Between the flames, a woman with her hands held high and chained to the torture pillar, her mouth open, but not a call sign, her calm countenance makes the viewer feel that she is just singing, singing in the flames.

Lang Shining let out a sigh of relief, put down his brush, and moved his gaze from the center of the half-finished canvas to the edge, which was still blank. He was not sure whether to draw the original picture of the day, or to do "artistic processing" and add the situation later.

This is the middle of December, and the flames of the torture platform on the upper floor of the Baoanmen City have been extinguished for nine days, and the fire in Wuchang City has just been extinguished yesterday. At this time, Lang Shining looked over, and could only see black smoke rising, and Wuchang seemed to have turned into ashes, just like the hell depicted in Dante's "Divine Comedy". He couldn't decide whether to paint the Wuchang fire a few days ago or the black smoke of today.

It would be a masterpiece that Lang Shining felt that every step of the story had to be thought through, and he gave up the idea of making a decision now, instead picked up a pen and paper and began to keep his diary. The experience of the past few days was so shocking that all his spirit was poured into the painting, so that his habit of writing down a few strokes a day was also an exception.

"If a European who has just arrived in China, he will feel a little familiar with the series of events that have taken place in Wuchang in the past few days, and at the same time he will be extremely confused."

"What is familiar is that the governor of the Qing Kingdom, like a heretic, tied a beloved woman like a saint to the stake in the angry cries of tens of thousands of Qing people in the city of Wuchang, and then burned her to death in front of tens of thousands of people who had traveled thousands of miles from the south to save her."

"The woman who is like a saint, her name is Pan Jinling. It is said that she was saved by His Majesty the Emperor, and since then she has been determined to do good and save people. The Ying Tzu Hospital, which she founded, has treated countless patients with pain. She was particularly adept at treating traumatic injuries, and at a time when Europeans were still foolishly thinking of bloodletting as a panacea, she was able to give blood transfusions to save the lives of those who had lost a lot of blood from surgery. She pays special attention to women's childbirth, and the mortality rate of newborn babies in the nursery hall of Ying Tzu Yuan has been reduced to less than 10 percent, which is a miracle compared to the mortality rate of more than 30 percent among the local people. Europeans would not believe this number if they knew it, because in Europe it is even higher......"

"She also joined the Catholic Church, which is said to have been originally founded by His Majesty the Emperor, oh, Lord, forgive me for using this term, I am just paraphrasing the name of the Chinese here for the supreme being in their hearts. With her help, the church relied on medical skills and rigorous hygiene literacy to preach great success. Almost all of the priests were taught by her in medicine, which gave her great prestige among the parishioners. ”

"So when those tens of thousands of people are beholding, they are beloved...... The Holy Maiden, as they called it in private, was burned alive when they were enraged, and they demanded judgment from His Majesty the Emperor for such a crime. Your Majesty, by the way, this respectable, feared, and at the same time involuntarily admired young Emperor, who has always declared that he is in the service of the people, and he cannot refuse such a request. I am also convinced that he himself is angrier than everyone else. Because this holy woman should have married into his palace and become his favored imperial concubine. ”

"So, Wuchang City, just like that, was burned."

But that's not the whole story, just as the burned was only a part of the southern part of Wuchang City. The prefect of Wuchang of the Qing State came to His Majesty the Emperor and knelt down and begged him to spare the innocent people in the city. His Majesty the Emperor said that he had only given the order to burn the city, and that if he did not want to be burned alive, the people of the city should use their legs and make a wise choice. His Majesty's army has not yet fully arrived, Wuchang City has not yet been besieged, and there is still time to do what to do. ”

"This is really a very restrained, very patient, extremely benevolent emperor. Looking back on the hundreds of years of dark history in Europe, I, a European, can't help but feel ashamed. At that time, the prefect of Wuchang in the Qing Kingdom was also ashamed of himself, but in him, I also saw the virtues of mercy and sacrifice. He tied himself up and threw himself into the presence of the emperor. The anger of the people along the way and the officers around the Emperor almost caught my hair, he was very different from the governor who had decided to burn the Holy Maiden to death. ”,

"Under the organization of this prefect, the vast majority of the Wuchang people fled from the city in two or three days, except for the governor and the Qing army he led, who were duty-bound, and at the same time seemed to be moved by the governor's resoluteness, like the most devout believers, to defend the city to the death." "His Majesty's army has arrived, and they have been slowed down by hundreds of cannons. But the arrival of these cannons also announced that Wuchang City could no longer hold on. In just two days, the city of Wuchang was breached, and then the fire engulfed the whole city. It is said that tens of thousands of Qing soldiers and civilians who did not want to flee were killed.

