'KONGKONG, STOP STARING out the window, come and help your master massage his shoulders.’
‘Yes, Master.’
Kongkong reluctantly turned his attention away from the rain curtain outside the temple, moved to sit behind his master.
He placed his hands on the master’s shoulders and tried to massage them.
‘Is this strength alright?’
‘It would be better if you could apply more pressure. You have a sharp mind, but your body needs more exercise,’ the master sighed.
‘But how can I exercise when the rain never stops?’ The young apprentice blinked. ‘I feel so restless, but the abbot won’t let me leave the temple.’
This master is not a monk from the temple, but a carpenter named Master Cao from the nearby Hunyuan County; this young apprentice, however, is the youngest monk in the temple, and the abbot had assigned him to assist Master Cao.
Two months ago, a rare torrential rain damaged some of the wooden structures of the Hanging Temple. The abbot originally wanted to wait for the rain to stop before finding a carpenter, but this strange rain had been falling for more than three months and showed no signs of stopping. With no other choice, and fearing further damage, the abbot had to ask someone to brave the rain and invite Master Cao to the temple. Upon inspection, Master Cao found that many of the wooden materials needed to be replaced, and so he began his work. However, in the process, many monks who were helping to prepare the wood fainted in the rain.
A few days ago, Kongkong witnessed his always friendly senior monk, Fa Gu, being carried back by his fellow. He was soaked through, with furrowed brows, muttering words and running a high fever. Fortunately, his condition was not unique, and the temple already had emergency procedures in place.
Kongkong saw the monks sitting around Fa Gu, reciting the Surangama Sutra for a whole day, before Fa Gu’s fever subsided and he woke up. Although he was still somewhat dazed after waking up, at least he knew how to respond and could drink porridge. But when asked what he had been muttering before and how he fainted, he didn’t know at all.
The rain was the culprit.
Although not all the monks fainted, if exposed to the rain for a long time, they would always enter a state of delirium, so the temple stipulated that one should not risk going out in the rain unless necessary. Master Cao, who stayed in the temple to select the wood brought by the monks, was also in a dilemma: the Hanging Temple was built halfway up the Cui Feng Mountain, more than a hundred metres above the ground, and it was even further from the foot of the mountain to the town. If he fainted halfway, could he wake up before the rain stopped? Ordinary people probably wouldn’t last a few days after catching such a high fever.
The damage to this wood was really strange. The Hanging Temple had been standing intact for more than two hundred years since it was built during the Northern Wei Dynasty. Master Cao remembered when he was a child, his old master had discussed maintenance issues about the temple, but when he returned, he just shook his head and laughed: ‘This Hanging Temple, I think it can stand for another two hundred years, it’s much stronger than my old body.’
Unexpectedly, after enduring this strange rain for more than a month, the wood in the temple began to have problems. Now that the rain had been falling for more than three months, if it continued, the stability of the entire temple would be at risk.
Hengshan is prone to floods, and the issue of waterproofing was considered when the site was chosen for construction.
According to common sense, this rain shouldn’t be able to reach the Hanging Temple. The Hanging Temple was built in the air on a cliff. The craftsmen excavated the mountain body in the middle of the cliff, forming a natural rain shelter above. The torrential rain fell to the bottom of the valley, so that the temple was free from the invasion of wind, rain, and sun.
However, this time the rain curtain seemed thick, but it would dance diagonally with the strange wind from time to time, hitting the outer part of the temple and the plank road.
The monks didn’t expect the destructive power of this strange rain to be so great. Most of the wood used in the temple was soaked in tung oil, which was resistant to termites and rot, but it deteriorated in this rain.
Yesterday, Master Cao and his young apprentice picked out the wood to be used in the hall, applied oil for the last time, and confirmed that the plan was correct. They were about to start replacing the badly damaged wood.
Master Cao couldn’t help but sigh: ‘Now, let alone two hundred years, if the rain doesn’t stop, we’ll have to replace some new wood every two months.
‘But with this heavy rain, where could we get new wood, and where could we get the money for repairs?’
Fortunately, the wood that needed to be replaced was not too much. As long as they spent some time, they didn’t need to call for more craftsmen.
When carving patterns, Master Cao noticed Kongkong’s impatience. He laughed and said, ‘You’re really childish.’ He taught Kongkong how to adjust his perception of time: the key is to focus and not to be in a hurry. Through exercise, once you enter a transcendent state, your subjective perception of time will change, which is the change in time perception. Kongkong always complained that he didn’t change much, but the bystanders were clear. Master Cao knew that Kongkong had grown.
