The first Taoist priest of the Tang Dynasty

Zhong Wen came to Longquan Temple this time just to confirm once again that if he could research it, he could sell it to Longquan Temple for some money, even some food.

As for how to explain the fact that he is a poor child, he really can't think of a good way for the time being, and he will only think of a good excuse later.Zhong Wen's actions are purely courting death. He is a poor child, and it is absurd to know about writing, and he may be burned to death.

"Xiaohua, let's go, let's go and have a look in the temple."

After resting enough, Zhong Wen climbed up, patted the blades of grass on his body, and pulled Xiao Hua up from the ground by the way.

"Brother, have you rested yet?"

Xiao Hua still looked at Zhong Wen nervously, worried about her brother.

"Brother, rest well, let's go."

Zhong Wen walked forward with his calf, and Xiao Hua followed after him, looking at the weed her brother was chewing from time to time.

Fortunately, the little flower of that weed is familiar, and I used to eat some roots of this weed. The root has a sweet taste, which makes the little flower aftertaste.

The weed that Zhong Wen was chewing on was actually ordinary thatch grass. The roots of thatch grass buried in the soil were edible after they were dug out and cleaned, and the taste was very good, at least with a sweet and refreshing taste.

The adults and children in the village have eaten the rhizomes of this kind of thatch before. If there is a famine, these can be a lifesaver.

Zhong Wen brought Xiao Hua to the Taoist temple, stopped, and looked at the gate of the Taoist temple in front of him.

There are three arches in the gate of the Taoist temple, one big and two small. Above the big arch, three mottled characters appear in front of you—Longquan Temple. There is a large open space in front of the gate of the Taoist temple, and nine steps extend from the arch to the flat ground. .

The walls on both sides extend to both sides, neither high nor short, about two meters.

In front of the Taoist temple is an open space of about [-] square meters. There are some weeds growing on the open space. This is the front door of the Taoist temple.

As for the nine steps, in Zhong Wen's perception, this is an unusual number. I think this Longquan Temple has an extraordinary history.

Nine is the symbol of the ultimate in any era. Although there are nine steps, the Longquan in front of us has long been dilapidated. If no one takes care of it, it will eventually disappear in the long river of history.

Although Zhong Wen does not know the era he is in until now, but judging from the conditions of his family and the decorations in the Taoist temple, or even himself, what he knows from the chats of the Taoists in the temple in the past, he has never heard of them. What dynasty is it talking about.

Zhong Wen only knew that he was still in ancient China, but the specific dynasty was vague in his mind, so he could only understand and discover it in the future.

"Come on, Xiaohua, let's go inside and have a look."

After Zhong Wen looked at the front door of the Taoist temple for a while, he then raised his foot and stepped on the steps of the outer gate of the Taoist temple. There are nine steps, and it only takes a few steps to enter the temple.

After arriving in Guandao, there is a square half the size of a basketball court in front of you. On both sides of the square, there is a small room, which stores some sundries in the temple.

Going forward through the square is the front hall. The front hall is very small, and it is only used as a town hall to keep away all evil spirits.

After passing through the front hall, there is a larger square. Right in front of the square is the main hall. The main hall is actually not big, only five or six meters high, less than seven or eight meters long, and about ten meters wide. .

The eaves of the main hall are carved with many dragons, phoenixes and beasts. There are three cornices extending from the four sides of the roof of the hall. Under the cornices is a pair of bells that startle birds, and above the cornices is a yin-yang fish.

Behind the main hall, there are dozens of rooms, large and small, for the Taoists of Longquan Temple to rest, eat and sleep.

On both sides of the square, there are two side halls. There is not much difference in shape from the main hall, but the difference is only in size, as well as the depiction of the cornices and the number of cornices.

At this time, in the dilapidated side hall on the right side of the main hall, many Taoists are busy repairing it, and some children in the village are also helping to carry it.

Bird-scaring bells mean that they are used to prevent flying birds. In fact, they are not. In ancient times, any temples and Taoist temples were very particular about these things. Until the period of industrial culture, there were many legends of various monsters and ghosts, and the main function of these bird-striking bells was to prevent evil spirits from invading. The bells must be sacrificed before they can be used as startling bird bells, so I won’t go into details here.

The big and small seal script basically had a dividing line in the Qin Dynasty. It is said that after the first emperor unified the whole of China, he abolished the big seal script and evolved the small seal script, which made the whole country unify the writing. The Jinwen, also called Zhongdingwen, belongs to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties The characters engraved on some bronze tripods, and the bronze inscriptions and seal scripts were basically common characters in the Shang and Zhou dynasties at that time.

