Chapter 45 Chapter 41 Shaman

Me: "Excuse me, let me ask first: Is this your real last name?" He smiled lightly: "You can ask the household registration office, my surname is strange." Me: "Huh? The pronunciation is not weird, but expensive?" He: "Yes, the writing is strange, the pronunciation is gui, four tones." Me: "It seems that I am really ignorant... sorry." He: "I'm used to it. I've been asked since childhood." Me: "Are you Han?" Him: "Han nationality." This "patient" let me know a surname I had never heard of before: strange, pronounced "gui" when pronounced.Later, I checked it specifically, and it was considered an ancient surname, very distinctive.But others are not to blame. The speech, expression, behavior, and manners are all indifferent. At first glance, they think they are indifferent.Actually not.

Me: "Are those skulls in your house really belonged to your father and grandfather?" He: "Anyway, the police have gone there for identification, and there is a suicide note to testify, so I won't explain." Me: "I wish you could explain." Him: "Why?" Me: "Be curious, maybe, and these may be provided to the psychiatric department as information—assuming it is valuable." He: "They think I'm crazy?" Me: "Psychopathy." He looked down and smiled. Me: "I'm telling the truth." He: "I know. Well, let me tell you some things, including those that the police don't know."

To be honest, his last sentence was more refreshing to me. He: "My family, so far, have been shamans for generations." Me: "Shaman? Shamanism? Isn't that a native religion?" He's right." Me: "I used to know something when I was interested in studying religion. Well, it seems very old, right?" He's right." Me: "Worship the earth, sky, fire, water, and other natural phenomena, such as wind and thunder. Use totems to represent, use human bones for divination. Is that it?" He: "That's it, it seems that you already know a lot."

Me: "Maybe it's because I haven't read all the information. How do I remember that after leaving the primitive society, many native religions disappeared?" He: "Who said that? It's still going on. I'm a shaman, and few people know that's all. One thing I didn't tell the police is that many of the things in my house that they think are rotten wood are antiques. , at least a few hundred years old. Those are family heirlooms." Me: "Totem?" He: "Not all, those boards are used to nail or hang on a stump, that's a totem." Me: "So it's like this..."

He: "I remember when I said I was a shaman, a policeman was laughing." Me: "Well...maybe he doesn't understand?" He: "He said that I read too many foreign fantasy novels." Me: "Oh, but I think it's understandable, because there are basically no people studying shamanism in China, and there are only a few of them. In fact, shamanism is a native religion, but it is rarely called that way later." He: "Yes, it's called 'Wu', and it's also written as 'Shanman'. It's because I don't understand, otherwise my troublesome neighbor wouldn't call the police... Well, it seems that you understand it better, I will Tell you more."

I'm smiling mentally because that's my purpose.Whenever this happens, I will be very grateful for the variety of my interests. Although there are not many specializations, but at certain times, I can always find a common topic, and with a sense of identity, it will be easy to handle-such as now. He: "If you count up, very early in BC, our family was a shaman." Me: "Do you have a family tree?" Him: "No." Me: "Totem?" He: "The one in my hand is no longer that early." Me: "Then how do you prove it?" He: "I said, you listen."

I:"……" He: "You don't have to believe it, but I don't have to lie, and it doesn't do any good. There's no need to lie." Me: "Okay, you continue." He: "The reason for the continuation is that the ancestors cursed their own family." Me: "Why do you want to curse your own family?" He: "Because the ancestors exchanged their weak bloodlines for the ability to come to shaman. I am an only son and have no brothers or sisters; my father had a younger sister who died at the age of 4; my grandfather was an only son, and my great-grandfather was also an only son, counting upwards , It’s basically like this. There are at most two children, but in the end, there is only one bloodline, and the other has no offspring or dies young. But no matter what dynasty is in chaos, this bloodline can survive. That’s it.”

Me: "So that's how it is... But, after passing it down, what if the child doesn't want to?" He: "I don't know, I haven't heard of such a thing. I remember that when I was young, I didn't know anything, and my father didn't tell me. When I was 15 years old, my dad called me in front of me very seriously and told me everything. And let me remember one thing: after his death, the skull will remain, and the skin on the back will be peeled off to make a few pages of books, which will be written with my blood." Why do I?" He: "The skull is used for divination, not the kind used as a vessel. The skin on the back is very complete, and it is used to record something on the pages of a book. It is a rule to write with my blood."

