Cultivation: I Have Studied Abroad in the Modern World-Chapter 1101 - 479: Hidden Veins of Two Worlds, Return to the Innate
Zheng Fa nodded slightly.
"That matches perfectly!" Professor Liu exclaimed excitedly with a clap of his hands.
As he clapped, the tablet in his hands slipped from between his arms. Zheng Fa quickly caught it and handed it back to Professor Liu with a smile, asking, "What matches perfectly?"
"This is an academic viewpoint I’ve always supported." Professor Liu took the tablet, embarrassed, "The gist of it is that the oracle bone script from the Shang Dynasty might not be just a written language. Or rather, it’s not solely a written language."
"...What do you mean?"
"Perhaps you know, Dean, that the Shang Dynasty was very focused on rituals. They believed their ancestors were divine beings, living alongside them, and could communicate occasionally. Thus, they held grand ceremonies to communicate with spirits, and witchcraft was prevalent."
Professor Liu quickly explained, clearly still excited: "Consequently, some believe that many of these oracle bone inscriptions are actually symbols used by shamans and ancestors for communicating with deities, rather than for everyday communication."
Tang Mudao frowned, "What you say sounds a lot like Daoist talismans... Spirit Talismans!?"
"Indeed, they are talismans!" Professor Liu confirmed, "Therefore, we believe the oracle bone script is a rune system, and the patterns you provided might be... one of its origins!"
Even Zheng Fa was stunned.
He didn’t expect Professor Liu to propose such a theory, which seemed to subtly reveal a connection between two worlds.
"It’s widely accepted in the academic world that many unrecognized characters in the oracle bone script should be related to spirits. We’ve always thought of it as the Shang people’s fantasy..."
Professor Liu looked at Zheng Fa, his tone dreamy: "But the runes you provided show a second possibility: perhaps they really encountered spirits, or they heard of them from their ancestors, as a memory passed down in their heritage."
"This..." Old Man Bai murmured, "This could actually make sense."
Zheng Fa suddenly recalled another matter: the Shang Dynasty claimed to have been born of the celestial bird, and Lu Yao’s Demon Emperor Body belonged to the Golden Crow Clan...
Looking at it this way, there seems to be a hidden connection between the modern world and Xuanwei, and between the modern world and Lu Yao, which he had never realized before.
According to Professor Liu’s perspective, the modern world also inherits the tradition of Spirit Talismans, merely evolved into a written form.
This ancient rune system developed differently in the two worlds—
In the Xuanwei Realm, its descendants are largely Spirit Talismans.
In the modern world, it has turned into written characters.
Professor Liu continued, "Yet it remains unclear why these runes lost their power, leading to the fall of the Shang Dynasty."
"The Zhou Dynasty was entirely different; they respected spirits but kept their distance, no longer engaging in various rituals like the Shang."
Professor Liu pointed to the inscriptions on the tablet, sighing: "Or rather, they embarked on humanism."
Zheng Fa understood: "This is what you refer to as the transformation from Shang to Zhou."
"Yes, while the people of Zhou also learned the oracle bone script, they didn’t venerate the Shang spirits, so they discarded the characters related to deities and rituals. Based on the remaining oracle bone script, they created their own literary usage, which truly became the source of our language."
"This is precisely why, when looking back at the oracle bone script, we encounter so many unrecognized and misunderstood elements."
"Yet the runes you presented might be closer to the earliest oracle bone script."
"Of course, due to the lack of evidence, this is merely a plausible hypothesis."
Zheng Fa nodded slightly; he knew this explanation might not be entirely accurate, but it resolved many of his doubts.
"Actually, my mention of our language’s uniqueness has some explanation in this matter."
Everyone looked over.
"In mainstream languages, our script is one of the rare non-phonetic ones, and you could say, the core of our characters has hardly changed over thousands of years."
Professor Liu spoke: "There is some debate over this topic, but notably, there’s a theory that relates slightly to the oracle bone script."
"How so?"
Old Man Bai asked with interest.
"One viewpoint suggests that although the people of Zhou didn’t discuss spirits, they still viewed writing as sacred, which led to reverence for the script. Because these characters are sacred, they could resist history and change. In a way, you could say our history was built on writing."
Saying this, Professor Liu laughed to himself and whispered: "Have I been speaking... too much?"
Everyone laughed. They had seen many scholars become endlessly talkative when touching on their area of interest.
Moreover, they were genuinely intrigued by this topic—especially Zheng Fa, who was constantly pondering the relationship between the modern world and Lu Yao, even the connection to Nine Luminaries Heaven.
Professor Liu changed the topic, saying: "If we consider these patterns as the origins of oracle bone script, then we can use current research findings to interpret them." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
Zheng Fa’s heart was filled with joy, and he asked, "Have they been decoded?"
"Not completely yet."
Professor Liu tapped twice on the tablet, demonstrating to Zheng Fa and others: "Some characters can be inferred simply."
"For instance, this is the inscription for ’heaven,’ here is ’heaven’ in oracle bone script, and this... should be ’heaven’ in the rune."
Although the tablet’s characters differ in shape and strokes, upon closer inspection, a similar pattern is noticeable.
"Yet some characters remain unknown." Professor Liu pointed at multiple runes on the tablet, "These vanished in Zhou Dynasty inscriptions; some were absent in oracle bone script as well, leaving us unable to conjecture their meanings."
"Does this mean their meaning can’t be deduced?"
"No, it just requires additional data." Professor Liu looked at Zheng Fa, nodding, "For example, the ceremonial text you provided, although there are many unknown characters, we know they were for rituals. Through comparison with other text, we can roughly infer the context and deduce some meanings of the characters."
"With more materials, cracking this code seems hopeful."
Professor Liu’s tone carried a confident certainty.
Seeing Zheng Fa silent, Professor Liu hurriedly added: "In fact, we have already secured some very definite results."
"Oh?"
"We’ve deciphered a small portion of the inscription on the bronze tripod."
Bronze tripod?
Zheng Fa certainly remembered this treasure; it was snatched from the Gu God, who once considered it his lifeline, yet was forced to abandon it when the Jiushan Sect launched a surprise attack.
It was indeed due to this bronze tripod that the Jiushan Sect took notice of the existence of such ancient writing.
"The front side of this tripod, here." Professor Liu found a photo of the bronze tripod on the tablet, pointing at the body, "Boasts two large symbols."
Zheng Fa and others carefully observed two very prominent runes.
"This one should be the variant of the ’heaven’ character from earlier."
After thinking for a while, Zheng Fa realized the pattern was indeed similar to the previously mentioned ’heaven’ character.
"This character..." Professor Liu pointed at the second symbol, "In our research, likely represents earth, soil, or something similar."
Old Man Bai murmured, "Heaven... Earth... Heaven and Earth Tripod?"
"It’s Qiankun!" Tang Mudao exclaimed, "Qiankun Tripod!"
Everyone was flabbergasted, turning to Professor Liu, who nodded: "We also suspect it signifies Qiankun Tripod."
"...We can’t discern much of the other characters on this bronze tripod, but overall, they seem to describe steps for using the Qiankun Tripod."
Old Man Bai interjected: "Instructions?"
"You could say that, but what’s more fascinating is this last sentence." Professor Liu tapped one of the tripod’s legs, where a series of runes snakes down vertically.
"What does this mean?"
"Based on our preliminary interpretation, these characters likely mean... returning to the Innate."
