He Siniang saw the Taoist priest with a grimace and analyzed a lot, but he didn't get to the point yet. Luo Laoqi and Xia Houxiang were confused, so they picked up the important points and added: "That is to say, this is called 'Jianghua Taoist'" The critical judge accidentally discovered a deep underground valley when building the mausoleum. He thought it was a good place to bury bones, so he built the tunnel without telling anyone and left a sarcophagus on the platform to use as his mausoleum."
After hearing this, Luo Laoqi suddenly realized: "It turns out that this is the coffin of Mr. Li's ancestors. Is this family's bad moral character inherited from the ancestors? He went to other tombs and lay down in them."
"But what about others?" Xia Houxiang asked: "There are obviously no bones in the sarcophagus."
"Who knows? After all, it's just a guess. Without careful investigation, how can we find out the whole story?"
Xia Houyun nodded thoughtfully, and then interjected: "I know your concerns, Si Niang. It doesn't matter whether there are corpses in the coffin. The important thing is that once this is really the fault of the criticizing judge, then Li Tianwen will go north to hang The purpose of Hucheng is a bit complicated."
"What the senior said is absolutely true. Li Tianwen was nominally here to deal with the Nanlong Hidden Vein for Liu Ziye, but with this discovery, no one can tell whether he has something private in his heart."
The Taoist Priest with a grimace said at the side: "Furthermore, Li Tianwen is the best at official and private matters, and his calculations in dealing with people and affairs are very deep. We must not treat him with ordinary people's thinking, otherwise the ambush in the ancient tomb will be very serious." It may change from a trap that kills the enemy to a prison for ourselves."
"What is the Taoist master's plan now?"
"Didn't I tell you this before? Let's figure out the layout of the ancient tomb as soon as possible. If there are any flaws, we can find them early. We don't have to worry about this deep underground valley anymore. Taking Li Tianwen's life is not as important as taking Li Tianwen's life. "
"Okay! Ambush Li Tianwen is a matter of the old man's sect, but the Taoist priest takes this as his priority in everything, which makes him look like an old man and an idiot. Now that we have seen this wonderful scene, let's continue to explore the way."
"Walk!"
Everyone quickly returned to the ear room. After Luo Laoqi took away the mace, the Taoist priest with a grimace clicked the button of the mechanism again, and the stone bed immediately moved back to its original position. This set of mechanisms seems to be exactly the same as the ones at Hushenkan and Hutan. They are all press-triggered. The principle is also very simple. There is only one set of shafts that can rotate forward and reverse. It is far inferior to the three ghost-faced Taoist priests in Huiwang. It seems that Taoist Jianghua's knowledge of the tomb was very limited. If the Mo family had been allowed to design the tomb, everyone might have broken it in the corridor of Hushenkan.
After leaving the ear room, everyone no longer paid attention to the long corridors on the left and right sides, but went straight to the tomb door on the west rock wall. This tomb door was obviously more exquisite than all the tomb doors encountered on the road, which also proved that Behind the door is the place that the tomb owner attaches most importance to.
The door of the tomb is ajar and can be pushed open with just a push. The first thing that appears behind the door is a front room, which is about half the size of a wing room. There are many lamp niches in the shape of longevity peaches carved on the wall. The oil lamps in the lamp niches have long been extinguished. However, there was a lot of lamp oil left. This was obviously due to the large number of oil lamps and the lack of air circulation after closing the tomb door. The Taoist Priest with a grimace looked at the seven or eight levels of lamp niches on the rock wall and said : "There are so many oil lamps in a small tomb. Is Shi Zhou Huozhu still afraid of the dark?"
"Afraid of the dark, it's better to hang it with a kite and bury it in the sky." Luo Laoqi took a few steps forward and saw a huge bronze chandelier hanging on the top of the wall in the center of the front room. Its shape was larger than that of the niche. There is a lot of care in the oil lamp inside. The lamp plate below is cast into a lotus flower, and the lamppost and lamp holder are made of jade. The whole thing has the heaviness of bronze and the beauty of fine workmanship, but Luo Laoqi can't tell. Those who came four, five or six were just surprised and said: "Oh damn, there is a big one here. Is the grandson really a coward?"
