Fireworks and Poetry —— Selected Reading of Wang Zengqi's Prose Collection "Spring and Autumn Annals of Grass"

one

Liang Youzhi, a scholar and publisher of literature and history, wrote a beautiful and unforgettable encounter with Wang Zengqi in the preface of Wang Zengqi's Wen Cun. As a teenager, he was reading a magazine in the waiting room of an old bookstall near the Yangtze River levee, and he accidentally read this passage:

She went back with a basket of water chestnuts, leaving a string of footprints on the soft ridge. Minghai looked at her footprints stupidly. Five little toes, flat bottom, thin heels and a missing arch. Minghai has a feeling that has never been felt before, itchy. This string of beautiful footprints messed up the little monk's heart.

……

Teenagers' hearts are confused, but they are also stupid. Such wonderful, fresh, elegant and moving words made his heart beat faster. He remembered the author and the title: Wang Zengqi, being commanded. This magazine is a monthly novel,No. 1980.

All I have in front of me is Wang Zengqi's six-volume edition of Wen Cun Memorial Collector's Edition, edited by Liang Youzhi. The first volume, the second volume is novels, the third volume is prose, the fourth volume is prose, the fifth volume is literary theory, and the sixth volume is letters, plays and miscellaneous essays.

What kind of person is Wang Zengqi who is deeply appreciated and loved by Shen Congwen? As an artificial writer, Liang Youzhi appreciates Wang Lao's "casual", consistent sincerity and simplicity, marvels at his enthusiastic and meticulous observation and description of the details of ordinary people's lives, and admires his uninhibited writing talent.

He writes about people, customs, flowers and birds, cordyceps, eating and drinking, landscapes and anecdotes ... He is used to light pen and ink, but he has an indescribable unique charm and sweetness.

From collecting all kinds of collected works written by Wang Zengqi before his death, to being a reader of Wang Zengqi's works, to the transformation of the publishing house, Liang Youzhi used the word 12 to evaluate Wang Lao: living really, doing beautifully and walking smartly.

two

The prose volume "Rain in Kunming" includes 52 articles "Plants in the Spring and Autumn Period"; 2 1 piece "The Story of My Old Friend"; 4 articles of National Southwest Associated University; There are 33 articles of Gathering and Scattering of Clouds and 22 articles of Rain in Kunming, with more than 565,438 words. You have a long heart, and beauty follows you.

I choose "Spring and Autumn of Vegetation" and read it with the title.

There are three things recorded in "Human Plants": "Shandandan" who remembers his age-one year longer and one more flower, this thing can live and be solid; Lycium barbarum is everywhere, clusters of Lycium barbarum are planted at the head of the house, hanging down like fireworks and fountains, and the canopy made of coral beads is very beautiful; Sophora japonica blooms like snow, dazzling white, beekeepers come, and then Sophora japonica falls.

How can the human vegetation described by this lovely old man be heartless?

In "Shandandan", Wang Lao had two conversations with the old fort owner who entertained him. When talking about the flowers in Daqingshan, it was a metaphor for the people rooted here and their deep affection for this land. "Flowers bloom in Shandandan, year after year ..." People who write songs and sing can't understand it.

In the article Lycium barbarum, an old couple dressed neatly and looked good. The grass under the mountain bag picks up wolfberry from the kitchen. "It's more interesting to pick up Chinese wolfberry while walking than just walking."

"Take your time!"

"Take your time!"

The slow life of returning to nature is actually playing and looking for fun from life. It's just an old discovery about Chinese wolfberry cooking, "Pick out the tender head of Chinese wolfberry, blanch it slightly, chop it up, mix it with diced fragrant dried fruit, and pour it with soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil;" Or stir-fry in a frying pan, they all smell good.

In "Sophora japonica", with "Sophora japonica" as the introduction, only at the beginning and end of the sentence, from flowers to people, tells the story of beekeepers and couples. "Where there are flowers, the couple will go."

Sichuan women in their early thirties are satisfied with Shijiazhuang men in their fifties, and have no regrets. A woman has a very kind and beautiful heart. Follow a good-tempered person, running around, running around. "This is a kind of rural romanticism." The flowers of Sophora japonica have fallen again, and the quiet and loving life continues.

Every grass and tree, trivial things, unique capture, tiny perspective, rural customs, inadvertently, wonderful brushstrokes leap from the paper.

"I think the best day is to get up in the morning to offer flowers, make tea at leisure, take a nap in the sun, walk in the fine rain and study under the night light. In this shallow time, fireworks are poetic, flowers bloom and fall outside the window, clouds come and go, with endless aftertaste and all the best. "

Everyone will like Wang Lao's words.

three

Eating on All Sides is about "taste" and "cutting", and it also mentions "puffer fish" and "wild vegetables".

