Chapter 28: Is The Scripture Notation Like A Spell? Is Chanting Scriptures Like Casting A Spell?
Xiao Yu was full of question marks when she heard her senior brother’s words. What formation was there under the Chen Clan again?
She instinctively felt that her senior brother was filming another one of those embarrassing goofy cultivation videos.
Like treating a local dog as a dog demon, and this Mao Bamboo Forest as a Thunder Bamboo Forest.
Now, would this formation turn out to be just a few trees and some stones arranged into some kind of pattern?
It was one thing for her senior brother to film this kind of video on his own, but he actually called her.
She had no intention of appearing in such shameful videos.
She wanted to film beautiful sword dance and boxing videos.
But she was also very curious about what trick her senior brother was up to, so after hanging up the telephone she hurried back to the Chen Clan and went to her senior brother’s courtyard.
…
Chen Han returned to his own courtyard and flipped through that Ancient Quiet Heart Art. This scripture actually did not have many pages, because the Quiet Heart Art did not have many words.
However, each line took one page, with notes and explanations of dao meaning, and the characters sat in the center, using the ancient square-circle recording style.
He checked the contents of this Ancient Quiet Heart Art:
“When people are quiet they are at peace, when matters are quiet they go smoothly, when the heart is quiet it prevails, ice cold through the ages, all things remain still…”
After a moment he felt that something was wrong.
Because the content was no different from the Quiet Heart Art currently circulating in the Daoist Sect, or rather, exactly the same.
The Quiet Heart Art was also one of the common and very important foundation Daoist Scriptures in the Daoist Sect.
In ancient times some donors first sought the Daoist Sect, and Buddhist Sect learners of the Daoist Sect went to Daoist Temples to rest, and Daoist Priests would grant them the Quiet Heart Art.
But in modern times, in many places, this scripture had even become completely marginalized.
Because it was useless. Modern life was too fast-paced, with so many pressures and temptations, it was very hard to calm down and comprehend the Quiet Heart Art.
Also, people going to Daoist Temples had become tourists. Tourists wanted to take mobile phones, shoot some photos and videos for Moments, not listen to or recite any Quiet Heart Art.
With little demand, and in an era when many in the Daoist Sect were also very utilitarian, the Quiet Heart Art had lost the soil to survive.
So, if what the game system gave him was exactly the same as the ordinary content in reality, how could this be called the Ancient Quiet Heart Art?
Still unconvinced, he took out his mobile phone to search online, then compared word by word, and finally confirmed it was really exactly the same.
He felt the game system ought to come out and explain, until he flipped to the back and saw symbols similar to musical notes. Then he knew his thought of asking the system for an explanation had been premature.
Those musical notes were the scripture notation of the Daoist Sect.
He recalled the difference between ancient Daoist Sect scripture chanting and modern Daoist Sect scripture chanting.
Ancient Daoist Sect chanting emphasized two points:
First, the scripture text.
Second, accurate melody and rhythm.
Modern Daoist Sect chanting no longer needed to follow those two points.
At some point unified melody and rhythm chanting had appeared.
Many Daoist Scriptures that were reprinted and published no longer even had scripture notation on the last pages. For example, the Quiet Heart Art. The Chen Clan had several versions, none with scripture notation.
The main idea was: since there was no effect anyway, using a unified melody and rhythm that worked across the board was good enough.
As for who came up with this unified melody and rhythm, that was already untraceable.
After all, even the Classic of Morality could not escape various taboos. Every few hundred years it was revised, and the people revising had their own little ideas, slipping in their private interpretations, so that it strayed very far from the original version.
If even the Classic of Morality was like this, it was no surprise other scriptures, swept along by the tide of the times, lost their scripture notation.
Therefore, what was important about this Ancient Quiet Heart Art was not the content, but the scripture notation behind it. Only by reciting along the correct melody and rhythm of this notation could it have an effect.
Just like having to chant a spell correctly.
Thinking this, Chen Han immediately sat cross-legged, calmed his mind, and began according to the real-world unified melody and rhythm version.
“When people are quiet they are at peace, when matters are quiet they go smoothly, when the heart is quiet it prevails, ice cold through the ages, all things remain still…”
Xiao Yu had just entered her senior brother’s courtyard when she heard him chanting scripture. Even though she did not like reading scriptures and would get sleepy whenever she saw the Chen Clan’s books, she still knew the Quiet Heart Art.
Because their master had often asked her and her senior brother to recite the Quiet Heart Art, telling them they could not be impatient, that when faced with anything they should first quiet their hearts. Only with a calm mentality could they handle matters better and avoid being led astray by unbalanced emotions.
But why was her senior brother reciting this Quiet Heart Art out of nowhere?
After Chen Han finished one recitation of the Quiet Heart Art, he did not feel anything unusual, which meant the calmness +2 attribute was not triggered.
This also meant it had to be chanted according to the scripture notation of the Ancient Quiet Heart Art to trigger the effect.
But having proved this point, he was now in trouble, because he was only a descendant of a modern Daoist Sect Heritage Family, and his scripture notation study was half-baked. It was like having learned only half of the twenty-six letters; how would you read phonetics?
Did this mean he had to spend time teaching himself scripture notation?
That part was actually acceptable, since the Chen Clan’s books did include such material.
But if he needed tourists to learn, that would be difficult, because these tourists had no foundation at all.
