Rebecca Mo
There were tigers in my hometown of Yiyang, Hunan Province before the 1960s. According to historical records, tigers haunted bamboo forests and hills in my hometown during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. They stand at the top of the food chain, feeding on wild boars, yellow deer, and goats. Later, due to excessive hunting, the tiger's food on the mountain is greatly reduced, so it goes down the mountain hunting for food, and does some things of stealing pigs and dogs. There is a folk saying: "If you are afraid of old bug, you cannot feed pigs; if you are afraid of sparrows, you can’t grow wheat.” There is a chapter in my father’s novel 《Renxing Gong, Yixing Gong》dedicated to the old bug: “Talking about old bugs in this house, and over there pigs are barking in the pig house. People who well know the habits of old bugs said “oh no”, they took the shuttle and ran to the pig house only to see a 40-pound pig was taken away by an old bug. Those vicious dogs that usually show their teeth and claws all burrow under people's crotch, clamp their tails and chirp, with death screams."
"Old bug" is actually the name of a tiger which is the way of the local people call it. It is said that it is taboo to not call the tiger its name. If you say the word "tiger", you will really attract tigers. On the other hand, "old bug" is used to express contempt for tigers. The name "Old bug" is also very vivid, just like people looking down at the vast bamboo mountain from the sky, the tiger really looks like a fat worm, a big colorful caterpillar.
My father Mo Yingfeng's childhood home was halfway up the mountain, on the same site as old bug. However, there is a little time difference between him and the old bug - Ying Feng burns charcoal and chops bamboo in the mountains during the day, while the old worm sleeps and only comes out to hunt at dusk. For Yingfeng, at his younger age, the tiger is not a symbol, nor is it a legend of the city people, but a living creature in the bamboo forest on the mountain behind their house. The smelly tiger urine left under the tree pockets makes you shudder. Old bug come and go in this Bamboo Mountain, "Sometimes it comes for a few months, sometimes when it goes, it doesn’t come back for one or two years ---- there is no certainty." When adults talk about family affairs, there are often rumors of old bug, most of them are legendary, such as "a housewife used a big red umbrella to scare the old bug away", such as "a cow pushed the old bug against the wall for three days and nights without letting go, etc." These kind of stories of old bug would go on and on for three or five days.
The elders told Ying Feng a secret: "The old bugs don't eat noble people!"
If we were to trace the source of this folk saying now, we might have to look at "Sou Shen Ji". In the book, it is said that in ancient times, there was a king of Funan, Fan Xun, who raised tigers in the mountains. There were sinners been thrown themselves at the tiger and survived, so they were forgiven. Coincidently, there was also a king of Darius in ancient Persia, who was caught in a evil plan. He wanted to forgive but could not change the king's order, he had no choice but to throw the prophet Daniel into the lion's den. He said to Daniel: The God whom you served will save you." The next day, Daniel was unharmed, as if the mouths of the lions were sealed. So, the tiger and the lion, a king of the jungle and a king of the grassland, are they judges who can decide people’s fate and conviction?
The people in the mountains can't trace much about the history like above, but little Ying Feng believes it, "The old bugs don't eat noble people!"
It was in 1948, when Ying Feng was 11 years old, foreign invasions followed a series of civil wars, the mountains and rivers in China were in turmoil, and life became particularly difficult. In that year, the water level of Zi River is soaring, the price of rice in the city skyrocketed, rose even faster than the water. The price of rice changed three times a day, and there was a wave of rice grabbing in various places. The market is in chaos and out of control. The life of mountain people depends on chopping bamboo and burn charcoal, going to the town to exchange some rice and salt and come back to feed their stomach. But the mountain goods they carried down the mountain became less and less valuable, and it became less and less for them to exchange much rice and salt. At this time, my grandfather contracted malaria. His body became hot and cold, lying on the bed and playing. At this time, Ying Feng had been studying in elementary school for only one year, he had no choice but to quit school and began to take up the burden of his family. He carried bamboo on his back and walked on the mountain road. He had to make two round trips every day, a distance of 80 miles, in order to exchange for two catties of rice or half a catty of salt.
