When he read this question, Tao Ling smiled.
He was wondering how he should use the simplest words to answer it. He grabbed his phone as he said softly, “Wen Qingying, you are way too keen.”
Because the other party couldn’t hear or speak, Tao Ling had hardly ever called him by his name. At this moment, when the three characters “Wen Qingying” came out of his lips, Tao Ling froze all of a sudden.
When this name was uttered aloud, the corner of his lips seemed to have risen slightly.
Which looked somewhat like a smile.
Tao Ling raised his gaze to look at Wen Qingying. The latter folded his hands on the side of the table, leaned over his quite straight back, and slowly lifted an eyebrow, ready to listen to him talk.
Tao Ling let out a pfft, chuckling. “Are you an elementary student? What are you sitting so upright for?”
Seeing that he was talking, Wen Qingying fixed his gaze upon his lips. When the other took a short pause, he looked at his eyes and then showed his two eye teeth to him.
Don’t make fun of people like that!
There was a voice raging inside his mind. It had only roared once when it was immediately pressed down by Tao Ling. Nevertheless, it mumbled a few more stubborn words like a bubble bursting in an attempt to splash a tiny bit of water stain.
Tao Ling pondered for a moment, then swiftly typed on his phone: “Correct, witchcraft to psychography is one issue, while psychography to jiangzhen is another. The three cannot be equal to one another. That summary of mine only focused on conciseness, so my wording wasn’t specific enough. It was my mistake.”
[Jiangzhen (降真) is a laka wood that people used to use as incense in the past. This kind of incense was heavily popular among Daoists; in fact, it was believed that the fragrance would help attract immortals to the human world.]
He typed as he beckoned to Wen Qingying. Wen Qingying therefore moved from the opposite side to his side and gently got closer to him, reading one sentence at a time.
Tao Ling’s skin tone was rather fair, his fingers slender and well-defined, and the nails were trimmed very neatly. At this moment, his fingertips were briskly skipping on the screen, and little did he know, in the eyes of other people, he appeared poised and calm.
And very good looking.
“The so-called jiangzhen brings immortals to the mortal world. And compared to the god summoning rituals of psychography, it is reasonable to say that the two are strongly alike. There are special features within witchcraft and psychography, which have also been found within ancient Chinese Daoism. When immortals descend, those who receive orders from gods are regarded as spirit mediums by scholars. If we point the camera towards them, then we can find the presence of the shaman spirits at any time.
Moreover, jiangzhen is related to other classical traditions too, such as the traditional interactions between gods and mortals from Chu Ci. But, isn’t that basically witchcraft? Not necessarily, many people just view these things as witchcraft.
The formation process of Daoist scriptures is very complicated. Take the Highest Clarity scriptures as an example; for the final form of scriptures, the contribution of organizations of these spirit mediums cannot be overlooked. Many studies focus on Daoist scriptures, although, really, the psychological conditions of those who practice Daoism are also important. These involve issues of the study of religious experience and the psychological study of religion. If you include the phenomenological study of religion as well, then you can make out even more theories with it.”
T/N: My brain exploded too.
Wen Qingying read to the bottom line by line. He had his gaze stuck on the screen for a long time.
Their shoulders were very close to each other, barely leaving any space between them. When Tao Ling suddenly turned his head, their eyes almost collided.
After a moment, Tao Ling lowered his head to look at his phone.
Wen Qingying didn’t seem to have noticed this fleeting oddness in him. His eyebrows were still slightly furrowed, appearing to be lost in thought. After a while, he stretched his hand to grab the piece of white paper across the table.
Tao Ling was seated by the wall, and when Wen Qingying made this action, he seemed to have enveloped his whole body against his chest.
As though embracing him.
The clean fragrance of his clothes wafted onto Tao Ling’s face. It was a fabric softener brand that he hadn’t heard of, which was somewhat warm and sweet.
He inhaled some air and couldn’t help holding his breath. When he realized what he was doing, he clenched his teeth lightly and slowly released his breath.
Wen Qingying the clueless one had already begun to write on the paper: “Sorry, mister, I am too stupid and couldn’t really understand what you said. To break it off, witchcraft, psychography, spirit mediums, and shamanism can all be studied alone, right? There is a lot of information we can write here.”
When he finished writing, Tao Ling lifted the corner of his lips and said with a smile, “Surely, I can’t accept this apology of yours. You call yourself stupid even though you’re this smart, and I find children like you the most annoying.”
