The Sound of Stone Mills_2000 words

Wen∕Dan Shui love rhyme

Before the familiar pair of stone mills, with the reform and opening up of the countryside in the eighties, the farmland are contracted to various households, has been abandoned, it is like an old man who is no longer able to do the work on the ground with no fuel left, day after day, and gradually forgotten by the people. After a long period of wind, sun and rain, like a few dead wood scattered in the wilderness, such as the decline of the *** hair of the old man's sudden forehead, look at people feel a little funny; in the stone mill around is not like childhood impression of as wide and flat, one side seems to have been some collapsed, deformation; once upon a time smooth mill road, now also has been everywhere is potholes, overgrown with weeds. Never thought, the former stone mill will become so obscene, thousands of years of wind and rain have not been able to make it any change, how? Abandoned without but ten years time, it became this way! When it was red-hot and bustling, who would have thought that it would be so miserable in the evening? Now, it can only helplessly hide in the corner that belongs to it, just like this silently watching the people living here, everyone here is it watched grow up, and, almost every one of them, is to eat by its dedication of harvest grown up, however, now they are like not feeling its existence, all refused to cast even a trace of compassionate gaze to it, so it can only be like this! It is silent, and seems to speak silently of its past splendor and the vicissitudes it has experienced.

My hometown in a small village on the banks of the Danshui River, the village is very small, only one hundred families, but there is the general size of the two stone mills, which can be seen, when the stone mills in the village of the importance of it. The use of the two stone mill is basically the same but there are some differences: the force is relatively thin people, or need to grind things not too much, more round mill; like when the villagers ate salt, bought back from the supply and marketing agency is mostly the size of the block of salt, you need to grind over the stone mill in order to consume, this kind of work, most of them in the round mill to complete the round mill is crushed in the round mill rotten. The other mill, with eight cogwheels, comes in handy when you need to grind a lot of things. Sometimes, there will be a cow, to the cow's mouth with a wattle or silk rope woven cover, and then set it to the stone mill, so that there will be a production team custodian can serve as a cow pulling the task of the mill.

The two stone mills in the village, when they were built, no one can say, but the process of their production, but through the villagers of oral tradition, has been passed down to today.

We locals call the construction of stone mills as "catching mills", which is a simple, graphic and friendly expression, and also a twisted way of saying that the process of building stone mills is difficult. First of all, ask an experienced stonemason to the nearby mountains, choose two more suitable stone - a flat and wide, ready to be used to make into a mill; a thick and round, will be made into a mill roller. Selected, the stonemason will first be in the mountains of the two stones for some rough processing, according to their respective future use will be processed out of the contours of the mill pan, mill roller; next, in the center of the mill pan chiseled a diameter of about 20 centimeters of the hole, and then you can "catch the mill". Naturally, the main task of the "drive mill" is to "drive" the disk, the roller is much smaller, so it is not the main problem.

"Catch the mill" to choose an auspicious day, men and women, young and old went up to the mountain, burned incense, firecrackers, lighted lanterns and paper, and then the whole village of young men and women to do together, shouting the trumpet, and concerted efforts will be milling disk erected, and then a pre-selected very strong wooden bar through the milling disk of the hole, and then everyone supported the huge left and right, this huge milling disk, and then the milling disk of the hole, and the milling disk of the hole, and then the milling disk, and then the milling disk, and then the milling disk of the hole. Then everyone supported the huge millstone from side to side, and "drove" it down the mountain and back to the village. After everything is placed properly, the stonemason will continue to grind the disk, grind the roller for deep processing, and grind the disk, grind the roller chiseled on the detailed texture.

After the roller is finished, the carpenter will make a mill frame and install it on the stone mill, so that a mill is finished.

When I was a child, I often heard adults say that, among all the craftsmen, the stonemason's generation is the largest, is the most respected by other craftsmen, all kinds of craftsmen eat together, the stonemason, regardless of age, are pushed in the upper seat; the stonemason is seated, the other craftsmen can be seated in turn. During the process of drinking and eating, only the stonemason had the qualification to give orders to others, and all other craftsmen had to be respectful. Such occasions, in my childhood did see a few times, I have witnessed, that in our area of ten to a hundred miles around the famous, nearly sixty years old carpenter, facing the sitting at the top of the twenty-something years old from the field of the small mason, has been very respectful.

After growing up and going to school, learning ancient history, and the production of stone grinding sensibility, I finally gradually realized the truth. In the long history of human development, the primitive society with stone tools as the basic means of production is much earlier than other social forms, but also much longer, therefore, stone tools in ancient times, especially in the ancient period, occupies an absolutely dominant position, the importance of which is self-evident. In this regard, the emergence of stone masons who made stone tools must be far earlier than other craftsmen, and their importance is naturally not comparable to other craftsmen, and it is only natural that the stone mason was honored as the first of all craftsmen. Later, with the progress of human society, the role of stone tools is getting smaller and smaller, while the stonemason also seems not particularly important. However, the stone mill is one of the few stone tools still in use after the development of society into the modern era, who can tell me, what other tools, like the stone mill, from ancient times, has been used to the present era? Stone mill rolling, accompanied by the creaking sound of grinding line, after thousands of years, tens of thousands of years of dust, through the thick curtain of history, has come to the present, came to us. Today, this "only surviving" remnants of the primitive era, has basically withdrawn from the stage of history, but it is still trying to prove to the world that the stone tools and the craftsmen who make them once had a lively and brilliant.

After the mason made the stone mill, he left the village, leaving the stone mill behind. Slowly, it took its heavy steps and embarked on a long journey to serve the people of the village for eternity. Decades later, the construction of the stone mill mason old, dead; that year and the stonemason with the stone mill "drive" back to the village of young people are also gradually old, dead, while the stone mill is still squeaking and running, did not show the slightest decline. Several generations, a dozen generations of people born, grew up, and then aging, died, push mill with date wood stick for I do not know how many roots, but the mill and mill roller was more polished as new, their steps seem to have become more robust, more brisk, things are not the same, the people in the village in the change, the stone mill has been devoutly adhere to their own responsibilities, hard work, as always; it had seen the The village's prosperity and abundance, it witnessed the village's poverty and suffering, stone mill, became a living specimen of the village, stone mill, become a generation of mountain people in the heart of the unchanging totem.

I don't know what the reason is, so I remembered the original village of the stone mill to, I went back to my hometown, in the village looking for mills, hometown people said: "Now all with electricity, stone mills, stone mill, has long been gone."

Ah! The years of vicissitudes, grinding sound leisurely, the flow of time, hometown changed dramatically. The original, so common stone mill, now also rare to see, so that my heart suddenly have a sense of loss. This is only the past few decades, you can no longer find traces of stone grinders. The remnants of the Neolithic era in my hometown had been replaced by the rapidly spreading modern civilization. I felt like reading an intriguing fairy tale.

The sound of stone grinding, treasured my childhood hardships, but also recorded the history of the hometown people struggling, now, stone grinding has been accomplished, leaving us a little bit of the last traces of the Neolithic. The stone mill, when I can see you!