受戒

by Wang ZengQi

  It goes on in the next thresh of wheat.

  When it was over, the fellows were not thoroughly amused. Then he continued.

  In this temple there were no taboos, and no one mentioned anything about them. Renshan smoked a water-pipe, which he took with him when going to perform Buddhist services.

  这哪是念经，这是耍杂技。也许是地藏王菩萨爱看这个，但真正因此快乐起来的是人，尤其是妇女和孩子。这是年轻漂亮的和尚出风头的机会。一场大焰口过后，也像一个好戏班子过后一样，会有一个两个大姑娘、小媳妇失踪——跟和尚跑了。他还会放“花焰口”。有的人家，亲戚中多风流子弟，在不是很哀伤的佛事——如做冥寿时，就会提出放花焰口。所谓“花焰口”就是在正焰口之后，叫和尚唱小调，拉丝弦，吹管笛，敲鼓板，而且可以点唱。仁渡一个人可以唱一夜不重头。仁渡前几年一直在外面，近二年才常住在庵里。据说他有相好的，而且不止一个。他平常可是很规矩，看到姑娘媳妇总是老老实实的，连一句玩笑话都不说，一句小调山歌都不唱。有一回，在打谷场上乘凉的时候，一伙人把他围起来，非叫他唱两个不可。他却情不过，说：“好，唱一个。不唱家乡的。家乡的你们都熟。唱个安徽的。”

  姐和小郎打大麦，

  一转子讲得听不得。

  听不得就听不得，

  打完了大麦打小麦。

  唱完了，大家还嫌不够，他就又唱了一个：

  姐儿生得漂漂的，

  两个奶子翘翘的。

  有心上去摸一把，

  心里有点跳跳的。

  …… ……

  这个庵里无所谓清规，连这两个字也没人提起。

  仁山吃水烟，连出门做法事也带着他的水烟袋。

  The monks loved gambling. The square table in the main hall, which was used for meals, was just right for this, and would be moved to the entrance of the hall. As soon as it was in place, Renshan would take out the chips from his room and throw them on the table. They played cards more often than mahjong. The participants, apart from the three older monks, were a duck-feather collector and a hare hunter, who was also a hen thief. Nevertheless they were all decent souls. The former went from village to village with a shoulder pole and bamboo baskets crying intermittently in a hoarse voice, "Any duck feathers for sale?"

  The latter had a secret instrument, a dragonfly made of copper. At the sight of a hen, he would launch the dragonfly. When the hen came over and pecked at it, its spring would unwind and choke the hen rendering it incapable of cackling for help. Then the thief would promptly rush forward and catch it.

  他们经常打牌。这是个打牌的好地方。把大殿上吃饭的方桌往门口一搭，斜放着，就是牌桌。桌子一放好，仁山就从他的方丈里把筹码拿出来，哗啦一声倒在桌上。斗纸牌的时候多，搓麻将的时候少。牌客除了师兄弟三人，常来的是一个收鸭毛的，一个打兔子兼偷鸡的，都是正经人。收鸭毛的担一副竹筐，串乡串镇，拉长了沙哑的声音喊叫：

  “鸭毛卖钱——!"

  偷鸡的有一件家什——铜蜻蜓。看准了一只老母鸡，把铜蜻蜓一丢，鸡婆子上去就是一口。这一啄，铜蜻蜓的硬簧绷开，鸡嘴撑住了，叫不出来了。正在这鸡十分纳闷的时候，上去一把薅住。

  Minghai had once asked him to let him have a look at his copper dragonfly, which he took to Xiaoyingzi's home, trying it out in front of the door. In a trice, Xiaoyingzi's mother ran out, complaining, "Are you crazy? How can you bring such a foolish thing here to play with?"

  Immediately Xiaoyingzi ran up to him and urged, "Give it to me! Give it to me!"

  She tried it out on a black hen. It really did work! The hen was choked and it stood motionless with shock.

  When the sky was overcast or rainy, these two would come to the Biqi Nunnery to while away their leisure hours there. If there were no partners, the three monks dragged the old monk to gamble with them, at the end of which Renshan used to swear angrily, "Mother! I've lost again! I won't play next time!"

  They never ate meat secretly, instead slaughtered pigs at the end of every year in the main hall. They did it just like ordinary households with boiled water, a wooden basin and sharp knife. While the pig was being secured, it cried lustily. The difference was that they held a ceremony for it with the old monk chanting in a serious manner the sutra of reincarnation for the pig, which was about to go to Heaven.