This kind of tiredness and suffering is understandable for a child, until one day, little Yingfeng finally couldn't bear it anymore. We don't know where his courage came from. The idea of going to the mountain to find old bugs sprouted in his mind. Should my life be so hard? If that's the case, is life worth all these suffer? He is determined to test his life, if it is a low life, let the old bug eat it, if it is a noble life, he will build the confidence with hope to survive the current hardship. He was born in “ox” year and he was like a calf, he was not timid. It can be said that a new-born calf is not afraid of tigers. He eventually went to the mountain. Later, he talked with his friends about the old bug, which was also recorded in his autobiography: "I went up to the mountain to collect firewood every day, and deliberately waited until it was dark so that I could meet the tigers. One day, it was going to be dark, but I could still see the color of the scenery. I dragged a dry bamboo tail and came down the ridge path, and suddenly I saw in the front, a couple of feet away, there was an object across the road. It was orange and had a long tail. A tiger! It could only be a tiger, not any other animal. I was terrified, but I was still awake, remembering the rumors of death that tigers don't eat "noble". So, I took courage, bit my head, dragged the bamboo tail, and continued to walk forward. However, I found that I was afraid of death after all, so after a few steps, I spread my legs and ran down the mountain. My mother asked me why my face was pale, and I only gestured and couldn't speak."
The old bug just let little Yingfeng go and swaggered away. But I heard that if the tiger really wants to attack you, it won't let you see it, it will just hide in ambush, just like which was written in the novel "The Mystery of Muntjac Mountain": "That's a 400-pound tiger. The South China Great Spotted Tiger needs thirty yellow deer to match its weight. It is lying on the ground not far from the stream, where there is a pile of weeds and rocks. In front of it is a muntjac's path leads from deep in the mountains to the creek... This cunning tiger is familiar with the habits of muntjac and waits beside the path for them to bring it to his mouth. It lies motionless against the wind, poor yellow deer can neither smell it nor hear its sound. The tiger just has to jump, and the poor yellow deer will be a delicious meal for it."
It has always been a mystery as to why this old bug on the mountain spared my father in 1948. Thanks to the old bug for passing by and not eating, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many stories later. When the tigers moved aside, Ying Feng picked up the courage to live. No matter how big the difficulties are in front of him, he believed that fate would eventually open a door for him which became his life creed.
Western sages have a saying: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. “ True.
There are as many as five books about tigers in his works: 《The Small Soldiers Climbing the Mountain》《The Mystery of Muntjac Mountain》 《Renxing Gong Yixing Gong》《Autobiography》 and 《Old Maple Tree》.
The courage brought to him by the encounter with the tiger accompanied him throughout his life. He took a boat to Yi Yang to apply for the middle school entrance examination. At the entrance of Yi Yang No. 1 Middle School, he saw the tall and majestic school gate and the old maple tree, which seemed to be an insurmountable barrier. He summoned his courage, "What's so great? I was eleven I went up the mountain to look for tigers when I was young! My life has never been precious." With the brute force of Hunan people, he crossed one barrier after another.
He has the guts like a tiger. In order to collect novel materials, he and the painter Deng Huichu went to Jiufeng Mountain in Lechang, Guangdong and lived there for three months at the end of 1973. They went to explore the virgin forest, searched for exotic flowers and plants, and learned about flying insects and beasts in the forest, accompanied with two militiamen with guns. They performed wilderness survival games. In the end, he found the rare "Chicken's Claw Huanglian herbal" in the high mountains. His playfulness, courage and adventurous spirit were comparable to the British explorer Edward Michael Grylls known as "Bei Ye" in China.
If the destiny is like this, if even tigers don't eat him, what's the purpose of God giving him this life? Thinking about it this way, does the rest of his life give him a sense of mission?
When he lived in seclusion in Wen Jia City a few years later, galloping heroic soldiers on the paper, expressing the barriers hidden in his chest for ten years, and resorting of what he experienced in the troops during the Cultural Revolution to the grand works, risking his own life for the common people with drumming and shouting, who can deny that he is not brave? Who can deny that this is not a sense of historical missionary spirit urging him?
On the top of the mountain in my hometown, there is no trace of tigers to be found any more, only the legend of the young child going up the mountain to find tigers remains. " It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him." There is a holy saying. However, the fate of a child carrying a heavy load keeps repeating. I sometimes see online videos of well-meaning people visiting children in impoverished areas. Some children are young and carry large bundles of firewood on their shoulders, while some left-behind children in the countryside have cooked and cooked by themselves since they were young and have to take care of their younger brothers and sisters. Their big eyes are embedded in their thin faces with a dazed future and a helpless appearance, I was like seeing my father when he was a child. At this time, I wanted to hug this child so much and tell him my father's story, tell him no matter what your background is, no matter what situation you are in now, your life is unique, it is the most precious and noble, you have infinite possibilities. This is not necessary to have a tiger to prove it.
20/02/2022
Year of Tiger
Brisbane
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