第九章 海岸
Chapter 9: The Coast

【平海古城】最平静的海
【Pinghai Ancient City】The calmest sea

一

我的人生底色是湛蓝的，是丽日下的大海，澄碧如洗的天空。
The background color of my life is blue, the sea under the beautiful sun, and the clear blue sky.

沈从文说：“我的情感流动而不凝固，一派清波的影响实在不小。”我心有戚戚，少年时期较美丽的生活，大都不能和平海分离。
Shen Congwen said: "My emotions flow but do not solidify, and the influence of a clear wave is really not small. "I have relatives in my heart, and most of the more beautiful lives in my youth cannot be separated from the peace sea.

平海是一个三面环海的小城，在惠州的东南端。面临南海，东靠红海湾，西倚大亚湾。两道海湾如背向的两弯新月，透蓝的海，晶莹洁白沙滩，款款蜿蜒，星星点点的渔舟。我常想，世上不会再有这样美的海。两道海滩，恰如佳人，燕瘦环肥。西边的沙滩细幼，遍布着螺贝，海浪轻柔，风起时，像揉皱的轻纱，从海岸线向外走200米，海水也没不过胸。东边则截然不同，海浪澎湃，一道山崖横切入海，白浪激湍。山顶有一个古老的炮台，已经六百多年——它昭示着平海曾是一座海防古城。另有一道狭长的海湾分割开半岛，海水平静，形成天然的避风港——这是造物者的厚爱。
Pinghai is a small city surrounded by the sea on three sides, at the southeastern tip of Huizhou. Facing the South China Sea, it is bordered by Red Bay to the east and Daya Bay to the west. The two bays are like two crescents facing back, the blue sea, the crystal white sand, the winding, dotted fishing boats. I often think that there will never be such a beautiful sea in the world. Two beaches, just like a beauty, Yan thin ring fat. The beach in the west is small, covered with snails, and the waves are gentle, and when the wind rises, it looks like a crumpled veil, and the sea is not too much to walk 200 meters from the coastline. To the east, the waves are surging, a cliff cuts into the sea, and the white waves are turbulent. There is an old fort on the top of the hill, which is more than 600 years old – it shows that Binh Hai was once an ancient city of Haiphong. There is also a long and narrow bay that divides the peninsula, and the waters are calm, creating a natural haven – a treasure trove of the Creator.

30年前的一个晚上，东门村的父亲斜穿过古城，娶了北门村的母亲。与别处不同，平海的婚礼都在晚上举行。一过半夜12点，迎亲队伍就出发了。一行人中有好命婆，提气灯的，放鞭炮的，提录音机的，推自行车的，还有凑热闹的，浩浩荡荡向新娘家奔去。一路上爆竹阵阵，音乐声大得恨不得把天震下来。接到新娘子后，又是一路喧哗。凡有人娶亲，莫不是弄得古城鸡飞狗跳的。
One night 30 years ago, Dongmen Village's father crossed the ancient city diagonally and married Beimen Village's mother. Unlike other places, weddings in Pinghai are held at night. As soon as it was 12 o'clock in the middle of the night, the greeting team set off. Among the people in the group, there were good women, people who carried gas lanterns, people who set off firecrackers, people who carried tape recorders, people who pushed bicycles, and those who joined in the fun, and ran towards the bride's house. Along the way, there were bursts of firecrackers, and the music was so loud that I wanted to shake the sky down. After receiving the bride, it was noisy all the way. Anyone who marries is not a family member who makes the ancient city jump around.

听母亲讲，原来古城人迎亲在白天，仪式非常隆重。迎娶队伍前面两个人各提一个红灯笼，紧跟着一个民乐队，有唢呐、笛子等，后面有人抬着八抬大轿。新中国成立初期，一位外地官员前来任职，见其过于隆重，认为是宣传封建迷信，要求移风易俗，平海人便偷偷把迎亲改到半夜。
Listening to my mother, it turned out that the people of the ancient city welcomed their relatives during the day, and the ceremony was very grand. The two people in front of the wedding team each carried a red lantern, followed by a folk band, with suona, flute, etc., and someone behind them carried eight sedan chairs. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, a foreign official came to take up his post, and when he saw that it was too grand, he thought that it was to propagate feudal superstition and demanded a change of customs.

