I took out the photo and handed it over. Uncle Ma took a look at it, laughed and said to me.
"I thought it was a strange thing. This is a folk method of sealing the orifice. This silver needle can indeed seal a person's soul. But according to you, Tao Rong's soul can come in and out freely. This may be because it has been for a long time. Silver needle The method of needle sealing has failed, but the second possibility cannot be ruled out."
"What's the second possibility?" I asked.
"Since ancient times, silver needles can seal orifices, exorcise ghosts, and can stab the spiritual beings residing in the human body. However, exorcising ghosts is unlikely. I think it may be that Tao Rong has some kind of protective spiritual being on her body. In order to ensure smooth operation, I want to kill Tao Rong, so I don’t hesitate to prick her acupoints with silver needles to drive away or seal the protector on her body!”
Hey, Uncle Ma's bold guess is quite possible.
However, since Tao Rong has a protector, why not save her? Moreover, Tao Rong’s ghost didn’t mention this to me.
Facing my doubts, Uncle Ma touched the mustache he had just grown on his chin and said thoughtfully.
"It seems that we can only go to Zhongnan Mountain to find the answer to this question."
Yes, Master Zhong Kui said that the murderer is on Zhongnan Mountain, so I might be able to meet him on the mountain this time.
Don’t believe it, things in the world are often such coincidences. If I didn’t have this opportunity, then this task would not fall on me.
Besides, I am writing a book, and if I say I can encounter it, I will definitely encounter it...
Ever since, I began to look forward to this trip to Zhongnan Mountain. I guess there will be many wonderful and interesting stories, right?
That night, we slept in the hotel, then got up early and set off, heading all the way to Zhongnan Mountain.
It didn't take much effort and we came to a place called Ziwu Valley.
This is the first stop for me, Uncle Ma and Ma Yunfeng to reach Zhongnan Mountain.
Ziwu Valley is a very famous place. It is one of the seventy-two valleys in the Qinling Mountains. It is also called Ziwu Road. The northern exit is called "Zikou" and the southern exit is called "Wukou", hence the name.
Ziwu Valley is actually the ancient Ziwu Valley, located in the northern section of Zhongnan Mountain in the Qinling Mountains, Ziwu Town, Chang'an District, Xi'an.
This is a river valley, an important transportation thoroughfare between Sichuan and Shaanxi, and also an important transportation thoroughfare from Chang'an to Bashu in ancient times. There are historical relics all over the valley, Buddhist and Taoist temples can be seen everywhere, and there are many historical allusions about this place.
The total length of this place is more than 600 miles, and the terrain is difficult and dangerous. It was opened in the Qin Dynasty. At that time, Liu Bang was forced to go to Hanzhong to become the king of Han and retreated to Shu. It passed through Ziwu Valley.
The allusion of building a plank road in the open and visiting Chencang secretly happened here when Chu and Han were fighting for hegemony.
Later, Wang Mang opened a road along the mountain, leading to Ziwu Road.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the world was divided into three parts, and Zhuge Liang left Qishan six times. At that time, Wei Yan, the general of the Shu Kingdom, once proposed a strategy in the Ziwu Valley, suggesting that Zhuge Liang should take the Ziwu Valley to capture Chang'an by surprise.
That's right, the Ziwu Valley and Ziwu Valley I'm talking about are the Ziwu Valley in the Three Kingdoms.
However, Zhuge Liang was cautious in his life. Considering the high risk of sending troops out of Ziwu Valley, he adopted a conservative strategy. In the end, all six expeditions out of Qishan returned without success, missing the last opportunity.
If a surprise army had taken the Ziwu Road to attack Chang'an, the outcome and history of the Three Kingdoms might have been rewritten. It’s just that future generations will never know. If Prime Minister Zhuge had used Wei Yan’s ingenious plan and sent troops out of Ziwu Valley, would history have been rewritten? What is the scene like in China today?
However, some people did send troops from Ziwu Valley several times later, but without exception they all ended in failure. It must be unfeasible.
At the same time, there is also an allusion. We all know the story of Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. There is a poem that says, "When a concubine rides on the red dust, she laughs, and no one knows that it is lychees." It means that Concubine Yang loves to eat lychees, so Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty sends People from Sichuan specially sent lychees to Concubine Yang.
The road to deliver lychees to Concubine Yang is the Ziwu Road in Ziwu Valley, so it is also called the Lychee Road.
It is said that in order to ensure that the lychees from Sichuan were delivered to Chang'an within three days, many people and horses were exhausted along the way. At first, many people in Chang'an thought it was an eight-hundred-mile rush, but later they learned that it was to deliver lychees to a beautiful woman.
The world lamented that after experiencing the prosperity of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, in the late Tianbao period, the aging Tang Xuanzong had long lost sight of the sufferings of the world, favored sycophants, and became extravagant, which eventually led to the Anshi Rebellion that destroyed the Tang Dynasty and Chang'an.
At that time, an important reason for the rebels was the extravagant spending of Yang Yuhuan, a beauty and troublemaker. Therefore, if there were no lychees sent thousands of miles away, if there was no lychee road... history might be different.
So this Ziwu Valley is a place full of stories and legends.
This morning, we walked all the way to Ziwu Valley, and when we reached a certain point we couldn't move forward, so Uncle Ma took us out of the car and walked up the mountain.
Don't think I'm verbose. I have to tell you about Zhongnan Mountain and Taoist culture. If you think I'm lazy, please keep your mind calm. Reading is free anyway. I'm much more tired than you when typing.
The Zhongnan Mountain, which stretches thousands of miles, is also called Zhongnan Mountain or Nanshan. It was given the title of "Fairy Cave" in ancient times.
We are all familiar with a couplet: Blessings are as long as the flowing water of the East China Sea, and longevity is as long as the evergreen pines in the Southern Mountains.
Nanshan here refers to Zhongnan Mountain.
Therefore, in the minds of the ancients, Zhongnan Mountain is inextricably linked to longevity and immortality.
At the same time, Zhongnan Mountain is also the most important birthplace of Taoism in China since its inception and the cradle of Taoist culture spreading around the world. There are countless classics, documents, historical legends, and myths about Zhongnan Mountain and the development of Taoism.
As the greatest philosopher and thinker in the history of our country, Laozi is revered as the ancestor of Taoism and is also regarded as the founder of the Taoist school. The Tao Te Ching he wrote is his greatest wealth passed down to the world.
However, now it is said that the original book is called "De Dao Jing". We will not talk about it in detail here, only Zhongnan Mountain.
The place where Lao Tzu left Hangu Pass was actually in Zhongnan Mountain. After that, he abandoned the world and disappeared without a trace. Some people say that Lao Tzu turned a tiger into a Buddha, some said that he attained Taoism and became an immortal, and some said that he went to teach the barbarians.
Taoism believes that mountains are the transitional area between heaven and earth and the best place for immortals to descend to the mortal world. Therefore, most of the activities of Taoists choose to be in famous mountains. They also believe that only practicing in the mountains can make it easier to communicate with the immortals in the sky. Only by gaining induction can one attain enlightenment and become an immortal.
In the Taoist classic "Yunji Qizhu", there are listed ten major caves, thirty-six small caves, and seventy-two blessed places. These caves and blessed places are all excellent holy places for Taoists to practice and become immortals.
Zhongnan Mountain is such a blessed place. Because of this, the peaks and valleys within Zhongnan Mountain have become important activity areas for Buddhism and Taoism in the past dynasties.
Yes, Zhongnan Mountain is not only a Taoist holy place, but also a Buddhist holy place.
