Nightmare loess

Postscript and comments from friends

Comment [-]: The natural ecological background of the work

The idea of ​​this work is very realistic, to tell the tragedy of the destruction of the natural and ecological environment, to awaken people's awareness of protecting the natural environment.In particular, it is of special significance that the work chooses the large environment of the Loess Plateau to tell stories.

The loess in northern Shaanxi is the most suitable soil for vegetation growth in the world.This is determined by expert research.There are vast deserts and Gobi deserts in the world, and it is more difficult to transform them into oases.However, the loess in northern Shaanxi is not used, and the vegetation can be lush and lush after a few years of abandonment.What's more, in the ancient history of northern Shaanxi, it was indeed covered by grass and trees, and there was not a little loess to be seen.

Soil is the source of life, and the land in northern Shaanxi is actually very suitable for plant growth.First of all, the soil layer is thick, which is not as thick as that in northern Shaanxi anywhere in the world; secondly, the soil quality is different from other places, the soft loess is neither sticky nor loose, which is very suitable for plants to take root, sprout, grow and head. .For any barren slope, green vegetation will grow in the first half of the year, and it will become lush and lush after two years.It doesn't have to be smooth weather, just two bouts of soaking rain.

However, the land in northern Shaanxi is extremely fragile, and because it is soft and all on slopes, it is very easy to lose.Soil erosion always starts from the upper layer of the land. Once the upper layer of land is lost, a large amount of organic matter is taken away, and the land left becomes barren loess, which affects the growth of vegetation.Most of the land is sloping land, which cannot store water, and the lack of water makes it difficult for vegetation to grow.This is an extremely contradictory natural phenomenon.Therefore, special farming methods and farming culture have spread.

The Loess Plateau is also the birthplace of the oldest Chinese society in the Yellow River Basin. The Chinese nation was born here, and the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor is located on this land.The Chinese nation thrives here and needs this piece of land for their living.The most direct way is to open up wasteland and cultivate land on the loess slope, including the self-reliance of the Yan'an base area.In the first year or two of the newly opened wasteland, when the weather is good and the weather is good, some grain can be planted. After two years, the crops are absorbed, the floods wash away, and the soil fertility gradually declines.This kind of loess sloping land is not like a plain area. Farmers feel that it is not worth intensive cultivation, watering and fertilizing.In fact, this crop rotation method is still a very good production method in the initial stage. Some slopes are cultivated, and some slopes are left uncultivated. There are more wasteland than cultivated land, and the time of abandonment is long enough for vegetation to grow lushly and save soil power.As mentioned earlier, the loess land is very easy for vegetation to grow, which is also formed under the repeated premise of sufficient time for rooting, long leaves, flowering and fruiting, and regenerated roots, long leaves, flowering and fruiting.With the increase of the population, it is no longer enough to open up a little wasteland for the wife (called mother-in-law in northern Shaanxi) and children, so it is necessary to expand the reclamation of wasteland.This has formed a long-term backward and special farming method in northern Shaanxi-"wide planting and low harvest".The Yan'an base area still needs to carry so many armies, schools, and government agencies, and the wasteland will be expanded and reclaimed without limit, and the time for crop rotation will become shorter and shorter.If the vicious circle continues, the farming method of extensive planting and low harvest cannot be changed, and it has continued for many years after liberation.

Coupled with such a large population, firewood is always needed for living and cooking. The places where firewood can grow are all on the abandoned land. Even with cutting and logging, the abandoned land cannot form complete vegetation.

Furthermore, goats in northern Shaanxi are famous. Every village has several flocks of goats, and each flock has dozens to hundreds of goats.All the goats in northern Shaanxi are free-range, and the sheep in northern Shaanxi are called "blocking sheep". Branches, bark, and even grass ropes are rags, and even the roots and leaves are pulled out when eating grass. The sheep used to have no grass.Do you think this loess land can bear it? The Loess Plateau has really become a high slope of loess.As a result, the long-term barrenness, backwardness and suffering on the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi have been caused.

This is the natural environment background of this work. The work deeply describes the historical process of the gradual deterioration of the natural environment in northern Shaanxi.

Comment [-]: The author's dream

The formation of high loess slopes is completely caused by human destruction, and the yellow Qiange Liangliang is not the original feature of the natural landscape in northern Shaanxi.The work shows readers that in the depths of the Loess Plateau, there are good places that surpass the south of the Yangtze River (such as Nanniwan in the past, and Guotagou in the work), and there are beautiful scenery in remote mountain villages that surpass the Peach Blossom Spring.The author puts these beauties into his dreams, and looks forward to the realization of the dream of the loess high slope turning from yellow to green, but this dream is also destroyed in the end. The work describes the tragic process in the way of crying and crying.

