It is worth mentioning that although "Eight eccentrics in Guanzhong" is sometimes called "Eight eccentrics in Shaanxi", it is not completely reasonable. In fact, the custom of "Shaanxi Eight Eccentrics" only appears in Guanzhong area, not in most parts of Shaanxi. Shaanxi province has a great geographical latitude span. From north to south, there are three regions with great differences in natural conditions and cultures: northern Shaanxi (mainly the Loess Plateau), Guanzhong (mainly the Weihe Plain) and southern Shaanxi (mainly the Hanshui River basin south of Qinling Mountains). To summarize the whole Shaanxi with Guanzhong customs, there is a conceptual defect of generalizing from point to area. In recent years, it has been expressed as "eight eccentrics in Guanzhong" to remove ambiguity. A strange thing-squatting without sitting on a stool: squatting is about kung fu. Only after years of experience can you squat for a long time, take your time and be carefree.
The second monster-the half roof of the house: this not only saves the space of the courtyard, but also solves the problem of insufficient housing.
Three eccentrics-girls don't keep it to the outside world: the concept of "a nest of gold and silver is not as good as one's own grass nest" has long dominated.
Four eccentrics-handkerchiefs: umbrellas, sunscreen, masks and sunglasses are the necessities of modern women. Women in Guanzhong didn't have such conditions before. It is good to have a beautiful cloth as a handkerchief in their life.
Five eccentrics-noodles are like belts: they are like belts, but they are about the width and length of noodles.
Six Monsters-Guo Kui is like a pot cover: Guo Kui in Guanzhong is as big as Otawa's own pot. Looking over it, Guo helmet really looks like a pot cover, but the thickness is random.
Seven eccentrics-spicy oil is a dish: Guanzhong people have a special liking for spicy food and love to eat spicy food. And unlike other places, they eat spicy food instead of dry food. Qin Zanthoxylum bungeanum is very famous, not only full of spicy flavor, but also unique flavor.
Eight eccentrics-Qin opera does not sing or shout: singing here refers to the performance of Qin opera. In fact, Qin opera is not really shouting, but the actors are really trying to perform. This strange phenomenon is unique in the world, and the "squatting scene" of Guanzhong people is out of print on the earth. Guanzhong people call squatting kicking, and the history can be traced back to the distant Spring and Autumn Period. Guanzhong people like squatting, which evolved from "sitting" in ancient Chinese. The ancient people's original intention of "sitting" was to kneel down and sit side by side in the seat, keeping up with the weight of the ass behind their feet. Historical records record that Jing Ke stabbed the king of Qin. The first emperor couldn't draw his sword while sitting on the ground, but he forgot to draw his sword when he fled, so he had to walk around on crutches. There is an allusion of "getting something for nothing" in the Jin Dynasty, and it also talks about the custom of sitting on the floor. The change of this fashion should be that after the Jin Dynasty, the original intention of "sitting" was basically maintained in Guanzhong area, but the posture changed slightly, the knees did not touch the ground, the thighs pressed against the calves, and it became a squatting posture, and the fashion was passed down.
It takes kung fu to squat. Only after years of experience can you squat for a long time, take your time and be carefree. Nowadays, in the back streets and alleys of Xi 'an, we can occasionally see such a scene: a bunch of people, old and young, squatting around and playing chess. After several hours, they don't move. Some people squat, play poker and smoke, but such "squatting scenes" are becoming less and less.
It depends on the "squatting scene" in Guanzhong or going to the countryside around Xi 'an. There is a picture in my memory. Two old people met by chance on the road. After a few pleasantries, they squatted on the side of the road, smoking a cigarette, picked a stone and drew six lines vertically and horizontally, playing with leaves and stones. The game they play is called losing the party and the wolf eats the baby. It is difficult for you to find the source of some folk things in Shaanxi. This game with offensive and defensive, strategy and wits may have spread before Go. It's just that this grass-roots game is hard to appeal to elegance and may be gradually eliminated. However, in the evening, the two old people squatted until sunset without eating or drinking, and their backs were blurred. Walking home from work recently, I saw two middle-aged people squatting on the side of the road playing with the lost party and playing with cigarette butts and popsicles as chess pieces. Seeing this scene in the city makes people stop in a hurry.
