"Chop up a grain of loess, half of it is crying for thirst, and half is crying for hunger", this is the description of the local terroir by a poet of Xihaigu. Ningxia Xihaigu is named after the three counties of Xiji, Haiyuan and Guyuan in history. This place was once "barren in the world", and was designated as one of the twenty-two "most unsuitable areas for human survival" by the United Nations Food Development Program.
Last year's film and television drama "Shan Hai Qing" told the story of this "dry sea and poor village" in the form of images. Xi Haigu's story.

"Mountain and Sea Love"

The author of this book, Ji Dongliang, is an author from Ningxia. He has written "Shangzhuang Ji", "Haiyuan Book" and "Splendid Ji". The most representative events, such as "diaozhuang resettlement", "terraced construction", "salt pond control", "yellow irrigation", "well cellar project", "labor service export", "juncao planting", "tanyang bank", etc.
Recently, the "Xihaigu Notes" seminar was held in Beijing. During the seminar, Ji Dongliang introduced the creation of this book: "I have lived in Xihaigu for more than 30 years, and I know very well the confusion and pain of the villagers in this land, as well as their struggles, pursuits, and dreams. And hope. Although I left this land later, I go to Xihaigu for interviews and research many times almost every year. I have a deep understanding of its poverty alleviation process and accumulated many real and vivid stories. There are stories everywhere. Even everyone has a history of poverty alleviation."
Thanks to 30 years of life experience, the writing of local customs and customs in "Xihaigu Notes" is vivid and delicate. For example, about the local landforms, Ji Dongliang wrote:
Between the mountains and ravines, the road is broken and snaked, just like a scorpion giving birth to a small road, glowing white under the sun, sometimes hidden and sometimes dangerous. Ask for directions and say that you will get there by crossing this ditch and then crossing that beam. After walking so hard, I would breathe a long sigh of relief after hearing this, and I said in my heart that it is finally coming. But the real physical exertion is just beginning. Going over the ditch and crossing the beam is what you have to suffer. It is really common to go up and down the ditch beam for ten or twenty miles. On one side is the downhill of Hang Keng Ganggang. The two legs are like a pestle that is smashing the ground in turn. The shaking is sore and numb, and every step of the body is shaking. Sometimes you have to sit down and slide down. On one side was a twisting uphill, it was really cramping, and every step was panting like an ox, and sometimes I had to crawl on all fours like a donkey and a horse.
Regarding the local salinization caused by water shortage, the author wrote:
The riverbed is covered with a layer of fluffy alkali bubbles like white soap bubbles. Walking over, the shoes are all white, as if a layer of filial cloth. There are no other plants on the riverbed, only Artemisia vulgaris grows, green and lush, with leaves like pine needles, when you pinch off a branch, when the sap sticks to your hands for a little while, it will turn white lumps, extremely astringent and bitter. Sheep animals disdain the green clumps, which is why it thrives. However, Artemisia annua is also useful, it can be caustic soda, and it is excellent for making buns.

