Somehow, these eyes made Zeng Boheng feel familiar. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"Zeng Jiu, let's meet again." The executioner said coldly, and took off the red scarf covering his face.

Seeing that heroic and cold face, Zeng Boheng's whole body was suddenly cold, like falling into an ice cellar.

That was Lee so-sung's face.

"You...... Why are you ......" Zeng Boheng shouted in horror.

I remember that when Tianjing City was broken, Zeng Boheng was annoyed that Li Xiucheng insisted on Tianjing, which made him spend countless efforts, suffered so much, hurt his brain, and his hair was half white.

But he didn't expect that one day, Li Xiucheng would take a ghost head knife and pretend to be an executioner to cut off his head.

"Today, I have come to take the life of the dog, and I will die!" Li Xiucheng sneered, raised the ghost-headed big knife, and slashed at Zeng Boheng.

Zeng Boheng screamed and woke up suddenly, only to find that he was still in prison in the Criminal Department.

Thinking of the impeachment of Lin Yiqing for marrying Li Xiucheng's daughter as a concubine, the court has not yet reached a conclusion, and can't help but laugh wildly again.

"I'm not good for Zeng Jiu, you Lin Er can't think about it well! Let's see you on Huangquan Road! ”

Carol? Scott, "The Great Qian's Empire: The Queen Mother and Me": Excerpt:

The next day, the court returned to Qingqiyuan. Now that the festivals and sacrifices associated with the imperial traditions have passed, and court life has returned to its regular routine, I have the hope that I will be allowed to paint at a fixed time, and that the Queen Mother will allow me to paint when she is not posing. She can only pose for a few moments a day, and there is a lot I can do in between. Until now, the Queen Mother has always treated me as a guest in the palace, and made my stay as the most important thing. She seemed interested in my work, but painting was a trivial matter, and even the 'Countenance' was only secondary. All these walks, these joyful drives, are really intoxicating, and if I had come to the palace to seek pleasure, or to study the customs and habits of the Empress Dowager and the Qianguo people, I would have been very satisfied. In the Empress Dowager Renxi, I found a psychological research object that was constantly changing and arousing interest. What I see now is impossible to see again, and my experience is unique. But I wasn't allowed to spend as much time as I wanted on the portrait. As long as I can get permission to work longer, I will be very happy. ”

"The Empress Dowager has always been so kind and generous, and if I can speak Bo and Xia well, I think this wish can be fulfilled. She probably thinks I'm happier than drawing. ”

"I was fascinated by the drive with the Queen Mother, and I enjoyed painting the Queen Mother every day. Everyone who paints a portrait knows that no matter how unfriendly the subject may seem to him at first – and this time certainly not – an intimate relationship will eventually be established between the two men. The painter's efforts to discover the true personality of his subjects through the superficial, the desire to discover the best and make the most of it, are generally met with sympathetic responses. Once this relationship is properly established, they will become more familiar with each other after the portrait is completed than they might have been in other cases for years. Although I was so close to her at other times, I felt that I could only really 'face to face' with her when I painted her a portrait. ”

"On the morning of our return to the Seiki Garden, my easel was put back in the throne room. The portrait was removed from the wall and work resumed. The Queen Mother sat and let me paint for a long time, and the portrait progressed. If there had been a place where I could work alone, and I could have made some improvements to the painting when the Queen Mother was not posing, but now I had to be patient, and work for about an hour a day, for a short time, and as soon as the Queen Mother felt tired, I stopped and immediately collected the brushes and palettes in my hand as if by magic. Except in the presence of the Empress Dowager and her many attendants, there was no opportunity to ponder the portrait and do anything else. ”

"I only brought into the palace a small folding easel, which was not suitable for painting such a large painting, but I couldn't find a better one in Beijing. The Empress Dowager was attentive to everything, and noticing this inconvenience, suggested that I make a large easel and let the carpenters in the palace copy it. She thought they could make it for me. I typed the pattern, and they made me a very handy one. When the eunuchs found that I had used the easels made in the palace properly, the other 5 large and small ones were made. I asked what it was for, and they told me that everything made for the Queen Mother was the same six, and that if there were fewer than six easels for her portrait, it would set a precedent and become a reform. ”

"The Queen Mother also ordered the making of large, flat lock-up boxes for my painting tools. These boxes are covered with yellow covers, because they are used to paint the 'holy face', and the yellow has to be bright yellow. I forgot to mention that the 6 easels are also painted bright yellow. Throughout the painting of the portrait, one of these yellow boxes was placed on a table, occupying a prominent place in the throne room. Every day when I finished painting, the chief eunuch personally removed the painting from the easel, and several other people came to take my brushes and palettes, hid the easel, closed the yellow box and locked it. The key to the box was kept by the chief eunuch who took care of me. ”

