antique masters in modern times

The excavation work lasted for more than ten days, and the tomb passage and the dark chamber were cleaned out one after another.This ancient tomb had never been visited by tomb robbers, so it took some effort to open the main cave.

On the day of going down to the cave, in order to prevent landslides, everyone first propped up the wooden frame and waited for a long time to disperse the enclosed gas inside.Tu Zhi took the lead and led a few experienced old students, while Yan You and other students waited nervously outside.

Nearly an hour later, Tu Zhi and the others retreated one by one, and took off their protective masks with strange expressions.

"Teacher, is there something wrong down here?" Wei Changhua asked nervously.

"It's more than wrong, it's very wrong... I just took a rough look at this tomb, and it seems that this tomb is not right. On the outside, there are traces of Han-style mounds, and there are also tomb passages and chambers, etc., but the inside is completely clean. This time. I didn’t bring much equipment when I went down. I didn’t tamper with the things inside. I only took photos. Changhua, after you change the film, you go down again and take a few more shots to capture all the basic angles inside. Clean up the funeral objects."

Color cameras were still very rare at this time, and the black-and-white cameras that used film to develop were equipped in schools, which were very expensive, and teachers and students cherished them very much when they used them.Because of fear that the special gas in the tomb would corrode the camera parts, the film is usually changed outside the tomb.

"Okay, teacher." Seeing that the teacher was not in a good mood, Wei Changhua didn't dare to ask any more questions. He took the camera and ran to load the film.

Yan You didn't have so many scruples.He can get along well with the even more bad-tempered Ying Lao, but maybe Tu Zhi who is just in love at first glance?Immediately he asked, "Teacher Tu, what do you think the identity of the owner of the tomb will be?"

Tu Zhi splashed water from a foreign iron bucket to wash off the dust on his hands, and said, "I've never encountered such a situation, so I can't say for a while. If the owner of the tomb is a modern person, it may be inferred that he is a man like Wang Mang." Retro fanatics. But that was in ancient times. There were regulations from the emperor down to the tombs of the common people. If there is a little overreach, even a first-rank official is a death sentence. Whether it is a prince or an ordinary person, it is impossible to do this kind of disaster to the whole family thing."

While speaking, Tu Zhi shook off the water droplets on his hands, rubbed his work clothes carelessly, and concluded: "We still have to wait for the funerary objects to be cleaned up and refer to them before we can know the identity of the owner of the tomb. However, It would be even better if you can find objects describing your life in the tomb."

Before coming here, Yan You had only made up some common sense about field work, but hadn't systematically learned how to deduce the exact age and identity of the owner of the ancient tomb.But in some respects, this is actually similar to the identification of antiques: their external characteristics have often revealed their origins.Under the seemingly extraordinary appearance, there are often one or two key points.As long as you find the key points, it is enough to get the answer you want.

The other students listened to Tu Zhi's words, and stopped thinking about it, and went to work as before.Unique to Yan You, he couldn't help but use the reverse deduction method in the appraisal, trying to find the answer from other angles.This is his habit, because the information was not as complete as it is now, and he does not have a university as a backing. If he does not find the answer by himself, he may never find it.

After thinking for a while, he suddenly said: "Teacher Tu, is it possible that the tomb was prepared by someone who ignored the laws and regulations? Or, it was built when the country was in turmoil, and the court didn't care to pursue it at all?"

Tu Zhi was standing under the tomb passage in a daze, and he couldn't help being stunned when he heard the words. Just as he was about to speak, Wei Changhua next to him got out of the hole with his camera in his arms, with a worried expression on his face: "Teacher, I accidentally hooked the camera strap to the bag just now. Knickknack, I rolled it down, luckily it didn't break...but I don't remember the angle it was placed in, and the place hasn't been photographed yet..."

He did not destroy the main funeral objects, nor did he hurt the coffin.A small mistake of this level is not serious, just a verbal reminder.Tu Zhigang was about to open his mouth, but when he turned around, he was immediately attracted by the thing in his hand: "What is this? A Buddha statue?"

It was a statue of a woman with a high bun, wide forehead, earlobe reaching shoulders, red collar and green dress, holding a yin and yang fish mirror, and sitting on a lotus platform.The face is quite kind, and the eyes are drooping, as if watching all the sufferings in the world with tenderness and compassion.

