This place, I have to write, Lanzhou Xiguan Cross about 500 meters to the east, Dazhong Lane, where there was a solemn temple, but also the courtyard of Lanzhou Evening News. In that courtyard, I have been working for 6 years, and I have also enjoyed the delicacies in the laneway, such as Ma Zilu beef noodles, what gray beans, what sweet pickles, what kind of noodles... However, when I enjoyed this, I did not know that the courtyard of the solemn temple was once a royal palace, and in addition to the emperor, there were many beautiful concubines living in it, and there were many, many stories worth writing.
The Spring Festival of 2020, which is a Spring Festival with masks that do not let people go out, was suddenly transferred to the door of the community on duty, becoming a "gatekeeper" person, responsible for measuring the body temperature and registration of people who come and go by chance. Not a tired job, always want to talk to people, although the mouth is blocked by the mask, but still want to talk.
"Hey hey, the accent is Lanzhou!" The old security guard who had been on duty here before said. Yes and how? "Hey hey, that place in your Lanzhou, I've been there, in the 1950s and 1960s, I heard that there was a very strange place, and there was an ancient tree growing in the square yard, the environment was very good, but the people in the yard were doing something a little unpleasant!"
"Oh, you know this place, the square yard has a wooden stick built in, and the word sleepy... Later, though... Then two trees were planted next to that ancient tree, and when they became three, they would not be sleepy..." As he spoke, he talked about the Solemn Temple, talked about the Imperial Palace, and said that Xue Ju, who was proclaimed emperor in Lanzhou, and his sons and wives, as well as Li Yuan and Li Shimin, talked about a string of history, and said that I was a storyteller.
It is said that in the last year of the Sui Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and a man named Xue Ju was born in Lanzhou, who was born in the Xue clan of Hedong, with a burly appearance, Xiao Yong was good at shooting, and was the first lieutenant of Jincheng. Huge amounts of money, happy to make friends with Haojie. In April of the thirteenth year of Daye (617), he officially rebelled against the Sui and proclaimed himself the Overlord of Western Qin. According to legend, the Solemn Temple in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, that is, the place where I once ran a business, about 500 meters east of the Lanzhou Xiguan Cross, is Xue Ju's family.
According to the New Book of Tang, in April of the thirteenth year of Daye, when the famine people were hungry and thieves in Longxi swarmed, Jincheng County (present-day Lanzhou) ordered Hao Yu to recruit thousands of soldiers for the crusade against thieves and appointed Xue Ju as a general. Distributing armor, gathering officials and people, and placing wine and drinkers, Xue Ju and his son Xue Rengao and his disciples abducted Hao Yu in the seat, pretending to arrest the rebels, and immediately raised troops, imprisoned county and county officials, and opened warehouses to distribute grain to relieve the poor. Xue Ju proclaimed himself the Overlord of Western Qin, with the jiannian name Qin Xing, Xue Rengao as the Duke of Qi, and his younger son Xue Renyue as the Duke of Jin. Elsewhere, the thief Kou Zongluo led his people to submit to him and was made the Duke of Yixing County. Then they recruited bandits and plundered the officials and horses. The troops were sharp, and the cities and pools were captured everywhere they went.
The Sui general Emperor Fuxuan led 10,000 troops to garrison Yuhan (枹汉, in the area around present-day Linxia, Gansu), and Xue Ju selected 2,000 elite troops to attack and met Emperor Fuxuan at Chi'an. Before the war, the wind and rain suddenly arrived, and at first Xue Ju's side went against the wind, while Emperor Fu did not attack. Soon the backwind blew towards the other side, the sky was very dark, the army was not in order, Xue Ju rode on an armored horse to take the lead in attacking, the Emperor Fu's army was defeated and fled, and Xue Ju took advantage of the situation to attack Yuhan.
Subsequently, Minshan Qiang Zhong Li led 20,000 people to surrender, and Xue Raised his army. Xue Jujin made his eldest son Xue Rengao the Prince of Qi and appointed him the Marshal of the Eastern March, while the younger son Xue Renyue was made the King of Jin and also took charge of the History of Hezhou. Then he took the land of The Two Prefectures of Yan and Kuo. However, in ten days, all the land of Longxi was surrounded by 130,000 troops.
In ten days, with 130,000 troops, Xue Ju was more ambitious, and then let Lanzhou, a civilian city, have an "emperor". In July of the thirteenth year of Daye, Xue Ju officially declared himself emperor, Jianyuan Qinxing, with his wife Ju as empress and Xue Rengao as crown prince, and built the capital in Jincheng, and transformed and expanded the Xue family mansion located in the present-day Lanzhou Evening News office into a palace.
Here interjected, Xue Ju's wife Empress Ju's surname, later changed to Qu, they are the same surname as Gaochang of the Koji clan in Xinjiang, and they were very powerful in the Lanzhou area at that time. History has not told people, Xue Ju was called the empress dowager, and married several wives, but told people that the courtyard of the Lanzhou Evening News is the Koji harem, so that the people who live and work here today and the people who have lived and worked here have a time and space intersection with the Xue and Koji. History also tells people that Xue Ju and Li Yuan were soldiers in the same year, and that Xue Ju was emperor a year earlier than Li Yuan, putting the two people on the same running line.