我们家世世代代居住在古城的东门村南横巷，狭窄的麻条石板路悠长深邃，夏日午后寂静非常，墙头的素馨花开得热烈，抬头看是明净如洗的天空。东大街有杨氏祖屋，雕梁画栋、气势恢宏，六百多年依然坚固。童年的时候，我们常常坐在城楼下的石条上乘凉，光滑幽凉，穿堂风阵阵吹袭，将一身臭汗收拾干净。
Our family has lived in the south alley of Dongmen Village in the ancient city for generations, the narrow hemp stone road is long and deep, the summer afternoon is very quiet, the frangipani flowers on the wall are blooming warmly, and looking up is the clear sky. There is the ancestral house of the Yang family on East Street, which is carved and painted, magnificent, and is still strong for more than 600 years. When we were children, we used to sit on the stone bars under the city tower to enjoy the shade, smooth and cool, and the wind blew through the hall to clean up the stinky sweat.

那时候，爷爷身子骨还算硬朗，常跟我们讲平海历史。元末明初，大亚湾、红海湾一带倭患连年，盗寇猖獗，民不聊生。洪武年间，明太祖朱元璋派花都司到惠州府归善县平海建造城池，以抵御外侮。在此之前，这里只是一片盐碱荒滩，鲜有人迹。
At that time, my grandfather was quite strong and often told us about the history of Pinghai. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Daya Bay and Red Bay were plagued for many years, robberies were rampant, and the people were struggling to make a living. During the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, sent Huadu Division to Pinghai, Guishan County, Huizhou Prefecture, to build a city to resist foreign aggression. Before that, it was just a saline desert and few people touched it.

花都司原名花茂，他带来建城的先锋有杨、汤、吕、原四姓的家族。然而，花都司在建城完工之后就回朝廷复命，从此没有踏足平海。我的祖先们却留了下来，抵抗外侮，也苦心经营自己的新家园。我伏在爷爷膝下静静地听着，略带腥味的风，送来渔港的气息，朗月孤悬，心里油然升起一种不可名状的哀愁。
Huadu Division's original name was Hua Mao, and the pioneers he brought to build the city were Yang, Tang, Lu, and Yuan's four families. However, after the completion of the construction of the city, Huadu Si returned to the imperial court to resume his life, and never set foot in Pinghai since. My ancestors stayed behind to resist foreign aggression and to work hard to run their new homeland. I knelt down on my grandfather's knees and listened quietly, the slightly fishy wind, the breath of the fishing port, the moon hung alone, and an indescribable sorrow rose in my heart.

平海的孩子，都是将军的后代。
Pinghai's children are all descendants of generals.

和中原城池的庄严、方正不一样，平海的城墙是流畅的弧形，串起四座城池，俯瞰俨然一口洪钟，有木铎警世之意，所以平海别名钟城。
Different from the solemnity and squareness of the Central Plains city, the city wall of Pinghai is a smooth arc, stringing up four cities, overlooking a flood bell, there is the meaning of Mu Duo warning the world, so Pinghai is also known as Zhongcheng.

建城池的将军们，希望城池固若金汤，永世太平。然而，几百年过去了，平海的海防作用早没有了。世异时移，城墙已经拆去，鹅卵石铺就的十字街也变成了水泥路，听说东门城楼里的那口古钟，也被人当破烂卖了。
The generals who built the city hoped that the city would be solid and peaceful forever. However, hundreds of years have passed, and the coastal defense role of Pinghai has long been gone. With the passage of time, the city wall has been demolished, and the cobblestone-paved cross street has become a concrete road.

我们常常与变迁、无常之感为伴，有时候，又惊异于一些事物的牢固——在母亲的怀里，咿呀学来的母语。不管走到哪里，它会一再地提醒我故乡之所在，根之所在。守城的军人是最早定居于此的人，他们以明初南方流行的“通语”——南方官话作为交际用语。在漫长的岁月里，官话融合了当地的粤语、客家话、闽南话的成分，便形成了今天的平海军声。
We are often accompanied by a sense of change, impermanence, and sometimes, we are amazed at the solidity of something – the mother tongue we learned in our mother's arms. Wherever I go, it reminds me again and again of where my hometown is, where my roots are. The soldiers who defended the city were the first to settle here, and they used the "common language" popular in the south in the early Ming Dynasty, the southern official dialect, as a communicative language. Over the years, Mandarin has blended the elements of local Cantonese, Hakka, and Hokkien dialects to form today's Pinghai Dialect.