The most common "squatting scenes" in rural areas are eating, having meetings, holding happy events and holding funerals. Men in the rural areas of Guanzhong love to squat with big bowls and old bowls when they eat and relax. This is mainly because in the past, information was blocked, and women could go door to door, gossip with their intimate sisters and put back all kinds of news. Men think they are noble, so it is not convenient to wander around and lift the curtains. Therefore, they love to gather in front of the village head, the old temple and the rice mill, squatting smoothly like Nanshan monkeys, and engaging in diplomatic and entertainment activities. According to my father, there is an old landlord who spends his days under the eaves of the ancestral temple and eats almost the same food as the poor. The only luxury of the old landlord is to celebrate his birthday, so it is also delicious to let the baby carry a plate of scrambled eggs. My father said that the old landlord's family was rich, but he was extremely stingy. In the evening, he used corn stalks to light it. He was reluctant to light a green oil lamp. At that time, the cultivators were poorer.
Guanzhong people love to say, "When you are tired, it is most lively to sit in the nest and have a rest." Squatting in Guanzhong is a strange thing, with tradition, habit and historical factors of backwardness and poverty. The traditional home in China is generally in the shape of a person. This kind of house is called "Anjian" house in Guanzhong area, also called Fangshang. There are owners and old people living in it. The structure is a hall with bedrooms on both sides. In addition to the building, a courtyard also has a wing, which is called the house ovary in Guanzhong. The structure of the house is a "person", that is, a "strange" house with a half cover.
Why did you build the house in half? The first factor is poverty. It turns out that this semi-built house is a civil structure, which can save a lot of wood and realize the concept of Guanzhong people using less wood and more soil. There is a wall called Zhaobi at the entrance of the traditional Guanzhong Courtyard, with a mansion ovary on the left and right, and the innermost room is the front hall. There is a jingle in Guanzhong, "If you have money to live in the north room, you can take shelter from the wind." Beifang refers to a house facing south, usually an apartment, but there are also palaces built in the direction of the yard. This quadrangle pattern is the mainstream of Guanzhong residents.
Guanzhong area is the cradle of Chinese civilization. When civilization grows, the cradle is broken. The bare yellow land lacks green clothes. Although there are Nanshan Qinling Mountains, it can't meet the needs of thousands of residents for housing, kitchen and storage. Smart farmers in Guanzhong built the ovary of the mansion according to local conditions, built three earth walls with loess, and left doors and windows on one side of the courtyard. The roof only needs a small amount of big wood to make purlins and beams, and the requirements for making small rafters are low. One of the three earth walls uses a fence, which saves the space of the courtyard and solves the problem of insufficient housing. "Half-built house" is a great landscape in Guanzhong, and it is also the product of low people's livelihood. This kind of house has plenty of light, but it is not well ventilated. Nowadays, prefabricated houses are built in rural areas, and the building materials revolution has changed the habits of thousands of years, and fewer and fewer houses are built on half of them. A while ago, I went to Taiping Island to play, and I saw a half-built house in a farmhouse. I really think it was a lifetime ago.
Most people say that "the house is half-built" means that fertilizer and water do not flow out. This kind of eaves drips into your yard, which can solve the problem of water shortage. But Guanzhong people don't need to pit water or collect rainwater. This statement is just an excuse and is not credible. This strange phenomenon exists in many areas, but in Guanzhong area, it is more prominent and more human.
"A cow in two acres, wife and children are hot on the kang" is a portrayal of Guanzhong men. Its positive significance is that Guanzhong men miss home and their wives. In the era of small farmers, this thought was also orthodox. Since the men in Guanzhong are not bad, the girls here naturally love to marry local lang. In line with this concept, there is also the geographical advantage here. Qinchuan, 800 Li, has been a self-sufficient treasure since ancient times, with favorable weather, rich products and few disasters. Therefore, ordinary people are comfortable with the status quo and don't want to go out to make a living.
