The Legend of Shushan Xuanjian

Chapter 37 Huiling Underground Palace
Hearing the sound of bang, the stone door opened slowly, and a huge "underground palace" came into view...

This "underground palace" is like a wedge-shaped funnel, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom.The walls of the underground palace are covered with murals, and at the bottom of the underground palace, there is a huge wooden coffin.There are more than a dozen huge bronze tripods standing around the wooden coffin. The body of the tripod is simple and heavy, and it seems to be an ancient thing.

Bai Fu and Tang Li walked slowly from the top of the underground palace along the slope to the bottom of the underground palace. From top to bottom, the underground palace was divided into upper, middle and lower floors by bluestone walls, depicting the heaven, the world and the underground respectively.In the most eye-catching position in the middle, a man with the image of an emperor in brocade clothes is slowly heading west, followed by three beautiful maids, and two men in front of him knelt to greet him, and mourned sadly with various sacrificial offerings.

The part of heaven is painted on the widest part of the upper end of the underground palace wall.It is the heavenly world that the emperor in the middle of the wall is going to. On both sides of the heavenly gate leading to the heavenly kingdom are guards standing with folded hands. There are also divine dragons, divine birds and strange beasts, making the heavenly realm majestic and sacred.On the top of the wall of the underground palace sits a heavenly emperor with a human head and a snake body, and a long red tail surrounds it. This monster with a human head and a snake body is the ruler of the heaven, called "Candle Dragon", who can call the wind and rain, and control the alternation of day and night in the four seasons.On the left and right sides of the monster are a crescent moon and nine suns. Toads and jade rabbits stand on the crescent moon. Nine suns are hidden in hibiscus trees. A golden crow stands on the most conspicuous sun.

At the bottom of the wall of the underground palace is the underworld (the underworld), and a giant stands in the middle. The giant is naked and may be the god of the earth.He holds the earth with his hands and protects it from being disturbed.The giant's feet are specially entangled whale salamanders that make waves, and there are snakes under its crotch, which makes people feel gloomy and dim.

The two walked to the center of the bottom of the underground palace, where a huge wooden coffin was placed.The huge coffin is specially used to hold coffins and funerary objects. Its structure is very complicated, and its shape is very similar to the word "well". It consists of three parts: sleepers, coffin chamber and cover board.The huge coffin chamber is placed on three huge square sleepers.

What's more mysterious is that on the surface of the giant coffin, there is a colorful "T-shaped" silk painting, which is made up of three pieces of fine silk, with a bamboo pole wrapped horizontally on the top, and blue and black patterns on the four corners of the middle and lower parts. Hemp ears, laid horizontally like a piece of clothing.This silk painting has a perfect shape, harmonious colors, and a romantic picture. Putting it here, it looks even more mysterious and treacherous.

Seeing this, Tang Li suddenly turned his head to Bai Fu, and asked, "What do you think this silk painting is for? This is the summoning banner, which is used to induce souls to ascend to heaven. During the funeral, people use a bamboo pole to hold it up high. Pick it up, hold it at the front of the funeral procession, and cover it on the inner coffin during burial, as a medium for the soul of the tomb owner to ascend to heaven."

Bai Fu was very nervous at this moment, and Tang Li's sudden speech startled him.

Tang Li ignored Bai Fu's angry rebuke, and continued: "It is said that people in the Western Han Dynasty inherited the funeral system and traditions of the previous generation, and believed that after death, the soul attached to the body should be separated from the body. After separation, it became a wild ghost. , people will not be able to enjoy the sacrifices of future generations, and will also disturb future generations. Therefore, we must find ways to make the scattered souls come back and attach to the corpse to be buried in the tomb. , Let the wandering soul recognize the image of the owner of the tomb painted on the banner, and return by itself. Rejuvenation means that the coffin is parked at home for several days before the funeral, and the soul can also possess the body.

The general practice is that the coffin is parked in the hall, and the painted banners, also called Ming Jing, are erected in front of the coffin.When going out of the funeral, hold it in front of the coffin, guide it all the way to the burial place, and put it on the coffin after the sacrifice and farewell ceremony.If there are multiple layers of coffins, they should be placed on the innermost layer of coffins and buried with them. In this way, the soul follows the flag and the soul follows the coffin, and enters the tomb together. The T-shaped silk painting is a kind of soul-calling banner.The recalled soul can ascend to heaven, and the soul can enter the earth for peace, fulfilling the wish of future generations. "

Tang Li obviously worked hard on Feng Shui, seeing such a magnificent tomb with his own eyes today, he couldn't help showing off.But Bai Fu was terrified.

Seeing that the dignified Bai Fu was also frightened, Tang Li couldn't help but feel a little proud and smiled strangely.

Bai Fu looked at Tang Li's treacherous smile, and said, "Old Tang, let's talk about it, what are you laughing at in the middle of the night? It's creepy."

Tang Li was surprised: "Did I laugh? Why didn't I feel it?" Glancing at Bai Fu, he said, "You're the one laughing so creepily." After finishing speaking, he was taken aback for a moment, and yelled, "Not good!" Then fell down.

Bai Fu saw Tang Li suddenly fell in front of him, he was shocked, and was about to pull Tang Li, when his eyes darkened, and he also fell to the ground.

……

When Bai Fu opened his eyes again, he was already lying on the bottom of the underground palace.The cover and roof of the giant coffin seen just now have been lifted.Next to the giant coffin, several masked men in black were busy dismantling the coffin.