There are many gods in China, and sometimes even the same family worships different gods.The old lady respects the Goddess of Guanyin, the master believes in Sanqing Xiaoyao, the daughter worships the God of God before she leaves the pavilion, and asks to send her off to the Goddess after she gets married... Almost every thing that people can think of, there is a special god It's fun to be responsible.

However, in this way, the scholars suffered.Even experts who specialize in mythology and folklore may not be able to recognize all kinds of gods, big and small.Not to mention Tu Zhi, who specializes in three generations of bronze.Puzzled, he took the statue into his hands and looked up and down. Except that it was a fine work with vivid lines and detailed descriptions, he couldn't remember which god it was.

I looked around for a while, but this time there were no students who chose folk customs to accompany me.When Tu Zhigang wanted Wei Changhua to take photos and develop them, and then send them back to the school together with other photos, and asked the teachers in the department for help, he suddenly thought of Yanyou, so he asked casually, "Xiaoyan, do you know him?"

Yan You didn't know him either, but he felt that something was wrong.After looking carefully for a while, I finally discovered the clue: the rosette of this statue is not the common red lotus, but a white lotus.Suddenly, his heart touched, and he blurted out: "The home of the vacuum, the old mother without birth, this should be the image of the old mother without birth."

"Silence?" Tu Zhi misheard and asked in doubt.

When he was still pondering where this god statue showed the characteristics that the gods could not speak, he heard Yan You say again: "It is the supreme god of the White Lotus Sect. At first, her rosettes were mostly red, but because the White Lotus Sect was named after the White Lotus, some believers changed it to white when they cast the statue, so as to echo the Christian name."

After he explained this, Tu Zhi fully understood: "That's right, I heard a professor say last time that the White Lotus Sect believes in female gods."

Yanyou's thoughts were very fast, and he thought of other aspects in an instant: "The White Lotus Sect originated from the Pure Land Sect of Buddhism, and began in the Northern Song Dynasty. It was regarded as a monster by the imperial court, and it was encircled and suppressed, but the religion survived in a different form and continued until Qingshun. Because the enlightened emperor and several famous generals came from the White Lotus Sect, and there were repeated riots after that, many people mistakenly think that the White Lotus Sect It was only active in the Ming Dynasty. In fact, it was not the case. After the Qing Shun, the congregation was influenced by the anti-Qing and Ming Dynasty thoughts, and was hostile to the Qing court many times. , and gradually disappeared.”

Speaking of this, he paused for a moment, and then he emphasized his tone: "I think this is likely to be the tomb of a certain White Lotus Sect member who participated in the uprising or was related to the uprising. He is hostile to the Qing court, so he naturally put the court The law was considered worthless. At that time, there were many sects in the sect, and because of the attack from the court, they could not act blatantly. Listen to orders. Although most of the congregation believe in lifeless mothers since the Zhengde period, the teachings of each sect are quite different in terms of origin and incense inheritance. If there is such a family that claims to be the queen of a certain king in the Han Dynasty, Totally makes sense."

What Yan You said seemed a bit far-fetched, but it was actually well-founded: a few days ago, he asked Xu Dacai privately to inquire about the Zhong family, and inadvertently talked about the origin of the Phantom Gate.Xu Dacai told him quite proudly that illusion has a long history and originated from the White Lotus Sect, which can be traced back to the Northern Song Dynasty.In the beginning, illusion was specially learned by the saintesses in the sect, and they created all kinds of magical powers, such as cast beans into soldiers, heavenly soldiers and generals.

These methods are regarded as miracles by the people who don't know the truth, and they pay homage to them. The White Lotus Sect has attracted many believers by relying on illusions.Later, after the imperial court suppressed and changed the dynasty, these top-secret methods were spread out and became a way for people in the Jianghu to make a living.

In addition to the origin of the Illusory Gate, Xu Dacai also told Yanyou a lot of secret stories about the White Lotus Sect.Yanyou has read history books since he was a child, and knows the affairs of Jianghu, so he can naturally distinguish which part of his words is bragging and which part can be believed.What he said to Tu Zhi at the moment was the part of removing the false and preserving the true, combined with his own speculation.

