Chapter 27: The Tomb of the Eight Thieves

"Well...... Chenguang Daoist looked at the sky and thought for a while, "There are legends, but I don't know which one has anything to do with him...... What kind of legend do you want to inquire about? ”

"It's best to be after the Ming Dynasty Yongle Kaiyuan...... it's best to tell me how much you know!"

"Yongle Nian's words...... The most famous legend is the Eight Immortals Demon Town! Chenguang Dao twisted his beard and said, "I think I have been in Wudang for a hundred years, but it is a pity that there are not many things that have been handed down, and those idle books and miscellaneous books will be burned in six years!" According to the memories of the Chenguang Daochang, the Fuzhen Temple has been looted several times during the special period, although the presiding officer at that time, Luo Silian Luo Daochang, had secretly organized a collection of scriptures at the beginning of the special period, but the collection is basically really "scriptures", similar to mythological stories, legends and other leisure books were basically copied and burned by the Red Guards, for this, Zhang Guozhong of course understands that the so-called special period is a national mobilization that smashes everything, in addition to extraterrestrial celestial bodies and Chairman Mao's quotations, Almost everything that is more than 50 years old is collectively called the "Four Olds*", and even the tables, chairs and benches in the elderly have become props that may breed bourgeois feudal thoughts, all of which must be pulled out and burned, combustibles will be burned, and non-combustible will be smashed, that is, non-combustible and immovable such as the old buildings and old city walls, which are full of revolutionary slogans, must at least be visually revolutionary, in this context, Wudang Mountain does not have to think that it must be the hardest hit area, this kind of place everywhere is "Four Olds" is simply a paradise for the Red Guards, If you don't carry this old way out of the morning light, you can already be considered a lot of face-saving if you burn it......

"Speaking of this story, it's been a few years, and I listened to my master tell it back then, but those juniors are not as patient as Zhang Zhang's teaching...... I have the heart to tell them, but no one has the heart to listen......" According to the words of Chenguang Daochang, especially after the reform and opening up, young descendants are rarely interested in these legends and wild history, even if they have a belly of stories, but they don't know who to say, "It is said that it is eight immortals, and only seven immortals can be traced!" As for who the other immortal is, it is also a big mystery for me in Wudang! Today, when you talk about that Zhu Yunwen, it reminds me of this! ”

Strictly speaking, the teachings of the Wudang School are more focused on Danding, but the teachings are teachings, and personal cultivation depends more on personal understanding and preferences. Wudang ancestor Zhang Sanfeng is a figure who learns from the strengths of all factions, and there are also many Fu Zhen people among his disciples and disciples, including Shen Fangzhuo Zhenren, who joined forces with Maoshan Ma Sijia Zhenren in later generations to set up a loyal formation and sacrificed his life on the bank of the Yichang River, and Yun Lingzi, who is famous for breaking the "corpse refining kiln", are all outstanding representatives of the Wudang Sect who are proficient in the Fu Zheng Formation, and these people's cultivation of the Fu Zheng faction's legal lineage is actually not under some Fu Gong faction grandmaster-level figures.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Sanfeng sat down and received a total of seven disciples, Song Yuanqiao, Yu Lianzhou, Yu Daiyan, Zhang Songxi, Zhang Cuishan, Yin Liheng, and Mo Shenggu. In the martial arts "Heaven and Dragon Slayer", these seven people are called the Wudang Seven Heroes, and they can be said to be more than one by one, and their kung fu is not very good and they cause trouble everywhere, and finally they are dead and crippled, in addition to being beaten into a high paraplegia, they are collectively hunted down by all mankind because of improper relationships with cult people, all in all, Zhang Sanfeng's seven apprentices are basically in vain, but this is not the case, in the official history, although these seven people have a high level of martial arts cultivation, On the contrary, according to the rules set by Zhang Sanfeng, the use of martial arts can only be limited to physical fitness, and must not be used for actual combat killing. It is a good thing to live", advocating respect for life, not only his own life, but also the lives of others, Zhang Sanfeng is not only a Taoist master, but also naturally well versed in this way, and it is absolutely not allowed to disciples and disciples to take the initiative to hurt people with martial arts, so in the official history, the Wudang Seven Truths is the "Wudang Seven Heroes" mentioned in the biggest cultivation is to participate in the Taoist law, not to mention the murder of martial arts, let alone to break shoes with cult people.

According to the narrative of Chenguang Daochang, Zhang Sanfeng himself learned from the strengths of all religions, in addition to the martial arts of Neidan, he also has a high attainment in the Fu Gong Formation, in Zhang Sanfeng's life, completely self-created that is, has independent intellectual property rights of the formation, a total of 118 lines, this number is even far more than some famous Fu Zheng sect masters, so that later generations Zhengyi, Maoshan and other Fu Qi sect familiar formations such as "soul chasing array", "Mingle array", "dock embankment array" and in the Tibetan bureau is widely used in the "relocation bureau" , "100 People Bureau", "Night Bureau" and other tomb bureaus, in fact, were created by Zhang Sanfeng.

