I nodded and said, "Nine times out of ten! I didn't expect that there really are living human figurines in this world!"
Shen Yuan still couldn't believe it and said: "Boss Ye, is it too arbitrary to judge that the pottery figurines are living figurines just based on the fact that they are hollow?"
"that is."
Wu Zijin's mouth itched again and he said: "I have seen Qin Shihuang's Terracotta Warriors and Horses. Aren't they also hollow?"
I rolled my eyes at Wu Zijin and said: "The terracotta warriors and horses are divided into two parts. The part below the knee is solid. In order to support the weight of the entire terracotta warriors, the part above the knee is hollow. In order to reduce the overall weight and save raw materials, the problem is, have you ever seen Are the yin and yang the same pottery figurines?"
After finishing speaking, I handed the pottery figurine eye that Wu Zijin had just played with to Shen Yuan.
Shen Yuan looked at the porcelain piece of the eye, turning it over and over for a while. He seemed to still refuse to believe it. He took off the pottery figurine finger from my middle finger, put it on the ground, made a fist with his right hand, and smashed it hard, and the finger split into several pieces. A small fragment.
He took out the Langya flashlight and carefully identified it.
"This finger also has a nail plate inside."
I said to Shen Yuan: "Little Master, I could feel it when I put it on just now. I even suspected that the living figurines here were not wrapped in cloth at all. After taking off their clothes, they were directly wrapped in clay and then fired. , otherwise it wouldn’t fit so well!”
"Yes! There is no cloth. I see fingerprints on it."
Shen Yuan put down the Langya flashlight and said to me: "Boss Ye, these are indeed living figurines."
"Brother Ye Zi, Grandpa Shen, what exactly are living figurines?" Wu Zijin asked.
I stared at Wu Zijin and said, "You don't know about living human figurines!"
Wu Zijin nodded.
I raised my middle finger and pointed at Wu Zijin and said, "You don't even know about living human figures. Why did you talk so much just now? You make it seem like you know everything!"
Wu Zijin touched his nose awkwardly and said, "That's why I talk more, ask more, and learn more."
"Brother Ye Zi, I also want to know what living figurines are." Shale also said.
"In ancient times, when an emperor died, living people would be sacrificed. These living people included slaves, soldiers, husbands, and even concubines and ministers."
I said to Wu Zijin and Sha Le: "Human sacrifice was very popular during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. When a daughter of King Wu Helu died, Helu killed more than 10,000 people at one time as sacrifices and buried him with him. When Qin Mugong died, not Speaking of slaves and husbands, there were 177 ministers and concubines buried with them. Later, it was considered that a large number of human sacrifices and burials were inhumane and destroyed the labor force and productivity, so we slowly put an end to human sacrifices and burials. Switching to the use of pottery figurines can also be regarded as the progress of human civilization."
"oh……"
Wu Zijin said: "These pottery figurines have replaced living people, so they are called living figurines, right! Then this is a good thing!"
"Hmph...young man!"
I sneered at Wu Zijin and said, "If the pottery figurines really replace the living people and are buried with them, it is indeed a good thing, and it is a good thing with supreme merit. But the problem is, the living figurines don't mean this. It means very much." To put it bluntly, it is using living people to make pottery figurines."
Wu Zijin and Sha Le's eyes widened and their mouths opened wide, completely in disbelief.
"Actually, in ancient times, there was no such thing as living human figurines."
I continued: "This statement was made only after the terracotta warriors and horses in Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum were unearthed, because the terracotta warriors and horses unearthed are not only lifelike, but also have thousands of faces. Not to mention the production technology of more than 2,000 years ago, even today , it is difficult to do so well, and Qin Shihuang Yingzheng himself was a tyrant, killing countless people in his life, so some people speculate that those terracotta warriors and horses are actually prisoners of war or death row prisoners, wrapped in cloth, stuffed with clay, directly They were put into the oven to be burned, so they were called living figurines."
"No...it's impossible! So cruel!"
Wu Zijin said in surprise: "But I remember that when I went to Xi'an to visit the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, some of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses were broken. They were hollow inside and there were no living people."
I spread my hands and said: "Little Master, I also went to see it. Some of the broken terracotta warriors and horses are indeed hollow. As I said, the term "living warriors" is a result of speculation, but historically speaking, strictly speaking,
There is a similar example. Zen Master Liu Quan in the Song Dynasty had a Buddha statue. After testing, it was found that there were human bones in the Buddha statue. Everyone speculated that the person in the Buddha statue should be Liu Quan himself, his true body."
"Oh...I understand.
"
Wu Zijin murmured: "The living figurines mean the true body..."
"Do you understand or not..."
I was really speechless: "The real body is the real body. It is the body of an enlightened monk. It was shaped after his death for people to admire. The living figurines are basically made of living people such as slaves and prisoners of war."
The pottery figurines made are mainly used for sacrifices. The two are somewhat similar. I just used the real body as an example, but you have to understand that the two cannot be confused in terms of meaning and degree of cruelty."
"Why are there living human figurines here?"
Shen Yuan pinched the mustache at the corner of his mouth and was puzzled: "Why did these pottery figurines break?"
"Old man Shen, do you know what I care more about, young master!" I asked Shen Yuan.
"What?" Shen Yuan looked at me and said.
I said, "My dear, I am more concerned about what these pottery figurines looked like before they were broken. This place was built by the Qin State during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Does it represent some connection with the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang in the ancient capital of Xi'an?"
Shale reminded: "Brother Ye Zi, maybe there is something broken in front."
"Boss Ye, haven't you thought about a question?" Shen Yuan asked.
"I know what you want to ask."
I turned to Shen Yuan and said, "Are you thinking that these pottery figurines are living figurines? Why do you only see these broken pottery pieces but not the people inside?"
"Yes! Boss Ye, don't you think it's strange?" Shen Yuan said.
"It's strange! How could it not be strange?"
I looked at the broken pieces of porcelain on the ground and said, "But what can we do now? If it is broken, it is broken. It may be due to natural damage due to age, or it may be some kind of ritual that requires these living figurines to be broken into pieces.
The people inside took them out to offer sacrifices to heaven and so on. This damn place cannot be inferred according to common sense. By the way! Master Shen, don’t you know how to tell fortunes? Come on, come on, figure out where the people in these living figurines have gone.
Already."
"Boss Ye, let's keep moving forward! Maybe there is an answer ahead." Shen Yuan was too lazy to argue with me, waved his hand and continued moving forward.