Paintings of Terror

This is an ancient temple made of stone, the construction style is very simple, it is not clear for the time.

"Although I don't have much research on ancient architecture, this stone temple seems to be built in the Sui and Tang dynasties." Yue Cen was pushed by Ke Xun to the entrance of the temple. The beam of sunlight penetrated into the temple, and only a stone sacrificial rite stood inside The altar, but the position of the idol is empty.

The ancient temple hidden by the trees is really weird. Ke Xun was about to go in alone to see what happened, but he heard Yue Cen say: "Let's go in and take a look." There seemed to be no fear in his voice.

It's no wonder that Huatui chose Yue Cen for painting at the beginning. This person is really a rare "artist".

There is no real temple gate in this temple, only a stone stele with illegible handwriting stands not far from the gate. Even if two people go in together, there should be no danger. In other words, even if there is any danger when Ke Xun goes in alone, with the power of Yue Cen in a wheelchair, I am afraid that he can't help much.

Instead of looking forward and backward, it is better to go together.

The temple is very shady, the sun shines through the darkness, and there are countless light and dust dancing in the bright place.

There is a stone pedestal behind the ceremonial altar. Obviously it should be a place to enshrine the gods, but it is unknown who this **** is.

Yue Cen was swaying the wheel of the wheelchair with his hand, looking around in the temple, his eyes rested on the stone platforms on both sides of the temple.

Ke Xun also noticed the stone platforms on both sides: "The stone platform in the center is used to enshrine the statues of gods, so what are the stone platforms on these sides for?"

"It should also be used to worship gods." Yue Cen said.

Ke Xun only visited temples when he was a child, and recalled carefully, it seems that some temples are indeed decorated like this: "That is to say, this temple enshrines more than one god?"

"I think there are at least five or even seven." Yue Cen guessed based on the size of the stone platform.

"But, why are these statues empty? Where did the gods go?" Ke Xun thought to himself a lot of paintings, and he had also seen such things as the Lijiacun paper man, the ghost of the tube building, and the ghost of the Oak Mountain Research Institute. Of ghosts, but rarely deal with gods.

"This is probably the situation in the temple, let's go out and talk about it." Yue Cen shook his wheelchair and turned around, planning to leave the temple first.

Ke Xun followed and pushed Yue Cen out of the temple gate. He spoke in the temple just now, and there was a lot of echo, as if his own words were repeated by someone, which was unsettling.

There was still a familiar natural scenery outside, and the two temporarily stopped under a big tree next to the temple.

"Xiao Ke, have you ever met a fairy in your previous paintings?" Yue Cen asked.

"I met it once. It was a **** of good and evil. When we were out of the painting, we finally saw the good side of that god." What Ke Xun said was the Hei Shi Tian in "Faith".

When Yue Cen heard Ke Xun briefly talk about the painting "Faith", he felt that there was no similarity to the world the two people are currently in: "We found here because of moss, but the stone platform in the temple And the stone steps under the eaves were dry, and no traces of moss were found."

Ke Xun tried to sort out a thought: "When we first came, we watched a shadow puppet show "The Rat Married Girl". At that time, your legs were not very comfortable. After daybreak, the legs were petrified and moss grew. In order to find the source of the moss, I came here all the way and found this temple. The temple is empty, and the granary we saw just now is also empty. The granary is empty because the food in it has been eaten by the rats; the temple is empty. Kong, why, where did the fairies go? Is there any connection between these fairies and the "mouse married girl"?"

Yue Cen had been listening carefully to Ke Xun's words, and some inspiration flashed in his heart, but there was no sufficient basis.

At this time, Ke Xun asked, "Shooting rats? Didn’t you just say that “mouse marrying daughters” is actually a folk sacrifice to rats? The sacrifice to rats should also be a kind of sacrifice? Can it be said that the worship here is actually Yes……"

mouse?

This statement made both people a little uncomfortable.

Yue Cen said: "Although I didn't think about the reasons for this, I still have a certain understanding of traditional customs. I have never heard of this method of sacrifice. This is really unconventional."

Ke Xun also thinks that what he said just now is a bit absurd. If this painting is known for being absurd, it is fair to say, but it is based on traditional New Year pictures, so traditional Chinese New Year customs should be the main theme.

"Sister Cen, let's take a look at the big stone monument. Although the handwriting is illegible, some strokes can still be seen vaguely." Ke Xun pushed Yue Cen and approached the temple door again.

This stone tablet was so high that it almost blocked the temple gate. Because of its age, there were many deep cracks on the stone tablet, and many of the words on it were unrecognizable.

It can be seen from the arrangement of the words that the above seems to be a four-character poem.

"It's a four-character poem." Yue Cen carefully identified it and could see that there seemed to be a word "salty" in the last sentence.

"Four-character poem, what's the meaning of this kind of poem?" Ke Xun also recognized the character "Yi". Although the font is complicated, this character can be said to be the most complete character on the stone tablet.

"The four-character poem is considered to be the earliest poetry genre in ancient my country. The "Book of Songs" is mainly based on the four-character poetry, and further upwards, the four-character poetry can be seen in ancient ballads and the "Book of Changes"." Yue Cen's gaze I scanned every word on the stone tablet, but I was sure that there were only four or five words.

