"Oh, Uncle Ergou, I was mainly shocked by my aunt's beauty, this aunt is so beautiful, like a fairy, Uncle Ergou, you are so capable that you can get such a beautiful aunt as your wife." Yun Yongbao said after coming back to his senses.

"That's still worth saying, in the whole Yunjiazhai, there is no brother who begs for a wife who is more beautiful than my daughter-in-law, why is it not called aunt," Yun Tao said.

People like Yun Tao, who are often outside, have just returned to the village, and their words are a little chaotic, and sometimes when they speak, they unconsciously use the modern Mandarin communication method used to intersperse with local speaking habits; When I returned to the city from the village, I was able to speak again, and I unconsciously used my local speaking habits to communicate with other people from all over the country.

Like Yuntao calling himself all of a sudden, all of a sudden, I am all of a sudden, is an obvious example, but now it is different from the early days of reform and opening up in the last century, when few people went out to work or do business, and everyone's circle was relatively small.

Nowadays, many places are mixed with a large number of people from all over the country, and various speaking habits and dialects are confused and communicated, so that many people can have several dialects and several speaking habits, and as a result, they are unconsciously mixed in when communicating, but most of the people now are used to this way of speaking, so it is not surprising, anyway, everyone can understand it.

"Aunt Ergou, hello, I am your eldest nephew Yun Yongbao." Yun Yongbao greeted Jing Ting.

"What do you call me?" Jing Ting asked stupidly.

"I call you Aunt Ergou, oh, you people in the city may not be used to hearing the nickname, uncle's nickname is Ergou, so I call you Aunt Ergou, if you are not used to it, I will call you Aunt directly." Yun Yongbao thought that Jing Ting didn't know the nickname of Yun Tao, so he naturally explained.

"Ah, I'm your aunt."

Jing Ting was a little dumbfounded, she was only 19 years old, this old man who was obviously over half a hundred years old called her aunt, this pair of Jing Ting, who had been growing up in the city, seemed very strange, and even a little unreasonable, after all, you can't see such a big age difference in the city, but the title is the other way around.

Even if there is, in the city, people who are over half a hundred years old call a little girl who is more than thirty years younger than themselves an aunt, it is estimated that there are not many half hundred people who grew up in the city who can call it, even if it is called, it will be very unnatural and uncomfortable, anyway, Jing Ting has never seen or heard of such a thing.

But in the countryside for this kind of thing everyone is accustomed to, in the countryside, there is sometimes a big disparity between generation and age, often not proportional, the phenomenon of young or old is very common, and even the white-haired old man calls the nursing child uncle, for the master is not surprised.

There is a saying in the countryside: "Brothers are big and small, and uncles and nephews are young and old." "Because brothers are ranked by age, while uncles and nephews are not by age, but by generation.

The reason for the disparity in generation and age is the formation of the unique background of rural areas, and there are three main reasons for this.

First, in the past, when the concept of inheritance was extremely strong and "the number of people was strong" was advocated, there were often too many births in rural areas, and it was extremely common for five or six brothers and sisters to have more than seven or eight, and it was often enviable to accumulate "five men and two women."

In addition, early marriage and early childbearing were popular in rural areas in the past, and sometimes even children were married, but mothers were still giving birth, so there was a phenomenon of uncles and nephews of the same age and nephews older than uncles.

In this way, the difference between generations and ages is getting bigger and bigger, and the difference between relatives is even greater.

Second, in the past, the concept of patriarchy in rural areas was extremely heavy, and it was a state of etiquette, which attached great importance to the title of seniority. The patriarchal concept also made it impossible for the countryside to be referred to as many people as in the city by official positions or "master", "sir", "lady", etc., so various titles were derived.

This can be seen in the diversity of Chinese titles. Like the names of the same generation as parents, men have uncle, uncle, uncle, uncle, uncle, cousin, etc.; Women include aunts, aunts, aunts, concubines, aunts, and so on.

In English, it's much simpler, with a "uncle" for men and an "aunt" for women.

Third, in the past, the rural areas emphasized agriculture and light business, loved the land and relocated, worked at sunrise and rested at sunset, the population flow was very small, and they lived in the same village for thousands of years, resulting in each other's generations being called from generation to generation, and passed down from generation to generation.

"Then what should I call you?"

Jing Ting asked strangely, let such a person who is older than her father call her aunt, Jing Ting doesn't know how to respond, it doesn't seem appropriate to call him uncle or nephew.

"Auntie, you can just call me Yongbao or Ah Bao, of course, if you call me Xiaobao, there is no problem, many elders in the village call me that." Yun Yongbao said.

"Okay, I won't tell you, your aunt and I are going home in a hurry to go home for dinner, and let your aunt give you a meeting gift in a few days."