  The moment when Rendu thrust a sharp knife into the bound pig, a spurt of red blood would gush out.

  明子曾经跟这位正经人要过铜蜻蜓看看。他拿到小英子家门前试了一试，果然！小英子的娘知道了，骂明子：

  “要死了！明子！你怎么到我家来玩铜蜻蜓了！”

  小英子跑过来：

  “给我！给我！”

  她也试了试，真灵，一个黑母鸡一下子就把嘴撑住，傻了眼了！

  下雨阴天，这二位就光临荸荠庵，消磨一天。

  有时没有外客，就把老师叔也拉出来，打牌的结局，大都是当家和尚气得鼓鼓的：“×妈妈的！又输了！下回不来了！”

  他们吃肉不瞒人。年下也杀猪。杀猪就在大殿上。一切都和在家人一样，开水、木桶、尖刀。捆猪的时候，猪也是没命地叫。跟在家人不同的，是多一道仪式，要给即将升天的猪念一道“往生咒”，并且总是老师叔念，神情很庄重：

  ……一切胎生、卵生、息生，来从虚空来，还归虚空去。往生再世，皆当欢喜。南无阿弥陀佛！

  三师父仁渡一刀子下去，鲜红的猪血就带着很多沫子喷出来。

  …… ……

  Mingzi frequently went to Xiaoyingzi's home, which was surrounded on three sides by water, except on the western side, where there was a small path to Biqi Nunnery. They were the only inhabitants in this spot. Around the isolated courtyard were planted six large mulberry trees, which blossomed and bore mulberries every summer; three bore white berries, the other three purple ones. Near the house was a vegetable garden growing melons, beans and other vegetables all year round. The lower part of the courtyard's wall was built with bricks while the upper part was of compacted earth. The main door was painted with tung oil, on which was pasted a couplet for the Spring Festival. Inside was a large courtyard. On one side were a cowshed and a rice-husking shed and on the other a pigsty, a chicken coop and an enclosure for ducks. A stone mill stood in the open air. The house was to the north, its walls also made of bricks lower down and compacted earth higher up. The roof was covered with tiles and straw. Obviously, the building had been recently repaired for the timbers were still white. In the centre of the house was a main hall where the gold paint on the portrait of the House God had not yet turned black. On both sides of the hall were bedrooms, which had windows fitted with square transparent glass, rarely used in the countryside. Under the eaves of the house was a pomegranate tree on one side and a cape jasmine on the other, both of which had grown as high as the eaves. Every summer, when red and white flowers blossomed on these trees, they were very beautiful. The fragrance of the cape jasmine flowers was strong and could be detected even in Biqi Nunnery if the wind blew in that direction.

  明子老往小英子家里跑。小英子的家像一个小岛，三面都是河，西面有一条小路通到荸荠庵。独门独户，岛上只有这一家。岛上有六棵大桑树，夏天都结大桑葚，三棵结白的，三棵结紫的；一个菜园子，瓜豆蔬菜，四时不缺。院墙下半截是砖砌的，上半截是泥夯的。大门是桐油油过的，贴着一副万年红的春联：

  向阳门第春常在，

  积善人家庆有余。

  �
�里是一个很宽的院子。院子里一边是牛屋、碓棚；一边是猪圈、鸡窠，还有个关鸭子的栅栏。露天地放着一具石磨。正北面是住房，也是砖基土筑，上面盖的一半是瓦，一半是草。房子翻修了才三年，木料还露着白茬。正中是堂屋，家神菩萨的画像上贴的金还没有发黑。两边是卧房。隔扇窗上各嵌了一块一尺见方的玻璃，明亮亮的——这在乡下是不多见的。房檐下一边种着一棵石榴树，一边种着一棵栀子花，都齐房檐高了。夏天开了花，一红一白，好看得很。栀子花香得冲鼻子，顺风的时候，在荸荠庵都闻得见。

  The family was small: Uncle Zhao, Aunt Zhao and their two daughters— Dayingzi and Xiaoyingzi. They had no sons. In recent years, since there had been no disease, locusts, drought or floods, life had been very prosperous. Their produce was enough to supply them with all sorts of foodstuffs. They also rented ten mu of land from the temple. In one mu of their own fields, they had planted water chestnuts. This was probably Xiaoyingzi's idea, because she was very fond of them. Another mu was planted with arrowheads. In addition, they had many chickens and ducks. The income from the eggs and duck feathers alone bought a year's supply of salt and cooking oil.