It was like asking someone with no music foundation to learn a song; one hundred learners would all sing off-key.
Tourists came to the Chen Clan Ancient Architectural Complex to relax. Asking them to learn the scripture notation of the Quiet Heart Art?
That was a joke.
The Daoist peers engaged in tourism, and even their Buddhist Sect peers, would laugh at him to death.
Look, such a fool.
He would not even take the chance to make money.
Probably only those who sincerely believed in the dao would truly learn and recite.
So, having tourists recite was unrealistic. The only option was to have tourists listen.
But that limited the calmness +2 attribute. He could not keep chanting for tourists all the time.
Should he find some clan members with musical talent to be professional scripture chanters?
Scripture chanter was also a regular profession in the Daoist Sect, and the Chen Clan happened not to have one yet.
He even wondered whether listening to the Ancient Quiet Heart Art would work if it was recorded as electronic scripture chanting.
Wasn’t electronic worship and praising the dao popular now? Electronic incense and candles were so widespread that electronic scripture chanting was the norm too.
But that was a matter for later.
Since he wanted to keep the original of the Ancient Quiet Heart Art as part of the Chen Clan’s foundation, he first had to teach himself and learn the scripture notation of this Ancient Quiet Heart Art.
Seeing him stop chanting, Xiao Yu stepped forward with a frown and asked in confusion, “Senior brother, what trick are you up to now? What formation?”
When Chen Han saw his junior sister had arrived, he quickly beckoned to her. “Junior sister, come take a look. I found an ancient book in the Chen Clan’s books. Look at the contents.”
As he spoke, he deliberately put on an act and handed her the Ancient Quiet Heart Art.
Puzzled, Xiao Yu took it. At a glance she could tell it was an old book, but since the Chen Clan had many books, there was nothing strange about that. After all, the Chen Clan had once been a very prosperous Daoist Sect Heritage Family.
She opened the first page of the Ancient Quiet Heart Art and glanced at it. She recognized the clerical script, which she had learned before together with her senior brother under their master.
On the first page she saw it recorded:
“During the family’s construction process, the family elders discovered that the ground beneath the family residence had a special earth qi that could dispel people’s negative qi, so they made use of this earth qi to set up a special qi manipulation formation…”
After reading this, she stared at her senior brother in shock. “Senior brother, just from reading this you decided there is a formation under the Chen Clan, and you actually went to try reciting the Quiet Heart Art?”
She was really speechless at this unreliable senior brother. The book casually wrote something and he believed it.
What formation? It might just be some unreliable ancestor who scribbled randomly to tease later generations, yet her senior brother believed it.
Chen Han put on a show and said, “Since the book records it this way, there must be a reason.”
“Senior brother, you just recited the Quiet Heart Art. Did it have any effect?” Xiao Yu asked in return.
Chen Han replied seriously, “The scripture notation was wrong. It has to be recited according to the notation here. You have to believe in our Chen Clan’s books. Didn’t you see I already developed such miraculous things as medicinal cuisine and Thunder Bamboo Spirit Tea?”
Xiao Yu said speechlessly, “Senior brother, how is that the same? Medicinal cuisine and Bamboo Tea at least really exist and can be examined. But this formation is too fantastical. The Chen Clan also has several versions of the Yellow Court Classic, which even record cultivating immortality and ascending in broad daylight. Could it be that you can cultivate immortality now, senior brother?”
“…” Chen Han had not expected his junior sister not to believe, so he asked, “Junior sister, what if your senior brother really is cultivating immortality now?”
“Dog demon? Thunder Bamboo Forest? Work Hall elder? Family expert?” Xiao Yu shot back, then added, “Senior brother, I am just your junior sister. Do not give me any strange titles.”
“Uh!” Chen Han could not guarantee that, since it all depended on the game system’s mood.
Right now the game system had not assigned his junior sister any identity, but who knew, if the plot needed it one day it might give her one.
However, since she did not believe in the Ancient Quiet Heart Art, he could not be bothered to explain more.
He would just wait until he had learned this Ancient Quiet Heart Art and then show off in front of his junior sister.
Thinking of this, he suddenly took out the Spirit Shadow Mirror, opened the recorded image function, and recorded his junior sister holding the Ancient Quiet Heart Art. “I, the patriarch, together with my junior sister, discovered a record left by a family elder while sorting through the family’s books.
It records that during construction of the family residence, the family elders discovered that the ground beneath the residence had a special earth qi that could dispel people’s negative qi, so they made use of this earth qi to set up a special qi manipulation formation…”
He had not known what video to film before, but wasn’t this ready-made material?
When this video was released, he believed he would again be ridiculed by various fellow daoists and immortal venerables. But he thought, when those fellow daoists and immortal venerables really came to the Chen Clan Ancient Architectural Complex and discovered that the Ancient Quiet Heart Art truly had such miraculous effect,
the shock would be imaginable.
Seeing her senior brother filming with his mobile phone, Xiao Yu turned away in embarrassment. She knew it. Her senior brother definitely had an ulterior motive for calling her over. Formations, ancient books, all just excuses to trick her into filming this goofy cultivation video.
The new book was in the first round of PK and needed read-through data!
Everyone must scroll to the last page. PK had just entered the top rank, but it was still at the dangerous edge.
Please do not hold it back, please do not hold it back, please do not hold it back!
Thank you all!
Also asking for two tickets, many thanks!
Please do not hold it back, please do not hold it back!
