On the way back to the mountain, the young monk Pinzhao followed Jiang Wen eagerly, as if he wanted to learn his "magical powers" from Jiang Wen, especially when he saw Jiang Wenfu subduing two different Yunnan horses with just a hand. At that time, the young monk almost had to change the door on the spot.
When several people returned to the mountain gate, it was already scorching hot at noon. Pinzhao took the two of them back to Sidan Temple according to the abbot's instructions. The little novice finally changed his attitude, as if he had just remembered that he was actually a monk.
"Well, two benefactors, Abbot Hongbian seems to have gone out. The young monk still has some things to do in the guest house, so he will take a step forward..."
Seeing that the young monk took a puff of smoke and ran away, away from the other party's constant entanglement, Jiang Wen breathed a sigh of relief and looked around.
The abbot's Zen room is also called Zhang's room. It is where the abbot and abbot give lectures and sermons in the temple. It was originally supposed to be one foot in length and four sides in a square shape, just a small room less than ten square meters. However, Abbot Hongbian's Zen room is obviously larger than this size.
The house is spacious and bright, with antique furnishings and the lingering smell of incense. Although the objects in the house are old, you can see that they are extraordinary just by taking a quick look at them. The inscriptions on the four walls and the bamboo paintings are even more beautiful because of the brushwork. The splashed ink is full of freehand writing.
Jiang Wen originally wanted to take the opportunity to show Luo Shuang'er his appreciation of calligraphy and painting, but unfortunately his hobbies were only in the textual research of ancient books and documents, and the purpose of art was just that, so after looking at it for a long time, he couldn't tell what was good about it. I can only slightly discern the surnames "Wu", "Dong", "Qian", "Li", etc. in the inscription. I think I must have visited the calligraphy treasures left by the literary giants in Sidan Temple.
At this time, the shadows of pines and bamboos outside the Zen room were swaying, there was a rustling sound on the empty corridor, and the miscellaneous trees were casting shadows in layers. The slightly warm mountain wind passed through the gaps in the trees, and the monastery under Shigu Peak was quietly flowing. Shade. The exceptionally empty dusty atmosphere lingered around his ears. No matter where he looked at this time, Jiang Wen could see a rather Zen-like scene. This slowly relieved his anxiety of waiting for Abbot Hongbian to arrive.
Luo Shuang'er was also sitting quietly aside, but her demure expression was more like that of a middle school girl who was forced to go on a trip by her parents. After wasting her precious life for no reason while waiting, she finally spoke to Jiang Wen:
"...The abbot hasn't come back yet, can we go back to the living room and wait?"
"Of course that won't work. The most important thing in walking in the world is integrity."
Jiang Wen sat on a low-backed chair and leaned back slowly, appearing neither arrogant nor arrogant. "Since the abbot is in a hurry to see us and shows that he has something important to discuss, naturally he can't waste a single second..."
"Is that so? But I feel like you have other intentions."
Luo Shuang'er looked sideways at Jiang Wen, her brows and corners of her eyes often showed a graceful look, which made Jiang Wen couldn't help but sigh, Ning Die should spend more time with little girls like this.
Jiang Wen smiled helplessly and said, "It's not just for you that I spent so much time looking for medicine and treatment. Why didn't you mention it since you saw it?"
"Oh, but you obviously don't trust this abbot very much."
Luo Shuang'er lay on the table bored, her cheeks raised, and asked in a low voice, "The old abbot trusts us quite a bit, and I don't feel that he has any malicious intent..."
Jiang Wen suddenly laughed when he heard this, and said in the tone of an elder introducing life experience: "Now that you have lost all your martial arts skills, you can no longer see people clearly, so you have to think about other people's thoughts and thoughts in many ways before you can distinguish them clearly. Right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, if you are careless, you may be in disaster.”
He turned his head and pointed at a formal and ancient plaque in the room. The two plaques on the left and right had eight characters in total, which read: "Miaoben Hongda, character flow and shape".
