Enchanter

No.17 The Legend of Maoshan (1)

It was very early to get off work today, Yin Hui was about to go back with Tang Yan, but he received a call from Old Zhao, the meaning was very simple, he asked him to go to his house for a meal, no matter what, he had to come.

"Sit down." In the room, Old Zhao put down his wine glass and said in a deep voice.

Yin Hui sat down obediently, and there were only the two of them in the huge venue.

However, Old Zhao's voice was still full of anger: "I called you right after get off work. If you feel unhappy, you can leave immediately. I don't blame you."

Yin Hui smiled wryly in his heart, he was already used to the old man's stinky mouth.

Seeing that he was not moving at all, Old Zhao nodded slightly and said: "Okay, since you have no objection, just listen to me carefully and don't miss a single word, because..." His voice suddenly became low and he said: "Because, this is me. It's your last lesson."

Yin Hui was full of problems, but he couldn't make a sound.

I only heard the old Zhao head calmly said: "Before the class, there are some things to explain. After this class, it means the end of the transmission from my generation to your generation, and you will be an official mortician. It means that your life will no longer be peaceful, because of responsibility, you have to do some things, and you have never regretted it, so now it is too late to look back."

Yin Hui's face was flushed red, and finally couldn't help but burst out a few words: "This is an insult to me, please take back this sentence, Master."

Old Zhao looked at him in surprise, sighed and said, "Don't be too impulsive, now it seems that getting involved with me is not a good thing, and in the long run, it will be even worse."

Yin Hui didn't answer any words, but just proved his heart with practical actions. He knelt on the ground slowly and firmly like pushing a golden mountain or falling a jade pillar.

Only Yin Hui said in a clear voice: "I have been studying with the master for almost a year. I have the essence of a teacher and a student, but I don't have the title of a teacher and a student. Please accept the three worships of the master, and ask the master to rectify the name of the disciple." Don't wait for Lao Zhao He bowed his head respectfully three times before answering, and then fell down on the ground.

Old Zhao looked at this disciple who had a similar destiny with him in surprise, and sighed, "Why bother?"

"Do you know why I don't want to accept you as an apprentice?"

Yin Hui shook his head lightly, only to hear him say in a deep voice, "Because I'm afraid, I'm afraid that I will bring you an unfortunate life. In our line of work, few can retire unscathed and die in bed."

Yin Hui suddenly said: "No wonder..."

"No wonder why?" Old Zhao asked.

"It's nothing." Yin Hui said softly.

"Do you think that because of this reason, I didn't teach you all the Taoism?" Old Zhao asked with a half-smile.

"Don't dare." Yin Hui didn't deny it either.

"You underestimate me, Zhao Deshui." Old Zhao shook his head and said, "Teacher, pass it on to teach you to solve your doubts. In terms of Taoism, I don't have the slightest ambiguity with you. On the contrary, I also look at your progress." Clearly, given time, it will definitely surpass me."

"Indeed, Taoism emphasizes the use of magic tools, spells, and natural forces." Old Zhao Tou said in a deep voice, "But Taoism itself is just a form, nothing more than nine palaces and eight trigrams with 71 grids, and yin and yang and five elements with 36 lottery. It’s just drawing symbols and reciting mantras. According to your intelligence, it only takes a few months to learn these things, but what’s the use of knowing them alone?”

"Will you become a qualified embalmer just by learning these things?" Old Zhao Tou said in a deep voice, "Impossible! Because these are red tape and inappropriate things, if you want to master them, you have to overthrow them in reverse. , overthrow everything!"

"What?" Yin Hui turned pale with shock.

Old Zhao Tou drank a glass of wine, his face seemed to emit some kind of light, and he beat Yin Hui's heart every word: "Water, fire, gold, and wood are called four images. The four images are the rising and falling of yin and yang." , Yin and Yang are the ups and downs of Qi in the middle. When they are separated and named, they are called the four phenomena. When they are combined, they are nothing more than Yin and Yang.

"By analogy, if you want to achieve great success, you only need to master this Zhou Tian Qi Qi." Old Zhao Tou said in a deep voice.

"Master, how can I master it?" Yin Hui asked in a respectful voice. He knew that this was the time for a well-learned person to pass on the valuable experience gained through decades of hard work.

