introduction
"The avenue is deep, how to news, say that the ghost god is terrified." This is Feng Zunshi's description of the ghost god in "Su Wu Slow And Deep Avenue". From ancient times to the present, people are in awe of ghosts and gods, but for ordinary people, the sense of fear is more, although most people preach atheism, there are still many things that science cannot explain. For example, the ancient well in Zhejiang that we will talk about next has been rumored to be "haunted".
01
This ancient well was found in the Wise Men's Temple at the southern foot of Jinhua Mountain in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province. Wise Men Temple, also known as Wise Man Guangfu Zen Temple or Wise Man Shengshou Zen Temple, is commonly known as Kitayama Zen Temple. According to relevant historical records, the Temple of the Wise Men dates back to about 1,500 years, was built in the Southern Dynasty Liangwu Emperor period, flourished during the Tang Dynasty, and then repaired and improved during the Song Dynasty, continued to the Yuan, Ming, Qing and Republic of China periods, and finally demolished in 1985. But it is a pity that such a rich temple has disappeared from the world, so the state began to approve the reconstruction of the Temple of the Wise Men in 2008, began to lay the foundation stone in 2010, and finally basically completed in 2018, and now it has become the center of Buddhist activities in central and western Zhejiang.
▲Photo of the Temple of the Wise Men
The construction staff of the Temple of the Wise Men accidentally dug a very large and shocking ancient well in a construction site. According to the on-site personnel, few people usually come to walk around the excavated ancient well, and it is said that the place has been unstable and deeply shady. The diameter of the well is generally about one meter, but the ancient well of the Wise Man Temple is beyond people's imagination, and it is more than two meters. Not only that, but the ancient well is still deep and cold.
▲Photo of the ancient well
When the news of the discovery of the ancient well spread rapidly, archaeologists rushed to the site to excavate. Curiously, when the archaeologists arrived at the site to investigate, they were happy to say that they had found the treasure, and at the same time ordered the personnel to quickly block the area around the ancient well. After 12 days of frantic excavation in the ancient well, what exactly did the archaeologists dig out in these 12 days? Can archaeologists sleep and forget to eat and sleep, day and night?
At that time, the local people also came to visit the Wise Men's Temple with curious ideas, and unanimously believed that this ancient well was the treasure well of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which must contain countless treasures, and it was not surprising that people had this idea, because there was a local saying about the treasure: It is said that after the taiping heavenly kingdom fell, a large number of gold and silver treasures were hidden in a well in Jinhua, Zhejiang, and if anyone was lucky enough to find these treasures, he would be rich and wealthy.
02
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was organized by Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing and others in Jintian Village, Guangxi City, from late 1850 to early 1851, to rebel against the Manchu Qing court, which was on the verge of extinction at that time, and then called the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", and in 1853 captured Jinling (present-day Nanjing), the capital of which was set here. But there is nothing wrong with it, the treasure hidden in the ancient well is only a legend, because this ancient well was originally built in the Southern Dynasty during the Liangwu Emperor period.
▲Taiping Heavenly Kingdom painting
In order to quell rumors about the treasure and maintain the safety of the temple, the abbot of the Sage Temple reported the news to the Cultural Relics Bureau of Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, after discovering the ancient well. When the archaeological team of the Cultural Relics Bureau learned of this news, they immediately rushed to the Temple of the Wise Men to conduct surveys and studies, and finally learned that the wall of the ancient well was cylindrical, with a diameter of more than two meters and a depth of twelve meters.
According to the staff of the archaeological team, the well was excavated directly on the underground sandstone, and may have been drilled by the local government. After the staff of the archaeological team reported these information to the higher department, with the approval of the superior department, the archaeologists carried out a rescue excavation of the ancient well.
▲ Experts investigate photos of ancient wells
When the silt at the bottom of the well was cleared by the archaeologists, the scene they presented was very surprising, because in the silt that was cleared, the cultural relics of the four dynasties of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties were scattered, and the total number was as many as hundreds of pieces. The most precious of these cultural relics is the celadon water droplets of the Song Dynasty, which can be called a national treasure and has been identified as a fine product of Longquan kiln by a series of identifications by archaeologists.
▲ Photo of excavating an ancient well
When the staff of the archaeological team cleaned up the ancient well, a sense of uneasiness struck, and the captain of the archaeological team was afraid that some lawbreakers would be affected by local rumors and would believe that there was a treasure of the Taiping Army Heavenly Kingdom in the ancient well, which might damage the cultural relics in the well, so they pulled the surrounding area of the ancient well on the cordon when they carried out rescue excavations of the ancient well, not only that, but also sent special personnel to patrol 24 hours a day.
In order to be able to excavate the cultural relics as soon as possible, the staff of the archaeological team worked day and night, day and night, and the 17 workers hired did not stop working, and finally completed the archaeological operation after 12 days, the bitterness of which only immersive people can feel. It is said that during these days of excavation work, the staff can only feed themselves with dry food and some mineral water.
epilogue
It can be seen from this that the archaeologists are responsible for the work and the protection of cultural relics, which just confirms Lin Zexu's words in "Going to Shu Dengchengkou to Show His Family": "If the country lives and dies by profit, it is better to avoid it because of misfortune." As long as it is beneficial to the country and society, even if you give your own life, you will not hesitate, let alone suffer for a few days? Such an informal, conscientious, and hard-working spirit is worth learning from each of us.
Resources:
"Su Wu Slow Avenue Deep"
"To Shu Dengchengkou Zhan Zhi Family"