In ancient times, the mainland has always had a soft spot for the moon, and compiled and created many beautiful myths and legends for it, whether it is Chang'e running to the moon, Jade Rabbit pounding medicine or Wu Gang cutting Gui, which have been talked about by people for thousands of years and spread in the streets and alleys.
Because of their deep love for it, the ancients would observe the moon in detail, and then made many discoveries.
For example, an ancient book of the Tang Dynasty mentions a bizarre record of the moon, including the uneven surface of the moon, and 80,000 people are repairing it.
Amazingly, many of the descriptions in the book seemed deviant at the time, but they were quite consistent with current scientific research.
What exactly is depicted in this book, and did the Chinese ancestors really get a glimpse of the "secrets" above the moon?
Bizarre records in "Youyang Miscellaneous".
Duan Chengshi's compilation of "Youyang Miscellaneous"
This account of the moon appeared in the Youyang Miscellaneous Tales compiled by the famous Tang Dynasty writer Duan Chengshi, which has extremely high literary and historical value.
It has been admired by countless literati and writers for thousands of years, and can be called the leader of legendary novels and folk history in the Tang Dynasty.
For a long time, the mainland historiography has attached great importance to folk historical anecdotes, because most of these contents are written by well-known scholars, which have extremely important historical value and are a supplement to the content of official history.
Moreover, the Tang Dynasty was one of the peak periods of the development of continental historiography, when the compilation of historical books of the imperial court was directly under the responsibility of the prime minister, which was rare in all dynasties.
This kind of respect for historiography gradually penetrated into the people, so a variety of books that recorded the history of folk and small people came into being, which was called the "national history school" by later generations.
The aforementioned "Youyang Miscellaneous" is one of the masterpieces, which records two very important parts.
One part is the content of the legend of the strange monster such as "Strange Tales of Liao Zhai", and the other part is a record of exotic and exotic objects in various places, which is closer to the "Naturalist Chronicles".
The author of this book, Duan Chengshi, was a well-known literary scholar in the late Tang Dynasty, and he was friends with Du Mu, Wen Tingyun, and Li Shangyin, and he also sang poetry and harmony with them.
It is reported that "All Tang Poems" contains more than 30 poems by Duan Chengshi, and he has been praised by later generations as "erudite and sensitive, the article is the first for a while, and the author is very popular".
Duan Chengshi was born in a scholarly family and a Qingliu family, and his father Duan Wenchang was the prime minister and the leader of the court.
Unlike his father, although Duan Chengshi loves to read, he lacks interest in official careers, but is more keen to travel around the world and write about what he sees and hears.
Although Duan Wenchang didn't agree with his son's idea, he didn't interfere with his decision in the end, and gave him a lot of money to indulge in the landscape.
And Duan Chengshi did not live up to his father's expectations, although he did not get ahead in officialdom, he left a large number of literary masterpieces, and his popularity in later generations is still above Duan Wenchang.
The so-called "Youyang Miscellaneous" is a summary of what Duan Chengshi has seen and heard during his travels, and it contains 30 volumes of content.
The most famous thing about this book is that it records in detail the discoveries of meteorites, fossils, minerals, etc., which is a useful supplement to the history of ancient science, and has been studied and respected by countless scholars in later generations.
For example, the famous modern writer Lu Xun highly admired "Youyang Miscellaneous", praising it for "covering a wide range of things, so many treasures, loving to play for the world, and competing with legends to be the first".
And "Youyang Miscellaneous" recorded a strange story about the moon, which still makes many people feel very scary to think about it today.
Recorded in "Youyang Miscellaneous".
This account of the moon appears in the "Tianjia" volume of the Youyang Miscellaneous Tales, which tells the story of the protagonist Zheng Renben's encounter with strange people from outside the territory in Songshan.
The general content of the story is that one day Zheng Renben and a few classmates and friends made an appointment to climb Songshan Mountain and visit the beautiful scenery.
The teenagers got together to have a lot of fun, and they forgot the time when they were happy. By the time they realized they were going home, it was already the middle of the moon and it was dark.
Several people were not familiar with the road conditions in Songshan, so they took a fork in the road in desperation, and they were directly lost in the deep mountains and dense forests.
At this time, several people found a gazebo not far away and decided to go first to rest and rest.
As soon as they walked near the pavilion, several people were startled, it turned out that there was a person sleeping soundly in the pavilion, his leisurely sleeping posture and the desolate mountains did not match it, and it looked very suspicious.
Not only that, but this person's clothing is also different, which is completely inconsistent with the wide robe and big sleeves of the Tang Dynasty, and is completely attached to the body, which looks quite weird.
If it was such a strange person under normal circumstances, Zheng Renben would have been scattered a long time ago, and he didn't dare to bother rashly.
