Chapter 572: Hidden Veins of Two Realms, Returning to the Innate
Zheng Fa welcomed Professor Liu into the backyard of the nursing home. Professor Liu sat on a chair with his buttocks just touching the edge of the chair, his back straight, as if he was squatting in a horse stance.
Tang Lingwu smiled secretly with her head down, and waved her hand gently. A teacup drew a semicircle in the air and landed next to Professor Liu's hand. The tea leaves rushed into the bottom of the cup.
A transparent, pure, fist-sized water ball appeared in the sky above the yard. The water ball fell into the cup and hot steam gushed out from the surface of the water.
A cup of Wangji tea is ready.
Professor Liu watched this scene, and even though he was mentally prepared, he still stared at it.
"Tea, please."
Professor Liu picked up the teacup curiously and took a sip. He seemed to be dazed, his eyes were wide open, but there was a trance-like smile on the corner of his mouth. In an instant, he was radiant and looked as if he was ten years younger.
“This tea…”
"We offer Wangji tea to every scholar who comes to guide us," Zheng Fa said with a smile, "as a token of our gratitude."
This is also the rule formed over the years.
When learning from others, one naturally has to give something in return. With Zheng Fa's current status, all the people he invited are the top experts in the academic world.
It’s just that Zheng Fa has always been more respectful, and it has been like this since the beginning. For example, he regards Old Man Bai and Teacher Tian as his elders.
But that’s not the case now.
Because of his different identity, it is difficult for others to get along with him as comfortably as the old man did in the early days.
On the other hand, he really doesn't have that much time.
As the Confederation Research Institute grew larger, he had more and more things to deal with, and it became difficult for him to find time to build such deep relationships with people.
But he has always invited scholars to teach in the academy, and Professor Liu is not the first one.
Offering a cup of Wangji tea is both a sign of respect and part of the reward.
After Professor Liu drinks this Wangji Tea, if he continues to practice in the future, he will also have a period of rapid progress.
In addition, after drinking a cup of tea, he let out a long sigh and finally felt free from his previous restraint.
"To be honest with you, Dean, everyone in the institute was working so hard to get here," Professor Liu sighed. "People who work in this field are so used to being sidelined, how could they have such a chance to be immortal..."
Zheng Fa smiled and didn't ask much about how Professor Liu "stood out". He was used to seeing this kind of thing in modern times.
To put it bluntly, academics are also human beings. He has seen a lot of despicable behavior among them over the years, but it just never happened to him.
Anyone who can come before him is a good person.
Fortunately, he had just arrived in the modern era, and the teachers he met were indeed trustworthy.
This was one of his greatest fortunes.
"I wonder what this Shang-Zhou change you're talking about, Professor Liu?"
Listening to Zheng Fa's question, Professor Liu took out a tablet from his backpack, turned on the screen, and explained:
"After you passed those words to us, Dean, we studied them for a long time before we came up with a preliminary hypothesis."
"What hypothesis?"
"These characters may be the source of oracle bone inscriptions."
Zheng Fa perked up: "You just said it was similar? Why is it oracle bone script again?"
“Because words are fluid.”
Zheng Fa understood what he meant. He looked at the tablet and saw that it was filled with text and images he had sent back. He was excited and said, "Tell me in detail."
He suddenly thought of something.
The modern world burst out from Lu Yao.
Jiuyaotian is also related to Lu Yao. Is there any connection between the two?
Hence, there is this connection between the words.
Then this research might also be beneficial for him to enter the Jiuyao Heaven!
"Those of us who study ancient characters actually have always had two questions."
"What's the problem?"
"First, why is there such a huge difference between the oracle bone script of the Shang Dynasty and the inscriptions of the Zhou Dynasty? Second, why is our writing system the only one among the mainstream languages that is so unique?"
Zheng Fa was confused and asked, "What exactly do these two questions mean?"
"Dean, look here." Professor Liu swiped across the tablet, showing Zheng Fa a few pictures and saying, "This is a bronze tripod from the Zhou Dynasty. There's an inscription on it. This is a copy of the inscription."
Old Man Bai and the others also came over and looked at him curiously.
"We can almost recognize these characters. Perhaps the linguistic logic and historical details still need to be examined, but as for the characters themselves, we can almost completely understand them. This doesn't even require modern research, just a basic understanding of ancient characters."
