Chronicles of Ancient Matters Volume 2

Magic mirror 

 

 

one

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The Emperor's Birth Game

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According to "Ting Fang Lu", there was once a benevolent emperor who was very tolerant to the people, his taxes were unbelievably low, and the people loved him very much. He has ten most beloved concubines, but he has not given birth to a single heir. Once, a magician from Daqin came to the palace suddenly. He performed incredible magic tricks and presented a square bronze mirror with a gold back, frame and handle, saying that he could freely enter and exit the mirror. world. The emperor asked his ten concubines to play in the mirror in turn, and if they came back pregnant, he rewarded each of them with 10,000 taels of silver. They were very happy for this, and sincerely thanked the mighty emperor for his grace.

Nine months later, they all returned to the emperor with their babies. One came home late, holding a pair of twin baby girls. In this way they once again won the emperor's favor.
A few years later, the emperor had three more princes (born by the first, fourth, and seventh concubines) and eight princesses with different looks around him.
 

The emperor was very happy about this, thinking that the great country has a successor since then. Among them, the son of the first concubine was selected as the prince, which means that he will become the emperor's successor. The inscription ceremony was very grand, and civil and military officials from all over the country came to congratulate, and the whole palace was filled with flattery and gifts. The emperor also declared amnesty in court, hoping that in this way, he would gain some folk reputation for his son who would ascend the throne in the future.
 

At that time, there were many wars in the north, but the south was peaceful. The emperor is old, and the old hard ambitions have melted. He stopped arranging the morning court and handed over government affairs to the prime minister. He sat on a soft dragon chair every day, with a haggard face, as if sitting at the end of a coffin. He looked at the children frolicking around the courtyard, nibbling his withered and yellow fingernails, his eyes were full of late joy.  

 

History of Bronze Mirror

 

Just like the divine mirror obtained by the emperor, the earliest bronze mirror came from the Western Regions, brought by Silk Road merchants and highly skilled magicians, and was called "Fan Mirror" or "Da Qin Mirror" by the world. With slender handle. They are mostly used in market performances, where the people are surprised and applauded, and sometimes they are presented to local officials and even the emperor, in exchange for various benefits from them.
 

Western bronze mirrors provided the original prototypes for Middle-earth craftsmen. The "Han mirror" or "Jin mirror" cast by local mirror casters is dominated by the "roundness philosophy", deliberately removing the original handle and adding a round button on the back of the mirror. This kind of pure round bronze mirror is usually It is called "Han mirror" or "Jin mirror". Although it is not as good as Fan mirror in terms of supernatural powers, there are also some works of famous masters, which have reached a rather sublime level. Most of them are in the hands of Taoist priests, and sometimes they are presented to the emperor, becoming new treasures in the palace treasury, and then rewarded by the emperor to his favorite courtiers, and finally flow to the people, becoming treasures that people compete to collect.

 

Types of bronze mirrors

 

The oldest mirrors are undoubtedly water mirrors. The so-called "water moon" and "mirror flower" are both names about the nature of mirror images.
 

After the bronze mirror was invented, it was divided into two types, one is the vulgar mirror, which is used by nobles and officials, and the other is the divine mirror, which is used by immortals, Taoists and alchemists. But in the era when the magic mirror was popular, the boundary between the two has long been completely broken.
 

The magic mirror is divided into three basic styles: "sunglasses" (concave mirrors) for collecting solar energy, "demon mirrors" (convex mirrors) for exorcising ghosts, and "convex mirrors" for entering parallel spaces. , called "you square mirror" (plane mirror). This type of mirror can be seen as a mysterious and special means of transportation, a kind of passage or ferry connecting two different spaces. The mirror owner who has a wandering mirror can freely enter and exit the two parallel worlds outside the mirror and inside the mirror. The mirror owner can choose a double life through it, thereby surpassing the basic limitations of human existence.
 

There are many kinds of mirrors in China, including water mirrors, stone mirrors (jade mirrors, earth mirrors), bronze mirrors (golden mirrors), fire mirrors (the edge of the mirror has flames burning), wooden mirrors (possibly a kind of wooden mirror) Fossils), some appear in pairs, divided into yin and yang mirrors or male and female mirrors, and there is a pair of yin and yang mirrors, which are unique and are the masterpieces of mirror casting master Shou Tao. The best of the magic mirrors, the main mirror enters from the yin mirror and exits from the yang mirror. It is said that this can ensure the safety of entry and exit.
 

