Chatty Hollywood

——It’s terrible to be uneducated!

Charlotte is very depressed about Charlize's misunderstanding. However, he also understands that in the early 1990s, RB's influence in the world was much greater than that of China. At this time, when Europeans and Americans see an Oriental, most of them will habitually ask if the other person is from RB. This situation will not be completely reversed until twenty years later. And there are indeed many Chinese characters in Japanese. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that Charlize habitually thinks that Chinese characters are Japanese at this time.

Of course, although it is not surprising, the misunderstanding still needs to be resolved.

"The content written on these three pieces of paper is actually the same, and they all contain the two Chinese characters 'Shen Tu'. "

"Shen-tu?"

These two words have no corresponding meaning in English, and of course Charlize couldn't understand, so Charlotte could only explain further:

"Shentu is one of the earliest door gods in ancient China, and the so-called door god is the patron saint of the house. People carve the name of the door god on a wooden board made of peach wood, and then hang the board on the door, which can resist ghosts and evil things. They can't invade their own homes."

"So it is!"

Charlize nodded, she understood,

"However, why are there three different ways of writing the same name?"

——What are the three ways of writing, there are four ways to write Huizi!

Charlotte continued to complain about the cultural level of Westerners in her heart. Of course, this is just thinking about it in my heart, if I really say it, I will be looking for a fight. He organized his language before explaining:

"Sally, can you sing 'The Star-Spangled Banner'?"

"The Star-Spangled Banner Never Falls? Isn't that the national anthem of the United States?"

Charlize nodded, very simply and authentically,

"I can't sing."

"ah???"

"What's so strange!? I'm in Hollywood, but my nationality is South African. It's not surprising that a South African girl can't sing the American national anthem! Besides, the lyrics of that song are so difficult, and many Americans can't do it themselves." Sing!"

"...What you said is so reasonable, I can't refute it."

No way, this example is useless, Charlotte had to change another one,

"Then let me ask you this, have you read Shakespeare's original works?"

"Read."

Having said that, Charlize's face flushed a little,

"I have read, read... a few articles."

——In English-speaking countries, Shakespeare can be said to be the originator of actors and literary circles. Although actors from the bottom of society like Charlize are not required to be able to recite the great master proficiently like actors from British dramas There are many works by the author, but if you have only read a few, it is really unreasonable. No wonder Charlize is embarrassed.

"Just read it!"

Charlotte did not use this to expose Charlize, he continued to explain,

"Since you have read the original work, you should know that Shakespeare's works are really difficult for modern people to understand."

"Yes."

Charlize nodded, agreeing with Charlotte's statement,

"At least when I watched "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for the first time, there were many things I couldn't understand."

"A Midsummer Night's Dream? I thought you could say The Merchant of Venice!"

"Shut up, Sherlock!"

"... In short, the original Shakespeare works are difficult to understand because they are written in Old English."

Charlotte touched her nose and stopped teasing Charlize,

"Shakespeare's works were famous for their smoothness and beauty, but now they are often obscure to us, because these works, like "The Star-Spangled Banner", are written in Old English. is not easy to understand,

This situation can be said to be inevitable in the development of language. The history of Chinese is much longer than that of English, and it has gone through more stages in the process of development-the three writing methods I mentioned are the two characters of "Shen Tu" written in three specific stages . "

As he spoke, he pointed to the white paper that he had pasted on the wall,

"The uppermost layer is the simplified characters used by the Chinese today; and the lower layer is the traditional characters, which are a type of characters they used hundreds of years ago. The difference from the simplified characters is actually not very big; and The bottom layer is the Yin Rune, which appeared in the Tang Dynasty more than a thousand years ago, but has been lost for a long time. I learned this kind of writing through a very special channel. "

Having said that, Charlotte stopped. He picked up another piece of paper—not a blank piece of paper this time, but a picture of a yellow-faced ancient general holding a pair of strange bamboo-like The first section of weapons——Charlize knew this painting. It was a painting she bought from Chinatown when she and Charlotte were getting ready today. At the time, Charlotte said that the general in the painting was—

"This is Qin Qiong!"

Charlotte pasted the picture on the three white papers that had been pasted before, covering the writing on it,

"He was a general in the Tang Dynasty of China, and he was also one of the two door gods most familiar to Chinese people. If you compare pop music, if Shen Tu is Elvis Presley, then Qin Qiong is Michael Jackson."

