A Record of Life: The Thundering Drum

By Xiao Lian

PureInsight | August 18, 2008

[PureInsight.org] Many people
who cultivate may, upon reading the title, be able to guess what I am
going to write about. If you guessed correctly, you know I will write
the story of Huang Di who fought Chi You.



In the opening chapter of "Shi Ji" (The Book of History),
Huang Di is described as follows: "In the time of Xuan Yuan, Shen Nong
declined. Various lords were fighting each other and oppressing their
people, yet Shen Nong couldn't subdue them. So, Xuan Yuan Huang Di
trained people in combat and conquered the lords. All the lords came to
follow Huang Di except Chi You, who was the most brutal one and refused
to submit. Yan Di wanted to control all the lords, but the lords all
followed Huang Di. Huang Di cultivated virtue in managing the army,
regulated five types of qi
(energy), taught the cultivation of five grains, comforted people and
offered salvation to people of all kinds. He battled three times with
Yan Di on the plain of Ban Quan, emerging victorious.



Chi You was making trouble and did not listen to Huang Di. So, Huang Di
recruited various lords and fought Chi You on the plain of Zhu Lu. He
then killed Chi You, and all the lords regarded Xuan Yuan as emperor to
replace Shen Nong and called him Huang Di..."



The above is all that has been described in history about the battle
between Huang Di and Chi You. Today, let us restore the true story of
this earliest of battles in the history of Chinese civilization.



For the human world, Gods arranged the principle of "conquering the
world with military force, the victor governing the country, acquiring
food by killing, the strong being heroes, and so on" ("Dafa Is All-Encompassing," Essentials for Further Advancement II). The human world is also restrained by the principle of "mutual generation and mutual inhibition."



In fact, Shen Nong, Yan Di, Huang Di, and later Da Yu, and all these
people who made the history of Chinese civilization were sent down by
heaven as our ancestors to teach us, and to create a grand Chinese
civilization of five thousand years. Now, we are all very proud of
being the descendants of Yan Di and Huang Di. As a matter of fact, one
might imagine who those able and virtuous emperors are today if
reincarnation really does exists in human society. Now, the great Fa of
the universe is being spread in the human world and many of those who
have watched the 2008 Divine Performing Arts show must have remembered
the dance "Creation," which depicts the story of the king of kings
leading the gods to create the glorious Chinese civilization of five
thousand years. I will not comment much on that here and will leave it
to the readers to ponder.  



The principles in human society are just like this, and it won't do if
these principles are violated. When a righteous god comes down on a
mission, others will be arranged to come to the world to do bad deeds
in the name of testing and tempering. This is also for people to see
the hardship one has to go through to accomplish something and feel joy
afterwards. Only then will they be respected and loved.



As recorded in "Shi Ji," Huang Di cultivated virtue and brought peace
to his people, and while Huang Di cared about the people, Chi You
harmed them. However, it is just as it is described in novels that "The
virtuous one remains and those who have no virtue will lose." As long
as an emperor in the human world cares about the people and governs
with virtue, no matter how bad the wicked ones are, they won't win.



Back then, Huang Di had only one or two thousand soldiers, while Chi
You's army was much greater in number and his men were also very
fearsome and had no human nature like wild men.



One morning before the battle began, Huang Di told his generals and
soldiers, "Even though they have more people than us and appear
fearsome, we will win. I will summon many heavenly gods to help us."



When the battle started, Huang Di beat the thundering drums in person
to boost his soldier's morale. Actually, now we see it as an
announcement to heaven and the human world that the evil ones with no
virtue will never prevail! Armies formed a dark cloud and rushed over
filled with murderous zeal. In the sky were dark rolling clouds,
thunder and lightening, however with no rain coming down. Facing this
kind of force, some of Huang Di's soldiers became afraid, but some
remembered what Huang Di had just said and dashed forward to fight with
Chi You's army. At that moment, Huang Di raised something like a flag
into the sky and said, "Gods, please help me eliminate Chi You and end
the suffering of the people!" Before Huang Di he had even finished
speaking, many gods wearing golden shields descended to help Huang Di's
army fight Chi You. When Chi You saw that Huang Di summoned heavenly
gods to come, he also called on many unrighteous ones. The battle was
fought bitterly, like a great apocalypse upon the earth. Later, Huang
Di took out a gourd-like divine weapon he prepared before descending to
the human world and threw it into the air. All the evil deities were
collected into the weapon and Chi You was eventually captured and
killed. At that moment, the sky started to turn very clear and many
beautiful signs declared victory. Hence, the first great battle that
started the Chinese civilization, which was to lay a foundation for the
Great Fa of this universe, had ended. Many generals and soldiers were
very excited and Huang Di was delighted as well. Before calling off the
battle, once again the thundering drums were beaten as if to say that
at the end of this round of civilization, if evil descended to the
world again, even if it were not myself, the people who believed and
followed me would again have to beat the drum once more.



Now, if you find a DVD of the Divine Performing Arts' performance and
watch the dance, "Victory Drums," you may have the same feeling and you
may even be able to remember your role back then in the battle against
Chi You.



Let's wash away all the evil with the force of the thundering drums.
Let's drive away the specter from the west and once again demonstrate
the boundless glory of Chinese culture as real Chinese descendants.



Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2008/7/4/53634.html

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