Chapter 19 The 19th Fox Immortal Pagoda

"Today, we have to go up to the Fox Immortal Pagoda, which is also a very famous place!" After we exhibited the relics of the emperors, the next morning, the Empress Dowager's worries were greatly reduced; After Yi washed up, she planned to go out for fun.Of course, her actions are absolutely free, and she does not need to ask for our consent, and she can take us wherever she wants; but she often likes to show off her own knowledge, whenever something new happens, or the Before going to a new place, Mr. Yi had to give us some general information.At this time, Yi said to us as usual: "We have heard the story about the fox fairy for a long time! This fox fairy tower is the place where it practiced after repenting. Now that we have arrived in Fengtian, we have to go. Once, it would be a pity!"

"So, what's its story like?" We were half driven by curiosity and half for the sake of fun, so we asked her for the details. Yi really smiled smugly, and immediately agreed to tell us; in fact, even if we didn't ask Yi, she would automatically tell us.So we heard an unheard-of story about a thousand-year-old nine-tailed fox.Here are the words of the Queen Mother: "Before this fox fairy was born as a fox, no one can answer what kind of beast it is. Even the Jade Emperor in the sky may not be able to tell. Everyone only knows its previous life It must be a very vicious and terrifying thing, and it is only harmful and useless to human beings, but the details are not clear. When it was first reborn as a fox, it had nine tails, all of which were plump. Beautiful; besides, it has a magic of invisibility. In the end, it lost eight tails, but fortunately, its precious invisibility still remained, so that it was not useless. It turned out that its nine tails It is actually nine kinds of bad habits, because of these nine kinds of bad habits, it will become addicted to it day by day, degenerate day by day, and become a bad member of the world."

"What are the nine evil habits? The first is joy and drunkenness; the second is recklessness and negligence; the third is insincerity, lying and cheating at every turn; the fourth is greed for money. Jealousy; the fifth type is irritable; the sixth type is greedy, often stealing other people's food; the seventh type is too narrow-minded, suffered some grievances, and must take revenge; the eighth type is greedy, seeing beauty The ninth kind is greed and lust, which is often indulged in excess. These nine bad habits have blinded its whole soul, and it is doing evil almost every day; it was finally known to the Jade Emperor. Great anger He immediately caught it, reprimanded it severely, and finally said: "From now on, you must reform yourself and be a kind fox! The only way now is to cut off your tail." Lose one!' Hearing this, he was very anxious, because he loved his nine tails, and he didn't know which one would make him feel the least pain if he lost one of the nine tails. But the Jade Emperor didn't allow it a chance to choose, so he immediately issued an order to cut off the tail that made it drink happily, and warned again and again: "Now I will give you another thousand years, let you go and drink well by yourself." Cultivation, be sure to change your behavior. In case we find that your behavior has not improved, then your second tail will have to be cut off again!' The fox happily agreed, declaring that he would It has been awakened and is willing to try its best to reform. However, after going back, a thousand years passed quickly, and its behavior is still very bad, but in the past thousand years, it has never drunk Drunk once; but other bad habits are constantly being repeated, and the bad behavior is obvious, no matter how cunning it is, it can't deny it. Of course, the Jade Emperor knew about it a long time ago, so he immediately caught it and brought it up again. I cut off one of its tails; at the same time, I still hope that it can change its ways, so I will follow the method of last time, and give it another thousand years of grace, so that it can slowly reform itself. The fox also agreed with tears. But After going back, his nature relapsed soon, and he acted wrongly and evilly. In the blink of an eye, the second millennium passed, and the Jade Emperor checked it carefully. Except that he had never drunk or told lies, he was still the same. Needless to say, it disappointed the Jade Emperor, so he decided to continue to punish it. Fortunately, it still has seven tails! So it was assessed every thousand years, and every The results of the second assessment were always unsatisfactory, so they cut off one of its tails each time. After eight thousand years, the fox had only one tail left. It must not let him keep the last tail. So I caught it again and told it that it could no longer forgive. This time, in order to get rid of its evil roots, it had to cut off its last tail; Divided fox."