Other famous mirrors in history include demon mirrors, see-through mirrors, and face-changing mirrors (they will whiten people after being photographed), etc. They will bring novel feelings to human beings, as well as unforeseen disasters. "Supplements of Relics" records that in the time of King Mu of Zhou, a country in the Western Regions called Juqu paid tribute to the "Huo Qi Mirror". The situation is infinitely wonderful. There is also a "moon mirror" like jade. The color of the stone is like white snow, and the light emitted from it is as crystal clear as the full moon.

 

Zhuang Zhou's magic mirror

 

The magic mirror appeared in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. "Qi Wu Lun" states that when Zhuang Zhou dreamed that he was transformed into a butterfly with a vivid and lifelike shape, he felt happy and comfortable, but he didn't know that he was only Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly waking up, in a state of panic, he realized that he was originally a man named Zhuang Zhou, but he didn't know whether Zhuang Zhou had dreamed to become a butterfly, or the butterfly had dreamed to become Zhuang Zhou. Zhuang Zhou tried to prove to the world that there is a difference between him and a butterfly, but this reciprocal rotation of people and things expresses a new relationship in the world.
 

Mirror caster Dou Shaoqing claimed that Zhuang Zhou concealed an important fact, that is, his "dream" used the magic mirror. The mirror used by Zhuang Zhou is called the "Butterfly Transformation Mirror", which is a famous mirror derived from self-poison, which can realize the transformation of the body into animals or insects. He turns into a butterfly in the mirror, and thus has deep doubts about his own existence. The magic mirror promotes the birth of Taoist philosophical propositions - "I" and "things", inside and outside the mirror, the other shore and this shore, who is the real existence?
 

The magic mirror used by Zhuang Zhou was once occupied by King Qi and King Chu during the Warring States Period, but its whereabouts were unknown. Dou Shaoqing said that after Zhuang Zhou materialized, it returned to its hometown in the West by itself. The magic mirror is a symbol of freedom, it can fly autonomously, go in and out of different spaces, and its whereabouts are very mysterious.

 

Dou Shaoqing

 

Shi Kuang, a musician of the state of Jin, imitated the Yellow Emperor and cast twelve magic mirrors. He passed on this extraordinary skill to the Dou family. Dou Shaoqing is the most outstanding representative of the casting mirror family, and the only master who can make magic mirrors, and has mastered the world secret of space transformation.
 

In order to prevent peeping and chasing, the mirror casting master usually arranges the mirror casting location in the deep mountains and old forests, but it still cannot stop the tracking of the magic mirror catcher. So Dou Shaoqing built the mirror-casting workshop on a big boat, living in no fixed place, and the dragon could not see its tail, which made all the mirror catchers helpless.
 

When he cast the mirror in the heart of the river, the surrounding river suddenly rose more than 30 feet, like a snow mountain floating above the river, and there was the sound of dragon chant, like the sound of a reed, which spread dozens of miles away. The atmosphere is vast and breathtaking. This magnificent sight was seen and became the only record of mirror casting in history.  
 

Dou Shaoqing once directed the casting of "Water Heart Mirror" in Yangzhou City. He stayed in the mirror-casting workshop for three days and three nights, and then disappeared mysteriously, leaving only a letter, written in a small seal script that had long been discarded, on which were the provisions guiding the casting of divine mirrors, including the size of the mirror body and the shape of the mirror nose. There is also a gatha style poem, praising the extraordinary magic power of this unborn mirror. The "Water Heart Mirror" was later obtained by Cao Cao. After Cao Cao's death, the whereabouts of the mirror were unknown.
 

Because of possessing this extraordinary supernatural power, Dou Shaoqing became the target of the new emperor. The bronze mirror brought him an outstanding reputation, but also brought him disaster. His portrait hangs at the gates of various cities, as if he is the number one enemy of the emperor. Rumors about him are flying all over the sky. Some people say that he was immortalized in Songshan Mountain, leaving only a cloth shoe behind him. Others say that he has disappeared into the mirror and disappeared somewhere in the world on the other side.

