Chapter 26: After-dinner Discussion
Leaving Wenhou’s tomb, the donkey cart drove on the dirt road.

Black Bear was curious about the city and asked, "Mr. Lai, I'm new in Xudu. Can I enter the city?"

Xudu was expanded from Xu County, and the original county wall remains the same.

Therefore, the area outside the city was expanded, and the plots within the city were transformed into palaces, various office buildings, warehouses and military camps.

There is no space for common people or scholars to live in the city. The people who come in and out on a daily basis are mainly officials, and their number is small, so it is not convenient to disguise as scholars and common people to go in and out.

This means that if you want to enter the city, you can only wear official clothes and enter in the name of official business.

Middle and senior officials such as Xun Yu lived in the city all year round and rarely went outside the city.

But Xudu was still developing, and the old urban area could no longer accommodate the ever-expanding government agencies.

Government offices must give way to palaces and warehouses, and it is inevitable that all important institutions will be moved out of the city in the future.

But now the important officials of the court live in the city, so it is difficult to take action.

Unless it is an important festival, they would lie in ambush on the roadside, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Lai Ping explained in detail the differences between inside and outside the city of Xudu, which immediately made Black Bear give up the idea of ​​entering the inner city through normal channels.

Even if Lai Ping could provide such a channel, Black Bear would not be willing to enter the inner city easily.

The city gates are guarded so tightly, and the city is mostly inhabited by officials and garrisons... If you're really trapped, it'll be very difficult to fight your way out.

Now is the time to develop friends, how can we let our friends take risks and be exposed easily?
The idea of ​​going into the city to cause trouble was temporarily put on hold, and it was already afternoon when we returned to Laozi Temple.

The Laozi Temple is no different from before. Taoist priests of all sizes are still doing what they should be doing. This place is more like a comprehensive medical clinic.

When he returned to the house, he heard Li Jijiu say, "Commander Qu, Ji Ping and several imperial doctors were ordered to go to Chenliu a few days ago. I don't know why, but it should be because of the large army gathering and the changeable weather in spring, which gave rise to an epidemic."

Then he asked, "May I ask what the commander is doing? We have known Jiping for three or four years. If it is a small matter, we can do it for you."

"It's not a big deal. I just heard about Jiping's good reputation on the way to Xudu."

Black Bear glanced at the wrapped cloth bag and continued, "It's like this. I dreamed of a barren mountain. A miracle doctor felt the hardship of the people and provided free medical treatment to the people at the foot of the mountain. Those who recovered from serious illnesses planted five apricot trees on the mountain, and those who recovered from minor illnesses planted one apricot tree. More than ten years later, the barren mountain had become an apricot mountain, and the miracle doctor made a living by exchanging dried apricots for rice."

Li Jijiu and Lai Ping listened carefully, then looked at each other and pondered the meaning of this dream.

Hei Xiong continued, "There are two miraculous things about this dream. One is that this miraculous doctor lived to be ninety. The other is that because of his good deeds, people will refer to doctors as 'Xinglin'. I heard that Ji Ping has a good reputation, and his name also has a good meaning, so I want to give him this opportunity to be in the Xinglin."

Yanshou became famous as the ancestor of medical science.

Li Jijiu was moved and turned his head to look at Lai Ping. Lai Ping smiled bitterly, as he was not good at medicine.

Feeling uneasy, Li Jijiu still asked: "From his commander's point of view, can I be compared with Ji Ping?"

"I don't know anything about medicine, but I think it's a good thing for someone to leave the bustling city of Xudu and go to the countryside to benefit the common people."

Black Bear smiled and said, "It doesn't matter to me whether you go or Jiping does this good deed. Since there are no other famous doctors, I will take a short rest and leave Xudu tonight. Otherwise, if I stay too long and reveal my whereabouts, it will implicate you."

Li Jijiu was already tempted, and curious: "Why doesn't Commander Qu go find Doctor Hua?"

"He is already a miracle doctor of the time. He can benefit people everywhere by traveling around the world. I am on another path of being a miracle doctor."

As Black Bear spoke, he turned his head to look at the cloth bags on the table. Li Jijiu immediately stepped forward to explain that these cloth bags contained medicinal materials such as cinnabar, sulfur, and red lead stored in the Laozi Temple.

