《Daomu Biji: Wu Xie’s Private Notes》


 Chapter 1: Introduction

    Chapter 1: Introduction


    I had written this before everything happened.


    I never thought that I would use this notebook one day. I used to be someone who was idle all day, and the only chance for me to write something was to sign the bill and pay the money.


    It should be a good thing to be so busy that I have to write things down, but for some reason, I cant feel happy about it.


    The reason why Im writing this is because I hope the things I experienced can be recorded clearly. The things that Ive been through are so incredible andplicated that I just hope that everything can be restored, along with the cause of this whole incident.


    This incident urred on February 1, 2003 when an old man with a golden tooth came to my store to ask me about my grandpa.


    At that time, I was cautious and didn''t pay much attention to him, but it was strange the more I thought about it.


    Our family had suppressed anything rted to my grandfather''s affairs for almost six or seven years, and no one had mentioned them since. So why did this Gold Tooth suddenly ask about him?


    Looking at his style and tone of speech, I didnt think he had any good intentions.


    Later, Boss Qian from next door told me that he knew the old man with a golden tooth who came to my store. That guy was notorious, and his name was Jin Wantang. He was a patron of Beijings Crescent Hotel.


    Crescent Hotel was the upgraded version of Panjiayuan, and vendors who were well-off would open shops around there. They didnt need to worry that they had no ce to set up, or deal with any confrontations with the cops.


    I didnt have enough qualifications to get in, but I had heard something about the hotel. It was said that any item they auctioned was worth lots of gold bricks.


    So, if this rich old fellow came to Jiangnan and walked into this little shop of mine to try and make friends with me, what were his intentions?


    At that time, I told myself that I had to investigate this matter when I had the chance, but I forgot about it in the blink of an eye. There were too many weird people and strange things in our business. I couldnt catch a break while running an antique shop, so I didnt really care about such a mess.


    I was quite emotional that day. My livelihood back then was very bleak. The owners of the restaurant next to my shop had built an outside hall, and they also had a snack processing factory. Even their foreman drove a car to work. But I was a poor boss and had to save money every month so that I could pay my staff.


    At that time, those who wanted to sell antiques werent as sessful as those who opened restaurants. What kind of world was this?


    I thought it was better to persuade my father to close the antique shop and open a restaurant instead, but I wasnt really serious about it.


    I didn''t expect so many things to happenter. If I had known earlier, I wouldve set my shop on fire to avoid the future troubles.


    But the fact is, we cant know what will happen in the future. In the end, I inevitably got sucked into the mess and got deeper and deeper into it.


    Even so, I never thought that I would have to use this method to sort out the whole thingter.


    These articles were written during the whole process. Although the ending is still unclear, in retrospect, the bits and pieces in these memories are also quite interesting.


    Now Ive sorted out some things forter reference. I believe Ill eventually get the answers, I just have to keep persisting until I do.

 Chapter 2: The Mystic Nine Leaders

    Chapter 2: The Mystic Nine Leaders


    My grandfather and even my generations affairs originated in old Changsha. From Dart Summit (1) to Qiu Dekao, the seeds nted back then seemed to have finally grown into my generation.


    In order to have a general understanding of the customs in Changsha at that time, I had sorted out some of the things about the Mystic Nine leaders from my grandfather''s notes, along with all the interesting things he had told me before. When I looked back at them now, I felt a lot of things.


    All the people in the underworld had known or heard about The Mystic Nine. These families of tomb robbers were so powerful that they covered all aspects of cultural relic smuggling. Almost all the grave goods flowing out of Changsha had to pass through one of the families.


    There were many exnations as to why they were called The Mystic Nine. The most recognized one was that the ancient big city had nine gates, and merchants who entered or left the city had to choose one of them. That was how the name The Mystic Nine came to be. In Changsha City, you could only choose one of these nine powers to do business with, and there was no other way to go.


    I didnt know much about these powerful peoples stories, because my grandfather didnt want me to know too much about their past. What these people did sounded glorious to those in the underworld, but their stories were all misdeeds to normal people.


    The new Mystic Nine was nothingpared to the old Mystic Nine. Most of the new Mystic Nine were self-sufficient, but the achievements of the old Mystic Nine had been spread by word of mouth because they had worked so diligently.


    In an era of information obscurity, it was necessary to have extremely special experiences so that their reputations could be passed on. One could only try to imagine how powerful they had to be to get such ranks among that kind of society.


    The Mystic Nine was divided into three parts.


    The upper three ns were all well-established old families, and their official status had beenrgely honest. They had legitimate businesses on the surface, and were powerful in officialdom, so they mainly relied on their own underlings when they went grave robbing. There were some extremely skilled and loyal underlings in the upper three ns, but because of this, their gradual aging resulted in the upper ns gradual decline.


    The middle three ns were the main grave robbing forces. They were all courageous heroes who had a few apprentices, and usually worked in the mountains all day. These people were rtively young, but they were very greedy and did everything, from murdering to stealing goods. Their reputations were made from killing people, so they had nothing to be afraid of. The big cases after the founding of the country all had something to do with them.


    The lower three ns were businessmen who specialized in antique dealing. Even though they had skills, they didnt go grave robbing often. The lower three ns worked closely with the middle three ns. Since the upper three ns were on such arge scale, they had no profits left over for the lower three ns. As a result, the upper three ns had almost no interactions with the lower three ns.


    If we were to use one word to describe them, the upper three ns would be officials, the middle three ns were thieves, and the lower three ns were businessmen.


    Since ancient times, there had been collusion among officials, thieves, and businessmen, so it wasnt surprising that the Mystic Nine had this sort of structure as well.


    The Upper Three ns


    The founders of the upper three ns were all extremely famous grave robbers. These three families were people of their own word.


    It wasnt really fair to say that they were grave robbers, because their family power was already simr to that of some of the small warlords at that time.


    Since the Autumn Harvest Uprising (2), most of these three families joined the revolution. One of them was even the hero of the founding of the country. But this matter was quite secretive, so it wasnt convenient for people to tell me more about it, and I only learned a few names.


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Pinyin is Biaoziling (). Its the first ce mentioned in Vol 1 Cavern of Blood Zombies, where Wu Xies grandfather encountered the zombie. They called it Dart Summit in Vol. 5 Deadly Desert Winds.


    (2) It was an insurrection that took ce in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, China, on September 7, 1927. It was led by Mao Zedong, who established a short-lived Hunan Soviet. Wiki link

 Chapter 3: Zhang Da Fo Ye

    Chapter 3: Zhang Da Fo Ye


    Da Fo Yes name was Zhang Qishan. The Zhang family was the number one family in Changsha. There was a giant Buddha statue in his house, but no one knew where it came from. That was how he got the nickname Da Fo Ye. (1)


    Zhang Qishan was very good at studying feng shui, so the way he did things was rather different from that of the Southern tomb robbers. He was a northerner who moved to the south.


    ording to legend, Zhang Qishan could tell three generations of soil. Once he stood on a mountain, he would clearly know what it was like three hundred years ago, and what it would look like three hundred yearster.


    As a result, the valuable tombs that the Zhang family discovered couldnt be found by others, and they often got some strange treasures. The bracelet that Zhang Qishan carried with him came from a zombie. It was called the second ring bracelet and was very precious. If you knocked on it, the solid jade bracelet would ring twice.


    There was an inscription on the bracelet, which led Zhang Fo Ye to think that it was part of a pair, so he searched everywhere for the other one. He didnt care how much money he had to pay as long as he could make it ring three times, which had everyone talking for a while.


    The most legendary story of Zhang Da Fo Ye was how he brought his family from the northeast and fled to Changsha.


    Before the Mukden Incident (2), Zhang Da Fo Ye was still a very young man. His father had already foreseen that the situation wasnt good, so he sent his wife and family to his inws in Changsha. Meanwhile, he decided to stay and take care of the remaining things, preparing to leave with his son and a few men by boat, which would go down the Yangtze River.


    Before the boat arrived, however, the Japanese came. Zhang Da Fo Ye was trapped in the countryside between viges in Liao Province. In order to break out of the encirclement, they tried to cross the border secretly, but his father was killed by a machine gun. He and a few buddies were all arrested and ced in a concentration camp.


    Entering such a ce at that time meant being taken to Heilongjiang to dig a coal mine. They were never going to be free, and there was no doubt that death was bound to happen. The Japanese were very strict, and all those who ran were basically caught and stabbed to death with bays. Few people could run away sessfully.


    Zhang Da Fo Ye lurked there, and after careful observation, he found that the reason why those people couldnt escape was mainly because the dogs the Japanese had trained were too powerful.


    The concentration camp was at the top of a mountain, and there were sentries both there and at the foot of the mountain. It seemed easy to escape and hide, but there were many shrubs in the mountains, and people would leave a heavy scent as they walked down. The Japanese-trained wolfhounds would find you no matter where you hid.


    He also discovered that the Japanese only gave chase for two days. They would give up if they couldnt catch you in that time frame, because two days were enough for people to get into the mountains where the trees were towering, and the area was too big. They couldnt use the dogs by that point.


    As a result, he knew that if he wanted to escape sessfully, he had to find a ce where he could hide for two days so that the dogs couldnt find him.


    The one condition that had to be met was that there needed to be standing water. Water was a blocking medium that could iste one''s own odor, so the dogs couldnt smell a thing.


    But where would he find standing water that could hide a person? It wouldnt work if the water was too shallow, and it was impossible to find deep water sources in the mountains.


    The people in the concentration camp were taken away by the truckload and he became anxious. He couldnt figure out a way until one day, while transporting timber, he found an ancient tomb on the west hillside of the concentration camp.


    This ancient tomb was shaped like a ghost w, and had been built in the shady part of the mountain. The owner of the tomb must have offended many people during his lifetime since the form was very poor, but the terrain around the tomb indicated that it was well preserved.


    Zhang Da Fo Ye suddenly had an idea. First, he had to get near the ancient tomb and punch through the top, so that water would umte in the tomb when it rained. Then, as long as he escaped to the tomb and lurked in the stagnant water, the dogs wouldnt find him.


    But the ancient tomb was on the hillside outside the concentration camp. If he tried to leave the camp, he was likely to be found and beaten to death. He needed to n out how to get there.


    He thought hard and discussed it with some of his buddies. It would take two hours to smash through the top of the tomb, but that was too long and they didnt have any tools, so it couldnt be done secretly.


    He had to think of a way to get the Japanese to take them out, and also do everything under their watchful eyes.


    Finally, they came up with a risky approach. They used medicine to kill a wolfdog while the Japanese werent looking, dismembered the corpse, and then threw the pieces over the barbed wire where they wouldnd around the ancient tomb.


    Several dayster, the Japanese found it strange that a dog was missing. By that time, the dogs corpse was already stinking, so Zhang Da Fo Ye went and reported to the Japanese that he smelled a strange odor.


    The Japanese followed him, and noticed a rancid smelling from where he pointed. When they went over, they found that the corpse was already covered in maggots and centipedes.


    Of course, the Japanese wouldnt move the corpse by themselves, so they had Zhang Da Fo Ye take a shovel and bury it on the spot. They had guns with them and watched him work from a distance.


    Zhang Da Fo Ye went out, picked an area by the ancient tomb, and carefully dug down until a deep hole was formed. Since they were in the mountains, the ground was full of tree roots, so he deliberately made the sound of a shovel cutting the roots from time to time.


    When he reached the bottom of the pit, the Japanese could only see half of his body. He struck hard against the tomb wall more than a dozen times before it finally cracked. The Japanese became alert and came to see what was going on.


    He immediately shoveled a piece of mud to cover the crack, and then came up and buried the dog. After that, he pried the crack a bit bigger and stacked the pieces of the corpse at the opening. He pped mud into the seam, and then filled the hole.


    God favored him. There was a heavy rain three dayster, and it rained continuously for one day and one night. Zhang Da Fo Ye felt that the time was right and told the men that he was ready to escape.


    They secretly waited for an opportunity. The best time to act would be when it was raining heavily, because the smell on their bodies would be washed away by the rain.


    One day in September, after a heavy rain, seven people disappeared. The Japanese took the wolfhounds all the way outside the mountain, but they couldnt find any traces. Since then, those seven people never appeared again.


    In Changsha, a wave of anti-Japanese sentiment was suddenly set off among the people. A great man emerged from the trend and changed the entire history of China.


    It was unknown whether this had anything to do with Zhang Da Fo Ye.


    *****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Remember, Da Fo Ye means The Giant Buddha. Also, the Zhang family here had nothing to do with Poker-faces family.


    (2) An event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Wiki link

 Chapter 4: Er Yuehong

    Chapter 4: Er Yuehong


    Er Yuehong ranked second in the Mystic Nine. He was a famous Huaguxi (1) performer in Changsha.


    Er Yuehong took the typical tomb robbing approach of the old society. On the surface, he was the leader of an opera troupe, and took them with him everywhere. They performed in the daytime, and went grave robbing at night.


    The theater troupe was full of martial arts talents, and they put their tools in their suitcases. They were a wondrous sight to behold once they were in the tomb, and my grandfather said that he even got to see them work underground once. Their feet didnt even touch the floor when they robbed the small tomb, because they used bamboo poles to walk along the walls. Their movements were incredibly smooth, and he didnt know how they practiced that kind of skill.


    Er Yuehong sang beautifully and possessed special skills, but it was also said that he was a handsome man. He had a lot of love affairs, had ambiguous rtionships with many celebrities, and liked to go to the brothel. But his most famous story had nothing to do with tomb robbery. Instead, it was the story of how he redeemed a "girl" when he was young.


    At that time, traffickers sold prostitutes from Yangzhou by walking around the downtown area with the girls on their backs. This was to tell the world that the girl was about to be sold.


    If there were people who wanted to fight against injustice, they could step up. But they had to pay money if they wanted to get involved, so that the traffickers wouldnt push the girls into the fire pit. Once they entered the brothel, however, it was toote and there was nothing they could do.


    In addition, this was also an advertisement telling those high-ranking officials and nobles that there would be virgin girls who could be deflowered that night, and they could prepare money to beat the golden stick.


    Er Yuehong wasnt the leader of the opera troupe at that time. This kind of troupe was hereditary, so when his father was around, he was just a young master.


    One day, when he was drinking morning tea in the Kuaihuolou, he saw a teenage girl being carried on someones back. Er Yuehong knew the ways of the world, and wasnt surprised at this kind of thing.


    In that era, it wasnt necessarily a bad thing for a girl from a poor family to be sold into a brothel, since they wouldnt have to worry about starving. If they somehow met good benefactors, they could even be one of their concubines, which meant that they had the opportunity to turn their life around. It wasmon to be abused when out and about, after all.


    But Er Yuehong was taken aback when he saw this particr girl, because he actually knew her. She was the daughter of a noodle shop owner, whose shop he often visited. She was five years younger than him, so it could be said that he was like her elder brother and saw her grow up when they were little. She was very smart and well-behaved, so he couldnt fathom how she ended up here.


    Seeing the little girl crying uncontrobly on the traffickers back, Er Yuehong couldnt help but sigh.


    Since the girl was very smart and there were a lot of people around, she looked into the crowd while crying, desperately searching for something. These people may all be her one-night benefactors soon. She saw all kinds of faces and tried to find an ounce of sympathy or pity from among them.


    At that moment, she saw Er Yuehong at the teahouse. When Er Yuehong also looked at her, the little girl recognized him instantly. As if she had seen the only hope in her despair, she suddenly tried her best to shout at Er Yuehong, Brother!


    The desperate and pleading gaze shook Er Yuehong, and he remembered the little sister who followed him around while holding his little hand. He wondered if he could sit on the sidelines and bury a part of his memories.


    People at that time had hearts made of stone, so it was fine for him to stand by and watch. But humans had emotions after all. Er Yuehong was a sentimental man, and would often do a lot of things because of a look from others. He knew at that time that he had to save her.


    But his father definitely wouldnt agree to let him do this kind of thing, so it was impossible for him to have enough money to save her.


    Er Yuehong was very young and energetic back then. He took off his hat and used his skills to walk down the wall of the tea house like a gecko, stopping in front of the trafficker.


    The trafficker was taken aback, because it had been a long time since he had met someone who would intervene. The trafficker naturally didnt want that to happen. The interceptor did this in the name of justice, so the money the trafficker collected from him would be twenty percent lower than the money he would collect from the brothel.


    It was still early morning, yet the trafficker already found himself unlucky. Where did this guye from to stand in the way of him getting his money?


    But looking at this masters skill and how he climbed down from the tea house just now, the trafficker knew that he couldnt be offended, so heughed and greeted him.


    Er Yuehong also knew that this was one of the businesses in the underworld, and this trafficker mustve had a rtionship with his own family. There could be no conflict between them; otherwise, it would bring trouble to the Mystic Nine. As a result, he didnt dare kill the trafficker. When he asked about the price, the trafficker gave an exorbitant amount, meaning, Get lost. You cant save her.


    Er Yuehong had no other choice. He couldn''t get the money from his father, and he couldn''t intervene. The only way to save this girl was to pay the exorbitant price, but he certainly couldnte up with that much money.


    The trafficker said to Er Yuehong, This girl is being sent to the brothel in Ping Er. If this master cant pay the money, please turn away. If you want to do something nice for this girl, then I suggest you order her tonight. It will be a blessing to her if you are gentle on her first night.


    Er Yuehong became angry and said to him, I have the money. I also want to warn you that your money is ill-gotten. You need to think about whether you can afford such wealth. If you feel that you can bear it, I will get it for you, but I advise you to be careful of your wealth.


    That was it. The trafficker didnt believe someone would pay that much money for a little girl, so he said he could bear it.


    Er Yuehong''s underlings kept watch on the trafficker as he went around the downtown area again. Er Yuehong had to get the money ready before the trafficker finished his round.


    Er Yuehong hurried home, put on all his equipment, and rushed to the western outskirts on a fast horse. He rushed back again with three gold hairpins and loess on his body.


    This girlter became Er Yuehongs wife and bore him three sons. She died of illness at the age of thirty-two. In just over ten years of happiness, she had been in Er Yuehongs arms, and never suffered. After she was gone, Er Yuehong became unruly.


    As a woman in that kind of society, I felt that she had lived a happy life. It was also because of this that women kept flocking to Er Yuehong after his wife was gone. But no one could touch the dead emotions in his heart.


    The ordinary girl in the noodle shop would always live in his heart. No one knows when he first started to have feelings for her. Maybe it started when he heard her call him brother, or maybe it started when he rushed back to the city on the horse. But such a man was that girls greatest fortune, and also the greatest misfortune for other women in the world.


    Er Yuehong never married again. He lived to 102, and was buried with his wife after death. The coffin was a bit taller than his wife''s, so that the girl who had been waiting for him for many years could finally lean on his shoulder again, listening to his gentle singing.


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Flower-drum opera. More info here

 Chapter 5: Banjie Li

    Chapter 5: Banjie Li


    Banjie Li (1), Third Master Li, had the best stories among the upper three ns. He became disabled when he was young, because his partners broke his legs when they were in the tomb and left him trapped there for a week. He survived by drinking water from the coffin.


    After that, he couldnt stand up again, so he put a pad made out of cattail leaves under him, and then held two bricks in his hand to support himself. Maybe this early experience stimted him, because he was the most ruthless person in the Mystic Nine.


    Even his wife didnt know how many people he had killed. He was extremely paranoid and distrustful of people. There were rumors that he slept in an ancient tomb at night and was apanied by zombies because he thought that living people were more terrifying than dead people.


    Even so, Banjie Lies tomb robbing skills were outstanding. His hands were very strong and agile, and even though he was short and small, he could climb trees faster than normal people with just his bare hands. He could enter ces where many people couldnt, and retrieve things that were hard to get.


    Strangely enough, like Er Yuehong, the story that most people talked about wasnt what he did in the tomb, but the rtionship between him and his sister-inw.


    His eldest brother and both his parents had died early, so his sister-inw took care of him since he was a teenager. At that ignorant age, his sister-inw was like a mother to him. They were poor and his sister-inw had to suffer a lot to raise both him and her own children. Banjie Li grew up in this kind of environment and had a sensitive heart, which was probably why he had such an extreme personality.


    During the time when his sister-inw was helping to wash clothes in someone else''s house, she was beaten and became deaf in one ear because she ripped a cheongsam. After that, the house was burned to the ground. The case was never settled, but everyone thought that Banjie Li did it.


    The two people were living under the same roof, and as Banjie Li grew up, the gossip gradually increased. Indeed, in that kind of house, you could always see something you shouldnt if you looked behind the curtain.


    His sister-inw wasnt much older than him, and the atmosphere slowly became strange. Even the way he looked at her also changed bit by bit.


    His sister-inw was a person who had romantic experiences, so she knew what Banjie Li was thinking. As a result, she sent him to other ces to be an apprentice, but he always wanted toe back. That kind of atmosphere became stronger and stronger, and her many years of widowhood made her fear her bodys strange reaction.


    Banjie Li knew very well at the time that there was a problem between the two of them, but he was very naive. His sister-inws life was hopeless, so he wanted to be strong and keep her from suffering. After that, he thought he could marry her and take care of her for his elder brother. This was the best ending he could think of at the time.


    As a result, he secretly learned how to rob graves. He was just like many kids back then, who dreamed of bing rich overnight. In the end, his legs were broken and he almost died in a tomb.


    His sister-inw was devastated. This was a man who was somewhere between her husband and son, and now he was disabled. The pain she felt was two-fold. She originally thought her days of suffering mighte to an end, but her hopes were dashed into darkness. She couldnt face herte husband.


    At the same time, however, these fierce emotions also broke through some of her psychological defenses, which was something Banjie Li wasnt expecting.


    After that, she had to take care of Banjie Li more carefully, like wiping him and helping him pee. The skinship between them became more and more frequent, more and more ordinary, and more and more uncontroble. Even Banjie Li found that the way his sister-inw looked at him had changed.


    One night after New Year''s Eve, thest straw finally broke the camels back. There was a heavy snow outside the house, and the gasping sounds of two people could be hearding from inside. The passion that had umted for many years burst out at once, and everything went crazy.


    Half a yearter, Banjie Li recovered and returned to the tomb where he had been trapped before so that he could retrieve the artifacts he had hidden.


    This time, he was no longer who he used to be. The hatred of being betrayed, and the guilt he harbored towards his sister-inw made him extremely cruel to a point where he wouldnt have mercy on anyone.


    He found the partners who had tried to kill him back then, broke their legs, dragged them to the tomb where he had stayed at that time, and starved them to death.


    Gods and ghosts were afraid of the wicked.


    As Banjie Li became more and more wealthy, he bought a house and started his own business. After that, he gradually settled down. Most of his men were disabled, and one of them was dumb. Theyter became a group of their own, but Ive decided not to borate on them for now.


    After he became well-off, Banjie Li once thought of marrying his sister-inw, but she hoped that he could marry someone else. She thought that she was dirty. She couldnt allow herself to marry him since she had promised her husband to take good care of him.


