22 Confucius Jigsaw Puzzle 8
◎So, who among us is willing to go down and serve as bait?◎
Just as Zhu Heng was thinking, the bead in his hand suddenly moved.
It floated into the air, slowly penetrated the round window, and jumped out of the statue's eye.
The other five beads were silent for a moment.
Then they started to roar even more excitedly.
Everyone was confused. What were these beads for?
The bead that jumped out entered the statue's field of vision without hesitation. It hung in front of the statue of Confucius and shouted: "Aoshi!"
Everyone felt the room tremble, and the statue of Confucius seemed to react strongly to the "Ao Shi".
"What... did you call me?" Everyone heard the thunder-like voice of the Confucius statue, with a slight tremor.
"Aoshi!" Zhuzi shouted again, this time even louder.
The five beads in the room also started shouting.
Zhu Heng rolled the two words on the tip of his tongue twice.
Oh what...
Oh what?
His expression changed slightly: "Teacher?"
Everyone looked at him.
"Teacher, they are calling 'Teacher'." Zhu Heng expressed his guess.
Everyone was stunned. So, these beads, these beads are all from Confucius' disciples?
Or, in other words, is he a representative of Confucius' disciples in some sense?
The five remaining beads in the room were stunned for a moment.
Zhu Heng stared at them, raised his chin, and nodded up and down: "Am I right?"
The beads quickly jumped up, hung in the air, slid up and down, and looked like they were nodding.
Everyone finally came to their senses, no wonder.
No wonder they asked everyone for help to wake up Confucius.
After much investigation, it turned out that he was a disciple of Confucius.
However, the statue of Confucius lost consciousness for a moment when he heard the cries of "Teacher." Then, he quickly regained his composure, pointed at the beads in front of him, and angrily declared, "You liar, where have you hidden my children? Return them to me now! The world has been without justice for too long. I want the order of rites and music to be restored."
The bead ignored this.
It paused, as if it had made up its mind, then turned and flew towards the ground.
The statue of Confucius tried to catch up, but it was quite strenuous, and he almost gasped for breath with every step.
Everyone who stayed up there could see it all.
They found that the direction the beads flew was where the first pattern - "Confucius Asks Lao Tzu" was located.
The beads fly and hover above the image.
It turned around and looked at the statue of Confucius: "Teacher!"
The statue chased after Zhuzi, unmoved, and angrily said, "Give the children back to me!"
When Zhuzi saw that he couldn't wake up the teacher, some water droplets came out of his body and fell to the ground drop by drop.
The pattern on the ground was soaked.
It was reluctant to leave and looked back at the statue again.
The statue of Confucius, however, showed no reluctance and lifted his right foot to step on the beads.
Everyone saw this and felt as if their throats were blocked, making it difficult for them to breathe.
Then they heard the bead let out a heart-wrenching cry, and it plunged headfirst into the ground without hesitation, blending itself into the pattern of "Confucius asking Lao Tzu".
It is like a guide, leading the statue and stepping onto the first picture.
There was a rumbling sound at the edge of the sky, and a ray of light flashed across, as if tearing through the endless darkness and bringing a ray of precious light to the world.
And that bead instantly turned into dust.
Helan Dao, who had been watching all this, looked at the fleeting light in the sky in a daze.
He turned his gaze and fell on the five beads behind the statue's eye sockets.
"Sort the remaining patterns." He suddenly spoke in a low voice.
Everyone was still in shock, and Helan Dao's voice was so low that they couldn't hear clearly for a moment.
"What did you say?"
"What I'm saying," Helan Dao raised his eyes and looked at everyone intently, "is to arrange these patterns on the ground in chronological order, and then guide the statue to step on those patterns step by step in order, retracing Confucius' life. Once it's done, perhaps it can awaken Confucius."
Xu Wenjun reacted the fastest. As soon as Helan Dao said that, she immediately understood what he meant.
She rushed to the statue's eye sockets, her brain racing, trying to retrieve the historical knowledge she knew from the depths of her memory.
