與現實隔著溫暖的距離

◇ 文| 田 東

與現實隔著溫暖的距離

◇ 文| 田 東

年近古稀，大病初愈，生活無憂。

如果是你，你會選擇怎樣度過晚年？旅旅游、帶帶孫？還是跳跳舞？

如果張才柱老人也選擇這樣的生活，對他來說沒什么損失。可對你，對我，對很多80后、90后甚至00后來說，損失還真不是一般的小。

我們或許會錯過一次穿越回五六十年前重慶農村的時光之旅。

If you hit seventy while recovering from some serious illness with little to worry about, how do you spend your rest life? Travel, open-air square dance, or taking care of your grandchildren?

If our revered Mr.Zhang Caizhu also chose such a life, there was no loss to him but to many people just like you and me who wereborn in 1980s ,1990s or even 2000s.

Maybe, we will miss a time-journey to get back to the countryside in Chongqing as fifty or sixty years ago.

北碚鄉間的日常

Daily Life in Countryside of Beibei

翻開這本“書”，只需要一個晚上，你就能領略上世紀五十年代到八十年代初北碚鄉村的隱秘日常。在這趟旅行中，你可以看到父輩、爺爺輩年輕時在靜觀場趕場的身影，聽到一群小崽兒一邊放牛、一邊玩鐮刀打叉贏豬草游戲的歡笑。

油坊榨油、挖桐子米、扯竹麻、做蓑衣、打席子、補鍋、打鐵、打紙、燒炭……許多現在很難看得到的農村生產活動在這里重現：挑肥料上梁子、大煉鋼鐵送喜報、和豬牛在一個屋檐下吃飯睡覺、與三四個甚至五六個哥哥姐姐、弟弟妹妹擠在一張床上，半夜流尿打濕的褲子，隨手搭在屋中間的烘罩上烤干，大人小孩舉起竹竿吆麻雀、每家人派個代表到公社食堂排隊打飯吃集體伙食……

那些你也許曾經歷過，也許聽說過，或者從不曾耳聞卻真實發生過的往事——不只關乎個人，而是這個國家——現在只需要不到60塊，就能看到。

對，是看到，而不是讀到。

和一些回憶性的書籍以文字為主不同，這本名為《往事入畫——一個老人的記憶博物館》的書，主體是一百三十多幅畫，翻閱之間，一種電影般的既視感撲面而來。

Browse this “book”only for one night, you can have a look at the daily life concealed in countryside of Beibei from the 1950s to the early 1980s.Your fathers and grandfathers were still young,going on village fairs in Jingguan, and the mirth of a group of children playing a game to win more hogweeds while herding cattle at the same time comes to you.

Refining oil in a mill, collecting seeds of Tung oil trees, pulling bamboo hemps, making raincoats, weaving mats,tinkering pans, forging iron, making paper,burning wood for charcoal…And many rural production activities hardly seen now can be revived in this book: carrying manure to the ridge of a hill, delivering a glad message about steel-making activity,eating and sleeping with pigs and cattle under the roof, sharing one bed with several siblings.When wetting the bed at midnight, the children could put the pants on the basketwork brazier; adults and children shooed away the sparrows with a bamboo pole;each family sent a representative to the commune canteen to queue for the food.

All of these memories you may have experienced, heard or never heard of but actually happened (not only related to individuals but all about this country) now only costs you less than 60 Yuan to see.

That's true.You can see it other than reading.

Different from reminiscent books based on words, the book bygone days in painting——a man’s museum of memory is mainly presented by more than one hundred and thirty paintings.The right sight of the book gives a feeling of watching a movie.

蒼老而靈巧的畫手

A Pair of Wrinkled but Deft Hands

感謝張才柱老人，這位1946年出生在北碚中嘴（現重慶市北碚區三圣鎮亮石村）鄉下的老人，雖毫無繪畫基礎，卻付出了兩三年心血。感謝他在66歲時，沒有去跳壩壩舞，沒有打麻將泡茶館，雙眼視力僅有零點幾，卻用一雙蒼老但靈巧的手，將自己記憶中的往事入畫。

當年，這雙手可以組裝收音機、電視機，還為他贏得了一位18歲姑娘的芳心。現如今，這雙手調和色彩，涂抹時光，給我們帶來一冊昔日歲月的風情畫。

全書分為七個部分，既有老人對童年生活的追憶，也有對當時鄉村生活的再現，那時的集體生產、風俗、農事、副業，還有那時的運動，那時的辛苦。

比如，張才柱還是小娃兒時，和鄰居好友春娃兒去高家廟趕場，最想看西洋鏡，“它有點像望遠鏡，里面有很多好看的圖片，看完一張就用手轉動一下，再看第二張。看西洋鏡要兩分錢，可是我身上沒有錢，只能眼巴巴地站在旁邊。經營西洋鏡的女人可憐我，過一會兒就讓我看一眼。”

到了中秋節，“家家都要燒橙香。把香插到橙子上，每個橙子上大約插十多支，然后把橙子插到竹竿上，對著月亮升起的方向，把兩根長竹竿立起來。下面擺上供桌，擺上月餅、供果、茶水，全家人對著月亮祭拜。完了還要給去世的親人燒紙錢。”這樣的習俗，不知道現在的鄉村還有沒有，在城里還真的沒見過了。

當然也少不了那時的人。童年的玩伴、好心的鄧隊長、刁難的文書、壞壞的“壞老幺”、偷谷子的唐光興、命苦的顏順華……

Thanks Mr.Zhang Caizhu, who was born in Zhong Zui(now in Liang Shi village of Sansheng town of Beibei district, Chongqing) in 1946.Although he knew nothing about painting, he has paid two or three years’ efforts.We really appreciate him, for at the age of 66, he didn’t go to square dance, play mahjong or dawdle in the teahouse, and instead,he drew these bygone days in his memory on the paper with his wrinkled but deft hands and little vision in both eyes.