In Guanzhong land, the concept of "a nest of gold and silver is not as good as a nest of own grass" has long occupied a dominant position. Guanzhong girl was born here, of course, she didn't want to marry far away. Besides, geographically, there is no place that can compete with imperial countries on all sides. Tongguan in the east will cross the Yellow River. Although the Central Plains there is good, it used to be a minor disaster for three years and a major disaster for ten years. Henan people fled to Shaanxi with their burdens. Can I get married in such a place? There is a saying in Guanzhong that "Tongguan is not short of people"; To the west is Yangguan, which has been a bitter and cold place since ancient times. In front of Wang Zhaojun's sorrowful pipa throat for thousands of years, which melon girl (silly girl) will be the wife of a self-abused shepherd? To the south is the 800-mile-long Qinling Mountains. Historically, transportation was inconvenient, people were less educated, and their eating habits varied greatly. If you don't escape the disaster of war, who wants to go into the mountains? "Old people don't go to Sichuan" means that Shaanxi people don't take the old road of Tang Xuanzong; There is northern Shaanxi in the north, with deep ravines, beautiful mountains and water, and lack of water resources. Xintianyou has a classic saying, "It's easier for us to hold hands when we meet!" It means that a young man and a young woman met on a high loess slope. You look at me affectionately, and I stare at you sweetly. If you want to hold hands gently when you are in a strong mood, it will be miserable. A deep ditch in the middle lacks a magpie bridge, and it takes a day to cross the dirt ditch. Which girl likes this environment? Since you can't walk around, of course, it's good to marry a Guanzhong Lang, and the men outside are even more hopeless. This strange phenomenon is best explained in Guanzhong customs. In the past, people's living environment was poor, the loess plateau was windy and dusty, and the sun was scorching. Without shelter, it is impossible for women to go out to work and visit their families. It's not strange to have a handkerchief, is it?
Sunshade, sunscreen, mask and sunglasses are the necessities of modern women. Women in Guanzhong didn't have such conditions before. It is good to have a beautiful cloth as a handkerchief in their life. This kind of homemade handkerchief plays a great role in visiting relatives and friends, returning to the door (back to my family) and working in the fields. Young women wear handkerchiefs with various patterns, which become amorous feelings and decorations. Generally speaking, women put the sun and windshield on their heads. In Mao Mao, they can keep out the rain for a while. The handkerchiefs of Guanzhong women are very big. If necessary, it can also be wrapped as a handbag, and other uses can be imagined. The most important thing is not to get their hair dirty. Although Guanzhong area is known as "Chang 'an in Eight Rivers", it is located in the northwest and is generally short of water. There were no bathing facilities before, and there were problems in other seasons except summer. It is not convenient to wash your hair, for fear of head injury and lice. So men shave their heads, and women with long hair are in trouble, so they have to wrap their heads with handkerchiefs for fear that they won't be cleaned.
I remember an old lady with five guarantees. She likes to wrap her head in a handkerchief and comb her hair with a comb. Comb your sparse hair every day, let it slide to mosquitoes, and wrap a blue handkerchief to make people look younger. But every time she combs her hair, she combs out many small animals. The scene looks very uncomfortable. I don't know how she put up with the bite. Since it is inconvenient to take a shower and wash your hair, it is certainly much cleaner to wrap your hair.
Nowadays, women in Guanzhong have abandoned Pappa, and it is difficult to see this strange sight even in remote rural areas. But in northern Shaanxi, sheep belly handkerchiefs are still wrapped around men's heads. Guanzhong's unique geographical structure and natural environment make Guanzhong Road a region dominated by pasta. People in places dominated by rice and vegetables always wonder why Guanzhong people are not tired of eating noodles every day. In fact, in Guanzhong, smart Guanzhong women have developed pasta to a very high level. Guanzhong people make a simple noodle with dozens of patterns, such as stick noodles, single noodles, dried noodles, noodle soup, sour noodle soup, hot noodle soup, Lamian Noodles and so on.