"The mouth is in the taste and there is the same hobby." Everyone loves delicious food. Mutton is delicious, but there are not a few people who don't eat mutton. Wang Lao thinks the best mutton is hand-grabbed meat. He has been to Inner Mongolia several times and had a good time. A lesbian in the same trade is really bitter. As soon as she smells mutton, she wants to throw up. She eats pickles with boiled water every meal. A contrast means "taste".

On a hot summer day, a dish of white-cut mutton dipped in a little millet pepper vinegar is really delicious, comparable to "drunken shrimp". On winter nights, it snows occasionally, and a pot of mutton is stewed, and the whole family sits around and warms the whole house.

"Fish, sheep and fresh" have different understandings of "fresh". Some people eat mutton and think that eating something "fragrant" is fresh. Wang Lao said that shrimp, shrimp bean curd soup and shrimp winter bamboo shoots in his hometown can best represent the umami flavor. My understanding, "fresh", first of all, is fresh, and the ingredients themselves are fresh; Then the taste and taste; Then seafood, seafood; As for how to refresh, it depends on the chef's skill.

There are many provinces that love to eat Chili. Sichuan is not afraid of spicy, Guizhou is not afraid of spicy, and Hunan is not afraid of spicy. Almost everyone in these three places can't live without peppers. Wang Lao went to Chongqing to experience life with the troupe. There is nothing spicy or heavy here. Some people really can't stand it. They went to eat dumplings, and when they entered the door, they shouted, "No Chili!" " The shopkeeper gave her a white look: "There are no peppers in jiaozi." Wang Lao's story is full of humor.

People say that eating Chili falls in love with fire, and my grandfather eats Chili for dinner, and then his stomach is bad. It's a corner of Jiangnan, so it's very hot for me. Friedvermicelli, have a bowl of noodles, put some spicy food on it, and dip it in the hot sauce prepared by the shopkeeper on the table. It's cool. There are many people in school, and their tastes are different. Some people say that food is spicy. Everyone looked at her and whispered, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." For a while, the kitchen also made some changes. I didn't prepare anything spicy, just a can of hot sauce. I didn't play for a few days, which caused public anger.

Northerners like to eat raw onions and garlic. Shandong people can't eat onion cakes and pot helmets without onions. Their onions are sweet. They are half a foot long. They are really delicious. Wang Lao told a joke that her mother-in-law quarreled and her daughter-in-law jumped into the well. When her son came back, her mother-in-law said, "Great, your daughter-in-law jumped into the well!" "The son said," not so good! "Take an onion around the wellhead, and my daughter-in-law came up.

? Some things get used to eating if you don't eat them. Wang Lao said that he once boasted about Haikou and said that he would eat anything. It's embarrassing to eat coriander and bitter gourd for the first time. I have no choice. I gritted my teeth and took the first bite, which was ok. Later, I got used to it.

? When I was a child, I didn't eat noodles, but only dry powder; I don't eat eggs, I eat stinky tofu. Now I'm not picky about food at all. As Wang Lao said, "If the taste is wider and a little miscellaneous, try them all. This is true for food and should be true for culture. " There are also stubborn people, such as my fourth brother, who "doesn't eat on all fours" and "stinky tofu" doesn't touch, which really fails to live up to the delicious food on earth.

Say "cut" first.

"The Analects of Confucius and the Rural Party": "You are not tired of eating fine, and you are not tired of eating fine." I don't know when the cutting in China started. Wang Lao quoted the classics in Jia Sixie's Book of Qi Yaomin and Du Fu's Silent Snow, talked about the Chinese dream in Tokyo and Guan Hanqing's Mid-Autumn Festival in Wangjianglou, and then said that it was not mentioned in Jin Ping Mei and A Dream of Red Mansions. The words, words and allusions of pure literati are exquisite, and there must be no falsehood.

What is that? Wang Lao quoted Du Fu's poem "Shao Zhu": "It is easy to live fish and meat today." He remembered that the Korean cold noodle shop in Xisipailou, Beijing, sold it, cut it into fillets about one inch square and half thick, and dipped it in extremely spicy seasoning.

Related to "cutting" is "eating crabs raw and shrimp alive". Wang Lao thinks that drunken crabs are the best food in the world. Speaking of the choking shrimp in the building outside Hangzhou before liberation, he said, "You are drunk, and don't wait for them to die. Put the live shrimp in a big plate, cover it with a big bowl, and cover it on the table. Shrimp jumped all over the table and the guests caught it. "

It's really "vigorous" and really interesting. Drunken crabs, drunken shrimps and drunken snails are all drunk, but they are still raw. So, everything is delicious. This old Wang Man, a total eater, said, keep his original flavor.

There is a saying in the south of the Yangtze River: "Eat puffer fish to death", and risk your life to eat it, which shows its delicacy. It is said that proper rectification will not lead to poisoning. When my student Lang was a car dealer in Hangzhou, he once invited me to dinner. He specially had the "puffer fish" packed from a hotel near the West Lake. It's steaming and delicious. Wang Lao said that he had studied in Jiangyin for two years and had never eaten puffer fish. It is a pity that he is greedy.