    His sister-inw was very insistent, so there was nothing Banjie Li could do. They never talked about it again, but Banjie Li was resolute in his refusal to marry.


    His sister-inw wanted to find an honest man to remarry in order to keep herself out of Banjie Lis mind, but Banjie Li was the most ruthless man in Changsha at the time, so no one dared to get close to her. Later, it was rumored that his sister-inw eventually gave birth to their son.


    I really wanted to write a sad story about how his sister-inw was killed by someone or had a miscarriage and died in the end, but there was no such decisive reality in the world.


    There were so many misfortunes in the world that no matter how cruel Banjie Li was, I still hoped he lived a long and healthy life, because his sister-inw was definitely a good person. Although it wasnt right, he was still a courageous man if he could maintain that happy bnce between good and extreme evil.


    Women would hope this abnormal love was fruitful, and men would want to hear more detailed descriptions of that night, but we may never really know what exactly happened.


    The only thing that could be determined was that my grandfather had said he had met Banjie Lis sister-inw when it was her fortieth birthday. She was a very beautiful woman with a hint of mour in her eyes, which was why my grandfather could clearly remember what she looked like. If he had a sister-inw like her, he would never let another man marry her, either.


    I asked my grandfather, Does Grandma know what you think? And he gave me a hundred yuan as pocket money.


    Well, this story is gossip, but it also has some truth: If men want to protect what they love, they have to be strong enough. No matter what the oue will be, dont let women sacrifice themselves for men, or at least let their sacrifices be rewarded.


    ****


    TN Notes


    (1) It literally means Half-body Li in Chinese.

 Chapter 6: Chen Pi Ah Si

    Chapter 6: Chen Pi Ah Si


    Among the middle three ns, were very familiar with Chen Pi Ah Si and Old Dog Wu, but weve heard little about ck Back who reigns sixth.


    Ill only give a brief introduction about the first two people, and then give a more detailed story of ck Back.


    Chen Pi Ah Si


    Chen Pi Ah Si, Grandpa Four, ranked first in the middle three ns and might be the most skilled one in the Mystic Nine. He aimed his iron beads more precisely than bullets, and his nine-wed hook could grab raw eggs from more than ten meters away.


    Chen Pi Ah Si was Er Yuehongs apprentice, and was taken in as an exception because he was extremely talented.


    Generally speaking, the tomb robbers in Changsha never revealed their skills to outsiders, not to mention how difficult it would be for people from Zhejiang to learn Huaguxi. As a result, this kind of apprenticeship was unheard of.


    People spected that Er Yuehong and Chen Pi Ah Si might have gone way back, but the truth had been lost with the passage of time.


    If the stories of the upper three ns sounded heroic, wonderful, and gossipy, then the stories of the middle three ns sounded notorious.


    This was especially true for Chen Pi Ah Si, who was the most infamous person. If Banjie Li was a big gangster, then Chen Pei A Si was the aircraft carrier of gangsters.


    Almost everyone knew that he was capable of anything, but he was most famous for murdering his apprentices. They often became rich one second and were killed the next.


    Chen Pi Ah Si was different from others. He was incredibly generous, barely had any family business, and would immediately squander all of the money he got from tomb robbing, which meant his apprentices could be wealthy overnight.


    He also taught his apprentices functional skills. If he wanted to rob a tomb, he would carefully n it to the extent where he wouldnt fail, find some people he thought suitable, and then teach them something before they robbed the grave. It didnt matter whether they seeded or failed, because he would never feel responsible for them. As a result, he was often the only one who could get out of difficult situations when they went underground. Even if he could save you, he wouldnt reach out his hand in case he got hurt. It was also obvious that he would let people take the fall when he was in danger.


    That was why working for Chen Pi Ah Si was like gambling. You never knew when you would be betrayed, or when you would get rich.


    But working with Chen Pi Ah Si did have one perkhe was a man of his word. He would always make it clear to you about the danger you were going to face, and he would definitely pay you the money if the operation was sessful.


    Those who were rather skilled were very courageous, and many desperate talents would work for him. These people werent afraid of the dangers and were extremely skilled. When Chen Pi Ah Si was at his peak, Banjie Li was the only one among the upper three ns who wasnt wary of him.


    The most earth-shattering thing he and his men had ever done was extremely vicious to the point that no one could understand how it had happened, and no one was able to believe it.


    When they had set up camp in a vige, they found that the terrain was very strange, so they inquired about the local legends. That was when Chen Pi Ah Si learned that the snow in this vige melted early.


    If there was a problem with the geology below the vige, it would cause the ground temperature to be slightly higher than other ces, and the snow would melt faster.


    Chen Pi Ah Si felt that there might be a tomb under the vige, but he couldnt determine where it was because there were too many buildings aboveground. They could only look for the tomb by going through each house one at a time. But looking for tombs in viges wasnt as easy as looking for them in rural areas since there were a lot of people watching. As a result, they hardly made any progress.


    At first, they wanted to buy the most important house, but there were too many people living in the big building, so it was too troublesome. Chen Pi Ah Si made a decision and motioned with his hands: Kill all of them.


    That night, they entered the vige and started killing all the people in the big house with towels and scimitars used for hooking pineapples. Then, they piled the corpses in the inner room, covered them with lime, and lived in the house while they explored underground every night.


    They searched for a long time, but found nothing underneath.


    It wasnt the right ce.


    Chen Pi Ah Si shifted his eyes to the neighboring house, and the next day, they snuck next door and killed all the people there. They tried the same trick again, but it still wasnt the right ce.


    They repeated this process over and over, until the corpses from the first family were already starting to stink.


    Chen Pi Ah Sis men were like boogeymen, and they stealthily killed people every night. Eventually, they even rolled dice to determine which family to kill.


    There were fewer and fewer people in the vige, and when they left half a monthter, most of the vigers had been killed. They found that they had made a mistake in their judgment, and there actually wasnt an ancient tomb at all.


    Chen Pi Ah Si was frustrated and returned home, but before leaving, he and his men set the whole vige on fire. Of the forty vigers alive at that time, not even the children and pregnant women were spared.


    This incident became a major case, andter, an apprentice got drunk and spilled the whole thing. Everyone was captured and shot, except for Chen Pi Ah Si who fled to Guangxi alone.


    After that, Chen Pi Ah Si did things more subtly. In the end, the story of the Upside-Down Mirror Pce at Reclining Buddha Ridge happened when he was in Guangxi. (1)


    We cant imagine how vicious Chen Pi Ah Si was before Guangxi, but what we can understand is that after Guangxi, Chen Pi Ah Si had changed a lot. It seemed like that major case had changed some things for him after all.


    ****


    TN Notes


    (1) There was a story about this in Chapter 2 Vol 4 Pce of Doom, when Lao Hai talked about Chen Pi Ah Si''s background.

 Chapter 7: Old Dog Wu

    Chapter 7: Old Dog Wu


    Old Dog Wu was my grandfather. He was the first generation of the Wu family in Changsha. He was an orthodox grave robber who came from a vige full of grave robbers. He hurt his nose in the early days of liberation. Everyone was too familiar with this story, so theres no need to borate on it.


    My grandfather, like Chen Pi Ah Si, had also been through a major case, but it was on an even higher level because it involved the Warring States silk book. It was a scandal of cosmic proportions at the time, and there were so many people involved that I cant say too much about it.


    In short, that case almost led to the entire reshuffle of Changshas grave robbers. After my grandfather was deceived by Qiu Dekao, he came to Hangzhou and that was how my family ended up here. The Mystic Nine had fallen because of this, and they never managed to get back up again. That was why Old Dog Wu was so famous, but it wasnt a good reputation. After all, so many people went to jail or died during that turmoil, and only my grandfather survived. There were bound to be some rumors.


    In my opinion, this incident was the first time that people from the top had paid attention to the Mystic Nine in Changsha, and they started to look into it and arrest people. As a result, Grandpa kept a low profile afterwards. That was why I was so surprised when someone suddenly asked about him.


    Old Dog Wu was the king of dogs. Of course, the most interesting things were about the dogs he kept. My grandfather loved dogs and kept many of them. He understood them very well, but at the same time, he also enjoyed eating dog meat, which was very strange.


    My grandfather had a favorite dog called Three Inch Nail that was a very small Tibetan spaniel. This kind of dog wouldnt grow too big, and only weighed a few hundred grams. My grandfather kept it in his sleeve wherever he went.


    He said that it was the most vignt kind of dog, and really distrusted strangers. It was difficult to gain its trust, and if someone meant harm, the dog hidden in the sleeve would definitely warn its owner.


    My grandfather didnt trust people very much after the ident. The cruel world made him feel very discouraged, so he always took this dog with him. But Hangzhou was alright because it was home, and there werent as manyplicated things as those in the old Changsha.


    However, my grandfather told me one thing that made me look at this dog with admiration.


    My grandfather might have been afraid of peoples hearts, but he wasnt afraid of gods and ghosts, although there were some exceptions.


    He once went to Nanning in Guangxi and stayed in a guest house. That night, when he went to the bathroom (all the guest houses at the time only had public bathrooms), he found that part of it was strange. It was as if the bathroom had been remodeled, for there were wooden boards nailed around it.


    He was suffering from diarrhea and was very bored, so he looked into the gap between the wooden boards and found that there was an iron gate behind them.


    He thought about it for a while and finally understood what had happened. It turned out that the boss had cordoned off a one- or two-meter section of the corridor to make a bathroom. This door had originally been at the end of the corridor.


    My grandfather found it strange. Didnt that mean there was a room missing? Why would the boss do this?


    The nks were warped, and the nails were rotten, so he broke the nks and looked inside. He found that the iron gate behind the nks was rusty. Strangely enough, there were some traces of ingot candles on it, and the gate had been welded shut.


    The iron gate was a kind of fenced gate with a wooden door inside. Everyone should be familiar with this kind of setup since it was the earliest anti-theft gate. When Grandpa stretched his hand over and pushed it, he found that the wooden door inside was unlocked and could be pushed open.


    He thought it was a little strange, but he was so courageous that it was impossible to be scared in such a ce. He pushed hard, trying to force the wooden door wide open.


    But when the door had been pushed to a certain extent, it hit something and couldn''t be opened any more. My grandpa pushed hard a few times, but found that it didnt feel right. It didnt feel like something was stuck, but like someone was blocking the door.


    He took a breath, immediately closed the wooden door, and turned his head and left. Behind him, he heard the sound of the wooden door being opened by something.


    Back in his room, he felt that things were strange, but after waiting for a while, there was no other movement. He had encountered too many weird things and didn''t want to think about it anymore. Maybe the boss here was a voyeur.


    In the middle of the night, he suddenly felt ufortable and smelled a very strange odor. He opened his eyes in a daze, and saw a strangely tall person standing at the foot of his bed. The person had an unusually long head, and that, coupled with his height, made him taller than two meters. But he was as thin as a piece of firewood. He wasnt wearing any clothes, and the skin on his body seemed to be transparent under the moonlighting in through the window.


    The most peculiar thing was that Three Inch Nail was lying on his body, and staring at the two-meter-high monster very calmly. Not only did it not bark, but it also wasnt afraid at all.


    After that, Grandpa fell asleep again. Everything was fine when he woke up the next morning, but when he remembered what had happenedst night, he broke out in a cold sweat.


    After he left Nanning, he thought about this matter constantly. What exactly was that thing? And Three Inch Nail had also behaved very strangely that night.


    Grandpa told me that when he asked someone about it, that person told him that what he had seen was a bit like a deformity sufferer. In Tibet, the Tibetan dogs would pay respect to the Bodhisattva. They were usually kept in a temple and would sit below the seat of the Bodhisattva statues. Maybe the reason Three Inch Nail was lying on his body was to save his life.


    After that, my grandfather was impressed with Three Inch Nail, and it became his favorite dog.


    That dog was indeed a bit fascinating. Three days after my grandfather passed away, the dog disappeared and never showed up again. I didnt know if it had been stolen and eaten among the chaos, or what.

 Chapter 8: Black Back The Sixth

    Chapter 8: ck Back The Sixth


    Before I talk about ck Back the Sixth, theres a story that people need to know.


    Its said that there are times when grave robbers dont feel anything unusual when theyre in the tomb, but when theyre about to leave the grave robbers tunnel, they suddenly feel that someones hand is on their shoulder, and it cant be pulled off.


    This was how the name ck Back the Sixth came to be. There was a ck handprint on his shoulder, which people said was from something putting its hand on him.


    Whenever grave robbers encountered this kind of thing, they had to close their eyes before they could turn around and blow a puff of air at it to try and blow the hand off of their shoulder. The greater the strength, the higher the sess rate. After that, they couldnt look back, or theyd see something unpleasant.


    ck Back the Sixth was a very low-key person. Even my grandfather didnt know him very well. He only knew that he was a swordsman in Shaanxi before.


    Lets take a look at a section of the Shaanxi county records:


    The Swordsmen Association was a chivalrous organization unique to the lower sses in the Guanzhong area. Its members usually carried a kind of Guanshan Machete made in Lintong Guanshan Town (Guanshan Town was now in Yanliang District). The machete was about three feet long and less than two inches wide. It had a special shape and was extremely sharp, which was why people called them swordsmen.


    The swordsmen were around in the early years of Xianfeng Era in the Qing Dynasty, but there was no fixed organizational form or strict disciplines. There was only a figure simr to a leader, who everyone called Brother XX. The people below him were like brothers and worked hard for him.


    The swordsmen were scattered into groups of different sizes. They were self-proimed and distributed in areas west of Tongguan and east of Xi''an along the banks of the Weihe River, and more in Weibei.


    Swordsmen had the spirit of resisting and rebelling against the ruling ss, and they also had the loyalty to fight injustice and draw swords to help each other. During the Revolution of 1911 (1), arge number of swordsmen participated and stepped onto the stage of history. They were heroic and brave as they devoted themselves to the revolution.


    In today''s Weibei in, the swordsmen had be a distant history, just like what the Guanshan Machetes had been through for more than a hundred years. The legends and stories of the swordsmen also slowly faded away and lost their original appearance.


    Most of the Mystic Nine leaders had amon attribute, which was wisdom. When it came to conspiracies or normal strategies, these people were sophisticated. It was a necessary skill in the environment at the time, but ck Back the Sixth didn''t seem to have stories in this regard. He was the only one who was born as a thug.


    You didnt need a brain to be a swordsman, since swords were always faster than the swordsmans brain. When ck Back the Sixth was in the northwest, he lived a dangerous life trying to survive based on the old way of doing things. It was really like he pinned his brain on his waistband every day, and even aftering to Changsha, this was the only way he knew how to do things.


    The speed of his sword was so fast that it was like he could pass by a busy street, and people''s heads would start to roll. He could walk by you on the street, and your head would fall off, but no one would know who swung the knife.


    I didnt know if this was an exaggeration, but ck Back the Sixth was very unpopr in Changsha, because he did things in the northwestern style, was taciturn, and couldntmunicate with others at all.


    His goal was to take things and sell them. He had no apprentice and was all alone, which caused people to suspect that he would hack the zombies underground on his own.


    Such a lonely knight would often be immersed in the gentle arms of one or two people, and he would get jealous and fight for them. This was also the case for ck Back the Sixth. A woman was truly a hero''s grave.


    He smoked opium and lived in a brothel all night, providing for a prostitute. When she was forcibly soldter, ck Back went six thousand miles alone before getting her back.


    Because of the fact that he took opium, he often entered a state of madness and had to practice swinging his sword every night until he was exhausted. During the day, he shrank aside on the street like a beggar. The whole person gave off a lunatic vibe.


    In the second half of his life, he was apanied by a prostitute and a sharp sword, which was what happened in a lot of martial arts novels. It was impossible to guess whether they needed each other or if there was something else.


    Grandpa said that the name ck Back the Sixth might be the reason why he was sixth in the Mystic Nine. In the beginning, they even called him The Sixth. Although ck Back the Sixth was a very taciturn person, his special character made him stand out. All kinds of people knew him and dared not provoke him. But it was also because of his character that people had no reason to hurt him, either. As a result, he became a big alien.


    In thete liberation period, the Red Guards tried to criticize him. At the age of seventy, he killed three people in a row and waster shot by the army. He was the only one in the Mystic Nine who had no family and had a miserable ending.


    But it was rumored that he was already crazy before he was killed. He never took protective measures when he was in the tomb, so his body had deteriorated before he was fifty years old. In hisst years, he was a mixture of a beggar and Kong Yiji (2). Every few days, he would have some scraps to exchange for wine and food, and when opium was banned after liberation, he took to sucking rusty iron nails.


    It could be said that this man may not be a tomb robber, but he wasnt a drifter or a ranger either. No one could define what exactly he was.


    ck Back the Sixth was a weird existence. He was a typical kind of person from the old society who had no pursuits, desires, or wisdom. If there had been someone he could work for, ck Back the Sixth would have been a good underling. Under the arrangement of his master, maybe he could have gotten married, and would have slowly learned to love. Especially after having a child, he would have had a rtive sense of life.


    But it was a pity that ck Back the Sixth didnt have that kind of life. His boss died when he was in the northwest, their swordsmen group was disbanded, and he became a ship without a helm. After that, he had nothing in his life, and all he was doing was just trying to stay alive.


    I thought that the prostitute was his interface with the real world, and he might have only felt his existence when he was making love to her. After she died, however, he disconnected with the world and could only live in his own world, which was why he went crazy.


    Im not robbing a grave. Instead, Im desperate.


    Heres to ck Back the Sixth.


    TN Notes:


    (1) The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Chinese Revolution or the Xinhai Revolution, was a revolution that overthrew China''sst imperial dynasty (the Qing dynasty) and established the Republic of China (ROC). Wiki link


    (2) Kong Yiji, a character from a short story by Lu Xun, was an alcoholic failed schr who frequented the tavern where the narrator worked when he was a boy. Wiki link

 Chapter 9: Huo Xiangu

    Chapter 9: Huo Xiangu


    The lower three ns.


    The lower three ns had fewer stories because they were all business people, and didnt personally rob graves. Since the middle three ns and the lower three ns had close business rtionships with each other, people from these two ns were often rted by marriage as well. For example, my grandmother was from the Xie family.


    As the only woman in the Mystic Nine, Huo Xiangu from Baishajing definitely wasnt inferior to men. Granny Huo had a son who joined the revolution led by Mao Zedong. During the Cultural Revolution, the Huo familys background was discovered, which resulted in their disappearance. Rumor had it that they went behind the scenes and were protected by powerful people.


    Speaking of Huao Xiangu, my grandpa always had to see whether my grandma was nearby when he talked about her, since he and Hua Xiangu had history. It was a sensitive topic in our family, so we had to prevent my grandma from overhearing our conversations; otherwise, she would pinch my grandpas ears and scold, Old man, its been decades, and you still havent forgotten about that temptress.


    Thats right. Huo Xiangu and my grandpa had an ambiguous rtionship in the past.


    Since this topic couldnt be discussed in detail, I didn''t know whether their rtionship happened before or after my grandparents got together, but it would be a big problem if it was thetter. I couldnt ask my grandma about it, because she would hit me on the head with a knitting needle and shoo me away.


    Of course, it may not be what I think. Maybe grandpa just had some business rtionships with Huo Xiangu, but grandma got jealous because Huo Xiangu was so beautiful.


    Grandpa said that Huo Xiangu was indeed beautiful, as evidenced by her nickname Xiangu, which means fairy. Her beauty was acknowledged by people, and my grandpa said that she was really like a fairy. This woman had a temperament that made people unable to look at her directly, or think dirty about her. It was the kind of temperament that was innate and couldnt be cultivated. Men who looked at her had no way of producing any evil thoughts.


    When I asked my grandpa if he meant that Huo Xiangus boobs were as t as a washboard, he replied, Of course not.


    Huo Xiangu was 1.7 meters tall, and liked to wear cheongsams. Her skin was very white and she had short hair. Her temperament came from her gaze, which was something out of this world. Her eyes were so clear that it was as if she had never been polluted by the world. Once you looked into them, you would be willing to do anything she asked of you.


    <em>That sounds a little like Poker-Face. Does that mean that Huo Xiangu was a female version of Poker-Face? </em>Then I started to imagine what Poker-Face would look like in a cheongsam.


    However, Huo Xiangus holiness didntst her entire life. When she was about thirty years old, she fell in love with a military officer whoter became a capable man under Mao Zedong.


    It was said that she once showed up at a political ball after the founding of the country. Her appearance stunned all of the people who were present, and even a few Soviet Union officials looked at her intently.


    However, this may have also caused a lot of trouble to her husband, and their family was overthrown in the Cultural Revolution. Fortunately, they were rehabilitated afterwards, but Huo Xiangu had be Granny Huo by that point. Thest time my grandpa saw her was on TV. She was still graceful, and her temperament was still the same, but she wasnt a little girl anymore. It really made people think about how ruthless time could be.


    For such a woman, I always felt that she was a bit like Ruan Lingyu. (1) I couldnt imagine how she could be in the Mystic Nine, and she was even ranked seventh. Could she also rob graves?


    Grandpa said that Huo Xiangu didn''t go underground very often, but when she did, she used a very special method to rob the grave, which was simr to the early method used in salt mines. They would dig a big tunnel, and then hook something on top of the tomb before hanging upside down. This method required people to be very flexible and have a lot of strength, which was why the heads of the Huo family were all women, and the status of female underlings was very high.


    But when there were more women, there would be more disputes. As a result, the Huo family was also the family that had the most internal strife. The process of fighting for power was very fierce, and since there were many daughters in the Huo family, Huo Xiangu''s road to bing the head was very tortuous.


    After the head of the family at that time passed away, several daughters, sisters, and cousins all had their eyes on the leadership position. No one knew the specifics, but everyone was watching, because it meant that the Huo familys power would be reorganized. (The truth was simple. You may have a business rtionship with a woman who ranked second in the Huo family, but if she couldnt be the head in the future, you might fall out of favor. Then, all your efforts would be wasted. In addition, the other person who subsequently became the leader would have her own interest group, so you couldnt be sure whether you would benefit from the change.)


    In order to be the head of the house, thepetitors would surely try to form alliances with outside forces. Huo Xiangus ally just so happened to be my grandpa, so he was very familiar with how she became the leader of her family.


    Among the Mystic Nine leaders, the upper three ns didnt like to interfere with trivial things in the underworld, and wanted nothing to do with any of it. As a result, they wouldnt intervene in such a scheme, even if it was likely to turn into a major incident.


    The middle three ns and lower three ns, on the other hand, were very enthusiastic since it was all rted to their interests. Most of the people in the Huo family wanted the support from the Xie family, because Xie Jiuye was incredibly reliable. Moreover, the Xie family had a strong foundation, and their underlings were skilled in every way. Whether it was about fighting or plotting, you would likely seed as long as you had the Xie family behind your back.


    But Xie Jiuye was a very shrewd man, and naturally wouldnt let himself join the game. Furthermore, the Xie family was so well-off that he didnt care who would be the leader of the Huo family in the future. Whoever became the head of the Huo family would want to conduct business with him no matter what, so he could stand aside and see which way the wind would blow.