When he became emperor, he was about to do something bigger, and Xue Ju sent three men and horses to march on three sides: 1. Send Xue Rengao to besiege Qin Prefecture (tianshui County, present-day Tianshui, Gansu); 2. Xue Renyue went to Jiankou and attacked Hechi Commandery (河池郡, in modern Fengzhou, Fengxian County, Shaanxi Province); The dispatched troops crossed the Yellow River to attack Li Rail (李 Rail) (southeast of present-day Wuwei, Gansu). The three-way men were mighty, but two were defeated: Xue Renyue was repelled by Xiao Yu, the Taishou of Hechi, Chang Zhongxing's entire army fell to Li Rail, and only Xue Rengao conquered Qinzhou. Qinzhou was a good place, and with it, Xue Ju moved the capital to Qinzhou, and Lanzhou's history as the "capital" was briefly ended.
Then fight. Xue Ju again set his sights on Fufeng County, and when he was not prepared, he attacked his army and collected all his people, and for a while the army was strong, numbering 200,000 people, planning to capture Chang'an, to face Li Yuan in Chang'an City. Li Yuan was very distressed, but his son Li Shimin, who was angry, stood up and led a large army to meet Xue Ju and Xue Rengao's father and son. The two sides fought, Xue Rengao was defeated, the Tang army beheaded Xue Rengao's army of thousands of heads, Xue Rengao withdrew to Longyou, and the Tang army pursued to Longdi and returned.
Xue Ju was also afraid and wanted to flee, asking his subordinates, "Was there a son of heaven who surrendered in ancient times?" A subordinate replied: "Once upon a time, Guangdong south of Zhao Tuo was returned to the Han Dynasty, and Liu Chan of the Shu Han Dynasty also came out of the Jin Dynasty, and in modern times, Xiao Chun's family is still there, turning misfortune into happiness, which has existed since ancient times." Another subordinate said: "In the past, Han Gaozu's soldiers and horses were repeatedly defeated, and the shu ancestors once lost their wives and children. There are already victories and defeats in battle, so how can we say that the country will be destroyed because we cannot win a battle? Xue juju rewarded the latter, who suggested that he send generous gifts to the Turks, join forces and force Chang'an in the east. However, when Yuwen Xin sent an envoy to the Turks and persuaded the Turkic lords to stop sending troops, Xue Judong's plan to force Chang'an was aborted.
In May of the second year of Yining (618), Emperor Gong of Sui was forced to sit in Li Yuan, and Li Yuan, the emperor, was located in Chang'an, with the state name Tang, Jianyuan Wude, and the capital Chang'an, which was for Tang Gaozu. In June, Xue Ju led an army to attack Jing prefecture (泾州, in modern Jingchuan County) and advanced to Gaoyuan City (高墌城, northeast of present-day Jingchuan County, Gansu), and the people in Chang'an were in turmoil. Li Yuan thought of his son Li Shimin again, and appointed Li Shimin as the Marshal of Qiuxi, commanding the Eighth General Administration Army to garrison Gaoju to resist. The armies of the two sides assembled and lined up between Jingzhou and Changwu. However, this battle was very unfortunate for the Tang army, Li Shimin could not personally command the front line because of illness, the generals were defenseless, and were beaten by Xue Ju and most of them were killed and wounded, and many people who followed Li Shimin into death were also killed, and Li Shimin had to lead his troops back to Chang'an to rest.
After capturing Gaoyuan City, Xue Ju took advantage of the victory to march, and the situation was like a bamboo, and the Tang army was powerless to resist, and the army was in chaos. Li Yuan was distressed again and prepared to move the capital to avoid Qifeng. However, at this time, Xue Ju happened to be ill, and he died in the army soon after. To this end, today's people gave him a poem: "Before he was born, he was old, and he often made the hero cry." The person who almost changed the Tang Dynasty's surname to Xue just left.
After Xue Ju's death, his son Xue Rengao succeeded him, and Xue Ju became Emperor Wu, but before he could be buried, Xue Rengao was destroyed by the Tang army. Li Shimin beheaded Xue Rengao in Chang'an, and less than a decade later, he became the famous Tang Taizong in history. At this time, Li Shimin probably remembered that he had fought side by side with him, but his comrades who had been killed, so he ordered the construction of many temples on the battlefield that year. Of course, Li Shimin also thought of the Xue father and son who had fought with him, thought of their "imperial palace" in Lanzhou, and ordered the transformation of the Xue King's Mansion into a solemn temple.
It is the process of changing a temple for a "royal palace". The emperors, empresses, concubines, and princes in the "Imperial Palace" are all gone, and some are just the sighs of some local chronicle experts today: If this is not the case, then, the dynasties after the Sui Dynasty, will be surnamed Li or Xue? Is it Tang Xing or Qin Xing? No one can tell. But in the end, history still chose Li Tang, which was written in the album with arrogance and coldness, and the descendants looked up at the mountains or sighed, and the result has been permanently engraved between heaven and earth.
