Daomu Biji: Wu Xie’s Private Notes

Please note: Some chapters after the Mystic Nine introductions are short and might be a little confusing since there are supposed to be pictures beside the words. "Wu Xie's Private Notes" is an illustrated book, so I could only find some pictures. (⋟﹏⋞)

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According to my analysis, there may be a group of ancient tombs around the Temple of Seeds area. The corpse cave was obviously a cave that hadn’t been formed naturally. I didn’t know how the cavity in this mountain came into being, but the roads on both sides must have been dug when King Lushang (1) was robbing the tomb.

We didn't know which direction the water flowed in the mountain range’s underground water system, but based on the current situation, the cave led the stream across the mountain. It was probably easier to transport the grave goods from the ancient tomb using the waterway.

In the Seven Star Lu Palace, the corridor between the sacrificial tomb and the real tomb was a kilometer long. Those maze-like paths that connected with the corridor all eventually led to the underground palace where the snake cypress (2) was. The ancients must have planted the tree there a long time ago since its diameter indicated that it was at least a thousand years old.

Because of its national power, most of the ancient tombs of the Western Zhou Dynasty were small in structure, and only a few emperors could enjoy the majestic fortress-like tombs. The structure of this particular tomb wasn’t majestic, and after careful analysis, we found that there should be three ancient tombs connected with each other. The sacrificial tomb was a funerary tomb, the seven-star coffins were fakes that were used to deceive grave robbers, and the inlaid path that led to the giant cave was the real tomb.

If that was true, what was the purpose of those inlaid paths? Their degree of damage indicated that they should have been built during the construction of the ancient tomb. If they were the secret passages used by the craftsmen to escape, then they were too complicated. And if they were part of a maze to prevent outsiders from entering the tomb, I figured it would be easier to just destroy the entrance.

The text written in “The Book of King Lushang” told us that there was an arrangement of numbers between these hidden passages. The ancient people obviously took great pains to build these inlaid paths, which made me even more confused. I couldn't understand it until I discussed it with Uncle Two afterwards.

I had been thinking that the use of these inlaid paths in the ancient tomb was to prevent intrusion from the outside world, but the simplest way to protect the tomb was to close these paths off entirely. This was a contradiction, which meant that I was obviously thinking in the wrong direction. If we thought about it carefully and in reverse, we would find that the cave with the Nine-Headed Snake Cypress may not have been an ancient tomb, but more like a religious site.

There were many alchemists in the State of Qi and the State of Lu. Alchemists had a lot of secret practices and meeting places, and even the monarchs had secret cultivation places.

At that time, alchemists often had religious and political backgrounds. For example, Mohists (3) also believed in ghosts and gods, but their disciples were strictly organized, just like a modern-day cult. Later, Zhang Jue (4) teamed up with alchemists and staged a rebellion.

Since the ancient people saw alchemists going in and out of the mountains in a very mysterious manner, there were many legends of fairies in Shandong, and the trend of people cultivating themselves to become immortals intensified. This cave may have existed because of something like this.

I had hoped to learn some clues from the previous legends in Shandong, and after reading many county records, I found that there were indeed many points that fit into this, but they were all very obscure and uncertain, so I could only try to guess what happened from them.

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TN Notes:

(1) Ruler of Dead Soldiers

(2) They called it a “hydra-cypress” in Cavern of Blood Zombies

(3) Wiki info on Mohism here

(4) Zhang Jue was the leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He was said to be a follower of Taoism and a sorcerer. Wiki link

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Here are the pictures I found:

From the book

A more close-up view