This text is provided by Qihang Ming'er

This is the price of what the governor did. ”

His Majesty the Emperor was merciful after all, and he stopped his men's massacre of the captives and exiled them to the South Seas, thousands of miles away. Then he led the army to the east, to hunt down the murderer, the governor who was said to have a reputation for incorruptibility in the Qing country, and he fled, which is really funny. Because his decision to burn the saint to death was against the will of the Qing Emperor, he was dismissed, and it was by virtue of this will that he escaped. ”

"The whole thing, it sounds familiar, and this familiar feeling comes from the history that we Europeans are familiar with. If anyone saw my description, they would think I was making up a story based on that history. It's like Crucifixion, Joan of Arc, Baldwin IV and King Saladin all these things are all mixed up, but I want to say ......"

Lang Shining was writing hard, and he rode at a gallop to the bottom of the low slope where he was standing.

"Lang Ci, Governor Xie of the General Affairs Hall is urgently called, please rush to Guangzhou immediately!"

Hearing that there was official business, Lang Shining, who was the deputy secretary of the General Affairs Hall, sighed, regretting that he could not continue to follow His Majesty the Emperor, and then looked at the painting on the drawing board that was not completed, and the regret was even worse, I don't know when it will be completed.

But he still had time to finish his diary, and after taking the official document, Lang Shining continued to write, and he was writing to the most important place.

"But I want to say that this is different, it is not my Lord against Allah, nor is Rome against Protestantism."

"Whether it is those people in Wuchang City, shouting to burn Panjinling, or those outside Wuchang City, crying for Panjinling's death and angrily asking the emperor to judge sinners, they are not fanatical believers. Some may disagree when they see the angry expressions of the people on both sides, but I must say that they are indeed defending the sacredness in their hearts and hating the demons in their hearts, but they are not the kind of believers in our European concept. ”

This text is provided by Qihang Ming'er

"The people of the Qing Dynasty, they are ignorant, they are barbaric, they are like the sinners tried by the European Inquisition, and they are like the Inquisition itself. I'm so analogous, but that's how I see the Inquisition. And the people of the Anglo-Chinese people in the south, although they belong to Catholicism, I have to say that this Catholicism does not have a soul of its own, he is more like a ...... A society that teaches everyone how to live a more peaceful and happier life. ”

"Whether it is the Qing Kingdom or the Anglo-Chinese, the people are Chinese. They have never believed in an omniscient and omnipotent deity who created everything, controls everything, blesses and judges everything. All they believe in is the being who knows everything, who is omnipotent, who creates everything, who controls everything, who blesses and judges everything. Note that gods and beings are clearly different. ”

"Compared with the underworld of heaven, the Chinese are more concerned about whether the spirit of the ancestors will bless them, and whether they can merge with the spirit of the ancestors after they die. The Catholicism created by the Anglo-Chinese regarded the heavens as the destination of all ancestral spirits, rather than a grim god. They perceive the heavens through the spirits of their ancestors, so as to gain peace of mind and solace for their souls. They don't ask Heaven to tell them what to do and how to think. ”

"Strictly speaking, Catholicism is not a church, and of course there was such a danger when the golden bell was engulfed in flames. His Majesty's words reveal the essence of Catholicism, saying that those who believe in heaven are invincible. ”

"The Chinese language is broad and profound, and these two words have two different meanings. His Majesty the Emperor said the first meaning, that is, there are no enemies. Like Buddhism, Taoism, and even our Catholic Church, Catholicism also believes that everyone is sinful. But the difference is that they think that this sin is an earthly sin, not the original sin of man.

This text is provided by Qihang Ming'er

This is no different from the Buddhist Taoism that the Chinese believe, and even the statements of those Confucian scholars, who also emphasize self-cultivation and maintain the purity of the heart. ”,

"Since everyone is guilty, no one has the right to condemn the souls of others, so there is no enemy, this is my own understanding. So this Catholicism is only a pan-faith, a simple faith, a morality, a morality imposed on the soul. How can a church without heresy be called a religion? ”

But I feel that there is something else to the saying that the believer in heaven is invincible. If a man has no enemies, then he is not also the most powerful? If this Catholic Church can really do this, then what else can change the faith of the Chinese? In fact, some signs can be seen in the attitude of Chinese towards Buddhism and Taoism. ”

"Chinese seem to believe everything, but if you look closely, you don't seem to believe anything. But if you think about it more deeply, isn't it because they all believe in God? ”

"Your Majesty the Emperor, let this Catholic Church stand up,

This text is provided by Qihang Ming'er

, I must have seen through such a heart, let Chinese see his heart more truly......"

Later, Lang Shining was already venting his frustration as a Jesuit priest.

Closing the notebook and looking at the official document again, Lang Shining's little depression is gone, he still has important official business. He had three identities, a Jesuit priest, a painter to His Majesty's Imperial Court, and an official of the Imperial General Office. And the third identity has made him feel that his life has a new interpretation, and it is more worthy of his loyalty and hard work...... ）