 

Mirrorcasting

 

Dou Shaoqing pre-carved a "mirror" out of golden nanmu in the deep mountains, one side is flat, while the other side has extremely complicated patterns, and the theme and style of the patterns depend on the divine inspiration when carving the mold, not the mirror. prior design. Then, outside the wooden mirror, it needs to be covered with a thick layer of clay and fine sand to make two upper and lower mirror models. After some grinding and trimming, it becomes the official mold for casting the bronze mirror.
 

The rest of the work was done in the back room. Dou Shaoqing heats the copper stone and cassiterite in proportion, pours them into the mold rhythmically, after cooling, breaks the pottery fan, takes out the bronze mirror, repeatedly quenches it in badger oil and deer blood, and reheats it many times to transform its brittleness , making its surface tougher.
 

But this is not the end of the birth process of high-quality bronze mirrors. It also requires the mirror caster to scrape with a steel knife, trim the burrs, and then grind with fine sand to improve the feel until it becomes round. Then the wool felt is dipped in a mixture of mercury and tin powder for mirror polishing. In this way, after half a month, an exquisite bronze mirror will come into the world slowly.
 

If Dou Shaoqing casts a face mirror, he must also pray to the mirror god before casting, paint and recite spells, and add Hu medicine into the copper liquid. The formula, quantity and delivery method of all these medicine powders are secret Xuan, even his personal apprentices are not allowed to watch. Only a handful of mirrorsmiths have mastered the secret of the magic mirror, and after their death, this secret will be lost forever in darkness.
 

Finally, Dou Shaoqing will hold a consecration ceremony for the coming of each bronze mirror. He held up the bronze mirror facing the sun, and chanted the incantation to summon the God of Shaohao, calling Shaohao's divinity into the bronze mirror, transforming its internal structure, and endowing it with a certain kind of divine disposition.
 

This is the secret of the advent of the magic mirror. Dou Shaoqing told it to Li Ah, Li Ah told Su E, and Su E told a Jingling scholar named Lu Yu before his death. Because he wrote notes and leaked the heavenly secret, Shenjing went into decline.

 

Government records

 

The casting process of bronze mirrors is complex and requires the blessing of spells and potions, so the number of bronze mirrors on the market is rare and precious. Once in possession, it can be used for crime, hiding or fleeing. The government is very wary of this. All products of the mirror maker must be cast with a hidden symbol or number, and reported to the official organization "Mirror Temple" for record, and included in the watch list. This kind of magic mirror is called "white mirror".
 

In order to get rid of this restriction, mirror makers often privately cast secret mirrors and sell them through underground smuggling channels. This kind of magic mirror is called "black mirror". At that time, the largest black mirror smuggling channels were located in Jiankang in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Xiangyang in the middle reaches, and Jiangzhou in the upper reaches. All three were busy docks for smugglers. The black mirror casting workshops are mainly concentrated in Wuchang County (now Ezhou, Hubei) and Kuaiji County (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang) in the Eastern Wu Dynasty.
 

Dou Shaoqing's activities are mainly in the Kuaiji area. His water workshop sailed in the river and appeared in various branches of the Yangtze River, giving great encouragement to those who made and sold bronze mirrors. His appearance will always cause a commotion in the local area. People regard him as a legend in the industry. He is the father of Bronze Mirror and was once the whole hope of Bronze Mirror Industry.

 

Mirror Temple and Baoguang Pavilion

 

The official institution in charge of bronze mirror casting is called "Mirror Mirror Temple", which was set up to deal with "black mirrors". For this reason, the emperor set up a special department "Baoguang Pavilion" to track the magic mirror and its casters. Its chief is called "Baoguangqing", who is directly ordered by the emperor himself. Luan Ba was the third "Bao Guangqing". He expanded this limited-level department into the largest spy agency, and his power was far above that of the school. But after Luanba's death, this organization was useless. After Liu Ce's death, it was dismantled by the third emperor, and became a passing cloud. Even historians were ashamed to mention its existence because of its viciousness.

 

The new emperor Liu Ce and his new favorite

 

Xindi has never been favored by his father. On the contrary, because of his bad character, he has always been neglected and marginalized. He could feel the hostility of the entire court since he was a child. They came from brothers, sisters, civil servants, military officials, eunuchs, and court ladies, and even from dragon chairs, round fans, tables, screens, cloth curtains, pot leaks, palace pillars, carved windows, and stones. steps and corridors. He experiences that sinister atmosphere every moment. He learned to use his sight and hearing to identify sources of hostility and try to eliminate them.
 

