Chapter 157 Chapter 5 Legend

The next day, the vast sky was still pale, and our team set off towards Nagqu mightily.We sat on the off-road vehicle and looked at the wilderness with no end in sight, the rolling hills, and the white snow cracks that were blindingly white under the sun. Everyone was amazed at the plateau scenery, and my mood was also in this The holy place was temporarily released, and felt a lot more relaxed in an instant.Professor He Kai is not in the same car as us, so we have no chance to talk. I can only guess what happened in 1976 out of thin air, and what is the purpose of Professor He Kai in this operation?Although she has always stated that she wants to better understand the situation in no man's land so that the country can develop, but I always vaguely feel that she has other purposes. Although she is not as kind as a vicious woman, the people I have known this year Most people cannot be judged from the surface.

While thinking, we unknowingly came to the Yangbajing Basin at the southern foot of Nyainqentanglha Mountain.Unexpectedly, the off-road vehicle we took had a problem and broke down.Professor He Kai got out of the car and asked about the situation. She told us to catch up with the team as soon as we repaired the car. They waited for us and the sponsor in Nagqu.Chen Jing and Xinhong were not worried, and I didn't know whether to complain or worry. I seemed to have lost my soul, and I didn't know what to think about.Fortunately, our driver is very kind and professional. He said that it can be repaired in half an hour, and asked us to wait patiently, or walk around, as long as we don't get lost.

Seeing the convoy go away, I felt relieved, probably the closer I got to the answer, the more uncertain my heart was, but I had already come to the answer, and I must not back down anymore.This place is only 78 kilometers away from Lhasa, but the altitude is already above 4350 meters. I even feel that my breathing is not smooth, but the other two people have no reaction at all.There are no buildings around.Instead, white mist rose slowly in many places, like a fairyland. Against the backdrop of the bright sunshine, they blended with the Nyainqentanglha Snow Mountain behind, which is really spectacular.

Because I knew I was going to visit Qiang Tang half a year ago, so I had a real understanding of this area.The white mist is actually the famous eight wells geothermal field. In 1975, the country had already laid my country's first humid and hot steam well here, and Yangbajing is very rich in geothermal energy.Nearly 40% of Lhasa's electricity comes from this source.All three of us were marveling at the hot scenery, but when the fog cleared, I saw a large ash in the fog.And there are some bird tracks on the wet ground.However, these few footprints are very unusual.Abnormally large, as big as a football.There are also many feathery things in the ashes, but they are broken into powder when the breeze blows, and there are many bird tracks where there are ashes.I have never seen such a large bird footprint, and I am very surprised, and it looks very unreal.

The driver was repairing the off-road vehicle. When he saw these scenes, he felt very normal.The driver is a local and knows more about the surroundings than we do.He told us that there is a legend around here.However, as the local population migrated, the foreign population moved here again, and the legend almost disappeared.I thought it might have something to do with my parents and the worship of Xuanniao, so I hurriedly asked, "What is the content of that legend, don't you remember?" "Of course I remember, but it's very sporadic. I often heard about it when I was a child, but no one seems to remember it now." The driver saw that the three of us were very interested and felt very honored. Selling knowledge is also a glory.And it is these righteous displays of justice that we need.

"When I was young, I heard many old people mention that there was a phoenix at the junction of Qinghai and Tibet. This phoenix often caught fire, and every time it caught fire, there was such a place of ashes and its footprints. I also thought It’s just a legend, but it’s true that many people have seen flames flying around or rolling around on the ground at night, and the next morning, people can find a lot of footprints in that place. Don’t believe it, you Aren’t you into science? It seems that you are still into archaeology. There are many footprints of phoenixes here, and some of them have become fossils. Just pay attention to the ground, you may find many fossils of footprints!” the driver finished. , I wanted to continue repairing the off-road vehicle, but I thought of something, so I said another sentence, "But don't look carefully when you see the flames. If you see a phoenix in the flames, you will..."

"What will happen?" Chen Jing asked anxiously when she heard the driver's voice dragging on. "I don't remember either. Anyway, don't stare at Fenghuang. If you want to live a normal life, I really don't remember how it is. Anyway, the old people say so." The driver concentrated on repairing the car after speaking, and ignored him. us. "Do you think he's telling the truth?" Xinhong asked in a daze. "Of course I believe that he has no enmity with us. There is no need to lie to us. It is a pity that the legends have been lost in this modern society. If we don't pay attention to preservation, many myths and legends will disappear." I said sadly.

"The footprints are real, didn't you see them?" Chen Jing pointed to the footprints on the ground and said. The footprints on the ground are not fake, it is impossible for someone to fake it everywhere, and the legend has been around for a long time, how could the fakers have been cheating for hundreds of years, or even thousands of years.The driver said that there are still fossil footprints, so it is more real. Maybe if you get such a piece, you will become famous all over the world immediately.The phoenix is ​​actually a kind of mysterious bird worship.However, modern science has always regarded phoenixes and dragons as fictional animals, which do not exist in the world at all, and no fossils of phoenixes have been unearthed, so this fictional theory is not out of the question.

