Authors: Yan Lianke
On their way to the fields, the villagers who liked to talk no longer felt lonely, and for those who didn’t like to talk, their ears no longer felt lonely.
After they finished in the fields and headed back to the village, those who liked to sing opera arias and Balou and Xiangfu tunes would happily do so, not needing to worry that they might be wasting their voices and talent because no one was around to listen to them.
Winter came and went, and eventually spring arrived. When Mao Zhi rang the bell, everyone—men and women, young and old, with the exception only of the blind and paraplegics—would go down to hoe the wheat fields. First they hoed the largest plot of land to the east of the village. This was more than ten
mu
in size, and sat catty-corner with the hill, as though it were a piece of sky that had fallen onto the mountain. All those who could carry a hoe—including men and women, young and old, cripples and deaf-mutes—went out to work the fields together. They worked in groups of ten, rhythmically raising and lowering their hoes, as the bright yellow sound of their hoeing echoed through the mountain ridge.
There was a crippled woman who wasn’t able to stand, so naturally she couldn’t go out to hoe the fields. Mao Zhi, therefore, positioned her at the head of the field and had her sing to everyone while they worked. There was also a blind man who had never known the color of the sky or the earth, but ever since he was young he had liked to listen to people sing, and whenever he heard someone singing he would start singing himself. Mao Zhi had him come along and sing with the crippled woman.
The villagers also sang as they worked. They sang the Xiangfu tunes “A Pair of Jade Swallows” and “Story of a Butterfly,” together with the Balou tunes “Story of the Outlaws” and “Two Amorous Women.” When they ran out of lyrics, they would make up new ones, such as “I Don’t Have a Wife and You Don’t Have a Husband”:
BLIND MAN SINGS:
The wheat in the fields is piled into twenty-one bundles.
Who would have thought that I would end up without a wife?
A single head of garlic cannot be divided into separate cloves,
I pity my bachelor self.
PARAPLEGIC WOMAN SINGS:
Balou has two bellows,
But I’ve been left behind as a widow.
At the front of the cart there is a mule, and at the back is a horse.
Who knew that I would be left a widow?
BLIND MAN SINGS:
I lack a wife, just as my horse lacks a halter.
When the sun sets over the western mountains, where is my house?
When the sun sets over the western mountains gorge,
Who will accept my wifeless self?
PARAPLEGIC WOMAN SINGS:
The stove is full of smoke, and I’m fanning the flame.
Though I, my widowed self, have been left all alone.
The bright moon comes out.
One person sleeps alone.
The door, window, and water jar all shatter,
The wind blows and I am naked,
A lone goose alights on the beach and makes a nest.
It is hard to imagine anyone more brokenhearted than I.
BLIND MAN SINGS:
The sun sets over the gorge in the western mountain,
Who will accept my wifeless self?
The bellows are empty,
And I, wifeless, am brokenhearted.
I walk halfway up the hill.
Who knows if an unmarried man has been wronged.
My thatched hut has eighteen rafters.
Who knows how I suffer?
If someone plants scallions, I plant garlic.
It is hard to live as an unmarried man.
The villagers sang as they worked the fields. Eventually summer arrived, and everyone spent half a month arduously harvesting the wheat. There was rain when they needed rain, and sun when they needed sun. Who would have thought that the first year Liven entered society, the wheat crop would be so abundant that in all of the village’s fields, large and small, the weight of the grain would pull down the wheat stalks? When the villagers were out harvesting the grain, the entire land was filled with the fragrant aroma of wheat. They’d originally planned to harvest wheat all day and then divide it so as not to leave it piled up in the field. But this process of apportionment took half a month, and then each family had to carry the wheat home.
Each family’s jugs and bins were completely filled with wheat. Even the coffins they had prepared for their parents were filled with wheat, and the families that didn’t have coffins dumped their wheat onto their beds. In the end, everyone ran out of storage space, as the corners of each house were filled with bags and bags, and even the foulest latrine was filled with the sweet fragrance of wheat. They piled the leftover wheat into two storage houses out in the field, and concluded that, having entered society, they had genuinely entered the heavenly days. However, along with the heavenly days there came the great Iron Tragedy.
1
C
HAPTER 11:
F
URTHER,
F
URTHER,
F
URTHER,
F
URTHER
R
EADING—
I
RON
T
RAGEDY
1)
Iron Tragedy.
Refers to the iron-smelting tragedy that occurred in China during the Great Leap Forward. In the Balou mountains, this was referred to simply as the “Iron Tragedy.” But in contrast to natural disasters like floods or fires, the Iron Tragedy was a man-made catastrophe. The problem began in the
xinmao
year, 1951. At the time, the entire district, including Liven, was enjoying excellent weather. The summer wheat harvest was good, and the autumn corn harvest was also unexpectedly bountiful. Needless to say, food was abundant, which in turn improved everything else. Life was indeed heavenly.