    No one in the Huo family wanted to work with Chen Pi Ah Si since he was too unpredictable. It was very risky to work with him, and he might even steal your business away. But Chen Pi Ah Si wanted to have a stake in it, and tried to take advantage of the situation, which made things even moreplicated. People in the Huo family were afraid to work with him, but they were also afraid that he would work with their opponents.


    ck Back the Sixth was a mad man, so no one wanted to work with him.


    Qi Tiezui had a small business, and it was impossible for him to talk other people into stepping down, so they found it useless to work with him.


    My grandpa turned out to be the only one who was the most reliable. He was loyal and had a rtively high appeal in the underworld. There were several excellent apprentices who were on his side, his underlings were very obedient, and his workers had brilliant abilities. Not to mention the fact that my grandpa had a sessful business.


    The most important thing was that my grandpa got along with everyone. He could work with several leaders in the Mystic Nine and had a particrly good rtionship with the Xie family. Xie Jiuye was very fond of him, so several sisters in the Huo family sent people to invite my grandpa over for a cup of tea.


    As for why my grandpa chose Hua Xiangu in the end, its actually very intriguing. It was said that she sacrificed something in order to gain my grandpas support, but they were the only ones who knew what exactly happened between them.


    In that era, women always had to pay a bleak price when they had to bargain with men. Even for Huo Xiangu, her beauty was only one type of leverage. This was still the case for women nowadays, although we as a society had improved a lot. At least when women in this era took a step back, there was no longer an abyss behind them.


    I don''t know whether we should be d or sad about it.


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Ruan Lingyu was a Chinese silent film actress. One of the most prominent Chinese film stars of the 1930s. Wiki link

 Chapter 10: Qimen Fortune Teller Qi Tiezui The Eighth

    Chapter 10: Qimen Fortune Teller Qi Tiezui The Eighth


    Qimen (1) Fortune Teller Qiu Tiezui (2) the Eighth was a peculiar man in the lower three ns.


    The Huo and Xie families were big families, who devoted themselves to expanding their businesses. From eastern Inner Mongolia to Lingnan, both families had their tracks all over these areas, but Qi Tiezui went in theplete opposite direction.


    Ever since Qi Tiezui started his business, he had only one shop, which was a fortune-telling booth in the old tea camp in Changsha.


    This fortune-telling booth was in the depths of an alley, and behind it was a small incense hall where he did the fortune telling.


    If people wanted to buy antiques, they needed to pay six pennies before the fortune teller would take them into the inner hall. There was arge hall in the back that was full of treasures.


    Under normal circumstances, this kind of small shop would easily be eliminated, but the Qi familys shop had been open for several generations. Business was booming, and the small incense hall flourished.


    Some people found it very strange and didnt know why his business was so good. Later, they learned that Qi Tiezui had a strange rule.


    If people wanted to buy antiques, he would do fortune telling for them. He was the number one fortune teller in Changsha, and his predictions were extremely urate. He only did it for people who bought antiques, and called it Buy antiques, get free fortune tellings.


    Nowadays, we might call thatpetitive differentiation or derivative value.


    The people who robbed graves and sold antiques were rather superstitious. Qiu Tiezui was very famous, so even if there were some people who didnt actually want to buy antiques, they would go to him for fortune telling and buy an item randomly. That was why his business was always popr.


    So, how urate were his predictions? People said his skills were divine.


    On the eve of liberation, a broker came to buy goods in Qi Tiezuis shop. He didn''t want anything except for an incense burner that was in the incense hall.


    This incense burner wasnt an antique, so it was clear to see that the broker didnt know how to determine the value of items.


    The underling at the time asked Qi Tiezui for instructions, but Qi Tiezui was very disciplined. He was selling antiques, so how could he sell incense burners? As a result, Qi Tiezui wouldnt sell it.


    His underling became greedy. He felt that the incense burner didnt cost much, so he could sell it himself and secretly buy another one to rece it and keep the money. As a result, he secretly sold the incense burner. He was afraid that Qi Tiezui would find out, so he asked the broker to leave quickly.


    At that time, Qi Tiezui was waiting to tell the brokers fortune, and found it strange that the broker walked away without looking back.


    When he asked the underling what happened, the underling got scared and confessed to the whole thing. Qi Tiezui told him that he had offended the gods and ancestors bymitting such a big taboo, and he was afraid that the underling would get retribution.


    People would piss their pants when Qi Tiezui said something like this, because his words usually came true. As a result, the guy was so frightened that he immediately took out all the money. He said that he had only been greedy for a moment and asked if there was a way to resolve it.


    At that time, the underling was about to collect rent in the vige. After Qi Tiezui did the fortune telling, he frowned and returned all the money back to the guy. He had him carry the money on his body when he went to the vige, and told him to put the collected rent at the bottom of the box. Moreover, he told the guy that he shouldnt collect rent from the melon farmers.


    The guy was puzzled as he began his journey. When he made it to the vige, he found that the heavy rains that year had caused a reduction in the number of melons produced. There was no way he could collect the money from the melon farmers, so he told them that they didnt have to pay the rent.


    On the way back, he met a robber. All the money on his body was taken, but strangely enough, he wasnt hurt at all, and the robber ran away without searching his box. Soon after he returned to the incense hall, the robber was caught. It was a melon farmer from the vige.


    It turned out that the melons had been soaked by the rain, and the melon farmer had no choice but to be a robber. When he saw that his victim was the one who hadnt made him pay rent, he couldn''t bear to kill him. At the same time, he was afraid that he would get recognized, so he took the money and hurriedly ran away.


    If the underling had asked the melon farmer to pay rent, then he definitely wouldve died. And if he didn''t have the money he got from the incense burner, the money in the box would have definitely been taken.


    Afterwards, the guy asked Qi Tiezui how exactly he had predicted it, and Qi Tiezui told him that the money he got for selling the incense burner was also the money the broker paid in order to buy the incense burner.


    Buy the incense burner sounded like Buy the road (3), which meant that he would encounter a robber, who would steal the money he got from the incense burner.


    And the broker hadnt done the fortune telling. Didnt do the fortune telling sounded like Didnt count the melons. (4)


    Qi Tiezui said, Youvemitted the sin yourself, but your ancestors know that its your first offense, so they gave you a way out. You must be careful in the future and not make this kind of mistake again.


    The guy listened and never dared disobey Qi Tiezui again. The story of this incident was also spread, and soon, all of the people in the city had heard about it.


    ****


    TN Notes


    (1) The Chinese characters actually mean Qi Iron Mouth. Iron mouth is an idiom meaning someone who can tell fortunes very urately.


    (2) Qimen, which refers to Qimen Dunjia, is an ancient form of divination from China. Wiki link


    (3)(4) These sentences are pronounced simrly in Chinese.

 Chapter 11: Xiao Xiejiu

    Chapter 11: Xiao Xiejiu


    Xiao Xiejiu, Xie Jiuye, (1) was the only orthodox intellectual in the underworld back then, and he had also studied in Japan for a year.


    The Xie family was a model family, and unlike all the people I had mentioned before, the biggest feature of the Xie family was that they had no special characteristics. They were average in every way, whether it was manpower, routines, or connections. Although their performance wasnt the most outstanding, it was definitely adequate.


    That was why the Xie family had the most stable business among those in the Mystic Nine. They may not be the wealthiest family, but there had never been any controversies. No one picked on them, and no one asked them for help.


    Moreover, Xie Jiuye was the type of person who did everything on a step-by-step basis. He would think of every possibility before it happened, and nned countermeasures in advance, which might have been the reason why no one wanted to be their opponents.


    This type of person was generally unremarkable, so there wouldnt be any strange anecdotes. If there was anything to say, there was only one interesting story.


    Xie Jiuye was good at scheming, and loved ying chess in his free time.


    At that time, a chess master in Guangzhou was invited to Changsha by an officer who wanted to watch him y. The chess master yed eight games of chess with eight people at the same time. In the end, the Changsha chess yers lost.


    Xie Jiuye was also a chess enthusiast. Speaking of this, during that ten-year period, there were two people who were famously good at ying chess. One was Xie Jiuye, the other was my Uncle Two.


    Xie Jiuye was famous for ying unexpected games, and was good at setting up traps, while Uncle Two was good at solving traps. This meant that one liked to attack, and the other liked to defend and counterattack.


    But Xie Jiuye and Uncle Two were people from two different eras. When Xie Jiuyes skills were at their peak, Uncle Twos skills hadnt matured yet.


    As a result, Xie Jiuye was the one who could go up against the chess master, but he didn''t like to make public appearances.


    They finally decided to open another one-vs-eight chess game, one of which was directed by Jie Jiuye behind the scenes. The result was jaw-dropping. The master won the chess game with Xie Jiuye, but lost the other seven games.


    A few chess enthusiasts were watching the game, and were amazed.


    It turned out that even though it was full of ws, the chess game with Xie Jiuye was thrilling. Every time Xie Jiuye seemed close to losing, he always found a way to stay in the game.


    But when Xie Jiuye made his counterattacks, he didnt have the obvious advantage, and was still pressured by the master. This went on until he eventually lost the game.


    Xie Jiuye said that it was a chess game of courtiers, which was invented by those who had superb skills, but had to y chess with those who were of a higher status.


    For example, if you were asked to y chess with the emperor, you had to lose, but you needed to make it very difficult so that the emperor would think that he won by his own strength.


    It was very hard to y this kind of game spontaneously, so there were some people who nned all the moves in advance in order toe up with a difficult game.


    But despite all the nning, the end goal was to lose the chess game. Other people asked Xie Jiuye why he didnt just win directly so that the master couldnt feel proud of himself.


    Xie Jiuye said that the master made his way here from Guangdong and had countless experiences ying chess. Naturally, he would have his own methods for winning.


    This kind of person only picked the easy games, so if one of the eight people was as skilled as him, he would bypass that person. In the end, he would win seven games and only lose one. That way, he wouldn''t be ashamed because it would still look like he had excellent skills. But this way of ying was a trap in itself.


    Of course, the skills that the master exhibited were definitely brilliant. His way of ying required a very strong memory and the ability to be familiar with the chess games, but resilience wasnt as important.


    As a result, Xie Jiuye first used the chess game of courtiers strategy to reveal some ws, and then lured him into the trap.


    The master must have thought that this person had the weakest skills, so he would attack first to gain an advantage, and wouldn''t care too much about the other seven games.


    It was the basic method when ying one-against-many chess games. It was impossible to guarantee that all sides would be on the offensive, so you would decide which games to attack and which ones to defend. Within a few rounds, the attention given wouldnt be even.


    Xie Jiuye took advantage of this. Seeing that the master was about to win, Xie Jiuye turned the game around with another unexpected trick. He continued maintaining this kind of situation where the master was about to win, but couldnt actually do it.


    It may have seemed like there were many ws, but none of them allowed him to make a breakthrough. It was like when a girl teased you so much that you had erotic desires, but she wouldnt let you get close to her. It was a really ufortable feeling.


    As a result, the master wasnt willing to lose that one game. He focused on dealing with the others, but he also couldnt get any further. He failed the other seven games because one game dragged on for too long.


    The yers from Changsha had wanted to defeat him, and with one win and seven losses, the master would obviously feel upset, but once he reflected on it, he wouldnt think that it was a conspiracy.


    Everyone admired Xie Jiuye more than ever. They drank and celebrated that night without mentioning it again, but when everyone left, his son asked him again, Dad, what happened exactly?


    Xie Jiuyeughed and said, I sacrificed something in order to win in the end.


    It turned out that every yer was supposed to be in separate rooms, but the master couldnt see what was going on in those rooms. That chess game of courtiers was actually yed by the seven yers in the same room at the same time, and the other seven games were yed by Xie Jiuye alone.


    Xie Jiuyes skills werent as good as the masters, so if they had yed the game in an honest manner, Xie Jiuye definitely would have lost.


    With this method, the power of those seven yers was bound to be better than the power of one yer, and they would subdue most of that person''s energy.


    On the other side, Xie Jiuye was on the offense in every chess game. He wasnt concerned about losing a game or two, because he could also take advantage of the fact that the masters energy was drawn, and could y the other seven games without worries. The whole incident was neither noticed nor wed.


    Master Xie set up one trap, solved another, yed chess, and avoided answering peoples questions. Every step he took was almost seamless, and showed the depth of his wisdom and how tricky his schemes could be.


    ****


    TN Notes


    (1) "Xiao Xiejiu means Little Xie Nine, and Xie Jiuye means Ninth Master Xie in Chinese.

 Chapter 12: About Our First Trip

    Chapter 12: About Our First Trip


    Looking back, Ive traveled to many ces, from Shandong, Hainan, Shaanxi, the Northeast, and now northwestern China. Ive gone non-stop the whole way, and seldom had time to stop and appreciate the customs of these ces.


    But Im gratified that I took a lot of photos and drew a lot of sketches along the way. Now it seems that some of them can still describe how I felt when I saw these ces.


    The things I helped prepare:


    Shopping list (Copy from Uncle Threes notes):


    Item Quantity


    Luoyang shovel 5


    Climbing rope (200 meters)


    Linder Machete  2


    (Large and thickened)


    Small Axe 3


    (Less than two and a half Jin)


    Hiking Backpack 5


    Smokeless stove  9


    (Solid fuel)


    Jacket XXXL1,XL2,M2


    Threaded steel pipe 20 (50 cm a piece)


    (need to give owners the design drawings to modify)


    Tiger Head shotgun 4


    (need to modify to make the guns shorter)


    1.


    Long-distance bus


    Departure station: Hangzhou North Bus Station


    Jinan ETA: 14:30


    Bus Number: 1026 (ordinary bus)


    Motor coach (high-ss): 2


    Cost: 295 yuan


    Bus stopped at: Xuzhou, Tengzhou, Qufu, Tai''an, Jinan


    Buy five tickets at Hangzhou North Railway Station


    2.


    Find Mister Li when going through the baggage security check


    Money given to Mister Li: 1500

 Chapter 13: Temple of Seeds

    Chapter 13: Temple of Seeds


    There were two theories as to why it was called the Temple of Seeds.


    The first one was a local legend about a general in ancient times who returned in triumph and seized many treasures. A horse gue was afflicting the area when they arrived, and a lot of horses died, which meant that the treasures couldnt be taken away. In the end, the general used kilns to melt the gold and then threw those precious gold pieces into the river here.


    The treasures he melted were in the shape of golden melon seeds (1). He ordered the vigers not to harvest them, and said he would kill the whole vige if he saw a golden melon seed in the market.


    Because this general had an outstanding record and high prestige, no one dared salvage the golden melon seeds when they were thrown into the river. These golden melon seeds were gradually buried under the river sand until the dynasty changed.


    People who had heard of this legend came to salvage the golden melon seeds one after another, so in order to deter these greedy people, the local vigers built a statue of the general near the river. It actually kept away those who wanted to create trouble. Later, tomemorate this incident, they built a temple near the statue and called it the Temple of Seeds.


    The temple was long gone, but the legend of the Temple of Seeds had been passed down.


    The second theory was theplete opposite. It was said that the river here produced golden sands, many of which were in the shape of melon seeds. Many people came here to gather them, and those peopleter settled down here and started to build ancestral halls and temples. Generation after generation prospered, and people called this ce the Temple of Seeds because the golden melon seeds had originated here a long time ago.


    ording to my research, it was very likely that the general in the first story was Wu Zixu (2), but there were many simr famous legends in Liyang, Jiangsu. I had no idea why this kind of story appeared in Shandong (3), but ording to general spections, a considerable number of the immigrants here may havee from Jiangsu and brought their folklore to Shandong.


    Wu Zixu and the Virgin Woman


    Around 500 BC, at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, King Chu Ping wrongfully killed Wu Zixu''s father and brother. Wu Zixu escaped from Zhaoguan, crossed the Yangtze River, and fled to the Wu Kingdom.


    He was followed by soldiers who were trying to capture him. He walked day and night for seven days before stopping in Huangshan Lishui in Liyang (he went from Gucheng Lake in Gaochun, walked by Nandu, Liyang, Xushe, Xijiu, Yicheng, Dongjiu and the Taihu River. The Yixing section was also known as Nanxi River.)


    He met a virgin woman who was washing clothes by the river, and asked her for food. She gave him the batter (4) that was used to wash the clothes. Wu Zixu ate it and asked her not to tell anyone that he had been here so that the soldiers chasing him wouldnt know his whereabouts. In order for Wu Zixu to escape without any worries, and to preserve her chastity, she picked up a big rock and threw herself into the water.


    Later, Wu Zixu led the soldiers from the Wu Kingdom, defeated the state of Chu, and avenged his father and brothers death. On the way back to the Wu kingdom, he went to Lishui to pay tribute to the virgin woman and threw hundreds of gold pieces into the river.


    ording to folklore, he made three buckets, and filled each of them with three liters of golden melon seeds. He sprinkled them into the water as gratitude.


    I dont want to assume the worst of the heroes back then, but this historical story still allows us to think of another cruel possibility.


    When King Goujian of Yue asked for peace, Wu Zixu persuaded the new king of the Wu Kingdom to seize the chance and destroy the Yue country in order to unify Jiangnan. This story showed that Wu Zixu was the type of person who was determined and never left room for mercy. He could endure humiliation for decades before returning to the country for revenge, and could open graves to ughter corpses. We can somewhat imagine what his character was like. Just like many forced "sacrifices" in modern Chinese history, we dont know how many martyrs were actually killed at the hands of enemies.


    I begged for food while you were washing clothes. I was full, and you were drowned. Ten yearster, you were rewarded with thousands of gold pieces.


    Blimey, was the woman who was washing clothes forced to die by the sword for a wonderful lie? Wu Zixu may have still felt somewhat guilty about it after all, but could the gold subside the long-term guilt in his heart?


    Or maybe things werent as simple as I thought. Wu Zixu was a general who was famous for tomb robbing, so maybe the golden melon seeds were scattered here for some other reason. Or, these golden melon seeds had washed down from the ancient tombs upstream because the tomb robbers identally spilled the golden sands as they were transporting the treasures.


    For the time being, I can only guess.


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Guazi means melon seeds in Chinese. The chapter could alternatively be called "Guazi Temple" but Vol 1 Ch. 3 of "Cavern of Blood Zombies" went with Temple of Seeds, so I''m being consistent.


    (2) Wu Zixu was a general and politician of the Wu kingdom in the Spring and Autumn period (722481 BC). Wiki link


    (3) The Temple of Seeds is a fictional ce, but the setting is in Shandong.


    (4) In ancient times, people didnt have soap, so they used batter to wash clothes.

 Chapter 14: The Map That Was Decoded From The Warring States Silk Book

    Chapter 14: The Map That Was Decoded From The Warring States Silk Book


    The key to tranting the Warring States silk book was to take apart the characters. You split a character and made it be a matrix, and then all the details formed a huge matrix. That matrix was also divided into dimensions, so we needed to find the appropriate points. These symbols indicated the meanings of the lines after they were connected. This set of symbology was veryplicated, but it could be restored in a short amount of time thanks to modernputers.


    Later, this method was widely used in "Yanshi Lei" designs, but I don''t know if it was also inspired by the Warring States silk book.


    (TN Note: basically showing how the decoded book fits the terrain on google earth)

 Chapter 15: Seven Star Lu Palace Floor Plan

    Chapter 15: Seven Star Lu Pce Floor n


    <strong><em>Please note: Some chapters after the Mystic Nine introductions are short and might be a little confusing since there are supposed to be pictures beside the words. "Wu Xie''s Private Notes" is an illustrated book, so I could only find some pictures. </em></strong>()<strong><em></em></strong>


    ****


    ording to my analysis, there may be a group of ancient tombs around the Temple of Seeds area. The corpse cave was obviously a cave that hadnt been formed naturally. I didnt know how the cavity in this mountain came into being, but the roads on both sides must have been dug when King Lushang (1) was robbing the tomb.


    We didn''t know which direction the water flowed in the mountain ranges underground water system, but based on the current situation, the cave led the stream across the mountain. It was probably easier to transport the grave goods from the ancient tomb using the waterway.


    In the Seven Star Lu Pce, the corridor between the sacrificial tomb and the real tomb was a kilometer long. Those maze-like paths that connected with the corridor all eventually led to the underground pce where the snake cypress (2) was. The ancients must have nted the tree there a long time ago since its diameter indicated that it was at least a thousand years old.


    Because of its national power, most of the ancient tombs of the Western Zhou Dynasty were small in structure, and only a few emperors could enjoy the majestic fortress-like tombs. The structure of this particr tomb wasnt majestic, and after careful analysis, we found that there should be three ancient tombs connected with each other. The sacrificial tomb was a funerary tomb, the seven-star coffins were fakes that were used to deceive grave robbers, and the iid path that led to the giant cave was the real tomb.


    If that was true, what was the purpose of those iid paths? Their degree of damage indicated that they should have been built during the construction of the ancient tomb. If they were the secret passages used by the craftsmen to escape, then they were tooplicated. And if they were part of a maze to prevent outsiders from entering the tomb, I figured it would be easier to just destroy the entrance.


    The text written in The Book of King Lushang told us that there was an arrangement of numbers between these hidden passages. The ancient people obviously took great pains to build these iid paths, which made me even more confused. I couldn''t understand it until I discussed it with Uncle Two afterwards.


    I had been thinking that the use of these iid paths in the ancient tomb was to prevent intrusion from the outside world, but the simplest way to protect the tomb was to close these paths off entirely. This was a contradiction, which meant that I was obviously thinking in the wrong direction. If we thought about it carefully and in reverse, we would find that the cave with the Nine-Headed Snake Cypress may not have been an ancient tomb, but more like a religious site.


    There were many alchemists in the State of Qi and the State of Lu. Alchemists had a lot of secret practices and meeting ces, and even the monarchs had secret cultivation ces.


    At that time, alchemists often had religious and political backgrounds. For example, Mohists (3) also believed in ghosts and gods, but their disciples were strictly organized, just like a modern-day cult. Later, Zhang Jue (4) teamed up with alchemists and staged a rebellion.


    Since the ancient people saw alchemists going in and out of the mountains in a very mysterious manner, there were many legends of fairies in Shandong, and the trend of people cultivating themselves to be immortals intensified. This cave may have existed because of something like this.


    I had hoped to learn some clues from the previous legends in Shandong, and after reading many county records, I found that there were indeed many points that fit into this, but they were all very obscure and uncertain, so I could only try to guess what happened from them.


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Ruler of Dead Soldiers


    (2) They called it a hydra-cypress in Cavern of Blood Zombies


    (3) Wiki info on Mohism here


    (4) Zhang Jue was the leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion during thete Eastern Han dynasty of China. He was said to be a follower of Taoism and a sorcerer. Wiki link


    ****


    <strong><em>Here are the pictures I found:</em></strong>


    From the book


    A more close-up view

 Chapter 16: Marine Salvage

    Chapter 16: Marine Salvage


    Wang Meng sent an e-mail saying that he received the 2003 antique auction yearbook. This kind of stupid thing was sent to us every year, and I never knew who sent it. Anyways,mon peasants like us couldnt afford any of the items in it.