"But this fox's vanity is very heavy--vanity is not a bad habit.--he thinks that if he cuts off the ninth tail, his previous beauty will be lost. If it is completely lost, how can it have the face to live in the future; so no matter what, it does not want to be punished by docking its tail. Therefore, it sincerely pleaded to the Jade Emperor: "From now on, I am completely awakened." No matter what you want me to do, I am willing to do it desperately, but please allow me to keep my last tail and give me a little dignity. I will always be grateful to you, please allow me Make repentance! From now until the day when the world is destroyed, I will never dare to do some bad things again!' After crying and pleading with him, the merciful Jade Emperor unconsciously moved his compassion He bowed his head and thought for a long time, and finally came up with a solution. He said to the fox: "You have committed too many crimes in the past, and reasoning should not forgive you; now you really have The sincerity of repentance, let me forgive you again! This time, I can no longer let you roam freely like before! I will assign you a job now, teach you to take the job of curing various diseases in the world with your heart, and seal you You are the god of healing. The term of this job is nine thousand years. Because it is not so long, it will not be able to offset your previous crimes!' Hearing this, the fox had no embarrassment, and immediately agreed to it, so it The last tail is kept! This tail represents the evil habit of a woman who is obsessed with beauty. This evil habit is already the lightest among the original nine! , it also got the title of "Green Fox Immortal". The title of "Green Fox Immortal" is indeed a very revered title, and it is definitely not something that ordinary people can easily get; Diseases began to be cured in the world. Because its spells are very subtle, it can cure any disease, so its reputation is getting better day by day. Later, those who benefited raised funds to build I built this fox fairy pagoda and worshiped it devoutly. Anyone who has a disease, just go there to pray, and it will prescribe some medicines, teach the patient to take it, and it will be effective after taking nineteen minutes!"

The Queen Mother's story ends here. (Translator's Note: This story is obviously fabricated by the author, but it is very interesting. It is very imaginative with the fairy tales written by Hans Christian Andersen, a master of Danish fairy tales, so I specially translated them.) Finally, Yi returned to the main story.Yi said: "Because it has many miraculous signs, so we have to go to Zhan Ye Zhan Ye!" After listening to the stories told by the Queen Mother, everyone found it very interesting. Although we are no longer three or four-year-old children, we can certainly tell the truth from the fake after hearing such a story!And I also know why the merciful Jade Emperor was so lenient towards the criminal fox, not only cutting off a tail that has nothing to do with life each time, but also allowing it to examine it again after a thousand years; The laissez-faire of the Jade Emperor, but the negligence of the person who made this story, or his childish thinking.

We also don't want to ask how true this story is, and how false it is?Since there is such a scenic spot in Fengtian, of course we should visit it. I can't remember the location of the Fox Immortal Pagoda, but it's probably on the northeast corner of Fengtian City; I hope this memory is right, even if it's wrong, it won't be a big mistake.However, I also admit that I don't know the direction very much. As long as I go to a relatively unfamiliar place, I don't know where is east and where is west.What's more, the streets in Fengtian City are very tortuous and difficult to recognize at all; now that it's been decades later, if you want to recall it again, of course it will never be accurate!

The queen mother has made up her mind to go out, so as usual, someone sent an order to tell everyone to get ready.The first step is to send people to the Fox Immortal Pagoda to drive out the idlers, so as not to disturb the Queen Mother's holy car.The second step is to choose the route, and lay yellow sand on every road that must be walked to comply with the legal rules.In the end, a team of guards of honor, who are used to practicing, set off one by one. I sat in the sedan chair, and when I went all the way, I closed my eyes and thought about it carefully. Why are the myths that I have heard in other ethnic groups that are circulated in other peoples completely different from our Chinese myths?Whether true or not, there should be a reason.It's a pity that I thought about it for a long time and never paid attention to it.Perhaps scholars who specialize in mythology can answer it in a very orderly manner.I have always paid great attention to myths; but the passage the Empress Dowager told us above did not attract my special attention, I just thought it was very funny!

The whole procession of guards of honor always walk very slowly. Fortunately, none of us have any illnesses, and we are not in a hurry to ask the Great Immortal to heal us.Finally, it's here.After I went here to take a look, I immediately found a lot of evidence; for example, there are so many plaques thanking God, the cleanliness of the sweeping, and the rich decorations are enough to show that the stories I think are funny and ridiculous are indeed there in the local area. Some people take it seriously as the real fact!They believe that thousands of years ago, there really was a fox with great supernatural powers. Because of its disorderly behavior, it was punished by the Jade Emperor and came down to the world to cure all sufferings in the world, so as to repent and synthesize its sins.Perhaps it is because of their belief that quite a few people are really sick, and they will be fine after eating the fairy prescription!

The so-called Fox Immortal Pagoda is really a big temple, and it also has a very solemn and solemn atmosphere.In the main hall, there is also a very tall shrine. In front of the shrine are two silk curtains embroidered with flowers. They should have always been very bright and beautiful before, but now they have been tainted by cigarette smoke. These two silk curtains In the middle of the veil, you can vaguely see a god tablet with red lacquer and gold characters inside, and there are nine block letters written "Sealing the God Tablet of the Great Immortal of the Green Fox".Under the altar is an altar with candlesticks, incense burners, burning red candles all day long, and cigarettes, all of which are continuously provided by those devout men and women.

