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. When I came home from work, I saw two middle-aged people squatting on the roadside and getting lost, 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.