Ji Dongliang

A person who has left his hometown returns to his hometown again. Writing in his hometown is a very special experience in writing. He Xiangyang, director of the creative research department of the Chinese Writers Association, believes that Ji Dongliang will summarize the experience of Pengyang, the Caichuan model, ecological immigration, and labor immigration. Observing the details of daily life such as sand control, breeding, and water cellars is a new understanding of the hometown. A person born, raised and raised in his hometown needs to use his own actual observation and walking to update his understanding of the hometown. hometown cognition. Critic Bai Ye believes, "Ji Dongliang also brought his own experience into his writing, creating a sense of presence and a strong contrast."
Critics believe that, as a native of Xihaigu, the authenticity and vividness of Ji Dongliang's personal memory is a major feature of this work. His writing about childhood hunger is very poignant. For example, when he wrote the New Year's offering, the steamed bun had a skin on the outside. , the children secretly eat steamed buns, the folk song has "you have to eat rice with corn, unless your wife is confinement" and so on. Poverty pervades all space in the West Sea like air, covering all necessities of life. The reward Ji Dongliang received for his college entrance examination was a bag of 200 catties of wheat that the team gave him. These scenes were breathtaking.
The critic He Shaojun believes that Ji Dongliang is a "sad but not pessimistic watcher of rural civilization", "Ji Dongliang's writing must fall on the dignity of Xihaigu people and the cultural ritual sense of Xihaigu people. In the past, Xi Haigu's suffering was that no matter how hard he worked, he could not be able to eat enough, and there was no end to this kind of hardship. Therefore, in his early writing, Ji Dongliang had some hatred for poverty, but later he went to the city and met with him. He also feels uncomfortable with the busyness and complexity of the city. He said that the city life is stressful, but he misses the simple life in the countryside before. At this time, he really calmly thinks about the connotation and value of the Xihaigu spirit."
Critic Bai Ye believes that there is an inherently interesting phenomenon in the West Sea—although it is a place of material poverty, it is a fertile ground for literature. "More than ten years ago, when I went from Yinchuan to Guyuan, I couldn't see green, and the dust was flying. But when I arrived in Guyuan, I found that the scale of the meeting that day was very large, and even many people from the taxation bureau, education bureau, and public security bureau came. A local secretary told me that in Guyuan, the matter of literature is everyone’s business and is the most important thing.”
Meng Fanfan mentioned that the relationship between Zhang Chengzhi and Xi Haigu, a famous writer, became a legend. He once said: If Xi Haigu wasn't because of you, how could I have completed the transformation, and if it wasn't because of you, how could I have found a small and innocent place? meaning. "This kind of sincere love and pursuit of land from my heart deeply moved me. The forest coverage rate of Xihaigu was only 3% in the early 1980s, which was almost barren. In 1980, the president of Xinhua News Agency asked reporters to visit During the investigation in the northwest, it was found that Xihaigu’s annual income was only 36 yuan, and 7% of the per capita rations were less than 300 catties, which shows the situation of the local people.”
Rao Xiang, deputy editor-in-chief of the Literary Edition of Guangming Daily, said, "Xi Haigu's literary writing is traditionally a narrative of suffering, which is actually easier to move people's hearts. But to write a happy and joyful change, there is actually a special big challenge."
Xihaigu's "renewal" began in December 1982, when the country launched the "Three Wests" agricultural construction poverty alleviation project, setting a precedent for China's regional overall planned, organized, and large-scale "development-type" poverty alleviation. In 1996, the central government made a strategic plan to promote east-west cooperation. For more than 20 years, the "Minning counterpart poverty alleviation cooperation and assistance group in Ningxia" has taken the initiative to carry out the mission of counterpart poverty alleviation in Ningxia. The "Minning Model" of the paired poverty alleviation cooperation assistance between the east and the west has been developed.
Critic Xu Gang believes that Xihaigu’s poverty alleviation process involves many topics, such as transportation issues, education issues, and financial issues. ."
Liang Hongying, editor-in-chief of "Literary and Art Newspaper", believes that "Xihaigu Notes" shows the depth of the history of poverty alleviation, covers a wide range of regions, and provides a lot of information about Xihaigu's humanities, geography, and customs. At the same time, Liang Hongying believes that the people in the book are all representative. "For example, Ji Dongliang wrote that he met an old man singing flowers on the road. For many years, Huaer sang everyday life in people's memory. People who sing flowers in the new era sing new content. In addition, students who came to teach from Fudan University, people who lost their legs but created new history by planting trees, and those who raised fish, grew mushrooms, and dig wells, These people all radiate new strength. At the same time, the author also writes about some new models in the cause of poverty alleviation. For example, how finance plays a role in the cause of poverty alleviation, such as Tanyang Bank, Poverty Alleviation Fort, etc."
Critic Liu Qiong noted that "Notes on Xihaigu" uses a lot of folk languages, "Ningxia has only two tones, no four tones, so the dialect is difficult to understand, but the author recreates it based on his personal experience, including the Northwest dialect that he likes to use. I like to use 'er', and I like to use 'er' in text creation, so we think it has a very life-like texture." Zhang Li, a professor at the School of Literature at Beijing Normal University, believes, "In addition to the writer's local perspective In addition, what is more important is his understanding and writing of literature. From the author's writing, we cannot feel the gap in the language. The author uses a small perspective to cut into a big theme."