In the past, his hands could assemble radio and television and also won him the heart of an eighteen-yearold girl.Now, his two hands bring us a volume of paintings that record the landscapes and customs of past days by harmonizing colors as well as memories.

The whole book consists of seven parts,containing both his recollection of childhood and the reappearance of countryside life then.Such as the collective production,customs, farm work, sidelines, campaigns and pains.

For instance, when he was a child, accompanied by his good neighbor friend Chun to Gaojia Temple on marketday, he wanted most to try the zoetrope.“It was a trifle like telescope containing many fascinating pictures inside.Twirling it after finished one and then came another picture.It required two cents but I had none, so I stood by it with eager eyes.The woman owner sympathized me and let me try once for a little while.”

During mid-autumn festival, “each family would burn incensestuck into oranges, with about ten on each orange.Then the oranges were stuck to the pole of the bamboo and two bamboos were stood facing the moon.A table was placed under the bamboos, with moon-cakes, fruits and tea on it.The whole family worshiped the moon for welfare and then burned paper money in honor of the dead.” This custom has probably gone in countryside, after all, hardly seen in cities now.

Obviously, people at that time cannot be neglected.Pals of childhood, kind-hearted header Deng, cunning Wen Shu, sly Lao Yao, Tang Xing stealing crops and Shun Hua of a bitter life.

與現實隔著溫暖的距離

Between Memory and Real Life Then

我不是美術科班出身，只覺得畫里的色彩非常漂亮，淡淡的藍天白云，遠處的青山，近前的稻田，勞作著或休息著的鄉親……老人喜歡用紅色和綠色來渲染人物的穿著，還有，秧苗是綠的，竹林是綠的，稻谷是黃的，街道是土黃或鐵灰的。好點的房子，墻是白的，差點的，墻是土黃的，歡騰的溪水是白的……

有人說，老人畫中的顏色是夢幻的。的確，斑駁的色彩，給那時的艱難裝飾了幾抹亮色，也映出了張才柱老人內心的樂觀。其實這些畫是老人記憶中的那個年代，和真實的生活，還隔著一個溫暖的距離。

從另一個角度來說，老人用他的畫筆，把當時那些被冰冷包裹著、壓迫著的溫暖，像開春犁田翻土一樣給翻了出來。

我想，對這些，張才柱老人可能沒有自覺，這從他樸實的“解說詞”中就能看出來。他只是忠于內心涂著畫著寫著，流淌著真誠與溫情。這也是我們這個國家，這個民族的底色，不論在什么時候，都頑強地在我們不曾注意的地方生長著。

當然了，老人的畫里還是有幾幅只有一種色調——黑。至于為什么，是批判還是表現，聰明的讀者自有評說了。

最后，搜腸刮肚湊得打油詩一首，獻給老先生，以表敬意——

六旬老漢提畫筆/重現時光記往昔/赤橙黃綠青藍紫/點面結合實與虛/經年風雨勾畫間/故舊鄉俗涂抹里/一筆一劃現真心/畫里話外總關情

Having not majored in art, I could still find the hue very beautiful in those paintings with pale blue sky and white clouds above, green mountains afar, crop fields near and folks laboring or resting.Mr.Zhang is fond of applying red and green to render the dressing of characters.What’s more, the rice seedlings are verdant, bamboo grove green,crops golden, streets yellowish brown or iron-gray, the walls of fine houses white while earthy yellow of badlyconditioned ones, exultant stream white and so on.

Some say the colors of his paintings are dreamlike.Truly, the mottled colors decorate the hard time and also reflect his inner optimism.Actually these paintings mirror those years in his memory and are still mildly different from the real life then.

From other point of view, with a paintbrush, he recalls and records the warm memories wrapped and oppressed by ice-cold reality, which is just like turning the soil in early spring.

Judging from his plain commentary, Zhang Caizhu may not be aware of this.He devotes himself to paintings with mere sincerity and tenderness.It is this very feature of our country and nation that grows tenaciously somewhere without our notice.

Sure, there are still some paintings bearing only one color--black.Whether it is about criticism or manifestation is what left to the smart readers.

Finally, I would like to write a ragged verse to him, to show my respect.

A man of sixty picks up paintbrush to recall the time passed,

With all bright colors applied, reality and memory combined.

Past tribulation and old customs emerge from the paintings.

Each stoke presents his sincerity,

And the paintings and their meanings show his affection.

A Mild Difference betweenMemory and Reality

Article | Tian Dong