But the plan was only implemented after he usurped the throne. Many years later, when the old emperor passed away, Liu Ce, the son of the fourth concubine, ordered the bodyguard Luanba to kill the elder brother and crown prince and become the new emperor. Two sisters commit adultery and incest. The remaining six princesses resolutely refused, and five of them were tortured and killed after being raped. As the mother of the queen mother, she tried to stop him from killing his brothers and sisters, but he insisted on going his own way. He imprisoned his mother in the harem and continued to slaughter behind closed doors. Rivers of blood flowed in the palace.

 

Princess Sue

 

Su E, the princess born to the fifth concubine, is the most beautiful among all the princesses. She didn't dare to resist the imperial brother's despotic power, so she could only pretend to obey, and became his third concubine, serving him with the other two sisters every day, satisfying his various absurd sexual demands. And those two sisters were actually the loyal guards of the new emperor. On the one hand, they were raped, but on the other hand, they became his helpers, closely monitoring Su E's behavior, trying to find signs of hypocrisy from her. But Su E concealed it very well, she was flattering, with an innocent smile, she looked like an innocent girl.

 

Sue's Escape

 

Su E drugged the wine and turned the ambitious new emperor, along with the two women, into numbness. They collapsed on the scene of the carnival, looking like they were drunk. Su E tricked the guards, stole the magic mirror from the treasure box in the emperor's bedroom, and escaped from the palace through the side door at night. Several friendly court ladies witnessed her plot, but pretended to be deaf and dumb, and pretended to fall asleep.
 

Su E came to the home of Xu Lin, a former court official and minister, in a small sedan chair with gray curtains, and begged him for help with tears in her eyes. Xu Lin is one of Su E's many admirers. Although he is timid, he can't resist the beauty's offensive of tears. He hesitates again and again and decides to risk his life to save her. With trembling hands, he took out two hundred taels of silver, hired an ox cart for her, and told her the location of Li A, the optician. He said, this is your only place to go. Only this person can help you pass through the mirror safely and return safely.
 

Su E knelt on the ground, thanked the old man for his kindness, and then boarded the car and left. The earth is completely silent, only the sound of the cow's hooves stepping on the stone road, and its dull panting. The dark shadow of Miyagi gradually receded under the moonlight, as if pushing away a suffocating danger. For the first time in so many years, she breathed a breath of freedom. A liberated smile appeared on her haggard face.

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mirror master

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Su E joined the ranks of mirror masters. Most of them are the royal family, powerful aristocrats, officials, rich people and their dependents. Because of their privileges, they obtained the "travel mirror". Since then, they have the privilege of secret travel, become free indoor travelers, and can travel to the other side of the world through the mirror. They were perhaps the luckiest crowd of that era.

The famous mirror owner in the Wei and Jin Dynasties was Tao Qian. He entered the "Peach Blossom Land" with the help of "Peach Blossom Mirror" and became a powerful observer. But he actually violated the rules of the game and announced his observation records of the world on the other side to the world. Tao Qian not only lost the "Peach Blossom Mirror" and the opportunity to enter the mirror again, but also brought serious disasters to himself. He lost the cherishment of fate and died in the night of poverty and sickness.
 

On the other hand, this kind of free travel and escape also violated the emperor's autocratic will. It was a movement to deconstruct power, and it severely weakened the emperor's authority because he was no longer the sovereign king. He could not tolerate the betrayal of his subjects in such magical ways. There is no doubt that the mirror owner who owns the magic mirror is extremely dangerous, and must be eliminated together with the mirror and others.

 

Funeral Bronze Mirror

 

Bronze mirrors are magical objects that can reflect the light of the sun and the moon. Therefore, they have the power of the sun god and the moon god, and become an important tool for wizards to drive away demons. The sun, moon and stars are the origin of life. After a person dies, the bronze mirror is placed in the tomb, just like the yin and yang of the sun and the moon. The moment the coffin lid was closed, the facial features of God appeared vaguely in the mirror. It becomes a sacred lamp, illuminating the rough path of the dead.
 

