For most Chinese people, fish is one of the main courses at the year-end dinner on the eve of Spring Festival, the traditional Chinese New Year. Fish in Chinese reads “Yu”, a homonym for “surplus” in Chinese. When the fish course is served at the year-end banquet, family members understand it stands for “May there be surplus year after year”, a traditional Chinese idiom. In celebration of a completely new year, fish symbolizes people’s wish for prosperity and good luck.

I learned something important about fish in 2005, a month before the Spring Festival. My father phoned me and asked me to buy a carp on my way home for the family reunion dinner and Spring Festival celebrations. I accepted the mission but wondered why. There was a reservoir near our home and fish was easily available all year round. Why a carp for the Spring Festival?

So I stopped over at a food market and a fish vendor unraveled the puzzle. I continued my way home, thinking about the importance of a carp for the year-end family reunion banquet and composing in my head an essay around the puzzle and its answer. Back home, I wrote the essay out and submitted it to Jinhua Daily, the biggest newspaper in Jinhua prefecture in central Zhejiang, for an essay competition in celebration of the Spring Festival, two days before the deadline. As I wrote it in a hurry, I didn’t look forward very much to winning. But to my surprise, it came out the top winner. It was reprinted in some other media. Moreover, the essay was included into a textbook of required readings for middle school students in a district in Beijing and in a city in Anhui Province. A question in some term-end tests was based the fish story I wrote for these students.

In retrospect, my story was by no means brilliant. It just wrapped around a right subject at the right time and in the right place.

For Chinese, Spring Festival is a ceremony and family reunion. Though many complain celebrations nowadays are not as ceremonious and exciting as they were in the past, don’t we all cherish the same wish for a better year just as people did in the past? Nowadays, a fish course at the year-end banquet may look not as important as it did in the past, but it is a must and it must be served ceremoniously. A fish course must be prepared in whole and served in whole as the last course. And how to eat the fish has inspired different responses across the country.

In some parts of China, a fish at the year-end banquet is an exhibit. No chopsticks would touch it. It is like a sacrifice offered to deities. In a town in Dongyang, which is not far from my home, a fish course is not touched at the reunion banquet. It becomes a cold fish jelly and the delicacy is eaten at lunch the next day. In some parts of China, the fish head and the fish tail are left untouched, symbolizing a Chinese idiom that “you bring what you start to a good finish”. In some families, one fish is served at the reunion banquet at the last dinner of the old year and one at the first lunch of the New Year.

Carp in Chinese culture is a cultural symbol that represents a lot of good things. It is a close relative of dragons and , a mythical creature which lives like a huge fish in the sea and flies like a huge eagle in the sky. In traditional Chinese culture, the carp is the only fish that can jump high over a dragon gate and becomes a dragon, a vivid metaphor for grassroots scholars who were appointed to important official positions after they passed imperial examinations. Nowadays, similar situations still exist in everyday life and carp lives very much alive in the phrase that describes such a situation and describes people’s wish to metaphorically become dragons over all kinds of dragon gates.

        年夜饭历来是除夕夜的重头戏。老百姓经常说“年年有余”，“无鱼不成席”，因为鱼和余谐音，有富裕、盈余的含义，又是吉祥的象征，因而年夜饭必不可少的一道菜就是鱼。

        大约是2005年腊月，父亲来电要我回家过年时顺便买尾鲤鱼，末了还叮嘱一句“千万不要忘记”。

        我嗯嗯地应承着，心里不免嘀咕：老家在横锦水库上游，一年四季不缺鱼腥，为何偏要鲤鱼呢？

        疑惑是鱼摊老板帮我解开的。出于职业敏感，从菜场返回的途中，一篇《过年鲤鱼贵》的腹稿匆匆打就，并赶在《金华日报》“春节·春意”征文截止前两天投寄过去。

        因为仓促而成，我对稿子能否刊用并不怎么上心。却不想，半月之后接连传来喜讯：《过年鲤鱼贵》不仅名列征文比赛两篇一等奖作品之首，还先后被《人民日报·海外版》《联谊报》等报纸副刊采用。北京市崇文区、安徽省蚌埠市实验中学等分别将它选作初三、初二年级“现代阅读”范文，并入选期末考试试题。

        回头想想，不是文章写得多么隽永秀美，实在是天时鱼美人和之故。

        中国人过年，过的是温暖感和仪式感，尽管现在大家都说“越来越没有年味了”，但谁又能淡忘那些蛰伏心底，对于家、对于团聚、对于年夜饭的情感和味觉上的期待呢？即便是餐桌上的一尾鱼，虽然类似于舞台上的“龙套”，但不可或缺，甚至颇有讲究。

        以前，除夕之鱼，笃定是“全鱼”，通常最后才上桌。这年头，年夜饭大多很丰盛，“全鱼”后上，既可避免“误食”，还有“连”“余”之意。因为“鱼”“余”谐音，“年年有鱼”不仅代表富足盈余，还象征降妖除鬼——餐桌上是招财，餐桌外则镇邪。

        红烧全鱼上桌，只看不吃，当然是一种“辜负”。有没有两全其美的法子？有些地方革故鼎新，鱼可以吃，但仅限于中间部分，留下头尾到初一，意谓“有头有尾”。有的人家不差钱，干脆准备两条鱼——年三十吃一条，大年初一吃一条，竟也吃出“连年有余”的好意头。度娘还说，湖北、台湾等地，要把鱼留到大年初三——留得越久表示越富有。

