"Miss Mayne, the living animals and cooked food and snacks used for sacrifices are all ready. Please go and check with the old slave!" Lasu Rong, wearing a blue steward's robe, was waiting outside the second hall door of the palace with an expression on his face.
Duanyan...
The front porch and back building, with big red pillars, colorful paintings, carved beams and painted pillars, dragon heads and swallow tails, and wooden carved flower piers, are very magnificent.
Mei Liangchen imitated his serious look and nodded and said, "Okay! Manager, please lead the way!"
Passing through the main hall door, you are faced with two heavy vermilion doors, inlaid with gold nails, rolled iron corners, and bead doors. Above the beads are wood carvings of four seasons flowers, and in the middle are wood carvings of bats with money in their mouths, which means "blessings are before your eyes."
The three stars "Fu, Lu, Longevity" are painted on the door, which complement each other with money. The workmanship is exquisite and delicate, and the pattern is vivid and embossed. It is a rare high-quality art.
Mei Liangchen looked around curiously. This was her first time in the courtyard of the palace.
"Girl, the temple is here!" Not far from the right hand side of the inner quadrangle, on the middle road of the mansion, there is a large-scale and magnificent palace. In front of the palace, there is a plaque of 'Fuyou Hall' hanging on the door. Fuyou Hall is composed of the temple and the east.
It consists of two west wing rooms and a wide courtyard. The temple faces north and south, with a hard mountain-style roof covered with green glazed tiles, a kissing animal on the spine, painted beams and beams, corridor eaves and pillars, and a brick platform that connects the entire hall from
The ground is lifted up, and the six steps in front of the central gate show the majesty of the palace.
"Butler, what is that? Is it for hanging flags?" A thing that looks like a shaman flagpole was erected high in front of the temple.
"Girl, it's the sacred pole used to hang tributes during sacrifices!" According to the long tradition of Min and Liao, offerings for crows are hung on the top of the sacred flagpole.
The stone base of the sacred pole is a rectangular parallelepiped, 78 cm high and 51 cm wide. The four upper corners are rounded. There is a circle of grooves around the upper parts of the four sides, which serve as decorative grooves. There is a deep square hole in the center of the top.
Mei Liangchen is very interested in these mysterious sacrificial furnishings. She once followed her tutor to do academic research on sacrificial rituals in the Forbidden City and Prince Gong's Mansion in Beijing for a year. When she saw the familiar scenes, she couldn't help but feel closer to them.
"What are they hanging on?" She stroked the slender, oily pole, trying to see what material it was made of. She remembered that the sacred pole in Kunning Palace was made of nanmu.
"And this, what kind of wood is it made of?"
Since Rasu Rong was promoted to the chief steward of the Northland Palace, he has been busy with various chores for the heaven-sacrifice ceremony every year. He is a careful person. Although the servants in the palace will do a good job according to his wishes, he is still worried.
, he does everything himself, including the magic pole that is replaced every year, which he personally goes to the mountains to collect the best pine wood and add meat oil to make it.
"The sacred pole is made of pine wood and meat oil, with pig throat bones hung on it." Lasu Rong memorized every ritual procedure and dared not forget it.
"Oh, pig throat bone!" Pig throat bone, does that mean that the royal sacrifices of Min Liao also included pigs like the royal sacrifices of the Qing Dynasty? Mei Liangchen's eyes suddenly lit up, and he asked in surprise: "There will be pigs in tomorrow's festival, right?"
"She has never eaten pork since she came to the grassland, let alone watched a pig run away.
Rasu Rong bowed and said: "Yes, Miss Mayen, tomorrow in addition to the seven rams and bulls, there will also be Heiye carefully selected by the old slave from the Jiangsong Kingdom." According to the rules of the Minliao Grassland.
According to custom, pure black boars are regarded as sacred pigs and are respectfully called Hei Ye.
Mei Liangchen bit his lip and held it in for a long time, but still couldn't hold it back. "Pfft" Hei Ye.
It's uncle!
Thinking back to the memory of the fragrant red roasted pork, Dongpo pork, and all kinds of shredded pork slices, her greed was aroused.
Next, she took Lasu Rong and hurriedly went to the sacrificial altar in the temple to worship, and then she couldn't wait to take the housekeeper to the west wing where the livestock was kept.
He...
Even Su Guna was shocked by the seven or eight majestic black boars kept in the wing.
Rasu Rong is very strict about the selection of black pigs used in sacrificial rituals. Not only does he require them to be solid-colored black pigs without disease, ringworm, or white hair, but they will not be used even if they are slightly mutilated or uncoordinated. Min Liao Kingdom and
The difference in the use of royal sacrificial offerings in the Qing Dynasty is that they did not use chickens, geese, ducks and other items offered in shaman sacrifices, but only large livestock, such as cattle, sheep and Heiye.
Therefore, the livestock kept in the east and west wings outside the temple are not necessarily limited to black pigs.
"Moo", "bleep" and "oh oh oh" the lively sounds of livestock echoed in the pungent-smelling wing.
"Girl, this place is dirty, let's go." He still had a lot of details of the sacrifice to explain to her. Tomorrow will be a major event for the palace. Generals in the army and prominent figures in Beidi City will come to participate in the sacrifice.
Ceremony.
Mei Liangchen waved her hands and said: "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter!" She looked at the fat black pig and turned to ask Lasu Rong: "Butler, will all these pigs be killed for sacrifice tomorrow?" If they are all used for sacrifice.
If she was sacrificed, wouldn't she be able to eat even a piece of minced meat?
Lasu Rong was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding what she meant. Seeing that she was focused on Lord Hei, he could only answer honestly: "Leave two heads as spares. The remaining six heads will be bled and beheaded, and they will be slaughtered alive to offer sacrifices to heaven!"
"Oh..." The obviously twisted tone startled Rasu Rong. He glanced at her and found Mayne's pair of black pupils shining brightly under her beautiful eyebrows, like a pair of thorns among thorns.
Building a fire made his heart beat...
"Girl...you..." Based on his many years of experience serving the general, he couldn't figure out what the young man was thinking.
"Haha...nothing, nothing! Chief steward, please go on and explain the order of tomorrow's sacrifice."
Lasu Rong bowed his head and said: "The old slave said it, the girl must take note of it carefully!"