  Uncle Zhao was a jack of all trades, not only skilled in farm work, but also in repairing boats, building walls, baking bricks, cooping tubs, splitting bamboo and weaving jute rope. As strong as an elm tree, he never coughed or suffered from a backache. He was kind to everybody and remained silent all day long. Aunt Zhao also enjoyed good health. Although fifty years old, she still had keen eyesight. She was always neatly dressed with her hair combed. She too busied herself from early morning till late night, cooking food for the pigs, feeding the hens and ducks, salting vegetables(the dried radishes she salted tasted delicious), milling beancurd, weaving reed baskets and so on. In short, they were a good match, both being very industrious.

  Aunt Zhao often cut paper flower-designs for the villagers. It was a tradition that, when a wedding ceremony was held, the parents would stick red paper flower-designs on their daughter's dowry. In order to bring good luck and to make the dowry appear more magnificent, the paper-cuts were usually made with charming characters or designs, such as "a phoenix flies toward the sun", "live to a ripe old age in conjugal bliss", "may your descendants flourish for ten thousand generations" or "boundless happiness and longevity". Aunt Zhao's paper-cuts were very popular. Even villagers from far away invited her to make them for them.

  "Aunt Zhao, we've fixed our wedding ceremony for the sixteenth of this month. When will you come to help us?"

  "I'll come early in the morning the day before."

  "You must come on time!"

  "Certainly! Of course!"

  The two daughters resembled their mother very much, especially in their eyes, with the black and white sharply contrasted. They looked like clear water when still and shooting stars when moving. The two sisters were always immaculately dressed. According to local custom, at fifteen or sixteen years of age, every girl should comb her hair into a bun. How smoothly they styled theirs, with the red wool, black hair and white hairpins! Whenever Aunt Zhao took her two daughters to a fair, everyone turned to look at them.

  这家人口不多。他家当然是姓赵。一共四口人：赵大伯、赵大妈，两个女儿——大英子、小英子。老两口没有儿子。因为这些年人不得病，牛不生灾，也没有大旱大水闹蝗虫，日子过得很兴旺。他们家自己有田，本来够吃的了，又租种了庵上的十亩田。自己的田里，一亩种了荸荠——这一半是小英子的主意，她爱吃荸荠，一亩种了茨菇。家里喂了一大群鸡鸭，单是鸡蛋鸭毛就够一年的油盐了。赵大伯是个能干人。他是一个“全把式”，不但田里场上样样精通，还会罩鱼、洗磨、凿砻、修水车、修船、砌墙、烧砖、箍桶、劈篾、绞麻绳。他不咳嗽，不腰疼，结结实实，像一棵榆树。人很和气，一天不声不响。赵大伯是一棵摇钱树，赵大娘就是个聚宝盆。大娘精神得出奇。五十岁了，两个眼睛还是清亮亮的。不论什么时候，头都是梳得滑滴滴的，身上衣服都是格挣挣的。像老头子一样，她一天不闲着。煮猪食，喂猪，腌咸菜——她腌的咸萝卜干非常好吃，舂粉子，磨小豆腐，编蓑衣，织芦篚。她还会剪花样子。这里嫁闺女，陪嫁妆，瓷坛子、锡罐子，都要用梅红纸剪出吉祥花样，贴在上面，讨个吉利，也才好看：“丹凤朝阳”呀、“白头到老”呀、“子孙万代”呀、“福寿绵长”呀。二三十里的人家都来请她：

  “大娘，好日子是十六，你哪天去呀？”——“十五，我一大清早就来！”

  “一定呀！”——“一定！一定！”

  两个女儿，长得跟她娘像一个模子里脱出来的。眼睛长得尤其像，白眼珠鸭蛋青，黑眼珠棋子黑，定神时如清水，闪动时像星星。浑身上下，头是头，脚是脚。头发滑滴滴的，衣服格挣挣的。——这里的风俗，十五六岁的姑娘就都梳上头了。这两个丫头，这一头的好头发！通红的发根，雪白的簪子！娘女三个去赶集，一集的人都朝她们望。

  Though the two sisters looked alike, their personalities were entirely different. The elder sister was very gentle and quiet. Like her father, she rarely spoke. In contrast, the younger one had a glibber tongue than even her mother. She talked eloquently for long periods until her elder sister complained, "You just twitter from morning till night..."

