My 1995 Small Farm.

"This incense burner is used by Taoist priests when performing rituals and burning incense. Do you see these three legs? This is called a 'three-legged tripod,' which emphasizes stability."

Chen Ling pointed to the cloud patterns on the incense burner: "These cloud-like patterns are called 'cloud patterns,' which symbolize good fortune and lofty ideals. Taoism emphasizes 'following the natural way,' and believes that clouds are the closest and most free thing to the sky."

Rui Rui listened intently, her little hand reaching out to touch it, but Chen Ling stopped her: "Don't touch it directly. This thing has been buried underground for over four hundred years, and it's hard to say what it's contaminated with."

"Only four hundred years? Is that a long time?" Xiaoming muttered from the side.

Chen Ling thought for a moment and then put it another way: "It was your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, back when he was born."

The two children gasped at the same time, their eyes widening in shock.

Several older children, including Liu Ni'er, also gathered around, straining their ears to listen.

"Uncle Fugui, did this incense burner really come with the Taoist priest when he fled from the south?" Xizi asked.

"Correct."

Chen Ling nodded: "Think about it, more than four hundred years ago, there was a group of Taoist priests who carried scriptures and this incense burner, hiding from bandits and government soldiers, and traveled thousands of miles to get here. Many people died along the way, and only a few survived in the end."

"Why are we fleeing?" Liu Ni'er asked, puzzled.

"Because of war."

Chen Ling patiently explained, "Back then, our country had Japanese pirates who killed anyone they saw and looted anything they could find. The Taoist temple where the Taoists lived was burned down, so they had no choice but to run away."

"Are the Wokou Japanese?" Rui Rui asked.

"Some of them are, but some are scum from our own country."

Chen Ling patted his head: "So you are so lucky now, born in peaceful times, able to go to school, have enough to eat, and travel around. Back then, it was hard to even save your life."

The children fell silent after hearing this.

Then, gritting his teeth, he continued to curse the Japanese.

The adults nearby nodded in agreement.

Zhao Dahai sighed, "Fu Gui is right. Let the children know the hardships of the past so they can appreciate the sweetness of the present."

As they were talking, someone else came over and asked Chen Gannian, "Fourth Grandfather, you know so much, tell us how to distinguish between good and bad coffins? We country folk only know that cypress is good and paulownia is bad, but you said yesterday that paulownia with that lacquer is even better than cypress?"

Chen Gannian chuckled, found a small hill to sit down, and everyone quickly gathered around.

"These coffins do indeed come in different grades."

The old man held up one finger: "The worst kind is a thin coffin, which is just a few thin wooden boards nailed together. Poor families can't afford good wood, so they make do with what they have."

“If you bury this kind of coffin, it will rot completely in three to five years, and the bones won’t be preserved.”

"A slightly better option is a pine coffin. Pine is cheap, but it's also quite sturdy and can last for twenty or thirty years. For most farming families, being able to afford a pine coffin is considered quite good."

"The best ones are hardwoods like cypress, nanmu, and camphor. Sometimes you can't even drive a nail in, you have to use mortise and tenon joints. They can last for hundreds of years without breaking, but they're too expensive, most people can't afford them."

The man then asked, "What about lacquer? The one you mentioned earlier, applied to the coffin, isn't that the best?"

Chen Gannian shook his head: "Wood lacquer is not lacquer, it's a craft. Using good materials and good lacquer is the icing on the cake. Using rotten wood to apply wood lacquer is a waste."

"It's just like a person. If you're wearing a dragon robe, you need to have the presence to carry it off. What would it look like if someone with a pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks wore a dragon robe?"

Everyone burst into laughter.

The man then asked, "What about the style of the coffin? Are there any special considerations?"

Chen Gannian said, “Coffins are divided into two styles: Qing and Manchu. Qing style coffins are flat, while Manchu style coffins are arched, like a small house. Most of the ones here are Qing style.”

"The coffin lid should be thick, and the bottom should be thin. Why? A thick lid can suppress the pressure, and a thin bottom allows the coffin to connect with the earth, so that future generations can benefit from the good fortune."

"The head of the coffin should be high and the tail should be low. This is called 'looking up to see one's descendants and looking down to see one's future.'"

“The inside of the coffin is covered with paper, three layers: the bottom layer is white paper, representing innocence; the middle layer is yellow paper, representing wealth; and the top layer is red paper, representing joy. This is called ‘white, yellow, and red, three generations prosper.’”

Everyone listened intently, and someone muttered quietly, "There's a lot more to this than meets the eye."

Chen Gannian smiled and said, "A coffin is a person's last room; how can we be careless about it?"

Then someone asked, "What about the cemetery? Old man, are there any special considerations for the cemetery?"

Chen Gannian smiled and said, "You say you're particular? There's a lot to learn about being truly particular."

"Could you tell us about it?" Everyone became interested.

