Hu Zongren stood up and said to me, "That's it. Teacher Zhao, please find me a clay pot, just a small one. There are no other ones in the countryside. This kind of clay pot is very easy to find. After a while
After Xiaohui, Teacher Zhao took out a small jar from the kitchen, and used a bowl to take out the pickled garlic and put it in. Then he squatted by the door to scoop out water, washed the jar from the inside out, and wiped it with a cloth.
After drying the water stains, he handed it to Hu Zongren. After taking the jar, Hu Zongren said to me, the road we just followed the snail's track back, do you still remember how to go? I said yes, I am called the memory boy. He
Okay, let's go back to the ancestral graves along the way. On the way, we saw snails still crawling towards the house. Let's pick up as many as we can.
After saying that, he stood up, stepped on the bench, reached for the hanging faucet, grabbed the snails on top and the snails that were trying to climb up the wall, and threw them into the earthen pot.
I understand Hu Zongren’s intention, because there is no tombstone in Mr. Zhao’s ancestral tomb, or it was there before but can’t be found now. Therefore, it is difficult for us to calculate the birth date and death of our ancestors based on the information we currently have. At present,
The only thing we found that can be most directly related to the dead people in the graves is the snails everywhere, not including the ones we accidentally stepped on on the road earlier. We can't let us dig up the ancestral graves.
Find the bones. So these snails have become the only way for us to establish a connection with our ancestors, so Hu Zongren asked me to collect as many snails as possible. It must be because of this.
Walking back along the original road, I couldn't count how many snails we picked up on the way. In short, when we walked to the grave, the earthen jar that was only half the size of Hu Zongren's head was already densely packed with half the jar.
Already.
Hu Zongren first covered the jar to prevent the restless snails from crawling out again. Then he placed the earthen jar facing the grave about three feet away. Then he pulled a handful of corn stakes and used them as a broom.
, cleaned up the weeds in front of the grave, and swept the snails that were crawling out back to the grave. Then Hu Zongren said to me, I want to borrow your red rope again. I asked him how to use it.
, he said, just get a longer piece of rope, and then walk around the tomb to surround the tomb. I looked at these densely packed snails and felt panicked. I didn’t want to do the ritual later.
I have to catch the snail back to its original position at the same time. If you don't want to, you can help me catch the snail later.
I lowered my head and glanced at the snails on the ground. Although I am not a patient with trypophobia, so many snails squirming still looked quite spectacular. So I took out the red rope and circled the grave. Since it was outdoors,
In order to prevent it from being blown away by the wind, I also deliberately used small stones to hold down the red rope a few feet apart. I surrounded the graves, snails, and earthen pots in the circle, and just after I tied the knot,
At that time, some snails climbed to the rope again, but as soon as they touched the rope, they seemed to be stimulated and quickly retracted into their shells. I knew that this group of snails under the control of this ancestor could not climb at all.
go out.
Hu Zongren took a deep breath, straightened his clothes, and stood in the circle in front of the earthen jar. He placed paper money and incense candles between the earthen jar and the tomb. Then he picked up a stack of paper money and held it like a book.
In the hand, stretch out the index finger and middle finger with the right hand, curl the thumb with the other fingers, and use the fingers to write on the paper money. One of the most important components of Yaoshan Taoism is to write the Yin Deed.
, equivalent to what we Buddhists often call Fu Bao, which is a kind of letter-like thing written by the living to the dead. It probably means that to whom these things are sent, no one else should accept them, and no kid should come to rob them, otherwise they will be killed.
Being struck by lightning or something like that. After Hu Zongren painted for a while, he lit the paper money in his hand on the candle. When it was half burned, he raised his hand and threw the burning paper money flatly on the grave. That way.
It's very similar to the way the master kills people with playing cards in the God of Gamblers movie.
Then he reached into his bag, took out a piece of talisman paper, grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground and put it in the palm of his hand, then spit into his palm to dissolve some of the dirt, and then took the pen as if dipping it in ink,
He used grave soil mixed with Taoist saliva to make ink, and drew a talisman on the talisman paper. He called this talisman a request for an order. He used a top-down command tone to inform the dead souls who had just received the Yin Deed.
, I want you to do what you want to do now. Most of the Taoist spells contain the word "imperial order". In fact, this is the meaning. What is an order means that you have to follow it. After drawing the talisman, Hu
Zong Ren held the talisman flatly between his index and middle fingers, pointed in the direction of the tomb and drew several circles clockwise and counterclockwise. Then he lit a fire and burned it. When the fire became strong, he opened the lid of the earthen jar and burned it.
The talisman was thrown in.
I heard a crackling sound. When I was a child, I also played the game of roasting snails. There seemed to be something like an air bag in the snail's shell. When exposed to high temperatures, it would explode like a balloon. I think that's where the sound came from.
Hu Zongren put his hands together and still stretched out his index finger and middle finger. The index finger was still bent and stuck on the middle finger, so this gesture looked like he was cursing. He closed his eyes and muttered in his mouth. His voice was so low that I could hardly hear it.
.At this moment, the earthen pot suddenly cracked with a bang and shattered on the ground. The snails in the pot also began to flee in all directions, except for those that had been scalded to death.
