So in the next few days, Qin Bukong stayed at home and studied. But every time he was asked what results he had, he always said that there was no progress yet, but he believed there would be one soon. So Songzi and I couldn't ask more questions. Maybe it was because Qin Bukong felt that there were some clues, but because there was no definite evidence to prove it, rather than coming to a conclusion that everyone didn't understand, it was better not to say it for the time being and wait until he got it. If there are enough clues, mention it again.
And I am probably the person in the team of three people who has the least understanding of the local area. I have been coming to this place for more than two years, but I still can't tell the difference between east, west and north. I have to ask for directions to any place, which makes me a burden. For so long, I have figured out the places near Qin Bukong's home, and it has taken a lot of effort. So these days I have been with Songzi, and he takes the lead. I just follow along, and when I meet anyone who can help me and provide advice, I just add a few words.
Songzi told me that according to the rules of the previous two levels, the place we are looking for must be a place that has been preserved locally for more than a thousand years. However, due to various factors such as wars, many of the existing places are basically in modern times. The restoration and construction only retained the original site. There are more than 30 such places in Wuhan, but Songzi also said that he has greatly narrowed the scope and only concentrated it in the Yangtze River and Han River basins, because it is still necessary to travel to these places with the current transportation conditions. Ten days and a half month, if you put it a thousand years ago, it might have been even more difficult. Since it was a checkpoint, its purpose was naturally to stop others, but it happened to leave clues. Its purpose was to tell the person who broke through the checkpoint, if it really happened If he can reach the end, he must be the destined person of that senior.
What Songzi said makes sense to me. If the senior really just wanted these things to never be found, there would be no need to go through so much trouble and he would just have to do everything quietly. And now not only have some clues been left for us, maybe it was this senior himself who spread the word about sealing the soul of the Witch King. This is like a talented artist who creates a work of art. No matter how careful and secretive he is, he always hopes that this work of art can be presented to everyone and be recognized and praised by others.
So Songzi thinks from the perspective of this senior, this is indeed the most lacking part of Qin Bukong, because we only care about the people in front of us, running around like headless flies, and we happen to bump into one, then It can only be said to be fate.
Songzi then told me that after narrowing the scope to the Liangjiang Basin, there were still more than ten places left, among which two or three were the Shadowless Tower and Iron Gate Pass that we had already looked for before. The remaining places were also Most of them are concentrated on both sides of the Yangtze River. This way, it is relatively easy for us to investigate. At least we don't have to work hard and waste a lot of time on the road.
I asked Songzi, do you have a clue now? We have inquired about many places these days. Every time you nodded, I was confused. Songzi smiled and said, Situ, Situ, you really should know more about where you live. There is always only one final truth to any problem. It just requires you to continue to subtract from a lot of suspected clues until Just the last one left. As we investigate this matter, you just need to keep adhering to this purpose, and you will definitely find that the road will become narrower and narrower, and there will even be no way to go in the end. When there is no way out, no matter how hard you try to find a breakthrough, this breakthrough may be the key to the truth.
I agree with what he said, but I don’t understand it. It’s like the contradiction between new learning and old learning. They are both cultural knowledge. The old learning talks about human ethics, etiquette, justice and shame, while the new learning teaches us logical thinking and effective analysis. From the perspective of cultural knowledge, each has its own value. If the two can integrate and understand each other, then they are truly knowledgeable people. Obviously, Songzi is a knowledgeable person to me at this moment. Perhaps it is because he has lived in a Taoist temple since he was a child. His world view is very large, but his values are very small, so that the angle and way of thinking about problems are not the same as those of Taoism. Those of us who have been immersed in the secular world for many years are much simpler and more pure.
The simplicity and purity of pine nuts is exactly what I appreciate most.
Songzi said, starting from the Eight-door Strange Formation that you and Senior Qin jointly destroyed before, to the Qisha Pass that we are about to break through now, to put it bluntly, they are all based on the theoretical basis of our Taoism. Although in this Occasionally, we can encounter some content that is compatible with another local religion, Buddhism. For example, when we first encountered the "魑", you and Senior Qin both thought it was a "sha", but you fell into some of the previous ideas. In my miscellaneous notes and experiences, I did not carefully discover the connections between them. After saying this, Songzi smiled slyly, and then said to me, who said "魑" and "沙" can't be the same thing? The difference that religious teachings give us is just a different perspective of understanding. Who is Guanyin Bodhisattva in Buddhism or Cihang in Taoism?
