prosperous age

Chapter 242 Chapter 241
"The land can attract pine cranes, and the source of immortality is here."

Hearing half a line of the poem, Wei Guangde turned the corner and saw Xuan Jing, the abbot of Lingji Palace, accompanied by an immortal Taoist priest drinking tea and discussing Taoism under the big tree in the backyard.

Wei Guangde and Xuan Jing are also considered acquaintances. Of course, this has something to do with the name he passed on, and there is also a transaction between them.

The last time Wei Guangde bought Taoist books was here, Xuan Jing introduced, so after Wei Guangde came, Xuan Jing's first reaction was that Wei Chuanlu came to buy books again.

A set of books worth a few hundred taels of silver is beyond the reach of ordinary people, even many low-level Beijing officials cannot afford them.

Therefore, Xuan Jing was deeply impressed by a client like Wei Guangde who is capable of paying for money.

He got up and said a few words to the guest, then came up to him with a smile, "Wei Chuanlu, Mr. Wei is a rare visitor, come, come, I have new tea from the south, Mr. Wei can come and taste it."

"The fragrance of the real Xuanjing's tea has attracted me from the main hall, so naturally I want to ask for a cup, haha."

When meeting Wei Guangde, Xuan Jing pulled Wei Guangde to sit aside, and very actively introduced his friends to Wei Guangde.

"Fellow Daoist, don't be called by real people. Real people don't just call you casually. This is the real person."

While chatting and laughing, he pointed to the Taoist priest beside him and said, "This Lan Dao Xing Taoist is the real real person. I don't dare to be called such a poor Taoist."

"Haha, Master Xuan Jing is humble."

Wei Guangde said casually, but his eyes turned to the Taoist next to him in an instant.

Lan Daoxing, this name is no stranger to him.

It is said that Emperor Jiajing called this person the Blue Immortal, but Wei Guangde had never heard of the specific magical method, but he only knew that this person could speak well in front of the emperor.

"You are Wei Guangde and Wei Chuanlu?"

The Taoist priest had already been staring at Wei Guangde when Xuan Jing introduced Wei Guangde, and now he had the opportunity to speak to Wei Guangde.

"Lan Shenxian don't pass on the call of Lu Chuan Lu, just call Guangde."

Wei Guangde said quickly.

"Then I'll ask you to call me Guangde."

Lan Daoxing just smiled, and then said: "I often heard Guangde's name in the palace, especially when the Xuanfu Battle Report was sent back, the Holy Majesty held fast for three days in a row, which shows that Guangde's contribution this time Great, the position of the Battle of Baoan Prefecture in the Holy Majesty's mind is also extraordinary."

Not many words, but a lot of information.

Now Wei Guangde can be sure that Emperor Jiajing knew all about Wei Guangde's little tricks, but he didn't seem to take it seriously, he just beat him a little bit.

"It's all the emperor's Hongfu, and the soldiers at the border are working hard. I don't have any credit for it."

Wei Guangde said modestly, "The Lan Immortal has done more to serve His Majesty, and our subjects and border guards are just doing some coolies to share His Majesty's worries."

While talking to Lan Daoxing, Xuan Jing had already rinsed an empty teacup with warm water, poured a cup of tea for Wei Guangde and brought it in front of him.

Wei Guangde was also polite, took it with both hands and took a sip, the tea was full of fragrance, he couldn't help admiring, "good tea".

"Master Wei, did you finish reading that book last time?"

At this moment, Xuan Jing put down the teapot in her hand, and said to Wei Guangde with a smile.

"No, I read a part of it, it's too esoteric, I have to understand it slowly."

Wei Guangde laughed.

"That's right, that set of books is all-encompassing. It introduces in detail almost all rituals of fasting and sacrifice, and the ancient rituals of Lingbao. It also examines ancient methods and distinguishes their origins, which is rare among all rituals."

Wei Guangde said that it was only normal if he hadn't finished reading "Supreme Huanglu Da Zhai Li Chengyi". How could such a large set of books be finished in two or three months, even if it was not necessarily finished in two or three years.

Xuan Jing felt that Wei Guangde was sincere, but he also knew that Wei Guangde's visit this time was definitely not to buy books from him again, but for other things.

That set of books is enough for him to read, so why buy Taoist classics? Do you want to be a collector of ancient books?

There is no need to go to his Lingji Palace to find ancient books. They have a few ancient books here, all of which are Taoist classics that have been handed down by many hosts. It is absolutely impossible to sell them, and they can only be sold. manuscript.

"Guangde is still interested in my Taoism?"

After hearing their conversation, Lan Daoxing thought that Wei Guangde, like Emperor Jiajing, was a Taoist admirer, so he asked this question.

"A little bit, so find some books to read and learn more."

Wei Guangde smiled naively.

"Then what is the purpose of Mr. Wei's visit this time? But there are some things that I don't understand in the book. Today is the right time for you to come, ha ha."

