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Text | Li Jia
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introduction
In the history of China for thousands of years, there were many people who wanted to rely on metaphysical fangshu to make meritorious achievements and make a name for themselves, and the vast majority of so-called metaphysical masters turned out to be nothing more than swaggering divine sticks.
(Yuan Tiangang Image Creative)
It is rare for someone like Liu Bowen to have a good reputation, but in the end, Liu Bowen also ended up miserable. And like Yuan Tiangang, who can not only have a good reputation and a good end, but also leave a lot of magical legends to circulate for thousands of years, it seems that he is the only one in these thousands of years.
Yuan Tiangang is known as the first warlock of the Tang Dynasty, and the legends about him are true? Is he an immortal or a liar? Why hasn't anyone dared to steal his tomb for more than a thousand years?
First, is Yuan Tiangang an immortal or a liar?
Yuan Tiangang, some people say that he is the first master of metaphysics in ancient times. There are many magical legends about him, and three of the most talked.
(Yuan Tiangang Image Creative)
The first legend about Yuan Tiangang's divine arithmetic is his prophecy of Wu Zetian becoming emperor.
Yuan Tiangang lost his father at an early age and was raised by his uncle, who made a living by selling trigrams, and Yuan Tiangang also learned divination from his uncle. Yuan Tiangang soon surpassed his uncle in divination and gained a lot of fame among the people, and was later recommended to Emperor Taizong of Tang Li Shimin.
The ministers of the dynasty heard that Yuan Tiangang's calculations were very accurate, and all the predictions he made came true, and they also asked him to tell fortunes for themselves, and Wu Zetian's father was also among them.
(TV series Wu Zetian image)
When Yuan Tiangang looked at Wu Zetian, who was still an infant at that time, he said that she had the appearance of an emperor who reigned in the world, and later Wu Zetian really became an emperor.
The second legend about Yuan Tiangang is the story of the golden needle piercing the money eye.
Former emperors liked to choose a treasure place of feng shui as their place to live after death. The same was true of Wu Zetian, and Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng were ordered to choose a site for Wu Zetian's imperial tomb. Wu Zetian asked them to search separately, and then she compared the locations chosen by the two and chose one of them as her burial ground.
(Statue of Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang)
After months of searching, Li Chunfeng finally found a treasure land of feng shui in Guan, where he buried a copper coin. Yuan Tiangang also chose a position in Guanzhong, which he thought was the best place for feng shui, and inserted a gold needle in it.
After the two chose the cemetery, they reported to Wu Zetian, and Wu Zetian immediately sent someone to check it. Unexpectedly, the two people brought them to the same position in Guanzhong, and what was even more amazing was that at the position where Yuan Tiangang inserted the gold needle, he dug up the copper coin buried by Li Chunfeng, and the gold needle just passed through the square hole in the middle of the copper coin, which means that the feng shui treasure land of the two candidates is exactly the same.
(Wu Zetian's Tomb)
The most amazing legend about Yuan Tiangang is the story of him and Li Chunfeng who created the push-back diagram together.
Legend has it that one day, Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng were discussing the deduction of fortune, and the two suddenly came to the interest of deducing the national fortune of the Tang Dynasty. After calculating the rise and fall of the Tang Dynasty, the two have not stopped, and have been calculating for thousands of years, and finally they have to stop for fear of leaking too many heavenly machines and being eaten back.
Many of the prophecies in the backlog have been fulfilled, including the entry of the Manchus into the Central Plains by the Qing Dynasty, the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance, and so on. This makes Yuan Tiangang's legend still widely circulated among the people thousands of years later.
(Push back diagram)
Are these legends really that magical? I'm afraid there is an element of exaggeration.
First of all, Yuan Tiangang predicted that Wu Zetian would become the emperor, and legend has it that after Wu Zetian's father learned of Yuan Tiangang's prophecy, he asked him to keep it secret, and he was afraid that after leaking out, he would invite the scourge of killing for the martial family.
His concern was not unreasonable, if the emperor knew that there were other people who had the emperor's life, he would definitely not keep him. So who came from this message later? And when did it come out?
In fact, the answer is very obvious, it must be that after Li Zhi's death, when Wu Zetian planned to become emperor, she deliberately released such rumors in order to create public opinion support for her to become emperor.
(Tengu-in)
This was a purposeful and planned public opinion war against ministers who opposed Wu Zetian's claim to emperor, so Yuan Tiangang's appearance for the young Wu Zetian was probably fabricated.
Then there is the story of the golden needle piercing the money eye, which is even more absurd.
Don't say more than a thousand years ago, even now, give two people a tape measure each. Let them find the most central point on a football field of several thousand square meters to bury gold needles and copper coins, just because of the measurement error is difficult to choose the same location. How could a location be chosen on a larger scale more than a thousand years ago, and how could it be accurate to the point?
About the push back diagram is actually a mystery for many people, the original version of the push back diagram has not been found at all, or even whether it exists in the end. are not sure.
(Yuan Tiangang's tomb)
There are many versions of the pushback chart that have been handed down now, and each version is different, which shows that many people have modified and recreated the pushback diagram according to their own needs, so it is meaningless to discuss whether the prediction of the pushback chart is accurate.
Since these legends are not reliable, could it be that Yuan Tiangang is a liar? In fact, the same cannot be said. The legend about Yuan Tiangang was not made up by himself, it is likely that some people spread it for their own purposes.
Wu Zetian can use Yuan Tiangang to create momentum for himself as emperor, book sellers can use Yuan Tiangang's signboard to increase sales, and magic stick liars can also use Yuan Tiangang's legend to advocate the magic of physiognomy to attract business for themselves.
Because of the above reasons, the legend about Yuan Tiangang is becoming more and more magical, and it is not Yuan Tiangang who deceives people, but people who rely on making up stories for Yuan Tiangang to achieve their own goals.
(Yuan Tiangang's tomb)
Yuan Tiangang was able to enter the palace by relying on metaphysical techniques, gain fame and fortune, and retreat in his old age, which is impossible without some real skills. But how high is his level and how powerful is his ability? It's hard to say, but it's certain that the legend must be exaggerated.
Second, why did no one dare to steal the ancient tomb of Yuan Tiangang for thousands of years?
The cemeteries of Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng are both in Tiangong Township, Langzhong City, Sichuan Province, and the cemeteries of the two are close together. The fate is completely different, Li Chunfeng's tomb has been visited many times by tomb thieves, but Yuan Tiangang's tomb has never been stolen, what is going on?
In the Tang Dynasty, Yuan Tiangang was also a well-known person, who once served the royal family, and his tomb must be guarded, and no one dared to rob the tomb.
(Statue of Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang)
Later, in the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, there were troops stationed in this area. The barracks happened to enclose Yuan Tiangang's cemetery inside, so no one dared to worry about it. Li Chunfeng's tomb not far away does not have such treatment, his tomb is still far away from the military camp, and the tomb robbers naturally have an opportunity.
Is it a coincidence that Li Chunfeng's tomb is frequented by tomb thieves just because it is far away from the barracks, but Yuan Tiangang's tomb is still intact after a thousand years because it is in the barracks? Or is Yuan Tiangang higher in feng shui? I'm afraid there will never be an answer to this question.
Resources
YANG Jintao. Yuan Tiangang and his physiognomy circle[J].National Humanities and History, 2013(17):2.)
Surabaya Saints, Yu left. The real Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng[J].Times Discovery, 2013.