Book 1: Chapter 187

Book 1: Chapter 187

I squatted down and saw a line engraved on the piece of bronze that read: Eastern Mahayana Golden Banner Ancestral Tower (1). It seemed to be related to Buddhism, but I hadnt studied it all that deeply.

I was waiting to hear what Black Glasses had to say, but Fatty spoke up before he could say anything, "Is this an ancestral tower of Eastern Mahayana?"

"Do you know something about it?" I asked him.

"Whats it say?" Fatty got excited and turned to Black Glasses, "Do you think this Eastern Mahayana is that Eastern Mahayana?"

Black Glasses nodded, "It should be. Who would create such a fake?"

Seeing my confused look, Fatty explained to me, "This was a huge cult during the Ming Dynasty. At that time, it was called the Eastern Mahayana Sect throughout the whole country. In Fujian, it was called the Jin Chuang Sect or Jin Tong Sect (2). In the very beginning, this cult was focused on alchemy and set up elixir towers deep in the mountains all over the country. During the Qing Dynasty and Republic period, it began to collect money and participate in politics. Later, most of them were wiped out, but the sect still exists in many places."

"In its heyday, the Jin Tong Sect conducted a lot of activities across the country and would set up headquarters that they called immortal mountains. Since Ancestral Tower is written here, it mustve been a very large venue for their activities. It looks like there are some towers and immortal palace halls buried underground here, Black Glasses added.

"But what does that have to do with listening to thunder? I asked. Why do people come here after hearing thunder?"

Everyone was silent, which made it obvious that they didn't know. Black Glasses suddenly laughed, "Youre quite studious."

TN Notes:

(1) Mahyna is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Its considered one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and was developed in India. Info here.

(2) The pinyin stands for Golden Banner and Golden Child, respectively. I was only finding info on the Chinese Wikipedia page here. According to this, its a sect that departed from the eastern "Great Vehicle" proliferation of Luoism in the 16th century and adopted features of the White Lotus tradition.

(3) Wanli is the reign name of Ming emperor (1573-1619)

(4) Northern Wei Dynasty was from 386-534 and the Northern Song Dynasty was from 960-1127

(5) Idk about a Taoist priest, but I found this painter guy here that seems to fit the Ming Dynasty timeline. One of his paintings is on the related objects tab if you want to check it out.

(6) Wusheng () can mean barren or unborn.

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Tiffany's starting on the "Mystic Nine 2" for us (all 14 chapters of it lol). The page is here if you're interested and I went ahead and added it to the chart on the homepage.