Traveling to Xianwu

Chapter 433
At the end of April, near the beginning of May, King Ling of Chu began to move to Zhanghuatai, accompanied by hundreds of officials. Xu Fu was the chief priest. Before the king of Chu came to Zhanghuatai, he had to arrange everything well, and only waited for Duanyang to worship heaven on the fifth day of May.Shen Chengping also brought the newly brewed high-quality wine, and a young man accompanied him.

Later generations will associate Qu Yuan with Duanyang, that is, the Dragon Boat Festival. In fact, it cannot be regarded as a mistake.Because it is indeed because of Qu Yuan that the Duanyang Festival, a regional festival, has almost been expanded to the global Chinese area.But in fact, the Duanyang Festival existed long before Qu Yuan jumped into the river, and it is an extremely important festival in Chu.

Qu Yuan chose to jump into the river on such a day, and its significance is like a great person who chooses to commit suicide during the Spring Festival or Christmas, full of a sense of tragic contrast.At the same time, it also endows a special day with more meaning and definition.

In any case, the current Duanyang Festival does not represent someone clearly, it is more like a punctuation mark, representing the 'summer solstice'.

At this time, Chu people worshiped fire, and Xia Tian would make people associate it with fire to some extent.Shen Chengping walked among the Zhanghuatai palace buildings, and all he saw were luxurious places that showed ingenuity. Although it was a new building, it still had an indescribable historical sense.This is completely different from those big mounds seen in later generations.

"Sure enough, there are pavilions, towers and pavilions, carved railings and jade buildings, and the wind is always blown away by the rain. The place that people in later generations will dismiss is the most luxurious and prosperous place at this moment.

Of course, the tripod is indispensable for offering sacrifices to the sky. The tripod is an important tool for establishing a country and a symbol of state power in this era. The King of Chu tripod used for this sacrifice to the sky is the seven tripods cast by King Ling of Chu who spent a lot of fine copper mixed with some rare treasures. .

It is still at the end of the Spring and Autumn period. Although the emperor of Zhou has declined, his authority has not been completely eliminated. Although King Ling of Chu is arrogant and extravagant, he is not yet bold enough to cast Jiuding and show his ambition wantonly. Otherwise, the princes will rise up And attacked it.

The so-called sound of bells and tripods, a land of rites and music, bells are music, tripods are rituals, Shen Chengping has excellent eyesight, far below Zhang Huatai, he can see seven three-legged statues, round and thin-waisted treasured tripods stand separately, Only when it was time to offer sacrifices to the heavens, could King Ling of Chu lift up the seven great tripods and go to the altar.

Shen Chengping looked at the phoenix relief painted on the body of the tripod, and the inscriptions were neatly engraved. The ears of the tripod were like phoenix tails facing upwards, arched high.These seven great tripods are exquisite in workmanship, and the inscriptions on them are also talisman seals, which can communicate the fate of the Chu country when offering sacrifices to the heavens. At this time, they are being strictly guarded by a team of elite personal guards.

On the fifth day of May, King Ling of Chu officially visited Zhanghuatai. From the first ray of sunrise, he first worshiped the ancestors and kings of the past dynasties, and burned a cart of bamboo slips with sacrificial texts. Chime bells and chime chimes lined up in rows, sounding magnificent music.Instruments such as 镈, 钲, duo, 錞yu, and bell are also played alternately, making the whole music more complicated and cumbersome.

This kind of music is solemn and solemn, and the courtiers and nobles of the Manchu Dynasty of Chu State have already knelt and sat around the altar.Although the sun was scorching, no one complained of suffering or tiredness, and they all looked directly at the south.

To the south was King Ling of Chu, wearing the royal attire of princes and holding a large tripod in one hand, walking towards him.The huge cauldron, in the hands of King Ling of Chu, seemed to be as light as nothing.

Since Emperor Yu, the luck of the Kyushu in the world is divided by tripods, so scholars use one tripod or three tripods, doctors use five tripods, princes use seven tripods, and the emperor can use nine tripods to worship the ancestors of heaven and earth.

