Since the birth of the so-called civilization and country of mankind, spiritual beliefs and other things have never disappeared.
Most of the time the word is directly linked to religion, and almost any human civilization large enough will have its own religion. It is a kind of identity, and it also plays a role in unifying a country or a nation to some extent.
Looking at a more ambiguous concept, spiritual beliefs do not necessarily have to be linked to religion. The dogma of personal life and persistence in a certain cause can all be included in this concept.
What it is is difficult to sum up in a few words.
"Tangible things are fragile." Nothing can exist forever, and no one can live forever.
But the spirit is different, the national spirit, the family tradition, the inner strength of a group of people's beliefs, thoughts, and spirit passed down from generation to generation will still survive even after death.
And when material conditions are insufficient and conditions are difficult, it is this spirit that often allows people to overcome difficulties and survive.
If you hold tens of millions of assets, then anyone can take out a drop of water from his vast ocean of wealth to give to the poor. But when they are in danger, how many people are willing to give away the materials in their hands to give to others.
Turn the tide in a seemingly hopeless situation and face the enemy when everyone else is turning to flee. An invincible hero or a virtuous king who will last through the ages, those individuals who are better than mortals always have their own creed that is higher than material things and higher than the present.
This is what makes humans, a short-lived race, unique from other races.
--So.
What if the so-called faith and spirit just become some kind of dogma or some rigid rules, and the people who do it just follow the same pattern and do not really inherit the true essence from the predecessors;
If the spiritual power has long since disappeared, all that remains is an empty shell of the surface.
It's like a ship that is too big, and when the wind stops, the man at the helm and the sailors who rowed the oars have all turned into bones, and they just continue to move forward according to the inertia of the past.
Everyone does this not because "it should be like this", but because "it has been like this in the past".
So is the direction it should move in the right direction?
The words return to their original place.
Thanks to Tomitia, the departing team was able to bring back enough water for everyone to use for more than two days.
The mountain road was difficult to navigate, and it took nearly two hours to go back and forth. In particular, pots and pans become heavy after being filled with water, and they are not airtight containers and are prone to spilling on steep and rugged mountain roads. In order to fix them, the sage used local materials and cut some frames from wood and used ropes to strengthen them. However, after returning, this became the reason for A Yong and others who fell ill and lay on the ground with only a loud voice to blame him.
"Why did it take so long? Don't you see that we are suffering?"
After the group of people, who had carefully taken care of the water utensils and worried about spilling it, came back, A Yong's direct words made everyone feel like cold water was poured on them.
Even Yajiro could hardly hold it in anymore. He felt increasingly disgusted with this man who was once as close as a brother, but deep down he couldn't tell whether this was projecting self-loathing onto Ayong.
——Because their life trajectories were almost the same before that.
Growing up in a traditional Kazuto samurai family, he learned martial arts and the book knowledge that a samurai should learn. All he could think about was how to fight; how to serve his master; how to fulfill his duties faithfully.
He fully thought that when he grew up, he would find a wise Chinese man and become a famous warrior under him. In Yajiro's previous imagination, every battle he fought was naturally in line with the samurai spirit. It is a glorious and capable head-to-head confrontation, and there will be absolutely no imperfections.
Perfect and rigorous, just like the skillful woodware in the hands of a good craftsman. When the lid is closed, it fits tightly and becomes one piece.
Perfectly abide by the life that a warrior should have, be loyal to his duties, be strict with himself, fight with dignity and dignity in every battle, and in the end meet a gorgeous death like the cherry blossoms in the Moon Country.
This is the so-called "Samurai Way."
Imperfection cannot be tolerated, and "trying your best" cannot be tolerated. Either get the most perfect result, or it means failure. If you fail, you should apologize by committing suicide, so that you can clear away the shame you have suffered.
This strict rule is not only directed at oneself, but also spreads to others around them.
This is the reason why the ashigaru have always been unable to hold their heads high in front of senior samurai. No matter what they do, in the eyes of the samurai, these vulgar subordinates always have countless "imperfections".
So Ayong opened his mouth to accuse, sarcastically and sarcastically, because in his eyes Henry and others who had spent time to create this framework were deliberately making things difficult for him.
His attitude towards Henry and his party was the same as he treated Ashigaru before. He didn't do this in the past not because of how polite he was, but because of the status of the sage and his party as distinguished guests of the Qingtian family and the respect of Narumi and others who led the team.
But this time the hostility became more and more serious. Although Henry did not do anything to him, the so-called noble children were like this after all.
When people are sick, their negative emotions tend to get worse along with their physical discomfort. Originally, most Kazuto samurai felt that they were the pride of heaven and that others should serve them. But now they would treat others as servants and scold them loudly. It just comes naturally.
The young Luoan girl frowned, and Yajiro and Lao Qiao also became more and more irritable when they encountered this kind of thing after returning from their summer trip.
Even the always cheerful old Joe lost his smile, but Henry just waved his hand and told them not to care about it, because the moment was not the most critical moment for personal emotions.
He had long ago passed the age where he would act impulsively due to personal mood swings. To a large extent, it was because of his temporary emotional venting that he was still the one to clean up the mess.
This may be the tragedy of the so-called sage.
When you become a being that people admire, the respect and glory you receive are indeed a source of pride, but this attention also means responsibility, which means that many people will have expectations of you that may be higher than your abilities.
When "heroic deeds" become "natural", the voice of gratitude will become smaller and smaller, until finally doing these things becomes a matter of course, not doing these things or not doing them perfectly becomes a sin.
