Chapter 6 Heaven Bestowal Land
In the dark and lonely emptiness of space was an extremely imposing sight: nine titanic dragon corpses and a huge yet simple bronze coffin that appeared to have endured despite thousands of years of desolation.
Days passed, but as before, the code could not be broken and the mysterious signals transmitted by the bronze coffin designs continued to be wrapped in mystery as they were passed to the Earth.
“It’s moved!”
“Its orbit has diverged, it’s now sinking!”
Just at this moment, the astronauts on the International Space Station’s eyes’ shrunk. The nine dragons pulling the coffin had wandered off their orbit and were now slowly moving towards the Earth.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Mt. Tai. Lofty and majestic, imposing and powerful, the greatest of all the Five Sacred Mountains. It had the reputation of being the number one mountain under the heavens.
Since ancient times, Mt. Tai was a sacred symbol in the ancient Central Plain’s¹ eastern side. Surrounded by the Yellow River and the Wen River, in antiquity, it was thought to be the place where the sun gave birth to all things.
No mountain was greater, no history was richer!
Mt. Tai was grand and imposing, possessing a profound history that could trace back to the ancient times of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors². It was the land that was closest to the gods.
“Heaven cannot be reached, but Mt. Tai’s peak is the sight of the Heaven Bestowal, as it is the closest to the gods.”
The first emperor, Qin Shihuang, who swept across the six allied enemy states; Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty; they both had once held an incomparable Heaven Bestowal ceremony on Mt. Tai.
And furthermore, in even more ancient times there were 72 kings who had received Mt. Tai’s Haven Bestowal.
In the time before even the Qin³ dynasty, the Guanzi Heaven Bestowal Recordings mentioned: ‘In the past, all these people underwent Mt. Tai’s Heaven Bestowal; Fuxi; Shennong; the Yellow Emperor; Tang Yao; Yu the Great…⁴’
In ancient times, without exception, all of the holy and ancient emperors decided to undergo this Heaven Bestowal. Mt. Tai was constantly enshrouded by thick layers of fog, giving it an endlessly mysterious appearance.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius⁵ once repeatedly came to Mt. Tai in order to look for traces of the Heaven Bestowal ceremony, but he could only leave in empty handed regret, without getting anything. When his followers questioned him about it, they were unable to get any answers.
Later generations did manage to make some discoveries.
Twenty years after the formation of the Republic of China, generals led armies on huge horse roads to be stationed at the foot of Mt. Tai. They inadvertently discovered a five-colored earthen jar with two jade tablets inside. It was sealed with gilded, stone rope, and hidden away below ground.
Pre-Qin, in antiquity, why did all the ancient emperors come here to undergo the Heaven Bestowal? Even now, it was still a mystery; maybe it would forever be unknown.
Ye Fan and everyone rested at a hotel for a night. The next day, they began to climb Mt. Tai.
For most of them, it was their first time visiting Mt. Tai. Only people who came to this place in person could sense its grand and imposing form.
The mountain was split into three levels, based on the geologic structure. It appeared just like a set of stairs leading towards the heavens. Looking at it from north to south, the mountain’s body opened up to form a heaven ascending road that was ten kilometers long to the vast summit.
Whether you gazed at it from the distance or were observing it up close, you could easily sense the boundless and imposing atmosphere that caused people to want to dash up.
In the presence of Mt. Tai’s majesty, people would feel like they were in a strange illusion, in which they would feel like their existences became less and less significant, so much so that the heavenly stars, the sun, and the moon would all feel negligible.
This was a kind of stunning sensation that caused people’s spirits to tremble.
When the tour guide finally arrived at the topic of the various Heaven Bestowals, people’s thoughts started to turn to wild fanciful imaginings. Humanity always did like to look forward to the unknown and mysterious.
Li Xiaoman walked along with Kade, feeding him a constant translation explaining what the people were saying. The American youth became increasingly amazed by Mt. Tai as he asked question after question.
Liu Yunzhi ruminated as he looked at Ye Fan, before once again turning to face the two people in front of him. His obvious attention to him apparently didn’t cause Ye Fan to notice him at all. His expression didn’t change at all, causing Liu Yunzhi to feel a bit disappointed.
Actually, Ye Fan didn’t even notice that Liu Yunzhi had stared at him, so of course his expression didn’t change.
Ye Fan had already read the entire Yellow Emperor’s Internal Canon. Thinking of the sages from the ancient times, and then once again thinking of the Heaven Bestowal, he suddenly came up with a kind of preposterous theory. Was it possible that there really was a period of time that had faded out of history from ancient times? If this was true, that in that time, Mt. Tai was definitely a sacred land.
But he immediately shook his head, feeling as if he had definitely been too bored these days for him to make up such an absurd connection.
Mt. Tai was covered with lush greenery and old pine trees, and streams of spring water flowed throughout. There was no lack of beautiful spiritual existences throughout the mountain, naturally making the fog and clouds appear even more mysterious and profound.
The whole journey was an upward climb. Along the way were countless historical sites and scenery. The Mt. Tai cliff stone tablets⁶ especially caused people to speak out with praise. From the Dai Temple where they would perform sacrifices, to the regent’s imperial residences, to the heaven-sealing Jade Emperor Peak, the whole road was over ten kilometers long, seeming to contain the underworld, earth, and heaven.