But at this time, they were trapped in the mountains, anxious to find their way home, so they boldly stepped forward to ask, hoping that the other party could point out a clear way.
When the sleeping man was awakened, he impatiently pointed to the way down the mountain, and several of them immediately saluted and thanked him.
Just as they were about to leave, one of them couldn't contain his curiosity and asked where he was from and why he was dressed differently than everyone else.
The Sleeping Man thought for a moment, and then explained in detail. He claimed to be from the moon in the sky, and was working with the others, but because he saw the light in the sky, he came down to take a nap.
This answer surprised everyone, and they subconsciously thought that he was bragging, so they asked for some details about the moon.
Zheng Renben's reaction seemed to be expected by the mysterious person, and he did not have a trace of panic, and told the secrets about the moon frankly.
The mysterious man said that the moon was not as smooth as a mirror as everyone could see, and its surface was pitted with holes of various sizes.
Not only that, but he also said that the moon is actually composed of seven treasures, and the duty of himself and others is to repair the seven treasures lost by the moon. And the mysterious man also admitted that like himself, there are a total of 80,000 people working on the moon.
Finally, the mystery man also tells a big secret about the moon, that is, the moon, which looks so bright, cannot emit light by itself.
The reason why it can shine all things with the cold moonlight is actually with the help of the sun's brilliance.
These secrets surprised Zheng Renben and the others, and after thinking about it, they thought that it was likely that they had met a person among the immortals, so they all bowed their heads and bowed their heads.
However, after getting up, several people found that the mysterious person and the pavilion had disappeared, as if they had never appeared, and only a bright moon hung high overhead.
The magical story coincides with the reality of the moon
Although "Youyang Miscellaneous" was highly regarded by literati and writers, this strange novel about the moon was initially regarded by the ancients as a strange theory, and it has not received much attention for many years.
It wasn't until it entered the modern world that the novel became popular again.
The reason is also very simple, the content described by the mysterious man is exactly the same as the discovery of the moon by later scientists, and the content is exactly the same, and it is really scary to think about it now.
Among them, I believe many people know about the unevenness of the moon and the reflection of the sun's rays, after all, it is already common sense at the moment.
The so-called seven treasures that make up the moon mentioned by the mysterious man are full of mystery at first glance, but they also fit perfectly with scientific research findings.
Composition of lunar soil
Because lunar soil contains exactly seven substances, namely silica, alumina, calcium oxide, ferrous oxide, magnesium oxide, titanium dioxide and sodium oxide.
During the Tang Dynasty, it was a bit unbelievable to be able to make such a judgment.
You know, the situation on the surface of the moon was not first discovered until after Galileo invented the telescope, and more than 800 years after the Tang Dynasty.
As for the composition of lunar soil, it was not until the first time that humans landed on the moon, that is, on July 21, 1969, when American astronauts collected lunar soil.
Although "Youyang Miscellaneous" does not explicitly mention the composition of lunar soil, the mere fact that it accurately says "Seven Treasures" is shocking enough.
As for the mystery man's mention that there are 80,000 people on the moon carrying out restoration work, this also coincides with a hypothesis put forward by Soviet scientists.
The latter believes that the moon is actually a planet-like spacecraft with a hollow interior, and that there are many extraterrestrial maintenance workers in it.
If this hypothesis is true, then the content of "Youyang Miscellaneous" is not just a strange novel.
It may really be that the ancients met the aliens by chance, and the latter told him in detail about the composition of the moon, which is the reason for such an astonishing coincidence.
And according to the description in the book, the mysterious man's clothing is very different from the clothing of the Tang Dynasty at that time, which is closer to the aliens described in science fiction novels.
Historians still can't give a definite explanation for this astonishing coincidence, and can only lament that we still don't know enough about the ancients.
Either this so-called legendary story is indeed a real thing, and it happened to be learned by Duan Chengshi, leaving this bizarre record.
Either that, after the ancients learned some clues, they used their imagination to accurately predict the situation on the moon. This magnificent imagination eventually resonated perfectly with the scientific discoveries of later generations, forming an amazing coincidence.
Either way, it's amazing enough.
epilogue
This account of the moon was originally too bizarre to be buried in the gorgeous stories of "Youyang Miscellaneous". However, real gold is not afraid of fire, and high-quality content will always wait for the moment when the glory blooms, and it will be understood and respected by more people after a thousand years.
In fact, there are still a lot of similar contents in ancient times on the mainland, and future generations cannot figure out whether it is a folk record or a real thing, and I am afraid that some historical truths have a lot to do with the annihilation of some historical truths due to war and other factors.
Perhaps these mysteries can only be solved by waiting for further discoveries from scientific research and archaeological exploration.
Reference:
<酉阳杂俎>Legendary Works in the Essay
- Shi Lin
《Staged <酉阳杂俎>Research》
- Chang Hengchang