunt, but the hand play of bird catching is my grandfather's heirloom, and his hand play has been passed down to my uncle. Several birdcages in my uncle's house are filled with ostriches, and one I know is partridge, also called cuckoo. Whenever the partridge season, whenever the partridge is in full bloom, my uncle goes everywhere to catch partridge. He has been to Hainan Island with two media birds. He is the first person in the village to see the sea by boat.
Grandfather likes to sing nursery rhymes. He has several manuscripts, including the story of Liang Zhu and the story of Liang Hongyu. Grandfather recited them fluently in Zhuang language Tanya. He not only recited the old story Tanya, but also sang nursery rhymes about herding cattle. At that time, I was two or three years old, sitting at my uncle's house, my grandfather was holding my cousin in his arms, singing Tanya, and I sat quietly listening.
I remember my grandfather was very strict and often scolded me. Maybe it's because I was too naughty when I was a child. I often fight with my cousin who is one year older than me and often beat my cousin. Whenever I see my childhood friends as old as me standing at the entrance of the village, I run over and beat them to tears. It was not until I was four years old that Brother Lobby became a primary school teacher and took me to school with him. I didn't fight with those friends in the village. I studied a few years before them, and they didn't start learning until they were seven or eight years old.
Grandparents lay quietly at the foot of the mountain behind the village to give them a clear day. There are cousins, brothers and sisters, cousins and uncles. If uncles and aunts don't have time, cousins and cousins will come, and a group of people will happily and enthusiastically do Qingming.
During the Qingming Festival, not only paper money was burned for the dead, but also paper banners were inserted in their graves. Paper banners are cut by folding several pieces of white gauze paper together, and after opening, they form a string of shouting paper banners. Cut a small tree, put it on the top of the tomb, and then hang a paper banner on the branch. Those paper banners, one for each family, one for my family, one for my uncle's family, one for my brother-in-law and cousin's brother-in-law, and one for two aunts' families, are hung on grandparents' graves. It can be seen from the paper banners on the tomb during the Qingming period that whoever has more descendants will have more paper banners on the tomb.
We put sacrifices in front of my grandfather's grave, and then put a row of lit incense in front of my grandmother's grave, which is to invite my grandmother to come and have dinner with my grandfather. Otherwise, let's put sacrifices in front of my grandmother's grave, put a row of incense in front of my grandfather's grave, and invite my grandfather to come and have dinner with my grandmother. Sacrificial products are cooked chicken and cooked duck brought by my family, uncle and uncle's family, as well as cooked pork, wine, rice and Ai Ciba. Tomb-Sweeping Day, Ai Ciba is a must for every family. Tomb-Sweeping Day, the daughter who married abroad, must give them some Ai Ciba as a gift when she goes home.
On the way to Tomb-Sweeping Day, the sons and daughters who are married outside are picking out chicken, duck and wine. Those chickens and ducks were given not only to their parents, but also to their uncles. If their brothers and cousins are separated, they will get a family. It's not easy to be a daughter. It costs a lot of money to come back to my house on holidays.
It rains mostly in Tomb-Sweeping Day. When the rain stopped or it rained in Mao Mao, after the villagers paid homage to their graves, the brothers and sisters got together, wearing rain hats, carrying sickles and carrying sacrifices, and headed for the mountain where their ancestors lived. Among a group of brothers and sisters, there are not only Hou, but also Wei and Lan.
Stepping on a few miles outside the mountain, the grass and leaves on both sides of the path are shining with water drops. The person who walked in front broke a branch and swatted off the rain on the grass. At that time, we all rushed to be pioneers, sweeping the rain on both sides of the path with branches until we reached the grave of our ancestors.
A group of people used sickles to weed around ancestral graves, and some directly pulled them from the top of graves by hand. Clean up the grass around the tomb, light incense in front of the tomb, place sacrifices, burn paper money, insert paper banners on the top of the tomb, and set off firecrackers.
Cigarettes curled up in front of the tomb and melted in the fog in the mountains. In Tomb-Sweeping Day, firecrackers kept echoing in the mountains. Standing in the distance, there are countless graves on almost every hill, and the mountains are covered with paper.
People carrying sacrifices or people sitting in carriages are constantly seen on the road. People come and go, some people come from dozens of miles away, and some people walk from dozens of miles away. I saw that when I was a child. Of course, it's different now. Now people drive cars or motorcycles down the mountain first, and then go up the mountain to worship their ancestors.
