At the end of April, close to the beginning of May, King Chu Ling began to move to Zhanghuatai, accompanied by hundreds of officials, Xu Fu as the chief priest, and needed to take care of everything before the king of Chu arrived in Zhanghuatai, just wait for the fifth day of the fifth month of May Duanyang sacrifice day. Shen Chengping also brought the newly brewed fine wine, and a young man accompanied him.

Later generations will tie Qu Yuan to Duanyang, that is, the Dragon Boat Festival, but it can't be regarded as a mistake. Because it is indeed because of Qu Yuan that the Duanyang Festival, a regional festival, has almost been expanded to the area of Chinese people around the world. But in fact, long before Qu Yuan jumped into the river, the Duanyang Festival already existed, and it was an extremely important day of celebration in Chudi.

Qu Yuan's choice to jump into the river on such a day is just like a great person who chose to commit suicide during the Spring Festival or Christmas, which is full of a tragic sense of contrast. At the same time, it also gives a special day, more meaning and definition.

In any case, the current Duanyang Festival does not explicitly represent someone, it is more like a punctuation mark, representing the 'summer solstice'.

At this time, the Chu people worshipped fire, and summer would make people associate it with fire to some extent. Shen Chengping walked between the palace buildings of Zhanghuatai, and all he saw was luxury, showing ingenuity, although it was newly built, it still had an indescribable sense of historical weight. This is not at all the same thing as the big mounds that later generations saw.

"Sure enough, the pavilions and pavilions, carved railings and jade buildings, the wind is always blown away by the rain and wind. Where the people of later generations disdain, this moment is the most extravagant and prosperous place.

Sacrifice to the sky is naturally indispensable tripod, tripod in this era is the establishment of the country, the symbol of state power, the sacrifice to the sky used by the king of Chu is the king of Chu Ling spent a lot of refined copper mixed with some rare treasures cast seven treasures.

It is still the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, although Zhou Tianzi has declined, but he has not been completely eliminated from his authority, although King Chu Ling is arrogant and extravagant, but he is not bold enough to cast Jiuding, wantonly revealing his ambitions, otherwise it is impossible to wait for the princes to rise up and attack it.

The so-called bell ringing Ding food, the state of ritual music, Zhong is music, Ding is the ceremony, Shen Chengping's eyesight is excellent, far below Zhanghua Terrace, you can see seven three-legged, round thin waist Bao Ding stands separately, only when the sacrifice to the sky, can the king of Chu Ling hold up the seven big tripods, go to the altar.

Shen Chengping looked at the relief carvings of the phoenix painted on the tripod's body, the neatly engraved inscriptions, and the two ears of the baoding were like phoenix tails facing upward, arched high. The workmanship of these seven tripods is exquisite, and the inscriptions on them are also talismans, which can communicate the national fortune of Chu when worshipping the sky, and are strictly guarded by a team of elite guards at this time.

On the fifth day of the fifth month of May, King Chu Ling officially came to Zhanghuatai, starting from the first rays of the rising sun, he first worshiped the ancestors and kings of the past dynasties, burned a car of bamboo slips with sacrificial texts, and then the ritual music sounded, the huge chimes and chimes were arranged in rows, and the magnificent music sounded. Musical instruments such as gong, cymbal, duo, chiyu, and bell also alternate, making the whole piece more complex and cumbersome.

This kind of music is solemn and solemn, and the courtiers and nobles of the Manchu Dynasty of Chu have already knelt around the altar and sat down. Although the scorching sun was exposed, no one complained of being tired, and they all looked straight in the direction of due south.

Just south is the king of Chu Ling, wearing the princes' royal clothes, holding a big tripod in one hand, and walking greatly. The thousand-pound tripod, in the hands of King Chu Ling, seemed to be as light as nothing.

Since Emperor Yu onwards, the world Kyushu, luck to the tripod, so the scholar with one tripod or three tripods, the doctor with five tripods, the princes with seven tripods, and the Son of Heaven can use nine tripods, sacrifice to the ancestors of heaven and earth when the nine tripods ceremony.