It's like a belt, but it's about the width and length of noodles. Xi' an has a noodle bowl, and there is only one noodle in a bowl, but it is difficult for a weak woman to finish this noodle. The club face is the longest. But that's hand-pulled or wiped, and what comes down means rolling. Most men in Guanzhong Road marry their wives because of this woman's rolling skills. When they met the next day, the woman's parents hid the man at home, and then let the man watch the woman cook. Of course, the cooking in Guanzhong is noodles! Some women know and some don't, but they are all the same. Mix the dried noodles with water, put them on the chopping board and rub them vigorously. The dough glows when it is kneaded. Then roll it into cakes with a rolling pin and roll it slowly. When you can see the opposite figure when you lift it, fold the whole noodle in half for several times, cut it into thin strips with a knife, pick it up and shake it with your hand, and it is a thin and long noodle. There is a saying in Guanzhong that a daughter-in-law doesn't like to hear now, that is, "a beaten daughter-in-law rubs her face", that is to say, a good daughter-in-law is beaten and her good face is rubbed. Of course, not all men in Guanzhong beat their wives, and sometimes they are driven by their wives to run a few blocks, but most of the daughters-in-law of Guanzhong men can pinch their faces well. The skill of making dough is at the level of kneading dough. Noodles that have not been kneaded will become lumps as soon as they are boiled in water, and then they will be scattered when they are boiled in water. So the length of this noodle can also show the skill and calculation of this daughter-in-law! It is also a reason why Shaanxi is long. Every lunch time, every man in a village takes out a big bowl, gets together, picks it up with chopsticks and smells good. Then everyone commented on whose daughter-in-law cooked well, and the praised person always said modestly, "What's good?" In fact, the heart is as sweet as honey, and it is inevitable that backward men will scold lazy women when they go home. Ganxian is the best noodle in Shaanxi. Few people know Ganxian, but if Wu Zetian is buried here, everyone can think of something. On the basis of noodles, women in Ganxian created sour soup noodles with unique flavor in Wugong County. This sour soup requires very high rolling skills. After the noodles are rolled and cut, they are only thicker than five or six hairs First, put the noodles in a pot and cook them. Then put it in a bowl with chopsticks and cook the soup. The essence of noodle soup is to blanch the meat when you are in cook the meat, and then add various seasonings. After boiling, put the noodles in the bowl first. In this way, when it is finished, the soup reaches its best taste. Because the ingredients of this noodle soup are very particular, they are generally not eaten. They are only eaten on holidays or when guests come home. When I was young, farm children looked forward to the Spring Festival every day, because they could eat sour soup noodles made by their grandmother and mother. Nowadays, people think this way of eating is delicious, but it is absolutely unsanitary, so they don't pour the soup in that bowl back into the pot. But the noodles are still thin and long, which makes people forget. But now we seldom eat handmade noodles, most of them are pressed by machines, and the slippery taste is less. Noodles are dinner. Usually busy with farm work, Guanzhong people don't have time to cook, so they eat some Guo kui prepared early on weekdays. There are many legends about Guo Kui. One legend is that there was a war that year, and one side of the war was Xinjiang people. In Shaanxi, there was no dry food, only some flour was left. I can't help it. I just mix flour and water, make cakes, put them in my helmet or burn them to make the back skin of Mikania micrantha, and then spread it after a long time. After winning the battle, the soldiers asked the women to do the same. There is also a legend that when Ganling was built in the Tang Dynasty, there were too many military craftsmen in service, so the construction progress was often delayed and punished for eating. So, a soldier anxiously put the dough into his helmet and baked it into a cake in the fire. Now, Guo Kun has been in Shaanxi for thousands of years.
