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

I've been busy all morning.

Right after finishing their meal, Ji Yongling immediately suggested starting construction to renovate the outhouse and pigsty.

Old Ji's outhouse was a mud toilet surrounded by three walls. Because it was connected to the pigsty, there was a door. You would go in from the pigsty, hide behind the mud wall to keep out the sight of outsiders, and relieve yourself on clean yellow soil or wood ash. Then you would immediately cover it with clean soil. The soil piled up higher and higher, forming a manure pile.

The Ji family is quite diligent, cleaning up the manure every day and preventing the manure pile from getting too high. So even though it's an old, undesirable dry toilet, it doesn't smell bad and there aren't many flies or mosquitoes around it.

But if it can become cleaner and more hygienic, who would complain?

Ji Yongling told his family about his ideas for the outhouse and pigsty. Whether the others understood or not, they all nodded in agreement.

Grandpa Ji pulled out a yellowed old almanac from the top of a cabinet in the cave dwelling, stroked it with his fingers for a long time, and said, "Today is an auspicious day for breaking ground and getting married, it's alright."

The older generation of people in Northwest China like to consult the almanac before building houses, going on long journeys, or getting married, and choose an auspicious day, which is called a "good day" in the local dialect. This practice has continued for thousands of years and has become a fixed custom, or in modern terms, a sense of ritual.

With a wave of his hand, Old Master Ji ordered everyone except Yang Shi and Hu Xirong to go out and help, as they were responsible for cleaning the kitchen, sweeping the house, and feeding the chickens.

Under Ji Yongling's command, Ji Manchuan and Ji Manqing first mixed mud and rammed earth to build a not-too-high earthen wall between the pigsty and the outhouse, completely separating the two spaces.

The two brothers caught their breath and, without resting for a moment, picked up their hoes again and began digging a pit behind the wall of the toilet near the outside of the yard. They dug a large pit that was a meter deep and two meters wide.

Due to limited resources, the Ji family didn't have bricks, so they could only fill the pit with a thick layer of soil, using it as a "cesspool." After excrement fell into the pit, they would cover it with another layer of soil to bury the feces. When it was time to clean the outhouse, they only needed to shovel out the soil from the pit.

In addition, she had Ji Manchuan dig a sloping squatting pit in the outhouse in front, ensuring that the slope was steep enough for excrement to slide directly into the pit.

Seeing this, Old Master Ji understood Ji Yongling's actions and asked Ji Manqing to find two large stone slabs to lay on both sides of the squat toilet. Actually, after using the outhouse, it would be most convenient to just flush with water, but considering the water supply situation here, Ji Yongling hadn't even considered this option.

The outhouse was basically completed with simple renovations, but Ji Yongling had a problem with the pigsty. Without modern materials, it was impossible to achieve drainage and manure disposal. She could only suggest digging out all the old soil from the pigsty, filling it with new soil, and then burning the ground.

As Ji Yongning threw wormwood into the pigsty, he turned around and asked in confusion, "Sister Ling'er, why are we burning the pigsty?"

“Are you afraid of getting pork tapeworms in their stomachs? Burning the ground of the pigpen can kill any remaining tapeworm eggs, preventing later pigs from getting sick,” Ji Yongling explained.

"Oh!" The little children opened their mouths in unison, forming an "O" shape, and drawled out the sound.

Grandpa Ji and Ji Manchuan also thought it made sense, as it seemed somewhat similar to the "burning of firewood" during the Lunar New Year.

The so-called "shaogan" is a folk custom in various parts of Northwest China, and it still exists in later generations.

The 23rd day of the first lunar month is the "Burning Fire Festival" in Northwest China. On this night, every household lights a fire in front of their door, and the whole family jumps around on the fire to burn away all diseases and misfortunes.

Looking at the wormwood burning brightly in the pigsty, Ji Manqing said, "Tsk tsk, I feel like my cave dwelling needs a fire too."

Ji Manchuan rolled his eyes: "Do you sleep in a pigsty too?"

Ji Yongning and Ji Yongzhou chuckled to themselves, excitedly tossing a few more handfuls of wormwood into the pigsty.

In order to preserve human and pig excrement for mixed fermentation and composting, Grandpa Ji decided to shovel out the manure and urine from the pigsty every day and pile it into the manure pit outside the toilet for composting.

Of course, the arduous task of shoveling latrines was left to Ji Manqing and Ji Manchuan, but Ji Yongning and Ji Yongzhou were also to succeed them in the future.

The family was busy until dinner time before they finally got everything done.

People passing through the village also heard that Old Ji's family was renovating their ash pens and pigsties.

As evening approached and the moon began to appear, villagers gathered under the old locust tree at the village entrance, discussing the Ji family's activities that day.

