Daily life of farming and supporting a family on the ancient Loess Plateau

Grandpa Ji asked Ji Yongning to help hold the cart shaft, while he gently lifted the rapeseed stalks onto the cart. He then had Ji Yongling pull the cart, taking the load of rapeseed back to the "field" (threshing ground) on top of his cave dwelling.

In Niujiazhuang, every household lives in a cave dwelling. The flat and spacious roof of the cave dwelling is the best place for threshing wheat, where threshing and drying wheat are all done.

A few days ago, under the guidance of Old Master Ji, the Ji family's threshing ground was compacted with water using a stone roller, making it very firm and flat.

The rapeseed stalks that were brought back looked like a lot when piled together, but there were actually large gaps between them, so the truck wasn't heavy.

Grandpa Ji would entrust this easy task to Ji Yongling and Ji Yongning, so that they wouldn't have to bend over to cut vegetable seeds, which would leave them with a sore back after half a day.

Ji Yongling pulled the cart, while his brother Ji Yongning helped push it from behind. Behind them, they heard their grandfather's repeated admonitions: "Hold it gently, put it down gently—"

Once they arrived at the field, they unloaded the rapeseed stalks, which were then guarded by Ji Yongzhou and Ji Yongru, while Ji Yongling and Ji Yongning went to haul the next load.

Unlike today, when grain could be left in the fields or even on the main road without anyone stealing it, grain was a valuable commodity back then. If even a little bit was stolen, the whole family would be devastated.

There was an old man in the village who went to sell beans, but someone stole a bag of them when he wasn't looking. The old man died of anger in the middle of the night after he got home.

The family worked from early morning until lunchtime, with some cutting and others pulling. Only a few people in the fields managed to grab a quick bite at home before returning to the fields to continue working.

The four siblings, Ji Yongling, Ji Yongru, and Ji Yongzhou, took turns watching the show and eating. First, Ji Yongling took Ji Yongru to eat, and then the two brothers, Ji Yongzhou and Ji Yongru, took over.

Although rural people at that time didn't have enough to eat, they were able to work with tremendous effort.

Around noon, the overcast sky began to clear up, and when the sun was fully out, Grandpa Ji and the others had already finished harvesting two acres of rapeseed. He told everyone to stop and harvest the rest tomorrow, because rapeseed is prone to cracking when the sun is directly overhead, so it is best to harvest in the morning.

Although the sun was scorching, neither adults nor children had a break. They worked tirelessly to turn over and dry the rapeseed stalks in the field, and then began to use flails or sticks to knock out the rapeseed seeds that were encased in the rapeseed husks.

The adults swung flails, repeatedly pounding the rapeseed stalks, while Ji Yongling also wielded a stick and struck them from the side.

Although it was a time of poverty, the children's childhood seemed carefree. Ji Yongning and his two siblings mischievously stomped around barefoot on the rapeseed, and the adults let them play without paying any attention, because it was a good opportunity to help thresh the rapeseed.

The blazing sun made people's skin burn.

Ji Yongling's hands, which were wielding the stick, began to lose control. Eight blisters formed on her ten fingers, two of which had burst, causing excruciating pain. In fact, she could also wield the ancient traditional tool, the flail.

Although various agricultural tools have become widely available in later generations, and in some plains areas, a single machine can harvest and bag dozens of acres of rapeseed in less than half a day, people still prefer to use the ancient sickle to harvest on small plots of mountain land, followed by threshing with a flail.

Flail-making is a skill that requires using inertia to make the wooden block on top spin and strike. It is actually very difficult for someone who is not familiar with it to swing it smoothly. If they are not careful, they may even hit themselves. That's why Grandpa Ji and Madam Yang refused to let her do it.

As Ji Yongling watched Grandpa Ji tapping the rapeseed stalks with a steady, rhythmic "pat! pat! pat!", she felt as if she were seeing her own grandfather again.

“I can’t farm this land for many more years. I’m too old to do it anymore. I was thinking that after you got married, I could bring you some of our homemade oil every year so you wouldn’t have to eat gutter oil from outside. But now it seems that’s not going to happen.”

“Son, study hard. Only by putting down the hoe, eating the government's food, escaping our rural life, and working in the city can you live a good life.”

Perhaps the expectations of the elderly for the next generation are similar across different eras. In ancient times, people also hoped that their children would study hard, pass the imperial examinations, and have a government job, instead of toiling in the fields every day like their ancestors.

Grandpa Ji and the others took the rapeseed stalks that had already been threshed outside and piled them up. The rapeseed husks were spread layer upon layer in the field, but not many seeds were actually threshed out.

Ji Yongning and the others jumped and bounced around until they were tired. Then they lay down sprawled out on the pile of rapeseed. Before they could even lie down for a moment, Hu Xirong yelled at them to help stomp on the rapeseed.

Because some rapeseed seeds, whose stems had been removed but whose husks were still attached, needed to be husked entirely by hand. So the whole family pitched in, barefoot, standing directly on the rapeseed to stomp and rub it with their feet.

After a flurry of activity, the rapeseed was shelled, but everyone's feet were cut and scraped.

The adults were alright; their skin was thick and tough. They went outside and sprinkled fine yellow clay on their feet, which, like Yunnan Baiyao (a traditional Chinese medicine), stopped the bleeding instantly without any noticeable effect. But Ji Yongling felt a sharp pain in the cracks on the soles of her feet, so much so that she dared not walk with her feet firmly on the ground.

She had initially thought that Ji Yongning and the others were like her, but when she turned around to look at the little ones, they were already happily playing on the side, using a bent branch as a horse, one end against their chest and the other against the ground, pushing it forward with a "clattering" sound, showing no signs of pain.

However, Ji Yongzhou's technique seemed to be lacking. He tripped over a branch on the ground and was stabbed hard in the chest, making him grimace and yell in pain.

The rapeseed had mostly been shelled, but there were still many seed husks mixed in that needed to be cleaned out. So, Grandpa Ji took out a wooden shovel and, together with Ji Manchuan and his brothers, began winnowing the rapeseed to remove the husks from the wind.

Grandpa Ji called over a few children to help hold up the sacks, while the adults used wooden shovels to shovel the black rapeseed into the sacks. Then, they used a cart to transport the sacks to the yard below.

Next, we just need to wait for a sunny day to dry and sift the residue.

After a long day's work, when everyone returned to the courtyard, their hands and faces were covered in black soot, especially their nostrils, which looked like two black holes, making them look exactly like miners who had crawled out of a black coal mine.

Just as everyone was about to wash their hands and faces, Ji Yongsong walked in carrying a small basket.

"Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle, Aunt, are you harvesting rapeseed today? My dad said it would take at least two more days."

Grandpa Ji straightened up, looked at his eldest grandson with a smile, and said, "If it looks like it's ready to harvest today, then we'll start harvesting. We'll have to harvest for another day tomorrow. Why did you come back?"

Ji Yongsong took a piece of meat out of the cage and said, "Grandpa, this is what my dad asked me to bring back. He said you and Grandma are going to harvest rapeseed, so this is to add some oil to your diet."

Yang laughed so hard her eyes disappeared, but she still complained, "Oh dear, what's your father doing spending this money on? It's just a few acres of rapeseed, how hard can it be to work? And what's the point of getting any extra profit!"

Ji Yongsong handed the meat to Yang and said, "This is my father's heartfelt gift, so please cook and eat it."