I became an immortal in the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 288 discusses solar eclipses and traces of Mencius.

Xing Hepu lowered his head, and after a while, his expression calmed down. Instead, he patted the Grand Diviner's hand.

"What do you think?"

The Grand Diviner hesitated for a moment, then said:

"We were ignorant and disrespectful, offending the gods and bringing disaster upon ourselves. Fortunately, the gods and immortals did not punish us too severely..."

Xing Hepu nodded.

"Just submit it like this."

The Grand Diviner was deeply worried. He looked at Xing Hepu, whose eyes were red and he wondered why he had been staring at the sun for so long.

"Teacher, your eyes..."

"It doesn't matter."

The people on the platform were still in shock until the sun fully emerged, turning the world from darkness to gold.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and helped each other to their feet.

Gao Lishi straightened his slightly disheveled clothes and asked the Grand Astrologer, who was in charge of calculating and observing celestial phenomena.

The two looked at each other.

The Imperial Historian was helpless.

"What could I possibly know about such an unusual phenomenon as a solar eclipse?"

The divination ended there. Finally, Gao Lishi presented it to the sage for review, and only two answers were given.

"He was a white bat spirit from the beginning of chaos."

—This refers to Zhang Guolao. Xing Hepu's handwriting was unusually neat, and he wrote it down carefully.

"We dare not presume to seek the traces of immortals."

—This is Gao Lishi's subsequent request, concerning the search for that immortal whose name and identity are unknown.

Xing Hepu, along with the Grand Diviner and the Assistant Grand Historian, deliberated for a long time before reaching a consensus.

Because of this solar eclipse.

The court experienced a brief period of turmoil, and Yuwen Rong was demoted again, along with more than ten of his associates who were exiled or demoted.

The emperor stared at the writing on the table, speechless for a long time. He temporarily put aside his search for immortality and only occasionally went to see Zhang Guolao in person.

……

In the Taiqing Palace, a young boy asked his master a question.

"Master, is there any pork left to eat today?"

His master had already seen him fidgeting here and there, looking uncomfortable all over. The Taoist priest raised his eyebrows and scolded him.

"I just know how to eat!"

"What day is it today? You're still thinking about pork."

The young Taoist boy asked, "What day is it?"

The master gave him a hard knock on the head.

The little boy shrank back and muttered to himself. After a long while, his master brought over a bowl of steaming meat soup. "I had the kitchen reheat it. Eat up."

"There's a solar eclipse today, so no one will care about your manners. You must never do that again."

The young Taoist priest held a spoon and lowered his head.

He thought he was very discreet... How did his master see through him?

……

……

When the solar eclipse occurred, Jiang She was traveling alone in a small boat.

He rented the boatman's small boat for a month.

The old fisherman's grandson, now dressed in fine clothes and accompanied by servants, looked at Jiang She and said:

"Young master, you look somewhat familiar."

Jiang She smiled.

“I met you once before, and you look very different now.”

The old fisherman's grandson didn't recognize him, but he smiled. He had been searching for pearls for months and had returned empty-handed. Just then, someone wanted to rent his boat, so he rented it to them cheaply.

"I need to take this fishing net back with me. My lord, you don't need it, do you?"

"Need not."

The old fisherman's grandson instructed his servants to bring over the fishing nets.

They used this fishing net to catch pearls. His grandfather said that it held the family's fortune, and there was no reason to lend it to outsiders.

on board.

The cat jumped up.

Jiang She rowed slowly down the Wei River.

The cat peeked out, finding everything outside new and exciting; even frequent visits couldn't diminish its wonder. The occasional insect flying overhead, the fish in the water—each time they looked different.

By winter, many of the trees had withered.

As dusk fell, shouts of surprise and the sound of gongs and drums drifted from the shore. Cat's ears tucked back.

"it's dark!"

"This is a solar eclipse."

"What is a solar eclipse?" "It's when the moon's shadow blocks out the sun."

"moon!"

