134, True Contract

The "Qin Gaotai" recorded in "Fangwai Tuzhi" is the whole world in the eyes of the local indigenous people. They call it "Heaven Kingdom". This title obviously carries the shadow of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom back then. However, the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom outside has long been blurred, and it is even just a myth that has been difficult to verify for a long time. They have lived and reproduced here for thousands of years.

The story of "Worry-free Country" told to the three disciples was actually confirmed by some coincidence. The Qingaotai is indeed different from the outside world, and only more than 150 years have passed outside.

Ding Qi and other masters and apprentices were called Brother Tian by the local indigenous people. The place they came to was called Dongdaying. There were four villages in total, with more than 700 residents. It can be seen that each village is not large in size. There are five camps in the entire Tian country, including east, west, south, north, and five camps, distributed in five plains suitable for settlement. The population of each camp is similar, and the total population of this world is about 4,300.

From a biological point of view, this is also a number that can barely maintain genetic diversity and prevent population from degrading.

The entire world is limited. If the direction of the sun rises is east, about 120 miles from east to west, and about 100 miles from south to north, roughly estimate that the area of ​​Qingaotai or the kingdom of heaven is about 300 square kilometers. Ding Qi and the others were very unlucky, and the place they arrived first was close to the easternmost end of the world.

If they had walked eastward and crossed mountains and ridges, they could reach the edge of the world a few kilometers away, and the scene there was like unknown fog. A large area in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Heaven was full of mountains and ridges, and most of the places they had traveled had been rarely visited for three thousand years.

Due to the darkness, the activity range of the indigenous people in most cases is limited to the place where they can travel or reach during the day, which is a habit formed in historical traditions. The entire heaven is far away from villages like that, with inconvenient transportation and few places with few people. The area where Ding Qi and the others arrived was its largest.

This kind of place was even specially drawn on the map of the heavens, and was stipulated as a "reserved land" by local laws. Interestingly, the name reserve land crashed. When the European colonists arrived in the American continent, they occupied all the good places, and the Indians were almost extinct. Finally, they drew several places in the wilderness and ridges for the remaining Indian native tribes. This kind of place was translated into Chinese, which happened to be a reservation land.

But the meaning and reason for the formation of the two are different. Moreover, in books in the Kingdom of Heaven, the word "安" in the reservation is wrong. The Chinese character "安" is added next to a single person, and "安" is the mouth bottom. The Chinese character "安" used here is "安" ten on the right, with two strokes missing one stroke.

Several younger students analyzed how this "typo" was formed? The Taiping Army who had avoided this place must have been literate, so the words here were passed down. If the person who left the characters in the first place wrote the word Bao wrongly, then the rumors would be spread and future generations would always use this character.

Dan Ding Qi told his disciples that in the earliest oracle bones, the word Bao was written like this. On the left is a person and on the right is a cross, which looks like a person with a long arm. Therefore, the word Bao may be simplified by the Chinese character circulating here. Of course, it may also be that the earliest person wrote it wrong.

Many of the local books use traditional Chinese characters, but many characters have been simplified, and most of them are almost the same as the simplified characters used in the outside world today. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom era did not experience the simplified characters movement. The mainland promoted simplified characters after the founding of the new country and was accompanied by the literacy movement.

Many people may have misunderstandings that simplified characters were forced to create Chinese characters in that era, but in fact, this is not the case. The abbreviation of Chinese characters has existed in ancient times, and can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. In the following two thousand years, simplified fonts have been continuously emerging with the development of calligraphy. The simplified characters movement after the founding of the New Kingdom was a large-scale comprehensive summary on the historical basis.

For example, a large part of the simplified characters we use now comes from cursive script by ancient people. The development of Chinese calligraphy art has long reached its peak. Cursive script is by no means a casual graffiti. It has an internal artistic expression paradigm and has also formed many conventional fonts, which have become the source of simplified fonts used by the people.

Chinese characters have been circulating in this world for thousands of years and must have undergone some evolution. Interestingly, most of the simplified characters used by the outside world.

There are also a few changed fonts. Although they are different from the simplified characters or the original traditional characters, they are easy to recognize for those who are familiar with Chinese characters. It is not difficult to tell which Chinese character it originally corresponds to based on its shape and where it appears in the chapter.

They may have been simplified or were written incorrectly at the beginning, but as long as the entire language font system is passed down, they are the correct Chinese characters here and can be understood at a glance. This may be the uniqueness of Chinese characters.

There are books here, of course, paper, and printing technology. Only a few classics use engraving and printing, and most of the other books are handwritten because they have a small population and do not need to be distributed so much. Stereotyping is mainly to preserve the content. There are two types of paper here, one is bamboo paper, which is thicker, and the other is mulberry paper, with a texture similar to raw rice paper.

