The Huai Shui God's Cave

Chapter 15

1. Flying Immortals Outside the Sky
It's just incredible.Tang Mei also showed a puzzled look on his face, but he still took what was in the shark's hand.Then, the merman pointed to the chain on the lute bone with his little finger, and made a gurgling sound, like the sound of small water bubbles rolling in his stomach.Judging by its expression, it is obvious that Tang Mo was asked to remove the chains on it.

Tang Mei was full of doubts. He took the thick jade and looked it over several times carefully, only to find that it was a square jade seal.The jade seal is about three or four inches thick, about eight or nine inches long and wide, with a small handle on the top and bird calligraphy on the bottom.

Tang Mei read casually: "The upper shock and the lower shock shocked hundreds of miles."

We were surprised that Tang Mei could understand Chu language, and he even knew Niao Shu.This time even the professor found it incredible.He took the jade seal, read it carefully several times, nodded and said, yes, it is exactly "shocking up and down, shocking hundreds of miles", this is the bird and insect script.

The professor also explained that bird and insect seal script is a kind of writing that transforms the lines of Chinese characters into decorative animal patterns such as bird, insect and fish, or twists and twists the strokes to make them look like abstract animal shapes. .

Bird script was popular in Wu, Yue, Chu, Cai and other southern countries from the middle and late Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period. It was mostly found in bronze inscriptions. The eight-character inscription on the Goujian sword of Yue King unearthed near Yichang, Hubei is bird-shaped characters.

As an artistic font popular in Chu, Wu, Yue, Cai, Zeng, Song, Xu and other countries during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, bird seal marks a special phenomenon in the history of the development of Chinese characters.Its rise and fall are inseparable from factors such as the general trend of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty from unity to division, the culture of the Zhou Dynasty, and the development of bronze culture.However, the existing data show that the inscription bird seal script objects were first seen in Chu State, and it was the culture, history, customs and other factors of Chu State that led to the emergence of this type of font.Later, bird seal script appeared in other southern countries influenced by Chu culture.

We were all puzzled, and Yang Xiaoxie spoke first: "Brother Tang, we all have seen your abilities, and I still want to worship you as a big brother. It's just that we have to figure out who you are?"

Tang Mei bowed his head and remained silent, looking at the jade seal all the time, and gently stroking the font underneath with his hands. Seeing that Tang Mei didn't mean to open its chains, the merman began to kowtow again, singing non-stop. that piece.

Tang Mei's eyes were dazed, and he fell into hard thinking like a fool; even if we called his name by the side, he didn't respond.

For the next few minutes, we and the merman looked at him, wondering what he was thinking of. At this moment, he suddenly changed his tone and said, "Xiyao, Xiyao. Why is this name so familiar?"

Then, without even looking at us, he went straight to the merman, took Yu Wang's spear, and used the sharp front part of the awl held by the front bronze hand to hit the chain on the merman's pipa bone.I don't know what trick he used, the merman let out a stern cry, as if he was in pain, and then, with a joyful expression on his face, the chain also snapped, with blood on the end.

We were all taken aback, worried that the merman would pounce and attack, but it bowed to Tang Mo without saying a word, pointed to the stone door of the tomb behind us, sang a few more lines of that embarrassing song, and then turned around Jumped into the well and disappeared.

Tang Mei slightly woke up from his confusion, and he said lightly: "There should be a water area below here, and it has returned to its own place."

We entered through the stone gate, Lin Xiaowei turned on the strong flashlight, and saw that the entire tomb was very empty, without any funerary objects, only a large coffin that had been opened to the northeast.This is a bit out of the ordinary.

Judging from the scale of the ancient tomb, whether it is the tomb of Prince Ma Chu or not, this is a large-scale tomb.Since there are jade clothes buried with him, the tomb should not look so shabby, and there are no other funeral objects at all.

Yang Xiaoxie rushed towards the coffin with a stride, and I immediately stopped him: "Be careful there are old zombies inside!" He was indeed frightened, and quickly stopped, remembering that the old Taoist Qingfeng had just come out of it Yes, there should be no zombie zongzi, so he said: "The funeral objects are probably put in the coffin."

As a result, he tiptoed to the coffin, but shouted: "It's empty, it's actually empty!"

We hurriedly gathered around and saw that, sure enough, there was nothing in the coffin.

Not only are there no funeral objects, there are no bones.

Professor Han said: "It's strange, the tomb is empty, so where did you get this jade garment?"

