When are the spring flowers and autumn moon? How much do you know about the past? There was an east wind in the small building last night, and the motherland could not bear to look back at the bright moon.
The carved railings and jade are still there, but the beauty has changed. Asking you how much sorrow you can have is like a river of spring water flowing eastward.
——Li Yu.
This poem was written probably in the third year after Li Yu returned to the Song Dynasty. The poem reveals the undisguised longing for the motherland, expresses the author's lament that "it is unbearable to look back" on the past, evokes the author's feelings about the right and wrong of characters, and highlights his sorrow of being imprisoned in a foreign country. It is said that this is also what prompted him to write. One of the reasons why Song Taizong ordered Li Yu to be poisoned.
It is true that Li Yu's longing for his motherland may not deserve sympathy. The past events he misses are inseparable from the imperial life of "carved railings and jade bricks" and the secrets of the palace with personal affairs at dawn and dusk.
Although Tang Zhong was not born into an imperial family, under the care of his parents and grandfather, he also lived an imperial life like Li Yu's "spring flowers and autumn moon". He is not a king who has subjugated his country, but like Li Yu, his "carried out" life suddenly collapsed and turned into a past that was "unbearable to look back on". What replaced it was the question of "how much do you know about the past?" and the sorrow like river water.
Although Wu Xing and Wu Zhizhi intended to help him, they also knew that they could not really save Tang Zhong from the crisis in his life.
In adversity, the compassion and help of others can only work if you work hard to help yourself. If a person doesn't even want to live himself, then others can't help him at all.
The fifth line can only help Tang Zhong get rid of his pursuers, but it cannot help him get out of trouble.
Lu Chengyong, Yu Qian and others chased him in the forest for a while, but suddenly there was no trace of Tang Zhong. Everyone was hesitating when suddenly a figure flashed in front of them. He was dressed the same as Tang Zhong and also had two corpses on his body.
Lu Chengyong and others did not hesitate and immediately chased after him.
The little monk Baoli was very attentive, and he discovered that the movement technique of the person in front of him was somewhat different from what Tang Zhong had used before. Not only was the number of moves different, but the speed was also faster.
Baoli didn't have time to think about it, so he could only fly after him.
Lu Chengyong chased for a while and realized something was wrong. Although the speed of the Qinggong of the person in front of him became faster, his movement skills did not seem to be as good as before, so that he, Yu Qian and Bao Li only chased for a moment before they were close to the person.
Seeing that the three of them were surrounded, the man in front suddenly made a move that surprised Lu Chengyong and others. Seeing that it was difficult to escape pursuit, he suddenly threw the two corpses at Lu Chengyong and Yu Qian. You must know that Tang Zhong would rather be injured than put down the bodies of his parents. This was beyond Lu Chengyong and Yu Qian's expectations.
Before the two of them could figure it out, the corpse was coming with great force. They reached out to catch it, but seeing that the corpse was ridiculously light, they hurriedly took off their clothes and saw that they were two straw men. The two of them were stopped by the straw man, who took the opportunity to escape without a trace. When Baoli saw the straw man, his expression flickered for a few times, but he did not speak or pursue him again. Only then did Lu and Yu understand why this person was not as good as Tang Zhong, but he ran faster. The reason was that this straw man was much lighter than a real person.
Yu Qian knew he had been fooled and said angrily: "Damn it, this person is definitely not Tang Zhong."
Lu Chengyong said: "I don't care, Master Yu. I'm wondering, who could this person be? Could he be Tang Siji's accomplice who robbed the official bank?"
Bao Li listened to the conversation between the two and never spoke, but a faint and somewhat strange smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
The three of them paused for a moment, then had no choice but to rush back, hoping to find traces of Tang Zhong again. But Tang Zhong's Qinggong was so outstanding that he had already left them far behind.
Tang Zhong kept running, fearing that the enemy would chase him. As he kept running, he suddenly ran to a cliff and there was no way ahead. Tang Zhong looked up at the cliff and saw that the cliff was towering into the clouds, but he didn't know how high it was. The cliff face is very smooth and difficult to climb. Although Tang Zhong threw the pursuers far away, he could still hear the sound of pursuit in the distance. Tang Zhong knew that Lu Chengyong and others would catch up here sooner or later, so he gritted his teeth, took a strong breath of energy, picked up his parents' bodies and flew towards the top of the cliff. His qinggong was so weird that he was able to walk up the cliff vertical to the ground as if he were walking on flat ground while holding two corpses.
