According to legend, before the third dynasty in ancient Egypt, both princes and ministers and ordinary people were buried in a rectangular tomb made of mud bricks, which the ancient Egyptians called "Mastaba". Later, a clever young man named Imhotep invented a new building method when designing a mausoleum for the Egyptian Pharaoh Zuosai. He replaced the mud brick with the square stone he picked from the mountain, constantly revised the design scheme of building the mausoleum, and finally built a six-story trapezoidal pyramid-this is the prototype of the pyramid we see now. In ancient Egypt, the pyramids were trapezoidal and layered, so they were also called hierarchical pyramids. This is a tall pyramid building with a square base and a triangle on each side, which looks like the Chinese character "gold", so we call it "pyramid". The tower mausoleum designed by Imhotep is the first stone mausoleum in Egyptian history. After King Zuo Sai, the Egyptian Pharaoh followed his example and built a mausoleum for himself before he died. Since then, ancient Egypt has set off a wind to build pyramids. Because the pyramids originated in the ancient kingdom period, and the largest pyramids were built in this period, the ancient kingdom period of Egypt is also called the pyramid age. Why did the pharaohs of ancient Egypt build the mausoleum into the shape of a pyramid, which is the golden shape in Chinese characters? It turns out that at the earliest time, the pharaohs in Egypt were prepared to use Mastaba as their permanent residence after death. Later, during the second and third dynasties, the Egyptians came up with the idea that the king would become a god and his soul would ascend to heaven after his death. In the inscription of the pyramid later discovered, there is a sentence like this: "Build a ladder for him (Pharaoh) so that he can go to heaven from there." The pyramid is such a ladder. At the same time, the pyramid form also expresses the worship of the sun god, because the symbol of the ancient Egyptian sun god "La" is the light of the sun. The pyramid symbolizes the sunlight that penetrates the sky. Because, when you stand on the road to Kize and look west from the perspective of the pyramid ridge, you can see that the pyramid shines on the earth like the sun. There is a sentence in the inscription of the pyramid: "The sky extends its own light to you, so that you can climb into the sky, just like pulling your eyes." Later, the worship of the obelisk by ancient Egyptians also had such significance, because the obelisk also represented the light of the sun. The largest of all the pyramids in ancient Egypt is the pyramid of the fourth dynasty Pharaoh Khufu. The original height of the Great Pyramid was 146.59 meters. After thousands of years of wind and rain, the top has been eroded by nearly 10 meter. But before the Eiffel Tower was built in Paris in 1888, it was the tallest building in the world. The bottom of this pyramid is square, each side is more than 230 meters long, and it takes almost one kilometer to walk around the pyramid. The pyramid of Khufu is not only amazing in scale, but also famous for its superb architectural skills. There is no cement or other adhesive between the stones of the tower, but one stone is stacked on another. Every stone has been ground down for thousands of years. It is also difficult for people to insert sharp blades into cracks in stones, so they can persist for thousands of years. This is a miracle in the history of architecture. In addition, on the north side of the Great Pyramid, there is a triangular entrance composed of four huge stones, and the height from the ground is 13 meters. This triangle is cleverly used, because if a quadrilateral is used instead of a triangle, then the huge pressure of the pyramid with a height of 100 meters will collapse the entrance. With the triangle, the great pressure is evenly dispersed. It is really remarkable to have such an understanding and application of mechanical principles more than 4,000 years ago and to have such a structure. Shortly after Khufu's death, another pyramid was built not far from his Great Pyramid. This is the pyramid of Khufu's son, Ha Raf. It is 3 meters lower than pyramid of khufu, but it seems to be higher than pyramid of khufu because of its higher terrain. Near the tower, there is a big statue carved with khalaf's head and the lion's body, the so-called Sphinx. Except the lion is made of stone, the whole Sphinx is chiseled on a huge natural rock. It has a history of more than 4500 years. Why did you carve it into a lion's body? In ancient Egyptian mythology, the lion was the guardian of various mysterious places and the gateway to the underground world. Because Pharaoh will become a sun god after his death, he built such a sphinx to guard the portal for Pharaoh. After the fourth dynasty, although other pharaohs built many pyramids, their scale and quality could not be compared with the above pyramids. After the Sixth Dynasty, with the division of the ancient kingdom and the decline of Pharaoh's power, the resistance of the Egyptian people and the robbery of some people, Pharaoh's "mummies" were often dragged out of the pyramids, so Egyptian pharaohs stopped building pyramids and dug secret graves on the mountains. If the legend about the bold and wonderful design of the pyramids can still be accepted by modern people, it is hard to imagine such a huge construction process. Pyramid of khufu is built by millions of huge stones. The average weight of each stone is over 2000 kg, and the largest stone is over 100 ton. These boulders were mined from the east bank of the Nile, that is to say, they were not loaded and unloaded by cranes or transported by trolleys. Herodotus, known as the "father of western historiography", once recorded that the stones used to build pyramid of khufu were mined from the "Arabian Mountain" (probably Sinai Peninsula). But now we know that most stones are mined locally, and the limestone that changes their surface comes from rivers.