These things are also the materials used by other Taoists to make elixirs. The Taoists of Laozi Temple have only been studying alchemy techniques for several generations.

After putting away these things, Li Jijiu and the other man led Black Bear to a banquet.

The banquet was simple, with only one fish and some other seasonal wild vegetables.

It is also cooked and served cold with some wild vegetables.

There is a dish of tofu mixed with salt, the subtle salty and fresh taste can better bring out the sweet taste of the tofu itself.

The black bear came in a hurry, so the Taoists in the Laozi Temple did not prepare the "accidentally fermented rice soup" in advance.

After the meal, it was getting dark.

The Taiqing method that Li Jijiu brought to the temple for practice were all bamboo slips, including the four volumes of Daojing, Dejing, Heshanggong Zhangju, and Laozi Xianger Zhu, in addition to more than thirty volumes of Taiping Jing.

Black Bear picked it up and took a quick look. Seeing that the bamboo slips and the ink were quite new, he knew that they were copied by the new Taoist priest.

In his opinion, these things are the three types: the main body of the Tao Te Ching, the old version with annotations, and the version with annotations by Zhang Daoling.

He flipped through the pages quickly, while Li Jijiu and Lai Ping waited quietly.

Zhang Daoling made great additions, deletions and modifications to the Tao Te Ching. He almost used the Tao Te Ching for his own use, and changed it into whatever he needed.

He Shanggong's annotated version is not too outrageous and can be considered a standard interpretation.

However, Zhang Daoling's annotated version has clearly stated that Laozi is the incarnation of Tao, Laozi is Tao, and Tao is Laozi. He advocates that Taoists should obey and follow the will of Tao.

And established a standard for spiritual practice to achieve longevity, namely "being able to follow the Tao, so being able to live on one's own and lasting long."

To simplify the steps of longevity, the first step to longevity is to observe the precepts, the second step is to refine the body, and the third is to eat air.

The lives of the vast majority of people will remain forever at the initial stage of the path to immortality.

That is to say, the first step is to observe the precepts and do what you are told.

However, in the eyes of Li Jijiu and Lai Ping, the General Bai Goose before them had already reached the realm of "Dharma Dao" and was a person of immortality.

Man follows the earth, the earth follows the sky, the sky follows the Tao, and the Tao follows nature; if one can follow the Tao, then he is naturally extraordinary. It's just that the black bear in front of them felt tired to interpret the official script, let alone seriously understand its meaning.

So I was really flipping through scrolls of bamboo slips, reading ten lines at a glance.

After reading all the volumes of Taiqing Fa, Black Bear closed the bamboo slips in his hand and tied them with a ribbon, and said to the two waiting people: "My lineage of Mengdie Fa does not rely on text scriptures. You are familiar with Tao Te Ching, so you naturally know the difference between the ancient text and the modern text. You should also know that Tao Te Ching was deleted and revised a lot when it was passed down; as for Zhang Daoling's annotations, they are even more contrary to Laozi's original intention."

Li Jijiu was in a low mood: "What the commander meant was that the Taiqing Dharma we practiced was incomplete?"

"Yes, Cao Cao has set up the General of the Ministry of Personnel and the Lieutenant of the Ministry of Repentance over the years. They have unearthed many gold and bronze vessels and ancient bamboo slips. Unfortunately, in the chaotic times, no one sorted and protected them. If you don't have the chance, it will be difficult for you to see the Tao Te Ching from the pre-Qin period, let alone the original."

Black Bear said with a long sigh, "The Tao Te Ching is your foundation. The original is incomplete. The more you study various annotations, the further you will stray from the source of the Tao."

Li Jijiu's face turned pale, and Lai Ping asked, "Is there any solution?"

Seeing that Black Bear remained silent, Lai Ping asked again: "What is the true source of the Tao? If I hear the Tao in the morning, I can die in the evening."

"I beg you to explain a little, General. We are willing to sacrifice our lives for it."

Lai Ping stood up and kowtowed, and Li Jijiu followed suit.

"Tao, we are Tao, doors, windows, roof tiles are Tao, the emperor and the common people are Tao, cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks are also Tao, there is no high or low."

“The Tao is everywhere. We can see it and touch it.”

