From then on, there has always been the Temple of the Imperial Concubine on Dupan Ridge by the Fengzu River. In this temple are placed the imperial concubine’s travel diary of the Northern Expeditions written in female handwriting. At the same time, she wrote on her way north There are eighteen volumes of Nushu, which record all women’s customs, etiquette, social and historical knowledge, production and living skills, and moral cultivation.
Originally, this place was just a temple dedicated to the imperial concubine. As Nüshu became more and more popular, many women from Yongming County would come here specifically to take away Nüshu scrolls, study Nüshu or copy and copy them. Instead, they completely destroyed Nüshu. Popularized in Yongming.
"Since the Song Dynasty, any woman in Yongming County can use female writing fluently. Such writing is naturally more private than men's writing, and has become a secret text used by women to record their thoughts and communicate with each other." After finishing speaking, Jin The old lady's thoughts returned to the present: "Speaking of which, when the Taiping Army was in rebellion, the bandit leader Hong Tianwang snatched many women in Yongming County to be his bullshit concubines. In fact, he just wanted to win over the women and send them to him in Nu Shu. According to the news, for this reason, some kind of money was minted in the name of fame and reputation, and in the end, the previous dynasty had to suppress the bandits."
"Didn't the Taiping Army also do some good things in Yongming?" Song Siyuan asked. He remembered that these people in Yongming County were very willing to help the Taiping Army. After all, they were oppressed by the government so much money, so maybe they were looking forward to this day.
Mrs. Hu's eyes seemed angry, and she waved her hands and said: "Girl, everyone can pretend. When the Taiping Army first occupied it, they were really trying to stabilize order, but as time went by, their true colors were revealed. Think about it, King Hong Tian just conquered A few counties dare to appoint concubines and become kings, relying only on these untouchable people."
"The concubines in Yongming County misjudged them and mistakenly believed that they were making decisions for the people. In fact, they were just a group of gangsters under the guise of saving the world and the people. After passing through Yongming, what they left to the county was to be eaten dry. The mess that was wiped clean was later targeted by the government, which is another disaster left by the Taiping Army." Speaking of this, Mrs. Hu had some tears in her eyes: "Back then, my sister was arrested and raped. Concubine, as soon as these murderers left, the government drowned my sister. If I hadn’t been young, I would have been the one who was captured to be the concubine. It was my sister who saved my life." It seems that Old Mrs. Hu still can't let go of this. Now she thinks about it and is still extremely sad. However, it has been too long and even her past has disappeared. She doesn't even know who to seek revenge from. She picked up a handkerchief to wipe it. She burst into tears: "Look at me, when people get old they lose energy. Where have I been? These things you see were obtained by General Jin from Empress Hu's relics!"
"You mean, there are many more books like this?" Song Siyuan thought this was some kind of unique treasure. From what Mrs. Hu said, it was probably one of Princess Hu's burial objects.
Old Mrs. Hu nodded and said: "Yes, there are many books of the same type of mysterious burial coupons, and almost all of them were sent to the tomb of the imperial concubine. Back then, after the general of the Jin Kingdom asked people to read Nüshu, he found that there were Beifang's books hidden in the book. In order to keep this secret, I took out this mysterious book, and it has been missing since then. I didn’t expect that I would still come across the Hu family’s mysterious book from a thousand years ago.”
"Then, can you help us take a look now, what is written in this mysterious book?" Song Siyuan's words can be regarded as asking the old lady. Mrs. Hu looked at the photo, there was obviously something wrong in her eyes, she shook her head and said: "Thousands of years have passed, and Nüshu has been updated. This Nüshu is actually a deformation of Chinese characters. I don't know how many new words have been added. The content of Nüshu is mostly in a catchy rhythm, with many allusions quoted to cover up The real meaning, once some words are changed, the meaning will be completely different.”
"Even if it is written by the same person, decades later, she may not know what it means at all." After saying this, Mrs. Hu's eyes became mysterious: "Think about it, thousands of years have passed, and Nüshu has been updated so much. , It’s so easy to understand the women’s book written thousands of years ago. I actually don’t recognize some of the words. If you want to understand it, you have to find the women’s book.”
"Teaching women's books?" Everyone became curious when they heard this unfamiliar term. Mrs. Hu nodded and said: "Yes, the reason why women's script has been passed down to this day is not because it is an inscrutable language, but because women were not allowed to read and write in the old society. If you use men's script to write, it is inevitable that people will spy on your thoughts in the boudoir. , people are forced to learn how to read and write in women’s script, so that they won’t be illiterate, and at least they can talk to their closest sisters about what’s on their mind.”
"Every hundred years, under the guidance of a female teacher, Nüshu will conduct a reading of all the characters in Nüshu, which can be regarded as matching the specific characters with the patterns of Nüshu, so as to prevent women from seeing them and not recognizing them at all. It can also prevent Nüshu works from being lost in the world."
"Then, are the women's books on training and reading for thousands of years still there?" Song Siyuan thought to herself, if she could compare it with the women's books on training and reading for thousands of years, she might really be able to understand the women's books on it.
"Hey!" Mrs. Hu shook her head, with a rather regretful look on her face: "When the Taiping people were in chaos, these Taiping soldiers plundered the Hu family. In order to continue to secretly convey the news, they took away all the female training books. .”
"Then, now the Hu family has no books left?" Mrs. Hu nodded and said: "Indeed, back then, my Hu family finally saw clearly that the Taiping Army did not help the tyrants to commit crimes, so the government only asked my sister to commit suicide, and my brothers were killed. I can only support the family. Now, in the Republic of China, it is no longer taboo for women to read and write, and the younger generation no longer learns Nüshu. The Hu family really knows some Nüshu, that is, my sister-in-law and daughter-in-law. , when you are the grandson-in-law, you will not recognize her at all." She changed the subject: "Nowadays, there are really very few people who can recognize Nu Shu. I am still an old woman. When I wait for a hundred years, most of these Nu Shu will be It will be completely swept into the old paper pile." Song Siyuan listened to Mrs. Hu's words, and according to her intention, even she could not fully decipher these Nvshu characters. In addition, the female version of the training book had been lost, so she thought It becomes even more difficult to interpret the information from the mysterious book.
"Then, is there any other place where there is a female version of the training? Shouldn't the Hu family only have one copy of this?" Song Siyuan's words were reminded by Mrs. Hu. She thought for a moment and continued: "You want to mention this A little bit, I remembered it. I remembered that my father said that when Princess Hu was alive, she personally wrote a female version of the training and reading. Although the female version of the training and reading at that time had relatively few standardized words, these mysterious writings were probably It can be deciphered using the training book for women."
"Then, where is this female training book?" Mrs. Hu coughed a few times: "Buried, it was buried in the tomb of the imperial concubine in the Song Dynasty!"...