As for how the sick come to seek medical treatment?This set of procedures is understood by us Chinese nineteen years ago, and there was no special method in the past.It is still a stick full of bamboo sticks for the patients or their family members to hold in their hands. First, they shake the freshly lit incense three times, which can be regarded as the meaning of enlightenment. ground, shaking it cautiously. ——Because if you shake a little hastily or if you are a little careless, several lots will often fall at the same time; in this way, even if the faith of those who come is not strong, it will be very harmful to the illness of themselves or their family members. , must re-shake.Sometimes the shaking is too hasty, and all the lottery may fall at once. This means that the immortal said that the disease is terminally ill and hopeless.So when drawing lottery tubes, everyone is very careful; when encountering enthusiastic temple wishes, they will give you guidance from the side, so that you have to give him some more incense money - in the end, there must be one The bamboo sticks will fall off individually, which is what the Great Immortal instructed in the dark.So the person who asked for the lot carefully read the number on the sign and told Miao Zhu, and Miao Zhu picked out the fairy prescription for them according to the number.The so-called celestial prescriptions are also the same as the lottery formulas we can see in various temples at this moment; they are strips of very narrow and thin yellow paper with more than a dozen names of medicines printed on them; , and hang on the wall one by one. When you need to use it, you only need to recognize the number and pull one down.

After the patient or the family member of the patient asked for the celestial prescription, of course they did not dare to be negligent, and rushed to the medicinal material store, probably the one closest to the temple. For the sake of showing gratitude, the owner of the shop will inevitably also reward the stewards or temple blessings in the temple. ——Purchase according to the prescription; fortunately, most of the medicines prescribed in these fairy prescriptions are mild and weak in strength. After the patient drinks it, even if it doesn't work, it will never kill him immediately no matter what.Therefore, as a rule, immortal prescriptions will not cause trouble; sometimes, these medicines may happen to be somewhat opposite to the disease the patient suffers from, and coupled with the patient's own psychological effects, it is easy to be effective.It worked a few times by accident, and people attributed most of the ineffective ones to the destiny of heaven, thinking that the great immortal is really great. Even the Queen Mother, a female politician who manages every day, has very stubborn confidence in this, to be honest; but I really dare not believe it before I have obtained sufficient evidence. "Let's make a random hypothesis, Queen Mother," I said suddenly in a daze, forgetting all my scruples: "If the fairy prescription is obtained, and the medicine has been prepared and given to the patient to drink; It is really incompatible with the patient's illness, for example, if you take a hot medicine for a fever, and a cold medicine for a cold, isn't this very dangerous for the patient? What if there is a catastrophe?" The Empress Dowager is always easy to get annoyed with others, but she treats me very preferentially, never speaks harshly, and is always very tolerant; at this time, hearing me ask such a strange (actually very reasonable) question, He couldn't help getting angry. "How dare you speak such nonsense!" Yi blushed and scolded me loudly. I also immediately regretted it. Although my meaning was right, how could I just criticize the things the Queen Mother believes in?As a rule, we can only blindly obey Yi like a child to his parents, and we shouldn't have any doubts, but I dare to openly express dissent to Yi, which is obviously very bold; if Yi is not happy , Any punishment can be imposed on me.When I thought of this, I couldn't help panicking, especially because I was usually favored by the Queen Mother, once I was reprimanded, I couldn't help but feel more panicked, so I had to kowtow to Yi indiscriminately.But Yi's anger couldn't be dispelled immediately, and she reprimanded me solemnly as if she had expressed some important political opinion: "You child is too bold! Can't you think about it carefully? How can such a great fairy with great powers not know the condition of each disease and give the right medicine? When did you see him rushing through What a disaster? It's really ignorant nonsense!" But Yi didn't just annoy me, at the same time, she was worried about me, and she hurriedly instructed me to kowtow to the Daxian to make amends; as if if I didn't kowtow to make amends immediately, the Daxian would never forgive me easily, maybe it would be Misfortune will happen to me.Although in my heart I absolutely do not believe that there is such a miracle in the world, but in order to please the Empress Dowager, I obeyed Yi's words and respectfully knelt down in front of the god's table, and bowed meticulously for a few times.When I got up, Yi's anger was almost gone, but Yi still said with a very serious expression: "The supernatural powers of the Great Immortal are really incomparable! Don't talk about ordinary diseases, taking his fairy prescriptions, all of them will be effective immediately; even for a person who suffers from the most serious terminal illness, as long as he still has a breath, the Great Immortal will be fine." Please bring him back to life! But his family members came here piously, offered good incense, kowtowed their heads, and waited for the ashes that fell from the incense to prevent it from falling into the incense burner. Take it back, mix it with boiling water and swallow it for the patient, no matter how vicious the disease is, it can be cured! This is beyond the imagination of us mortals!"