"The moon is falling and the sky is full of frost, and the river maple fishing fire is sleeping. Hanshan Temple outside Gusu City, midnight bell to the passenger ship. The Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Ji's poem "Fengqiao Night Berth" is a blend of scenes and recited through the ages, and there are several people who wrote this poem and erected a stele to carve stones, and the poems are also naturally placed in Suzhou Hanshan Temple. However, in the small pavilion at the south end of the east promenade of the Xuyuan Garden of the "Presidential Palace" in Nanjing, there is also a stele of "Fengqiao Night Berth", which is exquisitely carved, rounded, steady and dignified, and well preserved. So, how did the "Presidential Palace" appear a poem stele of "Maple Bridge Night Berth" that seems to have little to do with it?
First, the same poem stele, the two places appear difficult to distinguish between true and false
At present, there are two poetry tablets in Hanshan Temple, one is written by Wen Zhengming of the Ming Dynasty, but unfortunately it has long been broken, and it is still faintly recognizable that there are less than crosses; the other side is better preserved, and it was written by the famous scholar Yu Fan in the late Qing Dynasty in 1906 by Chen Kuilong, the inspector of Jiangsu at that time, and the calligraphy was round and solemn, sophisticated and fluent.
The poetry stele in the "Presidential Palace" is basically the same as the Yu Yu Stone Stele in Hanshan Temple, in terms of shape to size, as well as the style and layout of the text. Both monuments are about 2 meters high, 68 centimeters wide and 32 centimeters thick. The patterns of the stele, the stele body, the bats on the stele, and the tangled branches are also exactly the same. The obvious difference is that the "Presidential Palace" poetry stele is made of White Jade, while the Hanshan Temple Poetry Stele is made of bluestone. The front of the two stele are written in cursive style, the whole poem text is 28 characters, and the three lines of Yu Yu's poem are engraved with 45 characters, to the effect that the original Fengqiao poetry stele written by Wen Zhengming in Suzhou Hanshan Temple, due to its long age, gradually became unclear, during the Qing Guangxu years, Jiangsu Inspector Chen Kuilong instructed me (Yu Lu himself) to write Fengqiao poems again, and carved on the stone stele. The lower left corner of the stele is also engraved with 9 small characters of "Yi Ugly Chongyang Wang Ding Zhi Jingguan", the year of Yi Ugly was 1925, Wang Dingzhi was a literati in SheXian County, Anhui Province, who had close contacts with Yu Fan and had profound zen knowledge in poetry. The stone stele in the "Presidential Palace" in Nanjing has an extra line of seal book after this line, "Ethyl Unitary Summer Xiling Wang Jin Father Worship", and there is a seal seal, which is obviously engraved later, and the year of Ethyl Unitary should be 1945. Born in 1922, Wang Jin's father was not in the government at that time, and he was only a "small character" in the calligraphy and seal engraving industry, and he represented Shanghai University to Nanjing to participate in some celebrations of the victory of the War of Resistance.
Nanjing, Suzhou two stone stele, the back are engraved with Yu Yu Xingshu appendix, a total of eight lines of 135 characters, to the effect that the Tang Dynasty Zhang Ji's "Fengqiao Night Berth" poem is popular, only the second sentence of the "Jiangfeng Fishing Fire" 4 words are very suspicious, Song Dynasty Gong Mingzhi's "Zhongwu Jiwen" recorded as "Jiangcun Fishing Fire", which is worth referencing. Wang Jue of the Song Dynasty once wrote this poem and carved it into a stone stele, which can no longer be seen today, and the stone stele written by Wen Zhengming in the Ming Dynasty is very broken, and it is impossible to see whether the next word for "River" is "Feng" or "Village". I wrote this poem in accordance with the present version of "Jiangfeng Fishing Fire", but the ancient version of "Jiangcun Fishing Fire" cannot be allowed to disappear into history. Therefore, a poem was written and engraved at the back to tell future generations about this matter: "The old ink of the Duke of Gao has not existed for a long time, and it is impossible to destroy the stele of the edict." Fortunately, there is a Middle Wu Jiwen, and the word Qianjin is Jiangcun. On the back are also engraved 5 characters of "Wang Ding Zhi Jingguan" and 10 characters of "Tang Renzhai, the master of Hanzhen Pavilion". Tang Renzhai was a master of inscriptions in Suzhou at the end of the Qing Dynasty, born in 1875 and died in 1908, and his Han zhenge stele was laid on Wolong Street (now Renmin Road) in Suzhou, which is quite famous. The Hanshan Temple's Hanshan Mountain, which is like a carved stone, is also from the hands of the Tang family.
