Mike's word information

Athena Chu McKay

Explain a popular way for farmers to go out to work in the northern Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region, that is, farmers go home to harvest wheat for others every year during the wheat harvest season. Yin Qian, a famous writer and critic, pointed out that "Mike" and "knife" are like a pulse. The former is that farmers in some places in Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia go out to harvest wheat for others during the wheat harvest season, commonly known as "catching the wheat field", just like migrant workers; The latter is the Guanzhong fighters guarding the house for others, just like bodyguards. With the gradual improvement of people's lives, this traditional way of working is rare, but it has become a regionally representative culture. "(Yin Qian:" Night Wind Collection ")

There is a description of Mike in Yin Qian's essay "The Heart Sutra": "The old people said that Guanzhong people also went to the west exit, and the crops lacked labor. When the wheat is ripe, they must harvest it in time. At that time, people went to harvest wheat in droves in order to earn some money to supplement their families. With the passage of time, they have a special career, which is called Mike. It is homologous to the genus Mike in Gansu and Ningxia. The "swordsman" in Guanzhong is also a profession, similar to a bodyguard. He was employed by some wealthy businessmen in Guanzhong and Shanxi, escorting them and even guarding their homes. Knife man is not a bandit who will only rob his family. "

In the north of China, due to the difference of wheat ripening time in different places, some people who harvest wheat as their profession exchange income. Most of these people are strong, skilled and hard-working. These people are called Mike. The existence of Mike has alleviated the difficulties faced by the vast rural areas in the summer harvest season, such as tight time, heavy tasks and insufficient manpower. It is often these problems that lead to a bumper harvest year, but the yield and quality are reduced because of the untimely harvest. Due to the differences in maturity of wheat producing areas, such as generally maturing from east to west, some wheat customers are located in late-maturing areas, from north to south, from south to north, migrating and wandering like migratory birds, collecting all the way, and their own wheat is ripe when the wheat customers arrive at their doorstep; The other part is that farmers in early-maturing areas go to relatively late-maturing areas to harvest after harvesting at home. Their similarity is that in groups, including brothers, fathers and sons, and even husband and wife, come to the wheat-producing areas to find someone to hire, cut wheat for others, and exchange sweat for meager income to make up for the shortage of families or find a way out. People in the wheat producing areas call them "Mike". Mike usually takes a dry food bag, a sickle and indispensable bedding with him. China local chronicles recorded Mike at least in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Ten years after the Cultural Revolution, Mike disappeared, and it was not until the family contract system was implemented that Mike first appeared in the rural areas of Guanzhong.

After agricultural mechanization, a large number of harvesters go to all parts of the country to harvest wheat every year, which is also called cross-regional mechanical harvesting. It is also called "Mike" and "Modern Mike" because it is similar to Mike, and it is also called "Iron Mike" and "Mechanical Mike" because it is mechanical harvesting, so it is extended that anyone who harvests wheat for others or even helps others for free becomes Mike, just as the word was first used.