Chapter 7 Taoism

"Xiaowen, Xiaohua, why are you here? Xiaowen, you still have a head injury, so stop working."

Dasheng was helping to repair the dilapidated side hall of Longquan Temple at this time, and when he saw Zhong Wen and Xiao Hua approaching, he sounded a reminder.

"Brother Dasheng, we're just here to take a look, so you should be more careful."

Zhong Wen didn't come to work, he had his own thoughts, and he was a little touched by Brother Dasheng's kind reminder, besides, he couldn't work in the current situation.

Brother Dasheng, his family name is Chen, and his first name is Dasheng. He is of medium height and thin. He wears a gown similar to that of Zhong Wen and the others. He has a pair of straw sandals on his feet. Chen Dasheng is 15 years old this year, and he is also the oldest child in the village. The children in the village call him Brother Dasheng.

Zhong Wen and Xiao Hua stood on the square, watching the Taoists, Brother Da Sheng and several other village children helping to repair the dilapidated side hall.

"Brother, you can't go to work, or the wound on your head will bleed again."

Xiao Hua glanced at Zhong Wen, and saw that Zhong Wen seemed to want to help, although Xiao Hua knew that as long as she went to help, she could earn a ration, but with her brother's current state, she didn't want to get hurt again.

"Xiaohua, don't worry, brother, I won't go to work, you stand here, I'll go in and have a look."

Of course, Zhong Wen didn't go to work, with his current ghostly appearance, doing woolen work, it's good if he didn't get smashed to death by the wood on the top of the big side hall.

Zhong Wen walked towards the side hall with his calf. Xiao Hua, who intended to stay in the square, was unwilling to see her brother go in alone, so she had to follow behind. In the heart of the little man, he was worried about his brother. , must be by your side at all times.

In the past, Xiaohua was basically like this, like a little bodyguard, wherever Zhong Wen went, Xiaohua would definitely follow him, as for who protected whom, only Xiaohua remembered.

"Xiaowen, move away, you are blocking my way."

Gao Yao was holding a short piece of wood in one hand, and was about to enter the hall from outside the hall, when Zhong Wen came to the door of the side hall at this moment.

"Gao Yao, then be careful, don't get hurt by the wood."

Zhong Wen saw Gao Yao approaching with a piece of wood in his arms, and quickly stepped aside, not forgetting to warn him.

"Understood, Xiaowen, don't go in there, it's a mess right now, be careful your head hasn't healed yet, and you're hurt somewhere else."

Gao Yao watched as Zhong Wen moved away, and went into the side hall with the wood in his arms.

Gao Yao is also a child in the village, one year older than Zhong Wen, his body is almost the same as Zhong Wen's, and he has a relatively good relationship with Zhong Wen.

Gao Yao was not famous at first, but because he was very weak when he was two or three years old, fortunately, he was treated by an old Taoist priest in Guanli, and after taking the medicine for several years, he gradually recovered. Later, Gao Yao's mother In order to thank the old Taoist priest, he gave the only big hen raised at home to the old Taoist priest, and Gao Yao called Gao Yao from then on.

Zhong Wen didn't listen to Gao Yao's advice, and walked directly along the wall of the side hall, towards a corner, Xiao Hua followed behind, wondering in his heart, and didn't know what his brother was doing.

The Taoists in the Taoist temple are basically busy with their own affairs, so they don't notice Zhong Wen and the others. Moreover, the Taoist temple never prohibits anyone from entering. As long as they are willing to come in, they can basically enter at will. But you have to follow the rules of the temple.

Zhong Wen turned two corners before arriving at a corner of the side hall.

This corner is mostly made of some large stones, which is the base of the side hall.

And on these big stones, there are some characters engraved, the handwriting is blurred, the surface of the stones has long been weathered, and there are many years.

Due to the weathering of time, the surface of the large stone is covered with a lot of fine gravel sand. With a slight flick, the stone sand will fall down, and even erase the characters carved on the large stone.

Zhong Wen, who squatted down, stared at the characters on the big stone with his eyes wide open, and counted them carefully.

There are not many characters, dozens of characters, which are shared by bronze script and seal script. I don't know when and who carved it on this base stone.

"Brother, what are these?"