At the same time, he grabbed his phone to type: “Yeah, there are many questions that I can’t answer either. As someone who doesn’t specify in these fields, I don’t understand these topics well enough so I’m basically just a layman when it comes to things like psychiatry. No matter how long I think about theories for, I still can’t feel any more satisfied.”
Wen Qingying read through the content again and then took out his phone, typing: “Mister, I saw the book saying that one follows a religion to serve a purpose in life. What do you study these for? Is it also to live a good life? Or is it because of something else?”
Tao Ling was tapping the paper with his finger, and at this moment, the tempo suddenly slowed down. After a long while, he lifted his eyes and threw Wen Qingying a hesitant glance.
Wen Qingying blinked his eyes, confused.
Tao Ling didn’t speak. These questions seemed to be asking him whether there was a point in doing these things, making him wonder what was the point in life.
However, this was not the first time that he’d made him feel this way already. The questions that Wen Qingying asked him were all directed towards the tight knots he had.
Some things just can’t be chewed over, nor can they be expressed clearly. And this is even harder during situations where some of your thinking skills are lost.
Tao Ling remained silent for a moment, then thought aloud, “No, it’s exactly the opposite——I don’t know how to live my own life well.”
When he spoke, he didn’t look towards Wen Qingying, so it cannot be counted as an answer.
Wen Qingying lowered his head and typed again: “Mister, I can tell that you are very happy when you discuss these things with me. At some point just now, I felt that you were speaking your mind rather than asking for other people’s understanding. Perhaps this is what you study these topics for, right?”
Tao Ling was caught off guard. “I guess so.”
Wen Qingying curved his eyes and continued typing: “Even if you don’t need others to understand you, I will still work hard to try to understand you. I find it very interesting. Thank you, mister.”
His expression was sincere, and under the lighting, his face looked extremely speckless.
Guilt suddenly welled up inside his heart. Tao Ling felt that the intense heartbeat from a moment ago was indecent.
This thought, however, caused his heart to race again. In the end, he could only raise a vague smile as he quietly treated himself with contempt.
It is needless to say that talking with Wen Qingying is time-consuming. They had only exchanged a few words when it was already nighttime.
Tao Ling has a day off tomorrow on Saturday. He figured that the flower shop would still be opened and wanted to mention it, though each time he tried he’d get interrupted. Not to mention, Wen Qingying seemed very enthusiastic at the moment
Wen Qingying lifted his pen again and drew a circle on the paper. When Tao Ling took a closer look, however, he noticed that the top part was not connected.
Next to the drawing was written with the three characters, “Yan Ge Xing,” followed by the dynasty.
He glanced at Tao Ling as he quickly typed: “And the issues about tradition are more complicated, right? There is no continued tradition that can go in a perfectly straight line, and even a curved line isn’t perfectly curved. As such, there is no such thing as a perfect circle either. If we ignore the influencing factors first, witchcraft and jiangzhen are not the same no matter how similar they are.”
Tao Ling nodded with utter interest and pointed his palms to the ceiling and made a “welcome” gesture.
Wen Qingying smiled, his fingers skipping again: “Just like emperor of Wei’s “Yan Ge Xing,” it was first written to express the emotions of longing wives and unmarried women. But slowly, because of the growing battlefields at the border regions, it became a frontier fortress poem among the people of Tang dynasty before reaching its peak during the period of Jia Zhi, which left not even a single trace of ache and sorrow behind. Later on, someone from Ming Dynasty decided to turn back the clock and used “Yan Ge Xing” to write about husbands who pined for their wives on the battlefield. The long-continued tradition of this poem theme seemed to have rotated around a circle, but even if it were to appear again, it wouldn’t be able to reverse the changes that happened in the middle and return to its original state.”
“A circle isn’t actually a circle.”
“Yeah, just like a broken marriage that cannot be restored, and a dead person that cannot be revived. Actually, these two examples aren’t good,” Tao Ling said. When he finished talking, he remembered that the other couldn’t hear him and therefore closed his mouth and smiled, clapping to him with all his heart.
Wen Qingying’s smile was very blissful.
Tao Ling was mulling over his before and after behavior and the education level leaked out whenever he communicated with people, and felt that he shouldn’t have met him in a flower shop.
After pondering for a moment, he wrote: “Which school did you go to?”
Author’s Note:
Wen Qingying was giving his own interpretation of “Yan Ge Xing.” I haven’t seen anyone discuss this small topic before I started writing the novel so there is no original source.