( 1)

Later, I have never seen such a beautiful pomegranate. Pomegranates are packed in sacks and carried by relatives in the country. Pomegranate is spread out on the table, round, brilliant red, slightly old and frosty, and will burst when touched lightly. After bursting, it looks like a thief's pocket, which is tightly wrapped with many shiny jewelry particles.

I was five years old and lived in Nanjing. For me, pomegranate is the color of Xuzhou, my hometown, and I will never forget it.

As unforgettable as pomegranate is the story told by the villagers. The population seems bad, but the story is unforgettable:

"Once upon a time, there were two brothers. My brother is always boasting and talking too much, so no one will believe him. But his brother is very kind and always makes excuses for him. Once, he said,' You may never have seen such a strong wind-it blew all the wells outside my fence!' Everyone didn't believe me. My brother said,' Yes, it's really windy, but it didn't blow the well outside the fence, it blew the fence into the well! "

I cocked my head and listened to this strange brother. I don't know what moved me. I just feel heavy in my heart, like a sack full of beautiful pomegranates, but I can't forget the two lively brothers in that story.

For 40 years, my motherland has mountains and rivers, and that story has been with me. Together with pomegranate as beautiful as myth and magic, all this was as beautiful as novels and facts in my childhood.

Forty years later, I don't know what touched me that year-it was my brother's explanation, with injustice, tenderness, pity and compassion between the lines. Or, according to Confucianism, there is forgiveness.

When I grew up, I heard another story. It's about several people combining sentences (or the protagonist is Jin Dongxin, a painter in the Qing Dynasty). In order to rhyme, someone actually came up with a sentence: "Catkins are flying all over the sky." Everyone looked at each other. I don't know why this man is so ignorant. Of course, all catkins in the world are white, but "white" doesn't rhyme. What can we do? Only those who have cleared the way will come forward. He added a sentence in front of the man, "The setting sun shines on the peach blossom crossing", and the catkins immediately became red, which was reasonable. Whenever I think of that poetic scene, I will be shocked by its beauty. On that day in March, at Taohua Ferry, red clouds and fierce mountains were everywhere, and catkins plunged into it unconsciously. Of course, they should live in harmony with everything. Such a touching sentence makes people bend over to look at themselves, fearing that they will stand between the sunset of peach blossoms on the shore and that their skirts will inevitably be stained with burgundy. The Bible says, "Love can cover up mistakes." In my opinion, the explanation born of love can solve things satisfactorily. The so-called discrimination is not the absence of right and wrong, but the transcendence of right and wrong. Even if there is a fault, a well-meaning explanation such as alum enters the well, which makes the water turbid and clear.

My daughter is lively by nature. Once, when she was in primary school, she said to me:

"Every time you say you'll be home at five o'clock and come back at six o'clock, you say you'll be home at nine o'clock and come back at ten o'clock-I figured it out later, you said the departure time, and you forgot to add an hour on the way."

I listen, I don't know what to say. I came home late, not because I forgot to calculate the time on the road, but because I was greedy by nature, greedy to read a page, greedy to write a paragraph, greedy to see a mountain view ... and the little girl said it so generously that it was a package. Bao Shu Ya, who lived more than 2,000 years ago, seems to have made up his mind that Guan Zhong should be called a good man anyway. When two partners do business, Guan Zhong gains more. Bao said, "He is not greedy because his family is poor." Guan Zhong became an official three times and was resigned. Bao Shu Ya said: "It's not that he doesn't make progress, it's that he's unlucky." Guan Zhong fought three wars, and every time he escaped, Bao said, "Don't call him a coward, because he has an old mother." Bao won. For a person who can always interpret you as a saint, you have to be a self-restraint and really become a saint.

Physicists can say, give me a fulcrum, give me a lever, and I can lift the earth-I said, give me an explanation, I can trust the world again, I can accept history, and I can embrace this cool city without hesitation.