Xiao Hua squatted down along with Zhong Wen, and began to look at the characters on the big stone. Because Xiao Hua couldn't read the characters, she naturally didn't know what was carved on the stone. It looked like a ghostly talisman.

"I don't know, I guess some ancient person carved it here."

Zhong Wen has been staring at the characters on the stone, wanting to know something, or what is written in the characters, but unfortunately there is no pen and paper, otherwise, Zhong Wen must copy down these characters for later Study slowly.

As Zhong Wen watched carefully, these characters gradually became clearer compared with the fonts he had learned and studied in his previous life.

Of course, these characters were not fully understood by Zhong Wen, because many characters were missing, and even a few characters were so mottled that they were almost unrecognizable.

"Children of the Zhong family, what are you doing here? The main hall is still being repaired, so don't get hurt again."

A middle-aged Taoist in the Taoist temple happened to pass by at this time, and saw the Zhong Wen brothers and sisters squatting in the corner, facing the pedestal in the corner of the hall.

"Hi Taoist, we have nothing to do, just come here to have a look, there are some characters here, I don't know what to write."

When Zhong Wen saw a Taoist approaching, he quickly stood up and explained, and Zhong Wen also knew this Taoist.

"These characters have been here for many years, and I don't know what they are written on. There are also many in other side halls. Zhong's little boy, if you are all right, leave here. We are working. If you are not careful, you If you get hurt, it will be troublesome, you two should leave immediately."

After the Taoist finished speaking, he went to work again, leaving the Zhong Wen brothers and sisters, and continued to squat in the corner to watch the characters on the stone.

Zhong Wen's mind is immersed in these characters, while Xiao Hua is doing nothing, standing up for a while, squatting down for a while, looking around.

As time went by, Xiaohua couldn't bear it any longer, she wanted to tease Zhong Wen who seemed to be stupid, but she was afraid of disturbing her brother.

"Brother, we don't want to be here anymore."

In the end, Xiao Hua didn't resist her boredom, she tugged on Zhong Wen's clothes, and brought Zhong Wen back to reality.

"Okay, let's go to another side hall to have a look."

Zhong Wen stood up, took Xiao Hua, and went to look around the other side halls. Zhong Wen had rarely been to the other side halls before, and he didn't know the corners of these side halls. At the same place, characters are also depicted.

On the bases of the corners of several side halls, there are quite a few characters of this kind carved on them, basically dozens of characters. Zhong Wen doesn't know what these characters mean here, and it is even more impossible to know. What do these characters mean.

The characters are scattered and can't be combined into sentences or words. In Zhong Wen's mind, he always wanted to form these characters into phrases and sentences, but he couldn't connect them together.

Every time Xiaohua went to a side hall, she always bowed to the worshiping Taoist monarch, chanting something, Zhong Wen didn't know what the little girl was chanting, maybe she was asking God to bless her family.

Looking at the side halls, there are dozens of characters engraved on the corner stones of the sixteen corners, and there are about a thousand characters, and there are many repeated characters. Zhong Wen guessed in his heart, These characters must be a Daoist text about the pressing stone of the temple.

As for the function of this Taoist text and who wrote it, everything is a mystery. The Taoists in the temple don’t know, and they don’t know whether the Daoist Li knows it or not. Maybe he knows it, but can it form a Taoist text? , that's two words.

Zhong Wen thought in his heart, when he is free these two days, he must transcribe these characters and study them carefully. His greatest hobby in his previous life was to study these ancient Chinese characters. Well, for those who don't understand, that really means nothing.

"Xiaohua, let's go."

After Zhong Wen figured everything out, he called Xiao Hua to leave Longquan Temple, and it was already afternoon. Although there was no lunch to eat, his stomach had already started to growl. Eat something to fill your stomach.

There is no extra food at home, so I can only pick some young shoots, branches and leaves, or small fruits to fill my hungry stomach.

s: During the famine era, no matter whether it was humans or animals, there was basically nothing to eat. They could only dig wild vegetables, pick leaves, shoots, wild fruits and other things to satisfy their hunger. In addition, the ancient people lacked a system for identifying various plants learning, not to mention literacy or encyclopedias.

The grain output in ancient times can be said to be frighteningly low. According to existing records, one mu of land today, in the Tang Dynasty, was probably close to two mu. Rotational cultivation once, for example, 100 mu, can only cultivate 150 mu, and the other [-] mu belongs to the field of rotation, and the yield of one mu is only tens to hundreds of catties, plus there are many weeds, Without fertilizer sources and chemical fertilizers, the yield cannot be increased.

