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  In a silk book left over from the Chu State during the Warring States period, it is written: In ancient times before the heaven and earth existed, there was only the image of nothingness, obscure and dim, vague and indistinct. There were two gods born together, passing through the heavens and roaming the earth, no one knew where they ended or stopped. Then they separated into yin and yang, divided into eight extremes, hard and soft complementing each other, and all things took shape.

  The ancients believed that the world began with a chaotic mass of air, which later split into yin and yang, giving birth to all things. The two gods referred to here are Fuxi and Nuwa, representing yin and yang, male and female respectively. Similarly, in a Han tomb mural and image brick stone in Tianshui, Gansu Province, Fuxi holds the sun or sundial, representing yang; Nuwa holds the moon or crescent, representing yin. In a Chinese legend, it is said that if Fuxi's sundial and Nuwa's crescent are together at the same time, they can open the key to the heavenly realm, attain enlightenment and even turn the universe upside down.

  It's interesting that there is also a pair of stone carvings in Zhuangyuan Village, and the marks of time have made it difficult to recognize their age. At first glance, they look like mortars used in rural areas in the past. This pair of "mortars" is placed at the entrance of the village, with a pair of handprints on either side supporting them from below. In the mortar on the left, there is a sun-like carving, while on the right, there is a moon-like carving. When Cha Wenbin first came to Zhuangyuan Village, he noticed this pair of stone carvings and asked around privately, but no one could explain their origin. Some people said that when their ancestors settled here, these stone carvings were already present, and they had been in the same position for years without being moved an inch.

  Today, Wen Bin came here again. He stood quietly in front of the stone carving, looking at it. It was no longer as smooth and divine as it was many years ago. The dilapidated village left this stone carving with only endless silence except for the historical vicissitudes.

  Just as he was looking at him in surprise, an old man who had just returned from chopping firewood stopped in his tracks and looked up and down at this young man who seemed somewhat familiar, saying: "Aren't you one of the people who came a few years ago?"

  Zha Wenbin, who was pulled back by the sound, looked at the old man who still had to work hard in his twilight years. His arms were covered with countless scars, some as big as coins, and others as small as soybeans. The old man wore a faded blue Zhongshan suit, half of which had disappeared from his pant legs, and the shoulders of the garment had been patched multiple times.

  "Does the old man still recognize me?"

  "Hum, a group of vicious people!" After that, the old man forcefully threw the firewood onto his shoulder again. He seemed to be still unsatisfied and had great complaints against this young man. He fiercely spat on the ground, "Ptooey!"

  Cha Wenbin wanted to make some excuses, but looking at the old man's desolate figure and the exposed abscess, he decided it was time for him to do his part.

  In his view, there are three situations in which a plague breaks out: one is the retribution of good and evil. In Taoism, plagues are also called "heavenly diseases". In ancient times, when medical conditions were not developed, the arrival of a plague would almost instantly deprive all people within a region of their resistance, resulting in the loss of villages and tribes at best, and the downfall of cities and countries at worst. However, Taoist priests have always been unyielding in their handling of plagues, which may be related to Zhang Daoling, the Heavenly Master of the past.

  Legend has it that when Zhang Tian Shi was preaching and practicing Taoism on He Ming Mountain, a local plague broke out, causing widespread death and destruction. To save the people from this disaster, Tian Shi combined his own Golden Elixir technique with his understanding of the Heavenly Way to create a mysterious medicinal formula that could cure diseases and strengthen the body. Zhang Tian Shi then soaked the medicine in wine and distributed it among the people, thus eliminating the plague. Therefore, many famous Taoist priests are also knowledgeable about medical skills.

  In the "Zhengyi Epidemic Officer's Exorcism Lamp Ritual" of the Zhengyi sect, it is said: "People have their own nature, and fortune and disaster come naturally; therefore, good fortune follows those who accumulate goodness, while calamity must befall those who do evil. Those who accumulate goodness will have leftover blessings, which can ensure peace and tranquility; those who accumulate evil will have leftover calamities, from which it is difficult to escape blame."

  This incantation is what Taoist priests must recite when they perform rituals to expel plagues. In the past, when people encountered plagues that could not be solved, they would often invite Taoist priests to perform rituals, which was very common in rural areas decades ago: a guy wearing a yellow robe and holding a peach wood sword would chant and dance, waving paper talismans and spitting water to extinguish fire... The Taoists believed that the Heavenly Way is the arbiter of the universe. If an individual does evil, then that individual will be punished. If the masses do evil, then they will be visited with plagues.

  And the second outbreak of plague is: yin and yang out of balance.

  Day and night alternate, cold comes and summer goes, circulating endlessly, cycling without stopping. Taoists revere nature, respect nature and gain insight into the mysteries of the universe from nature, which they call: cultivation.

  Birth, yang; death, yin. When yin exceeds yang, it leads to the reversal of yin and yang energies and the birth of disasters; when small exceeds large, it leads to the reversal of governance and great calamities. When yin energy overcomes yang, the lower deceives the upper, evil spirits and monsters flourish, and people travel by day on ghostly paths. Diseases and illnesses never cease, and yang energy is not communicated. This is a record from the Taiping Jing. If in one place yin and yang are out of balance, and yin energy exceeds yang energy, it will invite disaster. Lightly, it will bring about disasters; severely, it will lead to the downfall of a country. And human affairs will easily give rise to diseases, including the concept of yin-yang imbalance that we always talk about in traditional Chinese medicine, which is also this principle.