Ding is a symbol of luck, identity, status, how high status, how high the qualification, how many tripods can be held up, the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons, and even many later Warring States heroes, have tried to raise Jiuding, have failed, so they have to return to their original position, dare not fight the world again, is because Jiuding judged that they do not have the qualifications to gather Kyushu luck.

King Chu Ling, as the king of Chu State, was easily lifted within the seven tripods, as if there was nothing. The so-called Son of Heaven lifts nine tripods and gathers the fortunes of the world, this statement and the conventional model will not officially come to an end until Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, kills himself in Wujiang. Since then, it is difficult for the Son of Heaven to lift the tripod, and the so-called Jiuding has become a nominal symbol, without much practical significance.

Because Xiang Yu once raised the Jiuding, this brought together the last remnants of Chu and the remnants of the six kingdoms swept by the King of Qin, overthrowing the powerful Great Qin Empire. But in the end, Xiang Yu was defeated by Wujiang and ended up killing himself, and did not become the lord of Kyushu.

"Dangdangdang...... There were seven loud bangs in a row, and King Chu Ling placed the seven big tripods on the altar. Next, Xu Fu, the main priest, appeared, and saw that he was wearing a fiery red feather coat, holding a deadwood staff, wearing a phoenix tail feather crown, stepping on mango shoes, and painting the phoenix five virtues on his face, with a peculiar step, he walked up to the altar and stood beside King Chu Ling. Standing in front of the Qiding with the ancient Chu rhyme, singing the ballad of praying to the sky and the ancestors.

The left and right deputy priests led many civil and military courtiers, and threw a volume of sacrificial texts into the seven big tripods, when the seven big tripods were piled up, the top of the Zhurong dead wood staff in Shen Chengping's hand suddenly ignited a crimson flame. The flames were divided into seven and fell into the seven great dings, and then burned brightly.

At this time, the sky changed color, it was clearly noon, but there was a red glow in the sky, which seemed to really attract the ancient heroic spirits, looking at this vast, rich but vast and changeable land.

King Chu Ling stood in the middle of the seven tripods, bowed to heaven and earth, and said loudly what he wanted: "May the wind and rain be smooth and all the people be healthy." "I only hope that the soldiers will be strong and the horses will be strong, and the river will be forever."

At this time, King Chu Ling was like Ming Jun, and many courtiers who had already begun to be disappointed in King Chu Ling also showed satisfaction. Of course, loyalty to the monarch and patriotism are also part of the mainstream, but there is still a long way to go from the degree of the three outlines and five constants. In this era, people's hearts are still free, and kings can choose their courtiers, and courtiers can also choose the kings they want to serve. Even the saint of Kong, too, is not stupid and loyal. Otherwise, when there was still Zhou Tianzi in the court, why would he travel around the world, spread his doctrines, and want to find a powerful monarch who knew how to appreciate his ideas to assist him? The so-called Three Principles and Five Constants should be a kind of overture and compromise of the later Confucian school to the rule of the king.

It seems that he heard the prayer of King Chu Ling, and the flames in the seven Chu King Dings burned more and more, and there was no intention of extinguishing them at all, and the phoenix carved on the Chu King Ding also seemed to come to life, swallowing the flames and connecting the seven flames together.

After King Chu Ling's prayer was completed, only Feng Mingnu was left to dance on the altar. The state of Chu respects the phoenix, so only a woman with the life of the phoenix can please the heavens with dance, please the heroic spirit of the state of Chu, let them protect the state of Chu, continue to be stable for a long time, and the country will be forever.

Ten plainly dressed girls pulled a cart full of flowers, and on top of the cart, a woman dressed in a fiery red outfit and wearing a crown of crimson jade phoenix hair on her head, with a proud and indifferent expression, stepped down from the cart full of flowers, stepped on the altar, and then on this high altar, under the continuous flames, danced the sacrificial dance.