(2)

When I was a teenager, I didn't understand why Confucius made such a brilliant choice, but I wanted to do it without saying it. But with the passage of time, I finally understand that narration means sympathy, identification and explanation. Well explained, the universe is correct, and everything has feelings. A Greek myth explains the four seasons of heaven and earth and the wind, frost and rain with rich imagination. For example, the morning dew is the clear tears of the Greek goddess. The laurel was interpreted as Apollo's favorite woman.

The daughter of Saturnalia became the wife of the god of hell, and Zeus stipulated that she could go back to her parents' house for six months every year. Daughter's mothering, mother's joy, the earth will return to the earth in spring. When my daughter returned to her in-laws' house, plants and trees immediately fell to rest, and the favor of the goddess of agriculture turned against her-that's how the season came.

Mocole, the son of the goddess of the plains and Zeus, was a Shen Feng. On the first day of his birth, he went to Apollo's ranch and stole two cows to eat (we in China are called "Baiyun Cang Dog" and the Greeks are called "Baiyun Fat Cattle")-Fengshen actually explained the mystery of stealing cows at the trouble and then disappeared without a trace.

At least half of the myths are used to explain the expansion of the universe and plants, insects and fish, right? If human beings were not so partial to explanation, there might not be a myth at all.

In China, * * * workers and Zhuan Xu fought for the emperor, but they were furious and touched a bad mountain. After some "folding Tianzhu and Jedi dimension", (is it the memory of an ancient earthquake? ) There has been a situation that "the sky leans to the northwest and the ground sinks to the southeast". The sky tilted to the northwest, so most of the stars slipped there and sank to the southeast, so the Yangtze River and the Yellow River all the way eastward into the sea.

On the Egyptian moraine, the colossus of the Sphinx stands today, while the early Queen Mother of the West in China was a "human-like, leopard-tailed, tiger-toothed, cave". Nu Wa can't help being a "snake with a human face". These legends all reveal a little human sorrow. About the ancients were satisfied with their "head", but as for this body, they felt somewhat inferior. So the earliest organ transplantation was completed, and they put lions, tigers or snakes and birds under their heads. Those who tell these stories are probably the first people who lament the limits of human beings and are proud of Minhui.

The wild waves of Qiantang River are said to be only due to Wu Zixu's thousand-year regret. Elegant bamboos and bamboos are full of tears shed by his wife crying her dead husband. ...

It shows that this matter really fascinates me.

(3)

Once, I walked around the British Museum, which was searched in the heyday of the British Empire, and almost everything was hidden. There are many paintings and antiques, and even mummies are listed as troops for inspection. Mummies are good. After all, it was blocked. Unexpectedly, walking saw a dead body, buried in a glass cabinet. Light hair, still attached to the scalp, scalp bursts, revealing an innocent white skull. This person also has a strange nickname "Jiang", which probably refers to the color of his turmeric and the appearance of dried ginger! This man was buried in the sand in Casia. Hot sand and desert sunshine sealed him for 4000 years, and he finished his eternal life simply and clearly. Incredibly, he didn't have to rely on jade clothes in advance, and he didn't have to shape the golden body afterwards. The body is quietly roasting there, immortal.

However, as a Han Chinese, I can't help wondering about the "bending over to bury the body" of this corpse. For Han people, "stretching your legs" is synonymous with death. If you die, of course you have to lie upright. When I returned to China, I happened to read an anthropological article in which I mentioned prone position and burial. I don't know why that explanation makes people cry. The article said: "Some ethnic groups adopt prone burial because they think that death is buried underground, just like a baby returning to its mother's womb. Since the fetus is prone in the womb, people should be prone when they die. " So I thought of the unknown West Asians in the British Museum and the people who died from generation to generation in the Yamei cemetery in Lan Yu. Ah, they all returned to their mothers. I think of myself. I prefer the posture of "sleeping like a bow" when I sleep. On winter nights, I especially like the sense of security curled up like a shrimp. Thanks to the explanation in that article, when I see people who bow down and bury themselves, I don't think they "died strangely", but I feel infinitely kind-just because they are more like children of the earth's loving mother than we are.