"After the afternoon painting, we went out for another joyful ride. The days are now noticeably shorter, and the evenings are starting to get cooler. As we walked through the gardens, the Queen Mother would stop for a moment to look at every place she loved, as if she had reunited with them after a farewell reunion. She loves Qingqiyuan, and it always seems to be a pleasure for her to be back here. We had refreshments in a tea room with tables and chairs, and she asked the eunuch to make a slimy lotus root flour, which was delicious and, as she said, very nutritious. When the Queen Mother walks, she is followed by a small stove and all the necessary utensils for making dim sum. The fact that Qianguo people can cook in such an inconvenient situation always makes me feel a little divine. After eating the lotus root paste, we drank tea, and the best tea leaves of the Qianguo were used for tribute, and all the first tea leaves in this great empire were left for the emperor and the queen mother. The Queen Mother's gourmet's tea is the best of the best. The tea tasted good, and she put dried honeysuckle, jasmine, and other fragrant flowers in her teacup. The honey contained in these flowers not only gives the tea a slight umami taste, but also makes the tea slightly sweeter, which is very unique. The dried flowers were served in a jade bowl with two slender cherry branches, and the Queen Mother used these two graceful wooden sticks to pick up the flowers and put them in her cup, then stirred them. The people of Qianguo never use spoons. When the Queen Mother drank tea, she used a jade cup with a delicate and peculiar shape of a hollowed-out silver saucer. The tea of the Qianguo people is drunk when it is hot, and the jade cup is not as hot as the porcelain cup. ”

"After leaving the tea room, we continued to walk between the gardens. While passing by a flower bed, the Queen Mother found a peculiar grass and ordered the eunuch to collect it. After the grass was delivered, the Queen Mother skillfully braided a rabbit in the shape of Bishaw with a few roots. She was making it up so fast that I didn't realize she was making it up, and she had already thrown it to me and asked me to guess what it was. I am very happy to receive such a gift. ”

"When we arrived at our destination, one of the highest points in the Qingqi Garden, the scenery was truly spectacular: the panorama of the West Mountain unfolded at our feet, and the golden light of the setting sun was dissolving. She called me to her side and made an all-encompassing gesture, as if to say, 'It's all mine, but you can share it with me.'" She has that sense of possession of the beauty of nature that all artistically minded people feel, and they regard the beauty before them as their own because they recognize it. The Queen Mother loved the beauty so much, that she felt that it belonged to her, and she knew that I would understand, and few of her entourage experienced it, because none of them were as devoted to nature as the Queen Mother, and the customs and habits made them unable to feel the beauty of the scenery. I was so excited by this spectacle that I trembled with joy. Because it was getting dark, and I was thinly dressed, the Queen Mother thought I was cold. When she saw that I had no shawl, she called out to the chief eunuch and asked him to bring me one of hers. The chief eunuch always had several pieces of this thing on hand when he was going for a ride, and he picked one of them for the Queen Mother, who draped it over my shoulders. She told me to keep this and take care of my body in the future. ”

"Now we start to take an airboat tour of the lake, not a chic boat in the palace. The Queen Mother has an artistic eye and a conservative point of view, and of course she likes old-fashioned pleasure boats; But she is also very smart, understands the benefits of other means of transportation, and has no prejudices. In fact, she loves trying out new things. When the days are long and the nights are short, the warm breeze is warm, and the lotus flowers bloom around the center of the lake, she loves to take a cruise; But when the days are short, the weather is cool, and when the lotus flowers are gone, she uses the motorboat for a ride. The steamboats were built in the shipyards of the Qianguo Kingdom and were said to perform as well as those made in foreign countries, and these motorboats were presented to the Empress Dowager by a prince of the Bo tribe who was in charge of shipbuilding. She seems to like the speed and noise of it now, just as she used to like the steadyness of pleasure boats. Her throne on the motorboat was on the bow, high up in the cabin, and the princesses and ladies sat in the cabin. The scenery and fresh air were indispensable for the Queen Mother, and she never went inside. In the luxuriously furnished cabin with a sofa coffee table sat the queen and the female officials. ”

"The first time we took the motorboat to the lake, I was worried that it didn't exactly listen to the driver, but the driver was very skillful in maneuvering, and the Queen Mother ordered the driver to speed up, and the driver increased the steam to the maximum. The princess and the eunuchs panicked, but the queen mother took it lightly, amused at their concern for her safety. ”

After the steamboat finally stopped, the chief eunuch was afraid of another breakdown, and wanted to change the boat, but the queen mother did not listen, and insisted on taking a motorboat, and finally this ride ended completely according to the queen mother's plan, and I know that such a smart person as she would not use any convenient means to achieve his own ends. After the tour of the lake, the Empress Dowager also praised the driver and his motorboat, as well as the official in charge of shipbuilding, but when she mentioned Mr. Lin Yizhe, her eyes involuntarily showed a trace of sadness, I know that she misses Mr. Lin Yizhe's exploits for the empire, and Mr. Lin Yizhe is as famous as his younger brother Mr. Lin Yiqing. ”