It was only then that Bai Fu realized that his hands and feet were tightly bound by the tendons, and his acupoints were also touched, making him unable to move.Tang Li was lying beside him in the same posture as himself, the only difference was that he was covered with a black blindfold.

The men in black were looking at the giant coffin, which consisted of four side chambers formed by inner and outer walls and a coffin chamber in the middle.There are four sets of wooden coffins in the coffin chamber, and the side compartments are used to place funeral objects.

Various funerary objects are placed in the four side compartments of the coffin chamber.The north chamber is surrounded by hanging curtains, with bamboo mats on the bottom, displaying all kinds of eating utensils, furniture, figurines of singing and dancing, figurines of playing music, figurines of maids, dressing utensils, etc., simulating the life of the Shu Han emperor during his lifetime.The objects in the east chamber are divided into three floors, including wooden figurines of different identities, lacquerware and pottery for food, which symbolize the place where retainers and servants work.The utensils in the west compartment are divided into four floors. There are bamboo baskets and bamboo baskets for various items, which symbolize the storage room.The south chamber is similar to the east chamber. There are a large number of wooden figurines and pottery of officials, which symbolize the place where officials and soldiers worship in court.

After the wooden outer coffin was opened, there were actually four coffins inside. After the first layer of black lacquer coffin was opened, what was revealed was the second layer of black painted lacquer coffin. The basic color of the outside of the coffin was also black, symbolizing the underworld.Painted on the black ground are cloud patterns and more than 110 lifelike images of monsters and animals, just like an unfolding comic strip, depicting a mysterious and happy underground world.In this world, there are many gods and monsters, such as monsters swallowing snakes, cranes pecking snakes, immortals descending leopards, cranes pecking food, and red leopards prostrate on the ground. , a monster with a tail on its body, it appears in the image of holding a snake in its hand or biting a snake in its mouth.The monster is the "protector" of the owner of the tomb, so that the soul of the owner of the tomb will not be damaged, and the body will not be infested by snakes and rats.

The third layer of coffin is the painted lacquer coffin of Zhudi. This layer of lacquer coffin has bright colors and peaceful pictures.The inside and outside of the painted lacquer coffin with vermilion ground is painted with vermilion lacquer, shining like a red sun. Red symbolizes the sun, the south, life and immortality.On the head and sides of the lacquered coffin is the first fairy mountain—Kunlun Mountain. The mountains are painted with auspicious green dragons, white tigers, red birds, deer and immortals.The owner of the tomb boarded the long-awaited Kunlun Fairy Mountain together with them, which symbolized that the soul of the owner of the tomb had escaped the intrusion of demons and arrived in the peaceful fairy world.

The fourth layer of coffin is also the inner coffin directly containing the body of the owner of the tomb.The inside of the coffin was painted with vermilion lacquer, and the outside of the coffin was painted with black lacquer.There are two ribbons wrapped around the coffin.On the cover and four walls of the coffin, there are also velvet embroidery with tree patterns and feather appliqué silk.In the Western Han Dynasty, people believed that in order to become an immortal, a mortal must go through the stage of becoming a fairy, which is the so-called "becoming a fairy after becoming a fairy".In order to achieve this purpose, feathers will be pasted on the inner coffin, which is actually to put a feather coat on the inner coffin, hoping that the tomb owner can reach the fairyland of immortality with the help of the feather coat.

Open the coffin on the fourth floor, and there is a statue of Uncle Liu Huang carved from golden nanmu. Uncle Liu Huang's appearance is lifelike.Uncle Liu Huang's right hand is a long knife with a cold light, and his left hand is a sharp spear.

"This should be the Qinglong Yanyue Knife of Hanshoutinghou and the Zhangba spear of Xixianghou?" One of them stared at these two magical weapons with a sly gleam in his eyes.

At the foot of Uncle Liu Huang, there was a huge wooden box, which took up a large area of ​​the wooden coffin.The leading man in black is obviously more concerned about this wooden box.With a wave of his hand, the two people beside him, wearing silk gloves, gently moved the wooden box out of the wooden coffin.

Everyone hurriedly gathered around, expecting the treasure in the box to appear in the world.With a click, the wooden box was slowly opened, and a layer of sheepskin rolled into view.Uncover this layer of sheepskin roll, it is a layer of silk, uncover this layer of silk, it is another layer of silk... After layer by layer, the sweat from everyone's palms also seeps out layer by layer.

When the last layer of silk was uncovered, there were no dazzling gold jewels, nor cold magic weapons, but a bundle of slightly decayed bamboo slips.

The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.Seeing this, the surrounding audience couldn't help but sigh in disappointment.Only the man in black, who was the leader, was silent. He took the bamboo slips spread on the top, carefully wiped off the dust on the bamboo slips with a silk scarf, then untied the cowhide rope wrapping the bamboo slips, and slowly unfolded the bamboo slips. In the light of the flames, a line of big characters jumped into the eyes: "Wuhou magic strategy"!
The man in black was overjoyed, even though his city was so deep, he couldn't help clenching his fists at this moment and laughing wildly: Hahahaha...

　The description of the underground palace tombs is quoted from the introduction of silk paintings, coffins and other tombs unearthed at Mawangdui, Changsha.Silk paintings, coffins and other tombs are now preserved in the Hun Provincial Museum.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)