Chen Gannian didn't refuse and smiled, saying, "There are several types of burial sites. The best one is called 'auspicious land,' which is a place with good feng shui. It should be backed by mountains and face water, sheltered from the wind and gathering energy. The mountains should be rounded and the water should embrace it, not be straight. Burying ancestors in such a place can bring blessings to future generations."

"Secondly, it's called 'Pinggang'. It means the terrain is slightly higher, dry and well-ventilated, and won't accumulate water. Most people would consider it good if they could find such a place."

"Secondly, it's called 'slope.' It's a gentle slope at the foot of a mountain, where people can be buried, but it's prone to dampness, and the coffin will rot quickly."

"The worst one is called a 'mass burial ground'."

At this point, Chen Gannian paused and looked at everyone: "What do you think a mass grave is?"

Someone quickly answered: "It's an unclaimed cemetery where poor people bury their dead anywhere!"

Chen Gannian shook his head: "You're wrong. The mass burial ground is actually owned."

Everyone was stunned.

Chen Gannian explained, "Mass burial grounds used to be land owned by landlords or wealthy families. They would set aside a piece of land specifically for poor people to bury, without charging them money. Why? To accumulate good karma."

“These lands are usually the worst, where crops don’t grow, they’re low-lying and damp, or full of rocks. When a poor person dies, and their family is dirt poor and has nowhere to bury them, they go to the landlord’s door for help. If the landlord is kind-hearted, he’ll give them a piece of land to bury them.”

"With so many people buried here and there, and nobody cared, it became a mass grave. But the land still belonged to the landlords, it wasn't unclaimed."

"Later, the world changed, the landlords disappeared, and those lands gradually became public property. But the name 'mass burial ground' remained."

Everyone was stunned.

It turns out that the three characters "mass burial ground" have this hidden meaning.

Even Chen Ling was taken aback: "Fourth Grandfather, I always thought that mass graves were just wastelands that nobody wanted."

Chen Gannian sighed, “We ordinary people only know one side of the story. Take landlords, for example. You all think they are bad guys? But they used their land to bury the poor. Is that something a bad guy would do?”

"Of course, I'm not trying to exonerate landlords. There were plenty of bad landlords, they made up the majority, but that doesn't mean there weren't any good ones."

Everyone fell silent.

Chen Ling chimed in, "Fourth Grandfather is right. You can't generalize about everything. Good and bad people aren't distinguished by wealth or poverty, but by their hearts."

Chen Gannian nodded: "Fugui's words make sense. The Chen landlord in our Chenwangzhuang used to have a lot of good deeds done by his ancestors. They repaired bridges and roads, distributed porridge and medicine, and reduced rent in years of disaster. Later they fell into poverty, but the older generation in the village still speaks highly of them."

"So how did his family fall into ruin later?" someone asked.

Chen Gannian shook his head: "The world has changed. During the Republic of China era, warlords fought, and his family was robbed several times by soldiers and bandits. Later, during the land reform, the land was distributed, and the people scattered. The last generation of the family didn't even get a decent coffin when he died."

Everyone sighed.

Just then, the archaeological team made another sound. Professor Zhou strode over, his face beaming with barely suppressed excitement: "Uncle Chen, Mr. Chen, we've discovered something important again!"

Everyone quickly followed.

Next to the stone tablet, the staff cleared out another broken stone slab.

The stone slab was small, about half a meter square, and its surface was covered with characters.

"An epitaph!" Professor Zhou exclaimed excitedly. "This should be the epitaph of that Abbot Lu!"

Chen Gannian walked closer and took a look: "It's...it's Abbot Lu! It says on it...'The Tomb of Abbot Lu Qingyuan, the Founding Abbot of Qingxu Temple!'"

The crowd was in an uproar.

We've really struck something!
Professor Zhou asked cautiously, "Sir, can you recognize any more details?"

Chen Gannian rubbed his eyes and carefully examined the mottled inscriptions:

"Master Lu... was originally from Jiangnan... entered the Taoist order at a young age... in the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing (1565), Japanese pirates burned down the temple... he led his disciples to protect the scriptures and travel north... traversing thousands of miles... in the third year of Wanli (1584), he built Qingxu Temple here... passed away in the twenty-eighth year of Wanli (1589)... at the age of seventy-three..."

He read it intermittently, but the key information came through.

Professor Zhou took notes rapidly, his hands trembling: "The thirty-fourth year of Jiajing... that was 1555, the time when the Japanese pirates were at their most rampant! The temple was built in the third year of Wanli, that was 1575! From fleeing to building the temple, they had been on the move for a full twenty years!"

Twenty years.

Everyone was deeply moved by what they heard.

A group of people, protecting scriptures and ritual implements, wandered in the chaotic world for twenty years before finally finding a place to settle down.

Chen Gannian murmured, "Twenty years... Old Zhang told me that Abbot Lu never wore nice clothes or ate good food in his entire life. He used all the money he saved to build the Taoist temple and take on disciples. When he died, he didn't even leave himself a coffin; he was buried with a wooden plank..."

