Maybe you want to ask, isn't your name Situ Shankong? Why is he called Situ Qin now? Situ Qin is actually my original name, Situ Shankong, which was the name given to me by my master later. There are two masters before and after me, one is from Taoism and the other is from folk. The Taoist masters gave me the character Shan, and the folk masters gave me the character Kong, so until later, I always said my name was Situ Shankong.
However, my father once told me when I was young that my ancestor’s surname was not Situ, but Si. And pushing forward a few hundred years, it was Sima again. Maybe you want to ask again why your ancestor's surname was Sima, and then he became Situ in your generation. I will find an opportunity to tell you the specific reason in the future.
As for my father, he was once a pao brother at Wanglongmen Wharf. Although he participated in the Anti-Japanese War, he returned home during the civil war. After liberation, the country banned the Brother Pao organization, and my father was imprisoned as a member of the Three Anti-Rebels because of his relationship with a former petty boss. When I was 6 years old, my parents sent me to the old school on Baixiang Street, trying to use schooling to change my destiny. The teacher who taught me was a scholar in the previous dynasty. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, he started teaching. However, the old learning was completely banned soon after liberation. I went to school with me and my childhood best friend, we all called him "Di Baotian".
He was called this because his lower jaw bone is more protruding than the upper jaw bone. When his mouth is closed, the lower row of teeth is outside the upper row of teeth, so he is jokingly called "The Big One". His father was also a Sichuan Army anti-Japanese soldier, but he was not as lucky as my father. He went out alone and came back with a tattered and bloody military uniform. So Di Baotian's mother adopted him as an adopted son to her deceased husband's younger brother. He was a young man who set up a small stall on the street and bought soy milk, fried dough sticks, and sweet glutinous rice balls. We all called him second uncle.
Since I was a good eater when I was little, I often went to my uncle’s stall to eat glutinous rice balls while I was going to school with Di Baotian. Precisely because I can eat big pieces, my second uncle always calls me "Mangwazi". "Mang" in Sichuan dialect usually means a big, strong and edible piece of meat.
The Taoist priest listened carefully to the past events I told him, even though except for the part that I had memories of, everything else was what my father and mother had told me. In that era, it was glorious to be a soldier, and literacy was awesome. As long as you were down-to-earth and became a worker in a factory, that would be the best destination.
The Taoist priest looked at me with a look of pity in his eyes. He asked me to come to him and then said to me, "Little boy, from the day you came with your uncle, I am very impressed by your studiousness and daring to ask questions." like. I'm very happy that you like Taoist priests, but this journey is not easy, and it may get harder and harder as you go, aren't you worried?
I told the Taoist priest that I am not afraid of hardship or lack of money. As long as I don’t starve to death, I don’t care about anything else. The Taoist priest asked me hesitantly, "Is this just to be able to wear clothes and eat?" I shook my head and said no, because I saw that you are willing to help others, you are a good person, and I want to be a good person too.
Perhaps because of my decisive words, the Taoist priest did not accept me as his disciple that day, but he asked me to kowtow, serve tea, and call him sir instead. His surname was Lin, and his name was Lin Qishan. He told me that he was a monk from the Quanzhen sect, but most of his craftsmanship was learned from the Zizheng sect. As for why he is so special, I have no idea.
Mr. Lin asked me to go home and tell my uncle that day, and then stay here the next day. After all, half of the reason why I came here to become a disciple was because of my uncle's persuasion. So that night I got very drunk with my uncle, and the next day I started my apprenticeship.
Mr. Lin told me that in the early days, I could only do odd jobs with him. He would teach me to remember some things, but he would not teach me how to use them for the time being. In his spare time, Mr. Lin would dump everything in his box on the table and ask me to remember the name of each item and what it was used for. Every time I remember something, I can put such things back into the box. I remember this once a day. I soon remembered all the messy things in his box clearly.
This kind of study is actually very boring. When I follow Mr. Lin, I mostly clean the house or cook for him. My relationship with him has also changed from the usual restraint. From time to time, we will tease each other for a while.
In three months, I passed the test and successfully became a master. My title to him changed from Mr. Lin to Master. That day, after I appealed to the founder of the Sanqing Dynasty, the master gave me the character "山". It is said that it means that I hope that I will be as tall as a mountain and stand tall on the sky and the earth.
Master was very happy that day and said he would take me to a restaurant to celebrate my successful apprenticeship.
After eating the clear soup for so long, when I heard the word "dining out", I almost jumped up with joy. You must know that in the past few months, most of the time there is nothing meaty. If I occasionally eat eggs, I think it is celebrating the New Year in advance. In fact, I have some money that I saved earlier, and Master is not so poor that he is a vegetarian. But since he didn’t mention it, I gritted my teeth and endured it. After all, Master is a person who has endured hardship. Any peaceful meal nowadays is a gift to him.
But I'm different. I haven't suffered much since I was a child. Although I don't have fish and meat every day, I have tasted everything from a good family. These past few months have really made me panic, and once I couldn't bear it anymore. , I went to coax the kid in the neighbor’s house who was nibbling meat pancakes. I said I could do magic and turn your round pancake into a crescent moon. The kid didn’t believe it, so I bit the meat pancake in his hand. Take a big mouthful, and then tell him inarticulately, look, it has become the moon now, right?
Since then, my daily homework has changed from doing odd jobs and cleaning the house to memorizing scriptures and studying Dharma. Master and I each took turns doing the cooking. From that time on, Master would take the initiative to take some jobs outside. I hope it was not because he felt that my appetite was too big to overwhelm him, but they were basically simple funeral rituals or tomb placement in a ghost house. , he would take me along, which not only opened my eyes, but also allowed me to follow his movements and techniques.
On weekdays, I am used to laughing and joking with Master, and he is not angry. Occasionally, he will make mischief with me. However, Master was very strict with me when he was teaching me. If I misrecited a word in a passage, I would be slapped on my calf with a fire stick, and if I recited a wrong sentence, I would be punished by copying it twenty times.
As the saying goes, a strict teacher gives birth to a good disciple. I still don’t know whether I am a good disciple, because my study is still on the premise that there is no practical basis. What is the use of memorizing a lot of scriptures?
What's the use of watching so many rituals? So one night when I was chatting with my master at the door, I told him my confusion. He told me that kung fu must be developed step by step. If he taught me some powerful skills from the beginning, he would be afraid that I would be too young. Don't know how to retract and release freely.
I thought so, so I continued to study with peace of mind. Fortunately, I am a person who can read well and my memory is not bad. It has been about a year since I became a disciple. I can recite any passage of scripture that Master is taking exams on and I can also explain it completely and accurately. meaning.
Master was very satisfied with my progress, so he was happy again that day. I thought he was going to take me to a restaurant again, but he told me, you haven’t been home for more than a year. Starting tomorrow, you will be away for a few days. It's time to go back and see your uncle and your friends. When you come back, I will teach you how to use some spells, and at the same time follow me to other places.
I was so excited when I heard it, not because the master wanted to teach me spells, but because he wanted to take me to another place. You must know that the farthest I have traveled in more than a year is the back mountain. So I happily asked, Master, where are you going? What are you going to do? The master said that when I went to a small county in the northwest, I received a letter from an old friend and asked him to help solve something. I asked again, what is it?
Master looked at me with a hint of uneasiness on his expression, and then said to me, it’s a ghost thing.
