I was surprised to learn that I had arranged to pick up stones that day. I thought, what's so funny about this? There are many large and small stones on the banks of the stream under the hills south of the Yangtze River in my hometown. By the way, I picked up a few pieces. No horns, no features, only a few splashes. What's new? However, such an activity was actually arranged in the itinerary, so there must be something amazing about the guide stone.
When the bus arrived at the Yellow River that day, everyone ran down happily and hurried to the shallows by the river to find treasure. I looked at the other side of the mountain, which was not high. The rocks were bare and painted orange in the morning light. The tall and slender shelterbelt stands by the river. It is a green Populus deltoides, which flows through the Yellow River in Guide. The blue waves are rippling and the river keeps flowing eastward. The clear water reflects the opposite mountains and trees, and the sparkling river is stained with beauty.
The Yellow River is the mother river of the motherland, a place I never forget, and Qinghai is the birthplace of the Yellow River. I remember that Li Bai, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, said, "How can the water of the Yellow River move out of the sky?". Maybe Li Bai has never been to the source of the Yellow River and doesn't know that the water of the Yellow River comes from Qinghai.
Chairman Kong of Hainan Federation of Literary and Art Circles, who accompanied us all the way, grew up in Guide. He told us that the source of the Yellow River is at the northern foot of Bayan Kara, Qinghai Province. The water flowing down from the snow-capped mountains twists and turns all the way, splits the mountain and flies down, which is magnificent. Guide is located in the valley between Longyang Gorge and Songba Gorge in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and settled down after storing water, thus achieving the reputation of "The Yellow River in the world is your Deqing".
The land here is fertile, the climate is mild, the trees are lush, the mountain flowers are in full bloom, and the birds are singing and the flowers are fragrant. It is called the "Little Jiangnan on the Plateau" of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. A tour guide is like an uncut jade, showing jewels in roughness and magic in calm. Guide is also an ancient city, the ancient battlefield of the former Golden Goma Railway; It is also a friendly channel between Han and Francisco and a market for businessmen. In the early Ming Dynasty, the walls made of mud still stood tall, and there were many ancient temples. I conclude that this is an ancient plateau city with both Chinese and Tibetan styles.
On the beach, everyone's excited screams disappeared and they searched for their favorite baby. I stood on the beach, like a silent stone, quietly listening to the gentle lapping of the shore or the cheerful calls of birds flying overhead. My eyes swept the stones under my feet, and the leaves floating on the river eased ... Here, the Yellow River restrained its abuse, my feet rippled in the slow and clear water, and my heart felt trance. Is this the water from the Yellow River? It is harmonious in the world. Scenes come down in one continuous line, silent prayer of water or interpretation of poetry. I found the beauty of the unity of heaven and earth, which is of course attributed to the Yellow River.
There are many grotesque stones on the beach more than ten meters wide, with different sizes, the big ones are like drums, the middle ones are like fists, and the small ones are like beans. Most of the colors are compound colors, which are calm and simple, full of desolation and vigor after vicissitudes of life. Within a few minutes, I found four or five stones as white as jade, most of which were exquisite, and one looked like a celadon blank. If you look left and right, imagine it can be carved into a pendant. This is a very good natural handicraft. I don't know how many years ago, the Yellow River bypassed the numerous obstacles of the peaks, connected with water all the way, and merged with rivers and streams, with nine twists and eighteen bends. Torrential rain carries hundreds of millions of tons of soil and wrapped sand, running endlessly eastward, pushing the rocks in the upper reaches of the canyon into the river. After constant scouring, impact and sharpening, it finally deposited on the gentle river beach in Guide, leaving a natural stone with hard texture, full shape and moving color.
A stone coin very much like the Stone Age attracted me. It's thin, five centimeters thick. When I lifted it with my hands, it was estimated to weigh ten kilograms. No, it's too heavy. It is thousands of miles away, so I can only throw it away sadly. After a while, I saw a grindstone shaped like an axe. I am ecstatic. Although this stone is exquisite, it is contaminated with some minerals that light up the crystal. Its blade is big and thin, and its handle is thick, narrower than its head and just full. Unfortunately, it's missing a corner.
It must be the axe and knife of the ancient ancestors, who used stones to change life and create culture. The painters in the same trade told me that it is beautiful to make grindstones, but it is a pity to make paperweights. After a while, my bag was heavy.
The hospitable tour guide Wenyou cut some watermelons, so let's try the big watermelons in the western regions. After I chewed two pieces, I squatted on the stone beach and carefully studied today's harvest. I found a strange stone with a pattern like "dancer" on it, which is a godsend. A closer look makes my eyes light up. This stone is oblate with a grayish brown background and a white jade pattern in the center. What is vivid is the continuous love performed by the dancers.
Han, who is also a writer, also got a strange stone, which I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy. I saw a stone that looked a bit like Chinese characters. Isn't this "auspicious"? Luckily, seeing its bright colors and clear lines, I think it is a gobbledygook!
Another Yun Ni stone of the Yellow River, about the size of an egg, is flat in shape and has the characteristics of white clouds and muddy clouds. Natural reddish-brown traces are iron and manganese substances in the Yellow River water, which are eroded along the cracks of stones. This stone has varied colors, clear edges, smooth lines, uniform thickness and overlapping layers. Under the bright direct sunlight, the colors of gold, taupe and white jade penetrate and blend with each other, with a faint blue gray and a layer of ochre red, forming an amazing mountain rock painting. At this moment, I imagine that this painting also has lush green trees and splendid mountain flowers. The stone is naturally a little small. If it is embedded in a rosewood plaque, its color is elegant and its stone is luxurious.
On the way back, we also visited the Yellow River Stone Collection, a farm yard not far from the Yellow River. The strange stones here really opened our eyes. Some of them are like wise men, some are like crescent moons or lotus flowers, echoing the homing birds in trees, some are like Oracle bones, and some are like strange trees in mountains and rivers. ...
The works look different, varied and interesting, and the ingenuity of nature left a deep impression on us. According to Chairman Kong, there are many strange stone collectors in this area. Look at the colorful Yellow River stones all over the yard. It took him decades to bring them back from the Yellow River. After listening to this, we can't help but pay tribute to this foolish old man who moved mountains and rivers.
It was quiet in the afternoon. I feel time is passing, and I hear stones whispering. I lined up the stones picked up by the Yellow River in my bag and took photos with my mobile phone. When the light flashed, I saw the sun shining with an aperture, as dazzling as the wings of a butterfly. The fundus formed an image, as if I was worshipping, facing the Yellow River and kneeling down. My suitcase is only 20 inches, so I can board. Naturally, it's a little small. It is full of clothes and two or three bags of dried yak meat I just bought. Two big stones of the Yellow River weigh six or seven kilograms, and a white stone with a base of two centimeters thick is black and white. It is called "innocent" and can be used as a treasure of the town house. The other piece is also white, which looks like a landscape painted in light ink above the stone waist.
In the south of the Yangtze River, by the Hangzhou Bay, I stopped at the map of China hanging in my office. Guide and Cixi are thousands of miles apart, and there are a bunch of strange stones on the table. At the moment, all the stone piles I can see with my eyes are the illusion of a rough desert, which is Hong Fei's old dream in the desert. My surging thoughts, through time and space, I saw the Yellow River girl drawing water by the mother's river, and the big ship in Deqing section of the Yellow River was coming towards me!