Before dinner, senior monk Lan Shan came to check on the progress of the repairs. Seeing that the senior monk and Master Cao had finished talking about business, Kongkong couldn’t help but complain, ‘When will this rain end?’
Lan Shan scolded, ‘This is exactly the manifestation of your unsettled mind. You should strive to be unaffected by external things and focus on improving your inner self.’
Seeing the young apprentice’s unhappy face, he softened his expression. ‘Wait a little longer; I have a feeling that this rain should stop soon.’
Kongkong shook his head, suddenly wanting to know what Xuan Jing Taoist would say if he asked.
The Hanging Temple has a special ‘three religions in one’ nature, accommodating three religions: ‘Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism’. In the highest place of the North Tower of the Hanging Temple, the Three Religions Hall enshrines Confucius of Confucianism, Sakyamuni of Buddhism, and Laozi of Taoism. The repair work tomorrow will start from the outside of the Three Religions Hall.
In fact, Kongkong knew that all three religions paid great attention to the cultivation of time perception, but even within the same religion, they did not completely agree on the meaning of cultivation. Some said it was to better expand the subjective length of life, some said it was to better understand the meaning of all things, and some said it was to enter a state of meditation and finally become a relic …
He had a few small breakthroughs after becoming a monk, and he had read as many sutras as others, but he hadn’t made any progress in the past year. Lan Shan was very concerned about the time perception anomaly of this little apprentice, which made Kongkong a little bit avoidant of him. Fortunately, after being assigned to assist Master Cao, he didn’t have to worry about sutras every day. He only had to face the master and the wood.
Before, Kongkong followed Master Cao to check everywhere. First, they checked the horizontal beam buried in the rock. This part was still alright and could support the base firmly. Then, they checked the mortise and tenon beam system above it. The beams, columns, dovetails, and brackets were all fine. Finally, they looked at the eaves and roof where they had sustained a certain degree of damage. In addition, the monster and beast at both ends of the ridge, the plank road exposed outside—the overall part that needed to be repaired this time was all on the outside of the temple. Therefore, Master Cao determined the overall plan to be from top to bottom, from north to south.
The next day, the two of them came to the Three Religions Hall early to clean up the site. They brought the corresponding wood and wood carvings into the hall and officially started the repair work.
‘Is it really alright to leave the next part to you?’ Master Cao asked Kongkong while untying the rope around his body.
‘Don’t worry, Master, I learn things very quickly. I just watched carefully from below; there will be no problem when going up for myself.’
When he got the long rope, he suddenly stuttered, ‘This rope… is it strong enough?’
Master Cao suddenly laughed, ‘Whether it’s strong or not, you’ll know when you try it.’
He nodded, as if he had gathered his courage again, and began to wrap the rope around his feet and waist. After fixing his body, he threw the other end of the rope into the air, passed it through the temporary beam repeatedly to fix it, and then moved up with the pulley to adjust his height. This temporary beam had the same function as the horizontal beam below; both were deeply buried in the holes in the rock and were stabilised by the lever principle. What was more worrying was actually the influence of wind and rain. Fortunately, even the strange rain had diminished a lot at that time.
While he was dealing with the replacement above, the master could take a breath and make the final confirmation and correction treatment of the details of the wood.
This replacement involved not many places with mortise and tenon structure, and the master was full of confidence, thinking that it should not go wrong.
The statues of the three saints in the Hall also seemed to give the two courage.
Under the good cooperation, the atmosphere actually became a bit relaxed, and Master Cao quietly lost his mind, thinking that he had also formally accepted apprentices, but no one could stick to it. Carpentry work really requires concentration. Although Kongkong was still far behind, he inexplicably loved his little apprentice.
Suddenly, he was squatting on the ground and felt a little dizzy. When he looked again, the arranged wood was shaking. There seemed to be exclamations from a distance, covering the monotonous rain. He was somehow unable to react to what happened. His legs slipped, and he sat down completely, but he didn’t care about standing up. He hurried to look up at the child in the higher place—at this time, Kongkong’s body was entangled by the disturbed rope, obviously panicked.
Due to the elasticity of the temporary beam, Kongkong lost his sense of direction and his body swayed up and down. Fortunately, the wood was strong enough and did not break suddenly. As soon as he figured out the situation, everything stabilised, and the running heart also calmed down from the throat.