"The Emperor of Qianguo became the religious leader of the Qianguo State with the usual tolerance of the Qianguo people -- the Qianguo people are the most tolerant people in the world in terms of religious belief -- and he was not just the head of one religion, but the head of all the religions of the Qianguo. As emperor, he was the chief priest of heaven, the chief priest of Buddhism, Taoism, and, of course, Confucianism, but this was more of a philosophy than a religion. But despite being philosophical, Confucianism still has some fixed rituals and ceremonies. All the major ceremonies of the different religions are carried out in the temples of the palace in the same solemn manner. Regardless of the emperor's personal inclinations, and of course he had his preferences, he took part in all of these ceremonies. However, his formal, public religious activities were limited to the worship of heaven and earth, and he publicly paid homage to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing once a year. ”

"On the afternoon of our first motorboat trip to the lake and the Queen Mother's cruise, there was a splendid ceremony to commemorate Confucius in the temple at the foot of the mountain, where the Temple of the Ten Thousand Buddhas was built. Confucius was a great sage, and his philosophy guided the law and life of the Qianguo people for nearly 2,500 years. Although he was a philosopher like Plato, he had no shortage of confidants, and his teachings were unanimously followed by the upper classes and the common people in the Qianguo. He was not a religious leader but an ethics teacher, and although there are many temples built in his honor, they resemble scientific memorials and have nothing to do with gods. There are no statues of Confucius or other saints in these temples, and they are standard memorial halls, and there is no trace of church atmosphere in the decoration. The quotations from the Analects are written on scrolls, carved in wood, and chiseled in stone, and they decorate not only the walls of the temple, but also the walls of the outer courtyards and porches. In the place where the offering table is placed in the general temple, there is a simple red lacquer shrine with a tablet, and the tablet is inscribed with gold characters: 'The position of the most holy teacher of Dacheng'. On either side are the same shrines, with tablets of four other saints, one of whom is Mencius. The semi-annual memorial commemorates Confucius as a teacher of ethics, a wise philosopher, and a sage. At this memorial ceremony in the palace, the host and the participants were all dressed up. In honor of Confucius, an epigraph was read, mixed with music and hymns. The latter are rhythmic verses that include some truths that Confucius taught to people. In front of an offering table, there is a bookcase of Zhang Long to place offerings. The livestock prison is full of tools, cigarettes are around, and the music is all around. The offering table is filled with incense burners, beautiful vases, and rare bronze bowls, filled with floral and fruity aromas. The dragon book in front of it is offered millet and wine and meat. In front of the high platform, there is a high iron yellow lamp in the sky, and there is a huge pine lump burning inside, and on the high platform is an offering table, which is illuminated by the tall candles on the square technical silver candlestick. The courtyard in front of the temple gate and the surrounding buildings are hung with beautiful painted lanterns. ”

"The Empress Dowager, the Emperor, the Empress and the female officials, dressed in costumes and surrounded by eunuchs and ministers, marched in a long procession from the Empress Dowager's throne room through the corridor to the temple. The slow beating of the drums accompanied them as they approached. ”

When they arrived at the temple, they placed three yellow mats on the stone floor for the Queen Mother, the Emperor and the Empress, and prepared red ones for the female officials. The music was rhythmic, and the emperor and the queen mother knelt down and bowed three times, as did the queen and the female officials. The minister, along with other participants, knelt in the courtyard outside. After the kneeling was over, a yellow satin chair was sent to the Queen Mother. She was seated for the rest of the ceremony, while the emperor, empress, and female officials stood throughout the ceremony. The whole process includes several kneeling and prostrations of the presiding officer and one move of the sacrifice on the dragon book table with a solemn and reverent demeanor. The master of ceremonies looked at a long scroll and read the statement, which was then placed in a box on the table. The first part of the ceremony takes place in the temple, and then the mourners come to the courtyard, chant the six carols, and then kneel down again. I don't know much about these hymns, and I can't fully translate them for me to understand what they mean. They are all of the same length, and they all praise Confucius and are called "Taiping Tunes". When all the carols had been recited, all the offerings were taken a little of each, and together with the scroll with the inscription, they were placed into the great iron censer, in the middle of the outer court, and the chief presiding officer lit the fire, and one of the several jars of wine that was used as an offering was poured into the fire. ”

"I didn't expect to enter the temple with the Queen Mother, the Emperor, and the female officials, but when we arrived at the temple gate, the Queen dragged me in with one hand. They seemed to realize that I enjoyed watching the rituals and fully understood that I was not actively involved in any of them. I never knelt with them, but they seemed to be grateful to me for listening to the chanting of the hymn and the reading of the prayers, and to behaving in the same manner as I did when I attended any religious service. ”

"When it was all over, the Queen Mother asked me to go to the offering table to take a closer look at the rare bronze ornaments and the candelabras. They explained to me that the text that had been read had been burned, because its task had been accomplished, and that it was fitting to use the ashes of the article to honor Confucius, the great philosopher. When this was done, the Empress Dowager and the Emperor ordered the boat to be docked at the foot of the platform (where the final part of the ceremony took place), and we returned to the palace by the lake. (To be continued.) )