The tripod is a symbol of luck, status, and status. No matter how high the status and qualifications are, how many tripods can be supported. They had no choice but to return to their original positions and dared not fight in the world again, because Jiuding judged that they did not have the qualifications to gather the luck of Kyushu.

King Ling of Chu, as the great king of the Chu Kingdom, lifted it easily within the seven cauldrons, as if there was nothing.The so-called emperor lifts the nine tripods to gather the fortune of the world. This kind of saying and the established model will not officially come to an end until Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, commits suicide in Wujiang.From then on, it was difficult for the emperor to lift the tripod, and the so-called Jiuding became a nominal symbol without much practical significance.

Because Xiang Yu once raised the nine tripods, it brought together the last aftertaste of the Chu land and the remnants of the six kingdoms that were swept away by the King of Qin, overthrowing the mighty Great Qin Empire.But in the end Xiang Yu was defeated in Wujiang and ended up committing suicide, instead of becoming the lord of Kyushu.

"Dangdangdang..." With seven loud bangs in a row, King Ling of Chu placed seven large tripods on the altar.Next, Xu Fu, the chief priest, appeared on the stage. He was wearing a fiery red feather coat, holding a dead wooden staff, wearing a phoenix tail feather crown, and wearing straw sandals. His face was painted with the five virtues of the phoenix. With strange steps, He stepped onto the altar and stood next to King Ling of Chu.Standing in front of Qiding, singing the songs of praying to the heaven and ancestors with the ancient Chu accent.

The left and right deputy priests led many civil and military courtiers, and threw scrolls of sacrificial rites into the seven big cauldrons. When the seven big cauldrons were all piled up, a crimson flower suddenly ignited on the top of Zhu Rong's withered wooden staff in Shen Chengping's hand. flames.The flame was divided into seven parts and fell into the seven cauldrons respectively, and then burned blazingly.

At this time, the sky changed color. It was clearly noon, but there was a red glow all over the sky. It seemed that the ancient heroic spirits were really attracted to watch this vast, rich but vast and changeable land.

Standing in the middle of the seven cauldrons, King Ling of Chu worshiped the heaven and the earth, loudly expressing his wishes: "I only hope that the weather will be smooth and the people will be safe and healthy."

At this time, the King Ling of Chu seemed like a wise king, and many courtiers who had already begun to be disappointed with King Ling of Chu also showed signs of satisfaction.Loyalty to the monarch and patriotism are certainly part of the mainstream, but there is still a long way to go to the level of the Three Cardinal Guidelines and the Five Constant Principles.People's hearts in this era are still free. The king can choose his subjects, and the subjects can also choose the king they want to serve.Even the sage Kong is the same, he is not foolish and loyal.Otherwise, there is still Emperor Zhou in the dynasty, so why should he travel around the world, spread his own theories, and want to find a powerful monarch who understands his ideas to assist him?The so-called "Three Cardinal Guidelines and Five Constant Principles" should be the Confucian school of later generations, a kind of favor and compromise to the rule of the king.

As if he had heard the prayer of King Ling of Chu, the flames in the seven cauldrons of Chu King burned more and more vigorously, and there was no intention of extinguishing them at all. The flames joined together.

After King Ling of Chu prayed, only Fengming girl was left to dance on the altar.The state of Chu respects the phoenix, so only women with the fate of the phoenix can dance to please the heavens and the heroic spirits of the state of Chu, so that they can protect the state of Chu and continue to maintain long-term peace and stability.

Ten plainly dressed girls came pulling a luan chariot full of flowers. On the luan chariot, a woman was dressed in fiery red attire, with a crimson jade-colored phoenix hair crown on her head, walking away with a proud and indifferent expression. Get off the luan chariot covered with flowers, step on the altar, and then on this high altar, under the continuous flames, a sacrificial dance is performed.

(End of this chapter)