Shout

Author: Lu Xun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: "You can rest for a couple of days and pay a visit to your relatives and family. Then we can leave." said my mother. "Yes." "There's also Sun Tzu. Every time he comes to my house, he always asks about you and really wants to see you once. I've informed him about your approximate arrival date, and he might come soon." At that moment, a strange picture suddenly flashed in my mind: a bright yellow full moon hanging in the deep blue sky, below which was a sandy beach planted with endless green watermelons. Among them was a boy of eleven or twelve, wearing a silver ring around his neck and holding a steel spear, trying to pierce a rabbit. But the rabbit twisted its body and escaped from under his legs. That boy was Sun Tzu. I knew him when I was also just a teenager, about thirty years ago from now; back then, my father was still alive, and our family was doing well, and I was a young master. That year, our family was responsible for a major sacrifice. This sacrifice was said to occur only once every thirty years, so it was taken very seriously. During the first month of the lunar calendar, we offered ancestral portraits, with many offerings, elaborate sacrificial vessels, and many people participating. It was also important to prevent the sacrificial vessels from being stolen. Our family had only one busy month worker (in our area, people who worked for others are divided into three types: long-term workers who work for a certain family all year round, daily workers, and those who farm their own land and only work for certain families during festivals, holidays, and harvest times). He couldn't handle it alone, so he told my father that he could bring his son Sun Tzu to manage the sacrificial vessels. My father agreed, and I was very happy because I had heard the name Sun Tzu before and knew that he was the same age as me, born in the intercalary month, and lacking earth in his five elements, so his father named him Sun Tzu. He was skilled at setting snares and catching small birds. So I looked forward to the New Year every day. When the New Year arrived, Sun Tzu also arrived. After much anticipation, the end of the year finally came. One day, my mother told me that Sun Tzu had come, and I ran to see him immediately. He was in the kitchen at the time, with a purple round face, wearing a small felt hat and a shiny silver neck ring, which showed that his father loved him very much and feared he would die, so he had made a vow in front of gods and Buddhas, using the ring to keep him safe. He was very shy with others but not with me, so when there were no other people around, he would talk to me, and soon we became familiar. We didn't know what to talk about back then, but we remember that Sun Tzu was very happy, saying that after coming to the city, he had seen many things he had never seen before. The next day, I asked him to catch birds. He said, "This can't be done. It's better to wait for heavy snow. When it snows on our sandy beach, I sweep out an empty space, set up a large bamboo basket with a short stick, scatter some broken grain, and when the birds come to eat, I pull the rope tied to the stick from far away, and the birds are trapped in the basket. There are all kinds of them: rice hens, horned chickens, partridges, and blue-backed birds."