Jingyang County was an important paper-producing place in ancient times. There should have been paper craftsmen in the local area who joined the Taiping Army. Later, they came here with the remnants and brought the papermaking process in. The rice paper that was waiting for was made of the bark of a green sandalwood tree, and the lower rice paper can also be made of mulberry bark.

Obviously, there is not enough green sandalwood here, but craftsmen can still make paper from mulberry leather. The output of paper here is of course not high and is a very precious material. Mulberry leather paper is much more precious, and it is kept in a special place together with books. The indigenous people only have bamboo paper.

Ding Qi and others were welcomed into Dongdaying in a sedan chair. They passed by a village and went directly to the central large village. They lived in the most beautiful and comfortable three-story building in the village. This is the tallest building in Dongdaying, and it is also the temple of the indigenous people. It is the place for gods and books.

The temple has two yards on both sides of the yard, and three floors at the attic at the rear. The hall on the first floor of the rear pavilion and the main hall is also a school for all children in Dongdaying. All children of Dongdaying age must receive education here regularly. The education is divided into two stages, called primary school and university.

The three disciples were arranged to live in the wing room of the Houmen, while Ding Qi lived on the second floor of the Houmen. This place was originally unavailable, and it was a place for collecting books, pens, ink, paper and inkstones. It was a sacred place. Only "Brother Tian" had this qualification.

Brother Tian is the name of Ding Qi and others by the indigenous people here, and was decided when Zhuang Mengzhou and Shangni arrived. Zhuang Mengzhou did not like this title at the beginning, but later Feng Guoxin, the marshal of the camp, said: "The name of Brother Tian is an ancient myth. The distinguished guests come from the sky, and there are all brothers in the world. It is also a respect for the Emperor and Emperor Tian."

What he said seemed to make sense. Zhuang Mengzhou reluctantly recognized this title and designated it as a general term for all foreigners. After Brother Zhuang Tian arrived at the camp with Brother Shang Tian, ​​the "rule" issued by him was a prophecy. There were seven brothers of heaven who would arrive one after another, and asked the camp to notify the camps of the east, west, south and north to prepare for the reception.

Zhuang Mengzhou and Shangni were the first to "come". They entered the camp that day and were offered to them by their delicious food and drinks. Tan Hanchuan arrived at Beidaying two days later. At that time, Beidaying had received the order, so Brother Tan Tian was respectfully welcomed into the village. Three days later, Brother Zhu Tian and Brother Xian Tian arrived at Nandaying and Xidaying respectively.

This made Dongdaying very anxious. Could it be that they were forgotten by the Emperor of Heaven, why didn’t Brother Tian come? After waiting for almost a month, Brother Tian finally arrived. And there were four people, and there were more than two people in the Daying. This made the people of Dongdaying happy again, and the four villages celebrated together that day.

This can also explain why the villagers were so excited when they saw Ding Qi and others? Ding Qi was a little confused at the time. Because the other party spoke too quickly and his accent was a bit special, he didn't understand. Later, after asking carefully, he understood what was going on. Then he was carried into the sedan chair and was carried into Dongdaying.

Dongdaying had the longest waiting time, and the preparations made to welcome Brother Hou Tian were the most complete. When I learned that there were four brothers who had not yet arrived, I specially made a new sedan chair because there were only three sedan chairs. The seat armrests of the three sedan chairs were decorated with dragon, phoenix and tiger in gold. Finally, the sedan chair was decorated with cloud shapes, and finally it was done before Ding Qi and the others came.

After Ding Qi and others were settled, Xiao Bozhi, the marshal of the Dongdaying, took out a batch of books and asked Ding Qi to read. This was also an edict issued by Brother Shang Tian, ​​which designated several classics to be collected in each camp, and required the camps to provide them to Brother Tian to read as soon as possible.

The first book is the Bible. This is the Bible of the world, not the Bible outside. It is also called the True Covenant locally. It contains two parts, the Old True Covenant and the New True Covenant. This is related to the faith and history of the kingdom of heaven. It is necessary to read in comparison with historical materials to figure out what is going on.

The second classic is "History of the Kingdom of Heaven", which is the simplest version designated by local officials, and records the most important historical events. Many things must have happened in a ten thousand years of history. Some less important details may be recorded in other ordinary books, while this "History of the Kingdom of Heaven" is a classic inheritance.

These two classics are printed with mulberry paper, and the entire Tian Kingdom uses a unified standard version. It is said that the carvings are made of gold and are preserved in the temple of the Daying.

The third classic is a set of nine volumes, hand-painted on bamboo paper, recording almost all the products of the entire kingdom of heaven and their production and processing methods. It is also the best technical information to understand the world, called "The Legend of Heaven".

