Chapter 25: Both Man and God Are Confused
Xiangyang City, Governor’s Mansion.
Pei Xiu was writing a memorial to be sent to Chang’an.
He stopped writing from time to time, frowned and thought, and then picked up the pen again after a while, writing a long and eloquent article.
The witch prayer ceremony and the people’s vows were already last night. After the spirit girl was selected, Pei Xiu led the people to collectively fulfill their vows in Taiyi Temple as an official.
There were countless gentry and wealthy families on the spot to raise funds to rebuild the Taiyi Temple, which had been in disrepair for many years.
Although the people of Lijia Village were the most enthusiastic, they could not donate much money compared to the rich families in Xiangyang City – but the poor also have their own ways. If they can’t donate money, they can donate their labor.
It happened to be midwinter, the slack season for farming, and everyone had nothing to do. Rebuilding a temple for Grandpa Taiyi became a kind of collective activity.
The common people only need to consider how to worship Taiyi, but the governor of Xiangzhou has to consider more.
The return of the ancient righteous gods to the mortal world made this court official smell a hint of crisis.
He longed for the immortal fate, and also believed that the appearance of the gods would be auspicious, which could bring a turnaround to the already precarious and collapsing Great Zhou.
But this miracle was too powerful, and it was a bit bad. It attracted not only the attention of the court, but also some people with ulterior motives.
However, these things could not be solved by considering them now. He still needed to do a good job of resettling the mountain people.
The advent of Taiyi made those mountain people who were unwilling to leave the mountains and integrate into the Han system agree to move out of the mountains and live in the city.
There are quite a few of these mountain people. As long as they are willing to leave the mountains, it will be a great achievement if they are educated in time.
It was just that these people wanted to build a village at the foot of Zishan Mountain. Pei Xiu did not object after thinking for a moment. There were many Han villages nearby, and there were also many uncultivated wastelands, which were enough to feed these people.
Thinking about it, Pei Xiu subconsciously looked in the direction of Chang’an City.
Except for the deep courtyard, he could not see anything.
The Taiyi sacrifice was also an official sacrifice of the court in the past. Historical records show that the Han emperor sacrificed to Taiyi in the past.
But now this official sacrifice has long been replaced by Haotian God, and the Taiyi Palace near the Han Chang’an City has long been abandoned.
I don’t know if the court will revive this lost ceremony after this memorial is sent.
…Dividing line…
The foot of Zishan Mountain is now prosperous.
The mountain people moved out of the mountains and formed villages here, accepting the policy of household registration and equalization from the Xiangzhou government.
The fact that it was so smoothly implemented was due to the immortal fate of Pei Xiu, the governor of Xiangzhou.
Of course, not many houses can be built in one night, but it is no problem to build a temporary straw hut and start the preliminary construction bit by bit.
More important than this is the construction of Taiyi Temple.
Early in the morning, a large team set out from Xiangyang City and the surrounding areas to transportA large amount of materials were obtained, and Dong Fu, the county magistrate of Xiangyang County, regarded this as the biggest opportunity in his official career and went to the scene in person.
The newly built Taiyi Temple will be several times larger than the original Taiyi Temple, and will also include the original Taiyi Temple.
Finally, the original Taiyi Temple will be demolished and reorganized as part of the courtyard in the new Taiyi Temple.
But before that, this place will become the residence of the spirit girl.
She should have lived in the stilt house where the previous spirit girl lived, but after last night, she could only live in this Taiyi Temple – because she was the spirit girl who was truly selected by Taiyi in public.
Ignoring the noise coming from the construction outside, the spirit girl followed what she had learned in the past. After respectfully praying for the Donghuang God in the Taiyi Temple, she raised her head and her eyes fell on the tablet of the god behind the incense on the table.
Tai Yi has no statue. Maybe there was one in the past, but not now.
In the land of Zhu Xia, let alone other gods, at least the official supreme god has no statue, only a tablet with his honorific title.
Although the Jade Emperor’s belief was later passed down to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Jade Emperor had an imperial image similar to that of the emperor on earth, but in fact, the official supreme god was rarely made into a statue.
Shen Xingke remembered that starting from the Ming Dynasty, the emperors in the Ming and Qing Dynasties personally worshipped the “God of Heaven and Earth” in the Temple of Heaven and the Temple of Earth, which only had a tablet but no statue.
Heaven and Earth, the Country and the People.
From a side perspective, among the Xia people who had passed the infancy of civilization and gradually matured, the official supreme god recognized by the court, the God in the mouths of the people, and the supreme Tao in the collective cognition of all people were not personal gods, but natural gods that were closer to “reason” or “Tao”, invisible and intangible.
He could transform into thousands of bodies, so naturally he would not have a fixed personality image.
The most ordinary old farmer in the field also knew about God, but the most learned scholar could not clearly describe what God looked like.
Taiyi, who had been the official supreme god, was also affected by this. The personality image he had in the Spring and Autumn Period to the Qin and Han Dynasties was also lost after the Xia mythology system became more and more perfect, and finally became a pure natural principle.
In this way, the Jade Emperor, who was born later but had a clear personal image of an emperor, fell behind the natural god “Haotian Shangdi” who had no specific personality image.
Of course, the contemporary spiritual girl, who was just an ordinary candidate spiritual girl not long ago, didn’t know about the historical and cultural evolution.
She just stared blankly at the shrine with the word “Donghuang” written on it, and unconsciously wondered… What does Taiyi look like?
The governor of Xiangzhou said that the immortal he met had a divine appearance that mortals could never match, and he also looked like a young man. The spiritual girl was not surprised by this.
It was normal for Taiyi, who had transformed into thousands of bodies, to change into a young man to show himself to others.
The spiritual girl looked at the witches around her who were respectful to her, and suddenly she feltConfused.
She didn’t know what she should do now.
Before becoming a spirit girl, she needed to learn how to become a spirit girl every day, but after becoming a spirit girl, she completely lost her next goal.
The spirit girl was confused, and the omniscient and omnipotent Taiyi Emperor in her heart was also confused.
“What did you say?”
Looking at the data given by Nuwa, Shen Xingke frowned.
“Is there a problem with my “Nine Yang Magic Skill”?”
“Of course, not only is there a problem, but there is a big problem, a huge problem!”
Nuwa clapped her hands, and the screen that popped up in front of Shen Xingke and Huang Rong listed the situation after her analysis.
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