In the history of the development of Chinese Taoism for thousands of years, self-created formations have always been regarded as a sign of masters, just like today's computer industry, people who can save computers and type are all over the street, if you can design chips, can write kernel-level program code, then it is called a real master, there are between this, some pseudo-grandmasters and fake experts who sell their reputations have also come into being, all day long to "create a formation" as a business, it is net to invent some high-cost and poor effect, not only complex and no practical value of the "face array", It is even said that some formations have not been used for hundreds of years since they were invented.

Unlike these people, Zhang Sanfeng's invention of the formation is not publicized, and second, it is not deliberate; Each formation must have its purpose, that is to say, only when encountering a problem that the existing formation cannot solve, Zhang Sanfeng will bother his brain to invent a new formation, and the "Eight Immortals Array" used in the "Eight Immortals Town Demon" is derived from this.

According to legend, in the thirteenth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1380), there was a famous corrupt official in Xiangyang Mansion, named Zhao Jinzhou, who was famous not because he was greedy for a lot or greedy for a long time, but because since the implementation of the new anti-corruption policy of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang's invention of "peeling the skin and grass", this person was fortunate to become the first person in Hubei to enjoy this special treatment.

During the 30 years of Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, it can be said that it was the longest-lasting, most intense, and most resolute anti-corruption climax period in Chinese history, and it is said that only the "Hu Weiyong" case, the number of people who were implicated and killed exceeded 30,000, and such as the "empty seal case" and "Guo Huan case", such as the group nature of corruption cases, the number of people killed in a row reached as many as 780,000, and it was enough to form a group army. Wouldn't you have to vent a bit?

In the Ming Dynasty code "Da Ming Law", the punishment measures for corrupt officials can be said to be the most stringent in all dynasties, but Zhu Yuanzhang is still not addicted, and simply personally wrote the "Great Edict" with a higher legal effect than the "Da Ming Law", which stipulates that embezzlement of 60 taels of silver must be beheaded, and later, this Zhu Yuanzhang simply felt that the head was still too light, and it could not play a due deterrent effect on later generations, so he ingeniously invented the trendy anti-corruption method of "peeling the skin and grass", The specific way of implementation is to pull corrupt officials to the "leather temple" set up in every prefecture, prefecture, and county to peel the skin, and then fill the human skin with straw and lime and place it on the public court where the official was an official during his lifetime, to put it bluntly, the corrupt officials and corrupt officials are made into "specimens" for the successor to pay attention to and remember.

When Zhao Jinzhou's "specimen" was placed in the court, it immediately attracted a large number of ordinary people to pay homage, to be honest, this Zhao Jinzhou did not do anything excessive during his lifetime, and there were a few unjust cases that were tried quite beautifully, and his reputation among the people was quite reasonable, and he was not greedy for much corruption, only a thousand taels, compared to those corruption cases in the DPRK and China, which were often hundreds of thousands or millions of taels, it was indeed not even a "little witch", and the reason for this, It's all because the court gives too little money*, the dignified prefect, when the dynasty is five products, the daughter can't even get a decent dowry when she marries, it's a shame, and in desperation, you can only take risks and be greedy, but I didn't expect to catch up with Zhu Yuanzhang to behead Hu Weiyong, and by the way, he cracked down on corruption, and he was arrested on the cusp.

When the father because of his marriage was made into a specimen and put in the yamen exhibition, when the daughter of nature can not live, in Zhao Jinzhou was escorted to the "Pichang Temple" skinning day, Zhao Jinzhou's daughter Zhao Cuier committed suicide at home hanging beam, and at the same time committed suicide There is also a personal maid called "Xiao Yun", in addition, Zhao Jinzhou's daughter-in-law Song was implicated because of her husband's corruption, and was sentenced to eighty canes, and after returning home, she didn't carry it for a few days and hung up, Zhao Jinzhou's old mother couldn't stand the blow of the broken family, On the night when the daughter-in-law was beaten to the board, she had a myocardial infarction and died, in addition, there were a total of three people in the accounting room and steward of the Zhao Mansion, all of whom were beheaded, to put it bluntly, for this case, even Zhu Yuanzhang himself felt a little uneasy, and he was wiped out after he was greedy for a thousand taels of silver, and the rebellion was nothing more than that, but there was no way, such a resolute anti-corruption action, the purpose was to kill the chicken and show the monkey, who made you have two hundred and five lives just in time.

One thousand taels of silver, eight lives, plus a specimen, this is the reason why Zhao Jinzhou is famous, after the Zhao Jinzhou case, the whole Hubei really showed a new atmosphere of honesty and honesty, many officials who are ready to move or have been corrupted are all enlightened, and without hesitation embarked on the road of clean government to turn back to the shore, which can be regarded as Comrade Zhao's greatest contribution to society since he became an official.

Because the family members are all dead, and no relatives are willing to come forward to take care of the funeral for this exhibited buddy, the bodies of the Zhao family of eight were all buried in a mass grave called "Longhugang" outside Xiangyang City by the officials of the government.

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Note*:

Four olds: that is, "old ideas, old culture, old customs, old habits".

Ming Dynasty officials' Yulu: During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, Zhengwupinguan had only 192 stones, which was only equivalent to 20%-30% of the same official in the Tang Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang had been a beggar for three years before the incident, compared to the strict style, the degree of slamming the door is also well-known in history, even if it is a member of the dynasty, the annual Yulu is only 1044 stones, converted into cash is about 300 taels, only with the Qing Dynasty Qianlong period "Zhizhou" income level.