This was a long river, running out of the county town upstream, all the way flowing and dribbling slowly. No one knew how many bays it had turned round and

    how many branches it had come through. The river gurgled into Xianghe Village. Further down, with a sudden bending, the current became a little more rapid, pouring into a large reed marsh. After that, the water got much greener and more leisurely.

    What a large reed marsh!

    All you could see were reeds, a large area of dark green reeds, spreading to the horizon, without edges or borders. Wide reed leaves were swaying in the breeze making rustling sounds. Little birds were flying up and down on the leaves. Some were known, others unknown. A crowd here, a flock there, chasing and running after each other, chirping, which made a music pleasing to the ear. From time to time, a few swallows flew over the water and stopped on the shoal by the reeds, pecked some new mud, then flew to the roof beams of a house, started working hard to build their own nest.

    There were many water lettuces and philoxeroides in the reeds. The green leaves were floating on the water, quite compatible with the dark greenness of the reeds. Once in a while, a few red dragonflies and gray dragonflies flew around. After they got tired, they stopped on the water lettuces for a break. More water lettuces, more grass grew in the water. So the water in the reed marsh became fertile. Thus, more wild fish and shrimps grew in the water. More and more wild chickens and ducks. They were very similar in appearances to domestic chickens and ducks. But there were some differences. The tail feather of a wild chicken was longer than that of a domestic one, the cockscomb was redder. The body of a wild duck was usually much smaller than that of a domestic one, with more glossy feathers. A male wild duck had bright green hair on the head, blue spots on both wings. A wild duck was good at flying and swimming. When you traveled up in a boat along the reed marsh, you could often see wild ducks flying with both wings and both legs, which left long waves ion the marsh, looking very elegant.

    With so many fish and shrimps, people often came to catch them with baskets and junkets, in leather trousers and jackets. With so many wild chickens and ducks people often came to hunt. There was nothing special to say about fish catchers, but lots to talk about wild duck and chicken hunters. After entering the reeds,  they would first cry out to call wild ducks and chickens to fly over to the water or come out of the reeds,  then they would shoot. The boat that hunters used was very small with both sharp ends,  and long narrow body. The boat would turn over when they got on it if they were not good at rowing it…… However those hunters would not. They could not only sit in the boat,  but also put a few long hunting guns in it, a hunting dog with long tongues. Now you could see some tips. Long and narrow body of the boat was compatible with long hunting guns. Two sharp ends went without any obstruction and turned round easily. Sure it’s faster and better to row a boat when hunting for wild ducks and chickens. They might carelessly fallin a blind ditch when traveling in the reeds. But those hunters would not pay much attention to it. They just turned around, changed the direction of the boat and rowed out of the ditch. Although the body of the boat was very long, the paddles in it were very short and small. When rowing, the small boat looked like flying on the water.

    To hunt wild ducks and chickens, some people went alone with a boat; others took joint action, hunting like drawing a net, surrounding the entire reed marsh. This often took place in the evening. During the day a few hunters made sure where the wild ducks and chickens stayed and gathered. Only one gun wouldn’t work. In their jargon, it’s easy to frighten all of them. So they had better unite. With guns on all sides, it’s difficult for them to fly away. The most important thing for a hunter was not the gun, or the boat, or the hunting dog, it’s the “spy/undercover duck”. This “spy duck” was wild and very smart. After let go by the master, the “spy duck” flew all over the reed marsh, looking for the flock of wild ducks, then stopped and secretly directed the flock going towards the fire range of the master, or cried out a few times, giving a message to its master. The moment the master fired, the “Spy duck” fell down immediately, pretending to be dead. Otherwise, it might be shot to death by the gun. This was the unique skills of the “spy duck”. Sure there might be occasions when the huntershot the “spy duck” by mistake, which was really a bad thing. It took 3 to 4 years to regulate and tame a baby wild duck into an excellent “spy duck”, sometimes it’s not even useful……

    There were many more valuable things in the reeds, rather than wild ducks and chickens. All of them were valuable, no matter they flew in the reeds, or swam in the water or grew in the marsh. Only to speak of the reed leaves, they were always hot goods at the market on every Dragon Boat Festival. No wonder there was a pleasant name for this reed marsh called Coal Gold Reed Marsh.

    Thus the section of the river which flew through the Xianghe Village was called The River of Xianghe.

    The river was not wide, five or six farming boats could travel together side by side. The willows on both sides were dense. Slender willows fell down, caressing the wind and sprinkling the water. The River swing up circle of circle of ripples. The water chestnuts with four petals of white flowers spread on the river, which fluctuated with microwaves, looking very gentle.

    Maybe because of rich and beautiful water in the river, water chestnuts were growing incredibly well. Crowded, large areas of them, The river, a few feet wide, left only a path for boats. After white flowers fell, the tender hair claw rhombus grew out. The water chestnuts in the River area were single/unitary, most of them were Tetragonal diamond. The local people called them “Sparrow water chestnuts” . Why? It’s not clear. You couldn’t make it so definitely. Sometimes there were water chestnuts with two horns, red, looking very beautiful. For those wild monkey water chestnuts with skinny and old horns did not appeal to people. The worst thing of them was their sharp horns, easy to harm the mouth. Often some hungry children hurt their mouth bleeding when eating those wild monkey water chestnuts. They were tough.