He rolled up his sleeves and I saw that he had many wounds on his arms, old and new.It made me feel kind of scary. Me: "Does writing in blood preserve mana?" He smiled: "Whatever you say." Me: "However, is it okay if the family member dies without being sent to the crematorium? You live in a city?" He: "It seems that your family is in good health, or you don't have that impression. My father died in the hospital. Whether to pick him up or park him in the morgue is the family's choice. Although a death certificate must be issued in the crematorium, But no one cares if you got into a car accident or any other way of death, basically no one asks more, and they don’t know how to compare. Got it?”

Me: "God, got it." He: "My mother already knew how to do it, and we did it together." I do not know what to say. He: "From this point of view, I seem to be out of my mind. But if you are a shaman, you will understand." Me: "Uh... now I think I can understand a little bit, but I don't really understand why it has to be like this. I mean skulls, human skin books, etc. Because it feels like a very primitive religion to me, which is somewhat weird .You don’t mind me saying that because it’s how I really feel.” He: "I don't mind. If there is no big problem with this kind of thing, I will not tell outsiders. Maybe you will find it weird or even weird, but we—shamans all do this. From ancient times So far, the change of dynasties cannot affect us. As you said, this is a very primitive native religion. So we can keep this inheritance unchanged. My identity in society is a textile machinery engineer, and my personal identity is Sa Full priest. I have two friends who are also personal shamans, and they are family friends, and one is even a woman. So what? Weird? Mentally abnormal? There is my father's suicide note to testify. We did not harm anything. As for someone who believes and finds me, then everything I do is free. That is a kind of gratitude. What is there to be grateful for? Because they believe. I will not dance to the gods, Don't do some weird tricks to deceive people, don't rely on it to make money, don't even tell others what to do, and of course you are not allowed to tell others, only to pass on to your own descendants. Because the curse is our own. , whether you call it fate or madness, we have passed it down from generation to generation, and we still do it today. Shamans don't fight for social status, because after all, this is an era of advanced science and technology , and we also actively participate in society, but we always remember who we are: shamans."

Me: "...Maybe I have misunderstood? But I still have doubts about things like divination." He: "No problem, you can question it. It's the same as someone who believes in life and death. For those, as a shaman, there is no evaluation, because that is not our business, and the shaman will not pull you to believe in what to warn you not to believe in. What, that is your right, it has nothing to do with shamans. And in fact, my worship of the sky, earth, water, fire, wind and thunder does not affect my understanding of mechanical physics and organic chemistry, and I don’t think that conflicts.” Me: "Did any interested people find what you want to learn?" He: "Yes, a lot. But I don't know how to teach." Me: "It seems that you just said that the shaman has no obligation to carry forward these things, right?" He: "Not only is there no such obligation, but it is also in a state of prohibition. There was once a person who pestered me for a long time, but I understand that he is just new to this. And even if he is really sincere, I will ignore him Requirement. Because the shaman identity is a kind of burden, it is not a fun and interesting thing to bear the will of the ancestors. My ancestors have inherited the promise of the family and passed it on to me, and I will continue it instead of using the so-called It is in my hands to carry forward the broad form, and I don’t want to be used by the cult.” The topic of the day was always on this, and he said a lot, basically unknown things-unless you are researching this.I found that he has a very pure temperament, that firm and pure temperament.I have seen that kind of temperament in books, but I rarely see it in reality.He sticks to what was thousands of years ago and continues to the present.That is what many people see: stubborn and sick. But I think it is these stubborn and sick people, with their persistence, we can understand history and what happened in the past.Moreover, only in all the current fields can we have the current achievements.Because if history is only recorded in books and not in people's hearts, sooner or later it will become a legend.Don't argue with me about these, the facts are in front of you.Although the cuneiform characters of ancient Egypt, the Sanskrit characters of ancient India, and the three-dimensional structure characters of the Mayan civilization all exist, few people can understand them.Otherwise, those who only know more than two hundred Mayan characters would not be called experts. This Mr. Weird was later released.Of course, it is not my credit for this recording.I once approached him, but he didn't want to say any more, so I wisely gave up contact. But I really want to see those old totem planks with my own eyes and touch them with my hands.When my hand touches it, I will close my eyes and feel it well, appreciate the charm of the thousand years of silence, and the maybe confusion, or glory, maybe glory, maybe shame, maybe the bloody past, and the past that once stood On this land, those empires thousands of years ago.