"Look, this is a calligraphy treasure left by the former abbot of Sidan Temple. These eight characters are pre-arranged as the characters for generation, so that later monks can take the names of Dharma in order and determine the generation of Dharma descendants."
Luo Shuang'er looked up at the plaque and immediately understood what Jiang Wen said. The current monks in Xitan Temple, starting from Abbot Hongbian, are indeed composed of the "big" generation and the "pin" generation. They have just passed down the inheritance. To the fifth generation, it is also consistent with the history of temple construction during the Wanli period.
"When Abbot Hongbian became a monk, he worshiped Zen Master Benwu as his teacher and received two hundred and fifty full precepts. Logically speaking, his junior disciples should also use the word 'Hong' as their dharma name. But now in the Sidan Temple There is only one Anren in the same generation, and the status and situation of the two are completely different. Have you ever thought about the reason for this?"
After listening to Jiang Wen's alarmism in person, Luo Shuang'er raised her face and thought for a long time, shook her head and said nothing.
"Then let me ask you another question."
Jiang Wen did not answer. Instead, he changed his sitting posture and continued: "Last night, the Sidtan Temple was attacked. The lights were bright and the noise was loud. There is no unknown reason. The chickens and dogs in the temple on Jizu Mountain heard each other, but no one sect. When people come out to visit us, it feels like we are in an empty mountain. What do you think is the reason?"
When things go wrong, there must be monsters, so Jiang Wen said it very clearly, "Speaking of some people, they seem to be highly virtuous and respected, and no one on the stage is dissatisfied with them, but they may not always be able to act openly and aboveboard, and they like to be cold and make people stumble. son……"
Luo Shuang'er's almond-shaped eyes opened slightly, and she asked coldly: "Why do I think... you are alluding to my father?"
"Uh, sister Shuang, you're overthinking it. How could I deliberately arrange for him to be an old man?"
This time, without waiting for Luo Shuang'er's answer, Jiang Wen already whispered in a pretense of mystery: "In my opinion, Abbot Hongbian may not be as thorough as he appears. He may have offended so many people on the mountain. It’s because the abbot is petty-minded. You see, it’s so dangerous to offend others with a few words while walking outside. It’s better to find a backer and join our Wuyi Sect as soon as possible..."
Jiang Wen was talking happily there, trying to intimidate this little girl who lacked experience in the world of martial arts, but he had forgotten the principle of being the master of others without talking behind their backs.
I heard the wooden screen in the abbot's Zen room creak open, revealing a side room hidden deep in the house, and an old monk with a kind face and a bleak complexion quietly turned out and faced him. Jiang Wen had a stunned expression.
Jiang Wen: "..."
Hongbian: "..."
The scene suddenly became awkward. Only Luo Shuang'er stood up and greeted the old monk with a normal expression: "Abbot Hongbian, we have been waiting for you for a long time."
"Amitabha, what the two donors said is correct. I am just a human body, and my mind, eyes, and abilities are naturally no different from those of ordinary people."
Abbot Hongbian passed by the two people with lowered eyebrows, chanted a Buddha's name in a low voice and said: "It's just as the "Vimalakīrti Sutra" says, Vimalakīrī's bedroom is only one foot square, but he can accommodate a wide range of people, and even accommodate a large number of people. Thirty-two thousand Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will naturally be reborn when I practice deeply."
This old abbot is also a wonderful person. He found the steps to go down without being surprised. Then he smoothed the corners of the monk's clothes with both hands, sat back on the Zen chair with a wooden rosary in his hand, and reproduced an indifferent and compassionate demeanor. If not He was so hungry that his face changed, and Jiang Wen was almost impressed by his appearance of not touching the mortal world.
Jiang Wen coughed lightly and pretended that nothing happened just now. He spread the old books he had taken back on the table and said straight to the point.
