Volume 2 Chapter 216 Mahjong tiles
The architectural style of this temple is an Indian style Buddhist temple, but the furnishings inside are completely the pattern of Chinese temples, especially the eighteen Arhat statues.
When Buddhism was first introduced to China, there were only 16 arhats, namely sitting on the deer, festive arhats, raising bowls, tota arhats, meditating arhats, crossing the river' arhats, elephant riding arhats, laughing lion arhats, happy arhats, probing hands arhats, contemplative arhats, ear-digging arhats, cloth bag arhats, banana arhats, long-eyebrow arhats, and gatekeeper arhats.
However, in the late Tang Dynasty, some famous Buddhist mural painters felt that the number "eighteen" was better than "sixteen", so they created their own dragon Arhat and Fuhu Arhat (legend has it that the monk Jigong is the reincarnation of the Dragon Arhat), until the Southern Song Dynasty, the image of the eighteen Arhats was basically determined.
Since then, the temples in China have all dedicated to the eighteen Arhats.
Durin came in and counted, there were exactly eighteen altars, and there were ten ...... That's not right!
Du Lin walked closer and saw that there was only an empty shrine on the altar where the Dragon Descending Arhat and the Tiger Arhat were supposed to be placed, and the two Arhat statues did not know where they had gone.
But it doesn't matter, I'm here to find treasure, not a statue.
Zhu Zhonglin ran to the bottom of the altar of the cloth bag Arhat, and kicked off a layer of mud embryo shell wrapped on the altar, and below was a layer of black metal plates.
According to records, this is the entrance to the underground palace where the treasures are stored. ”
While introducing, Zhu Zhonglin stretched out his hand to the statue of the Arhat in the cloth bag, held the base of the statue, and turned half a circle to the right, only to hear the rattling and rattling, a sound of machine springs, and the black metal plate sank to the ground, revealing the mouth of a black hole.
The group began to enter the dungeon in turn, thinking that the air in the cave must be dull and rotten, but surprisingly it was not like this, the air inside was not bad, it seems that there is a vent here.
The first to go down was Durin, because if there was a mechanism in the dungeon, Doolin was the one who was most familiar with the mechanism among these people. Followed by James, Zhu Zhonglin, Francis and Jones, Pique stayed on it to answer due to a foot injury, but even if his foot was not injured, with his thick physique, it would be very difficult to enter the underground palace through this tunnel.
Many temples have underground palaces, but these underground palaces have different functions, some are for monks to hide from war, and some are for storing scriptures and important ritual vessels.
For example, in the stupa underground palace of Famen Temple in Huaxia, a large number of gold, silver and glazed materials have been unearthed, and there are some extremely precious Buddhist scriptures that are almost out of print, especially 13 pieces of "secret color porcelain" that have been in the legend, of course, the most important thing is that the real body relics of Buddha bones have been unearthed in the underground palace of Famen Temple, and it is also the only remaining Buddha bone real body finger bone relics in the world, which is definitely a treasure in the heavy treasure of Buddhism.
I don't know what kind of treasures will be unearthed in this mysterious Buddhist temple hidden in the deep mountains and dense forests? In the tunnel leading to the underground palace, there are no five fingers in his hand, Du Lin walked in front with a flashlight, and walked more than ten meters diagonally down in the tunnel, and then entered a slightly more spacious space.
Subsequently, James, Zhu Zhonglin and others also came here one after another. James snapped a few glow sticks and threw them on the ground. In this small hall, it suddenly brightened up a lot.
Only then did everyone realize that this small hall was the real entrance to the underground palace.
Because there is a huge metal door on one wall of the small hall, and a line of words is written on the top of the door, although it is very old, it is very well preserved because of the dry air in the underground palace.
It is written: Ming Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen Treasure Hiding Office.
This metal door is interesting in that there are no locks, no keyholes, no handles, just a round recess the size of a washbasin with 14 small square recesses the size of mahjong tiles.
