Yan Lianke - The Four Books

Three months later, the situation became even more dire. With the arrival of winter, everyone’s stockpiles of rice and flour were gone, and instead everyone was issued some unrefined grain or cornmeal.

There wasn’t enough to eat, and as a result the land was swept by famine.

The higher-ups ordered that, in order to conserve grain, everyone should spend the winter indoors without moving, like cats, eating only one meal a day, consisting of a two- liang black bun and a bowl of cornmeal broth. They quickly reached the point where they had to lean against the wall when they tried to walk. Everyone’s faces and legs became swollen from hunger. When the winter sun came out, their swollen faces and legs glistened in the sunlight. Once when everyone was outside warming their swollen bodies in the sunlight, the Child walked over. His face was not swollen, though his eyes were somewhat sunken and he had a greenish complexion. “The higher-ups have notified me,” he said, “that beginning next month, everyone’s grain ration will be cut to two liang a day. I will be in charge of distributing the grain, and the canteen will be disbanded. You must come up with a way to cook your own food.” Everyone was warming themselves in the sun, with blank expressions. The Scholar had not come out to sun himself, but rather he had managed to find a map somewhere. The map was as large as two books, and was colored in red, green, and yellow. He stared intently at it for a long time, then approached the Child and said, “Tell everyone the truth — Is the famine limited to this area around the Yellow River, or does it extend to the entire province, or even the entire nation?”

The Child shook his head and replied, “The higher-ups say that if people are starving, they should stay where they are, and should not try to move elsewhere. If they try to move, they will be committing a crime.”

The Theologian, the Author, and several others all crowded around. They hadn’t seen the Child for several days, and assumed that he had attended a meeting with the higher-ups, where he must have learned many things.

They asked, “How large was the area affected by the flood, and how large is the area affected by the drought?”

The Child shook his head.

“All you need to know is how many provinces were smelting steel last winter.” The Child added, “The entire country was smelting steel. There wasn’t anyone who wasn’t smelting. It is said that there was even a steel-smelting furnace in Zhongnanhai.”

The Scholar rolled up the map he was holding and said, “The world has been turned upside down by this steel smelting, and this has happened on a nationwide scale. It took the strength of the whole nation. In the process of smelting steel, people have chopped down all the trees in all of the mountains, along the rivers, and in all of the villages. There is nowhere that trees have been chopped down that has not suffered either flooding or drought. And of the areas that suffered flooding or drought, there is not one that has not subsequently suffered from famine. Everyone receives two liang of grain a day, but by winter it is quite possible that we won’t even receive that much. No one cares any longer whether we live or die. Everyone receives two liang of grain a day, and it is up to them to figure out how to eat.” As the Scholar was speaking, he gazed out at the crowd, but none of them believed him. Instead, they all believed the Child. They all turned back to the Child, and saw that he had somehow grown taller, and now had some fuzz on his upper lip. He hair was also long and straggly, like a youngster who had fled hardship and returned. They saw the Child cast his gaze over them.

“Go dig some wild roots,” he said. “In the past, when we’ve gone hungry we’ve always relied on wild roots to make it through the winter.”

So it came to pass.

This is how things came to pass. And then they fell apart.

Everyone hid in their rooms and refused to come out. They wouldn’t work the fields, or do anything else. Instead, they mostly lay in bed, conserving their strength. The canteen was closed, so everyone went to see the Child to claim their grain rations, and then cooked their own food. Some people shared a pot, while others cooked in their own porcelain bowls or used their porcelain teeth-brushing cup. It was not clear where they all obtained these porcelain cups and bowls.

It had already been a long time since anyone brushed their teeth, but there was nothing they could do about it.

Nor had anyone washed their clothes, but there was nothing they could do about that, either.

They hadn’t washed their feet or socks for the entire winter, but there was nothing they could do about it.

When the sun came out, a ravenous horde emerged from the buildings and they went to the fields to look for wild vegetables. At any rate, they were still alive. Some people ate one meal a day, while others ate only one meal every two days. They picked some wild vegetables, then placed their cup or bowl on the stone, lit a fire, poured a little water, washed the wild roots they had just dug up, and placed them inside, then boiled them and ate them.

No one died.

This is how they survived the winter.

But that winter, everyone found the cold even harder to deal with than hunger. All of the trees had been chopped down to provide fuel for the steel-smelting furnaces, to the point that there wasn’t any kindling left with which to cook food. So they burned sticks and wild grass. It was also bitter cold that winter, but no one dared light a fire for warmth. Instead they stored the kindling they collected under their bed. Some people even placed it at the foot of their bed, so that they could keep warm while sleeping. No one knew where others had hidden the grain they had been issued, the same way they didn’t know where they had hidden their red blossoms and red stars.

One day followed another.

Occasionally the people living in the first row of buildings would see those in the back, and they would point in surprise, saying, “Hey, your complexion looks rather sallow. Don’t hide the grain you’ve been issued without eating it.” Those in the back row would then point at those in the front and say, “You’re the one who has been hiding grain without eating it. Look at your ankles. If you weren’t hiding your food, do you think your ankles could have gotten so swollen?” But no one starved to death. This was a tremendous accomplishment. Some people went to dig roots and pick wild vegetables. They saw that in other Re-Ed districts and other villages there were people who starved to death, and they would be placed onto a wooden door and buried in a shallow grave, whereupon their bodies would be eaten by wolves and wild dogs.

In the ninety-ninth, no one died. This was indeed a tremendous accomplishment.

But among the higher-ups, there were some who said that the country’s problems were due to the fact that foreigners — which is to say, Westerners — had grabbed China by the throat. The Chinese should hate those foreigners — those blond, blue-eyed, big-nosed foreigners. This is all because China experienced hardship and, as a result, made it through hard times by tightening their belts. In the Re-Ed district, where they previously received two liang a day, now they received only one. The Child was in charge of grain distributions, and each week he would issue one teeth-brushing cup full of sweet potato flour, which is to say, about six or seven liang , per person. With this, everyone could have a liang each day, and no one would starve to death. They wouldn’t starve, though it remained extremely difficult for them to survive.

The weather was extraordinarily cold, and even inside it felt like a wasteland. The wind would cut straight to people’s bones, and into their hearts. Cold and hungry, some people came out to see the dark sky. The sky was full of clouds, making it bitterly cold, and everyone put on all of their clothes. Some people even draped a sheet over their shoulders and wore it wherever they went. It was so cold, some people didn’t even expect to survive to the next day. One person figured that if he was going to die tomorrow, he wasn’t willing to endure such extreme hunger and cold today — and therefore took his cup of sweet potato flour to an area that was sheltered from the wind and cooked it all at once. He cooked it into a paste and ate it, scraping the bowl with his fingers and licking it clean. Afterward, he felt warmer, but when everyone else was cooking their food the next day, he could only watch. In tears, he pleaded, “Professor, can you give me a bite?” The professor looked at him, then turned away without saying anything, as though he hadn’t heard him, and he continued wolfing down his own food, seemingly afraid that the man would try to grab his bowl from him.