    I saw on the news that the Americans had sent a skateboard to Marsst month, [Note: It was written exactly like that in the headlines] and the old guys at NASA celebrated with each other. Iforted myself,<em> they even made it to Mars, so it shouldnt be too difficult for me to try and find a person under the sea.</em>


    I didnt fully understand what A Ning told me, and I didnt know theirpany very well, either. I searched a bit and found that theirpany did exist. The logo showed a soft triangr coral (Insert A Nings illustration of the logo). This kind of AI-designed enterprisepany wouldnt be too small-scale, so I should be able to trust their professionalism at least.


    Suchrge-scale salvagepanies werentmon overseas. Generally, marine salvage projects were often carried out by teams that were sent by the government since there were lots of secrets and wealth involved. The governments of various countries werent willing to let privatepanies conduct these legendary business activities.


    The most typical case was the domestic marine salvage n of the Japanese shipwreck Awa Maru. Because it was rumored that the ship carried Peking Man (1) fossil skulls, countless foreign salvagepanies offered free assistance at that time, but the Chinese refused.


    There was still an international controversy over why the Americans sank this ship back then. The sighting report at the time indicated that this huge ship was sailing at top speed in the heavy fog and seemed to be eager to reach its destination. Many conspiracy theories believed that there were other things on board besides the Peking Man skulls, which forced the Americans to break the agreement and sink the Japanese civilian ship.


    History is full of mystery, so no one knows what secrets are in the ruins under the sea. Naturally, it was better to keep those secrets under their control than to expose them to the treasure hunters who sought nothing but profits.


    Even though every country had strict inspections for salvage projects, this kind of supervision was actually very weak. That was why there was an idiom, The emperor is too far away to control what happens in the mountains. It was basically impossible to supervise marine salvage on the far away sea.


    I heard from some of my friends who handled goods that Xisha had almost be a battlefield. There were ships from various countriesing in and out, and the coast guard couldn''t even catch up to them. Moreover, the profit was too great. If a boat went out and returned with ten million, they would only be sentenced to ten years or so if they got caught. You would be an idiot to sell drugs instead of doing marine salvage work.


    This sounded very attractive to me. Even Li Ka-shing (2) would have to admit defeat in the face of making two or three hundred million in a few days. Plus, the risk was much lower than losing your head trying to make two hundred thousand from poaching hawksbill sea turtles.


    The following are some famous marine salvage incidents at home and abroad:


    Awa Maru, Japanese ocean liner, was loaded with forty tons of gold, twelve tons of silver, forty boxes of jewelry, and arge number of cultural relics the Japanese looted from China. There were also three thousand tons of tin ingots, three thousand tons of rubber, and thousands of tons of rice. The ship was sunk by a U.S. submarine in Fujian waters on March 28, 1945. It waster salvaged from 1977 to 1980. At that time, the salvaged items were worth fifty million U.S. dors. (Fifty million U.S. dors in 1980!!).


    Geldermalsen, a Chinese merchant ship (3), sailed from Guangzhou to Amsterdam, the capital of the Nethends. In 1752, it sank in the waters of Hong Kong. In 1986, marine salvor Michael Hatcher salvaged 239,000 pieces of blue and white porcin from the ship, and found a hundred and twenty-five pieces of gold ingots, each weighing forty-five kilograms. The value of the items was worth twenty million U.S. dors.


    Tek Sing, a Chinese merchant ship, was found in the South China Sea. It was also Michael Hatcher who recovered more than a million pieces of porcin from the ship, of which he smashed six hundred thousand pieces because their color was ordinary and he didnt have the ability to transport them. The remaining parts were sold for more than thirty million U.S. dors in Germany.


    Nuestra Seora de Atocha, a Spanish colonial ship, sank in the waters of Havana in 1622. It was discovered by the treasure hunter Fisher in 1985. Eight tons of gold and five hundred kilograms of gems were salvaged! All the artifacts pulled from the water were worth four hundred million U.S. dors. Because of this, Fisher gave up operation of the entirepany. At that time, treasure hunting had be the only thing worth pursuing in his life. I thought his mentality was very simr to that of Uncle Threes.


    Because of the huge cargo capacity of ships, there was a saying that a ship was worth ten ancient tombs. The number of porcin items carried on somerge merchant ships was almost astronomical. Throughout history, the number of giant ships that had sunk in the Maritime Silk Road was far beyond peoples imagination, and these huge treasures were far from being discovered.


    But I could only find a simple webpage for A Ningspany on the inte, which didnt reveal much information. Thispany didnt seem to carry out high-profile projects. I wasnt familiar with foreigners antique business, so I could only tell myself to be careful.


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Peking Man is a group of fossil specimens of Homo erectus, dated from roughly 750,000 years ago. Whether there were skulls of Peking Man in the shipwreck of Awa Maru is not confirmed as of now.


    (2) Li Ka-shing is a Hong Kong business magnate, investor, and phnthropist. As of June 2019, he is the 30th richest person in the world. Wiki link


    (3) Geldermalsen actually belonged to Dutch East India Company (VOC), but I have no idea why the author said that it was a Chinese merchant ship.

 Chapter 17: The Xisha Islands

    Chapter 17: The Xisha Inds


    The Xisha Inds, also known as Gem Inds, are one of the four major inds in the South China Sea. They consist of the Yongle Inds and the Xuande Inds. This group ofrge and small coral inds covers over a thirty thousand square kilometer sea area, and is beautiful and pure. [Note: Some people say there are more than five hundred thousand square kilometers.]


    (See the below map of the Xisha Inds, pointing out the route from Qinn Harbor to Yongxing Ind.)


    Xisha has been China''s territory since ancient times. The Old Book of Tang recorded that the Chinese government began to officially manage the waters south of Hainan Ind from the Tang Dynasty.


    In ancient times, this ce was called "A Thousand Miles of Changsha", and was the only route through the South China Sea. As early as the Sui Dynasty, China had sent envoys to Mysia through the South China Sea, and the Tang Dynasty monk Yijing (1) also passed through here on his way to India. Merchant ships loaded with ceramics, silk, and spices sailed by here, so it was also known as the Maritime Silk Road.


    Because its far from the maind and inessible to people, the sea around the Xisha Inds is very clean, with a maximum visibility of forty meters. It has several kilometers of coral reefs, which makes it an excellent diving area.


    From Wikipedia


    Our destination is Bowl Reef.


    (The map of the Xisha Inds is below, pointing out the route from Yongxing Ind to Bowl Reef)


    Ive looked for some information and found that there are many so-called Bowl Reefs in China, including Bohai Bay, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea. The main reason why its called Bowl Reef is simply because fishermen often fish out porcin bowls near these reefs.


    This is because most of the Bowl Reefs are submerged reefs that are located on the main sea routes. Most of the ancient shipwrecks are concentrated nearby, and arge amount of shipwreck materials are scattered. Based on this, I find that the name of the ancient reef is worthy of careful study. The only well-known ocean expedition I''ve heard of in China is Bowl Reef No.1 (2). Our destination this time will obviously be simr to that process.


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Yijing was a Tang-era Chinese Buddhist monk famed as a traveler and trantor. His ount of his travels is an important source for the history of the medieval kingdoms along the sea route between China and India. Wiki link


    (2) A ship sank near Fujian Province, and it was discovered in 2005. Experts spected that the sinking date of the ship was around the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century. Lots of pieces of blue and while porcin were found. The ship was then called Bowl Reef No.1.


    ****


    <strong><em><strong><em>Tranted by: Tiffany X</em></strong></em></strong>


    <strong><em><strong><em>Edited by: merebear226</em></strong></em></strong>

 Chapter 18: Qinglan Harbor

    Chapter 18: Qinn Harbor


    I had already set off from Qinn Harbor, and there was no entertainment on the boat. Apart from watching the sea, I could only listen to the radio.


    The only stations that woulde in were from Taiwan, Mysia, and Vietnam, but none from the maind. I found it very strange. It may be because the radio was made in Taiwan. Sometimes the old-fashioned Taiwanese radios were welded to a few fixed frequencies.


    Yesterday, I thought back over what that woman said to me and felt that something was off about the whole thing. I told myself to think more about it if I had a chance.


    I didnt know why I was unable to concentrate. Maybe it was because the boat was rocking too violently. I really didnt get many chances to ride on boats, and several of the fishermen were impressed that I could get into the cabin without feeling nauseous.

 Chapter 19: Transcription of Yongxing Island

    Chapter 19: Transcription of Yongxing Ind


    Yongxing Ind is also known as "Woody Ind" because of the dense forests there. Yongxing Ind got its name from the warship that took over the Xisha Inds on November 29, 1946.


    Yongxing Ind is located at 16 degrees, 50 minutes northtitude and 112 degrees, 20 east longitude. The ind is about 1,850 meters long from east to west, about 1,160 meters wide from north to south, and covers an approximate area of 2.1 square kilometers.


    It is thergest ind in both the Xisha Inds and in the South China Sea. Yongxing Ind is t with an average height of about five meters. There is arge sand dike about 870 meters long and 100 meters wide in the southwest of the ind with a maximum height of 8.3 meters.


    It is also surrounded by sand banks and has a depression in the middle that was formed after thegoon dried up. It''s convenient to dig a well there to get water, but the water is undrinkable due to the pollution of ck manure. Despite this, its still sufficient for washing.


    Yongxing Ind has arge surface area, lush vegetation, abundant fresh water, no stagnant water in the central lond, and high sand dikes to block the wind. As a result, this is the most advantageous ind in the South China Sea.


    Since Yongxing Ind happens to be in the middle of the Xisha Inds, it is considered the capital of the Zhongsha Inds in the southwest, and Hainan Province sent a government agency (equivalent to the county level) to reside there.


    Yongxing Ind is the transportation hub of the Zhongsha Inds in the southwest. It has a modern airport, which can take off andnd Boeing 737 aircraft, and the dock can hold five-thousand-ton ships. Other infrastructures and reception facilities are also rtivelyplete.

 Chapter 20: The Floor Plan Of The Undersea Tomb

    Chapter 20: The Floor n Of The Undersea Tomb


    Sea burial was a type of burial method unique to the coastal peoples, but unlike the Vikings sea burials, the samend burial custom was performed when constructing ancient undersea tombs here. In fact, it was just burying ancient tombs on the bottom of the sea.


    Throughout history, there were many people who used underwater ancient tombs for burial. The more famous ones were Concubine Chens Water Tomb in Jinxi and Shen Wansans Underwater Tomb in Yinzibang.


    The one I was most interested in was actually Cao Cao''s (1). He had seventy-two fake tombs, one of which was rumored to have been found in the Qinglu River in Xuchang.


    There were a few legends, and the first two still had clues that could be followed, but you could only get clues to the second one from Pu Songlings Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (2). After reading it, I felt like there was some basis to it, because the content didnt sound like something that people at the time could make up.


    Cao Caos tomb in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. The original text of "Cao Caos Tomb" is as follows:


    Outside Xucheng, the river was turbulent, and the water near the cliff was deep and gloomy. In midsummer, someone entered the river to bathe and was suddenly cut by an axe; their broken corpse floated up from the water. The same thing happened to another person, which startled people.


    Upon hearing this, the town governor sent people to cut off the upper flow of the river. Once the water was exhausted, they saw a deep hole under the cliff, where a wheel with des as sharp as frost had been ced in the middle.


    They removed the wheel and broke in. There was a small tablet inside the hole, with characters written in the style of Chinese seal script. Looking closely at the words, they found that it was the tomb of Cao Mengde. They broke open the coffin, scattered the bones, and took all the gold and treasures.


    The writers notes said (3): A poet once said that there would definitely be a real tomb among the seventy-two fake ones, but who knew that the real one wasnt among the seventy-two graves at all? Cao Cao was really cunning! But after more than a thousand years, he still couldnt keep his bones intact. What was the point of being cunning? s, Cao Caos wisdom was his own foolishness!


    The tranted content was very legendary. The general meaning was that someone was swimming in the river by a cliff and suddenly seemed to be cut in half by a knife. The corpse emerged from the water, and the same thing happened to the next person.


    They felt that there was something strange at the bottom of the river, so they stopped the flow of the water to check what was going on, and saw a deep hole in the lower part of the cliff that had been submerged by the water. There was a wheel full of des at the entrance of the cave, and inside was Cao Caos tomb.


    I had seen many strange mechanisms in ancient tombs, so I knew that it wasnt difficult for ancient people to make something like this. The difficulty was finding the driving force that could rotate the wheel. This was probably the reason why this tomb had been built in the water.


    In order to have a mechanism that could be used for a long time, a source of power that could operate continuously for thousands of years was essential. The river was the perfect source, but Wang Zanghai thought much further than that and utilized the ocean currents and tides at the bottom of the sea.


    However, there were ws in this legend. I highly doubted that the millennium-old des were as sharp as ever, considering how the underwater environment was very unsuitable for metal preservation. Unless these parts were all made of gold, which wasnt impossible.


    Another w was that it was more reasonable to close the ancient tombs entrance by some means than to install a mechanism.


    If the person hadnt been hurt while bathing, then the ancient tomb wouldnt have been discovered. Nevertheless, if you made a wheel that could hurt people, there would always be a day of idental injuries, and someone would inevitably go down to see what happened. The skilled craftsmen who could make this kind of mechanism should have been able to think of this, so why would they make such a mistake?


    I was afraid that there was another hidden story. The Central ins had developed at the cost of soil erosion. The Qinglu River in Cao Cao''s era shouldve had more water, so the ancient tombs should be deep underwater. By Pu Songling''s era, the water level dropped a lot, which meant that the ancient tombs at the bottom of the river could be infiltrated with human power [Note: sic].


    These floating corpses were probably grave robbers who tried to explore the tomb at that time, and were either killed by the mechanism or started killing each other for profit, which caused the tomb to be exposed.


    To be honest, this information had given me a lot of inspiration. I had been thinking about how Wang Zanghais undersea tomb was built, because the human and material resources at that time made it almost impossible to utilize other methods in watery environments besides the shipwreck tomb. But this information did give me an idea.


    It was possible that Wang Zanghai had built a dam in the seabed area to form a roundabout and then drained the seawater to roughly form a dry piece ofnd. After that, he dug a huge pit and released the water so they could sail the ship. He then pumped the seawater out again, let the tomb ship could slowly sink into the pit as the water level dropped, and then destroyed the dam to allow the seawater to return.


    From the floor n, the structure of this undersea tomb was veryplicated. If they didnt use this method, then they must have used calculus to figure out how to urately sink the tomb to the bottom of the sea. But that was probably impossible. I couldnt help but think, <em>if the ancients could stop a river from flowing, why couldn''t they build a roundabout on the seabed?</em>


    I went back and checked the textbook and found that there was a problem ancient people didnt know how to deal with water seepage.


    The sand at the bottom of the sea was too permeable, and the manpower and material resources needed to build this kind of dam were several times more than that of the sunken ship.


    When I asked an old professor who had taught me before, he thought about it carefully and said that the key should be the huge stone anchors. The stone anchors were distributed in a wide area of the sea, and must have served the same function as cable-tie structures. The countless stone anchors yed a role in regting the ships bnce as it sank to the bottom of the sea.


    ****


    TN Note:


    (1) Cao Cao, courtesy name Mengde, was a Chinese warlord, statesman, poet, and one of the central figures of the Three Kingdoms Period. Wiki link


    (2) Refresher: Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio or Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, also called Liaozhai Zhiyi in Chinese, is a collection of ssical Chinese stories by Pu Songling,prising close to five hundred "marvel tales".


    (3) The writer here refers to Pu Songling, the author of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. He sometimes added notes under the tale he recorded.

 Chapter 21: Drawings Of The Ship

    Chapter 21: Drawings Of The Ship


    Later, I discussed the ships structure with Fatty. We drew a lot of sketches and felt that there would be problems with the overall structure since the ship was so huge. It was impossible for a ship this size to sail, which was why we felt that it functioned more as a huge tomb than an actual seafaring ship.


    The biggest problem with such a huge wooden boat was the keel. There wasnt a tree in the world big enough to make the keel of this ship, so they must havebined different woods to form it. If that was the case, then this structure was very intriguing, and we would need sonar to determine whether the ship was actually this huge, a little smaller, or not that shape at all.


    I asked several ship engineers for their opinions, but they all thought my idea was too exaggerated. Only one person told me that it wasntpletely impossible. Although it might have looked like a ship, it may have actually been several ships spliced together. Moreover, since this ship wasnt for use, it only needed to be able to arrive at the sea burial site when the wind and sea were calm. To put it bluntly, this was a huge float.


    Sometimes, I couldnt help but wonder how many ancient peoples efforts and brilliance had been devoted to this kind of ancient behemoth.


    If this technology hadnt been used exclusively by the royal family, or secretly kept in the hands of a few outstanding craftsmen, it couldve been spread to the ordinary masses. At that point, maybe China might have be a transoceanic empire.


    If this kind of warship existed at that time, it could provide artillery support along the shore as soldiers swarmed out. Who could stop them?


    It was a pity that this giant vessel in the Ming Dynasty eventually became the tomb of the shipbuilder. I didnt know if it was ironic or sad.

 Chapter 22: The Bronze Tree and The Classic Of Mountains And Seas

    Chapter 22: The Bronze Tree and The ssic Of Mountains And Seas


    The ancient people''s worship of the sacred tree could be learned from the "ssic of Mountains and Seas" (1). In several chapters of the book, there were records of the trees of life such as Ruomu and Fusang (2), but the only record of a bronze tree that could be found was in Sanxingdui (3).


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Remember, The ssic of Mountains and Seas, also known as Shan Hai Jing, is a Chinese ssic text and aption of mythic geography and beasts. Wiki link


    (2) The ssics of Mountains and Seas has the ces where the sacred trees were, or they could even be the names of them. There is information about Fusang here.


    (3) Sanxingdui, or Three Star Mound, is an archaeological site and major Bronze Age culture located in modern Guanghan, Sichuan, China. They actually did find a bronze tree. Here is more info about it.

 Chapter 23: Erdao Baihe

    Chapter 23: Erdao Baihe


    Im now on the train to Erdao Baihe. The sorghum fields outside are passing by in a sh and the people in the same carriage as me have already fallen asleep. I tried, but I just can''t sleep.


    I had been to Changbai Mountain once before. It was a few years ago when I was a little boy. At that time, I never imagined that I would be going there again in this way. I never thought that one day, Id have to write something before going to bed to calm down.


    Seeing that the sorghum has been harvested and the snow hasnt meltedpletely, I can''t help but think of myst trip to Changbai Mountain.


    Now that I think about it, something was strange about that trip. I vaguely remember that there seemed to be some turmoil in the house at that time, and my father and grandpa had a big fight.


    My father was a gentleman, or someone who had a lot of patience. He had never fought with Grandpa before, so this quarrel made me feel very strange. But I was too young at the time, so I didnt really know what they were arguing about.


    After that, my father suddenly decided to travel to Changbai Mountain. That year, I saw the snow-capped mountains. The white snow and endless valleys were exactly the same as those in the movies.


    Now that I think about it, I feel a little surprised. Why did I have such a deep impression of the snowy scene at that time? And I can still associate it with movies at a nce? My memory of the journey that year is blurred now, and only a rough idea remains, but why can I only remember that snowy mountain?


    Maybe its because the mountain has a special symbolic meaning in the local area? Or maybe its because of something else?


    I really can''t remember, and don''t want to think about it.


    Earlier in the morning, I chatted with Fatty about some topics other than women and grave goods.


    I keep thinking that Fatty is someone who has a lot of hidden depths, and it turns out that my judgement was right. When I talk about various topics with him, I find that its not that he doesnt understand, its just that he thinks more directly.


    I have known all kinds of people in all kinds of professions. I know that there are certain people who live in the simplest and most practical way, and Fatty is undoubtedly one of them.


    If you intend to challenge him, he can directly say something that you cant refute. Of course, I dont know whether its due to his wisdom or mere instinct. In other words, the principles of saints and fools are originally the same. The difference is that saints use this principle to benefit others, while fools benefit themselves.


    The topic I discussed with him was mainly about the protection of cultural relics. I used to wonder why archaeological teams kept chasing after grave robbers.


    Most of the tombs were found because of rescue excavations, not because of grave robbers. Farmers and construction workers were the first group of people to discover these ancient tombs, since they often identally discovered them while carrying out their projects.


    Archaeological teams chasing after grave robbers was a bit mysterious, and it seemed that grave robbers had some skills that archaeological teams didnt.


    There was no fixed answer to this question. Pan Zi said that some of the most basic skills couldnt be learned in university, and it was unlikely that a group of grave robbers would be invited to be professors at the university. As a result, students could only learn some skills about standard excavation.


    As for the skills on how to smell the soil and locate the tomb, those things required practicing on the spot. How could there be that many ancient tombs to act as teaching aids?


    Fatty shook his head and sighed, saying that that wasnt the reason at all.


    The current situation of archaeological teams chasing after grave robbers was normal and couldnt be changed. In the archaeology industry, a sense of mystery had to be maintained. Otherwise, if all the skills of smelling the soil and searching for dragon veins to find the right entrance to the mausoleum were written straightforwardly in the textbooks, then these skills would be equivalent to a public announcement to the world. Within two years, there wouldnt be any tombs left to dig up in China.


    There are many things that actually dont have a threshold. What threshold is needed for tomb robbing, you ask? You could be someone from the underworld and be a grave robber. You could do it as long as you were fierce and courageous enough.


    It was like those people who studied medicine and knew how to perform surgeries. They could put a knife that was used to kill pigs in the fire to disinfect it, and then suture the wounds with normal sewing thread toplete the surgery.


    The threshold was set by people who consciously decided how much they should teach you. You could learn mathematics and physics at will, but would someone teach you how to rebel and start a riot?


    I thought what Fatty was saying may not be totally right, but it did make sense.


    Humans are two-sided creatures. Under the current social pressure, there are a number of idents that can give people millions of windfalls at a time, which means you can buy a house and a car. So, if you can achieve all that at the risk of being bitten by mosquitoes and having your morals judged, its unknown how many people would be able to resist the temptation.


    This is why people often hate hearing about the loss of national treasures, but theyre angry because they werent the ones to sell the national treasures with their own hands.


    Fatty always believed that a long cultural history was often a manifestation of a nations selffort. The imperial pce, which was full of priceless treasures, wasnt able to block foreign aggression.


    You needed to create an image. If you could use ten pieces of blue and white porcin depicting Guiguzi going down the mountain (1) to exchange for the knowledge of how to build an American aircraft carrier, should people make the exchange or not?


    A century ago, when Aurel Stein (2) came to Dunhuang, Taoist Wang (3) was using white paste to paint over the priceless Flying Apsaras murals. Those magnificent art treasures were destroyed by lime in a few seconds. The reason was simply that he wanted a white wall.