"The patriarch's testament once said that if the descendants of the benefactor want to enter this gate, they need to know the two lines of poems that were spoken between the benefactor and the ancestors of my family, and these two poems are also related to the Dharma name of the ancestor when he became a monk. Zhu Zhongwen took out a notebook on the side and said according to the contents.
Dulin's heart moved, he remembered that when he sent Zhu Yunwen to the temple in Nepal 600 years ago, Zhu Yunwen once gave himself a legal name, called "True".
The reason why he is called a true monk is that Du Lin recited a poem at that time, "He should be a true gentleman, but he was born in the emperor's family."
The two verses mentioned in the ancestors' testaments in Zhu Zhonglin's hands should be these two sentences unsurprisingly.
At this time, Zhu Zhongwen took out a small box from his backpack and spread a plastic sheet on the ground. After opening the box, pull the contents and pour them onto the plastic sheeting.
Except for Zhu Zhongwen, everyone, including Du Lin, was stunned by the contents of the box.
Don't get me wrong, it's not that Zhu Zhonglin poured something terrifying out of the box, this thing is not scary at all, on the contrary, it is a thing that most Chinese people like to see - mahjong tiles!
Except for Zhu Zhonglin, several people were scorched by this set of mahjong tiles.
Could it be that these people went through hardships and dangers, almost put their lives on the line, and came here just to play mahjong?
Zhu Zhonglin looked up and saw everyone's strange eyes, and hurriedly explained,
"Don't get me wrong, this is not a mahjong tile, this is the key to open this door, it just looks like a mahjong tile. ”
A few people looked back at the circular grooves on the door, and the small square grooves were about the same size as these so-called mahjong tiles on the ground.
Du Lin squatted on the ground and looked through the small wooden blocks that looked very much like mahjong tiles, each with a different Chinese character written on it. And when you touch it carefully, every small wooden block, except for the side with words, has subtle lines on the other five sides.
It seems that Zhu Zhonglin is right, these small modules are indeed the key to open this gate, and only by finding the correct fourteen small wooden blocks and putting them into the fourteen grooves will this gate open.
But the only person in the world who knows which fourteen little blocks are Durin is.
"James, you go up with your men, there should be no danger here. Zhu Zhonglin waved his hand at James.
James nodded, and took Francis and Jones back into the tunnel.
Zhu Zhonglin also squatted on the ground, accompanying Du Lin to turn over the side of each small wooden block with words on it.
"Which wooden blocks are useful, do you want me to help you find them?" Zhu Zhonglin said earnestly.
Du Lin glanced at him, in fact, at this time, he should not interfere, although the secret of this treasure has been kept by their Zhu descendants, but the key to unlocking this secret is in Du Lin's hands, and the ownership of this treasure is very clear, Zhu Yunwen just wants to leave the treasure to the son of the "benefactor" who saved him at the beginning, and he doesn't want his children and grandchildren to get involved at all.
Du Lin's promise to give Zhu Zhonglin half of it was already a big concession, and now at this critical moment of opening the treasure house, Zhu Zhonglin was still cheeky and wanted to intervene, which was very impolite and unreasonable.
"No!" said Dulin coldly.
"Okay, I'll go to the cave and wait. ”
Zhu Zhonglin stood up stupidly, walked to the entrance of the cave and sat on the ground, took out a camera and fiddled with it.
Durin glanced at him and began to rummage through the pile of small pieces of wood.
A few minutes later, he found all the fourteen wooden blocks with the words "He should have been a true gentleman, but he was born in the emperor's family."
The wooden blocks were stuffed into seven small grooves in each of the upper and lower rows in order, and after waiting for a while, there was no response.
I tried to pick the big round groove in the outer ring as well, but nothing happened.
Durin wondered, "Aren't these fourteen words?"
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, and Du Lin couldn't help laughing, how could he be stupid? Six hundred years ago, the way the writing was from top to bottom or from right to left, and he was arranged from left to right according to the habits of modern people, and of course there was no response.