This is the core theme of the work: let the "loess high slope" return to its original appearance, restore such a dream!This is the "Chinese Dream", this is the "Northern Shaanxi Dream", and it is the dream of the work.

Comment Three: The Historical Background of the Work

Although the area in northern Shaanxi is desolate in history, it has been the land of military disasters in the past dynasties: Xixia invaded east and swept 36 villages in Yanzhou, Jin and Yuan went south to capture Yanzhou and opened the door, Li Zicheng raised thousands of hungry people in northern Shaanxi, and Kang Qianxi entered Yanzhou and became the frontier... When Fan Zhongyan took on the important task of defending against the enemy and resisting the summer in the Shaanxi-Gansu area, he chanted a noun "Fisherman's Pride" that has been passed down through the ages: "There are sounds from all sides, thousands of miles, long The smoke sets and the sun sets and the city closes." It vividly describes the magnificent scene of frequent wars in northern Shaanxi.

During the Anti-Japanese War in modern times, Yan'an became the base of the Eighth Route Army.

In the long history of continuous wars, the population on the Loess Plateau grew from nothing to a small population, established villages, and thrived (the Lengmiaogou in the work was born due to the military disaster).The people eat food and the government raises soldiers, so it is necessary to open up wasteland and farm land, collect food and pay taxes.The loess land is suitable for the growth of vegetation, and it is also suitable for the growth of food.This is for the new wasteland (the humus left over from the wasteland). For the farming method of not fertilizing and watering, and planting extensively and harvesting little, there will be no food after a few years of planting.In the early history, northern Shaanxi was vast and sparsely populated, and there were many barren loess slopes. Therefore, they were left uncultivated for crop rotation, and it was too late to be designated as private property, so they were left uncultivated to reclaim new wasteland.Years of land reclamation by crop rotation, extensive planting and low harvest, the soil fertility was destroyed, gradually lost the ability to recover, and became more and more barren, with no grass and no trees, and it became the current loess high slope.

This process is gradual and develops from north to south.There are many wars in the north, there are many troops stationed, the population growth is fast, and the phenomenon of land desertification is serious.In the Yan'an area where the work is located, there were a large number of black households who came down from above (Mizhi Suide area in Yulin) to open up wasteland and farm land in the barren mountains. Mausoleum area) there are still patches of shoot forests.Therefore, it is said that the "yellowing" process in northern Shaanxi was gradually formed, which was caused by population increase and migration.If we don't stop or weaken human's agricultural behavior in northern Shaanxi, the yellowing of northern Shaanxi will become more and more serious.

From ancient times until the early days of liberation, agricultural production in northern Shaanxi has been laissez-faire, and the crop rotation method of planting widely and harvesting lightly has supported the development of agriculture and society in northern Shaanxi, and it is a natural mode of production.During the anti-Japanese period, the self-reliance of the Yan'an base area to open up wasteland and cultivate land was the guarantee of supporting victory, and it should be praised and praised vigorously.

Then after liberation, why hasn't land reclamation been stopped?The land reclamation scene in the work has reached a crazy level, why is this?This is the biggest confusion for many readers when they first read this work: Why do farmers open up wasteland, why can they open up wasteland, and why can't they stop it?

In fact, New China has paid great attention to the impact of soil erosion on the Loess Plateau on the Yellow River disaster in the management of the Yellow River.The government also has a policy of not allowing land reclamation, and there is a proverb among the common people that "opening up wasteland in northern Shaanxi will bring disaster to Henan."Then why can't it be stopped?

1. Northern Shaanxi is too poor and barren, with nine droughts in ten years and famines every year. Hunger is the most common phenomenon in the rural areas of northern Shaanxi.

2. Extensive planting and low harvest, land reclamation and crop rotation is the traditional way of farming in northern Shaanxi. The steep slopes and poor land lead to increased production only by land reclamation and expansion of planting.The government does not allow land reclamation, and there is no way to solve the problem of hunger.Learning from Dazhai in agriculture can only further damage the natural environment of the loess in northern Shaanxi, increase soil erosion, and cannot fundamentally solve the problem of food and clothing for farmers.