The expression on Master Xuanjing's face remained unchanged, and he still said with a pleasant smile: "In the past, when you came, the poor Taoist was worried that he would lose face if he couldn't answer it. Today is good, if the poor Taoist doesn't understand anything, you can still ask. Master Lan, he is an expert in this field."

Lan Daoxing is currently in charge of the ritual of the Emperor Jiajing's fasting ceremony in the palace, and in "The Rituals for the Establishment of the Great Zhai of the Supreme Huanglu", there are very detailed introductions to various Taoist rituals. In addition, there are also records and analysis of Taoist cultivation methods.

It seems that Lan Daoxing is very good at these things. After all, he also has to guide Emperor Jiajing to practice, and he doesn't understand when he encounters difficulties. Speaking of Taoism, Lan Daoxing is definitely the person who knows the Taoist classics best on the ground in the capital at this time.

"Ha ha."

Wei Guangde laughed dryly, and then said: "I just came back from the Xuanfu, the book is still in the Imperial Academy, I only read the first part, and the current one is still superficial, and I can understand the deep meaning after a little thought."

Speaking of this, Wei Guangde noticed the puzzled expression on Master Xuan Jing's face, so he continued: "This time, I came here mainly for other things.

To be honest, I came to the capital to take the test, and I have always lived in the Jiujiang Guild Hall in the outer city, and I still do it now.

I bought a house in Nanxunfang after the palace examination before, and it has been vacant for two months. I plan to move in when I come back this time.

So I took the liberty to visit today because the real person is good at physiognomy, and I want to invite the real person to take a look at my house and let me figure out when it is better to move in. "

"Oh, I see."

Master Xuanjing nodded, and understood Wei Guangde's intentions.

When meeting Wei Guangde for the first time, Master Xuan Jing was a little surprised.

Most people in the Taoist sect practice the five arts, or choose some of them to practice, but they generally learn physiognomy. After all, they have more dealings with people, so learning physiognomy is very useful.

At the same time, the technique of geomancy in physiognomy is also a way for Taoists to make money.

Taoism, traced back to Huang and Lao Taoism, is a sect derived from Taoism as its theoretical basis and inheriting the immortal alchemy of the Warring States Period.

Since ancient times, Taoism has been based on the principle of crossing people first, which means that if you want to cross others, you must first have strong skills. This is different from Buddhism. People who convert to Buddhism only need to read Buddhist scriptures and achieve the purity of the six senses. Basically, it can be said that he is a qualified Buddhist.

But for Taoism, it is essentially a refuge, but the requirements are extremely high, not just being able to read the Taoist scriptures.

Taoism implements an elite policy, and people must be highly educated. If you just want to join the religion but don't put it into action, you basically have nothing to do with Taoism.

Compared with other religions that can enlighten people by reading scriptures, Taoists require themselves to learn the five arts to be qualified to go down the mountain to benefit the people, and the so-called five arts are mountains, medicine, fate, fortune-telling, divination .

According to legend, the five arts come from the "Golden Seal and Jade Letter". It is said that during the period of the Yellow Emperor, the Yellow Emperor got the help of a goddess to break Chi You's sorcery, which made Chi You defeat.

After Chiyou's death, the Yellow Emperor was finally able to unify the world. After that, the Yellow Emperor regarded the words spoken by the Goddess as treasures, believing that they could protect the safety of the people.

Mountain refers to some methods of Taoist cultivation, including dietary therapy, alchemy, boxing, Xuandian, and spells.

Medicine, in layman's terms, is to cure diseases and save lives. The methods include spiritual therapy, acupuncture, massage and prescriptions, etc.

Fate is a method of predicting the future by combining the horoscope of the biological body's birthday and the five elements of Yin and Yang. Fortune tellers play a role in avoiding bad luck by speculating on people's fate.

Physiognomy is a method of judging the inner meaning through external objectivity. There are roughly three types of physiognomy handed down now: one refers to astrology, the other refers to human appearance, and the third refers to Feng Shui.

Divination is divination, a way of predicting the future. You can tell the divination teacher which aspect you want to divination, and then the other party will predict the future development of the matter you divination based on the lottery you draw.

The content and application of the five arts are actually completely different from the literal explanations. It can even be said that they have a wide range of uses, and they cannot be understood just by reading the words.

Just talking about divination and predicting the future is awesome.

However, divination contains a lot of things, and the types of divination can be divided into Yi Zhan and Sanshi Zhan, of which Sanshi Zhan includes Qimen and Taiyi.

Qimen is mainly used in military affairs. The famous masterpiece is Qimen Dunjia, which confuses the enemy through layout and formation, making the opponent helpless to fight back.

Taiyi is the art of the twelve fortune hexagrams, which is mainly used to judge the fate and fortune of a country.