This is undoubtedly another secret nature of the mirror: playing the role of guardian of the dead, praising human existence from the perspective of hell. But in the years of encirclement and suppression of the divine mirrors, in order to preserve their lives, the mirror owners could only hide the divine mirrors in the tomb under the guise of funerals, making them disappear in the dark underworld.
 

Thousands of years later, they were taken out by tomb robbers as ancient mirrors, and they were rediscovered. However, due to the corrosion of the soil, the divine mirror lost its original divinity and became a lifeless vulgar mirror, which was displayed in the museum window and gave off a deep luster like a fake. This is the unavoidable tragedy of the Chinese God Mirror. But its tragedy has never been necessary to reveal.

 

Apollo Shaohao

 

The magic mirror cast by Dou Shaoqing is a masculine object, so it is more closely related to the sun god. During a certain casting process, the sun god Shaohao suddenly appeared in his workshop, his whole body was scorching hot, his head was a rotating sun disc, and his facial features vaguely emerged. Shaoqing has unique eyes, only he can look directly into the face of the sun god, and accept his warm respect and greetings.
 

Shaoqing knelt down, trembling all over. Shaohao caressed his head with light, and left quietly. When the temperature dissipates and everything cools down, he has the ability to cast a magic mirror. He entered the divine mirror system and became the most outstanding prophet in this field.

 

this shore and the other shore

 

The term "Bi Shan" originated from Buddhism, and originally referred to the place (Polo) where one escapes from worldly troubles and achieves positive results. In the mirror language system, the other shore is a metaphor for the world inside the mirror.
Every magic mirror has its own specific three-dimensional space, which, like the world of Dasein, is conserved and static. Therefore, when the mirror owner uses the same magic mirror, he may go to the same world, because the other bank will circle back to this bank after being folded, thus forming a self-winding structure. But even the mirror caster Dou Shaoqing himself failed to notice the existence of this strange space. It is strange and full of strangeness, like a huge maze in which even the wisest people can get lost.

 

The other shore pier

 

The mirror owner sometimes has different magic mirrors, and he can log in to different other shores based on them. But this is an extremely dangerous carnival, which can lead to delusions of perception and severe madness. The ancient books are full of sinister records related to this.
 

The decoration on the back of the traveling mirror is usually the password of the other shore world, representing the first site you arrive at after crossing, which is called the other shore dock by the world. Hunting patterns and plant patterns are mostly forests and grasslands, mountain patterns are mostly deep mountains, fish patterns and water patterns are mostly river banks or islands, cloud and thunder patterns are mostly sky (this is a bit dangerous), dragon and phoenix patterns are mostly noble homes , Snake patterns (Chilong patterns) are mostly underground palaces, and so on. The pier on the other side is the only predictable location for the mirror owner, and behind the pier is an unpredictable future.

 

mirror ceremony

 

Before entering the mirror for the first time, a grand ceremony needs to be held. The owner of the mirror must fast for three days, take a bath, and then hang the mirror on the wall in a dark environment, with his face close to the mirror, close his eyes and meditate to get rid of distracting thoughts. At this time, the body will become soft, like a huge blister. The mirror surface is like a big mouth, it first absorbs the face, then the neck and upper body, and finally the two thighs. In an instant, the person is swallowed by the mirror and disappears without a trace.
 

Frequent commuters can travel between the two worlds at will without any scruples about fasting and various restrictions. The principle that the mirror owner needs to follow is to keep secret about what he has seen and heard from the other side. Once leaked, the traveling mirror will break by itself and become a useless waste. Silence is a common principle that all mirror owners must abide by.

 

mirror maintenance

 

Mirror owners will always face security threats. Once the mirror is dusty, dark, overturned or damaged, the owner of the mirror cannot return to this shore. For this reason, the mirror surface must be kept clean and bright, and the mirror surface must not be placed downwards to block the exit, and it must not be taken away and disposed of arbitrarily. It is the fragility of the mirror owner that promotes the birth of a profession, that is, goggles Teachers, they are responsible for the daily maintenance of the mirror, including wiping, polishing, displaying, collecting and guarding.
 

Even in ordinary mirrors, dust is a huge problem. It will corrode the mirror surface, make it more and more foggy, and the mirror surface will become blurred. Therefore, mirror owners usually sew a soft cloth dust cover for the mirror to isolate the bronze mirror from dust. The mirror cover also has another function, which is to prevent the escape of the magic mirror. In the era of large-scale emergence of bronze mirrors, it is a frustrating thing for mirrors to disappear by themselves, but most mirror covers can prevent this kind of escape. It is like a soft wall, lying in front of the fugitives, Crush its renegade schemes.