    As a result, even if Aurel Stein didnt cheat Taoist Wang out of those ancient scrolls and blood scriptures, Taoist Wang might have burned them as firewood. Even if people hadnt torn the mural down in order to preserve it, its unlikely it would have escaped the fate of being covered in white paint.


    In those days, the mistakes we made were far from the problem of letting Aurel Stein take away the cultural relics. Our problem lies at the roots. How could we expect Taoist Wang to understand the value of those cultural relics, and at the same time have the character to not be tempted by money (4). How could we ask a fake Taoist who had fled and was starving to do so many things for us?


    Even if our words could travel through time and space and reach his ears, how could we be sure that he would agree with us? Are our words worth a few dors?


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) In 2005, a piece of blue and white porcin from the Yuan Dynasty that painted the story of Guiguzi going down the mountain was sold for US $27.7 million in London, setting a world auction record for an Asian artifact. Guiguzi was a well-known philosopher, politician, and educator in the Warring States Period.


    (2) Aurel Stein was an archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. Wiki link


    (3) Wang Yuanlu was a Taoist priest of the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang during the early 20th century. He is credited with the discovery of the Dunhuang manuscripts. He first spoke of the manuscripts to the local officials, in an attempt to gain funding for their conservation, but he was ignored. Heter sold numerous manuscripts to Aurel Stein. Taoist Wang was both revered and reviled. Wiki link


    (4) After being ignored by the officials, Taoist Wang first sold scriptures to the residents around Dunhuang, iming those scriptures could treat illness, which attracted interests from archaeologists from the West. At that time, he was trying to restore and rebuild the cave and was short on money, so he sold more than tens of thousands of scriptures to Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot, who was a French orientalist. He sold those scriptures for a fraction of their value (220 in 1907). (This is something that the Wikipedia page in English didnt mention, but the Chinese page did.)

 Chapter 24: Analyze The Heavenly Palace From The Architectural Point Of View

    Chapter 24: Analyze The Heavenly Pce From The Architectural Point Of View


    What I was most interested in was how Wang Zanghai built this ice shell, because it was actually an architectural paradox. If the ice shell was built first, then this was equivalent to a castle in the sky. If there wasnt any support, then I really couldn''t think of a way toplete the arc of this ice dome without it copsing.


    If the wooden piles were put in ce first, then that meant that the piles were only supported by ice at both ends. But it was impossible to support such huge wooden piles with ice alone.


    After thinking long and hard about it, there was actually only one possibilityit was originally arge cier. Wang Zanghai first had craftsmen dig tunnels in the cier, insert piles into the tunnel, pour water into it, freeze it, and then cut the dome out bit by bit.


    It seemed that this required not only precise calctions, but also very careful engineering nning. But when I thought about it, I found that this engineering technique was the most time andbor efficient method, and could even be said to not be very difficult. Compared to building the pce with ice bricks, this method ensured that the workers didnt need to have a lot of experience like craftsmen did.

 Chapter 25: The Bodies In The Alcove

    Chapter 25: The Bodies In The Alcove


    Like the ice-burial corpses found in the cier, these were probably the personnel who were buried alongside the sacrificial goods, or the artisans of the time. (1)


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) They found rows of frozen purple bodies back in Pce of Doom.

 Chapter 26: The Giant Bronze Door

    Chapter 26: The Giant Bronze Door


    Based on my visual inspection, the bronze door is about thirty meters high.


    I have some basic chemistry knowledge, so if the thickness of the door is five meters, then these two giant bronze doors weigh more than a thousand tons. There is absolutely no force in the world that can push them open.


    Whats behind them? What secrets are hidden at the bottom of Changbai Mountain behind these doors?


    There isnt a trace to be found on the extremely cumbersome patterns.


    In the Eastern Xia Kingdom at that time, they probably couldn''t understand what happened in the birthce of King Wannu.


    I really want to go in and have a look!

 Chapter 27: The Warring States Silk Book

    Chapter 27: The Warring States Silk Book


    In the Warring States Period, there was a type of script that used silk as the writing material. It was known as a silk book and was made of a white silk fabric. In the Han Dynasty, silk fabrics were generally referred to as silk or zeng (1), or collectively called zeng silk, so silk books were also called zeng books.


    The earliest known silk book in China was discovered in the tomb of Chu in Changsha in the 1930s.


    Arge number of bamboo and wood slips have been unearthed in recent years. For example, the Wuli Stele in Changsha, Hunan, found in 1951. The Yangtianhu Tomb in Changsha in 1954. The Yangjiawan Tomb in Changsha in 1954. The Xintaiwan Tomb in Henan in 1957. The Qin Tomb in Yunmengsuidi, Hubei in 1975. The Tomb of Haojiaping in Qingchuan, Sichuan in 1980. Arge number of bamboo and wood slips from the Warring States period had been excavated from these tombs. In addition, there were silk books unearthed from the Chu Tomb in Changsha in 1942 (introduced into the United States in 1945), and Shanxi Houma Alliance books.


    Whether it was bamboo slips or silk fabrics, they were all handwritten items from the Warring States Period. Not only were these bamboo and silk ink markings precious cultural relics, but they also had important historical value for studying the history of calligraphy.


    Four Silk Bookalso known as the Chu Silk Manuscriptwas divided into three parts, namely celestial phenomena, catastrophes, and rotation of the four seasons and monthly taboos. The content was rich andplex. It not only contained the myths, legends, and customs circting in the Chu region, but also contained thoughts on Yin and Yang, the Five Elements, and the interaction between heaven and man.


    There were twelve weird idols painted around the text, and the four corners of the silk book had trees painted in four colors: red, green, white, and ck.


    In terms of the calligraphy of the silk book, the order of the sentences was generally neat, and the spacing was basically the same. It showed natural and unrestrained colors while striving to be standardized and neat.


    The font of the text was t and stable, bnced and symmetrical, upright and serious. It was somewhere between a seal and a scripture. Its brushwork was round and smooth with straight twists and turns and challenging curves. It was beautiful in the changes in thickness, and disyed harmonious feelings in the way the characters were written. It fully demonstrated the writers deliberate pursuit of art.


    The images on the silk book were ced around the text, first drawn with thin lines, and then painted in t colors. They appeared to have been drawn casually, but the twelve gods were depicted in different poses and looked vivid. They either stood,y down, ran, or jumped, all looking very lifelike.


    At the same time, the painted gods also showed strong realism. The markings on some of the gods were painted in realistic detail, as if they had been lifted straight from tigers and leopards. In particr, the trees painted around the silk book were shaped like real objects, and the numerous branches and leaves looked like they were swaying. It could be said that the penmanship and strokes werent stingy at all.


    Not only is the Chu Silk Manuscript a treasure of ancient Chinese art, but its also a rare historical treasure of art worldwide.


    From Baidu Baike


    The original


    Just some random "restored" copy


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Zeng was an ancient term for silk fabrics in Chinese.


    ****


    <strong><em>Merebear note: Those pictures aren''t actually in Wu Xie''s notes as far as I could tell, but I figured you all would like a visual. First pic is an original and the second one is a colored version I guess someone made. I just included it so you could kind of see what Wu Xie was talking about since the pictures on the original are practically ineligible lol </em></strong>

 Chapter 28: The Jade Coffin Cover

    Chapter 28: The Jade Coffin Cover


    At that time, we didnt get to take photos underground, so we didnt have any pictures. There are some simr things on Google that almost look like what we had seen, but the one we saw was covered in mud.


    There was a total of two hundred and thirty jade pieces of various colors, connected by gold wires and weighing about forty jin. The texture of these jade stones wasnt very good, and their value was average. They were only valuable because of the historical significance. The reserve price was above one million, so if someone offered a price around that, you should just sell it and go.

 Chapter 29: The Book of the Ruler of Dead Soldiers

    Chapter 29: The Book of the Ruler of Dead Soldiers


    About the text written in The Book of the Ruler of Dead Soldiers (1), I transcribed the parts that I could understand. Some of the writing was unclear, and some of the characters were too warped for theputer to disy them, but I converted what I could to modern Chinese.


    When King Shang was twenty-five years old, his father passed away and he inherited the position of Grand Sima (2). He led the army and robbed graves. The treasures obtained were used to pay the army and help fund conquests.


    One day, King Shang and his men found an ancient tomb, but they couldnt determine what dynasty it was from. When they opened the coffin, there was a giant snake inside, which sprang up and tried to kill the king.


    But King Shang was courageous and strong, and he lifted his sword and cut the snake. He thought that there must be something evil afoot since the giant snake was lying inside the coffin, so he cut the snakes stomach open. There he found a purple-enameled box, but he couldnt open it no matter how hard he tried.


    That night, a white-bearded man appeared in the King Shangs dream, and asked him angrily, Why did you kill me?


    The king was a violent man by nature and had killed lots of people, so he said in a reproachful tone, I killed you because I wanted to! Theres no other reason!


    The white-bearded man got even angrier and turned into the giant snake the king had seen earlier that day. It opened its mouth and tried to eat the king, but he wielded his sword and wounded the snake. He then stepped on its head and said, You didnt die when I cut your stomach open earlier, so now Im going to cut off your head. Can you survive that?


    The snake spoke in the human tongue and begged, Im willing to give you two treasures in exchange for my life. The king agreed, so the snake told him how to open the purple-enameled box and taught him how to use the treasures that were inside.


    After the king memorized it by heart, he had the thought that no one should know about this secret except for himself, so he beheaded the snake.


    The king woke up in a pool of blood and realized that it hadnt just been a dream. He did as the snake had told him and opened the purple-enameled box sessfully, finding that the treasures inside were just as the snake had described. The king didnt want his men to know about it, so he not only killed all of them, but their family members too. He spared no one, not even those in their infancy.


    With these two treasures, the king got out of every dangerous situation safely and became invincible. The power of the country was gathered in his hands, and the emperor (3) relied heavily on him.


    Many yearster, however, the king was old and seriously ill, and all the doctors said that there was no hope of recovery. One day, he dreamed of the giant snake again, and it said, Its time for you to die. All those people the king had killed before appeared behind the snake, so numerous he couldnt tell how many there were.


    He woke up terrified.


    The king had an advisor known as Mr. Iron Mask, who was a master of numerology and feng shui. There was no one in the world who couldpare to him. He said to the king, I had heard that there were jade burial armors in ancient times, which could help you gain immortality if you wore them. Unfortunately, there arent any jade burial armors to be found in the world. They can only be found in ancient tombs.


    The king would rather believe such things existed than not, so he read through a bunch of ancient books and found a giant tomb from thest dynasty. He suspected there was a jade burial armor inside, so he deployed three thousand soldiers. They worked in the mountains for half a year until they found the imperial tomb.


    There was a giant tree inside the tomb that he named Nine-Headed Snake Cypress, and a jade bed beneath the tree. There was a skeleton-thin male corpse in ck jade armor threaded with gold sitting on the jade bed.


    Mr. Iron Mask said happily, This is jade burial armor. The corpse may look dead, but its not. Its a blood zombie. He must have been a withered old man when he was alive. Ever since the burial, he would shed his skin every hundred years and grow new skin, making the corpse ten years younger each time.


    Mr. Iron Mask used a strange method to subdue the blood zombie before removing it from the jade burial armor. He then put the blood zombie in a stone coffin in another chamber.


    Based on Mr. Iron Masks n, the king took a pill that could fake his death and had word sent to the emperor. When the emperor learned of his death and that he had a strange ability toe and go freely between the human world and the underworld, he became fearful and bestowed upon the king the posthumous title of King Shang (4). The funeral was much grander than those of any dukes, and was almost on par with that of a prince.


    The kings tomb was built on top of the imperial tomb and many difficult mechanisms were set up. There were seven fake coffins, while the kings real body was hidden in the thousand-year-old ancient tree in the imperial tomb.


    On the day the construction of the tomb was finished, all the craftsmen were killed and buried in the river, and the kings followers were ordered to take poisonous pills. Only the two followers that the king trusted the most were left: one man and one woman. When the king was buried, the two of them also poisoned themselves and died.


    The other parts were either difficult or almost impossible to read because after Qin Shi Huang (5) burned books and killed schrs, many things from the Shang dynasty, Zhou dynasty, and Spring and Autumn Period were lost. There were a lot of especially rare words that were lost as well. Even if we had people from the Chinese Academy of Sciences look into the text, it may take them decades topletely understand the words.


    At that time, I couldnt understand what was weird about it until Uncle Three mentioned that the above paragraphs were different from the other parts of the text. To be honest, this could have been avoided if we had a master of Chinese Studies with us. For people like us, we could only admit that we fell into the trap. (6)


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Could also be called The Book of King Shang. This chapter is basically a summary of Vol 1 Chapter 26 Cavern of Blood Zombies.


    (2) Even though the text said King, his position was probably somewhere between marquess and earl. During the Eastern Han dynasty, the term Grand Sima came to mean Minister of War. More information here


    (3) The emperor here referred to the emperor mentioned back in Sand Sea Chapter 133. It was established that he was really just a duke at that time.


    (4) Shang here can mean someone who has died young, or someone who has died at war. (Also pulled from Sand Sea Chapter 133)


    (5) Qin Shi Huang became China''s first emperor when he was 38 after the Qin had conquered all of the other Warring States and unified all of China in 221 BC. Wiki link


    (6) Since the ancient text was supposed to be difficult to read, there was no way Wu Xie could have understood even parts of the text. Someone deliberately made this part of the text easy to read. It was a scheme.

 Chapter 30: Zombies and Monsters

    Chapter 30: Zombies and Monsters


    001 Corpse Bugs (The sketch of corpse bugs is attached below.)


    Corpse bugs are insects with shells. They feel very simr to abination between a diving beetle and a water centipede, but the difference between corpse bugs and diving beetles is that corpse bugs front feet are particrly sharp and powerful. They are alsorger, fond of darkness, and afraid of light.


    Corpse bugs are very fast and amphibious, feeding on carrion corpses and small creatures that have strayed into the water. They often umte around floating corpses, gather in piles, and prey on each other.


    I have been attacked by this kind of bug before, and feel that they are unlikely to pose a threat to animals with thick skin, such as rhinos bathing in water. They are, however, a threat to humans because they have the instinct to attack weak parts such as the abdomen. If people cant get to the shore in time, the corpse bugs will pierce their abdomen and cause massive bleeding and death.


    Corpse bugs mostly appear in the depths of mountains, rivers, canals, or swamps, and also appear inrge numbers during floods or mudslides.


    002 Blood Zombie (The sketch of a blood zombie is attached below.)


    There are legends of blood zombies in many ces, but blood zombie tombs actually refer to tombs that have a protectiveyer underground. For example, when ancient tombs with fire roofs, acid roofs, or cinnabar roofs are hit with a Luoyang shovel, something red will appear. This is especially true when the shovels hit acid roofs. The red soil would look like blood, but its because the soil contains a lot of cinnabar.


    If ancient tombs have these kinds of structures, that means that the specifications are very high. As a result, others will form the idea that blood zombie tombs are full of treasures.


    As to why they would think there would be blood zombies in blood zombie tombs on the one hand, it might be hearsay; on the other hand, cinnabar is an object used for exorcism. If cinnabar is used in the soilyer of ancient tombs, that means people definitely did it in the hopes of trapping certain things in the ancient tomb. So, if tombs are sealed with cinnabar, there must be something strange with the corpses in them. In fact, the color of blood zombies isnt a bloody red like the name implies. Instead, they are more of a ga purple.


    003 Green-Eyed Fox Corpse (The sketch of the green-eyed fox corpse is below.)


    The ancient corpse was so creepy and terrifying that it was practically indescribable. A human looking like a bald fox definitely wasnt something as basic as a deformity. I couldnt imagine what this ancient corpse looked like before it had decayed and dried out.


    Fatty said that this happened because it was possessed, but based on arge number of verified theories, it was more likely to be a rare deformity. If we ssified it, it would probably be a cereber disorder.


    There were developmental deformities that could make people''s faces extremely long, and it was also possible that the use of splints from an early age deformed his head and face, just like the ancient Incan and Egyptian civilizations used to do.


    This was a man-made mythological phenomenon, and I believed that any enemy on the battlefield would be frightened when seeing such a monster.


    The main function of the mask was to symbolize the gods, so at least some part of King Lushang believed in the fox totem. In history, it seemed that only one branch of the Tibetans also worshiped foxes, which I found very fascinating.


    (The sketches of masks and various animal totems are attached below.)


    004 Nine-Headed Snake Cypress (The sketch of the Nine-Headed Snake Cypress is attached below.)


    I couldnt find any information about this nt. There was some unconventional information about trees or otherrge nts that could digest animal tissues, and the scientific name for them was: CARNIVOROUS TREES.


    In foreign legends, trees that were simr to the nine-headed snake cypress were called octopus trees. They could entangle their prey before killing and digesting it, and this kind of tree was often called devil tree by the locals.


    Eventually, German explorers wrote in their investigation journals that the way this tree attacked animals originated from its instinct to spread seeds, just like how cocklebur stuck to animals fur. This particr kind of tree entangled and killed everything close to it.


    I believed that if such trees really existed, they might be nine-headed snake cypresses. It was possible that the ecological characteristics of this tree made it so that it killed animals and then used the rotting carcasses to attract insects to spread its seeds. Because of this, corpse bugs were attracted by the corpses on the trees and gathered around the snake cypress.


    From my experience, the snake cypress couldnt kill its prey, and must have relied on the corpse bugs to do so, creating a very clever symbiotic rtionship. At the same time, the corpse bugs excrement was excellent nourishment for the tree, because it was more delicate and suitable for the growth of nts than the dposed corpses.


    This kind of symbiotic rtionship also existed among other nts and animals, but I think the rtionship here may have been designed by someone. It was like the setup of fish farming or rice fields, which was a kind of wisdom in the agriculturalmunity.


    005 Forbidden Woman (Sketches of the frontal view of the Forbidden Woman, the Forbidden Woman mural in the undersea tomb, and the Forbidden Woman crawling are shown below.)


    The legend of the Forbidden Woman was widespread among the southern ethnic minorities, from the Miao and Yao tribes in Yunnan to the fishermen in Hainan. The Forbidden Woman had always been a concept that often appeared in legends.


    Among the fishermen in Hainan, the Forbidden Woman represented a kind of disease and disaster. They were often depicted as having a big belly and looking damp, which was simr to therge number of corpses that floated up on the beach after a tsunami. Moreover, arge number of corpses gathering together meant that it was easy for an epidemic to break out.


    Because of this, I spected that the Forbidden Woman was a product of fishermenbining the impression of floating corpses and disasters for thousands of years. People at that time didnt understand the rtionship between dead people, disasters, and diseases, so they fabricated such a god. [Note: In Taiwanese versions, the Forbidden Woman was depicted as a monster]


    We met the Forbidden Woman after we entered the tomb passage. She was a monster with a lot of hair and looked exactly like a corpse that had been soaked in water for a long time. Now I was scared every time I saw women with a lot of hair.


    006 Sea Monkey (The sketch of the sea monkey is attached below, it looked very interesting.)


    The legendary creatures known as sea monkeys that are often heard about in coastal areas were said to have been discovered in a reservoir in Guangxi when the reservoir was being cleaned up.


    Sea monkeys are called outcropping ghosts in Changsha, and water lion ghosts in Guilin.


    The difference between these legendary creatures and other creatures is that sea monkey legends can be found in almost all ces, which is very intriguing. Maybe its because people are afraid of the mysteries lying below the waters surface. ording to the elders, this kind of animal is said to exist in almost any ce with water, such as wells and even tanks.


    The details of all the legends are different, but they have one thing inmonthis kind of thing is in the form of a human, and is incredibly powerful in the water. But to be honest, my imagination is far less horrible than what I really saw.


    007 Human-Faced Birds (Various sketches of human-faced birds are attached below.)


    Almost all civilizations in the world have mentioned human-faced birds, and they appear in all kinds of religions and myths. This is especially true when ites to China and Indias history, and it isnt because China was deeply influenced by Buddhism.


    Careful observations revealed that in the legend of Chinas Yellow Emperor, Jiutian Xuann (1) appeared in the form of a human-faced bird.


    After that, Buddhism started to be introduced to China and began developing in the Wei, Chin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties.


    Based on this, Kvika (2) in Buddhism shouldnt be considered the prototype of Jiutian Xuann in Chinese mythology.


    (Although there are lots of records of human-faced birds in The ssic of Mountains and Seas, its been said that thest couple of volumes were forged byter generations. As a result, I wont include the book in my theory.)


    The earliest surviving image of a human-faced bird in China was discovered at the Hongshan Culture site on the Mao Naohai Mountain in the hintend of the Laoha Hebei Desert in Inner Mongolia. It was from the Neolithic Age, and archaeologists believed it was an ancient owl that resembled a human-faced bird. This ancient owl was now extinct.


    In ancient times, Inner Mongolia was far from the Central ins culture and belonged to thend of the Northern warlords. Since it was close to the northeast, however, I wondered if we had seen this kind of owl at the bottom of Changbai Mountain.


    In arge number of legends, the human-faced bird yed a role in spreading the gospel. Whether it was Jiutian Xuann awarding the Yellow Emperor war scripts, or Kvika spreading the wonderful news of the Buddha, they all brought heavenly culture to the people of Earth.


    What was even more strange was that there were mortals in China that were depicted as human-faced birds. For example, the genius doctor Bian Que (3) looked like a human-faced bird, but Iter discovered that this was actually a misconception.


    There were actually many Bian Que, because that was what all the famous doctors were called in the Spring and Autumn Period. The real Bian Que was a mythological character from the Xuanyuan era that belonged to the same line as the Yellow Emperor. Based on this, I highly suspected that the Bian Que who looked like a human-faced bird was the same kind of creature as Jiutian Xuann.


    It was difficult not to make associations like this since there were many records of human-faced birds in Chinese mythology.


    If we look at it from a realistic viewpoint, I feel like maybe theres an ancient civilization that we havent discovered yet. Maybe people from that time domesticated and trained this kind of owl with a humans face and birds body, and the owls yed very important roles in wars and transportation.


    Moreover, this kind of owl might have appeared frequently in tribal wars, and may have transported arge amount of intelligence and medicine, making other tribes mistakenly think that it was a kind of god.


    This mysterious ancient civilization was obviously very low-key, or its mystical character led to all the remaining materials about it in the world being destroyed. The few remaining traces of these owls were at the giant bronze door under Changbai Mountain. They went extinct after the civilization had vanished, leaving only a few survivors underground to guard thest traces of their masters.


    It sounded far-fetched, but I figured it made sense. Furthermore, using owls to spread information had me thinking of the image of witches in Europe during the Middle Ages. Every witch there had an owl as a pet. This was a bit fun. Was it the magical world of Hogwarts behind the huge bronze door?


    008 Thousand-handed Guanyin Zombie (The sketch of the Thousand-Hand Guanyin Zombie is attached below.)


    This is a zombie that gives people a lot of thoughts, and its not only because of its many weird hands that make it look like a spider.


    I have no idea if this is a rare deformity or some kind of disease, but the hands looked very flexible and powerful, so the deformity at least didnt affect their quality of life.