Zheng Fa nodded slightly, feeling a little emotional.
He didn't know what the special features of Chinese characters that Professor Liu was talking about were, but just the weight of these characters spanning thousands of years was fascinating.
"But when it comes to oracle bone inscriptions," Professor Liu said, switching to a few more images. "We might not be able to understand them. Dean, you see, we can decipher these oracle bone inscriptions, but we still don't know what those characters represent."
Zheng Fa looked at the tablet and said in surprise, "You don't even know the meaning of most of them?"
"About two-thirds, maybe some new research, but overall it's still more than half."
Professor Liu shook his head and said, "This is the change in ancient writing between the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Our writing system was still the same as in the Zhou dynasty, but in the Shang dynasty, it seemed to have entered a different system."
"system?"
"This brings us back to the patterns the dean gave us." Professor Liu slid his hand across the tablet, comparing the runes on the bronze tripod with the oracle bone inscriptions.
Now, anyone can see that there is indeed a resemblance between the two.
Professor Liu looked at Zheng Fa and asked expectantly, "May I ask, Dean, are these patterns of yours related to immortality or the gods?"
Zheng Fa nodded slightly.
"That makes sense!" Professor Liu clapped his hands excitedly.
With a clap of his hands, the tablet in his hand fell from between his arms. Zheng Fa caught it in his hand, handed it to Professor Liu with a smile, and asked, "What matches?"
"This is an academic viewpoint I've always supported," Professor Liu said shyly as he took the tablet. "It basically means that the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty aren't characters. Or, rather, they're more than just characters."
"……What's the meaning."
"I think you, Dean, are aware that the Shang Dynasty was a civilization that placed great emphasis on sacrifice. They believed their ancestors were gods, living with them and able to communicate with them from time to time. Therefore, they would hold grand ceremonies to communicate with the gods, and witchcraft was prevalent."
Professor Liu spoke quickly, still clearly excited. "So some people believe that many of these oracle bone inscriptions are actually symbols used by shamans to communicate with their ancestors and spirits, and are not meant for everyday communication at all."
Tang Mudao frowned and said, "Now that you put it that way, it sounds a lot like a Taoist talisman... a spiritual talisman!?"
"It's a talisman!" Professor Liu confirmed. "Therefore, we believe that oracle bone script is a runic system, and these patterns given to us by the dean may be one of the sources of oracle bone script!"
Even Zheng Fa was stunned.
He didn't expect Professor Liu to come up with such a theory, and this theory seemed to subtly highlight the connection between the two worlds.
"It's generally accepted in academia that many of the unrecognized characters in oracle bone inscriptions are likely related to ghosts and gods. We've always believed this was a fantasy of the Shang Dynasty people..."
Professor Liu looked at Zheng Fa, his tone hazy, "But the runes the dean gave us suggest a second possibility. Either they truly have seen ghosts or gods, or perhaps they heard about this connection from their ancestors, and this is a memory passed down through their generations."
"This..." the old man said in a daze, "This actually makes sense."
Zheng Fa then thought of another thing. The Shang Dynasty was said to be born from the Heavenly Destiny Black Bird, and Lu Yao's demon king body was from the Golden Crow clan...
So, Xiandai and Xuanwei, Xiandai and Lu Yao, seemed to have always had a subtle connection, but he had never realized it before.
According to Professor Liu, the tradition of talismans still exists in modern times, but they have evolved into words.
This ancient rune system has developed differently in the two worlds—
In the Xuanwei Realm, its descendants are mostly talismans.
In modern times, it has become text.
Professor Liu continued, "But for some unknown reason, these runes lost their power, and the Shang Dynasty fell."
"The Zhou Dynasty was a completely different era. They respected ghosts and gods but kept their distance from them. They no longer held various sacrifices like the Shang Dynasty did."
Professor Liu pointed at the inscription on the tablet again and sighed, "Or rather, it's moving towards humanism."
Zheng Fa understood: "This is what you call the change from Shang to Zhou."
"Yes, although the Zhou people also inherited and learned oracle bone script, they did not believe in the ghosts and gods of the Shang Dynasty, so they discarded the characters related to gods and sacrifices. Based on other parts of oracle bone script, they created their own writing system, which truly formed the source of our language."
"That's why, when we look back at the oracle bone inscriptions, there are so many things we don't know and don't understand."