 

stealth mirror

 

The popularity of bronze mirrors made them the object of concern for thieves. A profession specializing in stealing bronze mirrors began to emerge. These people were called "mirror stealers", and they were one of the fierce enemies that the mirror owner had to face. In order to get a magic mirror, they did not hesitate to break into the house, steal, and even kill people. The most famous mirror thief at that time was nicknamed "Mirror Mouse King". Among them, the mouse was an alias for the thief, and "Wang" was not only a surname, but also an admiration for his stealing skills. It is said that he has never missed any magic mirror he wanted. He is the sworn enemy of goggles, and has brought ruin to many goggles.

 

goggles

 

Goggles were once a popular industry during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and they did not disappear until the Tang and Song dynasties. It is similar to bodyguards, bodyguards, guards and gatekeepers. The employed mirror guards must be loyal, conscientious, abide by the secrets of the mirror owner, be good at martial arts, and have the basic skills of polishing and repairing bronze mirrors.
 

Excellent mirror guards usually guard multiple bronze mirrors at the same time, so they can get rich rewards. Most goggle guards can only guard two or three mirrors at the same time, but the most popular goggle guards can guard nine bronze mirrors at the same time. This is the highest record in history, held by the famous goggle guard Li A, and has never been broken. This number eventually became the norm for goggles, because once the bottom line is crossed, the guarding ability of goggles will be severely weakened. This does not meet the security requirements of the mirror owner.
 

In order to ensure the safety of the mirror owner, most of the mirror guards are knights and swordsmen. This class that used to be powerful in the pre-Qin period became weak after the Qin and Han Dynasties and needed to change careers to maintain their own livelihood. But as long as you have superb swordsmanship, as well as the skills of casting, repairing and grinding mirrors, you can become a top expert in the industry and live a life without worrying about food and clothing.
 

The mirror owner and the mirror guard are combined into one, mostly those Taoist priests with advanced spells. A few Taoist priests, such as Ge Hong, even have their own secret method to hide their magic mirror. This secret magic is called "Concealing Mirror Curse", which can hide the magic mirror in the void and retrieve it from the void. Dou Shaoqing obtained this supernatural power from the sun god Shaohao, and since then he does not need to travel with a heavy load. He has nothing to worry about, and only a small mirror for self-portrait beside him.

 

Hoe rape mirror

 

The new emperor Liu Ce didn't have much feeling for the magic mirror at first, thinking that it was just a luxury toy for women. Not long ago, a Taoist priest named Wei Zhen presented a bronze mirror that was said to be polished by the Yellow Emperor himself, which could be used to detect loyal ministers and traitors. Its magical powers changed his view of the bronze mirror. The Taoist priest told the new emperor privately that once a person with a heart of disobedience was illuminated by this mirror, his heart would beat and his expression flustered, revealing the signs of a traitor.
 

Suspicious by nature, the new emperor was full of curiosity about this "anti-rape mirror"-could it be a sharp weapon to eliminate traitors? He decided to experiment for himself. He first took a photo of Wei Zhen who was presenting the magic mirror. The Taoist priest was so frightened that he even dropped out his excrement and urine, emitting a foul stench all over his body. The emperor laughed and said that you are a villain, so he ordered Wei Zhen's head to be cut off.
 

Then, he ordered people to hang the magic mirror at the gate of the palace, with eight guards holding machetes standing on both sides. Ministers, eunuchs, maids and handymen who entered the palace and walked past the mirror, as long as they showed signs of frightened heartbeats and red faces, they would be hacked on the spot. death, never pardoned. Three months later, the palace was empty and empty.
 

The massacre of the second emperor triggered a war of brotherly killings, power, property, and magic mirrors throughout the royal family and the noble class. The whole country was caught in a bloodbath. The desperate fight among the princelings triggered the disintegration of the country.

 

fisherman's harvest

 

A poor fisherman cast his net in the Qinhuai River and picked up a large ancient mirror, about one foot or two inches in diameter. The fisherman washed off the mud and found that the surface was as bright as new, and the light emitted was surging like water waves. Fishermen can see their internal organs, and even see blood rushing through their veins.
 