    Of course, I couldnt imagine what it would be like to control so many hands, but obviously, if you lived on a ridge or cliff, this deformity would make things like fishing in the water easier.


    Could it be some kind of evolutionary result or man-made choice? For example, in King Wannus n, maybe ones status was determined by the number of hands they had.


    People with only two hands were considered rtively inferior, and as the number of hands increasedand the degree of deformity became more serious the status of those people would be higher and higher. Therefore, people in the n hoped that their children could marry people with more hands. Those people who had more hands had higher status, so that meant they had more wives and concubines.


    It was just like those African tribes whose indigenous people worshiped albinism. Albinos received the same treatment as gods in the tribe. They strove to make albinos intermarry and obtain a god withpletely white skin. As a result, when these indigenous people saw white people appear at that time, it was as if they were seeing gods. They immediately gave in and hardly dared to resist.


    (The sketch of a thousand-hand giant fighting with the Mongolian army is attached below.)


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) In Chinese mythology, Jiutian Xuann is the goddess of war, sex, and longevity. Wiki link


    (2) Kvika is a fantastical immortal creature in Buddhism, with a human head and a bird''s torso, with long flowing tail. Wiki link


    (3) ording to legend, Bian Que the earliest known Chinese physician. Wiki link


    ****


    <strong><em>BIG BIG BIG shout-out to Tiffany for working her ass off to get you this giant chapter. And kudos to my fabulous self for finding all those pictures lol. I''m sorry the quality varies so much, but I did the best I could. I think I found all of them, so hopefully none are missing (but we''ll never know unless someone actually has the illustrated copy mwahahaha)</em></strong>

 Chapter 31: The People Ive Encountered

    Chapter 31: The People Ive Encountered


    001 Poker-face


    I met a very annoying kid. Ive never seen someone like him before. He must be a narcolepsy patient with a moderate condition, because I see him sleeping wherever he can, except for when hes walking. Even when hes walking, he doesnt speak, and it still seems like hes half-asleep.


    (The sketches of Consultant Zhang and Poker-Face are attached.)


    I gave him the nickname Poker-face.


    I dont like to criticize people privately, but this guy is really too much. Im what you would consider a sociable person, but his attitude gives off the impression that he doesnt think its important to have any sort of rtionship with me.


    But I feel strangely safe whenever hes around. Maybe people who are silent always give people the illusion that they are really awesome.


    I really want to know what hes hiding under his indifference.


    002 A Ning


    (Attached is a nosebleed-worthy illustration of A Nings sexiness)


    There is no denying that I have some good feelings towards her, whether its because of her figure or her ambiguous attitude, but my sanity tells me that I must stay away from her.


    This woman is so energetic that Im envious of her. She seems like the kind of person who wouldnt be left behind even if someone kicked her into the water and told her to swim after the boat.


    After looking at her vitality, Im starting to wonder if I should use the time I usually doze off on the recliner to start exercising.


    But looking at her expression, I always think that shes a little lonely.


    003 Fatty


    (The three sketches of Fatty doing Im king of the world from the movie Titanic are attached, one of which seems to show half of his face covered by a piece of paper that was blown by the wind.)


    I didnt know we were picking up Fatty when we went to Yongxing Ind. Maybe I had already been mixed up with him in my previous life or something.


    It seemed that he was doing pretty well after the Seven Star Lu Pce incident, and had gained some weight. As soon as he was on the boat, he startedining that his body would grow mushrooms if he kept staying in a damp environment. After drinking too much, he even pretended to be the king of the world.


    This wasnt the first time I had seen him, but I was only now interested in getting a closer look at him. Its a pity I have nothing to say about him.

 Chapter 32: Ancient Countries In Shandong

    Chapter 32: Ancient Countries In Shandong


    1. Ji County


    ording to legends, people surnamed Ji were the descendants of the Yellow Emperor. The people of Ji in Shandong area were mostly vassals of the same surname after King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang Dynasty.


    The vassal states were as follows: Lu, Cao, Teng, Cheng, Gao, Mao, Yang, Jun, and Xing. (1)


    1.1 The State of Lu


    The first ruler (duke) of the State of Lu was Zhou Gongdan''s eldest son Boqin. The capital was in Qufu (now Qufu City). It was one of thergest vassal states in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty. (People still use "Lu" as the abbreviation of Shandong Province.)


    They had numerous cultural ssics and aplete system of rituals and music. The famous thinker and educator Confucius was born during the Spring and Autumn Period. The State of Lus culture was highly developed and it was famous as a state of etiquette.


    With Mount Tai in the north and the sea in the east, the vast area of southern Shandong today was the important domain of the Zhou royal family. From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Spring and Autumn Period, it was a powerful state in the East, and was quite likely topete with the powerful State of Qi at that time.


    The Lu Kingdom had a total of twenty-six generations, thirty-four monarchs, and the kingdomsted about eight hundred years. After half of the Spring and Autumn Period had passed, the national power gradually declined. Lu Qinggong had ruled the kingdom for twenty-four years (249 BC) before it was destroyed by the Chu and became Lu County.


    1.2 The State of Cao


    The first ruler (duke) was Shi Zhenduo, the son of King Wen of Zhou. The capital was founded in Taoqiu (now northwest of Heze Dingtao). The state was in the southwestern part of today''s Shandong. It was located between the Qi, Lu, Song, and Wei states, and had a rtively weak national power.


    The kingdom had a total of twenty-five generations, but was destroyed by the Song Dynasty in the fifteenth year of Cao Boyangs rule (487 BC).


    1.3. The State of Teng


    The first ruler (duke) was Shu Xiu of Cuo, the son of King Wen. The historical site of the ancient Teng City is fourteen li southwest of todays Teng County.


    The state had a close rtionship with the State of Lu, and was dependent on the Song and Jin states. It also participated in the alliances and wars of major powers. The State of Yue destroyed the kingdom in 415 BC, but it was soon restored. Later, it was wiped out by the Song (some say it was the State of Qi). The state had a total of twenty-three generations.


    1.4 The State of Cheng


    The first ruler was Shuwu, the son of King Wen of Zhou. There arent any records about his lineage or the monarch''s posthumous title.


    In 1975, a Cheng Bosunfu (2) Ge (3) was discovered in Dongjia Vige, Qishan County, Shaanxi Province, so it was suspected that the state was located in the territory of Western Zhou Dynasty. One of the sovereigns was sent to rule another ce in Shandong during the Spring and Autumn Period, which was northeast of todays Ningyang County (some say its in Fan County, Henan Province).


    In the 8th year of Lu Zhuanggong (686 BC), Lu and Qi besieged the state and it surrendered to Qi.


    1.5 The State of Gao


    The first ruler (duke) was the son of King Wen of Zhou. His name is unknown. The border was destroyed by the State of Zheng in the southeast of Chengwu County in the early Spring and Autumn Period. The artifacts handed down include Gao Shishuo Fu ding (4) and Gao Zhong jun (5).


    1.6 The State of Mao


    The first ruler was Zhou Gongdan''s son, but his name is unknown. The state was located southwest of todays Jinxiang County. Itter became a territory of the State of Zou.


    1.7 The State of Yang (also called Yan or Yu)


    The old city was southwest of today''s Yishui County. In the second year of Lu Min Gongs reign (660 BC), the State of Qi forced its people to move there so they could obtainnd. Some say that it was originally southeast of todays Qingzhou City, and they had no choice but to move there because of the Qi people.


    1.8 The State of Jun


    It was a vassal state of Lu, and slightly east of todays Jinxiang County. After Lu Yingong had ruled the state for two years (721 BC), it was upied by Lu.


    1.9 The State of Xing


    The first ruler was the son of Zhou Gongdan, and his name is unknown. It was originally in Xingtai City, Hebei Province.


    In 662 BC, Zhai attacked Xing, and Duke Huan of Qi (6)ter joined hands with the Song and Cao states to help Xing. The state was then moved to Yiyi (now southwest of Liaocheng), and was destroyed by the State of Wei in 635 BC.


    2. Ren Country


    Those in this country surnamed Ren were also said to be descendants of the Yellow Emperor. Before the Xia dynasty, they lived in the southeastern part of Shandong. The vassal states are as follows: Xue, Shi, Zhu, and Guo.


    2.1 The State of Xue


    The first ruler (duke) was Xi Zhong, who invented chariots in the Xia dynasty. Today, the historical site of the ancient city is south of Teng County.


    Later, they moved to Pi (7), so it also became known as Xia Pi. It was northeast of today''s Pi County, Jiangsu and soon moved to Shang Pi, which is now northwest of Weishan (8).


    After Xi Zhong, Zhong Hui lived in Xue and became one of the prime ministers of Tang of Shang (9).


    King Wu of Zhou destroyed Shang and re-appointed his descendant to rule the State of Xue.


    After the Spring and Autumn Period, Xue moved to Pi again. The State of Xue existed through three dynasties: the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. The state had sixty-four generations of rulers that we know of.


    During the Warring States Period (or maybe the third year of King Qi Mins rule, which was 298 years ago), it perished and became Qiyi.


    The artifacts that have been handed down include Xue Houyu, Xue Hou ding, and Xue Zhong Bronze fu (10).


    2.2 The State of Shi


    The vassal state of Lu. The state was located fifty li south of todays Jining City.


    In the thirteenth year of Lu Xianggongs rule (560 BC), there was a civil strife that resulted in the state splitting into three parts, which Lu took advantage of.


    The artifacts handed down include Shibo ding, Shiqian Gui, Shiji ding, and Shiji gui (11).


    2.3 The State of Zhu (some say its the state of Qi)


    The state was founded after King Wu destroyed the Shang Dynasty. It was located on the north bank of Nendawen River in todays Feicheng County. Its been suspected that it waster destroyed by Qi.


    2.4 The State of Guo (some say its the State of Yi)


    A tribal country in the Xia dynasty. It was located near the sea northwest of todays Ye County (Laizhou). It waster destroyed by Zhu of Xia.


    3. Jiang Country


    People surnamed Jiang were said to be the descendants of the Yan Emperor. A part of the country was founded at the beginning of the Zhu dynasty, and a part of it was established in the Xia and Shang eras.


    The vassal states are as follows: Qi, Ji, Zhou, Lai, Zhang, Xiang, Xun, and Feng.


    3.1 The State of Qi


    A powerful state in both the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Ranked first in the Seven Powerful States of the Warring States". The founding monarch (duke) was Jiang Shang (in other words, Jiang Ziya in the novel The Investiture of the Gods.)


    In today''s northern Shandong, the capital Yingqiu ter called Linzi) was built, which is now in Linzi District, Zibo City.


    Following Qi Xigong''s regime in the early Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Huan of Qi appointed Guan Zhong to initiate reform, and the state became wealthy and strong. The state had alliances with nine vassals and was incredibly powerful.


    In the fifteenth year of Duke Ling of Qis rule (567 BC), he destroyed the State of Lai, thus expanding their territory to the present Jiaodong Penins. The states territory extended to the coast of the Bohai Sea in the east, the Yellow River in the west, Mount Tai in the south, and Binzhou City (now south of Yanshan County, Hebei) in the north.


    At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the monarchy was gradually seized by the Chen family (also called the Tian family).


    At the beginning of the Warring States Period, Tian He was listed as a vassal and banished Duke Kang of Qi to the sea. As a result, Jiang Qi perished (12).


    3.2 The State of Ji


    It was established in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and was located in todays Nanjitai Vige, Shouguang County.


    It had always been a rival of the State of Qi and felt threatened by it. After Duke Xiang of Qi ruled the State of Qi for eight years (690 BC), he eventually managed to destroy the State of Ji.


    The artifacts included Jihou zhong, Jihou gui and Jihou Haozi gui.


    3.3 The State of Zhou (or Chunyu)


    The capital was in Chunyu (now northeast of Anqiu). In the early Spring and Autumn Period, it was annexed to Qi and became Qis capital (13).


    3.4 The State of Lai (also called Li)


    The state existed during the Yin and Shang Dynasties. Nowadays, there is Laizi City in the southeast of Longkou City, which was the ancient state of Lai. Some say it was southeast of today''s Changyi County. The Lai and Qi states were close to each other, so there were often contradictions and conflicts.


    During the Lai Gong era (567 BC), it was attacked by Duke Ling of Qi and perished.


    3.5 The State of Zhang


    It was a vassal state of Ji, so it was also called Ji Yi. The ancient city of Zhang was sixty li east of todays Dongping County. In the twenty-second year of Duke Huan of Qis reign (664 BC), the State of Zhang was forced to surrender to Qi.


    3.6 The State of Xiang


    The ancient city of Xiang was seventy li south of todays Ju County. In 721 BC, it was destroyed by the State of Ju.


    3.7 The State of Xun (or Qi)


    The state existed from the Yin and Shang Dynasties to the Spring and Autumn Period. It was seventy li east of todays Yishui County. The artifacts handed down include Xungong Zhoshu Jian yi (14) and so on.


    3.8. The State of Feng


    The state was ruled by a Shang Dynasty duke. Zhou destroyed Shang and it became a territory of the State of Qi.


    4. Feng Country


    ording to legend, people surnamed Feng were the descendants of Taihao. Taihao was said to be the leader of Dongyi, whose center of activity was originally in Chen (now Huaiyang County, Henan), and then developed northward until it gradually controlled the Jishui Basin.


    The several vassal states were: Su, Ren, Xuju, and Zhuanyu.


    4.1 The State of Su


    Thend was twenty li southeast of today''s Dongping County. In 684 BC, the Song State sent troops to move its people and take theirnd, and it became a territory of Qi.


    4.2. The State of Ren


    It was located in todays Jining City and still existed during the Warring States Period. Some said Ren first existed in the Xia Dynasty.


    4.3 The State of Xuju (or Xugu)


    It was in the northwest or southeast of today''s Dongping County.


    In the twenty-first year of Lu Xizongs rule (639 BC), it was exterminated by the State of Zhu. The following year, the State of Lu used the excuse that it was rted to the State of Xuju through political marriage to attack the State of Zhu. The State of Lu then had the ruler of Xuju go back to his state and restore it, but the state perished at the hands of the State of Zhu again.


    In the seventh year of Lu Wengongs reign (620 BC), Lu attacked Zhu again and obtained Xujusnd. The two states eventually became territories of Lu.


    4.4 The State of Zhuanyu


    It was a vassal state of Lu. The ancient city of Zhuanyu was eighty li southwest of today''s Fei County. Since itsnd was in the Lu States territory, its monarch was a minister of the Lu State, and he was ordered to host the Mengshan sacrificial ritual.


    5. Ji Country


    People surnamed Ji were said to be descendants of Taihao, the leader of Dongyi (Dongyi was regarded as barbarian territory by Huaxia people). The vassal states were Ju and Tan.


    5.1 The State of Ju (some say it was Cao)


    The founding monarch was Zi Yuqi. The old capital was Jiegen (also called Jijin, which was southwest of today''s Jiaozhou City), but was moved to Ju (now Ju County) in the early Spring and Autumn Period. There were cities and counties such as Anqiu, Zhucheng, Yishui, Ju County, and Rizhao.


    The monarchs had no posthumous title, and most of them used the name of the ce where they lived as their titles.


    In the Spring and Autumn Period, the Qi State repeatedly attacked it, and it was eventually destroyed by Chu in 431 BC.


    5.2 The State of Tan (or Ying)


    It was located north of todays Tancheng County. The names of their lineage werent passed down through history, but the monarchs once paid tribute to Lu for allegiance.


    In the early years of the Warring States Period (414 BC), it was destroyed by Yue. It was suspected that the state restored its original statuster or reverted to the country after.


    6. Cao Country


    People surnamed Cao were said to be descendants of Zhuanxu. It was said that Zhaunxus great-great-grandson Lu Zhong eventually had six sons. He named the fifth son Ming An and gave him the surname Cao.


    The vassal states were Zhu and Little Zhu.


    6.1 The State of Zhu (also called Zhu Lou or Zou)


    The first ruler was Cao Xie. It was said that the territory included todays Fei, Zou, Teng, and Jinxiang counties, and also Jining city and so on.


    The capital was in Zhu (now Nanzou Vige, southeast of Qufu), and in 614 BC, the capital was moved to Yi (now in southeast Jiwang Cheng of Zou County).


    Although Zhu was regarded as a small barbaric state by the Chinese vassals at that time, its national power and cultural prosperity were second only to Qi and Lu. It had participated in various states alliances and wars, and sent troops to attack neighboring states.


    It was destroyed by Chu during the Warring States Period.


    6.2 The State of Little Zhu (also called Little Zhu Lou or Ni)


    It was originally a part of the Zhu State, but during King Xuan of Zhous reign, Yan the ruler of Zhu State, who was Cao Xies fifth grandsongave his son You (also known as Fei) thend of Ni as a vassal state (also called Er, which was southeast of today''s Teng County).


    Yous descendants and Duke Huan of Qi once helped support the royal family, and the emperor of Zhou named it Little Zhu.


    It had a close rtionship with Lu State, and was also destroyed by Chu during the Warring States Period.


    7. Yun Country


    People surnamed Yun were said to be the descendants of Zhurong. The vassal states were: Biyang, Yu, Yi, and Han.


    7.1 The State of Biyang (also called Fuyang)


    It was in the south of todays Zaozhuang city, and was next to Zhu and Little Zhu. Looking at its historical site, the buildings that were within nine li of the ancient city were magnificent.


    In the tenth year of Lu Xianggongs reign (563 BC), Duke Dao of Jin worked with states such as Song and Lu to attack and destroy Biyang State. Thend was merged into the Song State, and the Biyang n moved to Huoren Town (now the eastern suburbs of Fanzhi County, Shanxi).


    7.2 The State of Yu


    It was in the north of today''s Linyi City. In the eighteenth year of Lu Zhaogongs reign (524 BC), the Zhu people attacked, and took the people of Yu back to Zhu. That following year, Song used the excuse that it was rted to Yu by political marriage to fight against Zhu, making them return all the prisoners, and thus restoring the State of Yu. Thendter became a part of Lu.


    7.3 The State of Yi (also called Zi)


    The ancient city Zhuangwu was sixty li west of todays Mo city. Ancient Yi artifacts included Yibo gui.


    7.4 The State of Han


    A tribal country in the Xia dynasty. It was located in today''s Hanting District, Weifang City. Han Jun originated from the State of Han.


    8. Gui Country


    People surnamed Gui were said to be descendants of Emperor Shun. The vassal states were Sui and Qi.


    8.1 The State of Sui


    It was located south of today''s Fei city, and was destroyed by Qi in 681 BC.


    8.2 The State of Qi (It was Tian Qi during the Warring States Period.)


    In 386 BC, Duke Tai of Tian Qi, the minister of the Qi State, was named as a vassal by the Zhou royal family. Thispletely reced the regime of the Jian family, but the duke kept the name Qi and used it as the name of the state. The capital was in Linzi.


    Qi was one of the seven powerful states during the Warring States Period, and once lost to Wei and defeated Song.


    It had long-term confrontations with Qin Dongxi and influenced the political situations of the Warring States multiple times.


    In the seventeenth year of Duke Qi Mins reign (284 BC), Yan, Qin, and Jin joined forces to attack Qi. The general from Yan took the lead by capturing Linzi, and the state gradually declined after that.


    Duke Qi Jian had ruled the state for forty-five years (221 BC), but it was eventually destroyed by Qin Shi Huang.


    9. Yao Country


    People surnamed Yao were said to be the descendants of Emperor Shun.


    The State of Min (also known as You Hun) was a tribal country in the Xia dynasty. It was located twenty-five kilometers northeast of today''s Jinxiang County. The old name of the city was Hun City.


    Zuo Zhuans (15) Zhaogong Four Years chapter said that Jie of Xia had an arrangement with the ruler of the state, and married the rulers daughter. In the Zhaogong Eleven Years chapter, it said that the state perished because of the marriage.


    10. Si Country


    People surnamed Si were said to be the descendants of Youyu. The vassal states were: Qi, Zeng, Zeng Guang, and Zeng Xun.


    10.1 The State of Qi


    It was already established during Tang of Shang''s rule. After King Wu of Zhou destroyed Shang, he found Feng Donglou, a descendant of Xia Yu, and named him the vassal of Qi. As a result of this, it was also called the State of Xia.


    The first capital was Yongqiu (now Qi County, Henan). When they wereter threatened by Huaiyi at the end of the Western Zhou dynasty, they began to move north. Some think that todays Xintai City was once the capital of Qi.


    Qi Chenggong (reigned from 654-637 BC) was helped by Duke Huan of Qi and moved his capital to Yuan Mausoleum (now southeast of Changle County), but Qi Wengong (reigned 549-536 BC) moved it back to Chunyu. King Chu Hui destroyed it in the first year of Qijiangongs reign (445 BC).


    The artifacts handed down included Qibo ding and Qibo dou.


    10.2 The State of Zeng (or Ceng)


    The ancient city was east of today''s Zaozhuang City and slightly north of Cangshan County. It was once a vassal state of Lu.


    After Lu Xianggong ruled the state for six years (567 BC), it was destroyed by Ju. Zhaogong ruled the state for four years (538 BC) before Lu took thend back. After that, it belonged to the Qi State again.


    10.3 The State of Zeng Guang


    It was a tribal country in the Xia dynasty and located northeast of today''s Shouguang County. One of the emperors of Xia once lived here. It waster destroyed by Jiao Gong, the son of Han Zhuo.


    10.4 The State of Zeng Xun


    It was a tribal country in the Xia dynasty that was located southeast of today''s Weifang City. Xia Taikang once lived here. It was also destroyed by Han Zhuo.


    11. Zi Country


    People surnamed Zi were said to be the descendants of Shang Zuqi. The state of Tan also called Zhang was located west of today''s Zhangqiu County. The site was excavated before the Anti-Japanese War. Thend served as the east-west passage of the Qi State, and the state was destroyed by the Qi State in 684 BC.


    12. Yan Country


    People surnamed Yan were said to be the descendants of Gao Yao.


    There was a state of Ge, which was a tribal country in the Xia dynasty that was located north of todays Dezhou city.


    After Tai Kang, the emperor of Xia, lost his country, the Xia noble ministers fled here to collect their remaining forces and assisted Shao Kang to restore the Xia Dynastys regime.


    13. Ying Country


    People surnamed Ying were said to be the descendants of Yi. The State of Yan, also known as Gai, was located east of the old city of Qufu.


    It became an ally of Yin and Shang. King Cheng of Zhou rebelled against the Zhou dynasty with Wu Geng, the son of King Zhou of Shang. As a result, it was destroyed by the Duke of Zhou, and became a territory of Lu State.


    14. Qi Country


    People surnamed Qi were said to be descendants of Fangfeng. The State of Souman was a branch of Zhangdi.


    From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period, it was located in Shandong, north of todays Jinan City, and was at the transition stage between tribe and state.


    15. Dongyi Country


    Dongyi had an ancient ethnic group of people that lived in Shandong in ancient times, who gradually merged with the Huaxia ethnic group. The vassal states were Jie and Genmou.


