Riding the wind of rebirth

"These are all ancient texts. The Bimo Sutra." Old Chi Ri's weathered hands were placed on the glass display stand, as if he was stroking the ancient cow bones: "The ancient Bimo Sutra."

"What is the purpose of passing on the scriptures?"

"It is an indispensable classic written and passed down by the Bimo family. It is divided into two parts. The first part is the text, which has a total of 24 chapters and more than 2,800 lines. The second part is about sacrificial rituals, which contains detailed records of various formulas and rituals, from the great divine formations to the small egg divination."

"We determine status and prestige based on the level of spoken language, literature, and skills," said Lao Chi Ri. "The Chuan Bi Jing can be understood as the Four Books and Five Classics of the ancient Han people. You must memorize the Chuan Bi Jing before you can complete the course. Otherwise, you won't be able to do it even if you are from an aristocratic family."

"Each family has its own Chuanbi Sutra. This cow bone is from the Chuanbi Sutra of the family you belong to."

"Is there a person's name on it?" Zhou Zhi knew how important cultural relics with personal identity information were. Such things could often become "dating artifacts" and their value was incomparable to ordinary cultural relics.

"No, I can tell from the content." Old Chi Ri had already finished reading the bone slips: "The Divine Branch Formation recorded here belongs to their family."

In Yi legends, around the time of the ancient flood, the God of Heaven, Ce Gezi, sent three Bimos, the Heavenly Masters, down to earth to save the suffering Yi ancestors.

The three Bimos each rode a yellow ox and tied the scriptures to the ox's horns. However, when they were crossing the sea and the river, the scriptures on the ox's horns were unfortunately soaked by water. So they spread the scriptures on the green ganoderma trees to dry in the sun, but unexpectedly the corners of the scriptures were torn by the branches.

Therefore, in the Bimo's concept, the existing Yi religious scriptures are only half of the original number. Therefore, when performing spells and chanting scriptures, they must first insert green branches on the sacrificial site, which means to make up for the lost half of the scriptures.

The act of inserting green branches on the sacrificial site is called "Ku Che". "Ku" means "to be related to God and to be blessed" in Yi language, and "Che" means "to insert".

The Han people translated this word into "divine branch formation".

Each Bimo family has its own family characteristics on these "important weapons", so they can be identified by Lao Chi Ri.

"This is a noble family from Xiaoliangshan, which is quite far from our Daliangshan. I don't know how the article got here."

Daliangshan refers to the area around Qionghai Lake with Liangshan Prefecture as its center. The east of Daliangshan belongs to Jiazhou and Yizhou, where there are also four Yi counties, Lei, Ma, Ping and E, which are called Xiaoliangshan.

There is a proverb that says "The mountains in Daliangshan are small, and the mountains in Xiaoliangshan are big", which means that the mountains in Daliangshan are relatively gentle, and there are some mountain basins in them. In contrast, the mountains in Xiaoliangshan are very steep.

However, Xiaoliangshan is actually closer to the Han ethnic group settlement area, so there is a phenomenon of sinicization, and the ethnic customs and clothing are not as well preserved as those in Daliangshan.

"Was this character also influenced by the Han people?" Zhou Zhi had some ideas about the calligraphy on the bone slips, which was different from the handwritten scriptures he had seen.

"Maybe." Old Chi Ri nodded: "Also, this is engraved with a needle, which is different from writing with a pen."

“But this word is really beautiful…”

"Eh? Elbow, Grandpa Chi Ri, why are you still here looking at this?"

Mai Xiaomiao walked in from the door again. She and Jilie Azi had finished visiting the small museum a long time ago. They went outside to play for a long time and then came back in to look for someone.

"Where did you go?" Zhou Zhi asked.

"Azi and I went to feed the squirrels. There are squirrels outside, and they like to eat rice crackers." Mai Xiaomiao's face was full of joy. "Oh, we should go back." Zhou Zhi looked at the time: "It's a waste of time to come to the museum. We just spent so much time looking at it at the entrance."

"It's not a wasted trip." Old Chi Ri said, "It's worth it to be able to see the early things of the Yihuo family. Let's go back quickly and come here next time."

"Yes, there will definitely be a chance." Zhou Zhi nodded: "Many things from Bimo Cave will definitely be moved here in the future. When that happens, the state will have to consult you."

"Take a picture of this big bamboo slip and I'll go back and study it." Old Chi Ri said, "This is obviously from Daliang Mountain."

Before leaving, the two of them went to a bookstore next to the museum and bought some books, but Lao Chi Ri chose those in Yi language, while Zhou Zhi chose those in Chinese.

One of the most important works is "Research on Slavery among the Yi People in Liangshan".

The study of the social nature of the Liangshan Yi people was a major academic issue in the early days of the People's Republic of China. It was also a major academic activity with a wide range of implications and a profound impact, not only domestically but also internationally.

The book also records many interesting or even ridiculous stories.

For example, since the Ming Dynasty, the heartland here has been isolated from the outside world, and slave owners often organized their men to rob and plunder money from passers-by, and also rob people as property. At that time, Liangshan was called "Bab Liangshan", and this problem was called "the problem of barbarians".

This habit of robbing people is a special characteristic of slave society and is the essence of the "barbarian affairs issue."

The Ming and Qing dynasties both adopted a containment approach, setting up camps, outposts, ponds, and forts along the post roads to prevent the spread of the virus, which once played a considerable role.

However, when the power of the central dynasty declined in the late Ming and Qing dynasties, it became out of reach.

Especially after the Opium War, Chinese society changed dramatically. The feudal dynasty was plagued by internal and external troubles. The army was withdrawn to deal with foreign enemies, and the people continued to revolt. In addition, the garrison itself was corrupt and exchanged the army's bullets for the Yi people's opium. These contributed to the development of Yi slavery. After Emperor Xianfeng in the late Qing Dynasty, this place was out of control and became an independent kingdom of several clans.

During the reign of Emperor Xuantong, there was a brave British man named Balke who brought one or two men into the core area of ​​Liangshan, Niu Niuba in Meigu County. After entering, they were killed by the Yi people, which affected diplomacy. This was the famous "Balke Incident" in the late Qing Dynasty. Afterwards, the Qing government sent the Governor-General of Sichuan to encircle and suppress Niu Niuba in two directions. The Yi people retreated into the mountains and could not be found by the Qing army. The Qing army then declared the encirclement and suppression a success, which was considered an explanation to the foreigners, but in fact it was just a trick.

The truth behind this "Balke incident" is actually very funny. It is said that after Balke arrived at Niu Niuba, two slave owners talked about how this person did not look like one of us, with a high nose and blue eyes, and asked him where he was from.

Balke had two translators with him. He spoke in English, one of them translated it into Chinese, and the other translated it into Yi.

Balk replied that he came from England. The Yi people had no concept of England, so they translated it as "from the far, far sky", and then translated it again into "from the sky".

The two chiefs were shocked. One chief said to the other, "This guy said he came from the sky. He is not like us."

Another chief made a bet: "He said he came from heaven, do you dare to kill him?"

The chief said, "Of course I dare!" and drew his knife and chopped off Balke's head.

But the blow did not kill him. Balke had a gun and immediately fought back, shooting the chief, but failed to kill him. The chief's attendants rushed forward and hacked Balke to death with a few blows, and killed all the people who were with him. This is the famous "Balke Incident" in Liangshan.

After that, foreigners dared not enter the hinterland of Liangshan, and this incident was gradually exaggerated into an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle in Liangshan. It was not until many years later that the truth was revealed. (End of this chapter)