Spring is coming, so it is a good habit to go for a walk and pick vegetables. The wild vegetables in my hometown are shepherd's purse, Malantou and blue chicken head ... because they are fresh, "spring is here".

Eating on all sides is interesting and charming.

four

Cook a pot of millet gruel, a few corn cobs, stir-fry a bowl of sour beans, sun-dry cucumbers, and fruits such as watermelons and plums in the refrigerator. There is enough food for one day. Reading while it is cool in the morning and steaming with the hot air in the afternoon-reading "Spring and Autumn of Grass" is like finding a cool place and having fun.

A drinker in Gaoyou has a special liking for "hometown food", which can be seen from the title of the selected article. In addition to duck eggs, such as fried rice crumbs, Chinese sauerkraut and bone soup, tiger sharks, river snails, wild ducks, quails, turtledoves, mites, Artemisia selengensis and Lycium barbarum.

"Usually when you eat, you usually break the' short' and dig it with chopsticks. When the chopsticks are dropped, the cheap red oil comes out. " I teach duck eggs at the Dragon Boat Festival. These sentences must be read and appreciated carefully. That kind of vividness, that kind of movement, that kind of pleasure, all from a word "cheep" performance incisively and vividly "Zhi" vividly describes the mode of red oil coming out when salted duck eggs are stuck in chopsticks, and vividly writes the delicious taste of salted duck eggs in hometown.

"When I got up in the morning and saw snowflakes floating, I knew: it was pickle soup at noon today."

"I really didn't like Sagittarius when I was a child. It has a bitter taste. "

"I really want to drink a bowl of pickled arrowhead soup."

"I miss the snow in my hometown."

Wang Lao, 19 years old, left his hometown and drifted away for a long time, pinning his simple feelings on pickles, Sagittarius, Shen Congwen and Jenny Zhang Zhaohe.

Speaking of tiger sharks in his hometown, Wang Lao talked about the "Food List with the Garden": "Hangzhou is a top-grade fish, Jinling is a base, and it is a tiger snake. You can laugh." A tiger snake is a tiger shark. This kind of fish is ugly and a little fierce. The usual way to drink soup is to add vinegar and pepper. Tiger shark soup, the fish is tender and loose, and the soup is fresh and appetizing.

"Angqian fish looks very strange, too. It has a flat head and a wide mouth, no scales, yellow skin color and large irregular light black spots. No dorsal fin. And there is a hard and sharp bone spur on his back. Pick up this bone spur with your hand, and it will make a small sneering sound. This kind of fish is rare if it is not very big, seven or eight inches long. This kind of fish is also very cheap, even the country people look down on it. " I want to eat it alive, and it's exquisite. Without vinegar, the soup is as white as milk, which is the most delicious. Wang knew this very well, so he naturally grasped the delicacy of the fish.

In Tonglu, my hometown, and in the rivers and streams in the countryside, there are also many fish, braised or stewed with pickles, all of which are delicious.

Read Su Dongpo's poem "The Night Scene of the Spring River in Hui Chong": "Peach blossoms are three or two outside the bamboo, and the duck prophet warms the spring river. Artemisia selengensis has short buds all over the ground, just as the puffer fish is going. " This Artemisia is born by the water, accompanied by a reed bud, which is obviously eaten by my hometown people. Wang Lao wrote in his novel "Notes on Making a scene": "In the early spring, when the water was heated, many purple reeds and gray-green Artemisia appeared on the sandbar, and soon it became green."

Three sentences don't leave the bank, saying "medlar", and Wang Lao said "eat": the head of medlar can be fried with oil and salt; Or blanch in boiling water, chop, add sesame oil, soy sauce and vinegar, and eat cold. That smell can only be described as "extremely fragrant". The so-called "fragrance", Wang Lao explained, is like sitting by the river and smelling the newly rising spring water when eating.

In Wang Lao's Plants in the Spring and Autumn Period, most of them are short, such as pears, pomegranates, peaches, papaya, red bayberry sweet potatoes, carrots, sugar-fried chestnuts and so on. Among the "fruits of Kunming", there are also "flowers of Kunming" camellia, cherry blossoms, orchids and primroses. And "Hometown Cuisine" has many vivid words, and most of them are emotional.

five

"Wang Zengqi is the only one who never tires of reading", and 52 pieces of "Spring and Autumn Annals of Plants", such as the cool breeze, are pleasing to read. It's only a matter of time before we get a glimpse of it.

"I don't shout in my works. People always want to mobilize the essence of their lives, put all your eggs in one basket and forge themselves into their own swords like cadres and Mo Xie. This is called living. "

Look at this man, a lovely old man and a famous gourmet, who likes tea and cigarettes, especially good wine. I am so stupid, his smell stays in the air, those wild dreams, and the lonely world.

Fireworks and poetry are friends with Wang Zengqi.