"Wei", "Ding", "Zun Yi", "Ling", "Xian".

The most important topic and the beginning of the poem were completely missing because of a horizontal crack on the surface of the tablet.

"If I saw this poem before, I can only guess that it was a poem about ancient sacrifices, but since we started to study these things, I think this poem is definitely not that simple." Ke Xun's gaze fell on his familiarity. On those two words-"wei" and "ding".

Diwei, Jiuding.

Is this poem related to painting?

However, Yue Cen was writing something on the palm of his hand with his fingers, and still muttering words in his mouth. The two of them had long since disappeared in the world when they came to this world.

Ke Xun saw that Yue Cen seemed to be no stranger to this poem. He simply picked up a branch and squatted on the dirt: "Sister Cen, for you, I will write. If you can't write, just tell me the strokes. composition."

Yue Cen was very impressed by Ke Xun’s quick response: “I have indeed seen this poem, but it’s hard to say whether I can recite it completely. I used to participate in a documentary filming about ancient customs, which was used precisely. A group of "Songs from Jiao Miao" from the Tang Dynasty. This poem is the poem that welcomes the gods. It needs to be read out by the little actor who was in charge of recitation at that time, but because the words and sentences in it are more obscure and difficult for children. I taught him to recite every word."

Ke Xun was too late to sigh with the coincidence of this incident. At this time, he held a branch and said: "Great, you can memorize it, I will write!"

Yue Cen relied on his memory to recite: "Jiaomiao Songs, Wax Hundred Gods Music, Welcome God."

Ke Xun: "'Spicy hundred gods'? Which'spicy' is it?"

"Candle wax." Yue Cen couldn't help but looked at the scene in the temple again, as if he had thought of something.

Ke Xun has finished writing this series of questions: "My characters are ugly, you will just watch."

"The words are not ugly, it can be seen that they were written by an open-minded person," Yue Cen judged and continued to recite:

Eight waxes are opened to worship, and all things are worshipped together.

Go to the extreme sky, and go to the poor.

Ding Chu Liufen, Zun Yi recommends the United States.

There are spirits, but Xianxi ends.

After Yue Cen's prompt and correction, Ke Xun finally wrote the poem in its entirety.

The few characters that can be recognized on the stone tablet can also be determined according to the location. This four-character poem is exactly the poem "Jiaomiao Song Ci · Wax Hundred God Movement · Yingshen" recitation by Yue Cen.

"It seems that I have made a little judgment before, but in fact, this temple enshrines eight gods." Yue Cen said.

"Eight? Is it the ‘eight wax’ mentioned in this poem?" Ke Xun asked.

"Yes, this welcoming poem begins with the eight wax gods, so there is the opening sentence of'Eight wax offerings, all things are enshrined.'"

Ke Xun looked at the poem he wrote with a branch on the ground, and sensitively found the two words that he cared about most before: "The'wei' here is not the earth's dimension, but the sky's dimension. The'ding' here should be It's also something that holds ritual food."

"Perhaps these two words happened to appear here. In fact, the two sentences of ‘shangji Tianwei, xiaqiongkunji’ refer to the heavens and the earth and all things, which are exactly the same as the previous sentence of ‘all things consecrate.’

Ke Xun temporarily set aside the ultimate proposition of "entering painting" and focused his attention on him: "The eight wax gods, which eight gods are they?"

Yue Cen frowned: "I may not say everything, if it is the curator Hua coming in..."

Too much is useless, the others are false propositions.

Yue Cen tried to recall the eight waxes: “The eight waxes are ancient gods related to agriculture in ancient times. The “rat infestation” we mentioned before is actually under the control of the eight waxes gods. People worship the eight waxes and often pray. 'There are no insects in the fields, no mice in the warehouses, good harvest of grains, and live and work in peace.' The eight wax gods are: Xiansi; Sisi; farmer; cat and tiger; workshop; water and insect."

Ke Xun: All it sounds like are Chinese characters. Why can't I understand a word except "Maohu" and "Insect"?

Ke Xun: "Well, is there one less one? Sister Cen, did you just say seven?"

Yue Cen: "Yes, there is another one who is very complicated and difficult to understand literally. It is called ‘Post Form Nawate’."

"What, what? What?"

"Postal table nawate," Yue Cen said slowly again, "these three words have their own meanings, "post" refers to the farmhouse, "biao" refers to the field, and "nawate" refers to the well. There is a further explanation of these three characters in the collections written by later generations in the Ming and Qing dynasties: the mark is the place where the paddy is connected to the field, and it is built as a post house.

"..., later generations are even talking about Yunshan Mist. Who is this god?"

"The mention of'Tianzhen' here refers to the official in charge of slave farming in the Western Zhou Dynasty in China, which is what later generations called the'supervising farmer'."

Ke Xun finally understood 70% to 80%: "Speaking of which, the gods worshipped in ancient times were also very simple. There were officials who supervised the cultivation, insects, and cats and tigers. The cat cry last night should not be ordinary. Cat, is the **** of cats and tigers manifested?"

"Very likely." Yue Cen said.

"What kind of gods did you talk about before, Xianshi and Sishi? These two are at the forefront. They should be the gods with higher status."

"Yes, I think these two should be the gods enshrined in the main deity of the temple: Xiansi is Shennong; Sisi is Houji."