“Tao is matter, time, the past, and the future.”

Black Bear thought for a while and said, "It is very difficult to understand the Tao, just like ascending to heaven in broad daylight. But you can study the principles of the Tao, grasp its principles, and then you will know the essence and function of the Tao. To know is to study things, go and look at bamboo, and if you can see through it, you will understand some principles."

Li Jijiu frowned as he listened, taking note carefully, and then asked, "Both you and I are Daoists, with no distinction between high and low. Why can you practice the true Dharma, while I, a mortal, cannot transcend and must suffer from illness instead?"

"Within the Tao, you and I are naturally equal; but the Tao also has authority, and I have only touched a little bit of it."

"The Tao is like an ox, and I caught a strand of its hair."

"It is the same as the use of Tao. You must select good seeds, cultivate them carefully, and let them undergo the changes of the four seasons, with sunshine and rain. In this way, you will be able to obtain fruits in a few years."

"I have touched the authority of Tao, saving myself several years of hard work. I can obtain fruits in just a breath by holding branches, leaves and roots."

"Your fruit is the Word, and my fruit is the Word."

"Because of the Dao handle, my fruit is as I expected, it can nourish the body and prolong life. But because my Dao handle is insufficient, this fruit is difficult to make people become immortals."

Black Bear carefully recalled the differences between them and didn't want to continue talking about it. The more detailed he explained, the more they understood and the more painful it would be for them.

I can roughly understand the reason for my own existence.

Just like combing your hair, the hair should be straight and flowing...but when the comb is combing straight, a hair breaks off and sticks to the comb.

When the comb was used to comb the hair again, the broken hair broke away and connected to another hair that was about to break.

The time that the broken hair is briefly attached to the comb gives it a little bit of magical power, that's all.

After a moment, Li Jijiu said in a hoarse voice: "Then it is possible that Commander Qu can live forever?"

"I don't know. The sun rises and sets, the moon waxes and wanes. I am still young, not yet in my prime, how can I know the end of my life?"

As Black Bear spoke, he raised his hand and touched his face. If he could always maintain a juvenile appearance, his body would never mature, and he would naturally be immortal.

Lai Ping also asked: "The reason why Commander Qu was able to attain enlightenment was because he read the authentic ancient book... or?"

"You mean that the tomb raider dug out a genuine book from the pre-Qin period, and I became enlightened overnight after reading it?"

Black Bear smiled and said, "Let's imagine boldly. Is there a possibility that when the tomb raider and the general were collecting military funds, they disturbed my sweet dream and dug me out?"

Lai Ping looked up suddenly and saw the black bear's smiling face. He suddenly felt cold all over and a layer of fine sweat beads seeped out of his back.

Cultivating immortals depends on archaeology and digging graves. Cao Cao accidentally dug up an ancient immortal... This makes sense.

Seeing that Lai Ping was caught up in his own horrific speculations, Black Bear stopped paying him any more attention and went to look at Li Jijiu.

This chief priest who knew medicine had apparently given up the idea of ​​seeking and attaining the truth, and was very interested in the two things about the ancestor of medicine and increasing longevity. At least these were some kind of handles on the truth that he could grasp.

The ancestor of medical science has left his name in history and benefited his descendants.

Prolonging life is of great significance. Living longer is not for enjoyment, but just to see the world change for another twenty years without regrets.

Watching all your enemies die of old age one by one would be a great victory in life.

Li Jijiu made up his mind and asked, "General Qu predicted the matter of Xinglin, and I am willing to put it into practice. May I ask where should I go, General Qu?"

"Go to Huainan. There is no forced labor system there. It's a good place to go. When your Xinglin Mountain is full of disciples and students, I will come to find you."

At this time, Black Bear saw that it was getting dark outside the door, so he said, "You came from Laozi Temple. If you open a clinic, you might as well call it Taiqing Clinic. That way, I won't mistake you for someone else."

"Taiqing Temple...Yes, Li Feng understands."

Li Jijiu bowed again. Black Bear heard the difference in the words but did not correct him.

"Guanzhe" and "guanye" are originally homophones.

Judging from the literal meaning, "guan" has the implication of standing on a high place to admire the scenery; "guan" is simpler, as if it is an organized place for living and eating.

(End of this chapter)