I analyzed and said: "It should be from the coffin. Taoist Qingfeng must have been the same as us when he came in. He found that the entire tomb was empty, so he naturally opened the coffin. If my guess is correct, this is a clothes tomb."

The so-called Clothes Tomb refers to a tomb in which the clothes and other items of the deceased are buried but not the body of the deceased.This is because the body of the deceased could not be found, or had been buried in another place, and then a tomb was set up here to commemorate it.

Professor Han nodded, agreeing with my opinion.It seems that the black jade dress that Tang Mei snatched back from Taoist Qingfeng is a sign of the identity of the owner of the tomb.

Ma Chuchen has been half-supported by me all the time due to her weakness. Occasionally, she would lean on me half-legged, with her cheeks slightly raised. For this reason, she glanced up at the wall of the tomb inadvertently, and suddenly said: "Up here There are pictures!"

Both Lin Xiaowei and Yang Xiaoxie shone strong flashlights on the wall. We took a quick look and found that there were more than a dozen murals in total.The reading order of the ancients is opposite to that of the modern ones, so we start to read them one by one from the right side of the tomb door.

On the first mural, a beautiful woman descended from the sky.The woman is charming and charming, with lightly raised temples, lightly swept crescent eyebrows, lightly moving jade steps, graceful body and elegant posture. The most distinctive feature is her slender waist.She was holding an object in her hand, a rectangular box.There are many people below her, with tables and sacrifices in front of her, all bowing down to worship.

In the second picture, the woman seems to be injured and is running away. There are many blurred figures behind her. The flags show Qin, Jin, Qi, and Chu.The description should be that a war broke out in these countries.

In the third picture, a man who looks like a general protects the woman in his arms, and gallops forward in the chaos.There is a banner behind the general, and the inscription "Chu".

At this time, Yang Xiaoxie pointed to the general and said, "Look at his weapons!"

We all opened our mouths in surprise as we looked at where he was pointing.What the general was waving in his hand was a Yuwang Lance!

The professor reminded: "Wang Yu's lance often appeared in the honor guards of ancient emperors, and it was also used as a weapon by the generals guarding the monarch. In different periods, there will be many Yu Wang's lances with different shapes and materials."

We looked at Tang Mei together, and saw that he was also staring at the mural with a serious face, and maybe he couldn't figure out how the same King Yu appeared in the mural as in his own hand.

We continued to look, and found that the general's face was very clear, with sword eyebrows and big eyes, wide mouth and straight nose, which was also seven or eight points similar to Tang Mo.If it wasn't for the ancient military uniform, I would have thought it was a portrait of him.

Let's move on to the fourth picture.I saw the woman in the picture standing in a large hall, in front of the woman was a king wearing a crown, and there was also the word "Chu" on his back.The king was holding a rectangular box in his hand, and he was taking out a black jade seal from it. He seemed to be asking the woman something, but his face was full of anger, probably because he didn't get the answer he wanted.

The fifth picture shows the woman standing beside a cliff and pushing the general who is holding Yuwang's spear to the bottom of the cliff.It is unbelievable that the general was only half above the waist, and he was holding the long box in his arms, exclaiming loudly.Behind the woman are many fully armed soldiers with weapons in their hands, and the soldier standing at the front is holding a pair of shackles in his hand.

In the sixth picture, the woman is sitting upright, and in front of her is a South Sea merman like the one we just met.The merman held a small bowl in his hand, and the woman stretched out one hand, and blood dripped from the tip of her finger into the bowl, and there was a portrait hanging on her body, in which was the general who was holding King Yu's lance.The woman held the black jade seal in her other hand, and pointed her finger at the general in the painting.

The last picture is the woman lying in the coffin, dressed in jade clothes.Her eyes were closed, presumably dead.

There is also a line of bird script on the last picture, and the professor read:

Ci Nine Songs

If there is someone who is like the mountain, he will be brought by Xue Lixi.It's both gazing and laughing, and Zi Muyu is good at slimming.

Take the red leopard and follow the raccoon, and the magnolia car and tie the osmanthus flag.Du Heng was taken by Shi Lanxi, and Fang Xinxi lost his thoughts.

The rest of the place is secluded and the sky will never be seen, and the road is dangerous and difficult.

The table is independent on the mountain, and the cloud is rong and below.The night is dark, the day is dark, the east wind is blowing, and the gods are raining.

If you stay in spiritual practice and forget to return, who is Huayu when you are old?
Picking Sanxiu in the mountains, Shi Leilei and Ge vines.Blaming the son, I am disappointed and forget to return, and the king thinks about me, and I will not be idle.