老家潘庄接壤东阳北乡，除夕之鱼能看不能吃。年初一中午，全鱼上桌拆散——呵呵，鱼冻下酒，妙不可言。

        种种习俗，大多是祖辈传下的，似乎一成不变。让我颇费思量的是，既然年鱼承载着世俗“重托”，菜场之鱼又远不止三五种，该怎么挑选？

        鱼摊老板说，过年图的是热闹。鲫鱼热销，可惜刺多，不适合豁拳行令时下酒；鳜鱼可以考虑，但要是厨艺不精，烧不出松鼠鳜鱼，也不是最佳选择；鲳鱼鳊鱼之类，肉太少，还不够一家人打牙祭呢……只有鲤鱼，特别是斤把重的红鲤鱼，恰好烹一盘红烧全鱼，若不预约，还真难买到。

        鱼长着鳃，靠水呼吸。在古人眼中，鲤鱼是蛟龙、鲲鹏的近亲，也是离荣华富贵最近的种族——它跃出水门就是龙，化而为鸟即为鹏。

        如此一想，心中便豁然开朗：鱼之美者，除了“天时”——过年之外，还有国人源远流长的崇鱼文化。

        “鱼求水以生，水求鱼以活。”鱼水之欢是一种隐喻。《诗经》上说：“岂其取妻，必齐之姜？岂其食鱼，必河之鲤？”古代男子上门提亲，除了行六聘之礼还要送鲤鱼，女子出阁前悉心照料。出嫁当日若鲤鱼游弋灵动，色彩明艳，则代表着日后琴瑟和鸣的夫妻生活。李商隐诗曰“水仙欲上鲤鱼去，一夜芙蓉红泪多。”远行的游子乘鲤飞升，只留伊人无语凝噎。伤感离别中，借鲤鱼的意象平添了一抹神话的烂漫。

        “客从远方来，遗我双鲤鱼。呼儿烹鲤鱼，中有尺素书。”（汉乐府·《饮马长城窟行》）。“嵩云秦树久离居，双鲤迢迢一纸书。”（李商隐）古代通讯不发达，鱼传尺素，或者以鱼形木板寄书，虽说别出心裁，但并不普及。人们津津乐道甚至梦寐以求的，往往是“鲤鱼跳龙门”。

        “鱼跃龙门，过而为龙，唯鲤或然。”（宋·陆佃《埤雅·释鱼》）国人皆有“鲤鱼跳龙门”之情结，即便是孔子这样的圣人也不例外。相传，孔夫人诞下一子，鲁昭公赐孔子鲤鱼。为感念君主的赐予，孔子居然将孩子取名鲤鱼——孔鲤字伯鱼。

        孔鲤是孔子的独苗，且比孔子先故，一生毫无建树。但他毕竟是圣人之子，有祖荫福佑，不仅被宋徽宗封为“泗水侯”,还被孔氏子孙尊为“二世祖”，荣耀之至。

        凡夫俗子显然没有这般幸运，要想改变命运，实现飞黄腾达之梦想，唯有“头悬梁，锥刺股”一途。正因如此，“鲤鱼跳龙门”虽然只是传说，但并没有妨碍国人对鲤鱼的喜爱。据记载，远在殷商时代，池养鲤鱼已相当普及，特别是辅助越王勾践的范蠡竭力推崇，认为“蓄养三年，越国当盈”。

        然而，世移事易。到了唐代，因为皇帝姓李，“李”“鲤”谐音，“养鲤”“捕鲤”“卖鲤”“食鲤”便统统成为禁忌，违者课以重罚。于是，在整整300年间，唐朝的养鱼百姓只得另觅他途，并渐渐出现青、草、链、鳙“四大家鱼”。

        鱼之美味可与熊掌媲美。周代，周宣王讨伐猃狁获胜，特以“炰鳖脍鲤”大宴诸侯。梁代陶宏景甚至说，鲤“为诸鱼之长，为食品上味”。

        陶宏景之论，虽说有些夸张，但熟知古典文学的吃货，大多知晓一些有关鲤鱼的故事。譬如，宋江想吃活鲤，李逵拍大哥马屁，自告奋勇与浪里白条张顺争斗，而张顺一见宋江，便乖乖送上四尾金色鲤鱼。《西游记》里的渔翁张稍每天送算卦先生袁守诚一尾鲤鱼，老袁就告诉他在哪里下网，引起泾河龙王不满，间接导致了唐僧取经。

        年少看越剧《追鱼》，印象颇深。及至年长，每每宰杀活蹦乱跳的鲤鱼，脑海便闪过鲤鱼精被刮去鳞片，疼得在地上打圈的情景，不由得心有戚戚，竟一时下不了狠手……

        女儿心善，见不得种种杀生。不止一二回，我顺从女儿意愿，放下菜刀，悄悄地把鲤鱼放归婺江——起先，它似乎惊魂未定，并不急于游走。然而，当它回过神来，便倏忽而逝，只留给我一个浅浅的背影。

        青山不老，绿水长流。婺江是钱塘江的重要干流，发源于我老家磐安的龙鸟尖，岸阔水深，生生不息，正孕育着一个个“鱼跃龙门”的伟大梦想！