A, "Yanwang Sweeps the North"

At one o'clock in the afternoon of January 29, 1962 (December 24, 1961 in the lunar calendar), in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Dezhou Central Hospital, a baby fell to the ground. That's who I am.

My birth was a big surprise to this big family. Because I am the eldest son and the eldest grandson. According to our Liang family tree"...... Ji, Dian, Yun, Chao, Shang, An, Ren, Zu, Yi, Ke, Da, Qi, Family, Wan, Shi, Yong, Exist", my grandfather is the boss of the "An" generation, my father is the boss of the "Ren" generation, and I am the boss of the "Zu" generation.

There is another story about the historical origin of our Liang family.

According to legend, after the death of Zhu Yuanzhang in 1399, Zhu Yunwen succeeded to the throne as the grandson of the royal family, and his uncle Zhu Di was very dissatisfied with this. Zhu Yunwen felt that the military power of the vassal kings was too heavy, and his power exceeded that of the imperial court, so he listened to the words of the advisers and withdrew the feudal domain and reduced power. Zhu Di saw that the kings were deposed, and he was afraid that he would not be spared. In particular, the reason for his father's death was that the edict of "no one in the neighboring countries of the kings should not go to Beijing" was blocked, so he failed to fulfill his wish and could not become the emperor. In the second year, he took the opportunity of the change of the Yuan Dynasty to take the princess and princess's family members to the capital to inquire about the truth and seek countermeasures.

Zhu Di's men and horses, along the post road through the state through the government, one day to Yucheng Shimen Wang Village, regarded as the pearl of the palm of the three princesses suddenly fell ill, died in a few days. The princess died of illness, Zhu Di was anxious and very sad, but due to the urgency of the situation (plotting to seize the imperial power), he had to leave a cronie and some people to deal with the funeral, and he led a large group of people to the capital in a hurry.

Later, the contradiction between Zhu Di and Emperor Jianwen became public, and he led a large army to oppose the imperial court and marched to Nanjing, where he was blocked and opposed by orthodox garrisons in various places. At that time, people thought that Zhu Di was plotting rebellion and was called a "traitor". Yucheng is of course no exception, and Yang Zhan, the magistrate of the county, instructed the garrison to fight with Zhu Di's army, and dug the princess's grave and abandoned the wilderness. Therefore, Zhu Di hated Yucheng very much. Zhu Di led the army to break through Nanjing, eliminated Emperor Jianwen, and seized the throne himself, which is called the "Jingyan Change" in history. After Zhu Di became the emperor, he waved his army north to wash Yucheng and all places north of Jinan. Historically, it is known as "King Yan sweeping the north".

After the war subsided, the government ordered a large number of immigrants from Shaanxi Dahuaishu and Hebei Beijing, Shandong Zhucheng and other places to Yucheng.

The ancestors of the Liang family migrated from the big locust tree in Shaanxi with their families at that time, and lived, multiplied, and cultivated on this land.

As a descendant of Yan Huang, on May 19, 2012, I took the opportunity of a business trip to the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum in Shaanxi Province to find my roots. According to historical records: the surname Liang is "after the surname Boyi, that is to say, the ancestor of the Liang family is called Boyi." Qin Zhong meritorious, King Zhou Ping sealed his young son Kang in Liangshan, Xiayang, named Liang State, the monarch is Kang Bo, later called Liang Bo, in 641 BC, Qin Mugong sent troops to destroy Liang State. After the fall of the country, most of the people of the Liang State fled to the Jin State and took the name of the original country, that is, the Liang family".

In today's ranking by number of people, the surname Liang is the 21st most common surname in the country.

B. From urban to rural

Confucius said, "There are three unfilial pieties, and no queen is great." Grandpa is a very traditional person, when he heard that he gave birth to a grandson, he was very satisfied, so he was very happy to say to his family, "This is another big brother, if you are satisfied, you can call it Kexin!" ”

Shortly after the Spring Festival in 1962, Grandpa went to Texas to see his eldest grandson. My father was stunned when he saw his grandfather: his grandfather was thin and yellow, swollen, and weak to speak. He said that his family has no food at all, and he relies on eating some wild vegetables and tree bark every day to make a living. People are dying of hunger in many places. Later, I learned that my grandmother was going to come with my grandfather, but because there was no food at home, there was no way, so I had to take my third aunt, fourth uncle Liang Renhua, and fifth uncle Liang Renguo to Jiaodong to beg for food. There are second uncle Liang Renyi and third uncle Liang Renzhong at home to watch the house.

When Grandpa arrived, his parents gave him the bed to sleep on, and they made bunks underground. At that time, my father and mother were in the city, and things were better. My father supplies 30 catties of food every month, and my mother 29 catties, so eating is not a problem.

