He Yuheng looked at them one by one and found that one of the shrines was not bad. Although it was not made of red sandalwood or yellow rosewood, it was not bad either. It was high-grade ebony.
Black sandalwood was also a very good raw material for furniture production. Some top-notch black sandalwood furniture was not cheaper than red sandalwood. After all, ten sandalwood was nine empty. It was said that sandalwood was too difficult to become useful.
Among these things, He Yuheng was most interested in the Guanyin statue.
Guanyin was the full name of the Bodhisattva of Buddhism. In the Tang Dynasty, the name of Li Shimin, Taizong, was taboo. The word "world" was removed and it was called "Guanyin". It was the embodiment of great compassion. Guanyin was originally a mortal. She had been devoutly devoted to Buddhism for many years and practiced for many years. After several reincarnations, she obtained Nirvana and entered the realm of freedom and went to the Western Paradise. However, Guanyin ultimately chose to abandon this carefree realm and return to the present world to transcend the sufferings of all living beings. Otherwise, Guanyin would be the embodiment of great compassion.
In our country, the most famous Buddhists are Guan Yin Bodhisattva and Rulai Buddha. They have many followers and wide influence. As for the gender of Guanyin, in ancient India, the hometown of Buddhism, Guanyin was male. At that time, men were already superior to women in ancient India. Women were considered to be sorrowful existences, and Bodhisattva, as a god, was naturally a man.
As for the Bodhisattvas in our country, from the end of the Western Han Dynasty when Buddhism was introduced to China until the Tang Dynasty, the image of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva was mainly male. The most iconic thing was the two small mustaches above his lips. In terms of image, Chinese male Bodhisattvas were different from Indian male Bodhisattvas, who were tall, mighty, and ferocious. In comparison, their faces were more handsome and amiable.
Female Bodhisattvas appeared in the Northern and Southern Dynasties and were popular in the Tang Dynasty. When it came to the Tang Dynasty, everyone could guess that the subversive transformation of the female image of Bodhisattva was naturally inseparable from the credit of the only female emperor in our country's history, Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian claimed that she was the reincarnation of Maitreya Buddha, so it was not unacceptable for Bodhisattva to be a female.
Moreover, after the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism lost its status as the national religion, and the target of preaching changed from nobles to civilians. The civilians gave full play to their imagination and created many legends about Bodhisattva. For example, Princess Miaoshan sacrificed her life to become a Taoist, and Malang women used their charms to tempt men to learn Buddhism and ascend to heaven after death.
Most importantly, the masses believed that beautiful words and images such as " charity " and " gentleness " were more appropriate and suitable for women who were also beautiful and gentle than for tall and strong men.
Later on, Guanyin was given the ability to give birth under the pen of the masses, and the female image was more approachable. Since ancient times, the continuation of incense had been regarded as a major event in life by the Chinese. Guanyin relied on this skill to become the most popular fairy sister among the many gods. During the Song and Ming Dynasties, the female image of Guanyin had basically been fixed in the hearts of the people. One had to know that in that era, the highest praise for a woman was to say that she looked like Guan Yin Bodhisattva.
However, the Bodhisattva in front of He Yuheng was neither gentle nor beautiful, nor tall and mighty. In terms of clothing, it was even "indecent". The clothing style of this statue of Guan Yin was the casual style of India. It was a long dress with a belt at the waist that was turned out, and the hem of the pleated skirt reached her feet. On his upper body was tied a Brahmin knot, and on his shoulders was a cape and silk, which floated diagonally in front of his chest. A neat high bun was tied on the top of his head, and his hair was tied up in a bun. His ears were each equipped with an earring. He Yuheng judged that this Buddha statue was a product of the 10th to 13th centuries.
Judging from the style, it might have been produced in North China, but at that time, North China was in the hands of foreigners. Could it be from the Liao and Jin Dynasties?
"Boss, give me a hand."
"Lun Yuan!"
"This is wood, and it's not good wood. I'm leaving if you're joking.”
"Horn!"
"Alright!"
In the end, He Yuheng bought the Buddha statue for 32 cents and the altar he had his eyes on for 46 cents.
It only cost 78 cents in total. How cheap!
He Yuheng carried the Buddha statue to a place where no one was around. After carefully looking around to make sure that no one would pass by, she directly entered the space.
With the help of the light in the space, He Yuheng carefully sized up the Buddhist altar. As he had guessed, it was made of ebony. And this Buddha statue needed to be appraised with carbon 14 to make a final judgment. However, there was no such technology yet. He would wait until the country developed in the future.