Yuntao said that in the village of Yuntao, there is such a custom, only the village has added people, the elders have to give gifts, if the people who marry in or enter the village are of high seniority, in addition to accepting gifts from the elders, they also have to give gifts to people in the village who are younger than them, as for the peers, there is nothing to pay attention to.

As for the gift, there is nothing to pay attention to, only something that is not taboo, there is no problem with sending a basket of eggs and sending some fruits, if you have the money to send appliances such as TVs and refrigerators, you can also do it, anyway, there are no valuable requirements, it completely depends on your own family situation, and your family can decide on it.

"Okay, then I'll go to work in the fields first, and if my uncle and aunt are free, remember to come and sit at my house."

After Yun Yongbao finished speaking, he walked in the direction of his own land, the men in the countryside are different from women who like to talk about the long and short at home, and they are more simple in talking and doing things, there are not so many things, and when the farm is slack, they can call a few people to play cards together, and they don't like to talk about other people's family affairs together.

"Who is he, why is he so old, and he still calls you uncle and aunt, I am weird to hear it." Seeing Yun Yongbao walking away, Jing Ting couldn't help but ask.

"He is the eldest son of my lobby brother, my lobby brother is about the same age as my grandfather, married early, and gave birth to my eldest nephew early, my nephew is a few years older than my father, this phenomenon is very common in our place, in the future, you will meet a lot of people who are older than you, call your aunt and aunt, and some of them have to call your mother-in-law and grandmother, of course, there are some younger than you, you have to call him an elder, but this is relatively rare." Yuntao said to Jing Ting.

"Why is he younger than me, and I have to call him an elder." Jing Ting asked strangely, Jing Ting, who grew up in the city, had a hard time understanding.

After all, this phenomenon rarely occurs in cities. On the one hand, the reason is that urban people pay more attention to the quality of life, so they are often reluctant to have too many children, and there is little age difference between siblings; On the other hand, the urban population is extremely mobile, and the neighbors are constantly renewed, so in the face of people who have never known each other and have nothing to do with each other, it is natural that they can only refer to each other according to their age, so it is not like the disparity in generation and age as in the countryside.

"Because I'm older." Yun Tao explained.

"What is seniority, Sister Zeng, are you like that?" Jing Ting asked curiously.

"It's the same way over there, we pay a lot of attention to seniority in the countryside, as for what seniority is and how it came about, I don't know, husband, do you know the way." Zeng Quan said.

"I'll just know a little bit, it's not too specific." Yun Tao said. When he was in college, Yuntao specifically checked this information.

In the era of feudal dynasties in the past, people were very particular about generations, especially between their own families and clans. When the new daughter-in-law passes through the door, she must go door to door to confess her relatives; When naming children, they should also follow the ancestral system and choose names according to generations.

In the big family, each generation has a special word for naming, such as the "Chang" character generation, the "big" character generation, the "Yong" character generation of our Yun surname family, etc., at the same time, it is necessary to strictly avoid it, that is, the name cannot have the same words as the seniors. If you don't follow these rules of generation, you will be called a disordered generation, and disordered generations are a very shameful thing. Therefore, the title of generation is regarded as a matter of course, and the countrymen are also accustomed to it, regardless of the seniority, the caller is natural, and the responder is calm.

In the folk, obedience to etiquette as an important part of ethics and morality is an important criterion for measuring a person's moral cultivation. If this standard is violated, it will be blamed and spurned by the neighbors.

On different occasions, the seniors have different rules of conduct, in the red and white ceremonies, brothers splitting the family, mother-in-law disputes, clan affairs and other serious and dignified occasions, it is natural that the elders have more right to speak.

However, people with low seniority usually do not feel inferior because of this, because from the reasons for the formation of seniority, it can be known that the lower the seniority, the more prosperous the family, which was very proud of the countryside in the past.

And on many festive and lively occasions, it is the world of the younger generation, they can make some innocuous jokes, and even light-hearted pranks, as long as they are not too excessive, they are allowed, and the high seniors are not so free and casual, otherwise, the new daughter-in-law will make you blush in embarrassment. Therefore, there is a rule in the countryside that "I would rather sit on the lap of the little uncle than live in front of the big uncle".

However, with the changes of the times, with the renewal of ideas and the implementation of family planning, the phenomenon of having more children and more children in the city does not exist, and the soil for the disparity in age and generation has gradually disappeared; With the dilution of patriarchal concepts and the popularity of fashion concepts, people are no longer very particular about generation. In addition to the fact that the family and the clan are relatively strictly proportionate to each other, other people, especially young people, if they are not called by generation on solemn occasions, are gradually blurred, and those with little age difference are mostly commensurate by name.

However, in many rural areas, the customs and habits formed for thousands of years are still continued, and the village where Yuntao is located has maintained this ideology.