At that time, it was the period of the "Great Leap Forward," in which high targets, blind commands, false reports, and exaggerations were prevalent, and various localities put forward unrealistic targets for the Great Leap Forward in industry and agriculture, one-sidedly pursued the high speed of industrial and agricultural production and construction, and greatly raised and revised the planned targets. In agriculture, it has put forward the concept of "taking grain as the key link", constantly publicizing "high-yield satellites" and "how bold people are, how productive the land is", and the grain yield per mu has been raised layer by layer; In industry, the target of 10.7 million tons of steel output for the whole year was wrongly determined, and tens of millions of people across the country set off a "national steel-making" movement.

In the winter of 1960, as the Party Central Committee began to correct the "leftist" mistakes in rural work, the "Taiyue Forward" movement was also stopped. The enlarged Central Work Conference, which was attended by 7,000 people in January 1962, initially summed up the lessons and lessons of the "Great Leap Forward" and carried out criticism and self-criticism.

The above is the description of the "Great Leap Forward" at the national macro level. And for each specific individual, the memory of the movement seems to be summed up in just one word: hunger.

Of course, that era not only left us with symbolic memories of "pain", but also had its own flesh and blood, which was alive and vibrant, and there were laughter and songs in addition to tears, for example, the "Great Leap Forward" was more than twice as fast as the first five-year plan. For example, the development of the economy, science and technology, national defense, culture, education, and public health all laid the foundation, started, and made breakthroughs during that period, such as China's first atomic energy reactor, the first electronic computer that operated 10,000 times per second, the first 10,000-ton ship, the first set of color television receiving systems, and so on.

Perhaps many people do not know such a detail: as a typical slogan that people concentrated on expressing the "Great Leap Forward": "catch up with Britain in 15 years", by 1972, China's output of coal, textiles and other major industrial products had surpassed that of Britain. So, from 1958 to 1972, how many years? The answer to this arithmetic problem is 14 years.

Some people who have come from the past have even recalled that at that time, every day after school, they had to set up "roadblocks" to eliminate illiteracy in the areas where urban and rural areas were located, and activities such as digging up fly pupae and eliminating the four pests were carried out; the situation in which the vast majority of illiterate people in our country had been overlooked for thousands of years had undergone a fundamental change in just a few years, and schistosomiasis, which had been raging for thousands of years, and many other infectious diseases were dealt a devastating blow in the "Great Leap Forward." Therefore, they believe that the most important achievement of the "Great Leap Forward" movement is the great emancipation of the minds of hundreds of millions of working people, and the entire nation has displayed a high spiritual outlook that has never been seen in thousands of years.

It is true that history is not only in words, nor is it only in people's vague memories like yellowed photos, history is alive and written by countless people with their lives and spirits. Even in the midst of any disaster, the "people" who dominate the earth with a capital letter can survive tenaciously.

Everyone is a piece of history. The common memory of countless people constitutes the overall history of a nation and a country.

History cannot be separated, but it is true that the history of the whole is often drowned out in the joys, sorrows and sorrows of individuals, and it is easy to be stripped of flesh and blood, leaving only cold bones.

For example, in that era when the Great Leap Forward attracted the attention of the world, there was a pair of young people, but they were full of sorrow, and they couldn't be happy or cheered up at all. As for the national strategic development goal of "catching up with Britain and surpassing the United States", they are enthusiastic about it like all Chinese, and they are eager to make their own contribution to the country's early entry into the forest of world powers.

But before they can do that, they have to think about their own survival first, like everyone else. Survival, that's a big problem indeed.

The Texas National Cotton Factory, where my mother worked, was sent to a large number of workers because it could not harvest cotton. Mother is one of them.

The young parents, who had just been happy to have given birth to a son, were now in great distress.

The night was already very deep, but they looked at each other, but they were speechless in the end. Under the previous policy, the child's household registration generally followed the mother's. With my mother's decentralization, according to the regulations, "I will return to China for three years", and my mother's household registration and I can continue to be in the national cotton factory, but the supply of grain is gone. In the past, it was food for three people to feed four people, and they could barely survive; In the future, it is absolutely impossible for one person to supply food to maintain the life of four people.

It was the mother who broke the silence first and said to the father, you stay in the city and continue to work, and I will go back with the child. My father said that after the family was separated, each of the five brothers gave a large jujube tree, and nothing else. There is no room in my hometown now, there is no ridge of land, and the children are still young, how can I live this life?

There was a long silence again. In the end, the two finally unified their minds and decided that their father would also apply for decentralization, and the whole family would move back to their hometown together. If my mother came back after three years, my father would follow.

April 6, 1962, was a day that I hated very much. It was on this day that my parents and I, who were born less than half a year ago, took a train from Dezhou City to our hometown, the Liangmiao Brigade of Maguantun Commune, Yucheng County.

