Xi Shi, surnamed Shi (born on September 19, August 25 of the lunar calendar, 503 BC-473 BC), his real name is Shi Yiguang, the beauty of Yue in the Spring and Autumn Period, generally known as Xi Shi, and later generations call him "Xizi", born in the late Spring and Autumn Period in Yue Guo Ju Wu Lai Luo Village (now Zhuji Ramie Village, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province), since childhood, with his mother Huansha Riverside, so it is also known as "Huansha Girl". She is naturally beautiful, captivating the country and the city, and is the embodiment and synonym of beauty.

After the defeat of Goujian, the king of Yue, in the war against Wu, adopted the fourth of the literary genre "Nine Techniques of Cutting Wu (One Saying Seven Techniques)" to confuse the beauties and confuse their hearts, and confuse their schemes", and got Xi Shi and Zheng Dan under the Ramie Mountain. And build a beautiful palace in Tucheng Mountain, teach song and dance etiquette, decorate Luo, teach Rongbu, practice in Tucheng, and face the capital lane. After three years of study, Fan Li was dedicated to King Wu. Wu Wangfu sent Dayue, built Gu Sutai, built a palace of the doll, put the two daughters in the room of pepper flowers, indulged in wine, was desolate in national politics, and favored Xi Shi in particular. After Gou Jian destroyed Wu, Xi Shi went with Fan Li Pan Wuhu, and he didn't know what to do. One said that he died in the sinking river, and the other said that he returned to the Huanjiang River and ended up in the mountains and forests.

Xi Shi and Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan, and Yang Yuhuan are known as the "Four Great Beauties of Ancient China", among them, Xi Shi is the first. The four beauties enjoy the reputation of "the appearance of sinking fish and falling geese, and the appearance of shy flowers in the closed moon". Among them, the word "sinking fish" tells the story of "Xi Shi Huansha". Xi Shi is a woman with a raccoon yarn, with good facial features, pink peach blossoms, and excellent appearance. When she was in the river, the clear river water reflected her handsome figure, making her more beautiful Legend has it that when Xi Shi was in the stream, the fish in the water felt that Xi Shi was too beautiful, and they were ashamed to sink to the bottom of the water and did not dare to come out.

"If you start from Xi Shi, it is a huge project to collect the souls of these four beauties, not to mention 1,500 years old." I continued.

"That's just one of them." Ning Rabbit smiled.

"Oh?" I looked at him quizzically, "And the other two?" ”

"Before this picture of a lady, there are a few similar ones."

"And?"

"Yes, it can be seen that this is a systematic and continuous project." Ning Tuzi said, "You also said just now, this is not something that can be done by one person, I am afraid that there is an organized gang hidden behind these ladies' pictures." ”

I nodded, agreeing with Ning Rabbit's point of view.

"What are these people collecting the souls of the four beauties? Do they want to resurrect them? I asked, "However, even if you borrow a corpse to restore your soul, it is not enough to rely on this remnant soul, you must ensure that the corpse does not decay, and you must have a nearly complete soul." ”

"Painted skin!"

"Painted skin?"

The story of "Painted Skin" originates from Pu Songling's "Strange Tales from Liaozhai". At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was a scholar named Wang Sheng in Taiyuan, who happened to meet a homeless girl on the road, this woman was born young and beautiful, Wang Sheng saw the color, so he took the woman home and hid it in the secret room every day clouds and rain. Unexpectedly, this woman was transformed by a demon who specializes in eating people's hearts, in fact, "her face is green, her teeth are like saws, she lays human skins on the couch, and paints with colored pens." She threw a pen, raised her skin like a vibrating garment, draped it over her body, and turned into a woman. Later, this goblin was spotted by a priest, but the Taoist priest was kind-hearted and felt that "this thing is also good and bitter, and if you can find a substitute, you can't bear to hurt its life." "Just let Wang Sheng hang a whisk at the door of the house, and just scare her away. Unexpectedly, this goblin had a better face, and in anger he dug out Wang Sheng's heart and fled. The Taoist priest was furious, "I have mercy on it, the devil is daring!" So he used a spell to easily kill him. In the end, Wang Sheng was also resurrected from the dead by the efforts of his wife Chen.

"Strange Tales of Liao Zhai", also known as "Liao Zhai", commonly known as "The Legend of the Ghost Fox", is a work by Pu Songling, a famous Chinese writer in the Qing Dynasty. "Painted Skin" is the first volume of "Strange Tales" 40 chapters, which is a story that describes the relationship between humans and ghosts. The original text of "Painted Skin" is less than 2,000 words, and the reason why it is so widely circulated is that the erotic elements in the story are first of all, the story of the beautiful female goblin Qing Pu Songling's "Strange Tales from Liao Zhai" has always been very marketable in Chinese folk, although the original text does not describe it much, but it leaves a lot of room for readers' imagination between the lines; Secondly, there is a very brilliant character in the story, Wang Sheng's wife Chen, who knew that her husband had a crush on other women, and helped keep the secret while persuading her husband, and later in order to save her husband's life, she did not hesitate to endure all kinds of humiliation, and even ate the thick phlegm of a beggar, which can be called a model wife who touches the world; Finally, "Painted Skin" has a profound meaning, and at the end of the original text, there is such a generous statement of "indignant youth", "Foolish world! Obviously, the demon also thinks it is beautiful. Fool! Ming Ming Zhong is also delusional. However, the lover is fishing, and the wife will be willing to eat people. Reasoning from Wang Sheng's point of view, the first half of the sentence actually doesn't make sense, because he didn't know that the beauty was a goblin at first, and he immediately sought a way to pretend after learning the truth, and he was not a guy who wanted to die. However, the second half of the sentence can be called an enduring warning to the world, in this day and age, when we read this story, it is easy to compare the goblin to some second wife with green eyes, and Chen to those wives who have been married for many years.