(4)

After the myth abdicated, what science did was still constantly explained. Why are there four seasons? They say that because the axis of the earth is inclined at 23.5 degrees with the sun, it turns out that the earth is like a charming woman who never stares at the sun. She only glanced out of the corner of her eye and enjoyed the sunshine. Why is there a rainbow in the sky, just because there are thousands of rain beads reflecting the brilliance of the sun, as for the tide? It is the excitement and withering caused by the deadly harassment of the moon again and again. And why does sweet breast milk start to secrete so accurately with the baby's birth (no matter how premature or late the child is)? It was at the end of the day that its own signal came back to inform the breast to start lactation ... Science is actually just a stubborn child, curious about everything, regardless of life and death ... Every answer put forward by science, I feel that I should wash my hands and burn incense before I can turn to school. In this case, it is a revelation. Science provides all the high-level business secrets of nature in the universe, which should not be known to ordinary people, so I always feel cautious and convinced every time I hear a scientific knowledge of biology or physiology.

The role of a poet is always responsible for interpreting "hit the nail on the head". "Where is the synthesis of sadness?" Wu Wenying in the Song Dynasty made an analysis of a composition, claiming that it came from "autumn keeps people's hearts". Dongpo also mentioned the explanation of "three points in spring, two points in dust and one point in water", which is almost as accurate as mathematics. Two-thirds of the fallen flowers returned to the earth helplessly, and one-third was carried away by the water. It is also interesting for Yuan Xiaoling to defend a man who doesn't like to write letters: "It's not that he doesn't love acacia, it's not that he doesn't have talent. You can't buy fancy paper around Qingjiang." These few sentences are fascinating enough. Imagine, that person didn't write a book because he felt he had to buy a piece of paper as big as the sky to write his infinite feelings!

(5)

Apart from myths and poems, everything in the world of mortals inevitably needs some explanation. I remember many years ago, someone asked my roof balcony to plant a tree orchid, and agreed in advance not to refund the money. I paid the money, and the little tree orchid was planted in the middle of the flower bed. A week later, it died. My expectations for the fragrant balcony were completely shattered.

I went to the gardener, who went to the scene to check the tree corpse. I assured him that I poured no more or less water, and I would never expect anything. He cocked his head and looked at the dead sapling for a long time, and said sadly:

"But, madam, it is a tree! There are many reasons why a tree will die-for example, it was planted in this direction. If you pull it up and plant it in different directions, it may die! What can I do? "

I don't know what touched me by his words, but I gave up the refund agreement and let him go without saying a word.

Probably all of a sudden, his explanation made me agree that a tree is also an autonomous life. It can have the right to live and not to live at the same time. Although it may only be adjusted in one direction, it just can't live. Aren't some people the same? We can order bottles of a certain capacity and shirts of a certain size in the factory, but life doesn't allow you to order like this!

Every time I walk past trees and orchids that come out of other people's walls and smell like flowers, I will always think of the sad and cold voice of the gardener in a slight disappointment. I think I'm always willing to agree with others-just give me a good explanation.

As for children as children, the mother paste in the lake has occupied the position of "interpreter". I remember the little boy wearing a pink bib when he first entered kindergarten and asked me why his bib was this color. I said, "Because you are as lovely as a rose petal!" " ""Why do the middle class wear blue pockets? " "Blue is the color of the sky. Blue is high and bright! " "White bib? The big class is wearing a white bib. " "White, like white clouds in the sky, means very clean and pure." He suddenly smiled happily, and his expression turned out to be surprise. It seems that he didn't expect that there are so many mysteries hidden in the small bib. I was shocked, too. It turns out that children only want so little. Just a little truth, even a casual remark, will be enough for him to be fascinated for months.

Ten years later, under the midnight light, the little boy was playing with building blocks to explore the structure of molecules. Black and white balls form a strange and mysterious connection, like a bunch of tight roses, and like a novel with complex layout but impeccable organization.

"This is n-dodecane." He said, I am surprised that this simulated ball is so symmetrical and elegant. The black ball represents carbon and the white ball represents hydrogen, and their ups and downs can be regarded as treasures among things.

"This is Hussein."

"This is ..."

I am full of gratitude. God is so good to me. The little boy who asked me to explain the whole world to him one by one now uses his expertise in chemistry to explain another world I don't know.

If one day, I pray for my failure in life for one or two years, the purpose is nothing more than to let me look back and take a look at this magical mountain and the world. If we can look at them one more time, we can explain them again with tragic efforts that are doomed to failure but still refuse to give up. I am also glad to see how people can explain the world harmoniously with wisdom, language, stringed instruments, painters, silence and love.

Yes, physicists can say, give me a fulcrum, give me a lever, and I can lift the earth-and I said, give me an explanation, I can trust the world again, I can accept history, and I can embrace this desolate city without hesitation.