From Chief to Ball

Chen Jian pondered for a moment before slowly nodding his head and said, "I understand, I'm still too young to think carefully enough, thank you leaders for your reminders."

Seeing that Chen Jian readily accepted it, Su Yue smiled and said, "That's good. There's nothing wrong with it. Many leaders are your uncles according to their age. Xia Cheng just came out of the cave to build a city, and no one blamed you. .You handed over the method of flying with two wings to everyone. Those people think they can fly no matter whether they have wings or not. The world will collapse. You Xiacheng people say that there are no rules and no rules, and it is difficult to achieve a square. Those who work hard It is not easy to work hard, to work hard, this is the biggest rule..."

"I don't need to teach you these things. When you have children, you will naturally understand."

Chen Jian hurriedly smiled and said: "I still want to thank the leader of Suyue. I wanted to go west, but I went east. If there is no one to point me, I will not know how to turn back until I see the sea. If someone points out, it will take only thirty or fifty miles to go the other way. How can this be the same?"

The two laughed for a while, and Chen Jian asked again: "The leader of Suyue must have many heirs, right?"

"I am much better at this than you. When I was your age, I had six children and supported four. After that, I gave birth to many more. Now I have more than twenty sons and more than ten daughters .”

Chen Jian patted and praised again: "As wise as the leader of Suyue, presumably the sons and daughters must be different, extremely intelligent and brave."

Su Yue shook his head and smiled, "How can everyone be like this? Although they are all of my blood, there are also some who are smart and some who are dull. The age of the smartest is not as old as you think, but it is still far behind Ji Xia. To put it bluntly, after I heard what happened in Xia Cheng, I sighed to myself that having a son should be like Ji Xia's."

"It's a pity that although he is smart, he has not experienced the suffering of his predecessors who built Sucheng barefoot in the thorn bushes; although he is brave, he has not experienced the vigor of fighting in front of thousands of troops. Hey, although I know it, how can I bear it? How about letting him experience everything I have experienced? Nowadays, he hunts animals and hunts birds every day, and feasts on court ladies... Although the few things the city asked him to do are good, they are still worse than those old people back then. far."

Although there seemed to be some blame in the tone, the pride and love in it came out as soon as Wei Wei heard it, and Chen Jian hurriedly received it: "Hey, there is no well in Xiacheng, and you have to go to the river hundreds of steps away to drink water." To carry it. We have all experienced it, but when my child is born, don’t we have to let him go to the river to carry water? This is the purpose of Suyue Digging Road Blue Thread. The suffering and thorns we have experienced in this generation, Isn’t it just to keep the children from going through it?”

"Besides, drinking and having fun is not a bad thing at all; having fun with a daughter is also to increase the blood of the offspring; holding Huang Qingcang is nothing more than the fact that the war is over and it is difficult to vent the bravery in my heart."

"The leader of Suyue also said that there is no damage to the city. I think the people in the city are very convinced. What's wrong with that?"

Su Yue laughed and said, "Ji Xia, you praise too much."

Chen Jian bowed and said: "These compliments are not because of him, but to thank Chief Suyue. If it weren't for Chief Suyue's recommendation, Xiacheng might not know when he would be able to return to his relatives. Father deserves the gratitude Naturally, it should be turned into a compliment to my son."

"The leader of Suyue sent a lot of gifts this morning. Unfortunately, there is no jade in Xiacheng. Even if there is jade, it can't be carved and polished on jade that is harder than gold and copper. There is nothing to give as a gift. I can only give back some small copper. I must hand it over to Chief Suyue with my own hands, so that I can repay my feelings for Xia Cheng."

Su Yue got up and replied: "Ji Xia is being modest. Although there is no jade in Xia City, there are many good things in Xia City, many of which have never been seen in other cities. The bronze wares in Xia City are very good. Listen to Su He It is said that copper is used as flowers in Xiacheng's sacrifices, and looking at Dahe's relatives, I am afraid that there is no second clan that has this ability."

The two of them were polite, Chen Jian went out, and quietly made a sign of six to the Xiacheng people who were waiting outside. The Xiacheng people immediately lifted up the big boxes, but Su Yue looked at the remaining boxes slightly. In a daze, I don't know who to give the rest of the boxes to.