"Abbot Hongbian, this is what you want to retrieve. Jiang is lucky to have defeated a powerful enemy on this trip."
Abbot Hongbian looked at the old books on the table and stared blankly for a moment. As the beads turned, he seemed to be gradually calming down and spoke slowly.
"Thank you Tan Yue for taking this thing back. Otherwise there would be hundreds of people in Lao Na's temple and they would be unable to do anything. They could only watch the thief succeed and leave. Hey, do you know what kind of book is this in front of you?"
Jiang Wen frowned slightly: "I have browsed through it briefly, and it seems to be a description of a literary tour. But I have never been able to figure out why it is hidden in a monk's bone tower."
"Now I won't hide it anymore. Let me explain the reason to you two."
Abbot Hongbian nodded slowly, stood up with difficulty, and took out another bound book from the secret room.
"This is actually what they were looking for. It was only because Junior Brother An Ren sacrificed his life to protect each other that night that the other party failed to succeed and instead wanted to search around the mountain."
Jiang Wen and Luo Shuang'er looked closely and saw that four volumes of books were properly kept in the secret room. The covers of the paper pages were not even stained with dust. They were only slightly yellowed due to age, but it also made the handwriting appear a bit thicker.
The two of them naturally looked at the cover, and naturally saw the names of these volumes - "Jizu Mountain Chronicles".
"Tan Yue, the incomplete manuscript you took back and this mountain chronicle were actually written by the same person. I vaguely guessed that the other party came here for this reason. King Pingxi's troops could not be found in Fayun Pavilion. , so he would do the evil deed of digging graves and exposing corpses regardless of his status."
Jiang Wen's expression suddenly dawned, and he suddenly understood why Fayun Pavilion was in such a mess, but the masked man suddenly left and returned.
Abbot Hongbian then said that Master Anren was on guard duty in Fayun Pavilion that night, and saw through the other party's intention at a glance. However, after the fight, he realized that it was difficult to win, so he pushed down the scriptures on the second floor to confuse the audience, making the masked man mistakenly believe that this "Jizu Mountain Chronicles" is hidden in it, wasting time and energy.
When the masked man was nowhere to be found, he wanted to move elsewhere, but luckily with the blessing of the Buddha, he was bumped into by Jiang Wen by chance, so he seized the last moment and rushed back to Fayun Pavilion, still trying to find what Master Anren was desperately guarding. , only then will they return without success after a fierce fight.
At the end of the night, although the two men's martial arts were very different, the man in black completely fell into the psychological trap set by Master Anren during the battle of wits.
However, the other party fell into the trap because he did not expect that Anren would sacrifice his life, and it was just to confuse himself. If he was not worried about more monks being killed, Anren would not have to take this trick. Thinking of his junior brother who was still alive and dead at this time, Abbot Hongbian sighed deeply. , reached out and closed the window in the Zen room near the corridor to prevent the sound from spreading outside.
"Abbot Hongbian, what's so unique about "Jizu Mountain Chronicles" and why did Prince Pingxi's Palace go to so much trouble to snatch it away?"
Jiang Wen asked in confusion, "You mentioned before that there are many ancient books in the Sidtan Temple, and there are countless ancient books that are treasured, isolated, lost, and scattered. Why do you brothers and sisters choose to identify Pingxi Prince's Palace?" Are you here for it?”
Facing Jiang Wen's question again, Abbot Hongbian quietly twisted his rosary beads and lowered his voice.
"After all, this book is the only one that Xu Jushi personally compiled and gathered in the mountains and wrote it over three months ago..."
Then, with his thin, wrinkled and old hands, he opened the cover of "Chizu Mountain Chronicles" and revealed the author's name.
——Xu Hongzu, a Xiake from Jiangzuo.
Jiang Wen stared blankly at the four volumes of ancient books in front of him, his expression suddenly became particularly vivid, and he had already grabbed the book of records in his hand in a blink of an eye, which frightened the old abbot and thought that he was about to suffer a serious illness.
