Chapter 277: Astonishing the Internet! The Twelve Golden Men of Qin Shihuang! And a complete set of the Nine Zhou Dings! (3)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Right!” Luo Feng nodded.
Since everything was built according to the specifications of an emperor’s tomb, the identity of the tomb’s owner must have been recorded on the stone tablet.
There were four large characters written on the two stone steles. It seemed to be Qin dynasty small seal script.
Such characters were generally recognizable to those who knew them well. It was not like the ancient Yi script of the Xia dynasty, which required extraordinary experts like Luo Feng.
“What does it say? Tell us, host!” “Four characters? Could it be Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s tomb?”
“Hahaha! You really made me laugh!”
Luo Feng glanced at the Qin dynasty small seal script and said, “These are the characters for ‘Surpassing Heaven by One Rank’.” Apart from these characters, there was no other information on the stone steles.
“Surpassing Heaven by One Rank? What does that mean?” Gu Santong knew, of course, that it was likely a comparison between heaven and oneself, but he had never heard of such an idiom before.
“Hehe, ‘Surpassing Heaven by One Rank’ reminds me of ‘Barely Surpassing Heaven,”‘ said Luo Feng after some thought.
The idiom’s meaning was simple: it refers to barely winning against fate, even when playing chess against the heavens.
“And ‘Barely Surpassing Heaven’ signifies only a slight advantage, but it’s already quite audacious!”
“But what does ‘Surpassing Heaven by One Rank’ mean? It means surpassing heaven by one level!”
“This is outrageous!”
“Emperor Qin Shi Huang was the Son of Heaven! Surpassing heaven means surpassing Emperor Qin Shi Huang, right?”
When Luo Feng heard Gu Santong’s account, a light suddenly gleamed in his eyes. So, did ‘Surpassing Heaven by One Rank’ mean surpassing Qin Shi Huang? Who was this tomb owner who dared to surpass even Qin Shi Huang?
“Everyone, listen to me: this tomb cannot possibly be that of Emperor Qin Shi
Huang! ”
“In ancient times, tombs of this scale would not lack information about the tomb owner’s identity!”
“The bamboo slips outside must have relevant records!”
“Most stone tablets in front of coffins record great achievements, but this one only has four characters? There is only one possibility: the tomb owner had no great achievements! He is merely someone who thinks highly of himself, he’s an ancient version of a self-righteous man.”
“The murals depicting the emperor’s inspection tours, wars, and kneeling ministers can only be glorious moments of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. If I’m not mistaken, the tomb owner wanted to take credit for these achievements. In other words, he was deceiving the spirits.”
“Little Luo, there’s a bronze coffin over there!” Gu Santong exclaimed. Luo Feng looked at the bronze coffin, and was immediately astonished. For on both sides of the bronze coffin, there were twelve golden figures, each facing a different direction.
“Uh? Could these be Qin Shi Huang’s twelve bronze men?” Gu Santong cried out in surprise. As for what Qin Shi Huang’s twelve golden men were, they referred to the twelve large bronze statues cast from all the weapons collected after Qin Shi Huang unified the six states, to prevent the people from rebelling. It was said that they were cast from the collected metals of the world to prevent circulation, and there were also legends that they were cast from the Nine Ding of Yu the Great.
According to the “Records of the Grand Historian: Annals of Qin Shi Huang,” in the 26th year of Qin Shi Huang’s reign (221 BCE), he “gathered all the weapons of the world, melted them down to create twelve large bronze statues, each weighing a thousand stones, and placed them in the palace courtyard.”
“This must be a fake!” Luo Feng immediately shook his head. “The twelve bronze men created by Qin Shi Huang each weighed 240,000 taels. How big is this one? It’s not even as tall as me!”
“But even a fake isn’t bad! To create these twelve statues would have taken a great deal of effort, and ordinary people during the Qin dynasty wouldn’t have been able to afford it,” Luo Feng continued.
“Of course, they’re made of bronze, but many still call them the twelve gold men, although they’re not made of gold.”
Although they were fakes, their purpose was the same as the ones created by Qin Shi Huang – to control the circulation of metal.
“Little Luo, do you see those terracotta figures over there? The boxes they’re holding?”
Gu Santong discovered something else and cried out in surprise.
These boxes were made of jade and were about 20 centimeters in size. They had clasps on the top and bottom, and were even secured with jade locks.
Luo Feng stepped forward, gently pulled the jade lock, and it easily opened. “Heh, these lock are just for show.”
He then placed the box on top of his clothes as a cushion and opened it. The onlooking wealthy heirs stretched their necks, eager to see what was inside.
“Could it be a pill?” Su Meiji gasped.
“Wow! We still don’t know, huh? It must be Qin Shi Huang’s elixir of immortality!”
“Wow! Host, eat it quickly, and you’ll become immortal!” “How is this pill still so smooth after all these years?”
“Eat it, eat it!”
Of course, even the least informed viewers in the livestream chat would not believe that consuming this pill would grant immortality. They were simply just joking around.
“Heh, who wants to eat it? I’ll give it away for free. Do any of you dare to eat it?” Luo Feng chuckled.
Even in ancient times, consuming such pills would have been risky, let alone after all these years. Who would dare to eat it?
“However, just looking at this pill, preserved so well after so many years, it’s clear that the ancients used advanced preservation techniques! Qin Shi Huang was really brave, daring to consume such a highly concentrated preservative, thousands of times stronger than what we have on the market today!”
Soon enough, Luo Feng did not hesitate and moved on to the next terracotta figure, which also held a jade box.
He quickly opened the box, and the lock was just for show once again.
“A pearl? Is it a pearl?” Gu Santong looked over and asked.
The pearl inside the box was quite large, about the size of a tennis ball, and completely transparent.
“Is this a glass bead?”
“Hahaha! A glass bead, amazing! Was there even glass during the Qin dynasty?”
“What kind of material is this? Could it really be ancient glass?” Gu Santong asked, puzzled.
After examining the text on the surface, Luo Feng recognized it immediately.. “Could this be a Suihou Pearl?”
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