"The first painting shows Confucius visiting Laozi in Luoyang, the Zhou capital. Afterward, Confucius traveled from his birthplace of Lu to Qi, seeking a government position, but failed. However, while at the Qi court, Confucius heard a piece of ancient music called Shao, which was so beautiful that it left him without meat for three months."
Xu Wenjun paused for a second. "So the painting with the stone chime and the meat on the table is the second one."
As soon as she finished speaking, a bead flew out of the statue's eye socket and landed in front of the second painting.
At that moment, the content in the picture seemed to come alive, and a prince of Qi appeared in the palace.
He walked out of the painting, stood on the dark earth, and shouted to Confucius from afar: "Go away. I am old and no longer have the energy to use you to advise the State of Qi."
The statue was stunned for a moment, then looked at the second bead and said angrily, "You are the one who did this, weren't you?"
As he said this, he raised his foot to step down.
The second bead said nothing and took the opportunity to guide the statue to step onto the second pattern.
Another flash of light appeared in the sky.
Xu Wenjun watched all this happen calmly and continued to do what she was supposed to do.
"Next, Confucius left Qi and returned to his home state of Lu. At the age of fifty-one, he became the Minister of Zhongdu, and was later promoted to Minister of Works and Minister of Justice. However, due to dissension from Qi, he was neglected by the Lu authorities and eventually resigned and left."
"So the third picture should be the one of him wearing official uniform and standing in the court with his hands folded."
The third bead flew to the ground.
It came to the palm of the statue, rubbed it gently, and then without looking back, it dived into the pattern on the ground.
The statue was still angry and was about to step on the beads as soon as it saw them.
"Okay, okay, you all ganged up on me and you all cheated on me."
It crushed the third bead with one foot, its voice choked with sobs: "What have I done wrong? I just wanted to restore the order of rituals and music. What have I done wrong?"
The bead still had a breath left in it. It lay in the dust and murmured, "Teacher."
The statue of Confucius holds his face in his hands, a sob escaping from between his fingers: "Okay, you drive me away, let me leave my hometown, and listen to me sing a song of 'Leaving Lu'."
It hummed a song with an ancient tune and didn't even glance at the bead on the ground.
"I don't want to be Sikong, I don't want to be Sikou, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with me? From now on, I can live a carefree life!"
The singing gradually faded away, and everyone was stunned. At this moment, there were only three beads left around them.
Zhu Heng's pocket suddenly moved.
He was stunned, reached into his pocket, and grabbed the source of the noise - the clay doll that looked like him.
A bead seemed to notice something was wrong with him, so it jumped over and circled around Zhu Heng's pocket. It lay on top of the pocket, trying to pry open a hole to look inside.
Zhu Heng's eyes were cold and motionless, just staring at it.
Zhuzi shrank back under his stare and returned to his fellow disciples.
Xu Wenjun glanced down and continued.
After leaving Lu, Confucius began to travel around the various states. He headed west and arrived at the then-state of Wei. But he only stayed there for a few months. When he left, he became separated from his disciples. Zigong searched for his teacher and asked someone. The man replied, "I saw a man at the east gate. He looked utterly miserable, like a stray dog."
The clay doll in my pocket moved more and more violently.
Zhu Heng frowned and held it in place. What was going on? Why was he suddenly so agitated?
Xu Wenjun's voice came over: "Then the fourth painting is obvious. It's the one with Confucius standing outside the city gate with a dog painted beside him."
The bead that had tried to pry into Zhu Heng's pocket suddenly flew into the air and circled around Zhu Heng twice, as if saying goodbye.
The clay doll trembled violently twice.
After saying goodbye, the bead stood up and flew out of the eye socket, leading the statue's footsteps and stepping onto the fourth picture.
The statue of Confucius was stepping on the broken beads and staring at the picture on the ground in a trance.
After a while, it suddenly laughed out loud: "He said I was a homeless dog? He's right, absolutely right!"
After successfully completing four pictures in a row, Xu Wenjun did not relax at all and continued to sort them.
After leaving Wei, Confucius traveled through several places, encountering various setbacks along the way. Finally, he decided to return to Wei, but the king still disregarded him. One day, Confucius was playing a musical instrument with a chime stone when a man carrying a straw instrument passed by. Confucius stopped and said, "The man playing the chime stone has a strong will."