The right side of the stele is also engraved with Chen Kuilong Baowen, a total of five lines. It is generally a study of whether "Fengqiao" or "Sealed Bridge", "Fishing Fire" or "Fisherman's Father", "Jiang Feng" or "Jiangcun" in the poem, and the process by which he saw the original stele of Hanshan Temple abandoned and Tuo Yuyu re-wrote the carving.
Second, the group of ugly people appeared, copying the famous monument to flatter the Japanese Kou
The poem "Maple Bridge Night Berth" is not only popular and well-known in China, but also loved by the Japanese people. This poem was compiled into Japanese elementary school textbooks, and to this day, many Japanese people still cross the ocean to the Ancient Temple of Hanshan in Suzhou on the occasion of the New Year, in order to ring the bell in the temple to welcome the spring.
The "Presidential Palace" stele was originally located next to the rockery southeast of the Tongyin Hall in the West Garden, but was moved to the promenade in 1981 during a large-scale renovation. During the migration, it was found that the stele was engraved with seven rows of text: the support of the Navy Province of the Imperial Japanese Army, the Osaka Asahi Shimbun, the host of the Great East Asia Exposition, the Republic of China Restoration Government, the Suzhou Hanshan Temple Poetry Monument at the Osaka Asahi Shimbun, the guidance of the Model, and the completion of the Japanese Stone Work Co., Ltd. on March 31, 1914.
From this, it can be concluded that the "Presidential Palace" stele is a replica of the Hanshan Temple's poetry stele. The fourteenth year of Showa is 1939. While launching a war of aggression, the Japanese aggressors have always wanted to confiscate the looted booty and cultural relics for themselves, and have tried to concentrate on the exhibition in the name of holding an exposition, and then transport it to Japan in batches. From this passage from the replica, it can be seen that the stele was carved because the "Osaka Asahi Shimbun" hosted the "Great East Asia Exposition". However, due to war and other reasons, the expo was not held on a large scale as scheduled.
At the end of 1941, after pearl harbor, the Pacific War broke out in full swing. Japan wanted to establish a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" in the Pacific region with it as its "ally," and in the year that followed, the Japanese army quickly invaded and occupied many Southeast Asian countries and regions, and celebrated the first anniversary of the Great East Asian War at the end of 1942. At that time, various types of "Greater East Asia Expositions" were held in Nanjing, Tianjin, Changchun (the puppet Manchu capital "Xinjing") and other places. From October 1942 to January of the following year, the Japanese army held the Greater East Asia Construction Exposition in Nanjing. From November 1 to December 8, 1942, the Japanese army held the "Great East Asian War Exposition" in Cuizhou, Xuanwu Lake, Nanjing, exhibiting various trophies captured by the Japanese army in the southern battlefield, and most of the Chinese who went in to visit were forced to visit by the Japanese army with guns. According to statistics at the time, a total of 600,000 people entered the entire expo to watch. It is very likely that the "Maple Bridge Night Berth" monument participated in these "expositions" during this period.
3. The mighty man takes righteousness and protects the poetry monument under the pretext of a spell
The "Hanshan Temple Monument Luck Day" incident, which was once boiling, actually came to an abrupt end, which has a moving legend.
The abbot of Hanshan Temple, Jing Ru, feared that the Japanese Kou would enter the temple to rob him, and asked the Suzhou stone master Qian Rongchu to carve the stele overnight, hoping to conceal the original stele and replace it with a replica stele to confuse the Rikou and protect the original stele. However, this move was discovered by Liang Hongzhi's cronies, who transported the replica to Nanjing. However, Rikou still did not give up his plan to steal the poem.
One early morning in March 1939, a corpse was found outside the mountain gate of Hanshan Temple, and inside the coat of the corpse was a note that read: "The person who carved the monument and blasphemed the monument died!" I forgot my ancestral precepts, and I (deservedly) suffered a bad thing! "Could it be that Qian Rongchu died violently because he copied the poem "Fengqiao Night Berth"? Matsui Ishigen and the others broke out in a cold sweat, is there really any magic spell in this poetry tablet? For a time, there was a lot of noise in Suzhou.
According to ye shi records, this poem "Fengqiao Night Berth" was favored by Tang Wuzong in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, the eunuchs had exclusive powers, and the crown prince was deposed several times, and finally Tang Wuzong succeeded to the throne as the "imperial brother", which was not very strong. The 27-year-old emperor, who knew nothing about power struggles, was dissatisfied with the eunuchs' power grabs and was powerless. When Tang Wuzong read the poem "Fengqiao Night Berth", he felt a quiet and distant artistic conception, and his heart sought a long-lost peace. In the sixth year of Huichang (846), a month before his death, Emperor Wuzong of Tang ordered Lü Tianfang, the first stonemason in the capital, to elaborately carve a poem stele of "Fengqiao Night Berth", and at that time said that on the day of his ascension to heaven, he would take this stele with him. After the death of Emperor Wuzong of Tang, this monument was buried in the Wuzong Underground Palace and placed on the head of the coffin bed. Tang Wuzong promulgated a will: "Fengqiao Night Berth" poetry stele only has the Appreciation of the Shu Ke Le Stone, and posterity must not be with QiFu, if there are chaotic courtiers and thieves who are good at carving poetry tablets, they will be punished by heaven and will never be restored!