Born in the city and only having a non-agricultural hukou, I became a farmer because of my parents' choice.

The parents' decision can be said to be very deliberate, but they didn't expect the baby, and they have never been able to return to the city since they moved back to the countryside.

In their opinion, there is nothing special about this move, let alone sadness, regret, and nothing worthy of special nostalgia.

To be a worker or a peasant was not a question at all at that time. They have to face an even harsher reality of survival.

They don't think about it, just because the choice they had seemed to have no choice at the time turned out to be a great embarrassment to my life years later.

Not for anything else, but because they easily gave up their urban hukou and chose to return to their hometown to become farmers. "Farmers", for thousands of years, have been the largest group in this country, and "farming" has also been the most stable occupation for thousands of years. But the peasant also means a context that is alien to the city.

Many years later, even when I left that land as a soldier and looked for a partner in my youth, I only thought about the noble and beautiful female soldiers and officers who enlisted in the city from the city. Because I will never forget that I am the son of a farmer, and I have to go back to farming like my father when I can't do anything in the army.

After joining the army, sometimes for the sake of vanity (young people seem to love vanity) and that pitiful self-esteem, whenever I met someone I didn't know or a female soldier who answered the phone for me, I always said that I was from Texas. Later, my fellow soldiers still exposed my lies and embarrassed me to the extreme, but I still said with strong words that I was born wherever I was born. I was born in Dezhou City, and if you don't believe it, ask my parents. Although I debate with others, I am weak-hearted. In China, the measure of whether you are a city or a country is your hukou – whether you are a non-agricultural hukou or an agricultural hukou.

People in the city and in the countryside do not have the natural right to choose the place of birth, but that household registration card does weigh more than a thousand catties!

To be honest, I didn't think much of it at first. But one thing is certain: ever since I had the consciousness of youth and ignorance, I have been working hard to escape from the countryside, from the land, and from the identity of the "peasant" that I regret, shame, and make me unable to raise my head, until I really left the countryside (Tigan) and changed my status to work in the big city.

And it took me ten years! Ten years, a person's most precious youth, not used to achieve great ambitions, not used to pursue excellence in life, but used to such insignificant little things. It can be seen how much influence a person's origin has on his life.

But to be honest, now, after so many years of being a city person, I begin to miss the countryside, the land and the folks who live on that land! I don't know why, in the big city surrounded by steel and concrete and high-rise buildings, in the noisy cars, exhaust pollution, and the modern city where people are increasingly estranged, estranged, and suspicious, I began to miss the frankness, straightforwardness, and enthusiasm between people in the countryside, especially the kind of "kiss or not, hometown people; Sweet or not, hometown water".

Some people say that people are now returning to the land. In this way, it is not that people yearn to return to the fields to work, but to yearn for the kind of family affection that is rooted in the earth, and the kind of simple and simple idyllic leisurely life.

I don't know which philosopher said that time has the special function of healing wounds and embellishing the past. Today, when I write these words here, looking back on my life in the countryside from afar, I no longer remember those sour and painful years, on the contrary, I only leave sweetness in the chewing of memory. I no longer remember the grievances and entanglements with someone, but I just feel that every face is so innocent and lovely. In the dream of memory, the wind in the countryside, the rain in the countryside, the night in the countryside, and the grass and trees in the countryside are all so gentle and affectionate, picturesque and idyllic.

So, if someone asks me again: what is your origin? I will answer without hesitation: I am a farmer, an authentic farmer!

It's an interesting reincarnation: when I was a farmer, I desperately tried to claim that I was from the city; And when I really became a city dweller, I tried my best to admit that I was a farmer! Perhaps, this is the unknown sorrow of the authentic Chinese-style peasant!

C. The origin of the name

After returning to his hometown, his parents used the money from the "decentralization" subsidy to build three rooms on the homestead of an old grandfather in the courtyard. Here, my parents gave birth to my eldest sister Liang Zurong and younger sister Liang Qianqian; The second brother Liang Zuping, the third brother Liang Zugang, and the fourth brother Liang Zubao.

On my first birthday, my grandmother and aunt, the fourth uncle, the fifth uncle, the third aunt and the fourth aunt who went to Jiaodong to beg for food came back, and the family celebrated my birthday happily. Despite the difficulties of life at that time, my grandmother and mother prepared a good meal; The eldest aunt and the second aunt each made a beautiful little cotton dress for me, and the third aunt brought eggs.

When my aunt heard that my grandfather gave me a name called "Kexin", she resolutely disagreed, saying that it was not good.