What Songzi said was so different from my previous rigid research methods that I was so surprised that I couldn't speak for a long time. Songzi went on to say that our Taoism is a native religion, and what it most represents is the profound cultural accumulation and accumulation of our Chinese people for thousands of years. Buddhism was gradually introduced from the Han Dynasty, and in the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzang traveled westward and took the The Buddhist scriptures that came back are actually the scriptures of primitive Buddhism, and according to local conditions, if we understand the scriptures of Tianzhu from the perspective of our Han understanding of everything, it is naturally impossible to be word-for-word and unchangeable. Under the feudal monarchy, in order to consolidate their rule, emperors often used religion to restrain the people. Under such circumstances, our Buddhism integrated ancient legends and Taoist theoretical knowledge to form its current form. , in fact, the difference between it and primitive Buddhism is already very huge. You've also read Journey to the West, right?
The more I talked about it, the more addictive I became. It seemed that I wanted to change my way of thinking in a short period of time. I said of course I had read the Four Great Classics. If I didn’t even know Journey to the West, then my life would have been in vain. Songzi said, don’t you think it’s strange? Tang Monk took Buddhist scriptures, but the book was filled with various Taoist figures such as the Jade Emperor, the Queen Mother, Taiyi Xingjun, Taishang Laojun, and even Nezha, a figure on the list of gods?
When I heard it, it seemed that this was really the case. According to Songzi's logic, this seemed to corroborate what he said. Seeing that I was thoughtful, Songzi continued, so the clue we are looking for now is called "Sixty Years", which is derived from the content of our Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. It belongs to primitive Taoism. The people who originally set up the formations and gates were also As a Taoist master, the direction we are looking for this time must also start from the perspective of Taoism. In this way, the remaining more than ten thousand-year-old buildings must also be related to Taoism.
Songzi said, do you still remember the Changchun Temple we visited yesterday? I said I remembered it. It was a famous Taoist temple in the local area. Could it be that the place you said that Sixty Years was referring to was actually this place? Songzi nodded and said, I think it probably is, but my judgment is not just because it is a Taoist temple.
He said, In fact, I have inquired about the current Changchun Temple in the past two days. It is obviously because in the Yuan Dynasty, Qiu Chuji once preached here and stayed for a period of time. Many people came to listen to his sermons. , some Taoist temples and temples gradually formed nearby, so later the whole group was named after Qiu Chuji's title "Changchunzi", and was called "Changchun Temple".
I said something was wrong. The predecessors who set up the formation were from the Song Dynasty. If this place was built and the climate was only formed in the Yuan Dynasty, wouldn't it be wrong in terms of time? Songzi said that this is indeed the case, but before Changchun Temple officially became a palace, it was called "Laojun Temple". According to legend, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Lao Tzu once stayed here and spent a long time here to achieve enlightenment. At that time, this place was still a barren mountain with no human habitation, so Laojun picked wild fruits and vegetables to eat when he was hungry, and drank mountain spring water when he was thirsty. Later, he dug a well and spent all day at the mouth of the well looking down at the water in the well. Using the well as a mirror, he watched his hair and beard grow longer, and thus pondered some truths. This well was called "Tiji Well" by later generations, but it was blocked and sealed in the early years of the Republic of China.
I yelled in my heart, that’s a pity. Maybe if we as cultivators take a sip of water from the bottom of the well dug by Lao Jun himself, we might be able to achieve enlightenment earlier. Songzi went on to say that when he asked about this well, he thought of the original meaning of "魍" in our pass. This kind of ghost, described in ancient books, is a kind of ghost that exists in mountains, rivers and swamps and is formed by the essence of heaven and earth. , and in fact, the habit of most ancient books is to put "魍" and "鉉" together, but that was recorded after the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In fact, in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", they each have their own affairs. "Zhao" is a specially made aquatic spirit monster, but it is ethereal and invisible. It looks like a ghost but is actually a monster. And "evil" is the kind that gathers due to disease, similar to the plague.
I asked Songzi, do you think that "evil" is under Tiji Well? But didn’t you say that the well had been sealed long ago? Songzi smiled and said, "Don't worry, this is just one aspect of it. Just because it has been sealed, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist." What really makes me feel like this place is a small hall that has been preserved in this place since the Laojun Temple period.
I asked, what palace? Songzi said, Doumu Palace.