The fourth classic is a very thin booklet, printed in print, printed on bamboo paper, and is a local almanac.

These four classics are very well selected, which allows outsiders to understand the world as soon as possible. This "Yuan" was published by Shang Ni, and may be inspired by Zhuang Mengzhou's guidance, which also allows her to enjoy the addiction to publishing Yi.

The marshal of Dongdaying respectfully presented the four classics and three decrees to Ding Qi, and told him that all the books collected in Dongdaying were next door, and Brother Tian could read them at any time, and if necessary, he could summon everyone. Dongdaying sent a group of people to live in the front wing room of the temple to wait for the orders of the brothers at any time.

In addition to the four classics, why are there three edicts? They are all sent by other large camps. The first edict was issued by Brother Zhuang Tian. Not only did they notify the major camps that were ready to welcome the arrival of Brother Tian, ​​but they also formulated a complex set of etiquettes.

1. Do not touch Brother Tian’s body, hair and skin.

2. Without the permission of Brother Tian, ​​you must not touch the things he carries from heaven.

3. When interviewing with Brother Tian, ​​you must be four feet away and you must not receive his breath.

Fourth, Brother Tian’s residence is spacious and has wide windows facing the sun, transparent and ventilated.

Five, Brother Tian comes, and you should prepare a bath.

6. If Brother Tian eats and uses it, others are not allowed to eat and use it again.

The second edict was issued by Brother Shang Tian, ​​which stipulated that the first time Brother Tian arrived at the village, each camp would submit the four classics she designated.

The third edict was even more strange. It was issued by Brother Tan Tian. It actually prescribed a prescription for soup baths and designated the major camps to prepare it. It is best to offer soup baths as soon as Brother Tian arrives. If it is not prepared at the first time, then after receiving the edict, you must prepare the prescription as soon as possible to provide soup baths for Brother Tian’s edict.

When Brother Tan Tian issued this edict, Brother Zhu Tian and Brother Xian Tian had actually arrived at Nandaying and Xidaying. This prescription can only be replenished afterwards. Only Ding Qi and others could enjoy it at the first time. Looking at the prescription prescriptions prescribed by Tan Hanchuan, Ding Qi and others did not recognize many medicinal herbs. Maybe the outside world doesn’t have them or the names are different. Compared with the "Chang Nation of Heaven", you may be able to understand a rough idea.

The four masters and apprentices were all looking at these things in Ding Qi's room. Ye Yanxing frowned and said, "Master Zhuang used his religious beliefs to pretend to be Brother Tian here, but the etiquette he formulated was too complicated. Is it too big to be upright?"

Ding Qi smiled bitterly and shook his head and said, "Brother Tian naturally has the dignity of Brother Tian. Mr. Zhuang has set a set of etiquette on the surface, but in fact he is protecting the locals, afraid that we will bring plague here. This place has been isolated from the outside world for thousands of years, and the microbial environment is probably different. We may carry some bacteria and viruses, which were not originally here.

Meng Huiyu: "No wonder the people here are far away when they talk. If they want to get closer, they will retreat. When I entered the village, I saw the children next to them, who wanted to get a few pieces of cherry candy, but the kid's horse was pulled away by the adults... Master, can this avoid the danger we bring?"

Ding Qi: "It is unlikely to avoid it completely, but you should also try to avoid it. The medicine bath prescription prescribed by Master Tan should also be the purpose of this."

As soon as he said this, someone outside the door respectfully said: "Brothers, the medicine bath is ready."

Everyone cooked four large wooden buckets of hot water and prepared the pulp of the melon and the large cloth towel to wipe the body. Meng Huiyu took a bath alone and was served by a woman. Seeing this pulp, she knew that loofah was produced here, and seeing this turplate, she knew that there was no cotton here. As for what texture the fabric was, everyone didn't know it, it was not the most suitable cotton towel for absorbing water.

I took a comfortable and hot bath. The hot water from the wooden bucket exuded a very good smell of medicine. I cooked the prescription prescribed by Tan Hanchuan in advance. After taking a shower, the food was already arranged in the front hall.

Before coming, Ding Qi was thinking about what people here usually eat, do they have any staple foods and vegetables outside? As a result, the staple food was rice, which tasted very good. It seemed that the rice outside was much more fragrant. Maybe it was because I didn’t eat rice for many days. The dishes were also very rich, with chicken, fish, meat and eggs.

The chicken tastes similar to the wild bamboo chicken they hunted in the mountains, but it feels more plump and tender. It produces salt here, and there is even cinnamon, pepper and wild garlic, and an unknown root that is spicy because it is eaten in the dishes. The fish is very fresh, and the eggs should be that kind of bamboo egg. As for another meat dish, it is actually a plate of frogs.

