应《中国民族》杂志之约写一组关于西北回族生活的散文随笔,我首先想到的是换水。换水是西北回族方言,大意是沐浴。在每次写重要的稿件之前,我也都会先换水。中国古人就有这样的仪式,在读圣贤之书,或者在欣赏名家书画,弹奏经典乐曲之前,都要沐浴焚香的,以示庄重和敬畏。现在的人潦草了,轻薄了,没有了这样的讲究。我这样讲究,倒不全是对文学、对文字的敬畏,而是一种习惯,回族的习惯。回族人在做任何一件事情之前,都是 A series of essays on the life of the Hui people in the Northwest should be written in the book of “China’s Ethnicity,” and the first thing I think of is to change the water. Water change is a dialect northwest Hui, the effect is to bathe. I always change the water before every important manuscript is written. Chinese ancient people have such rituals, battling incense before reading saints’ books, or enjoying famous paintings and classical music, in order to show dignity and awe. Now people are scribbled, thin, there is no such stress. I pay attention to this, not the whole is a literature, awe of words, but a habit of Hui’s habits. Hui people are doing anything before, are