People in the mountains are fragrant and duruo, drinking stone springs and shady pines and cypresses.You think about me, but I doubt it.

The thunder fills the rain, and the ape chirps and sings at night.The wind is rustling and the wood is rustling, thinking about your son and leaving you alone.

At the end of the reading, he let out a "huh" and said, "Isn't this the "Mountain Ghost" in "Chu Ci" written by Qu Yuan?"

The few of us looked at these murals carefully several times, only to find that Tang Mei had been standing in front of the fifth mural, looking very painful.

In fact, we are full of doubts about him, especially Yang Xiaoxie and I. We really want to find out how he is related to the general in the mural. mural, while secretly watching him.

He thought about it for a while, and his expression became sad. No one paid any attention to him, and he just leaned against the corner and closed his eyes to rest.

The professor and I began to analyze the contents of these murals.The professor said: "There are records in the "Hanshu Geography" that the customs of Chu believed in witches and ghosts and worshiped prostitutes. It seems that the worship of ghosts and gods by the ancients was not groundless. The woman on the mural should be the one they believed in. Wushan Goddess."

Regarding the goddess of Wushan, the allusion of Wushan Yunyu is mentioned in ancient books.It is said that King Xiang of Chu (or King Huai of Chu) met a beautiful woman in Wushan.When the King of Chu saw it, he was astonished as a heavenly man, and wanted to make a connection, but the immortals blocked him, and he failed to do so.After returning to the palace, he still couldn't forget the goddess. In order to solve the infatuation of the king of Chu, the goddess of Wushan married the king of Chu in a dream and gave him a jade pendant as a farewell.The King of Chu then traveled all over Wushan and visited the beautiful woman again.The goddess reappeared, explaining that the predestined relationship was over, and the King of Mian Chu cleaned up his feelings and devoted himself to the community, so he bid farewell and returned to the heaven.

Yang Xiaoxie heard this and said: "This legend is very famous. It seems that these murals have a lot to do with the goddess of Wushan. It's just that when some allusions and legends are passed down, they are often endowed with a mythical color. Maybe that woman is not a god. "

I nodded. In ancient times, the technology mastered by people was not developed enough, and many phenomena would be interpreted as theories of ghosts and gods.If a light woman is blown up by a strong wind and then falls to the ground, they may be regarded as a god by them.

2. Naihe Bridge

Judging from the last painting, since this woman will die, she is naturally not a fairy.

I analyzed with the professor: "It should be a woman who descended from the sky with a black jade box in her hand, and was worshiped as a god by the world, so the monarchs of all countries sent people to fight for this woman. The black jade and the box in her hand should be what she can An important factor that fell from the sky is also an important message conveyed by these murals. She was rescued by a general of Chu State in charge of King Yu in the melee. After that, some stories should have happened between her and that general. What is the story? But there is no record in the painting. Maybe only she and the general know."

The professor nodded and said, "I just don't know how she got in front of King Chu, and why did the general disappear?"

I scratched my head and thought that the story was broken here, there must be some accident, the woman was dedicated to the king of Chu.I went on to say: "It is possible that the general offered her up, or it may be that the general suffered an accident and she was captured by someone else and dedicated to the King of Chu. The King of Chu probably wants to get the secret about that piece of black jade." , the woman didn’t tell him.”

"Then the woman met the general next to the cliff again, and she pushed him down. The soldiers behind were probably there to arrest the general, and the woman pushed the general down before them, but the half of the general was gone. .I don’t know what’s going on.”

We thought hard and meditated for a long time, but we still couldn't understand it.Yang Xiaoxie cleared his throat, pointed to the sixth mural and said, "Let's take a look at this one, this woman should feed the merman with her own blood, and entrust the black jade in her hand to the merman so that It was handed over to the general who held Yu Wang's spear in his hand."

The professor said: "Xiao Yang's judgment is right. Wu Chu has a kind of witchcraft that uses his own blood to feed some spiritual creatures in order to sign a kind of oath with them. This is also a kind of blood gu, drinking the blood of the caster. Spiritual things, can swear to die."

Xiaoxie said: "Since she used the blood gu to make the merman give the black jade to the general, then why did she push the general off the cliff before, and since she pushed the general off the cliff, she lost half of her body, so the general must have If she can't survive, why does she still entrust Yuren to wait for this general?"