Xia Cheng's box was beautiful and exquisite, but it didn't attract Su Yue's thoughts. He recalled Chen Jian's whereabouts these days, and was a little uncertain whether Chen Jian still had any connection with the rest of the clan.

It wasn't until the box was carried in and the room seemed much brighter with the flashes of light after opening the lid that Au Yue looked at the utensils in the box in amazement.

The utensils in the first box seem to be copper ware, but the color of these copper ware is not purple, but yellow-orange, very bright, and not as dull and mottled as bronze, which is a bit dazzling under the candlelight .

The utensils in the second box are bright off-white, and Awayake is not ready to describe what to say about this "shining bright metallic luster" utensils, but in short, it is very beautiful. The color and luster I have seen, looking at the utensils that can reflect light after being carefully polished, I naturally feel its preciousness.

The first box is brass alloy utensils, using a kind of experience that transcends time and space in Chen Jian's previous life, that is, metals such as faucets and copper screws, copper-zinc alloy.

The second box contains lead-tin wine vessels and tableware. The treatment is not very good. Some places have been oxidized, but some places are still very bright. The color of heavy metal lead is still very strange in this era.

The smelting of brass has no technical difficulties for Xiacheng, and most of the ores also form associated ores with copper, lead, and tin.

The reason why metal zinc appeared late in the previous life was not that it was difficult to restore, but because metal zinc would vaporize and evaporate at six to seven hundred degrees, so it was difficult to obtain in copper smelting furnaces.

Chen Jian used the ingenious method of the ancestors of the same family in the previous life to heat and reduce the zinc ore and charcoal in a sealed clay pot with only small air holes instead of using a copper furnace. The reduced zinc evaporated and condensed, and remained in the pot. Zinc can be obtained by smashing sealed clay pots.

The color of zinc-copper alloy is bright and not easy to rust. It is not the purple of pure copper or the black of bronze, but similar to golden yellow. It looks very beautiful and is of course precious in this era.

Except for leaving some medals to be made for Xia City in the future, most of the rest were brought as gifts.

As for the other box of lead utensils, it is much easier, and the melting and casting of lead is much simpler than that of copper.

Chen Jian sincerely pointed to the box of utensils that could lead to lead poisoning after long-term use, and said, "Others give me peaches and plums, but I need Qiongyu in my arms."

"The leader of Suyue asked everyone in Xia City to return to their relatives. These utensils could not be repaid, but this is the best gift Xia Cheng can offer. These utensils were produced in Xia City, but no one in Xia City used them. Let’s ask the leader to accept it.”

"As for the other box, please use it as a sacrificial vessel. It is bright and rust-free. The ancestors will like it. These are the only ones in Xiacheng."

Su Yue liked it, and nodded again and again: "The craftsmen in Xiacheng are indeed very skilled. I have never seen these things many years ago when the clan was at its most prosperous! Beautiful! Beautiful! I accepted these gifts, just This box is not suitable as a ritual vessel..."

Chen Jian wondered: "Why, could it be because these things are not good?"

"It's not bad, it's too good, so it can't be used. Ji Xia has never seen a real sacrifice, right?"

"Never seen."

"The worship of gods and ancestors is only based on the mind, not the utensils themselves. This has always been the rule, and it's normal if you don't know it. Delicious wine should be reserved for the living, and water and wine should be dedicated to the gods. As long as the gods and ancestors It is good to know the mind; good utensils must be left to the living, and what is dedicated to the ancestors can only be used by the living..."

Chen Jian listened in a daze for a long time, and seemed to understand the weirdness, but Su Yue was still explaining, with a serious expression, revealing a very mysterious taste.

Chapter 22 Respecting the Sages

The sacrifices in the nearby cities of Sucheng are different from those in Xiacheng: they all worship the ancestors and heaven and earth, and offer various utensils and food for blessing or prayer.

But the utensils dedicated to ancestors in the cities near Sucheng are different from those used by living people, and most of them are not as good as utensils used by living people: Qinse has a wooden frame but no strings, and there are cattle and sheep but are tied with thatch. , There are clothes and hats, but the materials are frugal.

According to Suyue's explanation, after death, the soul goes to another world, so the utensils they use must be different from those used by living people. The harp without strings is an artificial difference. This is a purely ideological explanation.