The fisherman was terrified, wrapped it up carefully, and handed it over to the local government. As if he had found a treasure, Liu Da, the governor, planned to take it as a gift for his promotion, so he named it "Shenguang Mirror" himself, and brought it to the capital to present it to the new emperor.
 

Emperor Liu Ce saw another precious mirror entering the palace, smiled and took a self-portrait, and found himself in the mirror showing the appearance of a boar, which was so ugly that it was unsightly. All the nine clans were beheaded. After doing this, the emperor still felt that he was not enough to relieve his anger, and vowed to destroy all the magic mirrors in the world and eliminate those insidious forces that tried to oppose him.
 

The magic mirror that Su E stole is the best among the magic mirrors. It is called "Treasure Hunting Mirror". The new emperor tossed and turned, unable to sleep at night. He ordered Luanba to find Su E and the mirror as soon as possible, and bring back these two treasures.
 

A large-scale encirclement and suppression of the bronze mirror was launched, and the whole south was in panic all day long.

 

Killer Luanba

 

Luan Ba, a descendant of Luan Da, a famous alchemist during Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, was recorded in the "Book of Southern Qi" that he was handsome in appearance and gentle in manner. His limbs are all weapons, especially known as "hand sword". With a palm and a sword, you can take advantage of the opponent's unsuspecting and kill in an instant. The technique is simple and clear. He is known as the second killer in the world, and his status in the world is second only to Li A. During the usurpation process of the new emperor, he helped to kill the prince, and then eliminated those dissatisfied relatives of the emperor. He made great contributions to this, and gradually climbed up to become the number one warrior beside Liu Ce.
 

After the mission of "Qingjun side" was completed, Liu Ce appointed him as "Baoguangqing", responsible for the confiscation and destruction of the magic mirror, and killed all the mirror casters and mirror guards who refused to serve him. Luanba was quite satisfied with this kind of assignment. Serving the emperor for too long, he longed for this freedom to breathe, walk, and kill at will outside the capital. What's more, he can indulge in his sensuality under the effect of Han Shi San.
 

He led hundreds of killers out of the palace in a mighty manner, and ordered all of them to wear costumes and show off their beauty, just like palace ladies going out for a spring parade. The people stood on the sidelines and laughed at their strange attire. But Luanba didn't care. Traveling in disguise was originally Luan Ba's personal hobby, but he insisted that all his subordinates follow him as an example. He warned his killers that women's clothes can cover up their murderous intent and make their opponents relax. Female makeup is the best disguise for a professional assassin.

 

reunion

 

The emperor's personal intervention reduced the number of folk magic mirrors sharply. The masters who made mirrors fled one after another, and vulgar mirrors became the mainstream of the country, and were endowed with various auspicious symbolic meanings to cover up the fact that they had no divinity. The vulgar mirror thus took the place of the divine mirror. The most touching story in the history of vulgar mirrors is the "broken mirror reunion" between Xu Deyan, an attendant of the crown prince of the Chen Dynasty, and his wife, Princess Lechang. It exposes the fragility and thinness of the mirror body from the side. Any mundane knife can break one into two. The mirror caster was so angry that he vomited blood because it insulted the sacred meaning of the bronze mirror.
 

The mirror is a sacred thing, and it becomes one with the soul of the mirror owner. Once the mirror is broken, it means the destruction of the soul of the mirror owner. Mirrors are also moral observers, and they undertake the mission of monitoring the relationship between husband and wife.
 

According to the "Shen Yi Jing" written by Dongfang Shuo in the Western Han Dynasty, once upon a time, there was a couple who, when they were saying goodbye, cut a mirror in two and each held one half. Later, when the husband eloped with other women, the half-mirror turned into a magpie, which flew in front of the husband and protested fiercely to him. The husband, overwhelmed with shame by the bird's protests, ends up insane.
 

What a quaint moral admonition, designed to warn couples who dare to betray their ethics: mirrors watch their words and deeds, and there will be severe judgments on infidelity. But in fact, after the bronze mirror was split in half by a sword, it died quietly. All spiritual stories about broken mirrors are nothing but lies told by scribes. It is designed to serve as a mirror to the vulgar, to conceal the fact that it is devoid of divinity.

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Excerpted from "Ancient Matters", People's Literature Publishing House, 2018

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