There are two plates of green vegetables, one plate should be the tender tip pinched by the pumpkin vine, and the other plate is not recognized, but it is crisp and refreshing. I originally thought that there might be a lack of such a rich seasoning from the outside world and I would not make any delicious food, but it was unexpected. Several people felt that they had almost never eaten such a delicious meal in their lives.

Before eating, Ding Qi also specifically reminded: "According to the instructions issued by your Master Zhuang, others should not use the things we have eaten. If you can't finish eating, you will try not to keep them." When you really started eating, you found that you could not keep them without ordering. You even drank all the soup. How many days have you eaten like this?

After dinner, they returned to Ding Qi's room to read the classics. They each took one to watch it and then exchanged it. They wanted to understand the situation of the world as soon as possible. Ding Qi first took the Bible, but after opening it, he found that it was very different from what he imagined. The core of this classic is "Old Ten Heavenly Regulations" and "New Ten Heavenly Regulations". Most of the other content is annotation made by people of all generations.

The old ten heavenly lines can clearly see the traces of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom back then. There may be several words and sentences different from history, namely—

First, worship the Emperor.

Second, it is not easy to worship Xi God.

Third, it is not easy to write down the name of Emperor Tian.

Fourth, every week.

Fifth, be filial to your parents.

Sixth, it is difficult to kill people.

Seventh, it is not easy to be traitorous and indiscriminate.

Eighth, it is difficult to steal and rob.

Ninth, it’s hard to tell lies.

Tenth, it is not easy to get greedy.

If there are any changes, it is mainly in Article 4. Seven days and one week. The tradition originated from Christianity and later developed into a secular weekly system, so Sunday is also called Sunday. But here it became the first, eleventh and twentieth of the month, and Sunday also became a public rest day.

By comparing the "Almanac", we can see that the calendar used here is the solar calendar, which is the same as the external Gregorian calendar or the high calendar, but also uses the stems and branches to date the year. The changes in spring, summer, autumn and winter here are the same as those in the outside world, but there are differences between the big year and the small year. A small year is a normal year, while a big year refers to the sixty years of reincarnation in the world.

The climate here has its own unique rules. Although there are spring, summer, autumn and winter within a year, the changes are not very obvious. In most cases, the river water will not freeze when it is coldest, and it will not be too hot when it is hot. However, the world revolves around sixty years, and every sixty years there will always be more than ten years, and the river water will freeze in winter; there will always be more than ten years, and the temperature will be higher in summer.

Ding Qi and his friends entered here at noon in May, and it was June when they arrived at Dongdaying, which was the early summer of the Little New Year. This year is the year of Yiyou, which corresponds to the Big Year, which is equivalent to early summer, and is the best time for the heavenly climate.

However, the new ten heavenly entries behind the Bible made Ding Qi stunned, and it turned out to be-

First, red bricks are not allowed. All bridge houses that require bricks are used, blue bricks are used. Careful protection of pottery. Those who fail to break pottery should be punished, and those who deliberately break pottery should be punished.

Second, the heavenly kingdom has the following territories: east, west, south, north, and five major camps. If each major camp has a population of more than 600, the household can have three sons; if each major camp has a population of more than 800, the household can have two sons; if the population is less than 600, the household will have no limit.

Third, the annual copper production of Heaven shall not exceed 100 kilograms, and the annual tin production shall not exceed 50 kilograms.

Fourth, for the fields that cultivate the land, the single plant shall not last for more than three years, and the same plant shall not last for more than five years. For the fields that spread, there shall not be less than five crops, and all the wastelands shall not be eliminated. For all seeds of crops, all the camps and warehouses must be kept, and famine shall not be eaten.

Fifth, when cooking fire-burning items, first use straw, straw, vines and other fields to collect the remaining materials. These objects and ashes are managed by the major camps and cannot be discarded at will. When entering the mountains to cut firewood, the plants shall not be cut off. The place where materials are collected will be suspended for ten years.

Sixth, fishing is not allowed in July, August, and September.

Seventh, cherish the protection of the family and fight, frogs can be eaten but not sold.

The eighth, the first day of the day is in Daying, the 11th and 21st small cities are in each of the major camps.

Ninth, all battalions are equal, men and women are equal, and everyone in the world is brother. The marshal, bishop, military advisor, and Sima master, are the three dukes. The three dukes are recommended by the public, and if they are not talented, they should be replaced.

Tenth, angels descend to their own realms, not born in the kingdom of heaven. Anyone born in the kingdom of heaven, who declares that his brother possesses him will not respect the emperor and the gods, will be ulterior motives and will be killed.
Chapter completed!