When he read this question, Tao Ling smiled.
He was wondering how he should use the simplest words to answer it. He grabbed his phone as he said softly, “Wen Qingying, you are way too keen.”
Because the other party couldn’t hear or speak, Tao Ling had hardly ever called him by his name. At this moment, when the three characters “Wen Qingying” came out of his lips, Tao Ling froze all of a sudden.
When this name was uttered aloud, the corner of his lips seemed to have risen slightly.
Which looked somewhat like a smile.
Tao Ling raised his gaze to look at Wen Qingying. The latter folded his hands on the side of the table, leaned over his quite straight back, and slowly lifted an eyebrow, ready to listen to him talk.
Tao Ling let out a pfft, chuckling. “Are you an elementary student? What are you sitting so upright for?”
Seeing that he was talking, Wen Qingying fixed his gaze upon his lips. When the other took a short pause, he looked at his eyes and then showed his two eye teeth to him.
Don’t make fun of people like that!
There was a voice raging inside his mind. It had only roared once when it was immediately pressed down by Tao Ling. Nevertheless, it mumbled a few more stubborn words like a bubble bursting in an attempt to splash a tiny bit of water stain.
Tao Ling pondered for a moment, then swiftly typed on his phone: “Correct, witchcraft to psychography is one issue, while psychography to jiangzhen is another. The three cannot be equal to one another. That summary of mine only focused on conciseness, so my wording wasn’t specific enough. It was my mistake.”
[Jiangzhen (降真) is a laka wood that people used to use as incense in the past. This kind of incense was heavily popular among Daoists; in fact, it was believed that the fragrance would help attract immortals to the human world.]
He typed as he beckoned to Wen Qingying. Wen Qingying therefore moved from the opposite side to his side and gently got closer to him, reading one sentence at a time.
Tao Ling’s skin tone was rather fair, his fingers slender and well-defined, and the nails were trimmed very neatly. At this moment, his fingertips were briskly skipping on the screen, and little did he know, in the eyes of other people, he appeared poised and calm.
And very good looking.
“The so-called jiangzhen brings immortals to the mortal world. And compared to the god summoning rituals of psychography, it is reasonable to say that the two are strongly alike. There are special features within witchcraft and psychography, which have also been found within ancient Chinese Daoism. When immortals descend, those who receive orders from gods are regarded as spirit mediums by scholars. If we point the camera towards them, then we can find the presence of the shaman spirits at any time.
Moreover, jiangzhen is related to other classical traditions too, such as the traditional interactions between gods and mortals from Chu Ci. But, isn’t that basically witchcraft? Not necessarily, many people just view these things as witchcraft.
The formation process of Daoist scriptures is very complicated. Take the Highest Clarity scriptures as an example; for the final form of scriptures, the contribution of organizations of these spirit mediums cannot be overlooked. Many studies focus on Daoist scriptures, although, really, the psychological conditions of those who practice Daoism are also important. These involve issues of the study of religious experience and the psychological study of religion. If you include the phenomenological study of religion as well, then you can make out even more theories with it.”
T/N: My brain exploded too.
Wen Qingying read to the bottom line by line. He had his gaze stuck on the screen for a long time.
Their shoulders were very close to each other, barely leaving any space between them. When Tao Ling suddenly turned his head, their eyes almost collided.
After a moment, Tao Ling lowered his head to look at his phone.
Wen Qingying didn’t seem to have noticed this fleeting oddness in him. His eyebrows were still slightly furrowed, appearing to be lost in thought. After a while, he stretched his hand to grab the piece of white paper across the table.
Tao Ling was seated by the wall, and when Wen Qingying made this action, he seemed to have enveloped his whole body against his chest.
As though embracing him.
The clean fragrance of his clothes wafted onto Tao Ling’s face. It was a fabric softener brand that he hadn’t heard of, which was somewhat warm and sweet.
He inhaled some air and couldn’t help holding his breath. When he realized what he was doing, he clenched his teeth lightly and slowly released his breath.
Wen Qingying the clueless one had already begun to write on the paper: “Sorry, mister, I am too stupid and couldn’t really understand what you said. To break it off, witchcraft, psychography, spirit mediums, and shamanism can all be studied alone, right? There is a lot of information we can write here.”
When he finished writing, Tao Ling lifted the corner of his lips and said with a smile, “Surely, I can’t accept this apology of yours. You call yourself stupid even though you’re this smart, and I find children like you the most annoying.”