Guo Kui of Guanzhong is as big as Otawa's own pot. Looking over it, Guo's helmet really looks like a pot cover, but its thickness is arbitrary. Guo Kui in Shaanxi is the most authentic in Guanzhong, and Guo Kui in Ganxian is the most famous in Guanzhong. Now I see someone selling pot helmets in Xi 'an, the ancient city. When I go up and ask, the man will proudly say, "This is Ganzhou Guokui!" " Ganxian was called Ganzhou before liberation.
In Ganxian, women's skills are displayed on noodles, and the other is this pot helmet. To make a pot helmet, the dough should be hard and fermented, then add water, flour and yeast according to the baking times and knead it on the chopping board. Knead until the knife is hard, so hard that you can't move it with your hands. You have to knead it with a wooden stick, and then roll the dough to a certain thickness, which depends on the woman's wishes. If you are lazy, roll it thin, and it will be baked in one or two fires. Finally, put it in a large pot with a diameter of more than 2 feet and bake it slowly. In this way, the branded pot helmet is crisp and tender outside in the morning, fragrant and delicious, and will not deteriorate for more than ten or eight days. Guo Kui should be counted as "Guo Kui of Ganzhou (now Ganxian)".
Hard-working wives always like to brand them thick. The thickness is about 8 cm, put it in that pot, burn it slowly with wheat straw fire, get up and turn it back and forth, so that both sides are evenly heated. This thickness is the time to test a woman's diligence.
A woman who is not diligent is too lazy to turn it over. The skin of the pot helmet has been burnt black, but it is still raw inside. Hard-working women are turning back and forth, baking and baking, and the whole kitchen is full of fragrance.
Cutting a pot helmet is also a science. The Guo Kui in Ganzhou is called "Open-Eyes Guo Kui" because it is too thick. When you bite, you should open your mouth vigorously and open your eyes naturally. If you don't believe me, close your eyes and try to put something 10 cm thick in your mouth. See if it's uncomfortable not to open your eyes and mouth!
When Guo Kui was born, it was about eight centimeters. When it was cooked, it expanded at least eleven or twelve centimeters. In order to facilitate the mouth, when cutting, make sure that the cut pot helmet is triangular, and the knife should be cut obliquely, so that the edge of the pot helmet is inclined, and bite from the inclined thin part when eating, which saves the old eyes.
Another advantage of the pot helmet is that it is resistant to release, and the water basically volatilizes during the branding process, and it can be stored for a long time without mildew after branding.
Because of this benefit, Guo kui has become a necessary food for Guanzhong people to go out. When they are hungry, they take out a piece and sit in the street. If they can't finish one piece, they will be full. The smell of flour and the smell of relatives inside often make people forget home when they go out. Guanzhong people have a special liking for spicy food, like to eat, and eat differently from other places. They don't eat dry spicy noodles, but eat spicy oil. Qin Zanthoxylum bungeanum is very famous, not only full of spicy flavor, but also unique flavor.
Pepper is only used as seasoning now. Spicy noodles are simple and interesting. It's also Chili noodles, but the taste of each family is different. The common practice is that the Lamian Noodles in the pepper jar can't hold it, but it can hold 60%. Put some salt, pepper or something. The raw rapeseed oil tastes the best and the oil temperature is very particular. If it is high, the Chili noodles will paste, and the taste of the paste is bitter; Low, not the taste of pepper, but the taste of raw oil. The oil temperature should be controlled at 80% to 90% heat, while stirring until the oil submerges the Chili noodles. At this time, the unique fragrance will be scattered everywhere and can be smelled all over the street.
Of course, there are many ways to be spicy, and each way tastes different. A small bowl of oil is endless. Singing opera here refers to the performance of Shaanxi opera. In fact, Shaanxi opera is not really a roar, but an actor's really hard performance, joking that it is "called skyshatter". In summer, there will be many spontaneous mass organizations singing Shaanxi opera around xi 'an City Wall. You really don't need a megaphone or anything. You can hear it from a distance. This kind of singing may be related to the language characteristics of Guanzhong people. This is simple, honest, honest, frank and high-profile.