More than 1,000 years later, with Tan Sitong, he wrote a poem for the Solemn Temple:
Visiting monks into the lonely temple, a path of deep moss.
Cold and autumn flowers fall, bearing dust and breaking paper groans.
The light of the pond is clear and the sunset is illuminated, and the pine green is shaded under the garden.
Not as old as it was, Xiao Xiao ya was full of forests.
In this poem, I can't imagine the specific appearance of the temple, and can only move it out according to historical materials: the mountain gate, the box room, and the front hall, the main hall, and the apse hall constitute three courtyards. The Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties have carried out repairs many times, and 3 major halls have been stored. Known for the "three absolutes" of sculpture, calligraphy and painting, the statue of the Great Buddha in the main hall is well-proportioned and vivid, and the clothing pattern is delicate and vivid; the six characters of the original mountain gate plaque "The Great Solemn Zen Temple" were written by Li Puguang, a famous calligrapher of the Yuan Dynasty, and the font is vigorous; the Guanyin mural on the back wall of the main hall is dignified and beautiful, dressed in white, like a yarn, a net bottle of willow branches, and a green color like new.
Moved? Moved! What I moved was only words, but lanzhou people moved physical objects. In November 1995, relevant experts from Lanzhou City were stationed in the Lanzhou Evening News Courtyard, and carried out physical mapping, sample removal, photography and video recording of the three halls of the former site of the Zhuangyan Temple, and came up with a specific demolition and relocation implementation plan. Workers who have participated in the demolition of the Solemn Temple said that this is the most difficult demolition they have ever participated in, the sledgehammer and shovel can not be used at all, a brick and tile are lightly removed, lightly handled, and when the wooden components are demolished, they are marked first, carefully packaged and then transported. For the paint painting on the original component, the residual color lines are preserved as much as possible to restore the original paint painting effect. It was not until the end of December 1996 that the three main halls of the solemn temple were demolished.
In that year, Lanzhou carried out a relocation of the Solemn Temple, and the new site was selected in Erlanggang, the southwest corner of Wuquan Mountain Park. It is said that the overall demolition and relocation of the Solemn Temple has overcome difficulties such as complex geological conditions and shortage of funds, and has lasted 10 years to complete the restoration of the front, middle and rear halls; built an antique archway and wall; and restored the original murals. However, it is a pity that in the 10 years in Lanzhou, I have never visited the relocated Zhuangyan Temple once. I have been working in lanzhou evening newspaper for 2000 years, so I have been staying on the "territory" of the Zhuangyan Temple all day, but I have never seen the appearance of the Zhuangyan Temple, let alone Xue Ju's "Palace".
I will not sigh anything about this, only recall. I remember, at that time, I worked on the 7th floor of the newspaper, and then I went to the 8th floor, and I worked as a reporter and an editor. In addition to loving to write and write, I also love to eat beef noodles and lamb in The Crowd Lane. I'm proud of that. It is said that when Zuo Zongtang was in Lanzhou, because he was not far from The Mass Lane, he also came to the alley to bowl noodles, ask for a piece of meat, and so on, I thought, the place where I ate, Zuo Zongtang also ate, what a glorious thing for me.
Later, I left Lanzhou, and the Lanzhou Evening News also moved farther east and built a new and taller building. Whenever I go back to Lanzhou for business, I will go to Xueju "Palace", Zhuangyan Temple or the courtyard of Lanzhou Evening News, which is now a hotel, and every time I ask for the 7th or 8th floor room where I used to work. In the room, I could see the tree on the south side of the yard, an ancient tree that had been hundreds of years old, and at some point in order to break the "sleepiness", the two small trees planted next to it had grown tall. Looking at them, I think of many, many things.
And when I knew that the courtyard had once been a royal palace, and the location where I had worked was the harem of the imperial palace, I suddenly thought of the Ju clan who had been named empress, and it seemed that when I was not yet 30 years old, I could not find a reason for not being able to find a partner - no wonder, you worked in the "harem". Empress Ju did not leave more for people in history, her surname later became a branch of the Lanzhou Qu clan, there was a brother with the surname of this surname, it was my colleague in Lanwan, I went to Lanzhou, he often invited me to drink, but did not know what I said.
History, that's it, it's been a long time, we don't know it. There is a word called "things are not people", which refers to things or things as they were, but people are no longer the original people. In fact, it is not right, for us, it is always non-human. History is about making people old, things old, and eventually time passing.
Well, now, if I say that you are invited to eat a bowl of beef noodles in Lanzhou's Dazhong Lane, you must know that in addition to me and a group of ordinary people waiting for you, there must be Li Yuan, Li Shimin, and so on, or a group of queens, princesses and monks, as well as many, many strange people I have not yet told. When you get there, no matter who it is, it will be as ordinary as the beef noodles in Mass Lane, and the solemn temple is just a place name.