3. The grassroots are sometimes tight and sometimes loose on the issue of banning famine. In fact, they turn a blind eye and close one eye. On the one hand, the vast land and sparse population in northern Shaanxi cannot manage it, and on the other hand, because there is no practical and effective way to increase production on a large scale , the higher-ups blamed why the old Yan'an district had been liberated for so many years, why they still couldn't solve the problem of food and clothing for the farmers, so they had to secretly let the farmers open up wasteland to increase production, solve the famine, calm people's hearts, and deceive the upper and lower; This ulterior purpose condones farmers to open up wasteland.This led to the ban on famine on the surface with great fanfare in northern Shaanxi. In fact, every production team in the mountainous area has to open up wasteland and expand crops every year.

Before the reform and opening up, opening up and banning wasteland in northern Shaanxi was a long-standing contradictory phenomenon, which seemed to outsiders to be an unreasonable and absurd farce, but how many human tragedies have been deduced from it in history.The work captures and reveals the tragic color of this historical phenomenon, combined with the destruction of the ecosystem, tells one tear-jerking tragic story after another.

Before the reform and opening up, the root cause of the inability to open up wasteland in northern Shaanxi was that the Republic was too poor, and development was the last word. After 1998, northern Shaanxi began to implement the policy of returning farmland to forests. These four-character policies have brought about earth-shaking changes in the natural ecology and farming methods of northern Shaanxi.There is hope for the loess high slope in northern Shaanxi to turn from yellow to green, and the dream of the work is about to become a reality.

Comment [-]: The Humanistic Background of the Work

The Loess Plateau is the birthplace of the oldest Chinese society in the Yellow River Basin. The Chinese nation was born and multiplied here. The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor is located on this land.

Northern Shaanxi has always been a very primitive farming society. The Loess Plateau is a land suitable for farming. Farmers from generation to generation continue to pass on the primitive farming methods. In addition, they avoid fortresses and go deep into the center of mainland China. Culture makes his agricultural economy and cultural thoughts maintain the traditional and ancient model for a long time.Someone once wrote a special article to testify that the northern Shaanxi dialect has inherited the ancient Chinese language ("Hear the Ancient")

There is a kind of shrub in a little ditch in northern Shaanxi. The newly grown branches are very straight and tough. Farmers in northern Shaanxi cut it off, remove the leaves, and use it directly as chopsticks without any processing. It is very useful, and the locals don’t call it Chopsticks, call it "Chopsticks material", does the ancient rhyme still exist?

There are many cultural characteristics in northern Shaanxi, such as gourmet wine, any outsider who picks up rice wine in northern Shaanxi, the mellow liquid enters the throat, and then listens to Fan Zhongyan's sentence, "A glass of dirty wine can be used for thousands of miles, and Yan Ran will not go home without a plan. "I can't help but bow my head and sigh with emotion, tears streaming down the front of my clothes.That's what it's like to be homesick.

Another example is folk songs, folk songs in northern Shaanxi loved by people all over the country. If you listen to them on the high slopes of the loess, you will be so shocked that you can't sleep for days and nights.There are a lot of space in the work to record many simplified notations of folk songs in northern Shaanxi that have never been sung in the world in jpg format. Unfortunately, jpg format cannot be published in Jinjiang Literature City.

Another example is Erhua, which uses extremely humorous language and stories in the northern Shaanxi dialect, which makes people laugh, there is no dirty, only culture.

These rich cultural characteristics of northern Shaanxi are largely reflected in the works.

The author loves and is well versed in this feature. The work describes the customs and customs of the Yellow Land in a large amount of extremely delicate pages. The whole page and article write about their diet, their farming, their mountains and rivers, their folk songs, and Yangko songs. Dance, their relationships, their love and hatred.The ups and downs of Xiaocun's history take up a lot of space in the work.The author once extracted many stories in his works for people to read separately. Those small stories showed people the beautiful mountains and rivers in northern Shaanxi, special local food, rich customs and ancient farming methods.Those who have seen it are amazed: Northern Shaanxi has such rich and colorful cultural information, and a small mountain village highlights the cultural characteristics of northern Shaanxi. (Unfortunately, due to publishing regulations, a large number of folk customs and children's stories in the first draft were deleted.)

Therefore, the work is not a clichéd story about a group of educated youths jumping in line. Although the work is full of tragedy, it is still a good work introducing the natural scenery, historical origin, customs and customs of northern Shaanxi.

The author has something to say:

Here are some comments from the author and some friends who have read this work.

Here again, I would like to thank my friends for their concern and the editors for their corrections and revisions.Thanks!