Jialing River Boatman's Call of Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage

Jialing River is a tributary of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, named after the Jialing Valley in the northeast of Fengxian County, Shaanxi Province. In the past, the transportation was underdeveloped, and the important tasks of transportation and logistics in the entire Jialing River Basin were mainly performed by wooden boats in the river. Every household's oil, salt, firewood, rice, sauce, vinegar, tea, hoe, pole barrel, and rake all depend on the trackers' hard work day after day. The trackers bent their bodies, carrying the ropes, and staggering forward, wading through the mountains and rivers unimpeded, like a cow or horse, experiencing the unbearable hardship and bitterness of others, and facing dangers unimaginable by ordinary people. And challenge.


The upper reaches of the Jialing River is Guangyuan, and the lower reaches of Chongqing. When the water is on the water, the boatman is mainly used to pull the fiber on the shore, and the boatman uses the radius to push it down. It is dangerous to enter or enter the water. Therefore, as the saying goes: "Sheung Shui is most afraid of boats hitting Zhang, and going down is afraid of "bending water"." There are hundreds of dangerous beaches on the Jialing River. Each beach is more than one kilometer in length. From the upstream outlet of the beach, the current is turbulent and turbulent. There is a clear boundary between the flowing water in the center of the river and the sparse currents on both sides. The center of the river is higher than the sparse currents, forming a huge backwater. Here, sailing in the backwater of sparse current, if you want to rush out of the beach mouth, the bow of the ship must be plunged into the rapids, and then the whole ship will follow up, so that it can exit the beach. At the time when life and death were decisive, the tracker desperately tried his best, and the urgent water chants shook the sky: "Guys, hey, hey, climb the shoal, hey hey, hey, hey hey, the ghost gate is closed, hey hey Hey, hey, hey, hey, so I can get the money, hey hey, mother-in-law baby, hey hey, look at home, hey hey..." The sound is sonorous, every word of anxiety, Wake up the wildness of the boatmen and stimulate their potential.


At this time, the captain is required to be very precise in the timing, otherwise, "the ship is on the beach and the rudder is in a thin current", the beach water hits the bow of the ship outwards, and the backwater flushes against the stern. In an instant, the hull rotated ninety degrees and lay down in the river, and then quickly descended like a wild horse, while the other end of the vine was tightly tied to dozens of lives on the shore. The huge downward inertia of the wooden boat will drag the tracker down the cliff and into the river like lightning. This is the "strike" that the tracker talks about. Whenever at this moment, the captain will scream: "Get off!" Time is life, and the tracker will immediately throw away the plank on his shoulders. If it is too late, the captain will immediately cut off the axe and let the ship go. The river drifts with the flow, resigning to fate.

is more dangerous when entering the water. Just as the nursery rhyme on the shore sings: "The ship of the green steel tree, the rudder of the boxwood tree, load up when you go up, and break when you come down." From Guangyuan to Chongqing, the most dangerous beaches are For Shiyazi and Diaoyazi, due to the geography of the river bed, the tail water turns sharply when meeting the cliff, and the bison-like river water will not turn with the bend, and the ship will fly into the cliff and the bone will be broken in an instant. This situation is called " Bend the water". At this moment, changing the direction and speed of the ship is the key, because the speed of the ship must be faster than the speed of the water, otherwise the rudder will fail. At this time of life and death, the captain is required to seize the opportunity, and with the cooperation of the co-pilot’s fore-saw, use a mast (used to turn the tip to assist in sharp turns) on the bow of the ship, full rudder to turn in advance, and the boatmen struggled to paddle. , So that the ship produces the greatest walking force, the faster the ship, the more flexible the rudder, quickly get rid of the rolling water, and sail to the opposite bank at an angle greater than 45 degrees. If the angle is too small at this time, it will not be able to get rid of the direction of the water flow, and if the angle is too large, it will hit the opposite beach. Whenever the crisis turned into safety, the boatmen were already exhausted and leaned on the ground.


However, if the current is gentle, it is the most relaxing time for the boatmen. The boatmen release the water from time to time, sometimes rowing, and the cargo ship is fully loaded down the river. At this moment, the driver’s commander was standing on the water-seeing board and shouting the slogan of leisure and comfort: "The breeze is blowing cool and leisurely, join hands to push the boat down to Fuzhou, and the rich sit at home, but the poor are worried and sad. The boat is bitter, walking the pier in the wind and rain, and a few gossips are scattered with the wind, and the Guanyin Beach is in front..." This kind of chant has a relaxed and relaxed rhythm, beautiful and smooth melody, very sweet and intoxicating.