Reading Notes on the Right Bank of the Ergon River (1) After reading The Right Bank of the Ergon River, I felt a lot. What impressed me most was the mutual help of the same person in Wulileng, and people from different Wulileng also helped each other hand in hand.
A five-mile ridge represents a clan. Although the people of their clan live in different Mulilang (similar to tents), they hunt together and share food around the fire. When they are happy, they dance happily. Regardless of their age, they are almost all excellent dancers. Happy and unhappy people will not put them in their hearts, surround the fire and tell the happy things, and the unhappiness in their hearts will be swept away.
Only later, because of the irreconcilable contradiction between the two families, they began to earn their own living. I think this is also the beginning of their loss of this simplicity.
Nowadays, city people are blocked by four walls and cannot feel the warmth of others. We hardly dare to associate with strangers at will, and even never deal with neighbors.
Fortunately, I grew up in the countryside. Because I am in a township, I am not too backward. I like our free local customs. After watching er, I like my neighbors more, and thank them for growing up with me.
We live in a solid house with solid water and concrete. Every family has a door, but we can almost get in and out through it. When cooking, you can always borrow it from your neighbor's house when you are short of three or four. We can take our food to our neighbor's house to rub vegetables, and sometimes we share a pot. When I was a child, when I couldn't cook, my neighbors would gather around me and tell me their cooking methods and experiences, and even cook for me personally. There are new and delicious foods at home, and neighbors follow suit.
When a family is in trouble, people in the hutongs are anxious, and those who can help will never stand by.
As a child, the most unbearable thing is that adults come to your house to report who you fought with today, where you climbed down the mountain and got into the water, and who you played hide-and-seek with on the roof. . .
In this way, even if parents are not at home, it seems that there are 18 pairs of eyes staring at your every move. In particular, he climbed into dangerous places to play without authorization, and always scolded him as long as he was seen by adults, whether he knew it or not. At that time, I was not sensible and felt unhappy, so I played evil revenge. The adults laughed and ignored us, and we were bored, and then we let it go. Now that I think about it, those neighbors are really cute. I want to go back to the past.
Another person who impressed me the most was the heroine's sister-in-law, Ni Hao, one of the tragic figures. She is their shaman, a bit like the wizard we often say. Whenever there are difficulties at home, or someone gets sick or dies, she is almost asked to think outside the box in order to avoid disasters or treat diseases.
Aside from these theories of ghosts and gods, I like Ni Hao not because of her mysterious power, but because of her selfless spirit. She had several children in her life, but only one daughter who ran away from home for fear of death survived. Because every time she saves someone, she loses a close relative.
Saving others will lose a child. Every time she was distracted, she struggled in great pain, but every time, she chose to save others.
When the people advised her to treat her children as other people's children and treat other people's children as her own children. She said something that made me cry: can you ignore the danger of the child? What she said about her own child is actually someone else's child. Later, she cried every time she saved people, and her children were still saved. She wanted to save them. So she saved others. She watched her children die one by one. They fell from trees, were stillborn and were killed by wild animals.
She is afraid of getting pregnant again and her spirit is getting weaker and weaker. Although she has lived in pain all her life, she does not regret her choice.
Having said that, although I praise Ni Hao's selfless spirit, I don't agree with her. In my opinion, people should have the spirit of selfless dedication, but this behavior should not be based on other people's lives. Every child comes into this world with his own right to exist, and will not be deprived of his fresh life at will because of his parents' decision.
Although this is mysterious, every time Ni Hao saves a person, he will kill a child. This life-for-life dedication is almost worthless and a little hateful, because she is not giving her own life, but someone else's life, even though it is her child.
Reading Notes on the Right Bank of Ergon River (2) I heard that Chi Zijian's book was written several years ago, but I didn't look for it. I have always felt that meeting books is something related to chance.
Sometimes, I may go to the bookstore or wander in front of the bookshelves in the library. I look forward to passing by new books or old books, like a touch of a finger eager for temperature. But if it is in a casual moment, my mood is disturbed by the continuous rain, I feel a sense of boredom. When I looked back, I just saw a friend holding a book on the right bank of the Ergon River. I was filled with joy between my eyebrows, restrained my little excitement and said to her, "lend me after reading it." This, is it not better!
It is fate to meet a good book, and luck to listen to a good writer's story. Meeting this book is such a joy, which easily dispels the unhappiness caused by the rain and makes my mood clear and refreshing.
It is the first time to show the historical changes and evolution of Ewenki nationality in Northeast China in the form of novels. It opened a colorful picture for me with the history of a nation as the background. The style of painting is not rough, but full of warmth and compassion.
The story is long but clear, slowly flowing from the mouth of a 90-year-old woman, the last chief of this small and weak nation. She told her story to rain and fire, to her children and grandchildren, to what they left in the camp when they moved, to what they liked in their deerskin pockets, to them, to them, to them, to them, to them, to them, to them, to them, to them ... instead of insisting on reading it to readers. Intermittent, low but not hoarse voices beat the air rhythmically and shed a little dusty starlight. Let my heart slowly melt into their stories.
This is a country that depends on reindeer. They have lived on the right bank of the Ergon River on the Sino-Russian border for generations. Reindeer keep the habit of nomadic people "living on grass" and lead them to migrate or stay.
They live in the "West Cold Column". There is a hole in the spire where they can see the stars. It is a temporary "home" built by a nomadic people for the convenience of demolition. Different from our traditional brick-wood architecture with red tiles and white walls. It is made of wood itself, which is in harmony with the trees in the forest and does not appear abrupt. The small hole in the spire is not only a passage for smoke from the fire pit, but also used to communicate with nature. A nation that can watch the stars fall asleep is romantic. The purity of nature's "pure children" has long been lost by modern people who are "fed" by machines and industrial civilization.