When he returned to the ghost market again, He Yuheng found that there were quite a lot of items related to Buddhism here. Unfortunately, many of them were fake. This was because real Buddha statues were very precious. Most of them were gilded and rarely appeared in such places.
He Yuheng also chose and bought a lot of Buddhist items. He even bought a faded golden stone, a kind of spiritual instrument of Tibetan Buddhism. The Vajra Scepter was a metal stake. It was a sharp-edged knife, an important magic tool used by Buddhists to expel evil.
"Tsk tsk, this thing is interesting.”
He Yuheng had never seen this thing in his previous life, but seeing it today, he felt a little fresh and sighed.
Next, he looked at some folk collections one after another. When he saw something good, he put it in his pocket.
Suddenly, the sound of a chicken crowing broke the silence of the ghost market.
"Crash!"
The stall owners who were about to doze off on the ground began to pack their things. They lifted their bags and carried their things into the nearest alley. It took less than five minutes for them to pack their things and disappear. The entire street was gone. As expected of a ghost market, it came and went without a trace.
"So this is the closing of the stall. I've seen it with my own eyes.”
Looking at the empty street, He Yuheng could not help but sigh.
Since the market had closed, there was no point in staying any longer. He Yuheng went back to her house.
He didn't have a phone or a watch. He only knew that the rooster was crowing. He Yuheng felt that he needed something that could let him know about things at any time when he frequented the night market. He would buy it after he received his salary for this month.
He Yuheng had returned very late last night, so he slept until dawn on the third day of the holiday. His eldest brother, He Yuzhu, had already gone to work. He first made breakfast for himself to fill his stomach, then took the treasure he had received last night and rushed to the Nine Gates Admiral's house impatiently.
"Yo, kid, you're finally here. Where's your energy from two days ago?”
As soon as He Yuheng entered, Master Guan teased him.
"Ahem, aren't you asking the obvious?”
He Yuheng knew that the old man was teasing him, so he said with a smile.
"Tell me, what did you receive last night?”
"Needless to say! I brought it for you!"
As He Yuheng spoke, he took out the wooden Guanyin statue and placed it in front of the old man. The Nine Gates Inspector picked up the Guanyin statue and looked at it again and again. His expression was serious and his brows were tightly furrowed.
"Indian style male Guanyin. The style is quite special. The wood is ordinary. It's not some precious wood. This thing depends on the age. Tell me what you think?”
"Liao Jin!"
"Be more specific!"
"Isn't that why I came to find you, Master!”
"Hmph, in my opinion, there's still a gap of 300 years!”
The Nine Gates Admiral replied calmly and glanced at He Yuheng. He Yuheng also looked at his master from the corner of his eye and then frowned at the Guanyin statue.
"What's wrong? You don't believe me?"
He Yuheng frowned again and looked at the Buddha statue, shaking his head.
"Go, the ninth book on the eighth row of the bookshelf!”
He Yuheng quickly found the book and opened it. It was about the development of Buddhism.
"I'll read it after I'm done!"
The first one was referring to the book, and the second one was referring to the Guanyin statue.
He Yuheng immediately found a rocking chair to lie down on and began to read with great interest.
Two hours later.
"Are you done?"
"I'm done!"
"Let's go and take a look!"
"I'm watching!"
Goodness, if others heard this, they would be confused. Han Chunming had learned how to hide his words from them.
He Yuheng held the Guanyin statue in her hand and continued to ponder. She stared at it with wide eyes and suddenly her eyes lit up.
"Liao Country!" he said excitedly.
"The reason!"
"It's still clothes! If one hadn't read that book, one wouldn't know that Jin's shamanism was replaced by Buddhism. However, in the process of friction, they would at least rub some of the other party's things. This Buddhism incorporated some elements of shamanism and was considered the last struggle of shamanism. But in fact, when Buddhism was first promoted in Jin City, it was intentionally or unintentionally integrated with Shamanic elements, but this one was completely different!”
"Alright, put the book back when you're done!”
He Yuheng was happy to know the exact age of this Guanyin statue. Actually, he still had to read more books. Even if he used technology to verify it, he still had to combine it with the historical background behind the object to understand it more thoroughly.
"Why are you so happy?"
Seeing He Yuheng's happy face, Master Guan was in a good mood. "Of course I'm happy. How can I not be happy?" This was probably the fun of antiques!”
"This is the charm of history!"
He Yuheng nodded again. Indeed, the galaxy was vast. It was an interesting process to explore the evolution of this world from objects.
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