"So the fifth pattern shows Confucius playing the chime stone, and a man carrying a straw basket at the door."
The fifth bead flew out.
It hovered above the pattern, but was chased by the statue of Confucius and crushed to pieces.
At this moment, a voice came from the man carrying the straw basket in the painting.
The voice sighed deeply and said to the statue of Confucius, "Alas, your chime is so stubborn. Even if no one appreciates it, so what? If the water is deep, you can swim across; if it is shallow, you can just lift up your clothes and cross. Why can't you learn to adapt?"
This time, the statue of Confucius seemed to be speechless and unable to refute.
"Then next is the sixth one." Xu Wenjun did not even raise his head as he continued to review the painting without any emotional fluctuations.
"Wei was not Confucius' final destination. After leaving Wei, he traveled through several smaller states before deciding to head to the then-great southern power, Chu. However, on his way to Chu, Confucius passed through a war zone, where he and his disciples were trapped by soldiers and nearly starved of food. Yet, Confucius continued to play the qin and teach as usual."
Having said that, the sixth picture is obvious enough.
The last bead came before the statue. It hovered over the corresponding sixth picture and softly called out to the statue, "...Teacher."
The statue of Confucius stared at the bead expressionlessly. This time, it took the initiative to speak.
The statue glanced at itself, surrounded by chaotic soldiers, and suddenly asked, "The Book of Songs says, 'Neither a rhinoceros covered in treasures, nor a tiger that kills, yet I flee in the wilderness.' How have we fallen to this state?"
Zhuzi replied: "Teacher, your ideals are too big for this world to accommodate."
The statue of Confucius snorted coldly.
The pearl then said, "Teacher, even if the world doesn't accept us, what does it matter? If we don't improve our studies, that's our shame. But if we have good ideas and they aren't adopted, that's a shame for those in power."
Upon hearing this answer, the statue of Confucius was stunned.
Not long after, it suddenly smiled and said: "You lied to me again, don't think I don't know, you just said this to comfort me."
"If you don't believe me, then come here, Master," Zhuzi called out. "Please step over me. When you wake up, don't cry for us, don't grieve for us. Please remember, we died for the Master's teachings, and we die without regrets."
Everyone watched all this intently, not daring to breathe.
Suddenly, everything went dark.
The statue closed its eyes.
Then there was a "click" sound from outside.
The last bead disappeared at the feet of the statue.
Listening to the sound of beads being crushed, Xu Wenjun paused for a moment before continuing, "Later, Confucius and his disciples escaped with the help of the Chu army and arrived in Chu. There, they encountered a madman. He was mad and mad, and he sang songs satirizing Confucius. He asked, 'Now that the world is without justice, why not retreat from the world instead of joining the scoundrels in power and joining politics?'"
"This is the seventh picture."
After Xu Wenjun finished speaking, the room fell into silence.
There are no more beads.
But Confucius had not yet completed the pattern on the ground.
A deep laugh echoed in the room.
The laughter made everyone shudder.
Helan Dao's smiling eyes swept over everyone one by one.
He said playfully, "So, who among us is willing to go down and act as bait?"
【Author’s words】
This chapter quotes a lot of materials. According to the website regulations, I will now list the reference works in the preface. If it affects your reading experience, you can set it not to read the preface (mainly for the website and reviewers to see). Thank you for your tolerance and bow to you all.
1. Li Changzhi, The Story of Confucius[M]. Beijing: Beijing Publishing House, 2002.
2. Qian Mu, A New Interpretation of the Analects [M]. Chengdu: Bashu Publishing House, 1985.
3. Li Ling, “Leaving the Sage to Find the True Confucius: A Perspective Reading of the Analects” [M]. Beijing: Sanlian Bookstore, 2008.
4. Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian: The Family of Confucius"
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided nutrient solution between 2022-06-07 00:35:18 and 2022-06-07 22:06:11~
Thanks to the little angel who cast the mine: Passer 1;
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
