Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 292: The Origin of God
In the abbot's room, the smell of sandalwood is wafting.

"Uncle Master, have you heard of Fushan Weir?" Tao Hongjing asked again.

"I've heard of it." Ren Yuanxin said, "I've heard of it so much that I don't know how many times I've dreamed of it."
"It is said that ten years ago, because Shouyang could not be conquered after a long siege, the emperor had a crazy idea and decided to build a dam in Fushan Gorge downstream to raise the water level of the Huai River and flood Shouyang City."

"So they spent a lot of money and manpower, mobilized hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians, and spent two years to build a dam that was unprecedented in history. However, not long after it was built, the dam burst during the flood season, drowning more than 100,000 people in the country and leaving millions homeless."

"That's absolutely right, Master, you have good insights." Tao Hongjing nodded approvingly and said, "The collapse of Fushan Weir has dealt a severe blow to the emperor's prestige and shaken the foundation of Daliang. The emperor had to announce that he would completely abandon Taoism and follow Buddhism in exchange for the full support of the Buddhist sect, which stabilized the situation."

"After that, Buddhism became the state religion and began to exclude dissidents and hunt down our Taoist sect. Until today, there is no Taoist temple or Taoist priest in the entire South Country."

After saying this, he sighed and said, "This is a well-known story."

"So there is an unknown story?" Ren Yuan understood the elegant meaning of the music.

"That's right." Tao Hongjing nodded slightly and asked quietly, "Master, do you know that there are gods in this world?"

"I know a little, but not much." Ren Yuan said truthfully: "Please teach me, nephew."

"I dare not. I have carefully studied the classics of Taoism and various ancient books, and found that although gods have existed since ancient times and still exist today, they can be clearly divided into two stages." Tao Hongjing said incessantly:

"One is the ancient times, which is the time when the legendary gods Chiyou, Zhurong, Gonggong and Xingtian existed. Together, they constituted the mythological era in which they played the leading role. The ancient and wonderful book "Classic of Mountains and Seas" records the appearance of the mythological era."

"Is that so? Then what? Why did these great gods disappear?" Ren Yuan asked.

"After the Yellow Emperor fought Chiyou, a large number of demons died. When Emperor Yu of Xia controlled the floods, the demons were completely extinct. Then Emperor Yu cast the Nine Cauldrons, established China, and opened the era of mankind." Tao Hongjing continued:
"Two thousand years passed just like this. This was also the most prosperous two thousand years for China. The Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties complemented each other and created the most powerful era for our human race. But that's how things are in the world. The moon waxes and wanes, and everything that prospers reaches its peak will decline. Things changed when the Han Dynasty intersected..."

"To be precise, it was the Battle of Kunyang in the first year of Gengshi. In that battle, meteorites rained down from the sky, helping Liu Xiu to defeat the enemy with fewer troops and continue the Han dynasty." He sighed:
"People say that God blesses the Han people and China. But little do they know that blessing and disaster go hand in hand. The meteor shower also brought some terrible things. Since then, all kinds of demons and monsters have begun to emerge one after another. The world no longer belongs exclusively to us humans."

"But at first, no one paid much attention to it, because those mountain spirits and ghosts were very weak and not powerful enough to cause trouble in the world. In addition, Taoism began to flourish at that time, and various Taoist arts emerged one after another. With the blessing of external elixirs, Taoists were able to subdue demons and monsters."

“So the predecessors were not worried about the demons running rampant. Instead, they thought it was a good opportunity to show off their skills and win the admiration of the world. However, later on, we found out that those demons and monsters were just abnormalities caused by the meteor shower. What the meteor shower really brought was the ancient demon gods. They have returned!”

Tao Hongjing couldn't help but show fear and said:
"Back then, Wang Mang's imperial teacher Liu Xin witnessed the meteor shower, saw the secret, and foresaw China's tragic future, which is why he burned himself to death in the Weiyang Palace..."

"So, one hundred and fifty years after the meteor shower, in the third year of Xiping in the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, the first true god of the new era, the God of Plague Yu Qiang, awakened. He began to spread the plague, causing the Han Dynasty to be plagued by disease."

"Two years later, another demon god, Shen Tu, revived and guided Zhang Jue to found the Taiping Dao, which cured the plague for the people. The Taiping Dao was able to rapidly gain followers. In the seventh year of Guanghe, Zhang Jue started the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and the world was in chaos since then..."

"Since then, more and more demons have appeared. They hid behind the scenes and instigated endless fighting among the people, which eventually led to a serious loss of the vitality of China. Although there was a brief period of unification during the Wei and Jin dynasties, the Five Barbarians Rebellion soon occurred."

"More gods and demons have awakened. Following the custom of the ancient times, they have instigated ambitious tribal leaders to fight for the world and slaughtered the Han people. The entire north has fallen into an unprecedented dark age, and there is still no light at the end of the tunnel." "The only good news is that after two or three hundred years of mutual slaughter, only one in ten demons in the north remain..."

Ren Yuan was stunned. These were all secrets he had never heard of. Before, everyone mentioned the gods in a very secretive way. Only this teacher dared to talk so much and so thoroughly.

"What about our Southern Dynasty?"

"The situation in our Southern Dynasty is better, but it is essentially the same. Behind every change of dynasty, there is the shadow of God. It is just fifty steps away from the pot calling the kettle black." Tao Hongjing counted on his fingers:

"For example, Liu Yu was able to rise from humble beginnings and replace the Jin Dynasty to establish the Song Dynasty, thanks to the full support of the military god Li Mu and the war god Dayi. His Northern Army was invincible and unbeatable."

"Later, taking advantage of the civil unrest in the Jin Dynasty, the two guardians of the Sima family fought each other, and Liu Yu defeated them one by one and seized power in one fell swoop."

"Later, Xiao Daocheng was able to replace Song and establish the Qi Dynasty. He also took advantage of the internal strife between the God of War and the God of War, and relied on the God of Wind Fei Lian to defeat the two gods and seize their divine fire."

"After that, it's our dynasty. The specific circumstances are hard to describe, but with your intelligence, you should understand that there is nothing new under the sun." Tao Hongjing said meaningfully at last.

Ren Yuan nodded slowly, and Tao Hongjing's meaning was already clear to him.

As long as we combine his two versions of the story, we can clearly draw the following conclusions and inferences:

First of all, the establishment of this dynasty, like the previous one, involved the deep involvement of gods.

Secondly, the god that this dynasty relies on should be the Buddha, and perhaps the Ghost King of Fengdu.

It can also be inferred that after the establishment of the Liang Dynasty, Buddha forced Xiao Yan to convert to Buddhism. Xiao Yan wanted to withstand the pressure at first and was unwilling to let Buddhism dominate, but after the Fushan Weir collapsed, he could only take care of his head and not his butt, and completely knelt down to Buddha.

"I roughly understand what you mean, but I don't quite understand why these demons or gods are so unpopular?" Ren Yuan looked at Tao Hongjing in confusion.

Although he was familiar with the Daozang and was not unfamiliar with these new-age demon gods, to be honest, they were all younger brothers of the great gods such as Chiyou and Xingtian, and it was not an exaggeration to say that they were just the younger brothers carrying bags...

"I'm not sure either. Is it because the time has not come for the Great God to be resurrected yet, or is it because they can no longer be resurrected? I hope it's the latter." Tao Hongjing sighed softly and said:

"If a demon god of Chiyou and Xingtian's level were to be resurrected, the entire human world would be destroyed."

"Indeed." Ren Yuan agreed very much.

(End of this chapter)