Tu Zhi didn't understand these things, and he only felt dubious after hearing this: "It seems a little bit reasonable, but you can tell so much with just a small portrait, isn't it too hasty? The essence of research is to learn from things. I have learned everything. I will listen to what you said for now. After cleaning up the funeral objects and screening them one by one, and then waiting for the results of the soil age test, we will draw conclusions."

He didn't believe it, and Yan You didn't force it, he just said: "If there were Bailian disciples here, there should be a record in the county annals and township annals. I want to borrow it from the local school tomorrow."

"Okay, go borrow it, and if you find something, remember to tell me."

Tu Zhi was originally prepared to beat Yan You if he was not convinced, but when he saw that he had listened to his words, he couldn't help but secretly nodded in satisfaction: he is indeed a student of the old Ying, although sometimes his views are aggressive A little bit, lack of fact as a basis.But the attitude is very correct, not arrogant and stubborn.To be a scholar, you must have this modest attitude.

Just as Wei Changhua was about to go to the village to buy some supplies, Tu Zhi waved his hand and asked Yan You to go to the school or the township government with him and borrow the township annals to read.

As a result, the next afternoon, Wei Changhua took nothing with him, and rushed up the mountain with a book in his arms. When he saw Tu Zhi, the first sentence he said was: "Teacher, according to the records of the township, about during the Qianlong period, there was a A country gentleman surnamed Liu has many distant relatives. According to various descriptions, it can be inferred that those so-called distant relatives are the followers of the White Lotus Sect. During the peasant uprising in the five provinces in the first year of Jiaqing, he traveled far and said that he would go to Gan Province Visiting a relative, and Gan Province was one of the places where the uprising took place at that time. Based on the above inferences, we can be sure that he is a follower of the White Lotus Sect!"

Tu Zhi is directing several students to clean up and expand the entrance and exit so that they can take out the funeral objects.Hearing this, the Luoyang shovel in his hand fell to the ground.

After recovering from the shock, he immediately asked Wei Changhua to look for the ancestral trees or annals of celebrities of the big families in the village since the Qing Dynasty. Not to mention, he really found some of them.Although it is not complete, it is enough to piece together the life story of this Liu Xianggentry.

Suppressing his temper, after reading the praises at the beginning of the opening chapter, which praised how the squire Liu was benevolent and generous, Tu Zhi finally found what he wanted. I am a descendant of the Liu family in the Han Dynasty.

At that time, the Qing court was very sensitive to this aspect. Involving the actions of the royal family several dynasties ago, in other dynasties, it might be laughed off as drunken nonsense, but at that time, it was a sin of bad luck. The authorities would think you Have the heart of restoration.That friend was terrified, but because Mr. Liu was always a good friend, he didn't expose him, but gradually alienated him from then on.

Of course, this paragraph in the record is considered by the writer to be a rumor fabricated by that friend who harbors jealousy towards Mr. Liu.Mr. Liu had nothing to do with the Han family, he was a pure and good man, but unfortunately the weather was not good, Mr. Liu encountered bandits on his way to Gan Province, and unfortunately died.After the body was sent back, the descendants buried him in a tomb on a barren mountain that had been prepared before according to his last wish.Probably due to the lack of a backbone, the Liu family fell rapidly after a few years.In the next few generations, there are gradually no records. Obviously, they are poor and can't afford the husband's money to polish the pen, and they can't take care of the ancestral genealogy.

Tu Zhi is very familiar with the secretive spring and autumn brushwork of ancient literati.Coupled with the test results of the age of the soil in the tomb today, it is undoubtedly around the first year of Jiaqing.

After posting the thick documents and test results in a daze for a while, Tu Zhi copied two documents, went directly to the only telephone in the village, and dialed Yinglao's number.

After answering the phone, before he could speak, Elder Ying laughed first: "Xiao Tu, did you call to see me off after hearing that I was going to attend an academic exchange meeting in Guangzhou? You are quite well informed."

"……what?"

"I originally wanted to take Xiaoyan there to see the world, but think about it, there is a shortage of people there, so let him stay and study, and we can talk about it next time. By the way, how is he doing?"

Tu Zhisheng creased the materials that were as thick as a coin, and said from the bottom of his heart: "Mr. Ying, he doesn't need me to teach him. He is better than me in some aspects! You should take him to Guangzhou. The academic conference that can invite you must be full of great talents, take him out to show off, and let others know that our school has a promising student!"