Chapter 754: Break Here
Master Shangyi's handwriting is very good. He is a famous master who is proficient in sutras and precepts. He has copied countless Buddhist scriptures in his life.
When put on paper, even the fox's practice method is conveyed with a kind and Zen meaning from the twists and turns of the brushstrokes and the ancient and vigorous style. As a result, this sutra reads like the lonely feeling of a fox worshiping the moon, but lacks many of the strange artistic conception, and instead highlights the spirituality in it.
These young men are either nobles or from prominent families. Zhang Chengzu is considered to be quite incompetent and has not made any achievements in any field so far, but his vision is not bad either.
But at this moment, no one was paying attention to the text itself. Zhang Chengzu was half in a daze, a little absent-minded, and seemed a little out of tune with others.
These young men read the fox book in its entirety, and the opening chapter did not directly describe the fox's cultivation method, but rather a section of instruction for foxes.
The general meaning is that the ancient fox is a symbol of auspiciousness and good fortune, and is the god of abundance and marriage. The nine-tailed fox is the messenger of the Queen Mother of the West.
Both the Qingqiu clan and the Tushan clan had great achievements and were famous in history.
Nowadays, foxes have fallen into a low class and have earned the reputation of being mean, seductive, and ominous.
The purpose of drafting the Fox Book is to promote the true nature through education, so that today's foxes can follow the Tao, uphold righteousness and avoid evil.
In order to achieve this goal, the following method of practice is taught.
"There aren't many translations here to begin with, so why are there two more pieces of nonsense?"
The young man shook his head, removed the two pieces of nonsense from the translation, and threw them aside casually.
Then they saw what they wanted, which was the Qi Refining Method, one of the Nine Methods in the Fox Book.
This Qi-refining method is very simple. It was the result of repeated discussions between Gong Mengbi and his colleagues in Tianhu Academy. Finally, they obtained the approval of the goddess and summarized it from the method of worshiping the moon and submitting to Qi.
The sun and the moon, yin and yang, bestow virtue upon all things and create all living things.
The fox’s practice of cultivation is to open up its wisdom, so it worships the moon to obtain yin, and absorbs qi to concentrate its spirit.
The practice of worshiping the moon and taking in the energy has existed since ancient times. It is not something that was only discovered by Gong Mengbi. However, each method has its own tricks. Some only require the intake of energy, while others also require the intake of spirits.
What is recorded in the Fox Book is the method of respecting the gods but not taking them, and of accepting the qi to refine the body.
Respecting the gods means respecting the virtue of the bright moon and the god in the moon. Respecting without taking will not affect your future practice.
The truth is simple. Once the key is stated, it has the power to make people enlightened and reflect.
Even if one didn't know the value of the book, after seeing this, one would know how valuable it was. Furthermore, these people were all smart, so they kept exclaiming, "Wonderful!"
Gathering Qi, inhaling Qi, and refining Qi—at this point, as long as one follows the rules and has a sincere heart, even ordinary people can practice. However, refining Qi is also about refining the body, and here, it is already different from practicing in the human body.
They naturally couldn't see it, but when they saw the secret of cultivation being revealed, they became eager and wished that it would get dark immediately so that they could try it out.
"Look behind you!"
Next comes the second chapter on how to nourish the spirit.
From this, we can see the serene atmosphere of this fox book. Because the correct way of human cultivation is to have sufficient essence, energy and spirit, and not be too biased, otherwise the balance of yin and yang will be lost.
But foxes are different. Their cultivation focuses on developing wisdom. In other words, they can put their physical bodies aside for now, cultivating their spirits, nurturing wisdom and spirituality, and then consider other things.
Humans are born with wisdom and spirituality, which, unlike other mortals, require practice to acquire. Therefore, the topic of nourishing the spirit is undoubtedly a partial practice. Within the essence, energy, and spirit, only qi and spirit are considered.
The first half of the method of nourishing the spirit is about how to nourish the spirit with qi, and the middle half is about practicing in a state of concentration, to awaken oneself and others.
But just when it came to teaching people how to enter a state of meditation, there was only a heavy pause left on the page of the translation. The excessive ink seeped through the paper, and it stood out as abruptly as a huge rock blocking the road.
"Why is it gone?"
“Why is it broken here?”
The people reading the scriptures wailed and paced anxiously, saying, "Did Master Shangyi hide it from us?"
"Zhang Chengzu, compare the rubbings of the fox book with this one. There are obviously quite a lot of rubbings, so how come there are only so few?"
Zhang Chengzu had no choice but to take it out. Several people discussed and compared it, but it was obvious that they did not have the ability of Master Shangyi. Fox characters were very different from ordinary characters, and it was impossible to make a one-to-one correspondence.
"I didn't expect there was only half a fragment of the scripture. What a pity."
"How about we ask Master Shangyi for help?"
"He definitely won't agree to help us translate the Fox Book again. By the way, Zhang Chengzu, your Fox Book is still enshrined in Jingta Temple. When are you going to retrieve it?"
"Yes, that's right. If Master Shangyi can translate the sutras, then others may be able to do so."
"Zhang Chengzu, what do you say?"
Zhang Chengzu felt his forehead throbbing as they stared at him. Many things today were different from what he had expected.
Many of the things they did together were not of his own accord.
Zhang Chengzu is the most incompetent among these people. He was not taken seriously in the past and was always regarded as being out of touch. If you want to get along with them, you have to accept being laughed at from time to time.
Zhang Chengzu thought that the fox calligraphy rubbings could prove himself and make them look at him with new eyes, but he didn't expect it to turn out like this.
"Zhang Chengzu?"
"You don't want to keep the Fox Book for yourself, do you?"
"This is a great blessing. We are all friends. You can't abandon us."
They held up the translated Fox Book and said, "Look, now we can all become immortals. In the future, we will all be immortal friends. We can travel to the North Sea in the morning and stay in Cangwu in the evening together. Isn't that wonderful?"
"Really?" Zhang Chengzu wasn't sure. What happened today had already left him with a knot in his heart, and he couldn't be sure that this was a good thing.
"Of course!"
The sky is already dark at this time, and after the beginning of autumn, the sun and the moon can often be seen shining together in the sky.
The setting sun dyed the distant sky red, but a gauze-like moon hung in the blue sky above.
The sound of a servant knocking on the door came from outside: "Master, it's getting late. If you don't go back, the master and his wife will be worried."
Zhang Chengzu recognized that it was his own servant, so he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I'm going home now. We'll talk about it another day."
The "fellow immortals" could not force him, so they said, "We will pay you a visit tomorrow."
However, no one wanted to return the rubbings of the Fox Book on the table or the translated copies of the Fox Book in their hands.
Zhang Chengzu wanted to take the Fox Book rubbing back, but was stopped and said, "Please lend it to us for reference for the time being."
There was no way, Zhang Chengzu could only push the door and leave.
Dim sunlight filtered in from the door, and the airtight windows were only slightly pale. The people in the room were intertwined with the setting sun that came in, and their shadows grew like trees in the forest.
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