Of course, according to the records in the history of China's agricultural development, it is a joke for the spectators to say that there is a value of three to five hundred catties, let alone three to five hundred catties, if it is two hundred catties, it is also auspicious. As far as the author knows, in the eighties and 90s, before the emergence of hybrid rice, the output of one mu of land was only about [-] catties of rice. Production does not mean everything, only some places can be mentioned, and in the Tang Dynasty, if you want to produce three to five hundred catties of grain, book friends can analyze it carefully, so the author will not repeat it here.

Chapter 8 Thrilling Scene

Zhong Wen took Xiao Hua and left Longquan Temple, while the Taoists of Longquan Temple and the children helping out in the village were still repairing the dilapidated side hall.

Zhong Wen walked down the trail, Xiao Hua followed behind.

Zhong Wen kept thinking about the characters he saw just now. There are many words about heaven, Tao, man, etc. in the characters, as well as some other common words.

But there are also some words that Zhong Wen doesn't know, which makes Zhong Wen unable to form words or sentences.

The path down from Longquan Temple has a slight slope.

Longquan Temple was originally built on a small hill, not a high mountain or a big marsh. There is only this trail to get to Longquan Temple from the village.

One side of Longquan Temple is a mountain wall, and the other side is a mountain forest. No one knows the size of the mountain forest.Behind Longquan Temple is also a mountain wall.

As Zhong Wen walked towards the village along the path, he was recalling the characters he saw just now, but he still had no clue in his mind.

Afterwards, Zhong Wen didn't bother to think about it anymore, and waited to transcribe it someday, bring it back and study it again, maybe it was a good Taoist essay, and he could sell it to Daoist Li in exchange for some food or money.

Zhong Wen's thinking is indeed not wrong, but he doesn't know that if he really wants to do this, not to mention that the villagers will regard him as a monster, it is estimated that even the priests in the temple will regard him as a monster Reincarnation, maybe put it directly on the fire and roast it as a pig.

Zhong Wen stopped thinking about the characters, and began to look around with his eyes. When he saw some thorny shoots, he would always pinch some and put them in his mouth to chew, and even eat some of the small flowers that followed.

As far as Xiaohua is concerned, as long as she thinks it is edible, she will not make a sound to stop Zhong Wen's actions.

After returning home, Zhong Wen searched all over the house, but couldn't find anything convenient. Just now Zhong Wen was thinking about getting a slingshot or something, but he found that there was no such thing as rubber bands in this era, and then he started Helpless up.

"Brother, what are you looking for?" Xiao Hua saw Zhong Wen searching for something in the thatched hut at home, and then went to the kitchen to dig things, although there was nothing to dig in the kitchen.

"Brother just wanted to find something, but later found out that our house doesn't seem to have any."

After Zhong Wen finished speaking, he sat on the stone in front of the open space and became dazed.

Xiaohua watched her brother finally calm down, and wondered what happened to her brother today?Either go to Guanli, or search for things at home, then walked over and sat down next to Zhong Wen.

Zhong Wen squinted his eyes, and his mind was spinning rapidly.

Thinking about how to live well in this era, or how to fill this stomach, I can't work like before, enduring hunger every day, and my thin body doesn't have much physical strength. live.

A modern electrical maintenance worker suddenly came to this era, it is really difficult to explain the key points, and for Zhong Wen, this era, this world, is completely unknown, maybe he has to explore and discover it by himself.

After a quarter of an hour or two, Zhong Wen opened his eyes and sighed heavily.

With such conditions at home, and with such a thin body, it was very difficult to do anything.

Zhong Wen stood up from the rock, Xiao Hua leaned against Zhong Wen and almost fell down, but fortunately Zhong Wen was quicker, otherwise Xiao Hua's little head would have been knocked on the rock.

"Brother" Xiao Hua almost fell down, and after seeing herself being supported by Zhong Wen, she yelled at Zhong Wen.

"Be careful, don't fall."

After Zhong Wen got up, he went to the kitchen, holding in his hand the only iron tool in the house—a kitchen knife. In fact, besides the kitchen knife, there were two sickles in the house, and the sickle was used for cutting rice.

"Brother, why are you going? What are you doing with a kitchen knife?" Xiao Hua was curious when she saw Zhong Wen come out of the kitchen with a kitchen knife.

"Let's go to the sling we put on in the morning to check. It's been a long time, and I don't know if there is anything."