The year 618 was a very colorful year in Chinese history. In this year, the Southern Sui Emperor hanged himself in Yangzhou, and the Sui Dynasty fell. In the north, Li Yuan ascended the throne as emperor and established the Tang Dynasty.
A protector of the country, at the instigation of his son, ascended the throne in only one year, and a thriving ruler of the empire also became the king of the subjugated country in a flash, for the Sui Emperor and Tang Taizu, the events of this year were too mysterious.
And all this causal reincarnation was already expected by a warlock. The warlock is famous for his work in phase art, and has studied astronomy, five elements, bagua, calendar, and human science, and the famous warriors of the Sui Dynasty have intersected with him, and he is the most famous warlock in Chinese history - Yuan Tiangang.
After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, Taoism was revered as the state religion, and in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, feng shui was full of public opinion, and a wind of xiangshu was set off throughout the country, of which the most famous and the most influential were Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng.
The Path of the Poor Warlock
In ancient China, from the beginning of the Shang Dynasty, there were witchcraft rituals based on sacrifice, and the ceremonies were often accompanied by images such as drawing symbols, incantations, water and fire, and the sun and moon. By the time of the Zhou Dynasty, Ji Chang, the King of Zhou Wen, had deduced and compiled the book "I Ching", which colluded everything in the world with a mysterious image, and the art was born.
By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the "Taoist School" was born, and its ideological concept of imitating nature and purifying ghosts and gods became a trend of thought, laying the foundation for the transformation of witchcraft to civilization and civilization during this period, and warlocks also emerged on a large scale during this period.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, due to the rulers' admiration for the "Huang Laozhixue", coupled with the pathological pursuit of immortality by Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Wu of Han and others, the rapid development of warlocks and techniques during this period prompted the rapid development of warlocks and techniques, and the emergence of the earliest Xiangshi, which also laid the groundwork for the official emergence of Taoism in the two Han Dynasties.
During the Period from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, due to the continuous war, people were helpless to turn to the gods in the real world, which made the scale of warlocks expand rapidly during this period.
In the Sui Dynasty, along with the prosperity of Taoism, the art was also greatly enriched.
Yuan Tiangang was born in this background.
Yuan Tiangang, who was born in a poor family, has placed his spirit on the ghost god since he was a child, coupled with his talent and wisdom, he taught himself the art of phasing when he was a teenager.
With his own knowledge, he meets celebrities near and far, and is famous for his accurate language.
During this period, Yuan Tiangang also studied Taoist masterpieces such as Lao Tzu, Zhuangzi, and Zhou Yi, and the metaphysical theories were more familiar to his heart, and more and more people came to meet him.
Once, when Yuan Tiangang met an official, he predicted that this person would surely soar to the top, and his status would be no less than that of Qin's Li Si and Han's Xiao He, and his family would have the good fortune of "one door and two phases".
Sure enough, according to Yuan Tiangang, this official achieved the position of Yushi Zhongzhong during the Sui Dynasty Emperor' period, and during the great chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, he defected to Li Shimin, the King of Qin, and in the early Tang Dynasty, he was awarded the title of Imperial Shi Dafu and The Official Shangshu, becoming one of the founding prime ministers of the Tang Dynasty.
The official's name was Du Yan, and as Yuan Tiangang said, Du Yan's nephew Du Ruyi also became the prime minister of the Tang Taizong Li Shimin dynasty, and his portrait was hung among the twenty-four heroes of Ling Yan Pavilion, becoming a sage throughout the ages.
Count the emperor's fortunes
As his popularity grew, Yuan Tiangang's fame gradually spread to the ears of Emperor Li Shimin. Seeing that even the prime minister called him a strange man, Li Shimin couldn't help but be more curious, so he summoned Yuan Tiangang into the palace. In order to test him, Tang Taizong told him that a few days ago he had seen a natural change, and this was why.
After Yuan Tiangang heard the emperor's description, he replied, "After the third generation of the Tang Dynasty, there was a rise and destruction of the Wu clan." Li Shimin was furious when he heard this, while Yuan Tiangang continued unhurriedly: "After this chaos, Providence still belongs to the Tang Dynasty, and I hope that Your Majesty will obey it." ”
After hearing this, Li Shimin could only sigh and grant him the post of Huojing County Commander, but still placed Yuan Tiangang in Chang'an City.
After that, Tang Taizong often summoned Yuan Tiangang privately and asked him about the vision he saw, and Yuan Tiangang's answers were watertight every time, which made the emperor very satisfied. Tang Taizong compared him to the Han Dynasty warlock Yan Junping, and Yuan Tiangang made Tang Taizong overjoyed with the answer that "Yan Junping's life is not opportune, and the subjects are victorious".