    15.1 The State of Jie


    Some say it was located southwest of today''s Jiaozhou City. Its monarch Ge Lu once met with Lu Xigong and led his troops to attack Song Yi.


    2. The State of Genmou


    It was a vassal state of Lu. Itsnd was south of todays Yishui County. In the ninth year of Lu Xuangongs reign (600 BC), it was attacked and acquired by the State of Lu.


    16. Those countries that didnt have specific ancestral surnames.


    16.1 The State of Guo


    It was located northeast of todays Liao city. It was around during the Western Zhou Dynasty and the early Spring and Autumn Period. It perished before Duke Huan of Qi got to be the ruler of Qi State.


    Some artifacts were handed down.


    16.2 The State of Yuyuqiu (or Yuqiu)


    It was in today''s Linyi City, Zhangqiu County. In the second year of Lord Luzhuang (692 BC), it was attacked by the State of Lu.


    16.3 The State of Muo


    The old city was twenty li east of today''s Laiwu City. It was a vassal state of Lu, and they were rted by political marriage. The monarch once met Duke Huan of Lu.


    16.4. The State of Zhuan


    It was a vassal state of Lu. It was about thirty li northeast of Tancheng County today. It was destroyed by Lu in the sixth year of Lu Chenggongs reign (585 BC).


    16.5 The State of Shen


    It was a tribal country in the Xia and Shang dynasties. It was located north of todays Cao County. It was rted to Tang of Shang by political marriage. Yi Yin was from here.


    16.6 The State of Pugu (also known as Bogu and Baogu)


    It was southeast of todays Boxing County, Binzhou City. When King Cheng of Zhou ascended the throne, it was destroyed by the Duke of Zhou for participating in the Wu Geng and Dongyi rebellions, and thend became a territory of Qi.


    From Lao Yao Ancient Countries in Shandong


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) This means that the rulers of these states had the surname Ji.


    (2) Chen Bosunfu was one of the rulers.


    (3) Ge was an ancient kitchen utensil. A picture of Ge:


    (4) Ding was an ancient Chinese cauldron, standing upon legs with a lid and two facing handles. Wiki link


    (5) Gao Zhong Jun was an ancient wine ss of that time:


    (6) Duke Huan of Qi was the ruler of the State of Qi from 685 to 643 BC. Wiki link


    (7) Therefore, the State of Xue was also called the State of Pi.


    (8) Xia in Chinese here means Down. Shang here in Chinese means Up.


    (9) Tang of Shang was the first king of the Shang dynasty in Chinese history. He overthrew Jie, thest ruler of the Xia dynasty. Wiki link


    (10) They are basically all bronze ritual artifacts. The picture of Fu:


    (11) Fus were square bronze artifacts, and guis were round ones.


    (12) It was called The Usurpation of Qi by Tian. For historiographical purposes, pre-usurpation Qi is referred to as Jiang Qi, and post-usurpation Qi is referred to as Tian Qi. Wiki link


    (13) Some of the names of the states in English look the same, but they are actually different Chinese characters in the original text, so this state of Qi () was not the state of Qi () mentioned previously.


    (14) A picture of yi:


    (15) Zho Zhuan is an ancient Chinese narrative history that is traditionally regarded as amentary on the ancient Chinese chronicle Spring and Autumn Annals. Wiki link

 Chapter 33: Notes and List of Xisha Archaeological Members

    Chapter 33: Notes and List of Xisha Archaeological Members


    The notes found on the ghost ship needed to be studied further. Uncle Three was in the habit of taking notes and he did things very carefully as well. After seeing the contents of the notes, however, I found that they were too rigorous. Uncle Three probably wrote these notes under Wen-Jins supervision.


    (Note: The content of the Taiwanese version is Wen-Jin was obviously in the habit of taking notes. The notes she left behind were found on the ghost ship and needed to be studied further.)


    Copy from the notes:


    The map of archaeological areas of the undersea tomb:


    There are a total of seven areas. The porcin is scattered in an area of about three thousand square meters and the sunken ship is located thirty meters to the left of the reef in the center.


    Date One


    Considering the fact that we are at the bottom of the sea, the traditional methods of field archaeology arent going to workpletely. We can only use our own creative methods.


    Even though ocean andnd environments arepletely different, the results are the same even after we use different methods.


    We arent sure about the specific size and shape of what is buried at the bottom of the sea. The first step should be using Luoyang shovels to determine the approximate exploration area. The seabed isnt likend and we have no idea what result wille out of this, but I dont think we will have any major problems.


    Weve determined that the porcin we salvaged previously is from Yongles regime (1). This is encouraging news. ording to the location, we estimate that this batch of porcin came from an official kiln in Jingdezhen. The style is mainly blue and white with a golden color. Some of them were buried deep in the sea sand, so they were well preserved. The style of this batch of porcin was supposed to be shipped to Man and eventually to Mexico at that time. If our judgment is correct, then silk should have been thergest cargo carried on this sunken ship.


    Its a pity that we have little hope of seeing traces of silk fabrics that have been preserved in the sea until now.


    Date Two


    Weve encountered some problems using Luoyang shovels. Working underwater requires more strength and the original wooden hammers we brought cant be used. We have to use rocks we found in the water. The oyster shells are very sharp and many peoples hands have been injured.


    I rmend working on the boat if people want to use Luoyang shovels in more shallow water. There should be two people on the boat and one person in the water, which will make things more efficient.


    If people want to work in deep water, I rmend using machines. Since its underwater, the Luoyang shovels will mainly be used to judge the geologicalposition under the seabed and define the boundary of the problematic area so that our inspection can be done more effectively. As a result, people can choose to use modified geological drills to do the work. We only need to determine the approximateposition of the sample brought back by the drilling.


    If there is a shipwreck under the seabed, there will be calcified or coralized wood. Unlikend, we dont need to judge the age of the shipwreck based on the condition of the wood.


    At this stage, theres not enough manpower or material resources in China to protect or excavate the remains of the sunken ship as a whole.


    Surprisingly, the shape that was discovered wasnt the shape of a boat at all, but a  shape. A hard object in the shape of  was buried at the bottom of the sea. The size is amazing. There shouldnt be any kind of foundation on the seabed in this ce so far from shore, so what is this huge object buried under the sand?


    For the time being, were afraid to make a conclusion, but I have a hunch that if its as I expected, then things will be fun.


    Date Three


    The marking strips the archaeological team is equipped with cant function in an environment full of sea water.


    The strips are too wide, and will pull the g poles fixed in the seabed out of the sand due to the turbulent seawater. We eventually used the anchor ropes on the fishing boat.


    We should be equipped with professional marking strips for underwater operations in future marine expeditions.


    The anchor ropes are very heavy since they can absorb water, so they arent easily influenced by the current. People can use simr materials to anchor ropes and paint them with conspicuous colors to better observe the bottom of the sea even if theyre on the boat.


    Based on the final shape of the marking strips, I am basically certain that this should be a huge sea burial tomb. Its scale ispletely incalcble. Plus, at a ce so far away from the sea, whose tomb will it be?


    Date Four


    Based on the sample weve gotten from the wooden nks at the bottom of the sea, traces of grout, fishings, and sto were found. This means that it was the adhesive used to seal seams and repair cracks in the hull of a fishing boat.


    In this case, this ancient tomb may have taken some sealing measures, so its very likely that theres still some air in there. The most likely locations for air are at points A and B. These two distribution points are rtively small and the spaces are rtively independent.


    The biggest problem now is how to enter the ancient tomb without destroying the air-tight environment under all that water pressure. In the traditional sense, an air-tight cabin is needed to achieve such a function. Maybe well have to scuttle a ship. In order to do so, well have to work as a boatswain.


    Date Five


    July 21st


    Were going to enter the sea tomb for the first time. Ive found the entrance, and after thinking this through, Ive found that this ancient tomb isnt veryplicated.


    July 24


    We went in once and found a strange phenomenon inside. It appears the tomb isnt clean (2) either.


    List:NameGenderWu SanxingMaleChen Wen-JinFemaleZhang QilingMaleXie LianhuanMaleLi SidiMaleThe man who took the bodyMaleQi YuMaleHuo LingFemaleUnknown Person No. TwoMaleUnknown Person No. ThreeMaleUnknown Person No. FourFemale


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Yongle Emperor was the third Emperor of the Ming dynasty. Wiki link


    (2) It means that there might be ghosts or monsters in the tomb.

 Chapter 34: Other Related Information

    Chapter 34: Other Rted Information


    001 I Have The Fish


    (A group photo of ten people with the words I have the fish written on it is attached below)


    How many mysteries are hidden in this photo?


    002 Qimen Dunjia


    The diagram of the eight gates is below. The eight gates are: Rest (Xiumen, ), Life (Shengmen, ), Injury (Shangmen, ), Failure (Dumen, ), Pleasure (Jngmen, ), Death (Simen, ), Fear (Jngmen, ), and Prosperity (Kaimen, ).


    The legends of Qimen Dunjia:


    What is Qimen Dunjia? It isposed of three concepts: Qi (), Men (), and Dunjia (). (1)


    Qi includes three things: Yi (), Bing () and Ding (). (2)


    Men includes eight things: Xiu (), Sheng () , Shang (), Du () , Jng (), Si (), Jng (), and Kai (). (3)


    Dun means hiding.


    Jia refers to the six Jia (): Jiazi (), Jiaxu (), Jiashen (), Jiawu (), Jiachen (), and Jiayin (). (4)


    Dunjia is the most noble among the ten Heavenly Stems and has hidden meanings. It is hidden under the Six Yi (), which include: Wu (), Ji (), Geng (), Xin (), Ren (), and Gui (). (5)


    The principles of Dunjia are that Jiazi hides under Wu (), Jiaxu hides under Ji (), Jiashen hides under Geng () , Jiawu hides under Xin (), Jiachen hides under Ren (), and Jiayin hides under Gui ().


    They alsoe with nines: Tianpeng (), Tianren (), Tianchong (), Tianfu (), Tianying (), Tianrui (), Tianzhu (), Tianxin (), Tianqin (). (6)


    The divination of Qimen Dunjia is mainly divided into three parts: Heaven te, Gate te, and Earth te. They symbolize three styles.


    The nine pces in the Heaven te have the nines.


    The eight pces of the middle te (the second circle ording to the picture) have eight gates.


    The eight pces of the Earth te represent eight positions that cant be moved.


    At the same time, each pce in the Heaven and Earth te is assigned a specific Qi (Yi, Bing, Ding) and Six Yi (Wu, Ji, Gen, Xin, Ren, Xing, Ren).


    As a result, people can use the Six Yi, Three Qi, and Nines to predict things like rtionships, traits, the future, or even choose auspicious times and ces ording to the specific time and date.


    This constitutes a unique category in Chinese mystical culture  Qimen Dunjia.


    003


    Human-faced snakes (with rted illustrations)


    Looking at these things, I highly suspect that humans are descendants of snakes.


    There is a strange phenomenon in ancient Chinese history where arge number of records about gods and spirits are rted to snakes.


    In the ssics of Mountains and Seas, of the 454 figures that are recorded in the text, 138 are in the shape of a snake. Some of the gods and spirits mentioned who have snake-like bodies include Fuxi, Nwa, the Yellow Emperor, and even the Queen of the West.


    (I was particrly surprised that the Queen of the West had a human head and a snake body in the original records, and was depicted the same as Fuxi and Nwa.)


    ording to current general spections, this image of human-faced snakes was derived from tribal totems. It was possible that the Queen of the West changed from having a human head and a snakes body to having a human head and a leopards body because the attributes in her tribe had changed.


    In other words, maybe the Queen of the West was originally a member of Fuxis tribe, but something happened and she started her own tribe in the west where she reigned.


    Whatever the case, we wont be able to know what exactly happened.


    Human-faced snakes also represent the male genitalia, especially a veryrge one. Sure enough, the bigger, the better. It would be better to have two such big ones. You could even tie them in a bow.


    004 She Country


    An ancient country called She Country was located between Shaanxi and Hubei in ancient times. But this country suddenly disappeared two thousand years ago.


    The history of this country appeared sporadically from time to time in many ancient bamboo slips. It seemed like there was a period of sudden prosperity in She Country during the early Western Zhou Dynasty, but then the country suddenly disappeared in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Within ten or twenty years, the country in the primitive jungle seemed to quickly vanish.


    They existed in many myths and legends, and there was also arge number of records in the ssics of Mountains and Seas. The snake country mentioned in the text that was outside of Sichuan should be about this country.


    She is a homonym for snakes. This nation treated human-faced snakes as gods, so many decorations had that kind of pattern on them.


    Most people who study the history of this country now believe that people in She Country were descendants of the mysterious Huaxu Ancient Country. This dates back to when it was a matrilineal society. This country used human-faced snakes as its totem mainly because the Huaxu Ancient Country had the legend of the human-faced, snake-bodied Fuxi.


    Since these materials are all from ancient books and unearthed documents, the question of whether this country existed or not has always been a controversy among academic circles.


    005 Murals Of The Heavenly Pce


    (Six sketches of the murals are attached with paragraphs of brief exnations.) (7)


    006 Murals Of The Undersea Tomb


    Some of the pictures that A Ning had taken in the undersea tomb are shown.


    (Eight sketches of the murals are attached with eight paragraphs of brief exnations.) (8)


    Captured Wang Zanghai


    The giant crater


    *****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Qi means mysterious or strange but can also mean valuable or holy in this context. Men means gate. Dun means hidden or escaped. Jia is the 1<sup>st</sup> of the 10 Heavenly Stems and means bud the sign of growth. Its element is wood yang. The Heavenly Stems are a Chinese system of ordinals that first appeared during the Shang dynasty as the names of the ten days of the week. Wiki link. A very thorough breakdown of Qimen Dunjia is here


    (2) Yi is the 2<sup>nd</sup> Heavenly Stem and means sprout  the spread of growth, bursting forth from Earth. Its element is wood yin. Bing is the 3<sup>rd</sup> Heavenly Stem and means something along the lines of concentrated growth like fire in a house. Its element is fire yang. Ding is the 4<sup>th</sup> Heavenly Stem and means maturity, solidity, Heavens kiss. Its element is fire yin.


    (3) Basically repeating the 8 gates from above: Rest, Life, Injury, Failure, Pleasure, Death, Fear, and Prosperity.


    (4) The Six Jia refers to how ancient Chinese used to calcte the time ording to the rule of heaven and earth. They regarded sixty years as one cycle and Jia should appear six times in that 1 cycle:


    Jiazi () 1<sup>st</sup> year of the 60-year cycle where each year is numbered with 1 of the 10 Heavenly Stems.


    Jiaxu () 11<sup>th</sup> year A11 of the 60-year cycle, e.g. 1994 or 2054


    Jiashen ()21st year A9 of the 60-year cycle, e.g. 2004 or 2064


    Jiawu () 31<sup>st</sup> year A7 of the 60-year cycle, e.g. 1954 or 2014


    Jiachen () 41st year A5 of the 60-year cycle, e.g. 1964 or 2024


    Jiayin () 51st year A3 of the 60-year cycle, e.g. 1974 or 2034


    (5) Yi means rituals, so Six Yi means there are six rituals.


    Wu ()5<sup>th</sup> Heavenly Stem and means flourishing and nurturing. Its element is earthy yang


    Ji ()6<sup>th</sup> Heavenly Stem and means full bloom. Its element is earthy yin


    Geng () 7<sup>th</sup> Heavenly Stem and means harvesting and abundance. Fullness leading to changes. Its element is metal yang


    Xin () 8<sup>th</sup> Heavenly Stem and means dead heading, reformation. Its element is metal yin


    Ren ()9<sup>th</sup> Heavenly Stem and means sustenance, supporting life. Its element is water yang


    Gui ()10<sup>th</sup> Heavenly Stem and means regenerating roots and preparation for spring. Its element is water yin


    (6) These are also referred to as stars.


    Tianpeng () has the water yang element. Considered an inauspicious star because it indicates theft/loss


    Tianren () earth element. Sometimes called the disease star. People should receive teachings or admonishment, make friends, stay home, abstain from military deployment, postpone marriage, refrain from quarrels, long distance travel, new construction, etc.


    Tianchong () wood element, yang. Considered an auspicious star. Indicates charity and donations, doing kind deeds, or agricultural activities. Good for military action, battles, or legal issues, but inauspicious for everything else.


    Tianfu () wood element, yang. Considered a very auspicious star. Auspicious for travel, business, marriage, construction, especially study progress, increasing social status, cultural and educational development.


    Tianying () earth element, yang. Considered auspicious for all things


    Tianrui () metal element, yin, rtes to leadership capability, scheming, medical treatment, and military deployment. Its an auspicious star.


    Tianzhu () metal element, yin, indicates death, strange urrence, mysterious matters, damage. It is an inauspicious star.


    Tianxin () earth element, yang, an auspicious star. Its good for beneficence and studying, settling disputes, and legal enforcement. Also good for business, marriages, and social status.


    Tianqin () fire element, yin, indicates outrageous behavior, heated situations, fire and blood. It is a neutral star. Its good for nning, visiting high officials, but it is unlucky for wealth, social status improvement, marriage or travel.


    (7) Im sorry, I couldn''t find the paragraphs to trante. Just enjoy the pictures.


    (8) Same as #7, just enjoy the pics lol

 Chapter 35: Other Related Information 2

    Chapter 35: Other Rted Information 2


    007 Dongxia


    Information:


    Books seldom mention the existence of Dongxia (1), which was under Jurchen (2) rule. At the time of the decline and fall of the Jin Dynasty (3), this national entity had existed for more than seventy years in order to rejuvenate Jurchens and get them to stand on their own.


    The territory wasprised of Jilin and the majority of the two Heilongjiang provinces. Along with Mongolia, it once received tributes from Goryeo (4). It ruled the eastern Liaoning region. The country was originally called Dazhen, and then Dongxia, and it was even called Dongzhen in Korean historical records.


    1. Puxian Wannu


    First of all, its necessary to introduce its founder, Puxian Wannu. He was a prominent figure in Northeastern Chinas history, but neither History of Jin (5) nor History of Yuan (6) mention much about him. Some of his sporadic deeds could be found in Ji and Zhuan (7), but that may be rted to historians prejudice against him since they saw him as a rebel and a traitor.


    It could also be a result of there not being enough materials for them topile his history, so it wasnt until hundreds of yearster that a special independent biography was written in New History of Yuan, the Book of Yuan, and so on.


    Note: It still doesnt make sense. Since there werent enough materials when they were writing History of Jin and History of Yuan, how were they able to write an independent biography for him hundreds of yearster? Was the supplementary biography mostly fictitious? It wasnt as rigorous as the previous sporadic records.


    In addition, ming it on the prejudices of historians didnt make sense, either, because history is all about recording the positive and negative. There could only be one reason why there was no record of someone they were irrelevant. If this man was truly so despicable, people should have been writing of his misdeeds and smearing his name for thousands of years.


    This part of history was either deemed irrelevant by historians, or there was no information at all, making it impossible to even fabricate it.


    Puxian Wannu was a descendent of Liao people. Throughout history, two things have always been said about him. One was negative and said that he should be criticized because he was a careerist who engaged in rebellion, divided the Jin Dynasty, and weakened the resistance to Mongolia. The other was positive and praised him as a strange hero of Liaodong, even going as far as to say he was almost as good as Aguda (8).


    Due to theck of historical records, there was even a debate about his name. Some recorded him as Wanyan Wannu, Fuhe Na, Fuxian Wannu, Buxi Wannu, Tuzhu Dashi, Wan Jianu, Yenu, Xiao Wannu, Wan Sunu, etc.


    Fuhe, Fuxian, and "Buxi were alternative names of Puxian, and Ne was shorthand for Wannu. Its possible Wan Yan is his given surname.


    Note: In other words, the recorded history may be a collection of countless names that were mixed together because of simr pronunciations. This is a typical historical facy, which mistakes two people with simr names for one person.


    He first appeared in the historical records as a deputy minister of Shangjiu Bureau (Shangjiu Bureau was an institution in charge of training horses) in the sixth year of Emperor Zhangzong of Jin''s reign (1206). He was also the lieutenant of right-wing general Wanyan Saibu, and fought against the Song army (from History of Jin, Volume 12, chapter Zhangzong Ji (9) Four).


    ording to Volume 113 of Wanyan Saibu Zhuan" (10), Wannuunched a sneak attack in conjunction with Wanyan Saibu''s frontal assault, and achieved a huge victory over tens of thousands of horsemen from the Song Army''s main force that was led by Huang Fubin.


    In Wanyan Yongjis third year of rule during the Jin dynasty (1211), Wannu was appointed as supervisor of the senior officers and stationed in Yehuling. Due to the generals ipetence, they were defeated by the Mongolian army and the soldierspletely lost morale. In the same year, Yel Liuge raised troops to rebel against Jin, and the Khitan people also responded and stood with them.


    In 1213, he was appointed as a senior officer at Xianping Road (Kaiyuan, Liaoning) and stationed there to suppress the rebellion. He was defeated in a battle that took ce in Diji Naoer (near Changtu, Liaoning). Wanyan Yongil forgave him again and appointed him as a senior officer in Liaodong, where he became the highest military officer in the region. He fought against Liuge again, but underestimated the enemy and ended up losing. As a result, they retreated to Dongjing.


    2. Founding his country and establishing himself as a king


    In 1214, Emperor Xuanzong of Jin fled to Nanjing (Kaifeng). The central capital (Beijing) was upied, and the fall of the Jin Dynasty was a foregone conclusion. Sincend transportation had been disrupted, Liaodong had be a lonely enve overseas, and the situation became even more difficult.


    At that time, the new emperor of Jin was very strict. Wannu felt insecure because he had failed, but when he heard that the emperor had moved to Kaifeng and was too busy to mind what happened in the east, he thought about taking the easternnds as his own. (From History of Mughal Empire/Puxian Wannu Biography")


    Losing to Liuge twice made him realize that there was no possibility of the Jin dynastying back from this. The only alternative was to change ns and start a new country, which may inspire the people and free him from the constraints of Jin.


    In the spring of Emperor Xuanzong of Jins third year of rule (1215), Wannu staged a mutiny. He divided the troops into two divisions: one went all the way south as a partial division, while the other went all the way north as the main force with the strategic goal of controlling Shangjing. His troops quickly upied Xianping, Dongjing, Shen, Cheng, and other prefectures, and then attacked Posufu Road and took over Shangjing and other ces.


    Liuge took the opportunity to attack Kaifeng and started his own country, which he named Liao. Wannu''s wife, Li Xian-Er, was forced to marry Ketege, but Liuge had no intention of staying there for long, so he left soon after looting it. That was how Wannu was able to regain Dongjin.


    Note: Poor Li Xian-Er. Forced marriage is an ambiguous term. Everyone knows exactly what happened.


    Even though he gained Shen, Cheng, and other prefectures, and people also abided by the Meng''an Mouke system (11), he soon encountered many difficulties.


