"Xuan Ji Bone"

Introduction to the work "Xuan Ji Bone" In the seventeenth year of Yongxi's reign, the "Fire Sun Fire Gun" from the Western Regions flooded into the Central Plains along with the wave of trade. Its iron-forged edge not only shattered the peace at the border, but also set off a "technical purge" that swept the government and the public - the New Mechanical Bureau used the name "Renovation of the Old and New" , forcing craftsmen to abandon mortise and tenon joints and use iron tools, and classified thousands of years of classics such as "Kao Gong Ji" and "Bu Tian Ge" as "heresies" and burned them. Even the repair stalls in the West Alley of Chang'an that had been passed down for three generations became a thorn in the side of "impeding progress." A Ci is the most common "guardian artist" in this purge. Holding the "Xuanji Ink Dou" left by her father before his death, she set up a repair stall under the old locust tree, specializing in collecting the rags that others thought should be thrown away: Grandma Wang's red lacquered wooden comb with broken teeth, with three generations of hidden treasures hidden in the back of the comb. The woman's memory of her marriage; the crooked mortise and tenon stool in Uncle Zhang's house, with the crooked name of his son "Xiao Yuan" who died young engraved on the inside of the leg; even the old wooden fork used by the peasant woman Aunt Li to harvest wheat is soaked with the fragrance of wheat for ten years. At her fingertips, what was being carved and mended was never the cracks in the objects, but the thoughts of life that were burned by the iron fire - until Zhao Song, the leader of the New Arms Bureau, came with his troops to dismantle the stall and smashed the "core parts of Xuanji Yi" that she had spent half a year repairing in public. She also sneered and said, "These broken pieces of wood should be buried with you conservative people." Xiao Jinghan's appearance was like an unexpected star. This "stargazer" who once headed the Astrology Department was stripped of his official position and became the target of the New Weapons Bureau because he refused to tamper with astrological data and add "destiny blessing" to the fire gun. Carrying a half-cracked "Star Marrow Stone" on his back, he hid in the wheat field to help Aunt Li count the sunny days for harvesting wheat, and hid in a ruined temple to point the direction of the Beidou to lost children. He always remembered the admonition left by his father: "The stars are the scale of the sky and the earth, not the seal of power; skills are a ladder to help others, not a sharp weapon to hurt others." People became connected due to an unexpected resonance between "astrology stone and Xuanji ink pipe" - Aci discovered that the ink pipe line can be deflected by the shimmer of the star marrow stone, while Xiao Jinghan read the thousand-year-old secret of "aligning mortise and tenon joints with astrology" from the remains of the Xuanji instrument. Only then did he realize that what they were guarding were the "blood and bones" of the same civilization. As a result, a seemingly mantis-like war of defense quietly unfolded in the West Alley of Chang'an: Aci led the craftsmen to "hide classics and pass on skills" in the ruined temple, and carved the mortise and tenon skills on the children's toy wooden carts; Xiao Jinghan used star marrow stones to make "star lanterns" and used starlight to guide the refugees in the direction of evacuation; even Chen San, a young craftsman who had been shaken, secretly changed the musket drawings of the New Arms Bureau into "flood control tool drawings". When Zhao Song led a team of firecrackers to surround Mobei and threatened to "burn the last batch of old classics," A Ci wrapped himself with ink thread to protect the classics, while Xiao Jinghan detonated the star marrow stone to cause a sandstorm. People came from all directions, and at the moment when the wooden cart hit the fire gun, a thousand-year-old "Xuanji resonance" was heard - it turned out that the thoughts hidden in the wooden comb, bench, and star lamp had long become the "blood and bones" of civilization and had never been extinguished. In the end, the smoke from the gun dispersed in the wind of Mobei. Aci drew an upward arc with ink lines on the old locust tree in Chang'an West Lane. At the end of the arc, there were the figures of children learning to carve mortise and tenon joints. In the astrology device passed down by Xiao Jinghan, there will always be a crooked star drawn by a child. "Xuan Ji Bone" is never a story about "old skills versus new technology", but "the thoughts that we don't want to lose" in everyone's heart - the peach blossoms on Grandma Wang's wooden comb, the name on the leg of Uncle Zhang's stool, and those "inconspicuous but heart-warming" days around you and me. This thought is the hardest "bone" and the softest "soul" of civilization. Purpose: The essence of the inheritance of civilization is "keeping thoughts": using Ah Ci to repair wooden combs and protect ancient books, Xiao Jinghan refused to change the stars and passed down celestial rituals, explaining that civilization is never a cold accumulation of skills, but the human feelings hidden in the utensils and the cares in life. Guarding these "little thoughts" is to guard the roots of civilization.