Gradually, the relationship between kings and subjects became closer. During his stay in Chang'an City, Yuan Tiangang was invited by countless dignitaries and nobles to meet him, and when he met one of the families, he faced the boys of this family, and Yuan Tiangang said that they all had the life of being a Sanpin official.
And the little daughter of this family, still young, could not distinguish the gender, Yuan Tiangang when he gave him a face, his brow suddenly frowned, said:
"If this son is a woman, he is unfathomable, and then he is the lord of the world, and he leaves immediately."
And no one knows that this little girl will soon be summoned to the palace, with her own talent in the harem all the way up, Tang Gaozong dynasty to achieve the position of empress, and after Gaozong's death as the emperor reform system, becoming the only female emperor in Chinese history - Wu Zetian.
Related to Li Chunfeng's anecdotes
At the same time as Yuan Tiangang, another warlock named Li Chunfeng was also summoned to the imperial palace by Tang Taizong because of his proficiency in astronomical calendars, and the two soon became each other's confidants under the recommendation of Li Shimin.
In order to test which of the two was more capable, Tang Taizong often summoned the two to divinate together. Once, Emperor Taizong of Tang ordered that a red horse and a white horse be led to the riverbank, and yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng should be allowed to divinate each to see which horse would cross the river first.
The answer given by Yuan Tiangang was - red horse, and Li Chunfeng's answer was - white horse. Tang Taizong ordered the people to let go of the reins, and the red horse first pulled its head and ran wildly toward the river, but when it reached the river, it took the horse's hooves to play with the river water, lowered its neck and drank it.
But the white horse, which had lost its reins, did not stop the image, jumped violently into the water, ran into the middle of the water, and then turned its head back to the shore. Tang Taizong laughed when he saw it, and the courtiers did not know who won and who lost Yuan and Li, and Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng also looked at each other and laughed.
From then on, Tang Taizong was even more convinced of the two,
The two also repeatedly used the name of Gua Xiang to stop Li Shimin's impulsive actions, prompting him to become a generation of Ming Jun, Yuan Tiangang was also named "a generation of demons", and the world said that he could talk to ghosts and gods.
In his later years, Emperor Taizong of Tang invited Yuan and Li to jointly measure the fortunes of the Tang Empire and record the results of the divination. At first, Li Chunfeng opened the compass, the golden needle, and the gua chart, and counted a gua and remembered a gua, but slowly Li Chunfeng became more and more excited the more he deduced, and he also ignored Yuan Tiangang's words.
Seeing him get more and more excited, to the point of going crazy, this calculation is calculated after 2000. Yuan Tiangang immediately walked behind Li Chunfeng when he saw this, pushed his palms together, and warned him: "The heavenly opportunity must not be leaked, and it can be stopped here."
In this way, the two recorded the 60 gua elephants calculated in the book and compiled them into a book called "Pushing Back Maps".
The "Push back map" is composed of extremely difficult terms and gua xiang, and after continuous research by later generations, it has been found that the two have clearly calculated the wuzhou usurpation of the Tang Dynasty, the anshi rebellion, the shame of the Northern Song Dynasty Jingkang, and the disaster of the Ming Dynasty.
"Pushing back the map" has also become the pinnacle of China's easy to learn, and has become the beginning of the easy learning of the two Song Dynasties.
And "Pushing back the map" has also become the last legend left by Yuan Tiangang to the world, and there have been few records of him in history since then.
In his later years, Yuan Tiangang suddenly found Gao Shilian, the Duke of Shenguo, one day, and told him that he was about to be feathered and left, only to return to Huojing County, Sichuan, because in the Gua Xiang it would be his final destination.
Sure enough, in April of this year, Yuan Tiangang, a "generation of demons", died in Huojing County.
Soon after Yuan Tiangang's death, Li Chunfeng, who was his confidant, also disappeared. In order to commemorate the two, Tang Gaozong built the tombs of the two together, and built a meteorological TiangongYuan at the tomb site, which has been preserved to this day.
Yuan Tiangang went from a child of a poor family to a warlock by the emperor's side, and his popularity still increased after a thousand years. From a historical point of view, he seems to have the ability to change his life against the sky. But "a gentleman overcomes difficulties with frugal virtue",
Yuan Tiangang did not blindly regard metaphysics as his own vain capital, but used it to cultivate his life and cultivate virtue with frugality.
We see in him that the warlock can also use the Mandate of Heaven to persuade people to be good, so that people have good hearts, and thousands of years have passed,
Standing in the world of science today, he still deserves our respect — the master.