As the supreme ruler of the Shang Dynasty, this second cup of wine was originally only symbolic, and it represented that the Shang King was the first person in the world who had the right to enjoy the wine except for the gods of the Western Heavens. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Originally, the ritual stipulated that the second cup of wine was a small glass, probably taking into account the different amounts of wine that the Shang kings had drunk in the past. It must not be because of this cup of wine that the king will lose his temper during the sacrificial ceremony.

But since the king came to the throne, the second glass of wine has also been replaced by a large one, which is as big as ...... The same large cup of wine as the first wine in the worship of the Western gods. The King thought that he had the ability to enjoy such a glass of wine.

He took the glass of wine, raised it slightly towards the West, took it, and drank it all. As if he could hear the sound of the ministers, bureaucrats, servants, and platforms standing around the high platform gasping uncontrollably, the vague worry in the heart of the king seemed to be alleviated a little.

This is followed by the divination ritual, which is said to be too important to be desecrated.

At the beginning, King Tang conquered Xia and achieved great things, but it was a great drought in the world, and there was no harvest in the world for five years. The king of the soup prayed with his body in the mulberry forest...... He cut off his hair, tied his arms, and made himself a sacrifice to heaven, and the rain came.

Although the King did not attach much importance to this ceremony, he had always regarded it as a ritual. But after all, it was handed down from his ancestors, and he couldn't categorically cancel this rule, but when it was implemented, it had already been greatly discounted.

For example, he omitted to pray to his father and mother in the divination ceremony before each expedition, and it seems that this did not affect the direction of the war.

But this time, the king made a special instruction for divination - to take the tortoise shell offered by Zhou Bojin. Because, this time, King Xu's heart is really a little worried, worried about Zhou Bo from the West.

He wanted to use the tortoise shell offered by Zhou Bojin to predict Zhou Bo's affairs.

A waiter brought tortoise shells to the king in a tray, and he was not only the king, but also the spiritual leader, so that the divination of the solemn ceremony was to be done by him himself. Da Ji stood behind him, and at this point she was only a foil, unable to speak.

He didn't take it, he didn't lower his head, he just looked at the tortoise shell in the tray with his eyes, and motioned for them to take it down and prepare.

Someone took a pre-lit charcoal brazier, placed a tortoise shell in it, and covered it with dried wattle branches that had been selected in advance. After a while, the wattle branches also burned.

The king listened to the tortoise shell in the brazier make an even crackling sound, long and soft. His heart was once again at peace, which indicated that the world was peaceful and that nothing sudden and violent had happened.

Yelu Zhousheng and the others were just bystanders, and they did not have the ability to enter the incident. Looking at this ceremony, He Jing was puzzled, could it be that a small tortoise shell could also see the direction and good luck of the development of the situation?

Watson and the Shangguan sisters also looked at Yelu Zhousheng, hoping that he could explain. Yelu Zhousheng searched his stomach and tried to find information about divination from his memory. After a while he said:

"The process of making and processing tortoise shells used in divination is complicated and time-consuming, and it is divided into ten steps. One is to use. In autumn, there are special people who go to the river to take turtles, and raise them until the spring of the second year to kill the turtles, remove the flesh and internal organs, and leave the turtle shells.

The second is the debate. Debating the top, bottom, left and right, yin and yang of the turtle shell, this work is done by experienced specialists.

The third is provocation. Provocation is to kill animals and sacrifice turtles, and the sentence "burning turtles and three cows" makes a clear provision for this link, sacrificing a piece of tortoise shell, and killing three cows.

Fourth, attack and rule. This was done by skilled slaves, using five tools: sawing, filing, knife, chiseling, and drilling, sawing off the dorsal armor and using the abdominal armor, sawing off the upper and lower protrusions on both sides of the abdominal armor to make it oval, removing the colloidal scales from the epidermis, and scraping it flat so that it would be easy to find signs and inscriptions. File the thickness of the building so that it is evenly balanced, and finally scrape it to give it a shinier look.

Fifth, similar examples. Some people will stipulate the categories that can be divined by this tortoise shell according to the color of the tortoise shell: sacrifice, behavior, field hunting, expedition, year, rain, ...... There are clear regulations, not just a piece of tortoise shell can be used.

Sixth, drill and chisel. The purpose of chiseling is to make the front of the ventral carapace easy to split straight, and drilling to make the front easy to split laterally. The drilling and chiseling procedures should be prepared in advance.

Seven is scorching. Chart, bake the tortoise shell over a charcoal fire. Searing, the tortoise shell is covered with wattle branches and ignited, which is to make the tortoise shell crisp and prone to cracks.

Eight is a megagram. The diviner listens to the cracking sound made during the burning of the tortoise shell, and looks at the vertical and horizontal lines on the surface of the tortoise shell, and speculates on the good luck.

Nine is the book deed. The soothsayer's assertions are inscribed on the tortoise shell. The method of burning is also very strict, starting from the middle of the tortoise shell, on the right and on the left; The title is painted and the content is inked.

Ten is the treasury. The tortoise shells used for divination are managed by the person in charge of the oracle bones, and the six tortoise shells are decorated into a single book. Once the number of tortoise shells was too large, they were buried in the ground with the consent of the Shang king, and the person in charge of the oracle bones was buried with them in the line of duty - this is for the sake of secrecy."

After Yelu Zhousheng finished speaking, everyone looked surprised, they couldn't imagine that a small tortoise shell would have to deal with so many programs, he seemed to see everyone's thoughts, and said with some sadness:

"It's not that I think it's complicated, but I'm sad about one thing—a messenger who came to deliver a letter after a lot of hardships was disposed of in this way, although the ceremony was solemn, it always makes people sigh when they think about it."

When they listened to Yelu Zhousheng's words, they all seemed to have lost interest in this solemn and sacred ceremony before them. Jereth Zhousheng said, "Let's go and see the man in charge of the tortoise shell."

He Jing said, "Let's go and see who is in charge of the tortoise shell that the Shang King is now using for divination." They looked together into the charcoal brazier, and the tortoise shell had already changed, and the upper edge was cracked. Yelu Zhousheng said, where did the word "Bu" come about, I believe everyone knows it, right?

Before the words were finished, everyone suddenly found themselves in a room.

There were rows of shelves in the room, and there were six volumes of tortoise shells piled on top of them. A man dressed in clean clothes, with loose tortoiseshells unbound on a table in front of him, it seemed that his work was not finished.

Such a profession could be regarded as decent in the Shang Dynasty, he did not have to go into the wind and rain to pay manual labor, did not have to endure the whipping of the slave owner, which can be seen from the clothes on his body and delicate face.

But Yelu Zhousheng and the others did not see that superior expression on his face, and he was weeping with a sad expression on his face.

Yelu Zhousheng said, "Look at the books of tortoise shells on the shelves around him, there is no room for them on the shelves, and perhaps he will soon be buried in the ground with them." "Everyone looked over, and sure enough, it was not that he was slacking off, but that there was no place to put it.

At this time, a person outside the house shouted loudly into the house, "The king of Shang is going to the western suburbs to pray for blessings, you quickly choose the tortoise shell offered by Zhou Bojin in a certain year and month for backup!" ”

The man hurriedly wiped the tears from his face, as if he was afraid that someone would find out that he had been crying. He stood up, his not too old body looking a little staggering. He walked to the place where the tortoise shells were kept for use, and the many tortoise shells there were placed according to the classification code offered by Fang Guojin.

His fingers moved slowly on the mark, pausing for a moment as he passed by "Zhou Bo", but he moved over, and pulled a piece from the "Ghost Fang" column, he took the tortoise shell in his hand, and walked out slowly.