"I can't believe it, I can't believe it! Jiang is lucky enough to be able to see this posthumous work of Mr. Xu Xiake..."
Jiang Wen opened the "Jizu Mountain Chronicles" with his eyebrows flying, and rubbed the paper with his still healthy left hand. His eyes were full of overjoyed scenery. He browsed through the book list and listed the mountains, hydrology, Buddhist monks, famous officials and local sages, and supernatural beings. Although there are only four volumes of the book on scenery and special products, the pagoda tomb has already included the scenic spots and cultural landscapes of Jizu Mountain, which is enough to bear witness to the energy expended by the predecessors.
Abbot Hongbian saw that Jiang Wen's illness was not getting worse, and saw that he was fully devoted. Even though he was a little confused, he just guessed that Jiang Wen might have a hobby of collecting books, so he was interested in this book that was almost lost without being published. books burst out with such enthusiasm——
But what he never expected was that Jiang Wen's "three lifetimes of luck" was not just a description.
Xu Hongzu, also known as Zhenzhi and Xiake, was a geographer, traveler and writer in the Ming Dynasty. This may be just an ordinary name that appears in books. He is famous all over the world for his "Travel Notes of Xu Xiake".
Jiang Wen envied the old monk in front of him, because nowadays the carriages and horses are very slow, and he would never encounter a few lunatics in his life. However, before he traveled through time, technology was so advanced that he could meet fools thousands of miles away without leaving home.
Before being forced to become a knight, Jiang Wen once traveled to Lijiang and learned about related stories on Jizu Mountain. He clearly remembered that the last part of Xu Xiake's thousands-mile journey ended here. At that time, Xu Xiake went to Jishan to collect his old books and revisit the scenic spots. From September to the first month of the following year, he stayed in Xitan Temple and devoted himself to editing. Unfortunately, the final four volumes of the manuscript were completed and stopped due to illness.
Seeing Jiang Wen immersed in it, Abbot Hongbian explained to Luo Shuang'er kindly.
"This benefactor is indeed very knowledgeable. Yes, this is the mountain chronicle that Xu Zhenzhi wrote in September of the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign. At the request of Mu Zeng, the hereditary local magistrate of Lijiang, Yunnan, he spent several months compiling the mountain chronicle in Jizu Mountain."
There was light in Jiang Wen's eyes, and his movement of turning the pages of the book did not slow down. He even used Shaolin's unique technique of twisting the fingers to prevent the fragile pages of the book from being damaged by friction.
Because in later generations, the "Jishan Chronicles" compiled by Xu Xiake with great pains has long been lost. Only three volumes of excerpts of mountain chronicles remain in the "Xu Xiake's Travel Notes" circulated in later generations, namely "Jishan Chronicles" and "Chishan Chronicles". and "Chishan Chronicles II", allowing future generations to barely get a glimpse of the original book.
If you think about it seriously, if you don't count the book "Xu Xiake's Travels" that Xu Hongzu recorded for many years, then this "Jizu Mountain Chronicles" should be Xu Xiake's last work in his life. It is a pity that Xu Xiake's original manuscript was destroyed during the Shunzhi period. Legend has it that the book was destroyed by war before the woodcuts could be published, leaving only the remaining chapters for later compilers to learn from.
As Jiang Wen was flipping through the pages, he suddenly remembered that the "Jizu Mountain Chronicles" compiled by Xu Xiake was destroyed during the Shunzhi period, and the second compilation of the Mountain Chronicles was in the spring of the seventeenth year of Shunzhi (1660). ——In other words, as history moves forward, this book is likely to be destroyed by the disputes between the Mu family and the Pingxi Palace in Lijiang. There is no need to think about it now, it is what they are experiencing right now.
If you want to destroy the foundation of a culture, the most effective way is to destroy its ancestral temple and burn its books and records.