She thought for a moment and said, let's call it "founding the country"! This is a good name. Years later, the aunt had passed away. I asked my mother, did my aunt give me this name? In my memory, the person who is generally called "the founding of the People's Republic of China" was born on October 1, because it was the day of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Mother said, "It's not very particular." Your aunt is uneducated, so she just thinks it's good.

The people present also felt that the name "founding of the country" was more atmospheric and pleasant than "hearty". The aunt also jokingly said that the minority obeys the majority. In the laughter of the people, the uneducated grandfather had no choice but to acquiesce.

Since then, my milk name has been "Jianguo". Although there is no elaboration and meaning, no one will pursue it.

At my birthday party, everyone set up abacus, books, fritters and other items on the table for me to catch as a young person. Grabbing an object according to the custom of the hometown represents a certain meaning. Untimidly, I reached out and grabbed a book. A literate person in the village saw it and said, "There is a black yarn hat in the book, Yan Ruyu in the book, and a golden house in the book." All right! This kid will definitely have a future when he grows up. His remarks won a round of warm applause from everyone. In every family, parents hope that their children can get ahead, that is, people often say "hope that their son will become a dragon" and "hope that their daughter will become a phoenix", just like their parents' expectations for them back then.

On December 23, 1963, my grandfather, who was only one day away from celebrating my birthday, passed away at the age of 63.

The dead are gone forever, but the living loved ones will always remember this day. One day in September of the year I was 8 years old, I was playing with my children. Suddenly, the third uncle, Liang Renzhong, came to me and said that I should go to school. At that time, I didn't know what it meant to go to school, but I was having a good time, and I couldn't listen to it, so I didn't go anywhere. I ran in front, and the third uncle chased after me, and circled around the school three times, and was finally caught by the third uncle. The third uncle tugged at my ear and said, "Country, if you don't go to school, you won't have culture, and if you don't have culture, you'll be like your uncle and smash the land at home, and you won't even be able to marry a daughter-in-law when you grow up." At that time, I didn't understand this, but I didn't listen. Because I went to school, I couldn't play with my children every day. In the end, under the threat of "force" from the third uncle, I went to school with the schoolbag my mother sewn for me.

Time flies, the sun and the moon shuttle. More than 30 years have passed, and now I think about it and feel how thought-provoking and serious the words of the third uncle were at that time! Because the third uncle did not go to school, he planted at home all his life, and then he didn't even marry a daughter-in-law, and in the end, he died alone at home when he was only in his 50s. However, I left the countryside as a soldier, was admitted to the military academy and promoted to a cadre, found a daughter-in-law in a big city, and was transferred to work in the capital Beijing.

During this period, when my salary was only more than 50 yuan, I also gave money to my third uncle. But how insignificant it is to think about it now! When I was rich and could repay the third uncle, the third uncle left us forever.

In April 2009, when I returned to my hometown with my mother from Beijing, I went to my third uncle's grave and burned a lot of paper money for him. And, I silently said in my heart, "Dear Third Uncle, I really understand what you taught me now, I thank you!" I'm here to kowtow to you. ”

It's so different for children to go to school now than we were then. The changes of the times, earth-shaking changes, are emotional! My son Yan Ge, as well as the third brother Zu Gang's son Sheng Hao, and the fourth brother Zu Bao's son Peng Xiao, they enjoy superior educational resources and a good living environment in Beijing. They can recite Tang poems and Song Ci, the "Three Character Classic", and "Hundred Family Names" before going to school. But when I was in school, I didn't even know my own name, and I had never heard of any Tang and Song poems. Nowadays, their main task is to learn, and secondly, to play games; But after we finished school, we either cut the grass or herded the sheep, which was a world of difference!

In that era when even food and clothing could not be solved, how could parents talk about education for their children?

I still vaguely remember that on my first day of school, Zhang Xiying, a teacher in the village (who was later promoted to the deputy mayor of Yucheng City), asked me what my name was. I say it's called "nationhood". What about the name of Mr. Zhang? I shook my head and said that there was no big name, causing the students to burst into laughter. Teacher Zhang didn't laugh. Because she was also born in a rural area, she knows very well the education situation of rural parents for their children. I saw her think for a moment and then said, your father is a generation of "benevolence", and you are a generation of "ancestors", so let's call it "Liang motherland"!

Later, people said that the name was atmospheric and good, and now it seems that it is not unreasonable. After the TV series "Return to Yimeng Mountain" that I created won a national award, the editor of the military newspaper published an interview with me on the second page of the newspaper with my name as the title. When I went to visit Chief Chi Haotian at his house for the second time (it has been more than two years since the first time), his wife, military doctor Jiang Qingyang, said that many of the children of the chief's old comrades-in-arms have come many times, and they can't remember their names, but I remember your name, your name is "Liang Guoguo", and your name is very easy to remember.

The name has stayed with me ever since.