"Did the Ji family get some guidance from a master? They're giving the kids free medicine and renovating the latrines and pigsties," a middle-aged man said.

"I guess they're really afraid of pork tapeworm disease," an old woman nearby said.

"You say that separating the pigpen from the ash pen can really prevent the pigs from getting any diseases?" another young woman asked curiously.

"Why should I change this pigsty and ash pens that I've used for half my life? Isn't this how city people do it? If the pigsty and ash pens are separated, how will we collect the manure and empty it?" said an old man squatting at the base of a tree.

"I reckon it really does prevent that kind of disease. I passed by and saw the gray lattice in his house; it was definitely cleaner and more hygienic," the middle-aged man explained.

"Oh dear, how can you make something so fancy out of separating the ash pens and pigsties and adding a wall?" the old woman laughed dismissively.

"Don't you believe me? I heard that Ling'er from the Ji family received divine guidance. That's why she knows all about the pigs' parasites and diseases, and she even has so much deworming powder. This modified gray pigsty is definitely better than the original one," the middle-aged man said mysteriously.

"If you put it that way, it seems to be true. Wasn't it Yongling who made the piglet in Niu Lao Er's family vomit and get better? No, I have to go check on it, my kids are all still young." The young wife was a little anxious to go check on Lao Ji's toilet.

"Old Ji's granddaughter has been a bright and clever child since she was little. She learns everything faster than others. Maybe the Ji family will rely on this girl, Yongling, to rise up in the future," an old man next to him chimed in.

Before going to bed that night, Madam Yang and Old Master Ji called Ji Manchuan over to discuss selling astragalus at the market the next day.

Ji Yongling followed.

Old Master Ji took a puff of his pipe and said to Ji Manchuan, "There's a market in the county tomorrow. Take that astragalus root to the pharmacy, ask about the price, and see if any passing merchants recognize its value and sell it."

Yang adjusted the wick of the oil lamp and said, "Your father dug up a much smaller one a few years ago and sold it for two taels of silver. Yours will cost at least five taels to sell."

“That’s been so many years, prices change, don’t make things difficult for the child.” Old Master Ji glanced at his wife and said, “Manchuan, you’re the one who dug the herbs. Whether you sell them or not, just use the proceeds to buy some rice and flour for the family, keep the rest for yourself.”

“Father, we haven’t separated the family yet. Whether we sell a lot or a little, Mother will keep it. There are so many people in the family who need to eat and drink. Besides, if we really want to talk about it, it was Ling’er who discovered it,” Ji Manchuan hurriedly said.

Grandpa Ji was silent for a moment, then said, "That's not how you calculate it. This thing was indeed dug up by you two, father and daughter, so it should belong to you. Here's what we'll do: you sell it, buy the other things, and keep half of what's left for yourself."

Madam Yang also spoke up, "Listen to your father, you keep half, and don't give me the rest. Buy more grain, and also buy some flour for the baby and your wife. If there's any left, buy some cotton. It should be cheap while it's hot, so I'll make some winter coats for the baby."

“Grandma, I also want to go to the market,” Ji Yongling said to Madam Yang.

In Northwest China, going to the market is called "going to the market." In impoverished times, children rarely went to the market; only adults went to buy necessities or sell their own produce. Every child looked forward to going to the market because it was the only place where they could buy things, even if they didn't buy anything, just looking at the wide variety of items was enough to satisfy their curiosity.

However, some villages are far from the county seat. In the current era where transportation relies solely on foot, it takes adults a long time and a lot of physical effort to make a round trip, let alone children.

Fortunately, Niujiazhuang is not far from the county seat; it's only an hour's walk away.

Knowing that Ji Yongling was always sensible and wouldn't make unreasonable demands or buy things at the market, Yang nodded and instructed Ji Manchuan to take good care of the child.

The next day, villagers flocked to Old Ji's house, eager to see the new look of his toilet and pigsty after the renovation. When they saw the pigsty, now spotless and perfectly clean after being burned, and the much cleaner, partitioned toilet, some immediately said they wanted to go back and renovate their own toilets and pigsties.

"Wow, the old Ji family's toilet and pigsty look really nice after the renovation," an old man exclaimed.

“Yes, yes. Look, the pigsty floor has been burned smooth and even. It will definitely be much cleaner to raise pigs in the future,” a middle-aged woman chimed in.

"I really didn't expect that Ling'er could come up with such a good idea," a young wife exclaimed.

The Ji family was overjoyed and proud to hear the villagers' praise, especially Yang, who was beaming from ear to ear.

Of course, Ji Yongling was unaware of all this. At that moment, she and Ji Manchuan were pulling a cart on the road leading to the county.