Chapter 12: Confucianism and Shinto

  He had a fierce battle with those two little demons, and from his hands shot out two beams of fire that instantly engulfed the two little demons, who in the blink of an eye turned into ashes.

  At another glance, Liu suddenly realized that there was nothing unusual about the two little ghosts. They were simply paper people cut out from white paper!

  At this time, Liu Bu had no choice but to understand. He said to Zhen Yang Zi, "Master, even the two mountain ghosts under that demon god are so formidable, let alone the demon god itself. Let's not provoke it, let's leave quickly!"

  Zhen Yangzi hadn't spoken yet, but those villagers who were secretly watching from a distance had already started shouting: "Daozhang, you can't leave! Our Yunlai Village relies on you..."

  "Yes, Daozhang, if you don't help us, our village will be finished..."

  This time, the villagers saw that Zhen Yangzi was so fierce and actually "displayed his divine power" to kill the "mountain ghost" under the mountain god's command. Suddenly, their confidence greatly increased. Where would they let Zhen Yangzi go? They all begged him to stay.

  Zhen Yangzi gave Liu Buji a spirited glance, and said with difficulty: "This demon god seems to be even more formidable than I imagined!"

  "Whoosh..."

  The village elder suddenly knelt down in front of Zhen Yangzi: "Daozhang, you must save us. This time we've offended that demon god, if you leave again, we'll all be doomed!"

  Zhen Yangzi then deliberately made a reluctant expression and said, "Alright, since we've come this far, let's help to the end! Where is the Mountain God Temple? Tomorrow morning, we'll go and get rid of the lurking evil spirits inside!"

  "Thank you, Master! Thank you, Master!" The old villager was overjoyed and looked at the master and apprentice with even more gratitude.

  Arrange for them to find a place to live, Liu Buji quietly asked: "Master, is this also your arrangement?"

  Zhen Yangzi smiled mysteriously and said, "Why bother with so much trouble? No matter how strong or weak the mountain temple's evil god is, as long as I take a liking to it, there will only be one dead end. Why should I bother with such trivial matters?"

  Liu was secretly impressed and nodded in agreement. After returning to his own room, he couldn't sleep, tossing and turning.

  Thinking that he would be able to see a monster or a god for the first time in his life, Liu was so excited that he couldn't calm himself down.

  He suddenly remembered that the original Liu Bu's family had passed down the "Zhēnyuán Lǐ" which was written on it: "All countries have major sacrifices, medium sacrifices and minor sacrifices. The Supreme Emperor of the Vast Heaven, the Five Directions Emperor, the August Earth God, and the Temple of the Gods of the Divine Land are all major sacrifices..."

  This is the use of Confucian norms to govern heaven and earth! However, Confucianism has long since declined, even collapsed, and that ideal order of heaven and earth gods, has never been established.

  In this world, there are as many gods as there are hairs on a cow. Not only are there masters of famous mountains and great rivers, but also heroes, emperors, generals, and officials who all become gods after death.

  Not to mention the bright religions such as Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism that were brought into China by the bald-headed monks from the Western Regions.

  The Shinto system established by Confucianism in former years has already collapsed and is no longer intact.

  "Shuowen Jiezi" says: "Ru", means soft, a title for scholars. Also, an explanation of what people need!

  The earliest Confucians were ritual specialists or shamans, responsible for conducting funeral rites and sacrificing to the gods of heaven and earth.

  On earth, Confucianism introduced the concept of Junzi, but before Ming and Qing. Confucianism still retained a considerable amount of divine content until Zhu Xi's Li Xue rose, once again transforming Confucianism, which only became the style of later generations.

  And this world has developed differently, still retaining the content of Shinto rituals. For example, the "Zhēnyuán Lǐ" passed down by the Liu family in Wuzhong is a standard that was compiled during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty to arrange the order of all gods and ghosts, and to let heaven, earth, ghosts, gods, and humans each occupy their respective positions!

  Liu Jia's ancestor, Liu Zhaoyi, was one of the great Confucians who assisted in compiling the "Rites of the Zhengyuan Era" for the imperial court.

  And pass on those private notes, as a family learning.

  Later dynasties revised and recompiled new rituals, no matter how much they added or subtracted, but in fact they did not go beyond the scope of the "Rites of the Zhenyuan Era".

  Wu Zhong Liu Jia, relying on the family-transmitted "Zhenyuan Li" with annotations by Zhu Gong, became one of the Confucian schools.

  However, with the invasion of the bald-headed people, the Confucian temples were destroyed, and the order of heaven, earth, man, god, and ghost that had been established was thoroughly collapsed, and the Liu family declined like other Confucian families.

  Dazed and confused, I don't know how long I slept. Then Zhenyangzi called me up to eat the early breakfast that the villagers had kindly prepared for us. We then came to the back mountain, a deserted temple on the halfway up the mountain.

  It's clear that this temple has been renovated recently, and it looks quite clean. However, once inside, I feel a chill run down my spine. A statue of a green-faced, fang-toothed god sits atop the incense table, as if ready to pounce and devour someone at any moment.

  "You demon, your time is up. Come and surrender quietly!" Zhen Yangzi pointed with his sword and shouted.

  The temple was even colder, but there was no movement for half a day.

  Zhen Yangzi smiled at Liu Bu Yi and said, "Originally, this guy is even weaker than I imagined. In broad daylight, he doesn't even dare to show his face. It seems that he's only slightly stronger than an ordinary fierce ghost!"

  Liu couldn't wait any longer and asked, "Master, can I handle this thing?"

  Zhen Yangzi shook his head: "You're still far off. Unless you enter the realm of spiritual connection, you won't be able to deal with this kind of ghostly spirit!"

  Liu was not convinced that during the heyday of Confucianism, those who held power in the imperial court. All ghosts and gods that were not included in the official sacrifices of the imperial court were called "licentious sacrifices". Local governments had to destroy them all.

  In his memory, the government used many methods to destroy these temples. Whether it was smashing them, setting fires, or even directly pouring filthy things, they were all quite effective methods.

  Only Zhen Yangzi didn't let him take action, he changed and enjoyed watching the excitement on the side.

  Zhen Yangzi said, and took out this Qingyang Divine Lamp in his hand. With a slight shake, the lamp lit up.

  It was originally just a small light, but the light continued to extend and expand. When it shone on the statue, there was a layer of pale golden light that dissipated, and then the lamp's light shone through.

  The entire statue suddenly became as if it had turned transparent, and at its core, there seemed to be a bottomless pitch-black abyss.

  The faint light illuminated the past, lighting up the dark cave. It could be seen that it was just a small space, only a few rooms in size. There was actually a hairy evil spirit crouching inside.

  But at this moment, the evil spirit did not show any ferocity. On the contrary, it was extremely frightened and kept hiding in the corners where the light could not reach.

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