Xia Houyun, He Siniang and others did not answer, because apart from these various oil lamps, there was nothing else to see in the front room. They were also unsure about the purpose of placing them here. With so many oil lamps, the burial custom of installing ever-burning lamps in ancient tombs has been around since ancient times, but I have never heard that ever-burning lamps need to fill an entire tomb chamber?
Speaking of the ever-burning lanterns in ancient tombs, this actually originated from an evolution of folk customs. The earliest tradition of "burning lanterns day and night to keep them bright" was the Spring Festival, a traditional festival of the Han people.
The Spring Festival was not called this name in ancient times. Due to different calendars in different dynasties and dynasties, the time names of the Spring Festival are also different. It was called "Sui" in the Xia Dynasty, "Si" in the Shang Dynasty, and "Nian" in the Zhou Dynasty. However, the Spring Festival has a fixed date. It was not fixed until the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
However, although the name and date of the Spring Festival are different, the customs are basically the same. It is said that New Year's Eve is the day when the folk gods go to heaven to report their duties. The gods who have been busy for a year must have time to go to heaven to report, so the common people will go to heaven to report their work. We started getting rid of evil spirits early in the morning - cleaning up the inside and outside of the room, replacing the incense sticks and candles used to worship the gods, and then pasting new couplets on them, in order to have a good impression when the gods return to heaven.
Of course, China has a vast territory, and the folk customs of various places are naturally different. In places such as Jiangnan, Chaoshan, etc., they will send gods to heaven on the 23rd or 24th of the twelfth lunar month, and prepare good wine and meat. The purpose is actually the same, to entertain the gods. , and even get them drunk to prevent them from talking nonsense.
When the gods returned to heaven, they couldn't leave hastily after they finished their reports. They had to have a banquet to celebrate, so that they would continue to work until the New Year. So on New Year's Eve, there is actually no protection from gods among the people. .
Without the protection of gods, all kinds of monsters and ghosts began to work, among which the "demon monsters" were the most ferocious. As long as they saw the candles in a house extinguished, they would go to attack people in the dark, so people could only light candles all night and Sitting together to look after and keep this end-of-year candle that can save lives, it is called "Shou Sui Fire". Later generations call it "Shou Sui Fire", and the custom of keeping the lantern burning comes from this.
Let’s make a digression here. The author has some popular opinions on the legend of “staying up late”. Ancient books also record that “demons and monsters” are not four kinds of evil spirits, but two kinds of spirits. The “demons” are a kind of dung beetle (dung beetle). "Sprites" are spiders that have become spirits. Most of the prototypes of ghosts in ancient my country originally originated from daily life. So, will the ones that come out to harm people on New Year's Eve just be poisonous insects and evil beasts? Setting off firecrackers on New Year's Eve has been a custom since the pre-Qin Dynasty. At night, poisonous insects that should be dormant are frightened by the crackle of firecrackers. It is not surprising that they flee into the dark house in panic and sting people. At this time, keeping the lights bright can do the trick. It has the function of repelling insects, so does the tradition of staying up late on New Year's Eve have something to do with it?
The above is purely the author's conjecture and has nothing to do with this article. I only say that the ever-burning lantern was later included in the burial system. This is still a manifestation of treating death as life. However, the ever-burning lantern in ancient tombs also has an additional purpose. As the "Chang'an lamp", it symbolizes the peace of the tomb owner's mausoleum and body. As long as the Chang'an lamp is not extinguished, the body of the tomb owner can last for thousands of generations. Therefore, the ancients also racked their brains to make the Chang'an lamp more durable, and even for He spares no effort and money to find the "mermaid" that only exists in legends, in order to use the mermaid's precious fish oil to make a lamp that will last forever.