They maintain a primitive emotion: passionate love and crazy hate. Endless "roaring" passion. No mask, no disguise. Unable to marry his beloved woman, Jinde, who was forced to marry by his mother, ended his life when the wedding bonfire was burning. Ni Hao, who used all her love and strength to save others, dried her tears; Sadness and misfortune then turned to Evelyn, who complained, hated and cursed. Love or hate. They are injected into the blood of Ewenki people and released through pores and breathing. True, clean and moving. Love, pity, resentment or hatred. No affectation, no disguise.
They maintain a kind of primitive courage, and never do nothing in the face of the harm given by nature. They will definitely fight back, even if they die, they will not give up. The white disaster (snowstorm) poses a great threat to the reindeer they regard as "relatives". When the men came back from the training camp, they went to look for reindeer lost in the heavy snow without washing away their fatigue. The cold took away a woman's first husband, the strong Rajida.
They believe in Maru God and Shaman. Relying on shaman jumping to cure diseases and avoid disasters. As night falls, the shaman puts on his costume, hat and drums, dancing lightly and passionately. They use their divine power to bless the kind people and reindeer in their tribe. As if following some exchange law, the shaman saved one life, but lost another. This life is sometimes a kind reindeer, but it is usually the closest person to the shaman.
When Ni Hao was a shaman, he lost his youngest son Guo Geli in order to save a seriously ill child of Han nationality. She said, "God wants the child to go, but I left him behind, so my child will go there instead of him." Maria cried and shouted, "Then you don't have to save him!" " Ni Hao gave a sad but touching answer: "I am a shaman, how can I avoid being destroyed?" In order to save lives, Ni Hao lost three children in succession. The pain of losing a blood relative is beyond words, especially those "buds" lying in their arms and still in bud. Obviously, I'm afraid I can't love them, but I can only watch them leave. The little body gradually lost its temperature, was put into a white pocket and left on a sunny hillside. Incredibly, Ni Hao gave up her unborn child to save a "thief" who stole their reindeer. Her living daughter fled home because of fear and fear. Whether this is true or not, whether the shaman has the divine power to predict the future and seek happiness and avoid disasters. Only when "they" know that they will help another person at the expense of endangering their loved ones, they still overcome their fears and bravely choose to help even a stranger. This is a kind of kindness and courage contained in the inner quality of a nation, shining like gold. It is not difficult to help others, but it is difficult to let go of your own gains and losses and help others just for the sake of helping others. Respect another life with sincere heart and behavior. That's a completely different realm.
Remember, when Ni Hao lost the baby in her womb, she sang a sacred song:
"Son, come back,
You haven't seen the light of the world,
Walked into the darkness.
Your mother has leather gloves for you.
The skis your father prepared for you,
Come back, son.
The bonfire has been lit,
The pot has been set up.
If you don't come back, they will sit by the campfire.
You will feel cold, too.
If you don't come back, they will sit by the campfire.
You will feel cold, too.
If you don't come back,
They are guarding a pot full of meat,
You will feel hungry, too.
Come back, son,
Chasing deer on skis,
Without you, the wolf will get hurt,
Beautiful horns of reindeer. "
Such a simple but sincere language tells the pain and reluctance of a mother. The child went to a place where people expected to be warmer and replaced another life.
When logging sounds in the forest, the sound of axes and saws cuts innocent trees. Their straight bodies collapsed. It also cuts off the survival foundation of people who take this as their home and nutrition. When the road of transporting wood is full of motor sounds of cars, they obviously feel uneasy and threatened, full of fear, but helpless. The house that has been built at the foot of the mountain is permanent and empty. After all, the iron fence can't keep those creatures that belong to nature. Where reindeer can't stay, how can herders get used to life? People followed the footsteps of reindeer back to the forest and returned to the place where they grew up.
After repeated persuasion and mobilization, it ended in failure. People who try or are forced to go out of the forest gradually adapt to the new life. Compromise with the new "society" and "civilization". The clan finally decided to move to the "new world" at the foot of the mountain in a vote of absolute victory over many losses.
I chose to leave behind a woman in her nineties and Cao An, who is always as simple as a child intellectually. Guardian's persistence in the alternation of sunset and morning fog. Until the pale moonlight, the crisp deer bells vibrated, and the white reindeer returned to the familiar "West Cold Column" from the foot of the mountain. The woman shed tears. Vague helplessness, desolation, peace and compassion ...
Inevitable contradictions and conflicts between primitive nomadic civilization and modern civilization. The Ewenki people's tenacious persistence and overwhelming national changes have left us with profound thoughts. The author also expressed a similar problem in Sunset of Indigenous People: "In the face of an increasingly prosperous and unfamiliar world, they used to be the owners of this land, but in the modern world, they have become" marginal people "and a group that receives relief and soul redemption! ..... We always tear a fresh life, but at the same time pretend to be a philanthropist and mourn its misfortune! We watched them calmly perform and show the works of art we slaughtered for food and clothes; We cut open their hearts, but we still have to say that they are not warm enough and are all dross. Isn't this indifference that permeates the whole world the deepest sorrow in the world! "
What precious things has a nation lost under the rule of industrial civilization today? Which ones can't stand the cold machine? What we have lost is our persistence and awe of nature? Or reverence and memory for ancestors? Is it care and pity for all living things? Or is it the most primitive and simple love-hate relationship in your heart? Is it respect for life and persistence in faith? Or indomitable vitality and thriving life consciousness? Or passion, strength and courage?