  "Like a magpie!"

  "You admit it yourself! It really upsets me!"

  "Are you feeling restless?"

  "Yes, I am!"

  "There are other reasons besides me!"

  There was a deep meaning in her words. Dayingzi already had a fiance, at whom she had once stolen a glance. He was an honest, good-looking young man, whose family was well-off. She was quite satisfied with the match, which had been arranged by the parents of both sides. The wedding date, however, was still undecided. Dayingzi had seldom gone out in the past two years, always busying herself preparing her dowry. She could both cut and sew dresses by herself, but her embroidered floral patterns were still inferior to her mother's. Having seen a bride in the town some days ago, she complained that the way her mother made her designs was too old-fashioned. The townspeople had adopted new ways, and their embroidery was just like real flowers and plants. This put her mother on the spot. Coming to her rescue, the "magpie" shouted, "I can recommend someone to you."

  姐妹俩长得很像，性格不同。大姑娘很文静，话很少，像父亲。小英子比她娘还会说，一天叽叽呱呱地不停。大姐说：

  “你一天到晚叽叽呱呱——”

  “像个喜鹊！”

  “你自己说的！——吵得人心乱！”

  “心乱？”

  “心乱！”

  “你心乱怪我呀！”

  二姑娘话里有话。大英子已经有了人家。小人她偷偷地看过，人很敦厚，也不难看，家道也殷实，她满意。已经下过小定，日子还没有定下来。她这二年，很少出房门，整天赶她的嫁妆。大裁大剪，她都会。挑花绣花，不如娘。她可又嫌娘出的样子太老了。她到城里看过新娘子，说人家现在绣的都是活花活草。这可把娘难住了。最后是“喜鹊”忽然一拍屁股：“我给你保举一个人！”

  It was Mingzi. When he had studied at school, he had accumulated half a volume of drawings, which he liked very much. After joining Biqi Nunnery, he continued to look at it frequently, and at times, copied them on the reverse side of pages torn from an account book. By and by he could draw well. Xiaoyingzi added, "He can draw. And what he draws is just like the real thing!"

  Then, Xiaoyingzi invited Mingzi to her home and prepared some ink, brush and paper. After a little while, he had produced some designs.

  "Wonderful! Wonderful!" Looking at hi
s drawings, Dayingzi exclaimed in delight. "With such designs I can use the new styles."

  The second layer of stitches were put among those of the first ones, so that the colour was varied gradually from dark to light without any break. The method her mother employed failed to eliminate the clear contrast between dark and light.

  Being both a servant and adviser of Mingzi, Xiaoyingzi urged him, "Draw a pomegranate flower! Draw a cape jasmine flower!"

  这人是谁？是明子。明子念“上《孟》、下《孟》”的时候，不知怎么得了半套《芥子园》，他喜欢得很。到了荸荠庵，他还常翻出来看，有时还把旧账簿子翻过来，照着描。小英子说：

  “他会画！画得跟活的一样！”

  小英子把明海请到家里来，给他磨墨铺纸，小和尚画了几张，大英子喜欢得了不得：

  “就是这样！就是这样！这就可以乱孱！”

  ——所谓“乱孱”是绣花的一种针法：绣了第一层，第二层的针脚插进第一层的针缝，这样颜色就可由深到淡，不露痕迹，不像娘那一代绣的花是平针，深浅之间，界限分明，一道一道的。小英子就像个书僮，又像个参谋：

  “画一朵石榴花！”

  “画一朵栀子花！”

  She then went out to pick these blossoms from the trees and handed them to him to copy. After much practice Mingzi could draw a variety of flowers. Looking at these, Aunt Zhao was very pleased and patted his head saying, "What a clever boy you are! I hope you will be my adopted son."

  All at once, Xiaoyingzi encouraged him by squeezing his shoulder, "Go on, call her 'Mother'! Quick! Quick!"

  Mingzi fell to his knees and kowtowed to Aunt Zhao. From then on, he regarded her as his adopted mother.

  Before long, three pairs of embroidered shoes made by Dayingzi were passed round the whole district. Many young girls came to admire them, even from as far as thirty li away, some on foot and others by boat, all praising her profusely, "Oh, what a beautiful design! They're not embroidered flowers, they're fresh ones!"