At the same time, he grabbed his phone to type: “Yeah, there are many questions that I can’t answer either. As someone who doesn’t specify in these fields, I don’t understand these topics well enough so I’m basically just a layman when it comes to things like psychiatry. No matter how long I think about theories for, I still can’t feel any more satisfied.”
Wen Qingying read through the content again and then took out his phone, typing: “Mister, I saw the book saying that one follows a religion to serve a purpose in life. What do you study these for? Is it also to live a good life? Or is it because of something else?”
Tao Ling was tapping the paper with his finger, and at this moment, the tempo suddenly slowed down. After a long while, he lifted his eyes and threw Wen Qingying a hesitant glance.
Wen Qingying blinked his eyes, confused.
Tao Ling didn’t speak. These questions seemed to be asking him whether there was a point in doing these things, making him wonder what was the point in life.
However, this was not the first time that he’d made him feel this way already. The questions that Wen Qingying asked him were all directed towards the tight knots he had.
Some things just can’t be chewed over, nor can they be expressed clearly. And this is even harder during situations where some of your thinking skills are lost.
Tao Ling remained silent for a moment, then thought aloud, “No, it’s exactly the opposite——I don’t know how to live my own life well.”
When he spoke, he didn’t look towards Wen Qingying, so it cannot be counted as an answer.
Wen Qingying lowered his head and typed again: “Mister, I can tell that you are very happy when you discuss these things with me. At some point just now, I felt that you were speaking your mind rather than asking for other people’s understanding. Perhaps this is what you study these topics for, right?”
Tao Ling was caught off guard. “I guess so.”
Wen Qingying curved his eyes and continued typing: “Even if you don’t need others to understand you, I will still work hard to try to understand you. I find it very interesting. Thank you, mister.”
His expression was sincere, and under the lighting, his face looked extremely speckless.
Guilt suddenly welled up inside his heart. Tao Ling felt that the intense heartbeat from a moment ago was indecent.
This thought, however, caused his heart to race again. In the end, he could only raise a vague smile as he quietly treated himself with contempt.
It is needless to say that talking with Wen Qingying is time-consuming. They had only exchanged a few words when it was already nighttime.
Tao Ling has a day off tomorrow on Saturday. He figured that the flower shop would still be opened and wanted to mention it, though each time he tried he’d get interrupted. Not to mention, Wen Qingying seemed very enthusiastic at the moment
Wen Qingying lifted his pen again and drew a circle on the paper. When Tao Ling took a closer look, however, he noticed that the top part was not connected.
Next to the drawing was written with the three characters, “Yan Ge Xing,” followed by the dynasty.
He glanced at Tao Ling as he quickly typed: “And the issues about tradition are more complicated, right? There is no continued tradition that can go in a perfectly straight line, and even a curved line isn’t perfectly curved. As such, there is no such thing as a perfect circle either. If we ignore the influencing factors first, witchcraft and jiangzhen are not the same no matter how similar they are.”
Tao Ling nodded with utter interest and pointed his palms to the ceiling and made a “welcome” gesture.
Wen Qingying smiled, his fingers skipping again: “Just like emperor of Wei’s “Yan Ge Xing,” it was first written to express the emotions of longing wives and unmarried women. But slowly, because of the growing battlefields at the border regions, it became a frontier fortress poem among the people of Tang dynasty before reaching its peak during the period of Jia Zhi, which left not even a single trace of ache and sorrow behind. Later on, someone from Ming Dynasty decided to turn back the clock and used “Yan Ge Xing” to write about husbands who pined for their wives on the battlefield. The long-continued tradition of this poem theme seemed to have rotated around a circle, but even if it were to appear again, it wouldn’t be able to reverse the changes that happened in the middle and return to its original state.”
“A circle isn’t actually a circle.”
“Yeah, just like a broken marriage that cannot be restored, and a dead person that cannot be revived. Actually, these two examples aren’t good,” Tao Ling said. When he finished talking, he remembered that the other couldn’t hear him and therefore closed his mouth and smiled, clapping to him with all his heart.
Wen Qingying’s smile was very blissful.
Tao Ling was mulling over his before and after behavior and the education level leaked out whenever he communicated with people, and felt that he shouldn’t have met him in a flower shop.
After pondering for a moment, he wrote: “Which school did you go to?”
Author’s Note:
Wen Qingying was giving his own interpretation of “Yan Ge Xing.” I haven’t seen anyone discuss this small topic before I started writing the novel so there is no original source.