Hu Zongren frowned and looked at the broken earthen pots on the ground. Teacher Zhao was relatively stupid. He asked tremblingly if he had blown up the pots by lighting a fire just now. Hu Zongren ignored him and saw from his expression
It turns out that this scene was something he had not expected. And before he could react, there were suddenly some small but crisp sounds coming from the tomb, like many shells colliding slightly. I felt something was wrong, so
I told Hu Zongren to get out first. But before I could finish my words, a stream of powdery substance suddenly sprayed out from the cracks in the tomb and directly sprayed onto Hu Zongren's face.
Hu Zongren quickly backed away and jumped out of the circle. I immediately went to see him because I had experience with this kind of powder. It was very similar to the powder on moth wings. I thought it was a ghost disease for a month.
For a long time, Hu Zongren told me that he was fine. He had held his breath just now and didn't inhale. He was just rubbing his eyes. I looked in the direction of the grave. Those rustling sounds just now turned out to be a lot of snails continuing to crawl through the gaps.
When they came out, their shells collided with each other, making a sound.
When Teacher Zhao saw this scene, he was so frightened that he took a few steps back. I waited until the snails climbed to the red rope and found that they still couldn't get out, so I felt relieved. Hu Zongren said it was okay and continued to stand back.
Inside the circle, he didn't burn the talisman this time. The candle was about to burn out, so he directly recited a spell and asked. The general meaning is that I have sent you off, why don't you leave and still resist. If you don't leave, we will
I have no choice but to force you to leave. But at this moment, the snails on the ground began to change their direction and gathered between the incense candle and the tomb, and then gradually, they formed a wavy line from front to back.
Although I have never seen such a scene, I think this must be the reaction of my ancestors. I observed the line carefully. There were more snails on the thread on my left hand side facing the tomb, while the other parts were smaller.
Well, after the snail formed this wavy line, it retracted and stopped, just like the one I saw on the dragon head at first. So in my opinion, the line looked like a tadpole with a particularly long tail, Hu Zongren
He looked at me stupidly and asked me, what the hell does this mean?
"Dragon." Teacher Zhao said behind me.
Then I suddenly realized that my ancestor’s remaining unfulfilled wish was not to move the tomb, but to dance with the dragon. But what did he mean? Did he want us to dance the dragon in front of the tomb to show him? Or did he want us to do it?
Burn the faucet in the house to him? Hu Zongren withdrew from the circle, and then said with a smile, your ancestors are quite humorous, and the message is not clear enough, in classical Chinese? I have no intention of joking with him, so
Ask him, what should I do now? Hu Zongren spread his hands and said helplessly, what else can he do? First find someone to perform the dragon dance. If he still refuses to leave after the dance, burn it to him. If he still refuses to leave after the dance, he can only
It's time to get hard.
After thinking about it, there seemed to be no other way, so I said to Teacher Zhao, if you were to organize a group of people to dance the dragon now, when would you be able to get them all together at the earliest? Teacher Zhao thought for a while and said, if you organize a group of people to dance the dragon now,
As for the phone call, if all the people in the village who can dance the dragon come back, they can barely form a dragon. But now there is no dragon in the village, just a dragon head. I said that would be easy, please tell me the phone number of the team that is still dancing the dragon in Tongliang.
, Hu Zongren and I will go and borrow the dragon right now, and you can go find them all. Even if you can't find them all, count me and Hu Zongren.
After the work was divided, Teacher Zhao immediately called the master who was still working in the county town. The other party readily agreed. I think that is because Teacher Zhao’s ancestors’ contribution to this folk art was very respected. Okay.
After finding the location, Hu Zongren and I went down the mountain the same way we came, and then drove back to Tongliang County.
The dragon we borrowed has one ring inside another, so if the whole dragon overlaps, my entire back seat can be put down, but I will not be able to see what's behind the car in the rearview mirror.
The situation was over. However, I still relied on my skillful driving skills and coquettish movements to rush back to Teacher Zhao’s house just before dark. There were seven or eight people coming from Teacher Zhao. Just as he said,
There were really a few people missing, so Hu Zongren and I both had to take it. Since we had not learned anything, we could only hang out in the dragon body stage. The dragon tail, like the dragon head, also had to show the movements of the dragon's tail flick. We like
It is completely impossible for a layman to understand the essence of the game. After all preparations, Teacher Zhao took off the faucet on the wall and formed a complete dragon. He led us on the cornfield in front of the assembly, beating gongs and drums by the light of torches.
Danced.
Half an hour later, after a set of movements was completed, when Hu Zongren and I continued to detect spirits, we found that the snails had scattered in all directions, and many of them had climbed out of the rope. This meant that the ancestors' wish was fulfilled, so
Hu Zongren began to send the soul with high-standard treatment and showed respect for this traditional folk art.
About a month after the incident, we received the commission from Teacher Zhao. He told Hu Zongren on the phone that the construction company had borne all the costs, and that they would also send the ancestor's grave to his father's grave for reburial together.
Teacher Zhao also said that even if everyone forgets that we can dance the dragon, his descendants will never forget it.
After that, during the Spring Festival of 2011, I saw news on Chongqing News Daily 630 about Tongliang Dragon Dance’s application for local folk cultural heritage. The leading man on TV with a yellow turban on his head, a big smile on his face, and full of energy, was none other than Zhao.