  The third case is the plague ghost, in the Taoist's words, there are five plague ghosts, namely:

  East Green Plague Ghost, Liu Yuanda, Wood Spirit, leading millions of ghosts to commit evil wind diseases;

  South Red Plague Ghost, Zhang Yuanbo, Fire Spirit, leading millions of ghosts to commit hot poison diseases;

  West White Plague Ghost, Zhao Gongming, leading millions of ghosts to commit black diseases;

  North Black Plague Ghost, Zhong Shiji, Water Spirit, leading millions of ghosts to commit evil poisonous diseases;

  Central Yellow Plague Ghost, Shi Wenyi, Earth Spirit, leading millions of ghosts to commit evil boils and ulcers.

  The five plague demons are the five elements of disease, representing five kinds of diseases. Each corresponding disease has its own talismans, incantations, formations and medicinal decoctions to cure the disease.

  In Cha Wenbin's view, the outbreak of the plague here is a combination of all three situations. Shuangyuan Village has long been numb to people's hearts due to money in recent years. Stealing and digging up graves and tomb objects is an evil deed that should be punished by heaven. Second, the Fengshui Bureau of Shuangyuan Village was destroyed, the Bagua Platform sank to the bottom of the water, yin and yang were out of balance, and evil spirits emerged, which can also lead to the arrival of the plague. Third, looking at the old man's legs, feet, and arms, which are covered in ulcers, it seems like a yellow plague ghost, a kind of earthly plague.

  With this in mind, Cha Wenbin also had a direction. Although Shuangyuan Village had been through it before, it was not to the point of death. The punishment given by heaven was enough to make them pay for their past mistakes. In accordance with the heavenly way of saving people and resolving grievances without seeking revenge, Cha Wenbin followed the old man all the way to his home.

  He pushed open the gate and saw the old man at the well in the doorway, drawing water. He looked at the bucket for about a few minutes, then shook his head and poured all the well water back into the well. He let out a long sigh, sat down on the ground, and started smoking a pipe.

  "Grandpa."

  "What are you doing here?" Seeing that man had chased him all the way to his own home, the old man was furious, picking up the stick in his hand and wanting to hit Zhang Wenbin, "Get out! If you dare come again, I'll kill you!"

  "Old man." Zhang Wenbin didn't get angry, instead he spoke kindly: "I know you have misunderstandings about me, I came today only to treat your illness, absolutely no ill intentions."

  "Are you here to see a doctor?" The old man looked at Zhang Wenbin's weak appearance and couldn't help but sneer: "You're still coming to see a doctor, aren't you people just troublemakers? Look, do you want to see a doctor?" The old man pointed to the mountain path behind him: "Do you see that? Those white things are all paper money. How many people have died in our village do you know? If you want to see a doctor, go there and take care of them. As long as I can still breathe, don't bother us with your troubles, or I'll break your leg!"

  Facing this, Zha Wenbin also smiled bitterly in his heart. He knew that staying any longer would be pointless. Just as he was about to turn around and leave, a little boy with a bare bottom came out of the house, holding a bag of snacks that Zha Wenbin had brought from the city. The child looked at Zha Wenbin and giggled, seemingly very pleased with the gift. Seeing that the child's hand also had pus-filled boils, Zha Wenbin's legs felt as if they were filled with lead...

  "Where did you get this?" The old man snatched the snack from the child's hand, and as he looked at the stranger who refused to leave, he suddenly understood, "You're up to no good!" He threw away the bag, and the little boy was startled by the sudden scolding and burst into loud wails.

  "Old man, you can neglect yourself, but this child is innocent. I see that the poison wound on his body has not fully developed yet. You must want him to live a good life, right?"

  The words still had an effect, and the old man felt a pang of sadness in his heart. His own son was already gone, and his daughter-in-law had run away from the village, reportedly to a distant place where she would never return, leaving behind only this old man and child. Recently, when the old man discovered that his grandson's body was starting to break out in small bumps, he felt uneasy and wanted to send him out for medical treatment, but no one dared to take him in. As soon as they heard that he was from Status Village, every doctor avoided him hastily. The old man looked at this person again, two years ago, he had seen this person, but in the short span of two years, he seemed to have aged a bit.

  Seeing the old man's eyes relax his guard, Cha Wenbin took advantage of the situation and said: "A dead horse is still a doctor to an alive horse, you can't just watch him walk towards a road of no return, let me try."

  "Aren't you afraid?" the old man asked hesitantly.

  "Don't be afraid, what's there to be afraid of?" As he spoke, Cha Wenbin strode over and scooped up the child, wiping his dirty face: "Tell me, what's your name?"

  The child was very close to this uncle who gave him good food, and he hadn't seen a stranger for a long time. He said in his childish tone: "Zhou Yue..."

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  High-speed premiere of the last Taoist 2 latest chapter, this chapter is Chapter 19: Plague (I). If you think this chapter is not bad, please don't forget to recommend it to your friends on QQ group and Weibo!