Chen Jian began to preside over the sacrificial ceremony in Xiacheng when he was 15 years old. It has been two years now, but it is still only in the external form. There is no reasonable world view to explain why the sacrificial ceremony and the various etiquettes of the sacrificial ceremony are just for the sake of the sacrificial ceremony.

This kind of leader who knows nothing about sacrifices is regarded as a joke by people on both sides of the river.It's just that Xia Cheng's technology is quite advanced, and he saved the Acropolis in the northwest can be regarded as a meritorious service, so it's not easy for the leaders to bring up such a joke.

For the sacrifice itself, every leader or priest has his own understanding, and Chen Jian is the only one who presides over the sacrifice without understanding the connotation, and he is also regarded as an outlier.

He has his own understanding, but what he understands is incompatible with these people, because he always disassembles all the beautiful and good things to see, and often only sees the helplessness and inevitability of the material. Yu people forcibly endowed connotation.

The rituals in Sucheng had established the basic etiquette as early as the clan alliance decades ago, and all the clans also abided by this kind of norms and etiquette that complies with most people's understanding.

These include the difference between sacrificial utensils and utensils used by living people, who is eligible to sacrifice and who is not, the sacrifices vary according to the ancestors of the gods, the seasons, and so on.

After Su Yue explained some rules, Chen Jian quickly understood these ritual rules that seemed weird to him, and explained them with his own worldview, keeping them in mind.

Sacrifice stems from people's longing for dead relatives and respect for the unknown mysterious power between heaven and earth.

However, Chen Jian believes that the person who formulated these ritual rules at the beginning must not be a very pious and irrational priest, but a genius who guides people how to sacrifice based on the premise that everyone's worldview can accept, a person who grew up in this era A genius priest who transcends the irrational thinking of this era.

For example, those exquisite brass utensils cannot be used for sacrifices, but only some common utensils can be used for sacrifices. The so-called showing the gods to see their minds is enough is just an attachment, I am afraid that the real reason is still naked, ugly and lost. The materialism of aesthetics—it’s hard to explain, but it’s very realistic—did not dare to offend the gods and ancestors in the absence of supplies, but also tried to leave limited good things for the living, and gave the gods and ancestors some broken things to fool them. And use something like mind to put a sanctified cloak on this kind of fooling, for peace of mind.

Another example is the sacrifice of people, cattle and sheep made of grass. Unless there are some special occasions, people are sacrificed. A beautiful and romantic explanation is the awakening of human nature and a hymn to civilization that is full of progress. From the perspective of people with a worldview like Chen Jian It is much darker and more disgusting: at the beginning of the sacrifice, the productivity level was low, and it was a loss to feed the slaves compared to what the slaves could do, so the slaves were mostly used for sacrifices.However, with the development of settled agriculture, the value that slaves could create gradually increased, and large-scale sacrifices to human sacrifices gradually stopped.

This kind of explanation has no sense of beauty, and it makes many people lose the fresh beauty of fantasy, so many people are unwilling to believe it.

Religion, etiquette, and morality are only the external manifestations of the economic activities and material basis at that time; in the final analysis, superstructures such as laws and etiquette in any era must be interpreted on the basis of the material conditions at that time, thus falling into a Sad and helpless inevitability.

This is why Chen Jian wants to laugh. Su Yue talked a lot, and it can be seen that Su Yue believes in the connotation, but in the final analysis, it is the sages of this ethnic group who used cunning ways to fool the gods superb means.

Chen Jian believes that the people who formulated these rules many years ago must have believed that the dead are dead, and the people after death will occupy the already scarce utensils for living people, which is not good.

But before the rules appeared, sacrifices had already appeared and gradually formed a scale. It was impossible to object, because this is the world view of all people. In this world view: sacrifices, prayers, human sacrifices, etc., doing is moral, not doing That is moral corruption.

The sage who formulated the rules did not oppose them completely, but used the rules to constrain them. Su Yue explained the general rules to Chen Jian. At this time, when the material conditions were not rich, the sanctity of the sacrifice itself was overwhelmed by the material. Sex overwhelms, until the material is rich, the sanctity can completely overwhelm the material and become the most important link.

The sacrificial utensils cannot be too good and cannot be the same as those used by the living, because the world of the soul is different from that of the living.