Zhang Zhixing

A few years ago, when I traveled to Beipu Film and Television City in Yinchuan Town, I saw a "Supreme Instruction" written in large characters on a wall: "Eat more when you are busy, and eat more when you are free." Eat less when you are busy, eat dry when you are busy, eat thin when you are free, eat half dry and half thin when you are not busy or not, mixed with sweet potatoes, green vegetables, radishes, melons, beans, taro and the like." After reading this passage, I first smiled knowingly, and then I accidentally remembered it. Although I have never heard of this passage before, this is how we got by when we were short of food when we were young.

My hometown is located in the western part of Guanzhong, on the dry plateau of Weibei. The land there is not barren, but the climate is arid, and there is often "nine droughts in ten years", so the villagers often suffer from lack of food. The main food crops in my hometown include wheat, corn, sorghum, millet, millet, and various beans. The favorite meals of people in my hometown are noodles and steamed buns made from wheat. But in the past, wheat production was very low, so wheat flour was very precious. Wheat noodles can only be eaten openly during the wheat harvest season and during the Chinese New Year and festivals. In normal times, wheat noodles are mostly eaten with whole grains or a combination of thick and thin grains. Noodles are often eaten during the busy farming season, and stir-fried dumplings and glutinous rice dumplings are eaten during slack farming seasons and when it is rainy and cannot be worked. And when eating noodles, people who work often eat dry noodles, and people who don’t work eat soup noodles.

The most unpalatable among whole grains is sorghum, which is very astringent and often causes defecation problems. In order to coax the whole grains into their stomachs, people in their hometown invented "gold-wrapped silver noodles" and "gold-wrapped silver steamed buns", which are sorghum flour and corn flour sandwiched between wheat flour to make noodles and steamed buns.

Every year when there is a recession, everyone tries to find ways to tide over the difficulties. Some go to the fields to dig some wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger, and some go to the mountains dozens of miles away to borrow food. Every year when the elms and sophora flowers come down, every household will steam wheat rice in order to save some food. Some families in particularly difficult circumstances may even go out to beg for food. When we children go to play in the fields, we often look at the edible wild vegetables and fruits, exchange experiences with each other, and find some "snacks" for ourselves.

During times of food shortage, people in my hometown cherish food very much. Every year after the wheat harvest, adults and children go to the fields to glean wheat ears to ensure that the grains are returned to the warehouse. After the grinding is completed, the wheat must be dried on straw mats and canvases. Wheat grains that accidentally fall into the soil must be picked up one by one. The practice of Tian Xiucai licking his bowl when eating is common in his hometown in the TV series "White Deer Plain". Some people have to use a bowl to catch the steamed buns when eating, and the fallen steamed bun residue cannot be wasted. I remember that every time my mother finished steaming the steamed buns, she would tear off the dandruff from the steamed buns bit by bit and eat them clean.

In the mid-to-late 1970s, water from Fengjiashan Reservoir was diverted to my hometown. At the same time, electricity was connected to the hometown and wells were drilled. Most of the fields were turned into irrigated fields, and grain production increased significantly. But that was still the period of production teams, everyone was working hard, and there was still not enough food to eat. It wasn't until the implementation of household responsibility system in the 1980s that people in the hometown really had enough to eat.

Today, food is very sufficient and a comprehensive moderately prosperous society has been built, but we should not forget the days when food was scarce. Remembering that time will not only make us cherish food and meals more, but also make us cherish the hard-won happy life today.

Note: The Supreme Directive quoted is a quotation from Comrade Mao Zedong, published in "Intra-Party Correspondence" on April 29, 1959.