There is also the famous "Mountain Ghost", written here, which seems to describe this woman.Many poems and songs in ancient times were sorted out later. Maybe this poem was not called "Mountain Ghost", but maybe it was called "Goddess".It can be seen from the lines in the poem that the story is about a beautiful and affectionate girl who made an appointment with her lover to meet in a certain place. Although the road was difficult, she arrived happily, but her lover did not come as promised. Come; when the wind and rain came, she waited for her lover infatuatedly, and forgot to go home, but his lover did not come after all; it was getting late, and she returned to the residence, amidst the wind and rain and the sound of apes and monkeys, feeling very sad and mournful.Since the poem appears here, it must be describing the mood of the woman in the mural waiting for the general.

The professor said: "The "Nine Songs Interpretation" written by Gu Chengtian in the Qing Dynasty was the first to say that the mountain ghost was a 'Goddess of Wushan', and the opinion that the 'mountain ghost' should be a 'female ghost' or a 'goddess' was widely accepted. It seems that The mysterious woman in the mural is really the legendary Wushan Goddess in the Chu culture who advocates witchcraft!"

These murals seem to tell a very beautiful love story, but we can't understand it for a while.I said to the professor: "We can't restore the scene at that time just by looking at the murals, and this tomb is also very strange. It's just a clothes tomb. Let's see if there are any clues in other tombs that can provide information."

The professor nodded, and we came out the same way and turned into a corridor nearly half a meter in diameter.The left side of the corridor should be the entrance.There is a stone door that has been damaged, the fracture is uneven, it seems to be caused by external force, and the traces are old.In the middle of the corridor, there are two pits, which are about three meters deep, and are scattered with rusty and rotten sharp knives and cones.In one of the pits, there was a skeleton lying on its side. The muscles and clothes on his body were rotting away, leaving only a pair of helmets. It seemed that he should be an ancient soldier.

The professor said: "This is a serial copy mechanism. It seems that before us, perhaps hundreds of years ago, someone had entered this ancient tomb and destroyed some hidden weapons of the mechanism. The corridor to the right should be facing the main tomb." After walking down for about 20 meters, the corridor suddenly forked, one facing northeast and the other facing southeast.

We don't know which way to choose.The professor said: "I had seen the direction clearly before I came in. As far as the two passages are concerned, the one facing the northeast should be shorter, because this road is a mountain that crosses the entire dragon vein, while the one facing the southeast extends toward the tail of the dragon. It should meander and extend. Let’s explore one by one, and I propose to start from the northeast toward this short passage.”

We all felt that his analysis was reasonable, so we started to enter the corridor facing northeast.After walking for about ten meters, we saw two huge stone balls in the middle of the corridor, one in front and one behind, with a diameter about the size of the corridor.When we walked around the stone ball, we saw three skeletons lying on the ground.One was lying on its back, and more than half of its bones had been broken.It seems that it was caused by the rolling of the stone ball.

The professor said: "Everyone, be careful. This kind of mechanism is called iron chain hanging stone. It is to fix metal pulleys on the top of the tomb passage or in the hidden corner of the wall, and use the pulleys to lift the huge stone and hang it from the top. Wooden seesaws are laid under the tomb passage. On the lower side, the seesaw is connected in a concealed way through pulleys, and there are hooks and decouplings in the middle, which can automatically fall off in case of external pressure. The hoisting stone can be hung on the top of the tomb in three layers, and each layer is independent of each other. The hole shrinks in and out, and the mechanism can be opened repeatedly three times..."

Before the professor finished speaking, he suddenly heard the sound of chains being pulled, as if some mechanism had been activated.At this time, there was a loud sound of smashing the ground, and a huge round stone fell from the sky in front of the corridor, and then rolled down.We were all shocked. Fortunately, I had been supporting Ma Chuchen and landed at the back. I hadn't walked around the stone ball on the ground. Seeing that the state was wrong, I quickly pulled Ma Chuchen's hand, and the two hid behind.

Tang Mei shouted "Be careful", and dragged the professor and Lin Xiaowei who were following behind him to the back of the stone ball that had just bypassed.The most miserable thing was the remaining Yang Xiaoxie, who was dragged by Tang Mei and sat on the ground with his buttocks.The huge ball slid all the way, brushing against his knees, and collided with the big ball on the ground before stopping after shaking a few times.

Looking at Yang Xiaoxie's knee, it was already stained red with blood, and there was a hole in his trousers.He was so frightened that he forgot to yell for pain, and it took him a long time to react, and he couldn't help grinning, but fortunately he didn't hurt any bones.

(End of this chapter)