During the Song and Ming dynasties, official editing and engraving were the main way to present local chronicles. Officials in Fuzhou and counties were the leading force in writing local chronicles. Mu Zeng asked his close friend Xu Xiake to compile "Jizu Mountain Chronicles". In order to entrust Shanzhi to write family history, record inheritance in an unofficial name, and leave the history that they want to remember, now that the Mu family is blocking Wu Sangui's way, this book will naturally be burned clean.
Xu Xiake himself was well aware of this matter, but he had never concealed what he had seen and heard during his travels, so he had a clear conscience for what he had done.
In his travel notes, he wrote that the Mu family's "palace was as beautiful as a king's." Even though Chief Mu treated Xu Gong as a distinguished guest and entertained him grandly and hospitably, he was not allowed to visit the Mu Mansion for fear that he would not be able to treat him with his straight writing. Xu Xiake still wrote in Spring and Autumn style that "the pavilions inside are extremely prosperous and tyrannical, so there are no guests here", which can be said to be as big as a rafter.
"Abbot Hongbian, you just said that these two books came from one person, so they attracted covetous attention. Could it be that this incomplete book with no beginning or end was also written by Mr. Xu Xiake..."
But thinking of this, Jiang Wen's expression gradually returned to calm, and he reached out to the manuscript he had recaptured earlier - the fragmentary manuscript left by Xu Xiake. This cannot help but make people think a lot!
You must know that from September of the 9th year of Chongzhen to June of the 13th year of Chongzhen, that is, when Xu Xiake was over 50 years old, he realized that the illnesses he had accumulated over the years were becoming more and more serious, so he decided to undergo the longest and longest journey in his life. A journey far away is called "a journey of thousands of miles".
Xu Xiake's health had been severely damaged during his trip to southwestern Yunnan. Xu Xiake came to Jizu Mountain from August 22, the twelfth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty. He mainly stayed in the mountain to recuperate and compile "Jizu Mountain Chronicles". He would only visit the monks in the mountain temple when the weather was good.
We must know that the "Travel Notes of Xu Xiake" in later generations was compiled based on his diary manuscripts. The notes were accumulated into a book, and they were finally collated into a book.
Judging from the diary left by Xu Xiake, during the last period of the trip, Xu Xiake spent most of the time recuperating in Xitan Temple, bathing, reading scriptures, reading poems, and admiring flowers every day, and nearly three-quarters of the time was spent on activities. At Xitan Temple, the editor appointed by Xu Xiake said that "since September 15th of the twelfth year, there have been no minor records." It was after September 14th that all Xu Xiake's diaries were terminated.
But the "literary manuscript" in front of me, which does not even have a cover, actually has an inscription date starting from September 15th, the twelfth year of Chongzhen, to the first month of the following year, which happens to be a time that has never been recorded in Xu Xiake's diary!
Comparing the handwriting in the two books, we can almost prove without a doubt that the incomplete manuscript in front of us is a unique travel diary that should not have been handed down to the world in history. Relying on this diary is enough to reconstruct Xu Xiake's last years in the legendary story!
A needle could be heard in the abbot's Zen room, and only Jiang Wen's uncontrollable excited heartbeat could be heard. Before his eyes, the back of him facing the blue sea and turning to the sky at dusk, carrying his luggage, eating in the wind and drinking in the dew, seemed to appear.
The man was deep in the mountains and forests, but he looked up at the mist in the sky. He had a quilt on his shoulders and an umbrella in his hand. No matter how he looked at it, Jiang Wen seemed to be able to only see his staggering back without any walking stick. , the road under your feet will never come to an end...
The chanting of sutras sounded quietly, and Abbot Hongbian was closing his eyes on the "Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra", which gradually revealed the unrecorded stories in history. When Jiang Wen saw the abbot's expression gradually relieved, he suddenly guessed why the old monk in front of him cherished it so much. The most important thing.
"Abbot Hongbian, have you ever met Mr. Xu Xiake in person?"
