At the head of the village, there is a tray of stone mills

At the head of the village, there is a disk of stone mills.

This is an old object that has been serving the villagers silently for thousands of years with a naked body, a frank posture, a rolling way, and a spirit of dedication. Stone mills are generally composed of two main parts, the round stone milling disk at the bottom of the seat and the stone milling weight that is always hovering on it, also known as the mill wheel, mill roller. To put it bluntly, the mill is the use of human or animal power to sorghum, grain, corn and other grains shelling or rice crushed into ballast or flour stone tools. Stone mill in two or three decades ago, the degree of rural electrification is low; and now because of the rapid development of the times has rarely used such a clumsy household goods. However, I believe that most of the stone mills are still in existence, but they are seldom used and almost abandoned. Of course, by chance, to make up with the words, I guess it's okay, the size of the parts are in, the body has not yet fallen well. Besides, the iron stone east and west, which is easy to say no on no, and not the human body head, and not hay and firewood.

With "thousands of years has been" how how the expression is not false, you and I can imagine, this is not primitive people into the Stone Age, into the agricultural society, the most basic production of living objects? If the answer is yes, then you and I pass by it, to the most noble salute that is supposed to. Now all over the country coincidentally organized a lot of local characteristics of the farming culture museum, all kinds of stone mills, stone mill, stone roller, threshing floor and even stone pig troughs, stone piers, stone thresholds, etc., are the target of the collection, but also explains the preciousness and significance of these old-fashioned objects.

Any of its years wasted, any of its wind and rain, any time the carving knife in the bare skin carved a series of marks, a wrinkle, stone mill seems to be a monk, a not happy, not sad, not say nothing, not humble, not supercilious, out of the spirit of the old masters, only quietly sitting cross-legged on a stone plate seat, only silently watching, thinking, sent away a generation and a generation of gray-haired, and ushered in a new generation to hobbling to a new generation. A small child with a toddler's footsteps to the stone mill next to the eyes full of wonder and incomprehension ....... As the sun sets and the afterglow fades, the stone mill continues to relax in its customary way, but it realizes that even when its limbs are in a state of complete repose, the playback of its cerebral circuits will not stop: squeak, squeak, squeak. ...... And then the sound of being rolled over and crushed between the rocks ...... That is the unchanging sound memory engraved in the deepest part of the heart, comparable to the chanting of "Om Mani Padme Hum". ......

Ha, too false, right? I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that.

The stone mill is a real public **** property, the user is mainly mill around one or two hundred families, without paying, who first came to use, a little cleanup can be. Live farther away from it to run another stone mill to go, of course, things in a hurry, you can also come to this mill; after all, it is the same village Well, everyone is humble as usual is joyful.

The mill stone texture children, not easy to break, but a year and a half is the need to slightly deepen the grinding weight and the surface of the disc grooves, like now people need regular maintenance of the seat of the car, even the carpenter's most important household saws need to be filed every three weeks or so to sharpen them, and more than filing out of the fast saw it.

People are touched by the place is, never because of the mill to "maintenance" to the neighboring family that is the user to collect money. Who pays for the labor of the stonemason? Whoever hired the stonemason pays for it. Who is this mason? I don't know, but his name was Good Samaritan, and he was a person who was willing to pay for everyone without publicizing it at all. The people of his heart still respect the moral concepts passed down from their ancestors: a person just do good things quietly, God will give you a fruitful return, the time will come, the natural reward.

The mills are usually pulled by donkeys. There are a lot of village proverbs about donkeys pulling mills: donkeys in the mill road - blindly: donkeys in the mill road - listen to the yell; donkeys in the mill road - can not walk out of the trap; Blind donkey - not dizzy in the mill road, etc. (The author scribbled poems when he was young, in which there were blindly made up verses: hoofs de de de de, never stop, but has nothing to do with the faraway places ......)

And if you want to grind things are not much, do not lend a donkey can also, as long as the greeting, the village smoking bragging men and children jumping around can be a donkey for the laughs you act a little bit, open sleeves for you to push the mill, turn a twenty no problem, of course, the men will take the opportunity to throw out the two slightly revealing point of jokes, but only in jokes, and further teasing, then it would be The men will be despised by the townspeople if they make further advances. Of course, if the courteous man as a donkey to make, continuous, endless push mill, that will not work, not a man to spare the effort, but will turn dizzy, people can not be like a donkey to wear a pair of "dull" (cover the donkey's eyes of the coarse cloth objects). But then again, if you need to help the hand of the woman handsome a little bit, sweet voice a little bit, that a mutual help busy in the laughter will be more and more cozy, more show the warmth of the countryside.

Saeki children are better dealt with, as long as the greeting: "Welcome to play at home, auntie's home persimmon cake soft dates can be sweet na", can be; waist-high rural saeki children, you just do not let him come to push, he is still idle panic it. This age of male children are the most good at mischief, the boys will be taught to bring the firecracker, do not need to light on the firewood, but in the mill under the millstone, which will release a different kind of shock and awe.

By the way, the rural stone mills are not only grinding rice and bran and grits, chili peppers dried and crushed into chili noodles, newly picked leeks crushed into leek sauce and so on, but also mills are often contracted to the work, near the end of the year will be doing fireworks fireworks craftsmen will also be milling the power of black charcoal crushed into a fine powder ......

The famous writer Chen Zhongshi's "White Deer Plains" was created for six years, there is a stone mill in his yard, his family is located in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province and Jinnan, Shanxi Province, just a river away, the production and living habits are quite similar.

And now the stone mill, apparently very cold by the townspeople, its surrounding joyful laughter has long ceased to appear, leaving only the lonely mill and lonely millstone comfort each other, silent in the cold winter ice winds waiting, waiting desperately for the day of complete withdrawal ......