Everyone searched for a moment in the woods, but Tang Zhong was still nowhere to be seen. At this time, Monk Baoli suddenly saw a small black spot slowly moving upward on an unattainable cliff in the distance. Baoli was startled at first, then realized and said, "Where is he?"
Everyone went away after hearing the sound, but they were also stunned and couldn't say a word.
Everyone quickly came to the cliff. Because the cliff was too high, Tang Zhong had not yet reached the top of the cliff. When everyone looked up again, they were filled with admiration. I saw that the method of climbing the cliff in the Tang Dynasty was not any light kung fu movement method, but just like walking, treating the cliff as flat ground and stepping up step by step. This seems to be much more advanced than Qinggong such as Tiyunzong. Even for an old martial artist like Lu Chengyong, this was the first time he had seen this kind of weird Qing Kung.
The crowd could not get up the cliff, and they could not find the way up the cliff. They waited under the cliff for a long time, but did not see Tang Zhong coming down, so they had to disperse one by one.
Tang Zhong summoned up his might and climbed to the top of the cliff in one breath, but he was still exhausted. When he was about to reach the top of the cliff, he almost couldn't catch his breath and fell down. Fortunately, he climbed up a tree on the cliff and rested on it for a while before finally climbing up the cliff.
Tang Zhong expected that the crowd would not be able to catch up to the cliff, so he felt relieved and rested on the cliff for a while before starting to look for a burial place for his parents.
He thought that the top of the cliff was inaccessible and his parents were buried here, so they would not be disturbed by outsiders, but it couldn't be better.
He chose a flat place to bury his parents alive, and moved two huge stones to erect two monuments for his parents. But after moving the boulder, he didn't know what to do. Before, he had only seen old people carving words on stone tablets when he was offering sacrifices to the Tang clan. As for what should be written on them, he didn't know. What's more, he is still a freak who can read but cannot write. Even if he knows what to write on the monument, he doesn't know how to write it.
He knelt in front of his parents' graves, and besides crying like a child, he didn't know what else to do.
He cried a lot and didn't know how long he cried. Anyway, he was tired from crying.
A lot had happened these days, and now he was so tired that he just knelt there and fell asleep crying.
He said he was asleep, but actually he wasn't.
It should be said that it is meditation.
Because his brain did not stop resting, but kept repeating the happy life he had with his parents before. Every move, word and deed of his parents came vividly before his eyes.
He is really meditating, a fool meditating, and a fool meditating.
Meditate on his past and his future.
As he meditated, the two boulders slowly changed.
The stone surface slowly cracked, and small pieces of gravel continued to fall.
Gradually, the boulders on both sides continued to crack and fall off, and slowly two human figures appeared - a man and a woman, one tall and powerful, the other delicate and handsome.
Suddenly, Tang Zhong's mind flashed back to his mother's words before she died.
"To live, one must rely on oneself; to live, one must strive for self-improvement." The voice echoed in Tang Zhong's ears for a long time.
"Mom!" Tang Zhong shouted, and he immediately woke up from his meditative state, only to see his parents standing in front of him, still smiling and amiable.
Tang Zhong was about to step forward to hug him, but he realized there were two stone statues. Only then did Tang Zhong understand that his parents had really left him, and he would really have to rely on himself in the future.
He thought of what he said just now, and his will became stronger. He wants to live well on his own, and he wants to be a good man who strives for self-improvement. Even if he is a fool, he must be a fool who strives for self-improvement.
He didn't dare to go down the cliff from where he came up just now, because he was afraid of meeting those annoying people. So he wiped away his tears, bowed respectfully three times in front of his parents' graves, and then strode towards the opposite direction of the cliff.
He didn't know it at this time, but while he was meditating, his inner power naturally emitted, causing the two boulders to completely crack into the shape of the person he missed. This was the predecessor of his future magical skill of reciting the sad mantra.
This cliff was named Nianbei Cliff by later generations because of him.