In order to compile Jishan Chronicle, Xu Xiake made a painstaking and serious field investigation. On the one hand, he "explored all the quiet rooms in the forest, clouds, green gaps, and everything"; on the other hand, he visited the Jizu Mountain elders. In order to seek "historic relics in the mountains", monk Tiji from Jizu Mountain helped a lot. According to the age of Abbot Hongbian, it is very likely that he knew Xu Xiake!
"Amitabha, just as Tan Yue expected. In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, when donor Xu suffered from a long-term illness and both of his feet were disabled, Lao Na and his junior brother Anren went to Master Bianzhou of Jingguang Temple and invited him to move to Sidan Temple to cultivate."
Jiang Wen was still in a state of emotional turmoil and did not notice anything strange about Abbot Hongbian. Only Luo Shuang'er turned her head slightly but said nothing.
Abbot Hongbian chanted the Buddha's name in a low voice, and the low voice came from his throat, but he seemed to be unable to control the trembling in his voice. Even the palm of his hand twisting the beads was uncontrollable. It seemed that he could touch the past with a slight stretch. , but he deeply restrained the thought of recalling.
The editors who later published "Xu Xiake's Travels" ignored the bizarre things in the original diary, such as fox monsters and wild monsters, and adopted methods such as changing the order and moving time to delete and revise it, leaving only a vague paragraph about the matter. Unclear records.
[Dian Travel Diary 13, 29th. I have been in the miasma for a long time, and I have developed rashes on my head, face, and limbs. There are numerous rashes on my skin and skin. My left ear and left foot have a creeping feeling from time to time...]
At that time, only Master Hongbian, who went to greet him in person, knew that Xu Xiake's illness was a terrifying miasma that had never been seen in the world.
That day, under the anxious eyes of the monks of Jingguang Temple, Hongbian and Anren, who were still in their prime, walked side by side to the room with the wooden door half closed. Following the strange smell and the dimness of the Zen room, they gently opened the door. What comes into view is a shivering figure hiding under numerous quilts.
Layers of quilts almost buried the person on the bed. At that time, Hongbian thought that the other person was so afraid of the cold as soon as autumn entered the body because of the cold wind. He softly tried to wake the other person up, but he only received a series of indistinct sounds in response. .
He thought that the other party was about to step forward to ask questions when he woke up, but his junior brother An Ren reached out to stop him, with a look of caution on his face. Hongbian also vaguely realized something was wrong at this time, and gradually heard the sound under the quilt. It was actually a strange and sticky sound that was distorted and delirium. It was not at all like the elk they knew who was wandering to the left and blind. A sudden hazy guest.
Monk Anren stepped in front of them. Judging from the outline of the quilt, the two monks had discovered more strange things.
Under the numerous quilts, there seemed to be two legs that were weirdly bent together, as if the heels were stuck, and a pair of arms were also pressed down by invisible force, and they were placed in an extremely unnatural posture beside the body—— The person under the quilt seems to have lost control of his body due to a serious illness, and is simply unable to make movements that are consistent with ordinary people's cognition.
In the narrow and dark Zen room, the two of them breathed softly unconsciously, and the original colors of the surrounding scenery began to fade and dim, as if they had been invisible and dissolved.
However, the arrival of Hongbian and Anren still disturbed the existence under the quilt. Hongbian clung to the corners of the monk's robe, and Anren tensed up and widened his eyes.
That day, their eyes widened together, and they saw the dormant bulge hidden on the bed. It was slowly squirming with its torso. It was unclear whether it was the chest or the back. It seemed that there were occasionally a few irregular fleshy bulges emerging. .
The monks of Jingguang Temple who were previously frightened out of fear must have made many quilts out of extreme panic, hoping to restrain the appearance of some ominous things. But now, it seems that there is no "person" between the beds and quilts. There is only a mass of rotting mold growing quietly, which may break the "seal" at any time...