The most important human emotion is gratitude, but the most vulnerable human emotion is also gratitude.
The irony is that gratitude is an important component of samurai culture, tied to loyalty and written into dogma. But this kind of gratitude can only come from the bottom up. It can only be given by warriors to the monarch they serve. It is impossible for warriors to be grateful for the behavior of people they think are below them.
If civilians offer a bowl of water to the samurai to quench their thirst in the hot summer, that is not worthy of gratitude. It is just what they should do - and it is the same now, although the current situation of Ayong and others is all because of themselves. They are impulsive and ignorant, but they feel that it is natural for others to take care of them, and they will curse at the slightest dissatisfaction.
Among already rigid and solidified classes, virtue also has triggering conditions. They have not really learned the so-called moral character, because the dogma only tells them to be loyal to their future master and to always hold the Lord's kindness in their hearts.
When they first met, Mira thought that Kazuto's samurai were superior to the Rigal knights.
Because their conversation, dress and daily cultivation are worthy of the name of elite, unlike many knights who are just bandits and robbers wearing bright armor.
But as she traveled for several months and saw what she saw during this period, she increasingly realized that these people were not much different from the same social class on the other side of the ocean. They are careful in their conversation and focus on how to maintain their swords with standard movements. Every move is full of ritual and they do enough superficial work.
But it was already empty inside.
Run away in the face of battle and shirk responsibility.
Treating recklessness as bravery has no overall perspective. Even the price of impulsiveness has implicated others without repentance. Instead, it is taken for granted.
The samurai pattern of Kazuto is very small, because the meaning of their existence is only to pursue personal honor.
And why they pursue personal honor is because the doctrine they learned tells them so.
A Yong and others are like rebellious teenagers who have not grown up. They eat and drink from their parents, and then think that they have independently taken the things from home and go out to explore, but they are beaten to death because of lack of experience and knowledge. flow.
Then when he was injured, he went home to seek help, and he also shied away the responsibility, thinking that his parents failed to teach him well or did not give him enough support.
They are not healthy adults, they are just a group of teenagers who have grown up under a strict class education and have only martial arts and knowledge about how to perform their duties faithfully, but they will never be mentally mature.
As time goes by, after going through wind, rain, waves and sand, maybe some of them will be able to transform into different beings.
For sages who have experienced a long life, patience is probably the most indispensable thing.
So Henry ignored the shouts and curses of A Yong and others. He just silently used the charcoal left over from boiling water and some other items to make a temporary potion that had some effect on diarrhea.
After taking the warming potion, Ayong and the others finally became relatively quiet after feeling a little more comfortable.
The dehydration caused by diarrhea made them weak and dizzy. Before, they had the strength to make a fuss because of their excitement and dissatisfaction, but now they just lay there half-dead like dead fish.
Henry was only responsible for mixing the potion, and the care work ultimately fell to the Ashigaru. These lower-level personnel who have always been responsible for serving the samurai work hard without complaint. Even if they have dissatisfaction, they suppress it in their hearts and will not say it.
After witnessing the abandoned fields and the waste-like young samurai on the other side of Ziyun, and his mood changed, Yajiro began to see a subtle difference in the scene in his eyes.
The Ashigaru serve the samurai, and the common people farm to support the samurai. All this is natural.
But is this really a given?
The fields were abandoned and the people had no life. Ashigaru slept less than 4 hours a day and still had to do so many chores after fighting. But for what reason?
Can you waste your life drinking and having fun for the young martial arts disciples? No, even if you don't mention the shame of being a martial artist, just the personal honor as a warrior that you pursue.
Is it also important to pay the price by leaving the fields abandoned and making it difficult for many civilians to make a living?
He used to be extremely convinced of this, thinking that there was nothing more important in the world than this. But now it's getting harder and harder for Yajiro to be sure.
The previous belief came from ignorance, but after more exposure, enlightenment brought not a clear path forward, but confusion.
But it's still a good thing.
Worry as much as you want, be confused as much as you want, think as much as you want, long for as much as you want.
Only in this way can you truly find your own bright path.
It is never a good thing to be closed in a small environment, holding on to a creed that is only an empty shell, and regard it as the whole life. Because the goal is clear because of the isolation, it is never a good thing.
He is deaf to what is going on outside the window, has no idea of the sufferings suffered by the people in the world, and just pursues the honor of being a warrior. Of course, that kind of life is clear and focused, with clear goals, and even relaxed.
But now trouble is coming from the north, and the Padrosi Empire on the other side of the ocean is also watching with eager eyes. The country and the country that have been more than four thousand years old are no longer as stable as they would like to believe.
What I saw when I woke up was a crumbling country, as if I was trapped in a burning house with no way to escape and my eyes were full of confusion.
Then it would be better to die in sleep, which would be less painful.
Most people will probably still choose the latter.
But he took the step and began to face things he had ignored in the past.
This may be what the first generation of warriors who opened up the Kingdom of the Moon thousands of years ago wanted to emphasize, but it has been lost and deteriorated over a long period of time.
"There is movement." The sage suddenly spoke, breaking the thoughts of Yajiro and others with his usual calm tone.
There were twenty or thirty people gathered, and with just one glance, you could tell that they were accomplices of the group next to the well.
The same tattered equipment, the same thin figure.
The difference was that only this time they brought rusty but gleaming iron tools.
"Can I still keep my hand? I don't really want to..." Yajiro hesitated, but his current mood changes made him somewhat reluctant to do anything to these people who looked like hungry people.
"Try your best." But Henry just said that and did not give a positive answer.
