During the Western Jin Dynasty (280-289), a strange thing happened in the area of Ji Commandery (汲郡, in present-day Weihui, Henan, a fiefdom of the State of Wei during the Warring States period). First of all, the tomb robbers were not allowed (fōu zhǔn, a native of Ji County) to dig up an ancient tomb from more than 500 years ago (the tomb of the Warring States King of Wei), and took away a lot of valuables. A few days later, the government received news that they would come back to "explore the treasure", but the treasure they were looking for was not the same as that in the eyes of their fathers and fellow villagers, and bundles of bamboo were moved out of the ancient tomb and filled with dozens of cars. The government also went to the villagers' homes to inquire about the whereabouts of the bamboo sticks, and the villagers wondered whether the bamboo pieces painted like tadpoles on it were worth more than gold and silver treasures.
Things that were regarded as treasures by the government were not allowed to be looked at at all, and he knew that this was the case, and he should regret burning some of them, as a light source for searching for treasures, and only blamed himself for reading too little. Originally, the tadpole-like script was the ancient script of the Warring States, and after Qin Shi Huang burned the books, the history books and classics of various countries except Qin during the Warring States period were either burned to ashes or hidden. The one who rushed to the treasure was not allowed to inadvertently open the door to the history of the pre-Qin Dynasty.
Sima Yan, the Emperor of Jinwu, attached great importance to this batch of bamboo janes, and the book supervisors Xun Xun, Zhongshu Ling, and Yu Were responsible for sorting out the research, and many scholars participated in it. It should be known that it is not easy to interpret the ancient texts of hundreds of years ago, and some of them have been burned, and the preservation of bamboo jane is not very good, scholars have sorted out about 10 kinds of pre-Qin ancient books from the fragments of bamboo jane for many years, a total of 75 articles (collectively referred to as the "Kizuka Book"), the most important of which is the Wei state history book "Bamboo Book Chronicle" and "Mu Tianzi Biography", the former has made a lot of subversive additions to the content of the "History", the time span from the five emperors of the legendary era to the Warring States, the latter describing a wayward journey, drinking and singing with the Western Queen Mother, Happy and unforgettable image of King Mu of Zhou. Unfortunately, most of the contents of the Kizuka book have now been lost, and the Bamboo Book Chronicle was unfortunately lost in the Song Dynasty (only the Compilation of Books remains), but the "Biography of Mu Tianzi" has been widely circulated since its excavation, laying the first impression of posterity on Ji Man, the king of Zhou Mu: one of the most legendary Tianzi among the kings of Western Zhou (Mu Wang' gods and goddesses?). Can be poor as a pleasure). Where did his "god-man" aura come from? Let's start with the thousands of words of "The Biography of Mu Tianzi".
To put it simply, the "Biography of Mu Tianzi" is the travel log of King Mu of Zhou, just like its original name when it was edited, "Parade of the King of Zhou", except that the author is not King Mu of Zhou but someone else, so the whole text is narrated in the third person, such as "Peng Yin, The Northern Expedition of The Heavenly Son,...... Xin Ugly, Tianzi's Western Expedition,...... As for chi wu".
According to the "Biography of Mu Tianzi", the first destination that King Mu of Zhou went to with a large number of people, horses, and gifts was the hetao region of present-day Inner Mongolia, under the study of scholars, the route of King Mu of Zhou's party should be: starting from Chengzhou (present-day Luoyang, Henan), along the west side of the Taihang Mountain, crossing the Yellow River, crossing the rock (present-day Pingding, Shanxi), traveling west along the north bank of the Tuotuo River, after the northern expedition to Inu rong, through the area of present-day Yanmen Pass, and then reaching the place where the Hezong tribe lived. There, King Mu of Zhou and his party were warmly received by the local people, who offered 12 horses and 10 leopard skins as a greeting gift, and King Mu of Zhou rested for several days, hunting and fishing, and then took gifts on the road to the appointment of the chief of the Hezong clan at the foot of Yanran Mountain (present-day Yin Mountain). Under the guidance of the latter, he began the magical western procession, passing through many unheard of tribes, "Western Expedition to Kunlun Hills", seeing all kinds of plants and animals, collecting various gifts such as horses, cattle and sheep, cheese, jade, etc., King Zhou Mu finally came to the state of the Western Queen Mother, which was more than 10,000 miles away from the Central Plains.
When they first met, King Mu of Zhou left a good impression on the Queen Mother of the West, and the gifts he brought were jewelry and jade such as Jade Gui and Jade Bi, and exquisite clothing such as splendid silk, which was much more advanced than the rewards given to the tribes along the way. A few days later, the two sides met on top of the Yao pond, feasted, sang and sang, and expressed their hearts to each other:
The Queen Mother of the West is a song of the Heavenly Son, saying: "The white clouds are in the sky, the mountains and tombs come out of themselves, the roads are far away, the mountains and rivers are between them, and the sons are not dead, and they can still come back." The Son of Heaven replied, "Return to the eastern land, and rule the summers, and the people will be equalized, and I will see Ru, and in three years, I will return to the wilderness."
The gist is that the Queen Mother of the West thanked King Mu of Zhou for visiting his friends despite the long distance, hoping that he would often come to see him in the future. In the face of the grand invitation of the Queen Mother of the West, King Zhou Mu happily agreed: Wait until I go back to stabilize the political situation and ensure that the people have a good life, and come back to the appointment after three years.
The reunion is always short, parting and sad, after the two separated, King Mu of Zhou climbed mount Tishan, carved a stone to commemorate, and continued to march to the northwest wilderness, along the way to collect treasures, such as animal skins and bird feathers, shell belt cinnabar, colored gemstones, etc., countless. According to the statistics of "The Biography of Mu Tianzi", this long trip, Zhou Mu Wang walked 35,000 miles (round trip). On the return journey through the desert, there was no water to drink, and King Mu of Zhou almost died of thirst. Someone had a plan, stabbed the horse in the neck, took some horse blood and gave it to Mu Tianzi to drink, which saved his life. Long distances, accidents can happen at any time, if there is no best driver to drive the eight horses (can travel thousands of miles a day), without Bo Yao as a guide, without the army personnel ("people of the sixth division") closely followed, King Mu of Zhou could not go the full distance. What drove him to persevere and leave a footprint in the grasslands, deserts, forests? Is it just to see the blue sky and white clouds, good mountains and good water, and realize the dream of the world around the world? I'm afraid it's not that simple.