The cat's eyes widened, and she tilted her fluffy little head back to look at the sky. It was pitch black with very little light, and she couldn't see the distant sun and moon.

Jiang She patiently explained ancient astronomy to the cat.

He dipped his brush in the river water and sketched a simple outline on the boat plank.

The cat was greatly surprised.

Jiang She tapped the table and said jokingly:
"Cat Fairy, please listen. When the sun, the moon, and where we are now are aligned in a straight line, it is called the new moon, which is the first day of each month."

"But solar eclipses don't happen every month."

"Most of the time, the moon's shadow simply passes above or below the sun..."

The cat tilted its head to look.

After staring at it for a long time, the watermarks on the deck gradually disappeared.

Finally, Jiang She said:
"Therefore, the moon has its phases of waxing and waning, and the heavens and earth have their seasons of spring, autumn, cold, and heat."

"A cycle that repeats itself endlessly, a continuous process of life."

The cat mimicked what it heard.

"Life goes on and on..."

"That's right!"

Jiang She and Mao'er sat facing each other. The winter wind was already a bit cold. He found the stove on the boat, lit the fire, and tapped the pot with his hand. A stream of clear water from the Wei River flowed up and into the pot.

The cat stares intently.

"What is this?" the cat asked.

"To facilitate water diversion," Jiang She replied.

Jiang She looked down and searched his sleeve for the fish he had caught earlier in Yunmeng Mountain. He remembered that there were still two or three left.

Just as he was searching, the cat stretched out its paw and glanced at him furtively. Seeing that he wasn't paying attention, it also touched the pot.

Then it put its two paws together, its eyes wide open, and waited quietly.

One breath, two breaths, more than ten breaths passed.

Why isn't any water coming up?
The cat was confused.

Jiang She seemed oblivious.

After a while, he finally found a lively, jumping fish and put it in the pot to simmer. A misty white vapor rose, gradually releasing a fragrant aroma that drifted away on the river breeze.

Jiang She held the soup bowl.

A man and a cat leisurely gazed at the vast river, seeing smoke rising from many boats.

Snowflakes drifted down from the sky.

Jiang She began by saying, "Today is the Beginning of Winter."

Cat: "Winter Solstice!"

"Hmm. Winter Lord. We should have had a bowl of soup noodles or some sesame porridge, but there's no sesame here, so fish soup should be enough."

"enough!"

"Storing means that after harvesting food in autumn, one should store food in winter to prepare for the coming winter. Make pickles and preserved vegetables, start curing meat, and prepare some vegetables that can be stored for winter. You can also drink some wine to ward off the cold. Store plenty of firewood and sew winter clothes."

"This is the reason for the autumn harvest and winter storage."

“This sentence is found in the Thousand Character Classic.”

The cat remembered this sentence; it was in the first few paragraphs of the Thousand Character Classic. The cat repeated it, its voice soft and small.

"Harvest in autumn, store in winter..."

Jiang She responded and then dipped the water in the boat plank to write.

"That's how it's written in Tibetan."

The cat quickly forgot about the eclipse and started learning to read. Because of its intelligence, it learned quickly.

Jiang She slowly finished his fish soup.

I plan to visit Zhang Guolao, who is like a prisoner.

……

In the distance, a master and servant were struggling through the Qinling Mountains.

Looking at the lush green forest before them, the scholar was panting heavily, and both of their clothes were extremely tattered.

A cold wind lashed against Meng Haoran's face.

He said, "Let's go quickly."

"Once we cross the Qinling Mountains, we'll reach Lantian. And once we cross Lantian, Chang'an won't be far away."

"Fortunately, we managed to keep our travel permits."

"Otherwise, we wouldn't even be able to enter Chang'an..."

The servant shrank back and held onto the last bit of money they had left.

The servant said resentfully:
"Those damned bandits even dared to tear up Chief Secretary Cheng's documents! If we hadn't escaped quickly, we probably would have lost our lives there!"

"Once you become an official, my lord, we will surely wipe out this band of thieves in one fell swoop!"

【Ask for monthly ticket】

(End of this chapter)