I remember, on that sunny rainy day, there was a brother and sister standing at the foot of the mountain. It is raining harder and harder, and the road is slippery. Sister and brother can't go up the mountain, so they have to burn incense and offer sacrifices under a stone at the foot of the mountain. My sister and brother put their hands over their mouths and shouted at the mountain, "Grandpa, we can't go up the mountain. Come down and have dinner!" " Of course, this is not about me, but someone else's story. We met their brother and sister on the way. At that time, I asked my brothers and sisters, "They can't slide up the mountain in rainy days. I wonder if they will go up the mountain when it is sunny? " My sisters and brothers said, "It will be fine in Tomb-Sweeping Day."
On the whole, we are still strong. My great-grandfather was buried under the rock of an independent mountain on the left side of our village. The road on that mountain is so steep that even sheep can hardly climb it. This road can hardly be called a road, but it climbs up along those stone cliffs. However, my great-grandfather is also the best. Our Tomb-Sweeping Day is from near to far. He lives on the hill near the village, so naturally he will be respected first.
Although I don't know his father's appearance, he was buried on a high ground at the foot of Phoenix Mountain behind the primary school. Whenever I go to school, I can see my father's grave lying quietly on the high ground. I often sit on the top of my father's grave when herding cattle. Until one day, my brother and I found some depressions on the top of my father's tomb, and my mother and uncle said they would find a new home for my father. I chose a good day and bought the Jintan to dig my father's grave. At that time, DaJieFu picked up bones for my father. Dajiefu said the coffin was not rotten, and the place where my father was buried was a good place. According to the adults in the village, my father is tall and stuttering, but he loves to joke. The brother surnamed Wei said that my father was his master. Only then did I know that my father was a master of weaving bamboo tools. He not only left us a tall tile-roofed house (the old tile-roofed house was later dumped by my brother, and the building was rebuilt in the old tile-roofed house), but also planted many fruit trees in front of the house. In the season when the fruits are ripe, we can all enjoy the fruits contributed by our father. Father also left many woven bamboo tools, baskets and baskets at home. Mother likes those two big bamboo baskets best, and they are always hung on the stove where there are fireworks. She takes it down when she needs it, and hangs it when she doesn't need it. These two bamboo baskets have never been worn out by her mother all her life.
My father was buried at the foot of the mountain behind the village, not far from the graves of my grandparents, that is, my father's parents, next to a piece of land behind my uncle's house. My uncle often has headaches. Once he came to my house to chat with his brother and said that his uncle asked the witch. The witch said that his uncle had a headache because his father was buried behind his uncle's house, and his father sometimes disturbed him, so he had a headache. By that time, I had dropped out of junior high school for a year and a half. My brother and I both know that my uncle is superstitious. In addition, a family named Lan opened a carriage road, which was built in front of his father's grave. Cattle and sheep often pass that road. Naughty sheep often climb to the top of his father's grave and trample down stones. At home, I said, listen to my uncle and bury my father somewhere else.
Mr. Geography found a place for his father, in a small cave on Maanshan, not far from my uncle's village. At that time, I had grown up, carrying my father's golden altar on my back, carrying my father on my back and holding a parasol. My warm father followed me to Ma 'anshan.
My little brother used to be a township head, but later he couldn't walk because of his atrophied feet, so he had to put a bench under * * *, bend his squatting feet and jump forward, grabbing the bench under * * with one hand and jumping like a frog. I was very happy to hear that my father was buried in Ma 'anshan in front of their village. He said that he hadn't seen his brother-in-law for more than ten years, so he squatted and danced with his feet, holding the bench under * * * with one hand and struggling to jump all the way to Maanshan to see his father. We were deeply moved to hear our cousin talk about him. Later, my little brother was going to Ma 'anshan to meet my father, and my cousin carried him.
Later, my uncle passed away, and every time I visited Tomb-Sweeping Day, there was another memorial grave on the mountain.
I was working outside, and my brother, sister and brother-in-law found a place close to home for my father. My father lived in the cape behind the village where I used to herd cattle when I was a child, and watched the village day and night.
Whenever I go home to pay homage to my father and ancestors in Tomb-Sweeping Day, I can only think about Tomb-Sweeping Day in Tomb-Sweeping Day. The rain in Tomb-Sweeping Day often wets my eyes.
Anday
Zhuang nationality, whose works have published many novels, poems and essays in Guangxi Literature, Grass and Tide, Foshan Literature and Art, Golden Age, Working Literature, Coconut City and Jinshan, is a member of Guangxi Writers Association.