Just listen to the old Zhao head slowly, one word at a time: "The principle of the five elements is that there is birth and restraint, wood gives birth to fire, fire gives birth to earth, earth gives birth to metal, metal gives birth to water, water gives birth to wood, wood gives birth to earth, earth gives birth to water, and water gives birth to fire." Fire is restrained, fire is restrained by metal, and metal is restrained by wood. Their mutual generation and mutual restraint are based on qi rather than quality, and quality cannot produce restraint."

"Those who restrain each other, control it too much. The nature of wood diverges, and if it is restrained with metal energy, the wood will not disperse; the fire nature will increase inflammation, and if it is subdued with water vapor, the fire will not be able to burn; , the soil will not be wet; the gold will be restrained, warmed with fire, and the gold will not be absorbed; the water will be moistened, and the earth will permeate it, and the water will not be moist. It is the wonder of nature that all qi is transformed into nature." After speaking, he took a long breath and watched Looking at Yin Hui, he said: "Now you understand why I asked you to read and study the previous things first?"

"The foundation." Yin Hui said softly: "You let me lay the foundation first, so that I can draw inferences from one instance."

"That's right, one energy is the foundation, the five elements are the body, the essence is the connotation of the body, and the body is the expression of the foundation. Only when we really reach this stage can we achieve something!"

"I'll teach you now, the real encoffining technique!" Next, the old head Zhao started from the basics, explaining the methods, skills and taboos of Taoism to Yin Hui in detail.

Old Zhaotou told Yin Hui that in the old society, their business was called burialing, and body makeup was only a small part of burialing.

The ancient Chinese said: "Health care is not enough to be a big deal, but death can be a big deal."Therefore, the ancients attached great importance to funerals.

In ancient times, funerals mainly included obituary, summons, small burial, large burial, ready-to-wear, hanging sacrifice, funeral, mourning and other activities. It lasted for three years, and the rituals were very cumbersome.

The ancient Chinese regarded the funeral of relatives, especially parents, as an extremely important event, and formed a strict funeral system very early.

The funeral system before the Shang Dynasty is difficult to test, but the funeral system of the Zhou Dynasty is preserved in the Confucian classic "Three Rituals", which mainly includes choosing a tomb and setting up a tomb (burial system), holding a funeral (funeral system), and living in funerals ( There are three aspects of the mourning system, each of which is divided into different levels. The procedure is very complicated, and there are as many as fifty or sixty titles, which is absolutely red tape.

According to the records in "Yi Li", in ancient times, people who were about to die must live in the main room.When dying, the family members guarded the bedside, and put a very light silk floss on the mouth and nose of the dying person to check whether he was still breathing, and "men are not in the hands of women, and women are in the hands of men." ".

After a person dies, the 'mortician' takes the clothes of the deceased, faces the north where the netherworld is located, and calls out the name of the deceased in a drawn-out voice.After repeated many times, another person took over the clothes and put them on slowly for the deceased. "Book of Rites" explained: "Fu, the way to love." This ceremony is to express the last effort to save the life of the deceased.

After summoning the soul, put the deceased on the bed under the south window of the main room, insert a horn between the upper and lower teeth of the deceased, and open the mouth so that he can eat in the future.Use Yan Ji to fix the feet of the deceased so that they can wear shoes in the future.Cover the corpse with a special quilt.Wine and food should also be set up on the east side of the corpse for the ghosts to drink.

Dig a pit under the west wall in front of the hall as a stove, boil and wash rice water to cleanse the dead, cut hair and nails for the dead.It means clean and counterfeit.

Later, through the evolution of successive dynasties, people gradually discarded many tedious details and kept the main rituals.

Generally, when a person is about to rest, the mortician or relatives will shave, comb, and scrub the patient's head, paying attention to cleanliness.Then put on the shroud and wait for death, which means that you don't lose your clothes.

The mortuary company believes that people have to report to the underworld when they die, so when people die, they have to put some broken silver in their mouths, saying that they can’t return empty-handed, and they have to give it to the guards and guards in front of the Naihe Bridge and the gate of the Palace of Hades, so that they can pass through smoothly.At the same time, some silver coins should be brought to the ancestors of the deceased.

At this time, the funeral master has emptied the furniture in the main room or the upper room, and placed the dead in the main room with their heads facing the door (some head and feet against the wall).Call "stop".After parking, it is also necessary to prepare a mixture of plant ash and bran, sprinkle paper from the place where the dead are parked, and shout the name of the dead or the title of the dead, let the ghosts follow outside the gate, and call "Introduction". Soul on the road".