"So he is more modern than the Shen Tu you mentioned, and closer to the current door god that everyone knows?"

The metaphor of Charlotte's image made Charlize understand in seconds, but at this time she turned into a problem baby,

"But he is obviously a general, why is he regarded as a door god?"

"This..."

Charlotte touched her nose,

"Different from Shen Tu, who was regarded as a door god by people since he was born, Qin Qiong was just a real historical figure at the beginning. He was a general under Tang Taizong. Do you know Tang Taizong? Uh, forget it, in short, it is an ancient Chinese A very powerful emperor! You can imagine Caesar and Napoleon!"

After popularizing Chinese history by analogy again, Charlotte continued,

"Tang Taizong won many wars and established a huge empire. However, the wars and political struggles caused great psychological pressure on him. He often had nightmares, dreaming that the ghosts of the people he had killed before came to him. This made the originally brave emperor very scared, and then he thought of a way to ask his two most trusted generals to guard the gate for him when he was sleeping-Qin Qiong was one of them-and never After that, he never had a nightmare again. Although it seems to us now that this is actually a psychological problem, in ancient times a thousand years ago, people thought it was very magical, so they all referred to this The portraits of the two generals are pasted on the door, hoping that they can protect themselves from ghosts just like protecting the emperor."

"So, Qin Qiong just became a door god?"

"Yes, until now, the Chinese are still the same as in the past, and often put his portrait on the door."

"This is really a magical legend."

Charlize sighed,

"So, you posted his portrait in the hope that his power can protect me?"

"It's okay, although the specific usage is a little different."

"But why do you know this? These strange oriental spells always make me feel weird!"

"I can't help it. Whoever taught me how to catch ghosts and exorcise demons is a Chinese!"

——To be precise, it is a Chinese ghost! Moreover, Lao Tzu was originally a Chinese, so what's so strange about it!

Charlotte complained in her heart, but looked at the opposite wall,

"On the poster opposite Qin Qiong, the person riding a motorcycle and holding a shotgun is a T-800, right? If you want to post a door god, you have to post a pair of them. You can also take off this poster. We want to post it here. Next to it, paste the other two door gods corresponding to Qin Qiong and Shen Tu."

"OK!"

After understanding Charlotte's intentions, the blond girl became very cooperative. She quickly removed the poster of the future governor, and then watched Charlotte put three posters with the same strange handwriting on the original position. The white paper, and then paste a picture - this time the picture is a general with a black face.

"This is Yuchi Gong, that is, in the story I just told, another general who guarded the gate of Tang Taizong together with Qin Qiong."

Seeing that Charlize seemed to be very interested in the portrait, Charlotte followed her and explained,

"In ancient China, there are two doors corresponding to the left and right, so the door gods must be in pairs to play a role. The corresponding to Qin Qiong is Yu Chigong, and the corresponding to Shentu is Yu Lei. The three white cards in the back His name was written on the paper."

Having said that, Charlotte checked left and right, and felt that there should be no problem with the symmetry, so she breathed a sigh of relief, pinched a strange finger in her hand, and started to read:

"Thousands of households always exchange new peaches for old talismans."

Afterwards, he let go of his pinching fingers, and a faint whirlwind suddenly appeared in the bedroom, and then quickly dissipated - this phenomenon made Charlize feel very miraculous.

"Is the arrangement successful in this way? Did you recite a spell just now?"

"It's not wrong to say it's a mantra! But in fact, these are two poems, just like Tagore's 'Life is as gorgeous as summer flowers, and death is as quiet and beautiful as autumn leaves'."

"Poetry? Can poetry be used as a spell?"

"Of course. Most of the so-called mantras are actually psychological hints to the user and the user. From this perspective, compared to the ancient scriptures in movies that most people don't understand, poems, proverbs, etc. Such popular modern language is more suitable as a spell. Specifically, this poem is written by Wang Anshi, a great writer in the Song Dynasty in China. I think it is very suitable for the current situation, so I used it as a spell.”

"Really? So, the spell you just chanted is indeed like poetry, with beautiful rhyme."

Charlize laughed dryly,

"Although to me, it's actually the same as the Gulatin bible used by the exorcist in the movie to exorcise demons-it's just as incomprehensible."