It is said that a companion is like a tiger. Since it is used to predict the fate of a country, you must not dare to make up random things, or you will be decapitated if you are not careful.

The so-called foresight is one of the Taoist skills.

As for what Wei Guangde came here to ask for today, it is naturally the physiognomy among the five arts.

Xiangshu is generally divided into Xiangrenshu and Xiangdishu, and Xiangshu is also called Xiangrenshu.

Physiognomy is the art of physiognomy, which uses the face, facial features, bones, complexion, body posture, hand lines, etc. to predict good and bad fortune, high and low, and longevity. Wait.

Physiognomy is actually geomancy, that is, geomantic omen, one of the traditional five physiognomy techniques, which is the method of checking geography on the spot. In ancient times, geomantic omen was mostly used for site selection of towns and villages, as well as palace construction. Developed to find funeral terrain.

"Easy to say, easy to say."

Hearing that it was a business visit, Master Xuan Jing naturally wouldn't shirk it.

Choosing an auspicious day for moving a house is not just a matter of your birthday. Generally, you have to go to the place you want to move in. One is that if there is something wrong with the layout of the house and home, you can adjust it as soon as possible, and at the same time help him Choose the best moving time for Wei Guangde.

"The house in Nanxunfang is not cheap."

But at this time, Ran Dao interjected in jargon.

"I went to Beijing to rush for the exam, and my family sold most of their assets, and gave all their savings to me, so I got this house in exchange."

Wei Guangde nodded and said.

"Master Wei, don't know when to go see it?"

Xuan Jing asked suddenly, apparently impatient to wait.

There are a lot of physiognomy masters in the capital, but he is not the best among them, and he is worried that he will be preempted by others.

Show Wei Guangde a look at his new home. It's an auspicious day. No matter what happens, he will have to charge a few dozen taels of silver.

"It's better to hit the sun than to choose a day. In fact, today is a good day. It's still early. I don't have anything to do. Why don't we go for a walk together?"

Lan Daoxing said again.

Ever since Wei Guangde arrived, Lan Daoxing hadn't missed Wei Guangde.

Wei Guangde also noticed this, but he was curious but didn't ask.

Could it be that Lan Daoxing was intimidated by his own wealth?

I remember that when Wei Guangde came to Lingji Palace for the first time, Master Xuan Jing told Wei Guangde that he was rich and powerful, and his face was still the "excellent" among them, and it was difficult for him to live to adulthood.

Wei Guangde is not only alive and kicking, but has also passed the imperial examination and entered the court as an official. It is only a matter of time before he becomes an extremely powerful minister in the future, so there is no need to worry at all.

At that time, Wei Guangde was very happy when he heard it, so when he bought the book, he didn't haggle over every detail with Master Xuanjing, and he happily paid for it.

I didn't realize it until I took the book home, as if I was fooled by Niubi.

But Wei Guangde remembered that his teacher also mentioned it back then, telling him to be more careful, don't do dangerous things when he is young, a gentleman doesn't build dangerous walls, and he said that as long as he is an adult, he will be fine.

That's why Wei Guangde is now a little distracted, wondering if he really has a special face.

Thinking about it again, Emperor Jiajing was also a cultivator, so maybe he also liked his appearance, so he was promoted in this way.

Fortunately, everyone said that he was rich and powerful, and an extremely human minister, but no one said that he was the son of destiny. If he really had this appearance, Wei Guangde was not sure whether Emperor Jiajing would wipe himself off during the palace examination, and die forever future trouble.

Yes, now Wei Guangde has a hundred respects for Taoist priests, and he is afraid that one person will say something wrong with his appearance and endanger the country. The current emperor believes this, and Wei Guangde is forced to believe this too.

After packing up their things, Master Xuanjing and Lan Daoxing followed Wei Guangde out of Lingji Palace to his house in Nanxunfang.

There was no disturbance during the whole process, the layout of the house is very good, and Wei Guangde only came here after two months.

He just made a few small changes, saying that it would be better for Wei Guangde's future career, and at the same time, it was an auspicious time for Wei Guangde to move into the new house at that time, which would ensure his smooth sailing, prosperous official career, prosperity and many children and grandchildren.

That night, we booked a private room in a good restaurant nearby, and Wei Guangde entertained the two priests.

In fact, Wei Guangde wanted to get in touch with Lan Daoxing more. After all, this person was close to the emperor, and he and Xuan Jing were more of a transaction.

After the banquet was over, Wei Guangde sealed a big red envelope for the two of them.

This time there was a bit of bleeding. Originally, according to Wei Guangde's intention, it would be enough to give three to 50 taels of silver for an auspicious day, but with the addition of Lan Daoxing, he couldn't be so stingy.

They found a carriage to send the two of them off, Xuan Jing put 50 taels of silver on the carriage, and put 500 taels of silver on Lan Daoxing's carriage.

Open the way with money.

(End of this chapter)