It’s Communism Week at CRP. All this week, we’re learning Chinese through the lens of historical and modern CCP propaganda, speeches, stories, essays and songs.
Quick reminder: To maintain a polite, language learning-focused environment, political comments – positive, negative, or neutral – are not allowed, and will be deleted. Dinner table rules, please.
We’ve really made the rounds on Communist folk tales this week: we’ve had a story about Zhu De, founder of the Red Army, one about socialist boy scout Lei Feng, and now, we’re going to read one about the man himself, Chairman Mao (毛主席). I didn’t start out the week intending to illustrate a point, but a theme has definitely emerged. Taken as a whole, these stories underscore the friendly, paternalistic role that China’s founding fathers were painted into at the time, described in populist stories as approachable, proletarian helpers of the common folk. Today’s tale really drives that one home.
We also get a taste of the exaggeration that often surrounds autocratic leaders. The last bit of the story describes Mao as “tall and stalwart”. Mao Zedong was around 5’8″ (1.72-1.75m), not a short man, but not an exceptionally tall one either.
Some language stuff
The way characters are named in this story is quite Chinese: they’re mostly referred to by their title or place in society. First, the characters: we’ve got Auntie Yang (杨大娘). 大娘 means “wife of father’s elder brother”, but it can also just be used as a polite way to refer to an older woman, and it’s unclear which definition is being used here. We’ve also got Second Brother’s Wife (二婶), and same deal: 婶 means “wife of father’s younger brother”, but can also just be a polite form of address. The thing is, in Chinese societies, especially rural communities, the difference doesn’t really demand clarification.
We’ve also got 代耕队长 dài gēng duì zhǎng. When a farming family doesn’t have enough human labor to cultivate their fields, especially when a farmer has to go away to fight a war during harvest season, a 代耕 is a laborer that farms in their stead. 队, as you probably know means “team” and 长 means “captain” or “leader” or “chief”. So, 代耕队长 is the head of the team helping this family farm their land in the absence of the male head of household (in this case, the eldest son).
And of course, there’s Chairman Mao (毛泽东).
Some other points:
怎么回事? zěn me huí shì – Means “How can that be?” or “What’s going on here?”
下地 xià dì – To go down to the fields (usually to farm).
两竿 liáng gān – 竿 literally means “pole”, like a rod or staff. But it’s also used to describe how far the sun has risen or set. It’s not a standard measurement, it’s more of a generalized measure, so “两竿 from the mountains” means that the sun isn’t very far above the mountains (either rising or setting).
接着 jiē zhe – Means “after that…”, or “And then…”
丢了个眼色 diū le ge yǎn sè – To shoot someone a knowing look, or to give them a wink.
撞个满怀 zhuàng ge mǎn huái – 撞 means to “run into” or “bump up against”, 满 means “full” or “fully”, and 怀, in this case, means “(a person’s) chest”. Altogether, this means to “bump someone full in the chest”, or in better English, to “run smack into someone”.
非…不可 fēi … bù kě – This means “must”, “have no choice but to”, or “to insist on doing”, like “弟弟非要妈妈抱不可“, or “little brother insists on having mother hold him”. This sentence structure underpins a popular Chinese meme about Facebook. The English word “Facebook” sounds a lot like the Chinese phrase 非死不可: “insist on dropping dead”. So, Facebook is sometimes jokingly referred to this way within China.
《水缸的秘密》
杨大娘是红军家属。大儿子参加红军以后，家里少了一个劳动力，里里外外什么事都要她自己操心。
1933年7月的一个傍晚，杨大娘浇完菜园，回家准备挑水做饭。她刚拿起扁担，却发现水缸里的水满满的。大娘奇怪了：前天水缸满，昨天水缸满，今天水缸又满了。这是怎么回事？她问小儿子：“下午你挑水了吗？”
11岁的儿子摇头说：“我没挑。”
杨大娘越想越觉得奇怪，就跑到田头问代耕队长：“我屋里那口水缸，天天都满满的。是你派人给我家挑水了吧？”
“没有啊，”代耕队长也感到奇怪， “真有这样的事？”
正说着，二婶也提着菜蓝子走过来说：“是啊，我屋里的水缸也是干了又会满，不知道是谁在做好事。”
代耕队长笑笑说：“毛主席主张调查研究，你们该去调查调查呀！”
杨大娘和二婶觉得这话有道理，俩人商量了一阵，就各自回家了。
第二天，杨大娘擦桌子、洗衣服，不到下午，满满一缸水就用完了。她故意不去挑，也不下地干活，拿起一双鞋底，坐在门口，和二婶一起纳起鞋底来。她俩四只耳朵听动静，两双眼睛观八方，边做针线活，边搞起“调查”来。
太阳离西山只有两竿高的时候，杨大娘忽然听见屋里的后门响了，接着又听到水桶铁钩碰撞的声音。她俩惊喜地互相丢了个眼色，不约而同地喊了出来：“这回捉到了！”说着站起身就往屋里跑。
杨大娘刚进门，差点跟一个挑着水桶的人撞个满怀。她抬头一看，见这人身材高大魁梧，穿一身红军制服，正冲着她和二婶笑。望着他那双明亮的大眼睛，她觉得很面熟，但是又记不起在什么地方见过。二婶一下就认出来了：“呀，这不是毛主席吗！”
二婶拉着毛主席坐下，杨大娘赶忙端上一碗茶，说：“毛主席，你来这里不久，可处处爱护体贴老百姓，叫我们怎么感谢你呀！”
毛主席喝着茶，和两位红军家属聊起家常来，问她们：生活有没有困难？房子漏雨不漏雨？小孩子在小学的功课好不好？一直谈到天擦黑，毛主席又要去挑水，非要把水缸挑满不可。杨大娘拗不过，只好答应了。