After that, the poem "Fengqiao Night Berth" disappeared in the world, and did not appear until the Northern Song Dynasty, and the author was Wang Jue, a scholar of Hanlin Academy University. After Wang Jue carved the monument, his family was even changed, and Wang Jue himself died violently. The poem written by Yu Fan was written in the late autumn of the thirty-second year of Guangxu (1906), when it was engraved on the orders of Chen Kuilong, the inspector of Jiangsu Who rebuilt Hanshan Temple. After this stele was made, it gave the temple its former glory, but it did not bring good luck to the person who wrote the inscription. Dozens of days after Yu Fan wrote this poem, he passed away unexpectedly. After Tang Renzhai carved this stele, he died young the next year, at the age of 33. ...... The more Matsui Ishigen thought about it, the more frightened he became, and finally he completely dispelled the idea of plundering the monument.
In fact, at that time, Qian Rongchu did not die, and it was Qian Dafei, who looked very similar to Qian Rongchu, who died violently. After Qian Dafei learned that Master Jingru's plan to transfer the bag failed, he urged Qian Rongchu to disguise himself and hide his name and go to other places for refuge, he lied that he was suffering from tuberculosis, sacrificed his life for righteousness, and used the "blood book" to stop the Japanese Kou's plan to plunder the monument.
Fourth, the "restoration of the short life", the millennium curse is a coincidence
Despite the prevalence of the spell, the puppet restoration government copied a stele of poetry to please the Japanese masters.
After the Japanese occupation of Nanjing in 1937, the seat of the Nationalist government became the regimental headquarters of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army, and later became the seat of the puppet Restoration Government supported by the Japanese Army. In March 1939, on the first anniversary of the establishment of the puppet restoration government, a poem stele was re-engraved according to the size of the original stele. This special stone stele placed in the West Garden became a prop for the traitors to smile and cater to flattery. Although this stone stele is imitation, it is exquisitely carved and delicately penmanship, and from the perspective of artistic value, it can be called a good product.
The puppet restoration government was established on March 28, 1938 with the support of the Japanese invaders, and after "producing" the monument on the first anniversary of its establishment in 1939, it was dissolved and merged into the Wang puppet National Government on March 30 of the following year. The West Garden became the seat of the Examination Institute and the "Capital Gendarmerie Command". Did the Restoration Government also fulfill the curse?
The Restoration Government was a puppet government supported and established by the Japanese invading forces under the aggressive policy of "using China to control China" and "divide and rule", and it was of a transitional nature from the very beginning. At that time, the Japanese army really could not find any "celebrities", and knew that Liang Hongzhi did not have any "appeal", so he had to temporarily "use" it. The restoration government was actually an incomplete system of local power, without a chairman, Liang Hongzhi and Wen Zongyao served as executive yuan and legislative presidents respectively, and only "had jurisdiction over the narrow area around the railway and highway in jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Shanghai and shanghai". At the same time, there were other puppet governments everywhere. When the Japanese characters became more suitable candidates for the traitor, Wang Jingwei, they merged the restoration government into the Wang puppet government, and Liang and Wen only served as insignificant inspectors and judicial chiefs, and most of the old and old defenders were almost idle. The "short life" of the Restoration Government was determined by its puppet nature and should have nothing to do with the "curse".
In 1947, Wu Hufan, a famous painter in Suzhou, asked Zhang Ji, an elder of the Kuomintang, to write and engrave a poem "Fengqiao Night Berth". After the stele was completed, it was listed in the temple alongside the Yu Fan poetry stele, which was also a good story at that time. But the day after Zhang wrote the poem, he died of a heart attack due to excessive fatigue.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Qian Rongchu returned to Suzhou after taking refuge and went to Hanshan Temple, where the abbot at the time, Jing Ru, had died of illness, and Yu Fan's stele was as old as ever, but the stele he had carved was no longer known. Qian Rongchu also went to the presidential palace in the early days of liberation, and after seeing the replica poem, he thought that it was not carved by himself. Then who carved the poems in the presidential palace is another mystery. (This article is excerpted from Chen Ningjun and Xinchen's "Declassifying the Presidential Palace")