"And these runes you brought out, Dean, might actually be closer to the earliest oracle bone inscriptions."
"Of course, because there is so little evidence, this is just a more likely hypothesis."
Zheng Fa nodded slightly. He knew that this statement might not be completely accurate, but it also explained many doubts in his mind.
"In fact, the peculiarities of our writing that I just mentioned are partly explained in this question."
Everyone couldn't help but look over.
"Among mainstream languages, our writing system is one of the few that is non-phonetic. We can even say that the core of our writing system has remained largely unchanged for thousands of years."
Professor Liu said, "There is some controversy about this issue, but there is actually a theory that it is somewhat related to oracle bone inscriptions."
"How do you say that?"
The old man asked with interest.
"One view is that although the Zhou people didn't talk about ghosts and gods, they still believed that writing was sacred. From this, they developed a reverence for writing. Because these words were sacred, they could withstand history and change. You could even say that our history is built on writing."
At this point, Professor Liu smiled to himself and whispered, "Am I talking... too much?"
Everyone laughed. They had seen many scholars like this who would talk endlessly when it came to the points that interested them.
What's more, they are really interested in this topic - especially Zheng Fa, who has been thinking about the relationship between Xiandai and Lu Yao, and even the relationship with Jiuyaotian.
Professor Liu changed the subject and said, "If we consider these patterns as the source of oracle bone inscriptions, we can use some of the current research results to interpret these patterns."
Zheng Fa was delighted and asked, "Have you figured it out?"
"Not yet."
Professor Liu tapped the tablet twice again and demonstrated to Zheng Fa and the others, "For some characters, we can easily deduce them."
"For example, this one is the sky in the inscription, this one is the sky in the oracle bone script, and this one... should be the sky in the rune."
Although the characters on the tablet have different shapes and strokes, if you look closely, you can indeed see a similar thread.
"But there are some characters we still don't know." Professor Liu pointed to the many runes on the tablet. "These characters have disappeared from Zhou Dynasty inscriptions, and some are not even found in oracle bone inscriptions. Therefore, we have no way of guessing their specific meaning."
"So, there's no way to infer what they mean?"
"No, we just need more information." Professor Liu looked at Zheng Fa and nodded. "For example, the sacrificial text you gave us earlier, although there are many characters we don't recognize, we know they are offering sacrifices. By comparing it with other texts, we can roughly understand the meaning of the text and deduce the meanings of some characters."
"As long as there is more material, there is hope of deciphering this kind of text."
There was a firm confidence in Professor Liu's tone.
Seeing that Zheng Fa didn't say anything, Professor Liu hurriedly said, "Actually, we already have some very definite results."
"Um?"
"We have figured out a small part of the inscription on the bronze tripod."
Bronze tripod?
Of course Zheng Fa remembered this treasure, which he had taken from the Gu God. The Gu God regarded this thing as his lifeblood, but was ambushed by the Jiushan Sect and had no choice but to give up the treasure.
It was precisely because of this bronze tripod that the Jiushan Sect noticed the existence of this ancient writing.
"The front of this tripod, right here." Professor Liu found a photo of the bronze tripod on his tablet and pointed at the side of the tripod. "There are two large patterns."
Zheng Fa and the others looked carefully and found that there were indeed two very conspicuous runes.
"This one should be a variant of the character '天' just now."
Zheng Fa thought about it for a while before he realized that this pattern was indeed very similar to the word "sky" he had just seen.
"This character..." Professor Liu said, pointing to the second pattern. "In our research, it probably represents earth or soil."
The old man muttered, "Heaven... Earth... Heaven and Earth Cauldron?"
"It's Qiankun!" Tang Mudao exclaimed in surprise, "Qiankun Ding!"
Everyone was stunned and looked at Professor Liu, who nodded and said, "We also thought it might be the Qiankun Ding's intention."
"...We can't make out much of the other text on the bronze tripod, but generally speaking, it should be some steps for using the Qiankun Ding."
The old man interrupted and said, "Instructions?"
"You can say that, but the most interesting thing is the last sentence." Professor Liu pointed to one of the feet of the bronze tripod. Next to the foot, a string of runes was engraved from top to bottom.
"What does this mean?"
"According to our preliminary understanding, the general meaning of these words should be... a return to the original state."
(End of this chapter)
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