Director Zha has done a lot of research on the worship of black birds, and many of the books he gave us also contain records about phoenixes, including many orthodox schools of thought, as well as many folklore.The origin of the phoenix dates back to the Neolithic Age. Many bird patterns on painted pottery in the primitive society are the prototype of the phoenix. Unearthed from the Hemudu Culture in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province about 6,700 years ago, there are carved images of double bird patterns on ivory bone vessels. The bird pattern should be the earliest record of the ancient phoenix, and according to myths and legends, the phoenix evolved from the bird totem of the Yin people in the East.Many nations in the world have their own special animals. In history, it seems that the worship of certain animals prevailed in early human civilization.

For example, many peoples in Europe and Asia like lions and eagles.Take them as emblems - for they are symbols of strength and agility.In ancient China, the animals worshiped by the Chinese were dragon and phoenix.However, for thousands of years, the truth of the dragon and the phoenix has always been a mystery.Specifically how did it originate.Everyone is guessing, and no one has any evidence to prove their inferences.The legends of this place are interesting. I have read the legends of many places, but there seems to be no information that says that the Phoenix cannot be seen, and it will be bad luck.This is really contrary to many legends.And my intuition tells me that the more abnormal the thing that is recognized by the world, the more it can break through the key to the problem.Perhaps this lost legend is hinting at something.

We were discussing excitedly, and no one expected to encounter such a miraculous thing before actually entering Qiangtang.It's okay if you enter.Now, the question we face is, are all these legends about the phoenix just a kind of myth, or a possible historical reality?In other words, did the phoenix really have a real animal prototype in history?On this issue, just like on the issue of dragons, the past views of the academic community tend to be negative.However, when I was researching the materials of the old curator Zha.But I noticed a piece of information, that is, the following record was found in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty: "Jiayinbu, Humingwang, Huofeng. Bingchen, Huowu." Ming used nets to catch birds, and Yu Bingchen caught five phoenixes that day.Since it is captured with a net, it is a living phoenix. From this point of view, in the Shang Dynasty, there were indeed phoenix birds in China.I used to think that this oracle bone inscription was just an isolated evidence, but it was in the early bronze inscription "Zhongding".We can also read the following record: "Return to the king to give birth to a phoenix." The word "birth phoenix" mentioned in the article, Guo Moruo also concluded that it refers to a living phoenix.Both oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions have materials that clearly show that until the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the phoenix was still a rare, but not non-existent bird.After the Qin and Han Dynasties in the Warring States Period, Fenghuang Fang was completely deified as a supernatural bird.But it is worth noting that in the historical records of Qin and Han Dynasties, there are still records about the appearance of the phoenix from time to time.The Han Dynasty was an era when superstition prevailed, and many auspicious and strange times recorded in historical records are often not creditable.But I am afraid that we cannot think that there is absolutely no credibility in it.At least the physical characteristics depicted by the Qin and Han people have one very noticeable commonality, which is the extraordinary size of the phoenix—from five or six feet tall to more than one foot in height. "So, you said a lot of things, just to say that the phoenix really exists?" Chen Jing was a little mocking. "I didn't say that there must be a phoenix. I just want to say that there may have been a very special bird in history, but modern people have not discovered its existence." I shrugged and said. "Jin Wei is right. In fact, shortly after the emergence of human beings, many totems recorded the existence of the phoenix in different forms. At that time, it seemed that it was difficult to fabricate the same legend, unless it was true. Think about it, China The culture is more than 5,000 years old. Could it be that everyone has a unified understanding when it first appeared, and there are the same descriptions in different records? Besides, the world was still very closed at that time, and one nation did not know another nation, let alone others. Peoples in continents. Why are there so many records about phoenixes in the world?" Xinhong chimed in, which made me feel grateful in my heart. "That is, superstition was so strong in the Han Dynasty that many records were unbelievable, although there were also prototypes that evolved. However, before, even when writing and human beings first appeared, it seemed that it was difficult to fabricate myths, and it was a nation that had never communicated. Here, there is the same description of Phoenix." I continued. "Okay, okay, I didn't deny you, why are you so eager to explain, men are just boring." Chen Jing turned her head to the car in disappointment, Xinhong looked at Chen Jing's back in a daze, and I thought he was very funny. Under the repair of the driver, the off-road vehicle was finally able to go on the road again.We got into the car, praying in our hearts that the car would be broken again, or we might be excluded from the operation.Chen Jing bickered with Xinhong for a while in the car, and then she said to me seriously: "Actually, our Hongya tribe also has legends about the divine bird, but I don't know if it can be regarded as a phoenix, but the red cliff One thing about the legend of the Ya people is the same as that of the driver, that is, don't look directly at the divine bird."