    Eleven mengans who had already followed Wannu including Bin Ge, Chutai, and Anchi turned to follow Geshilie Huanduan, whose position was much lower than Wannus.


    The more serious matter was the loss of his base, Dongjin. After several months of experiences and lessons, Wannu realized that the name of the highest military officer in Liaodong was no longer useful and things had to change. He decided to start a new country and make himself king in order to lift the spirits of the Jurchen people. That way, he could recruit more Liaodong soldiers and win the hearts of the people.


    In October, 1215, (the third year of Emperor Xuanzong of Jins rule), he made himself king and appointed Dongjin as the capital. He called his country Dazhen, and named the era of his reign Tian Tai. He sought the prosperity of the Jurchen people.


    Note: Based on these paragraphs, he didnt have much military talent. Instead, he seemed like the kind of despicable person who took advantage of the chaos to make small gains. After taking advantage of things, he had no ability to keep what he had, so he had to give up all the previous principles he possessed. He belonged to the type of careerist whose ambition was greater than their ability. He was naturally a hero to me, but in that era at that time, his brilliance only showed how great others were.


    3. Surrendering to Mongolia


    When Dazhen was first established, it was in a difficult situation. It was surrounded by Mongolia, Jin, and Liao, so thend ess to the outside world was blocked.


    The Jin Dynasty in the southern and eastern parts of Liaodong became its nearest enemy and most imminent threat. The Jin dynasty used the strategy of pardoning high officials at Liaodong Road in an attempt to win over senior officers and disintegrate its army, hoping that it would copse from within. Jin even went and adjusted soldiers'' deployments in Liaodong and issued an edict that ordered generals in Liaodong to try and take over Dazhen together.


    As for Liao, the internal conflicts, the move to Liaoxi, and Liuge surrendering to Mongolia meant that they had be Mongolias vassal state. Even though it still posed a threat to Dazhen, it wasnt as important.


    Therefore, the biggest and most dangerous enemy for Dazhen was Mongolia, which was on the upswing. If Wannu fought against Mongolia, he would definitely be defeated, but if he pretended to surrender, he could save strength and bide his time.


    As a result, in October 1216, Wannu handed out a surrender statement and sent his son Tiege to Mongolias imperial camp as a hostage.


    Note: I wasnt surprised.


    4. The eastward journey and starting Xia country


    Since Puxian Wannu had surrendered, Mongolia let their guard down.


    Not long after his surrender, he seized the opportunity and led a crowd of more than a hundred thousand people and escaped to the ind (From History of Yuan, chapter Mu Huali Zhuan). He pretended to be cornered and weak with no intention of making aeback when he was actually carrying out a major military transfer. This way, his subordinates were preserved and well rested.


    In February 1217, themander of the Liaodong Mongolian Army, Mu Huali, turned to the southern expedition and tried to enter the central in, leaving no corresponding troops to defend.


    Wannu thought that the opportunity had arrived, so he sent his troops to kill Yelu Nie''er Ge, an army supervisor. He then embarked on the eastward journey, roughly proceeding from both the north and the south at the same time.


    He first attacked the areas around the lower reaches of the Yalu River and then broke through the Dafu encampment in April. He led the main force north to attack Long''an Mansion (Jilin Nong''an). Pucha Y, who was a local senior officer and deputy marshal of Jin Liaodong, Shangjing, and other ces, abandoned the city and fled to Bianjing.


    Wannu then marched to Shangjing and conspired with Tai Ping, an official in Shangjing. He burned temples and took down the marshal named Chen Chong before upying Shangjing. Wen Dihan Laoerwho stayed behind and guarded Shangjinwas killed.


    But Chen Chongs daughter stood firm on behalf of her father, and ended up gaining reinforcements. As a result, Wannu didnt seed and had to withdraw to the east, going to the area at the junction of Hn Road and Supin Road.


    The main force basically finished their eastward journey in December 1218, but other forces continued to be active in the southern part of Liaodong for a period of time.


    In June and July of 1217, Wannu again started a new country. He changed the name to Dongxia, but still used Tian Tai as the name of his reign. The capital was Kaiyuan City (there are various opinions as to where the site is in todays time).


    It was also said that the countrys name was originally Daxia, but since it was located in the east and its name didnt match Xixia (Western Xia), he decided to name it Dongxia (Eastern Xia). Korean historical records called it Dongzhen.


    Note: He bided his time during this period, which was a very good n. Puxian Wannu apparently had the ability to get things done. If he yed his cards right, he could use this chance to rest and get better resources to quickly strengthen his countrys defenses and expand the army. By the time the other countries realized what he had done and reacted, a formidable opponent would have already appeared.


    5. Deterring Liaodong


    Once Dongxia was established, the Jin Dynasty ordered Pucha Wujinwho originally worked in Liaodongs state affairs departmentto transfer to Shangjin. At the same time, they captured the family members of those officials who had conspired with Wannu, and ruthlessly killed them all.


    If the Jin army failed, they only had one ce to retreat toPosu Road. As a result, they were trying to get through the crisis with a lot of difficulties. How could they have the proper strength to fight Dongxia toe to toe?


    Meanwhile, Mongolia had armies in Xixia and was also fighting against Jin for the Central ins, so they had no time to focus on Liaodong, which gave Dongxia time to develop and be strong.


    After just a few years of constantly deploying troops, Wannu had finally reached Jins Hn Road, Suping Road, and Huligai Road.


    Their territory roughly included the Bohai Sea in the east, Huligai City in the northwest (Yn in Heilongjiang), Zhang Guangcailing in the west, Posu Mansion in the south, and Qingzhou in Korea (North Hamgyong Province in North Korea).


    At its peak, the southern part of its territory reached the eastern section of the ancient Great Wall of Korea, which started from Dalin in the west, covered Dingping, and ended at Dulianpu in the east.


    The northern part of its territory stretched from north of todays Bayan and Yn in Heilongjiang to the lower reaches of Heilongjiang.


    The western part of its territory started from the west side of central Jilin to the south of Heilongjiang area (including Jin Shangjing City in theter period). The eastern part reached the Sea of Japan.


    After Yel Liuge rebelled against Jin, his people persuaded him to start his own country, but he ended up surrendering to Mongolia. Many of his subordinates revolted, and some of them even entered Goryeo''s territory and threatened the royal capital multiple times. Goryeo hoped that Mongolia and Dongxia would lead troops to rescue them and sweep them away (From History of Korea).


    In 1218, Genghis Khan sent marshals Hazhen and Z to help Goryeo. Both of them led ten thousand troops and met with Liuges remaining soldiers before marching to Goryeo. Puxian Wannu also had marshal Hutu lead twenty thousand troops, which brought the total up to a hundred thousand people. Goryeo sent four hundred thousand troops, and they went after Jiangdong City together.


    It was the first month of spring in 1219 when the leader of the rebels, Hanshe, killed himself. The rest of his followers surrendered.


    As a gesture of gratitude, Goryeo presented their annual tribute to the two countries and also agreed that both countries would send envoys to receive the tribute. Since then, all the envoys Mongolia sent to Goryeo to receive the tribute would travel through the borders of Dongxia. They would often travel with Dongxias envoys, so they became as close as a family.


    The Mongolian army marshal Hazhen once said to Goryeo: If you want to have a good rtionship with my country, you should first pay respect to the Mongolian emperor, and then pay respect to the emperor Wannu. (From History of Goryeo). This shows that Mongolia recognized Puxian Wannu as an emperor at that time.


    Dongxia disyed a lot of etiquette by sending envoys thousands of miles to the ce where Genghis Khan was stationed in the west. This friendly rtionship onlysted for six years, when it ended in 1224.


    Note: Unfortunately, Wannu was deceived by Mongolias soft policy. At that time, he probably couldnt dare imagine what would happen if he fought against them, so he focused all his efforts on maintaining this kind of bnce. But Goryeo at that time wasnt reliable. In the face of Mongolia''s toughness, Goryeo was indecisive about its position, so it also caused a dilemma for Wannu.


    6. Dongxia ceased to exist


    But this friendly rtionship between Dongxia and Mongolia was only superficial, and was actually just a temporary political truce. In fact, they were both cheating and plotting against each other. Both of them were trying to attract and oppress Goryeo in an attempt to iste or attack each other.


    Faced with Mongolias might, Dongxia didnt dare join forces with Goryeo to fight them. Instead, Wannu kept sending troops to invade and loot Goryeos borders, causing the two countries to often be engaged in small-scale wars that consumed national power without any gains.


    In 1223, Mu Hualis invasion of the Central ins was unsessful, and he ended up dying in Shanxi.


    In 1224, there was a new development between Dongxia and Mongolia. In January, Dongxia wrote two notices to Goryeo. One stated, Mongolian Genghis doesnt have any teachers or elders to teach him manners, and doesnt know what hes doing. In addition, Echixin is greedy, violent, and inhumane. Dongxia no longer has any good rtionships with Mongolia. The other one stated, My country is in Qingzhou, and your country is in Dingzhou. They have their own markets and trade ording to what we have done previously. (From History of Korea).


    From then on, Mongolian envoys no longer passed through Dongxias border, but went through Posu Road instead. The rtionship between the two parties worsened, mainly because Dongxia judged the situation incorrectly. But the greedy and violent behaviors of Genghis Khans brother, Wochjin (Echixin), were also one of the reasons. The rtionship between the two countries broke down, but didnt intensify.


    In 1227, Genghis Khan passed away and gedei Khan ascended the throne. After the battle of Sanfengshan, Jin countrys main force perished.


    Mongolia changed its foreign expansion policy and started using troops in the northwest, which caused the rtionship between the two countries to be tense again.


    In February 1233, gedei Khan ordered many dukes to attack Wannus territory. He thenmanded the prince (Gyk Khan) and Duke Alchidai to lead the army from the left wing. (From History of Yuan)


    There were also many people participating, and their affiliations are as follows:


    (1) Prince Gyk


    (1-1) King Tarsi


    A. Shimo Ch


    B. Shimo Beidier


    (1-2) Uriyangkhadai


    (2) Duke Alchidai (Alchitai)


    Y Mainu (From the Left-wing army)


    (3) Wang Rongzu (He attacked Goryeo first, and then went on to attack Dongxia and capture Wannu")


    The Mongolian army took the route through Goryeo and headed north into Dongxias territory. In September 1233, Nanjing was surrounded. Although the city was as strong as steel (from History of Yuan), it was outnumbered and fell.


    Puxian Wannu was captured (some believed he was killed). The Mongolian army continued to advance and ended up attacking Kaiyuan (Eastern part of Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang Province), Xiepin (Middle and lower Suifen River Basin), and Xiping in the east (from History of Yuan).


    After neen years, Dongxia ceased to exist.


    Note: This was thest battle depicted on the murals of the Heavenly Pce. For a small country like Dongxia, the fight at that time carried the final dignity of the entire nation, and was bound to be a deadly battle across the whole country.


    It was conceivable how fierce the confrontation would be between Mongolians, who were in their strongest form, and the Jurchens, who wouldnt leave any opponents alive. This bloody memory must have dwelled deep in the hearts of those Jurchen people who were fortunate enough to survive.


    7. Regime still existed


    In the past, it was thought that Dongxia had perished with the capture of Wannu. But when the official seal engraved with Datong (12) was discovered in the twenty-fifth year of Kangxi (1686), new ideas about Dongxias survival emerged.


    ording to Wang Guoweis (13) textual research: There are many references in The History of Korea about Dongzhen (Dazhen) and the negotiations between Dongzhen and Goryeo. There were more than twenty references of Dongzhen from gedei Khans regime (1233), up until Kui Khans regime at the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1294).


    This meant that Mongolia still used the seal even after Wannu was captured in order to cate the people of thend. Future descendants of the Mongolia emperor inherited thend, making it clear that it had be a vassal state that was still known as Dongzhen. (From Mongolian Affairs)


    In addition, it was recorded in History of Goryeo and History of Yuan Dynasty that the titles Distinguished Country and Dongxia Wannu Country were still used many years after 1233.


    In February 1234, Mongolia left more than a hundred soldiers in Dongzhen, while the rest returned to Mongolia. (From History of Goryeo)


    In 1235, twenty thousand households were established in Kaiyuan and Nanjing. Thetter may have been under the supervision of the king that had been ced in Dongxia.


    Those who used to be officials in Dongxia continued to manage the government affairs of the area, and the reigning era was called Datong.


    Various official seals of this Datong reigning era had been unearthed, which was enough to prove that Dongxia had been obedient to Mongolia ever since it became a vassal state. It also appeared to have assisted the Mongolian army in suppressing Goryeos rebellion.


    Note: Wang Zanghai lived in thete Ming Dynasty. This obviously meant that the regime didnt disappear overnight, but gradually reduced from a country to a city-state, and from a city-state to a tribe.


    In 1235, the Mongolian army attacked Goryeo three times. The Dongxia army took the lead and upied Longjin Town, Zhenming City, and other ces. (From History of Goryeo)


    In 1236, the Mongolian army re-entered Goryeo and sent more than a hundred troops to invade Goryeos northeastern territory. They moved from Yaode and Jingbian to Yongxing Cang. (From History of Goryeo)


    During Mngke Khans reign, Mongolia once again sent arge-scale force to Goryeo, and used Dongxia as a channel for their troops to advance.


    ording to History of Goryeo, from 1249 to 1259, soldiers from Dongxia entered Goryeos territory and caused disturbances every year. By 1257, there were as many as three thousand soldiers in Dengzhou. In 1258, Dongxia sent soldiers on boats to besiege Songdao in Gaocheng County, and didnt stop until Mongolia intervened. After Kui Khan ascended the throne, he started to gradually strengthen his control over Dongxia.


    By February 1266, the military divisions of Dongjin, Kaiyuan, Xupin, Hn, Posu, and other ces were established. In May 1283, a Punishment and Judgment Division was added in Haixi Liaodong.


    Xupin and Hn were territories of Dongxia, and Haixi was naturally thought to be in Dongxia, which showed that they were all under Mongolias domestic regional rule. After 1287, it seemed that there were no mentions of Dongzhen or Dongxia, which raises the suspicion that its status as a vassal state was withdrawn.


    Note: Poor Goryeo. At this time the remnant forces of Dongxia must have retreated into Changbai Mountain and lived a hidden life.


    8. Historical sites


    (1) Chengzis Mountain City


    In order to prevent Mongolias eastward invasion and because of the nature of the region, most of the cities in Dongxia were built in the mountains and became mountain cities.


    They were located at the junction of Yanji City and Tumen City in the eastern suburbs of Yanji City. There were a few relics of Bohai Kingdom and arge number of relics of Dongxia Kingdom in the city.


    The city wall was built with stones along the mountainous terrain, and had an irregr oval shape with a circumference of 4,454 meters. There were four gates, three of which had barbicans (14). The city had an open terrain with a pce in the center. There were nine flights of stairs, with each step as wide as ten meters and as long as seventeen meters. The foundation stones were arranged in an orderly fashion.


    There was also arge number of building tiles scattered around the pce. Jade belt ornaments, jade mandarin duck ornaments, agate ornaments, official seals of Dongxia Kingdom, bronze mirrors, divination devices, small bronze statues of mother and child, and hundreds of Tang, Song, and Jin coins were unearthed in the city.


    This Dongxia city was called Nanjing, and it was where the King of Dongxia, Puxian Wannu, once lived. In 1233, Mongolian soldiers captured Puxian Wannu in the city, and Dongxia was destroyed.


    When ites to studying the politics, economy, and culture of Dongxia, this city is the most important cultural relic and has a uniquely strong historical and scientific value.


    (2) Bath Mountain


    It is located about ten kilometers east of Yanji City, and faces Chengzi Mountain across a valley. There is a circr pool on top of the mountain where a tower was ced. The pool is rumored to have been Puxian Wannus bathing ce.


    (3) Krasnoyar Mountain City


    It is located on the Krasnoyar Mountain near Ussuriysk, Russia, on the southern bank of the Suifen River. It has a circumference of sixteen li, and was built on a hill in the shape of a ring. There are threeyers of five-meter high city walls from the base of the mountain to the top. There are even auxiliary facilities such as trenches near the walls. The highest point is a forbidden city, which is surrounded by an inner wall. There are also many relics of luxurious pce-style buildings in the city.


    (4) Ancient Great Wall of Yanbian


    The Ancient Great Wall of Yanbian is located on Shuangfeng Mountain in Badaogou, near the ridge of Pingfeng Mountain in the north of Yanji City.


    It starts west from the slope of Erdaogou, Dongshan Vige, Tushan Township, Helong County and winds through Xicheng in Helong City, Longmen Township, the Xilin River in Longjing City, Taoyuan, Tongfo, Badao in Yanji City, and the lofty mountains of Chang''an Township. It disappears fifteen kilometers east of Yanji City near Mopan Mountain.


    The great wall was mostly constructed using earth, but it was also built with stones. It has a total length of about a hundred and fifty kilometers, and seventeen towers have been discovered. The longest section is about ten kilometers long, and stretches between the Xilin River and Laotugou Town. The most preserved section is in Guanchuan Vige in Laotugou, and is about three meters high.


    There is no documentation of the ancient great wall, but ording to research, it is believed to be Dongxia''s border along the river. It is also believed that it was built in the Bohai Sea, and together with Hunchun''s frontier trench, it was the defensive wall surrounding Zhongjing and Dongjin in Bohai.


    It waster used by the Dongxia Kingdom and converted into a defense project. Some also believed it to be the Great Wall of the Jin Dynasty, or the Great Wall of the Goguryeo Period.


    5. Jingpo side wall


    It is located on the east bank of the south-central section of Jingbo Lake, and is in the construction area of Jiangshan Jiao Forest Farm. The earth-rock structure winds along the mountain to the southeast for four and a half kilometers.


    There are rock piles in the western section of thekeshore area, but the rest is mostly a mixture of earth and rock. The stone section is well preserved, as evidenced by the protruding walls every fifty to eighty meters that are about two meters high, one and a half meters wide at the base, and 0.8 meters wide at the top.


    The masses reported that this side wall could reach Jilin.


    The preliminary investigation identified that it was the remains of Dongxia Kingdom at the end of the Jin Dynasty, and should be the small Great Wall of the Jin Dynasty. It was a military project to prevent the Mongolian army from going south.


    It was approved as a provincial cultural relic protection item in 1990.


    (6) Feiyou City


    It is located on the left bank of the beautiful Tumen River, in Dongcheng where the ancient city vige of Sanjiazi Manchu Township is located. North Koreas Sebel County is across the river.


    The city has a circumference of 2023 meters, a wall height of three to four meters, and a base width of nine meters. Theres a gate in the north, south, east, and west, and it has the typical characteristics of the ancient Liao and Jin cities, such as turrets and protruding walls. Among the ancient Liao and Jin cities that have been discovered, its one of the more intact ones.


    Ten bronze seals were unearthed in the city. One was from thete Jin Dynasty, one didnt have a year engraved on it, and two of them were small bronze seals. The rest were Puxian Wannus bronze seals from when he founded Dongxia.


    There were two types of bronze seals: one was the bronze seal of Dongxias Tian Tai reign; the other was the bronze seal of Dongxias Datong reign. As a result, it was believed that the city was the site of thete Jin Dynasty and Dongxia Kingdom. Some people have even verified that the city is the Dongjin of Dongxia Kingdom.


    From Historical Materials of Dongxia


    *


    Endless Journey


    In the basement of Golmud, it can be said that I learned a lot of secrets for the first time since I got involved in this huge puzzle.


    (Attached are some illustrations and floor ns of the corridors, rooms, and basement of the sanatorium.)


    Corridor


    Room


    Floor n


    I always wanted to write something, but I never dared to.


    I dont know if what Im doing now is right, or if it should be known by others.


    If someone enters this vortex through these words of mine, it would mean an unexpected disaster for them. And as the author of these words, Im afraid I cant escape the notoriety of initiating it.


    I find myself both inside and outside of these various convoluted mysteries, and can''t even determine whether Im an insider or an outsider at this point.


    Everything is like this. Behind theyers of lotus petals, I always see everything lying there as before. I may have taken a step further, but I havent made much progress after all. It all seems endless, as if it were reincarnating.


    No one knows what will happen in the future, so I can only keep going.


    Wu Xie  2005 in Golmud


    Note: This is thest chapter I wrote. Next, Ill be setting off to the depths of Qaidam. I dont know if I can make it back. If I cant, then this book will let others know what happened to me.


    Remember, if you cant understand what Ive written down, please dont think too hard about it. Theres a huge abyss after it anyways.


    The End


    ****


    TN Notes:


    (1) Dongxia. Dong means east in Chinese, so it was also called Eastern Xia in English. Also known as Dongzhen. It was a short-lived kingdom established in Manchuria (today''s Northeast China) by Jurchen warlord Puxian Wannu in 1215 during the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty. Wiki link


    (2) The Jurchen is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian Tungusic-speaking peoples who lived in the northeast of China,ter known as Manchuria, before the 18th century. Wiki link


    (3) The Jin dynasty, officially known as the Great Jin,sted from 1115 to 1234 as one of thest dynasties in Chinese history to predate the Mongol conquest of China.


    (4) Goryeo was a Korean kingdom founded in 918. Wiki link


    (5) History of Jin (Jin Shi) is a Chinese historical text. Its one of the Twenty-Four Histories, which details the history of the Jin dynasty founded by the Jurchens in northern China. Wiki link


    (6) History of Yuan is theption formalizing the official history of the preceding Yuan dynasty. Wiki link


    (7) Jizhuan, a literary form in East Asian history books, is basically biographies of prominent figures. Those about emperors are called Ji, and those about royal families, rtives, and ordinary people are called Zhuan.


    (8) Emperor Taizu of Jin, personal name Aguda, was the founder and first emperor of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty. Wiki link


    (9) Ji refers to what note 7 mentionedbiographies of emperors.


    (10) Zhuan refers to what note 7 mentioned biographies of royal families, rtives, and ordinary people.


    (11) Meng''an was a tribal unit, and Mouke was a n unit. One meng''an consisted of seven to ten mouke. Theoretically, each moukemanded three hundred households, but it was actually less than that in reality. This kind of organization hunted with guns in peacetime, but fought in war when the situation required. It gradually developed into a military organization. Itter became an organizational structure that had dual nature of military and local administration.


    (12) Datong (1224-1233) was the era name of Dongxias regime.


    (13) Wang Guowei was a Chinese historian and poet. He made important contributions to the studies of ancient history. Wiki link


    (14) Fortified outpost or gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes.


    ****


    <strong><em>Merebear note: I''m going to be a total creeper but I''m just saying it for all of us WE LOVE YOU TIFFANY!!!!! She worked super hard and ved over this beast of a chapter for you guys so she gets all the invisible hugs and covid-free kisses~~~~~ I also found more/better pictures on the other "Wu Xie''s Private Notes" chapters if any of you are interested and wanted to skim through them. A beautiful soul uploaded them on baidu like 9 years ago and I somehow just now magically found them. (The Forbidden Woman one is WAY better/scarier than the one I had lol)</em></strong>


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