I and Literature 丨Tan Minjiang: My Hobby Code Word History

My hobby code word history

Tan Min Jiang

Many years ago, there was an older and similar brother who worked hard but had no hobbies, and he was afraid that he would not be accustomed to the precious freedom of time after retirement. I advised him to cultivate and learn a few hobbies in advance to prepare for retirement in advance. I said that I have many hobbies, such as when I retire, in addition to playing small mahjong, I can also travel and go shopping when I have money, and read old books when I don't have money. The code words I say are actually idle stacking words, and to say that they are more elegant, they can also be regarded as noble writing, but because I have never written a famous hall and made a lot of money, I can only count as a part-time code farmer at most.

As the saying goes, three years old looks old. Most people who love to write today and love too much pure affection have a childhood that loves words, just as I miss the noodle millet porridge and corn kernel stewed potato old cucumber rice that I only ate two or three times when I was a child, and I seem to be no exception. My history of codewords can probably start from the official publication of my prose debut at the age of 17, but if you want to trace the origins, you can start from a younger age.

When I was 7 years old, I was supposed to enter the first grade of the brigade elementary school, but because my family was too poor, my parents initially intended to let me continue to stay at home. Because I had studied words with two older brothers and another sister for a few days, I had some yearning for knowledge, so I was a little sad, and my memory and imitation were still reluctant, so I tore off some blank account books when my father was the accountant of the growth team, and I randomly compiled two or three pages of Chinese textbooks, and the first lesson was the only lesson in the self-compiled textbook, which was the first short essay of about fifty or sixty words that I tried to write. Afterwards, my father was very angry and wanted to hit me, but he was reluctant to give up his heavy hand, so he used the technique commonly known as "pear sauce shell bumping", stretched out his bent right hand, and hit my brain shell with his index and middle fingers. The only public teacher in the elementary school knew about this and came to test me, let me skip the grade to read the second grade he taught, and waived the tuition fee of one dollar and eight cents every semester, and also gave a little bonus. Later, because I watched the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "The Second Handshake" brought back by the eldest brother, I had some impulses to imitate code words. Every year, my father generously took out two dimes and seven cents and ordered me a quarterly "China Teenager's Daily"; he bought me books such as "Count Fast" and "Common Idioms and Stories", which I read with relish. Once, the Chinese teacher said that the words published in the newspaper had a fee, two cents a word, and even punctuation was counted as money. I was very excited, and quickly wrote an essay about the oil tung flower in a semi-imitative and semi-original way, asked my mother for a dime, and said that I would receive more than a dozen yuan in a month. My mother was very happy and thought it was a big business. I bought an eight-cent stamp and a penny envelope and sent the essay out. Who knows, left and right, there has been no news, so that every time I meet my mother, I feel that I have done something wrong, and I feel that I am a small big liar.

Since then, I have entered junior high school and have always had a hobby of reading and code words, but I no longer dare to submit articles. At that time, I was only heartbroken by the expensive postage, and I didn't know that some newspaper submissions could just spend a penny and write "postage" and "postage on delivery" on the envelope. After being admitted to shizhu normal school, the course opened no longer had the hardship of junior high school, and he fell in love with the library and also fell in love with the code word submission. Speaking of which, I have always been very inferior to my emotional intelligence, but my emotional intelligence in borrowing books is really very good, and within my field of vision, there seems to be no book that I can't borrow. Whether it is elementary school, junior high school or teacher training, I can establish friendly relations with the female caretaker teachers in the library, the classmates who have books, and the elderly in the village who have books. There are not many books in the primary school library, I only borrowed a few copies of the "Golden Light Avenue" comic strip from the administrator teacher, but I have a good relationship with the male cheng classmates, female Zhang classmates and female Wu classmates who have books in the class (Cheng's father is a full-time cadre, Zhang's father is a tailor outside, Wu lives in the countryside, there are relatives who are high officials, and the countryside is rumored to be the commander of the Long Live Army Wu Jun, the family is richer and willing to invest in books), borrowed a lot of books and comic strips to read Teacher Luo of the junior high school library often lent me the first step of the unregistered new books (such as the "Biography of the Archery Hero" in the current "People's Literature") (such as the "Biography of the Eagle Hero" in the current "People's Literature"), and Teacher Wang was more assured to hand over the library key to me, and the whole school only allowed me to enter the library alone.