"You mean the female ghosts skinned their people?"

Ning Tuzi shook his head and said with a smile: "What do you think, I've watched too many movies, the painted skin I'm talking about is not a female ghost jealous of a beautiful woman, peeling people and putting them on herself, this painted skin is talking about people's hearts." Some people get excited when they see it, and some people forget it when they see it, in the final analysis, it's all because of this skin. ”

"What do you mean...... Someone is interested? ”

Ning Tuzi nodded and said: "Since ancient times, heroes have been sad to pass the beauty pass, not to mention that these four beauties are the top beauties that shake the past and the present, I don't know how many people are fascinated, you think about it, Zhu Yan is easy to pass away, and the four beauties are only legends for people today, who can see their peerless faces?" It is the nature of people to love beauty, and it is the nature of men to love beauty, and I think that the person who painted this "Lady Picture" should be a man who is extremely eager for beautiful women, eager to the point of perversion. ”

"En, what you said is right, people will be born, old, sick and die, if someone doesn't want people to die, they will take some extreme methods, such as using formations to preserve the corpse, or using seals to lock the soul, and wait until the time is ripe to borrow the corpse to return the soul."

"Then the question is, what is the explanation of the remnant soul in this lady's picture?"

I didn't know how to answer for a while, so I turned my eyes to Wang Yan, hoping that she could explain it to me.

Wang Yan frowned, thought for a moment, and said: "This painting may be used to collect souls, just now Boss Ning also said, this painting is more than one, if I guess correctly, there are at least ten of them, divided into three souls and seven spirits, and each painting should have a soul or a soul of four people." ”

"It makes sense." Ning Rabbit nodded.

"If that's the case, it's hard to know for sure if they've succeeded in collecting everyone's souls."

Wang Yan shook her head and said, "There is only one soul missing from me, and in this painting, I can feel that the souls of the other three sisters are also in this painting." ”

"But this can only be used as evidence that he has collected souls, and it does not mean that everyone's souls have been collected, or, once successful, it is unknown whether there are still ones."

"Okay......" Wang Yan lowered her head in some frustration.

"Chang'er, you said that you were killed by Shen Jiu, before you died, or during the sealing period, did anyone come?"

Wang Yan shook her head and said, "Except for the one who appears regularly, no one has come again. ”

"Could it be him?"

"I don't know, but he didn't extract my soul."

"That's weird, when did you lose your soul?"

Wang Yan still shook her head, it seemed that she didn't know when her soul was lost.

Soul: The spirit that can exist without the human body; 魄: Old, it refers to the spirit that appears by attaching itself to the body. In Taoism, it is said that the soul of a person is composed of "three souls and seven spirits". Taoism says that people have three souls: one is called fetal light, two is said to be refreshing, and three is called ghostly spirit, see "Yun Ji Seven Signs" volume 54. Confucianism says that people have souls. "Left Biography. Twenty-five years of Zhao Gong": "The essence of the heart is the soul; How can the soul be gone, how can it last long?" "The Seventh Year of Zhao Gong": "The beginning of life is said to be spiritual, that is, to be born, and the yang is to be the soul; If you use more things, you will have a strong soul. Kong Yingda Shu: "The soul, the name of the gods, is originally from the form and qi; The form and atmosphere are different, and the soul is different. The spirit of possession is the spirit, and the god of the possession is the soul. The spirit of the form is said to be the first born, the ears, eyes, mind, hand and foot movements, and the cry are the sounds, and this is the spirit of the spirit; Those who possess the god of qi are said to have gradually known their spiritual consciousness, and this is also the god of qi. "

Taoism says that people have seven spirits, each with its own name. The first is called the corpse dog, the second is called Fuya, the third is called Birdyin, the fourth is called the thief, the fifth is non-poisonous, the sixth is called defilement, and the seventh is called stinky lung.

Qing Yuan Mei's "Continuation of the Son's Silence" also contains: Hangzhou customs, when the bride is married, she must hold a treasure vase, which is filled with grains, exchanged after entering the man's house, and then placed in the rice cabinet. One day, when a bride of the Liang family passed through the city gate with a vase, she was frightened by the doorkeeper's noisy request for money, and then she was in a trance. After drinking a bowl of talisman water, his soul was calm, and he said to people: "I have three souls, one soul is lost outside the city gate, and one soul is lost in the vase, and I must return it to two places." The family did as they were told. The bride said: "The soul outside the city gate has returned, and in the vase, the soul is pressed by the rice cabinet, and it can't come out, so what's the point?" The family did as they were told, and the bride was sick. This is frightened and disgraced.

When a person is about to die, the seven spirits are scattered first, and then the three souls are separated again. When you are sick, you will be dissipated, so you need to use medicine to stop it from spreading. If the spirit and strength are scattered, it is easy to get on the ghost. The human spirit can be called the soul, and there are three souls, one is the heavenly soul, the second is the earth soul, and the third is the life soul. There are seven spirits, one is the sky, two are the wisdom, three are the qi, four are the force, five are the center, six are the essence, and the seven are the Ying. The soul is yin, and the soul is yang. Among the three souls and the seven spirits, each is divided into yin and yang. Among the three souls. The heavenly soul is yang, the earth soul is yin, and the life soul is yang. Among the seven spirits, the two spirits of heaven and soul are yin and heaven, the spirit and strength of the center are yang and are human, and the elite two are yang and earth. Among the three souls, the two souls of heaven and earth are always outside, and only the soul lives alone. The three souls of heaven and earth do not often meet together. Among the seven spirits, there are two heavenly spirits, two earthly spirits and three human spirits, and the yin and yang correspond and are never separated. and often attached to the human body.