Master Cao breathed a sigh of relief at this time, as if his heart was stable with Kongkong’s body.
Unexpectedly, after this wave passed, it was another wave that made people lose their minds.
Only to listen to the abbot’s deep voice with the shaking rock wall in all directions—earthquake, everyone hold on to anything firm.
Master Cao reacted, hurriedly ignoring the wood that was shaking around, and did not dare to support the outer railing, just threw his body forward and hugged a sturdy wooden pillar in the temple.
The Hengshan area, where Cui Feng Mountain is located, does not often have earthquakes. There have been several times in history, but who could think that the days they experienced will be written in the history books of later generations? It seemed that this weird rain was worth writing about, perhaps it was this weird rain that washed the mountain rocks, causing the valley stream to surge, so that the earth had loosened to terrible vibrations.
He was a little dry, and he couldn’t help but feel like he was going to sweat. It seemed that there was a sense of panic. When he turned his head to look back, he saw an unexpected scene. The rain curtain was still the continuous grey yarn surrounded by flying eaves and railings, but the centre was dotted with a shallow grey colour that was unexpectedly conspicuous. The little apprentice? He had just seen him stable on the beam; how could he suddenly be in danger?
Half-opened mouth, staring eyes, he tried to change his own time perception. In an instant, under his highly concentrated attention, Kongkong, who was falling, seemed to suddenly freeze in the air. At that moment, he had just completed the action of letting go of the tightly hugged pillar and turning around. Even if he was anxious in his heart, the muscle strength of the human body cannot break all its restrictions and let him rush to the railing. Unexpectedly, his sour and painful blinking coincided with Kongkong’s blinking. It turned out that Kongkong was also in a state of time perception abnormality, and followed his rhythm.
The next moment, Master Cao felt from the inside out that he and Kongkong were already on the same frequency, and could even communicate freely through the spirit.
-Kongkong, what happened to you? Why did you suddenly fall?
-Master, don’t worry, the other end of the rope is still firmly tied to the beam.
-Then how did you suddenly fly here?
-I was dizzy and wanted to stretch my hand to loosen the rope and go down to the corridor. I just saw a piece of wood carving beast about to roll out of the railing, so I reached out and pulled it up.
-Stupid boy, wood is not as important as you.
-This is the result of Master’s hard work these days. If it falls into the valley stream, it will never be found again, and then Master will have to work hard again. I…
-Can you stop?
-Don’t worry, wait for a moment, I will catch the mischievous wood. When the rope reaches its limit, I should go back then.
-Oh, this rope, is it strong enough?
-This is what you said just now, Master, whether it is strong or not, you will know if you try it…
He felt that the time available for communication was fleeting, and it just slipped away from his hands. That was, his time perception was gradually accelerating, gradually returning to normal flow speed. In contrast, he felt that Kongkong’s perception of time was still slowing down.
Kongkong, in order to catch up with the wood carving, started the time perception change at the moment of falling, and constantly analysed how to return smoothly with the wood carving in his mind. When he fell to the height outside the railing, he hurriedly mobilised the muscles of his legs and kicked the railing, accelerating the falling process. At this time, the wood carving was not far in front of him, just waiting to slowly catch up through this speed difference. He focused on the wood carving, and the height of more than a hundred metres that usually made people fearful was just a background which anyone would ignore.
Whether it is an abyss or a rift, there is no fear if you chase it with all your heart.
Nobody expected that when he was about to get the wood carving, Kongkong seemed to be anxious, just touched a little bit with his fingertips, and couldn’t grasp it at all. The wood carving deviated from the direction of falling due to this subtle influence, and fell obliquely, causing him to hurriedly adjust his centre of gravity and silently chase after it.
Affected by time perception, he only felt that his subjective falling speed was getting slower and slower, and the distance between him and the wood carving could not be shortened in time. Even the frequency of rain hitting the body has slowed down, but it still brings waves of numbness. He felt his body temperature gradually rising, and his eyeballs were even hotter and swollen. Maybe his eyes were starting to turn red? Wouldn’t it bleed soon? Just thinking about it, he felt that his blood and energy were running around in his body. Damn it-
He has never entered such a state; it seemed that there was nothing else between heaven and earth; everything was stagnant.
At the same time, he also realised that whether it was his own physical strength or spirit, he could not maintain it for too long.
In fact, if you give up time perception, such a process from the beginning to the end of the fall probably does not take up to five seconds.
Could it be that the change in his subjective level was actually to escape the final result and keep dragging the moment of its arrival?