It was evening by the time everyone finally managed to reach the summit - Jade Emperor Peak. Overlooking the huge mountains at their feet and the distant Yellow River, they all immediately felt a profound understanding of why Confucius said that ‘all heaven’s land is below Mt. Tai.’
‘Looking down from the peak, all the other mountains appear small!’ The sage of poetry, Du Fu, passed down this historical line.
At this moment, the setting sun hung in the west. Above the clouds, a radiant layer of golden, dazzling light that shone like precious treasures created a beautiful scene that caused people to become helplessly intoxicated.
Suddenly, a couple of black dots appeared on the horizon. They gradually became larger, as gusts and peals of thunder unexpectedly rang out.
Nine titanic objects were dropping from the sky, appearing like nine black rivers flowing down. At this moment, everyone on Mt. Tai was frozen in shock as they stared at the black objects and each other.
Unexpectedly, these were nine titanic dragon corpses pulling an ancient bronze coffin, falling towards Mt. Tai’s summit.
The dragon was an existence from the legends, an existence placed on the same level as gods, an existence above the natural laws. But with the today’s scientific development, who would still believe in the existence of such things?
The tourists on the mountain were shocked to the point where they couldn’t even breathe, and they even forgot to shout.
After a momentary silence, Mt. Tai burst into madness. Everyone crazily ran in every direction trying to avoid the falling titanic dragon corpses.
This was a shocking scene; under the blood-red colour of the setting sun, nine dragons pulling a coffin were about to fall on Mt. Tai!
Frightened shouts and helpless wails rang out as everyone tried to escape.
The nine dragons and the coffin were not falling very fast, but when they finally arrived, they shook Mt. Tai’s summit.
BOOM!
Nine colossal beings, like nine mountain ridges, crashed onto the peak of Mt. Tai. Jade Emperor Peak burst into pieces, earth flew everywhere, and dust filled the air.
The ancient bronze coffin also landed with a “clang,” smashing into the mountain summit and rocking the mountain as if there were an earthquake. Many boulders started rolling down, emitting a rumbling sound like an army of a thousand horses.
Quite a few people were badly mangled by these falling boulders, and terrified screams filled the mountain air.
When the shaking finally stopped, the mountain quickly calmed down. But the top of the mountain had long since been turned into a mess. Many scattered people were injured and knocked down, making for a chaotic scene. Some people were badly bruised, and were running in fright down the mountain.
The nine dragon corpses were a hundred meters long. Over half of their bodies lay on the mountain peak, while the rest hung down the mountain cliff. Each of them appeared like a black steel which was filled with a startling feeling of strength, an exceedingly shocking sight.
Mt .Tai’s Jade Emperor Peak had been shaken to the point where the ground was covered with crack after terrifying crack.
The twenty-meter long unadorned bronze coffin had no decorations, only some fuzzy designs from ancient times. It was filled with the vicissitudes of time. It seemed as if a mysterious air was on the move.
_______________________________
¹The Central Plains refers to the region of China around the middle and lower parts of the Yellow river.
²Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors refer to legendary class figures. They are mythological rulers/deities (although some accounts do believe they had existed). The groupings are in question; different sources cite different characters. One such grouping is: three sovereigns are Fuxi, Nuwa, and Shennong, while the five emperors are the Yellow Emperor, Zhuanxu, Emperor Ku, Emperor Yao, and Emperor Shun.
³Qin dynasty was 221 BC
⁴These are mythological-level rulers. Fuxi is credited with part of creating humanity. Shennong literally meanings God Farmer, or God of Agriculture, so he is known for farming and medicine. The Yellow Emperor is said to the ancestor of all Chinese. He is also credited with many literary works, such as the Yellow Emperor’s Internal Canon. Tang Yao was an ancient emperor. He is credited with inventing the game of Go. Yu the Great founded the Xia dynasty in 2070 BC. As for the book, Guanzi Heaven Bestowal Recordings (管子.封禅篇), it does exist in Chinese, but I can find no English record for any interested readers to peruse.
⁵ Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history approximately from 700-400 BC. Confucius was a Chinese politician and philosopher of this time.
⁶ On a cliff wall on Mt. Tai there are stone carvings which are a cultural treasure of China as well as an impressive display of calligraphy.
Translator notes:
封禅 (feng chan) is something I translated at Heaven Bestowal. It is indeed something that did occur. It’s a ceremony where rulers would climb up Mt. Tai and ask for the land’s blessings in a way. So nature, or heaven, is blessing the ruler in a sense. Just so you guys know, I try to keep as few translations as just ‘pinyin translations’, which is why I didn’t go with the Feng Chan ceremony. 封 (feng) has the meaning of bestowal (although it is usually used for seal), while 禅 (chan) is the more difficult word. It can mean Zen/meditation.
The first line on the Chinese Wikipedia entry for封禅 is something like this: ‘封禅 is a type of ceremony that emperors and kings undergo to receive the grace of heaven, aka “receive the mandate of heaven.’
The footnote spot on Confucius (Kong Zi) was actually written as Kong Sheng, which should be a typo since no such person ever existed.
This chapter had so many references…I’m not going to list out all the special points such as Dai temple and Jade Emperor Peak, but you should know that they are real. Du Fu is a poet from the 700’s AD. He was one of the two greatest Chinese poets.
I hope you guys are enjoying how the author didn’t just throw the story into the cultivation world in the very first chapter. Instead, he is developing the characters, along with setting the scene.