Guide local culture: picking mung beans in cotton fields in Pingxiang, Jiangxi Province

I have a foreign friend who is very interested in Pingxiang dialect. One day, he asked me such an interesting question: "Picking up mung beans in cotton fields-picking up (reading) some notes (sentences)" This is a dialect allegorical saying that has been circulating among Pingxiang people for a long time and is frequently used in daily life. For this two-part allegorical saying, he said there are "three puzzles":

First, in the chapter of "cash crops" listed in "Agriculture" in Pingxiang City Records, there are special written records of "sericulture" and "hemp" without "cotton". Did Pingxiang calendar finally plant cotton?

Secondly, if cotton has been planted, why should it be mixed with mung beans in the same soil?

Third, why not pick mung beans?

To this end, I did some "textual research" and thinking to answer the question raised by this friend.

As a friend said, Pingxiang City Records did not set up a separate item for cotton in the "cash crops", but I still found a few words about "planting cotton" in the introduction of relevant chapters such as "textile industry", which may be omitted because of its small scale. In addition, according to genealogy and other local documents, Pingxiang calendar has tried to grow cotton many times.

In the late Western Jin, Tang and Song Dynasties, due to frequent wars, residents of the Central Plains moved south several times. Pingxiang, located at the tail of Wutou Chuwei, has excellent geographical and climatic conditions, so it has become a new residence for immigrants, and "natives" call it "Hakka". These "Hakkas" introduced improved cotton varieties and cultivation techniques from the Central Plains to Pingxiang, but they soon found that they were "acclimatized".

According to the investigation, Pingxiang belongs to the subtropical humid monsoon climate zone, which basically conforms to the growth habit of cotton, but the natural soil type is mainly zonal red soil, accounting for more than 95% of the total soil in mountainous areas (yellow soil and brown red soil account for about 15% of red soil), mainly containing acidic crystalline rocks and carbonates. Pingxiang has a large population and little land, and the mature "paddy soil" is very limited. It is impossible to grow cotton instead of rice. After all, "food is the most important thing for people", and this kind of "paddy soil" is "sticky", and cotton is most suitable for neutral or slightly alkaline sandy soil.

In order to improve the soil, Pingxiang ancestors took some measures, such as mixing sand and applying organic fertilizer. However, under the geographical and climatic conditions in Pingxiang, cotton is particularly "disaster-stricken". However, due to the lack of effective pesticides and technologies, they are unable to control cotton aphids, but they have not given up, so they have come up with a helpless "countermeasure".

What is "interplanting"? That is, using the differences of the respective characteristics and harvest seasons of different crops on the same land, reasonable planting between rows or borders is adopted. Then why did you choose mung beans? The ancestors really spent a lot of brains on this. It is said that the ancestors thought that since taking mung beans can "kill insects and detoxify", it may also receive the same effect as cotton interplanting. Obviously, this is an unscientific and naive move. Mung beans generally mature around June of the lunar calendar, and pods (commonly known as paper strips) turn from green to black. Mature pods will naturally fall off from plants, and pods will often "jump out"; Cotton is harvested in autumn. When picking cotton, scattered pods and beans can be picked under mung bean plants. Because mung beans and cotton are mostly the same variety on the soil slope with less water and fertilizer, the harvest in Chengdu is not good and the cotton is small and small. Mung beans can only be picked sporadically and kept for frying as fruit during the Chinese New Year.

In the old society, ordinary people's requirements for life were very low, which was nothing more than "food and clothing". Because cotton is not easy to grow, we tried to grow mulberry trees, and the result was successful. Liu Kezhuang wrote a poem in Song Dynasty, which truly described the situation of planting mulberry, raising silkworms and weaving silk in Pingxiang. The poem says:

It is said that in Pingxiang County, every family has a silk loom.

Silk is expensive in famine years, so I dare not talk about cold clothes.

After all, silk is scarce and expensive, and ordinary people can't afford it. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, "shed people" in Fujian, Guangdong and other places planted ramie and jute in large quantities, hence the place name of "Mashan". Hemp fabric, commonly known as "summer cloth", has an annual output of thousands of horses in the county. In the late Qing Dynasty, with the development of Pingxiang Coal Mine by Hanyeping Company, the opening of Zhuping Railway, and the convenience of waterway transportation in Pingchuan and Yuanshui, Pingxiang purchased a large number of raw cotton from Hunan, Hubei and Zhejiang. Processing into sliver first, then spinning. At that time, farmers in Futian, Chishan, Gaokeng, Feng Xuan, Luxi and other places bought a large number of hand-operated low-wood looms. After a few years, in order to improve production efficiency, they all changed to overhead wood looms, and the printing and dyeing industry also developed rapidly. There are hundreds in the county, and Pingxiang's weaving industry has flourished since then.

After listening to my "long speech", my friend smiled: "At first, I said that I had three difficulties in understanding this two-part allegorical saying. Through your textual research, I not only found out its origin, but also felt that it had extraordinary connotation, which made me admire Pingxiang ancestors three times.

First of all, Pingxiang people are hardworking, brave, enlightened and self-reliant. For example, planting cotton can be said to be indomitable, and it has been defeated and fought repeatedly. Whether it is to improve the soil or to control pests and diseases, it can be said that it is painstaking and leaves no stone unturned. Intercropping mung beans now looks ridiculous and sad, but I have to admire them for daring to think and do. Don't judge heroes by success or failure!

Secondly, be good at fostering strengths and avoiding weaknesses and keep pace with the times. If cotton planting fails, you can try to plant Sang Ma; Once the economy develops and the transportation is convenient, we will buy a lot of raw cotton from other places and process it ourselves. Through continuous improvement of technology, spinning, weaving, printing and dyeing, and sales will be realized, and the scale will be gradually formed, and the products will be quickly pushed to the domestic and foreign markets. How far-sighted!

The last point, which I admire most, is that Pingxiang ancestors were open-minded and laughed off setbacks; Learn the lesson and pass it on to future generations.