But that moment will eventually come.
This blink of an eye was particularly long; it seemed that it was impossible to open your eyes again, but he found that it was time, and he was about to firmly grasp the wood carving.
He felt that everything around him had stagnated; only his hands were still approaching the wood carving. The brain seemed to explode, and a groan leaked from his mouth.
The rain soaked everything.
His attention could no longer be fully concentrated, and he could not even confirm the touch in his hand again. He just took a last look at the nearly stationary raindrops in the trance-they were pulled into thin filaments by the gravity of the earth. But if one gets close, he will find that this filament is not complete. Not only is it discontinuous, it can even be said to be out of shape. But to think about it, the rain has lost its shape, but it does have a unique and distinguishable appearance.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a line of small characters after deformation. Either stretched or squashed, it is no longer like a square Chinese character, but it has its own rules, falling from the sky, conveying something to the people on the earth. The coma in the rain was originally due to the congestion caused by the inability to process excessive information, but the rain has accelerated too fast in the air, and ordinary people could not interpret it with ordinary methods.
After listening to him, the abbot was silent for a while, and then turned to face the rain curtain outside the window. After a while, he nodded slightly, as if he had confirmed it.
‘Alright, when chanting in the Zen room from now on, everyone should turn to face the window.’
‘So, are there really words in the rain?’
‘Who knows? Who has practiced time perception to that level?’
The next day, everyone sat facing the wind and rain. Day after day, the eyes of the monks lit up one by one. They divided the hard yellow paper that had not been dampened, and recorded the information coming from the rain curtain separately.
The yellow paper with information was exchanged among the monks. They removed the repeated and erroneous parts, and then integrated the scattered chapters. When the wind and rain passed, they actually sorted out a scripture. This was a true scripture from heaven. But it cannot be easily interpreted.
Kongkong, along with the chanting, followed Master Cao to repair the North Tower, then the South Tower, and finally the plank road.
In the end, the sky would clear. Some people say that the elders of the Three Religions had communicated and finally explained the meaning of the Heavenly Scripture, and found a way to solve the natural disasters and strange rains. Some people say that the gods in the heavenly court saw that the news had been delivered to the world, so they finally stopped the heavy rain that lasted for nearly half a year and caused the river to surge. But to say what the Heavenly Scripture specifically means, no one could explain it. Kongkong only knew that it was hidden in the deepest part of the scripture pavilion by the elders of the Three Doctrines, and no one was allowed to touch it on weekdays.
Master Cao hurriedly left the Hanging Temple as soon as the rain stopped, leaving Kongkong not the youngest monk in the temple but the oldest one. In the blink of an eye, many years have passed, and there has been no strange rain. The beams and wood carvings in the temple have all remained stable and have not been damaged.
The wind and rain of that year, the little monk and the carpenter master, all seemed like a strange dream.
When he looked down at the bottom of the valley, Kongkong saw that the stream was still there, and there were not many waves in his heart; but when looked up, he saw that the blood-soaked wood carving beast was still on the eaves, telling the truth in memory.
On a certain day of the Drying Sutra Festival, he accidentally discovered the Heavenly Scripture of that year, and remembered the months when he was obsessed with the abbot, wanting to know the content of the Heavenly Scripture. He lightly brushed the cover and finally laughed and turned it over. There are heavens outside the heavens; that may be the only trace left by a certain extraterrestrial civilization on Earth. The past words and phrases are gathered into a volume, forming the infinite curiosity of the Rain People towards the Tang People.
People argued endlessly around the Cover theory, the Hun theory, and the Xuan night theory, but they never thought that there is civilization outside Heaven. The Rain People tried to reach out for contact, but formed a natural disaster-like heavy rain which carried a large amount of information. Those words made by rain are difficult to recognise by ordinary people due to high-speed falling and compression deformation, and bring great destructive pressure. The Heavenly Scripture tells about their nature, their history, and their culture. But after the elders of the Hanging Temple understood it, they could only answer by stopping further contact. The Hanging Temple, which hangs in the air and explores Heaven, rejects the voice from outside Heaven. After all, the gap between the two is too large, and the understanding and perception of time are fundamentally different.
Once insisting on continuing, the civilization on the ground may gradually collapse under the unbearable burden, like the Hanging Temple in the rain. Under the judgment and negotiation of the elders of the Three Religions, the strange rain stopped smoothly, and it has never rained again.
This rain eventually became a weird topic in the Wu Zhou years, and was obliterated in the vast history
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