But in the
renchen
year, 1952, Mao Zhi went into the township for a meeting that lasted several days, and when she returned she rang the village bell and made two announcements. First, she announced that she had brought a glucose bottle back from the township. It was a clear glass bottle with a rubber stopper, and she used it to distribute sesame oil to every household. Second, she announced that the district government had been transformed into a people’s commune, and the collaborative societies and mutual aid teams had been divided into large and small brigades. Because planting was a form of production, they were therefore called large and small production brigades. She announced that the large brigades would not have a Party branch secretary, a district chief, a militia commander, or a production team leader, and the small brigades would not have a production brigade chief, an accountant, or wage workers. She said that because Liven was located in the middle of nowhere, even an independent large production brigade would necessarily be an independent small production brigade. She said that the commune had asked her to assume the responsibilities of the village Party branch secretary, district chief, militia commander, and production team leader.
Before anyone realized it, it was already the wuxu year, 1958, and the country began undergoing major reconstruction to produce more, faster, and more efficiently. Throughout the land, everyone began smelting steel.
All of the trees throughout the country were chopped down.
In Liven, everyone became extraordinarily busy. Mao Zhi finally got pregnant, and her belly started to grow. The commune ordered that every ten days, each village and town must smelt a piece of steel and deliver it to an empty plot in front of the commune. Mao Zhi poked out her belly and went with the other villagers by oxcart to deliver a piece of steel as big as a gob of soybean dregs. It was only then that she realized that the disabled Liven villagers, after working arduously day and night, had managed to produce just half as much steel as those in the other villages. The commune secretary told Mao Zhi and the other villagers to stand in front of the portrait of Chairman Mao with their heads bowed, and to perform a process of self-examination. He said, Mao Zhi, fortunately you were at Yan’an, and it’s said that you even saw Chairman Mao, so why don’t you pound your chest and consider how you can live up to Chairman Mao.
The secretary said, Beginning today, Liven won’t need to smelt any more steel. You are holding us back, and therefore I am hereby expelling Liven from Boshuzi commune, meaning that you should no longer be considered residents of Boshuzi.
Upon returning to the village, Mao Zhi mobilized each household to hand over all of its nonessential iron utensils: old iron pots and buckets, dull hoes, and blunt shovels, together with iron and bronze washbasins, iron fire pokers, iron pegs for hanging things on the wall, and even the iron buckles on the wooden chests that lay at the heads of their beds. After the villagers collected all of these items and handed them over, the commune issued Liven a framed certificate, designating it to be Boshuzi’s third model iron-smelting village. But half a month later, the commune sent two more gun-toting militia leaders, who were leading an oxcart and carrying a certificate declaring Liven to be the second model iron-smelting village in Boshuzi. They then hauled away a cartful of iron farming tools. A few days later, another four People’s Army soldiers carrying rifles arrived in two oxcarts, bearing a certificate designating Liven to be Boshuzi’s first model iron-smelting village. They also brought a handwritten letter from the commune’s Secretary Mai. Mao Zhi looked at the letter, and was silent for a long time. Then, with her belly sticking out, she led the visitors from house to house to collect everyone’s iron tools.
When they arrived at a blind man’s house, he was in the middle of cooking dinner, and his son was squatting beside him. The blind man asked, Who’s standing in the doorway? The son responded that it was several wholers, who were all carrying guns. The blind man was startled, and obediently handed over the pot he was using.
As the blind man was serving the food he had been cooking, the People’s Army soldiers looked around the courtyard outside. They discovered an iron nail in the wall, which they proceeded to pull out and take away. When they saw two hoes leaning against the wall, they also took the heads of those hoes. At this point, the blind man pulled Mao Zhi aside and said, They even want my pot! What if my family were to
not
enter society or become a member of society? Would that be okay?
Mao Zhi quickly covered the blind man’s mouth with her hand.
When they arrived at the house of the crippled woman who liked to embroider, the woman handed over her pot. She also had a bronze washbasin, but given that the basin was the only dowry she had brought with her when she was married into Liven, she was reluctant to hand it over. The People’s Army soldiers proceeded to confiscate all of her remaining pots, ladles, and other iron cooking utensils, and threw them into the cart. Sobbing, the woman dropped her bronze basin and ran outside to grab her iron pot, whereupon the soldiers grabbed the basin as well. The crippled woman hugged Mao Zhi’s legs and sobbed, Give me back my pot and my washbasin! If you don’t give me back my pot and my basin, my family won’t become members of society.
The gun-toting soldiers glared angrily at the crippled woman, who promptly became silent.
They also went to the house of one of the village’s deaf men. He was very sharp, and although he couldn’t hear, nothing could escape his gaze. The soldiers arrived with their guns, and drove their cart right up to his front door. The deaf man brought out his iron pot and handed it over, together with the iron buckles from his storage chest. He even removed the iron latches from his front door, and threw them into the cart as well. Finally, the soldiers asked if there was anything else made of iron in the house. The deaf man thought for a moment, then removed the iron rings from his shoes and tossed them into the cart.