    People in this area planted water chestnuts. But they called them “scattering water chestnuts”. They prepared the seeds in the previous year, tied up and wrapped the seeds, buried them in the ridges between fields facing the sun for a whole winter. Dug them out in early spring, then scattered them in the river. This process of scattering was called “Scattering water chestnuts”. On both sides of this scattered area, two earth mounds must be built up, painted with lime powder. When people in the boat saw the white earth mounds, they realize this area was scattered with water chestnut seeds. So they didn’t dig mud and sand there.

    Turning over water chestnuts was a very skilful job. People had to be bold and smart. It was usually done by women. Imagine those watery chestnuts were more suitable for women. Women in the area were very skilled at turning over water chestnuts. A small wooden boat, with long and narrow deck in the front cabin, like wings of a plane, reaching out to both sides. The women squatted on the deck like black ducks. One of the women stayed in the rear cabin. The one in the front cabin had to keep balance, otherwise, when the deck stuck up, she would be soaked through with water. The one in the rear cabin had to use the boat pole gently, not too tight or too slowly. If too fast, she couldn’t turn over the water chestnuts; If too slowly, it took too much time. The villagers were very busy all the year around. Time was very precious for them. Imagine, on the green river, five or six women crowded in one small boat must be a gorgeous view with murmuring water, water chestnuts going up and down, laughing and playing.

    On the south side of the River, among the willow trees, water pile piers were set one after another along the bank, some were far, others were close. This was the gate of the village to the outside world.

    The County of Chu in Northern Jiangsu Province belonged to a zone of network of rivers. You saw water when you went out of your door. It wouldn’t do without a boat. The rivers were tangled like wild vines. There was a village if there was a river. There was a river if there was a village. The river was the vine, the village was the melon. The melon couldn’t leave the vine and the vine couldn’t leave the melon. There were villages and cottages here and there, big or small, like melons. The villages and cottages were next to each other. Once a rooster crowed in one village, other roosters in the next village crowed, too. A dog in one cottage barked, other dogs in the next cottage would bark, too. In villages and cottages, roosters crowed, dogs barked. What a lively picture!

    The River of Xianghe was the vine. There must be melons on the vine. “A village big as a bowl, a lane long as chopsticks.” This was a description of Xianghe Village. To say it big as a bowl was purely a popular saying of the villagers. What it meant was that the village was too small, but they were shy to speak it out. On New Year’s Day and other festivals, villagers often went to visit friends and relatives. When strangers met and talked, they would ask, “Hi, which village are you from?” . If someone was from big places such as Anfeng, Daiyao, Huangpi, Shagou or Zhongbao, his reply would be very straight forward. But if someone was from a village like Xianghe, he would always beat about the bush, saying,” Not big as Anfeng. I am shy to say our village is big as a bowl. That’s all right.” If being asked again and again, they would speak out the name:“Xianghe village, small cottages.”

    The Xianghe Village was really small. There was only one lane: built with broken brick, very old, already threaded into smooth and shiny. The lane bent left and right, going through the whole village. The villagers called it Dragon Lane. There was a story about this. The old folks said that Xianghe Village was really a place of dragon, which lived on running water. The geomantic omen was excellent! It’s a place for talented people. Early in Qing Dynasty, a great scholar came here. He was an official in the imperial court and wrote books. His book<Artistic Conception> was famous in the world. What did he come here for? Identify his family. The tomb of his old ancestry was in Xianghe. He was sincere, but whoever in the village dared to be identified? Forget it. Since he was an official in the imperial court, working as an emperor teacher. But to be in the king/s company was tantamount to live with a tiger. If out of a little bit of carelessness he offended the emperor, the emperor would become very angry. If the emperor practiced a crime, it’s going to kill nine nationalities. The great scholar was unable to identify his family, but left a handwritten couplets, named “Articles of a fabled abode of immortals/Penglai with bones in Jian’an①”, which was kept by the eldest person with the highest seniority in the village and handed down from generation to generation. The elders knew that this family was absolutely unrecognizable, but the scholar’s sincere heart couldn’t be neglected. They had to make the youngsters remember it. No one knew how many years had passed before this couplets went to the hands of the grand-grand son of the elder. It happened to be in those dynamic years. It was said to be “the Four Old Things” and couldn’t be saved, so it was thrown into the sea of fire. The villagers were certainly reluctant, but anyways, it was just a piece of yellow broken paper, which might bring disaster to the whole village. Better to burn it. However, thinking he was a teacher, that grand-grand-son felt guilty to the ancestry, gave up teaching and set up his small business of Tofu mill. Up until many years later, when he mentioned this to his grandchildren, he would always mumble,” Xianghe Village is a real place of dragon, a place for talented people!”