The son of Zhuoni’s last toast dictated： Recalling Zhuoni’s Spring Festival ｜ We celebrate the New Year like this.

Editor’s note: "Hundred years is the first." Speaking of Chinese New Year, what we think is grand and warm, and what we think is rich and colorful. Different nationalities and regions have different years; Different historical periods have passed different years. On the occasion of the Spring Festival, with the theme of "We celebrate the New Year like this", we hope to present readers with a picture of the New Year in which culture, history and personal feelings are intertwined by telling the past of the New Year in a specific time and space.

Yang Zheng (son of Yang Fuxing, the last chieftain of Zhuoni, served as the county magistrate of zhuoni from 1986 to 1989).

I was born in a toast family. My ancestors came from Tibet, and they are said to be descendants of Songzan Gambu. In the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, my ancestors joined the Ming Dynasty and were named Zhuoni Tusi. When Emperor Zhengde arrived, they gave our family a surname of Yang. From the founding of New China in 1949 to my father, Yang Fuxing, it has been passed down for 20 generations and experienced the Ming, Qing and Republic of China. In September 1949, my father led an electrifying uprising, which declared the end of the chieftain system.

When I was a child, it was a very happy thing to celebrate the New Year. I remember that there were delicious foods every day from the 23rd candy. Every day, there were melon seeds, walnuts, peanuts, dried persimmons, soybeans (called Tiefabean in Beijing), hot pot and jiaozi for dinner. At that time, there were many pheasants, and they also ate fried pheasants. The pheasant was called by my father himself. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, I will go to the Zhuoni Zen Temple to worship Buddha at about 3 o’clock. I followed it once when I was a child. I only remember that the Dajingtang was dark, which was a bit scary. When we come back, it will be dawn the day after tomorrow. Everyone will shoot guns and adults will pay New Year greetings to each other. We children will remember to collect more lucky money. On the second day of junior high school, my father took us riding to pay a New Year call to my grandmothers. My grandfather had four wives, and three of them lived in different places after the founding of New China. I like it better because I can ride horses and walk a long way. Then, on the eighth day of the first month, we will go to worship the ancestral graves, kowtow, burn incense, burn paper and shoot guns. At that time, guns were not strictly controlled, and they were usually fired into the air, with submachine guns and 79 rifles. I dare not let go of these guns. The recoil is too strong, so the adults hold them and let me pull the trigger. There is a kind of carbine, which has a small recoil. I can hold it myself.

On the fifteenth day of the first month, there will be a sun-bathing activity in Zhuoni. Groups of lamas, surrounded by many people, carry a long scroll of Buddha statues about ten meters, and then slowly put it down. Under the umbrella of the yellow luogai, a living Buddha will lead, surrounded by some lamas chanting, and the outer layer is the masses. My father and I were arranged next to the living Buddha, and there was a carpet on which we sat.

On the 16th day of the first month, it was a "war pole", which was held in the square in front of the Great Sutra Hall of Zen Temple. This activity is held every three years according to religious regulations. I participated in it once in the 1950s, and my father and I were arranged in the cabinet room above the Great Classics Hall. At first, it was a religious dance. The lamas wore masks, colorful silk clothes and some instruments in their hands, and danced with the simple drums and the percussion of cymbals. There should be three or four kinds of French dances, which are performed in turn. An hour or two later, the monks with the most morality and prestige were selected by the temple to fight the pole. At first, a large oil pan was set up in the courtyard, which was filled with green oil, and dry wood was set up under it to burn. On top of the oil pan, a long rod was set up, and a piece of paper with spells was hung on the tip of the rod. The monk murmured, holding an iron spoon with inflammable and explosive substances such as sulfur and salt in it. When the oil in the oil pan was boiled by the fire, the monk suddenly poured the flammable substances in the spoon into the oil pan. Suddenly, the smoke in the pan exploded and the spell on the long pole flew away. At this time, the crowd cheered everywhere, and the people with guns fired their guns into the air, and the activity reached its climax. A monk who pours flammable materials into a frying pan must be profound, or he will hurt himself. It is said that this activity has not been held since 1958, and it was not until the Spring Festival in 1986 that the Zen Temple was held again. At that time, I had graduated from college, first as a teacher in County No.1 Middle School, and then as a deputy magistrate at the end of 1983. During the Spring Festival in 1986, I was the deputy magistrate and had another Spring Festival in Zhuoni. A social fire performance was held during the Spring Festival.Three social fire teams were organized by three villages around the county seat to perform dragon dance, lion dance and stilt walking in the courtyards and streets of various organs. On the 16th day of the first month, the Zen Temple also resumed the activities of fighting poles that had been interrupted for many years. This time, the cabinet room above the Grand Classics Hall was not opened. Several leaders in our county set up a row of tables at the entrance of the Grand Classics Hall to watch the activities. At the end of the activities, no guns were fired, but firecrackers were set off instead.

It is worth mentioning that in 1969, I jumped the queue to Yan ‘an, in the Lanta Brigade of Liangcun Commune in Yan ‘an County. At that time, I advocated a "revolutionary" Spring Festival. On the morning of the first day of junior high school, more than a dozen educated youths took up the burden to send manure to the field. Before noon, the captain announced that we should call it a day, and informed the educated youths to take turns to eat at 30 villagers’ homes in the village during the Spring Festival. Every family entertained the educated youth with the best things. Some families borrowed food from relatives and neighbors when they were out of food, which made us deeply feel the kindness, simplicity and enthusiasm of Yan ‘an people. I’m 65 years old, and I’ve eaten a lot of sumptuous meals all my life, but I always remember the oil cake, sauerkraut vermicelli and millet dry rice I ate in Lanta Brigade during the New Year.

Originally published in the second issue of Vertical and Horizontal in 2016.

Produced by Vertical and Horizontal magazine under China Literature and History Publishing House.

Editor/Yu Yang

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