Professor Zhou nodded: "The epitaph does indeed say, 'His last wishes were for a simple burial, without a coffin, only his clothes and hat.' So that cenotaph is very likely the one for Master Lu. His actual remains were probably wrapped in a mat and buried nearby."

"Was this epitaph added later by the disciples?" Chen Ling asked.

"It should be."

Professor Zhou said, "When Abbot Lu passed away, Qingxu Temple was still very simple and could not afford a grand funeral. After the temple prospered, later generations carved this epitaph to commemorate him and buried it nearby."

Chen Gannian looked at the broken stone slab and was quite excited.

After all, he knew some Taoist priests and often went to the Taoist temple to play when he was a child, so he had developed an attachment to it.

In addition, the ancestor of the Chen family was also adopted by a Taoist priest.

He then led some of the younger generation in bowing.

After Professor Zhou and the others finished their greetings, he spoke up: "Uncle Chen, this epitaph, together with the incense burner and scriptures discovered earlier, can completely reconstruct the history of Qingxu Temple. This is of great value to our research on the transmission of Taoism from the Southern School to the North during the Ming Dynasty."

Chen Gannian waved his hand: "The things are yours, we won't fight for them. As long as we can give our ancestors an explanation, that's enough."

Wang Laishun rubbed his hands together and said, "Professor Zhou, can these things... stay in our village in the future? We want to set up a showroom so the kids can see them."

Professor Zhou thought for a moment and said, "This is negotiable."

"After we complete the detailed recording and research, the important cultural relics may need to be sent to the province for preservation, but the replicas or less important items can be left in the village."

“Especially this epitaph, it is a testament to your village’s history and should be seen by your descendants.”

"That's wonderful!" Wang Laishun was overjoyed.

By then, the sun had risen high in the sky.

Chen Ling glanced at the sky and said to Wang Susu, "You should take the children back first. The sun is too strong; don't let them get too hot."

Wang Susu nodded and called to Rui Rui and Xiao Ming.

But the two children were squatting next to the epitaph, their eyes wide as they watched the staff clean it, and they refused to leave no matter how much they were called.

"Dad, let's stay a little longer!" Rui Rui pleaded.

"Uncle, I want to see them dig!" Xiaoming also refused to move.

Helpless, Chen Ling said to Wang Susu, "Then you take Kang Kang and Lele back first, I'll keep an eye on them."

Wang Susu nodded, picked up Lele, and Gao Xiulan carried Kang Kang back to the farm first.

Chen Ling found a shady spot to sit down, and the two children lay down beside his legs, continuing to watch the archaeological team.

Over there, Professor Zhou was directing staff to set up excavation squares around the epitaph, preparing to expand the excavation area.

"Be careful, go slowly, sift every shovel of soil!" he shouted.

The workers dug carefully, sifting each piece of soil they unearthed with a sieve, afraid of missing any small items.

"Dad, what are they sifting?" Rui Rui asked.

"Sifting out treasures," Chen Ling said. "If there are any small things, like coins or beads, that are buried in the soil and can't be seen, we can sift them out."

"Oh..." Rui Rui suddenly realized, and after watching for a while, he suddenly pointed over there and shouted, "Dad, look! Something is coming out of the sieve!"

Sure enough, a worker sifted out a piece the size of a fingernail, which was dark green.

Professor Zhou strode over, took the object, examined it closely, and then exclaimed excitedly, "It's a jade piece! It should be a fragment of a jade pendant!"

The crowd gathered around again.

It was a small piece of jade, only the size of a fingernail, but you could tell that the carving was exquisite, with faint cloud patterns on it.

"The jade is of good quality; it should be Hetian jade."

Professor Zhou deduced: "It was probably an item that Master Lu wore during his lifetime. It broke later, and his disciples couldn't bear to throw it away, so they buried it next to his epitaph as a funerary object."

Chen Gannian leaned closer to take a look and nodded: "Master Lu is from the South, and Southern Taoists are particular about wearing jade, so that makes sense."

Chen Ling then said to Rui Rui and Xiao Ming, "Look, these are fragments of history. Even a small piece of jade can tell us how people lived hundreds of years ago."

Rui Rui nodded as if he understood, then suddenly asked, "Dad, when we die, will people dig us up and study us?"

Chen Ling was taken aback by the question, then laughed: "That's not necessarily true. We're not burying any treasures, just a bunch of bones. There's not much to study if we dig them up."

"Let's bury some treasure!" Xiao Ming suggested. "So that future generations can dig it up and find out what's going on with us!"

Everyone laughed when they heard that.

Zhao Dahai teased him, "So what treasure do you want to bury?"

Xiao Ming thought about it seriously: "Bury a dog named Tie Dan! When people dig it up in the future, they'll know we raised such a big dog!"

Little Iron Egg seemed to understand, wagging its tail and barking twice.

The crowd laughed even harder. (End of Chapter)