Because I did not pay tuition fees when I was studying teacher training, and there were state subsidies for living expenses, and I would be allocated in the future, my parents would give me more pocket money, and I could buy postage at will to submit articles. But I submitted many times, but there was no result, and I received many rejection letters. Soon, the second brother who taught in the primary school supported my literary dream, gave me 15 yuan, participated in the correspondence class held by the Guangzhou Prose and Poetry Newspaper, and remembered that the most famous classmate in the class was Deng Xian, a famous Chengdu artist who taught at a university in Yunnan (remember this name, in addition to his university teacher, but also in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" Liu Zhang's subordinate general also has this name, of course, more importantly, many of his works can now be read), after graduation, published a group of prose poems in the prose poetry newspaper. But this is only an assignment, not a debut work, and the first time I actually published my debut work was on the first anniversary of Mr. Ye Shengtao's death, when I published an essay on the essay special page of the supplement of Tianjin Daily. It is also a bit mysterious to say, because I originally voted for the "Essay" magazine, probably the editor at the time, Mr. Jia Baoquan, felt that it was not suitable for the magazine, but it was suitable for the newspaper, so he recommended it to the teacher Song Shuguang of Tianjin Daily - but I never knew the twists and turns, so after the Language teacher saw the sample letter, he first took it to the school staff to publicize it, but sent his classmates to inform me, I thought it was a scam (I had been deceived once by a classmate with a rejection letter), because I had never submitted an article to Tianjin Daily. What pleased me the most was that just three days later, the manuscript fee was sent, and the small prose that was originally only more than 1500 words was actually given 32 yuan according to 1600 words, and it was indeed two cents a word - and some teachers in the school at that time had a monthly salary of only about 50 yuan.

After graduating from the teacher training, I first taught in primary school, junior high school and vocational high school, then transferred to the administrative department, and now I am back in school. During the leisurely period, although I was naturally inert, liked to play and have fun, and most of the time teaching or administrative work was busy, I never dared to be compared to a toad, and always tried to code words in pieces. To tell the truth, my income from pure text writing is generally only about three or five thousand yuan per year, and at most it is only seven or eight thousand yuan, which is not even as good as the tax rebate income of my literary college classmates who are professional writers. But fortunately, code words really have the fun of code words, it at least let the introverted but not lack of sincerity I got to know many teachers and friends who love literature, so that I was originally a very narrow circle of friends can have the privilege of making friends with many literary friends, sometimes drunk, or sit in front of the computer desk for a long time out of the house to look up at the sky, in a trance, really feel that I am a grassroots successful person with a wide range of social circles.

In the spring of the 17th year, after the payment list of the Tianjin Daily arrived, I went to the old post office opposite the county government to withdraw money, at that time there was no ID card, and I forgot to find the school stamp to prove it, but as soon as I saw that the exchanger was the sister-in-law of my junior high school classmate Gao Handsome, I was very happy to introduce myself, I heard from my parents that her father-in-law's family and my family were acquainted, and then mentioned my father's name and her father-in-law's name, and then to Wanchao Township Pokou Township is a fellow countryman, and then I and her husband's brother are classmates, and said for about three or five minutes. The eldest sister-in-law finally believed me, and only let me show the emblem of the Shizhu Normal School, so she gave me this huge amount of money that was very rich at that time.

In August 2019, I went to Xi'an alone to travel, and I like history and wanted to see Tongguan. But when I asked and asked in a travel agency and looked it up on the Internet, there was no travel agency in Xi'an to open a Tongguan tourism business, so I decided to take the train myself. In order to finish the historical and cultural attractions of Tongguan, I decided to find a local literary teacher. But I was really not familiar with Tongguan, took out my mobile phone and looked over the acquaintances in Xi'an, thinking about it, and only sent a text message to Zhang Jie, vice chairman of the Shaanxi Writers Association, who had a relationship in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in July 2012, and briefly talked about her ideas. ——I am such an introvert, when asking for someone to do things, I always dare not call in person, just text messages, if the other party is embarrassed or unwilling, it can be regarded as not seeing the text message. However, after about ten o'clock in the evening, Sister Zhang sent a message saying that she had just been out for a meeting and office, and only after returning home did she see my text message, and she had already contacted everything through Chairman Li of the Weinan Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature, who was also the vice chairman of the Provincial Writers Association, and asked me to call Chairman Li Hongdi of the Tongguan County Literary Association directly.

The next morning, I took the bus to Tongguan. Chairman Li invited me to lunch, and then drove the borrowed car to take me to the Sizhi Hall, the ruins of the Three Kingdoms Horse Super War Xu Chu, the Fengling Ancient Ferry, the Tongguan Old Town and the Tongguan Museum. The full afternoon tour was enjoyable and tight, which gave me a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the history and current situation of Tongguan.

After so many years of code words, I feel that code words are the most eye-catching embellishment in my life, the only garden that shows the meaning of my life, and one of my many ways of leisure. I know that I am talented and mediocre, and there is no tenacity and perseverance, the code is not the Great Wall, just a small pavilion wall, can be described as half a day of fishing six and a half days of drying nets, spiritual harvest and material harvest are not worth mentioning - like historical geography and culture, strong imitation of me, more material harvest and spiritual harvest in helping people to ghostwrite or write film and television scripts, project planning, literature and history books, news and communications. But I like the fun of writing pure literature, especially the feeling of blowing god with many literary teachers and friends, and I am also intoxicated by the sincere encouragement and deep love of some literary teachers and leaders.

For this reason, I still love words, love code words, and love this very beautiful life. At least, after retirement, when I have realized the freedom of time again, I don't have to learn to dance the dam dance when I am lonely and bored - I think that the dam in the small city is relatively small, the dam on the computer should be far wider than the sky overhead, and the beauty of the dance of the text is certainly not worse than all the middle-aged and elderly men and women with beautiful waists.

(The author is a member of Chongqing Writers Association)