YiluShan Ancient Exploration (2007.1.23 China Construction News) "The mountain is not high, there are immortals are named; the water is not deep, there is a dragon is the spirit", this is Liu Yuxi's famous sentence. Guanyun County, Jiangsu Province

Mount Ilu searches for ancient victories

(2007.1.23China Construction News)

"The mountain is not high, there are immortals are named; the water is not deep, there are dragons and spirits", this is Liu Yuxi's famous sentence. Yilu Mountain in Guanyun County, Jiangsu Province, is only 200 meters high and has a circumference of more than ten kilometers, which can be regarded as a small mountain. Compared with other famous mountains and rivers, it is really unknown. However, the ancient cultural monuments of Mount Yilu and the ancient wonders of Shihai have indeed made the villagers here proud.

According to the "Records of History", Yi Yin, the prime minister of the Shang Dynasty, lived in seclusion in Yilu Mountain in his later years, and the knot was lu, so it was named Yilu Mountain. There is also a long-standing ancient person who is respected and remembered by the world in Yilu Mountain, that is, the "Zhong Li ming, Shuyang Yilu people, for the Xiang King General" recorded in the "Records of History".

With reverence, look for fairy ruins. We first came to the site of Zhong'an. Looking up, I can see the newly built Bell Temple, the Qi Xie Fei Pavilion, and the flying eaves, which are magnificent. The original dozens of nunnery buildings have been repeatedly burned by soldiers for thousands of years, falling into disrepair, and most of them have collapsed. Built on the original site, the bell temple is surrounded by mountains on three sides, facing the sun on one side, backed by steep mountain rocks, and extending forward on both sides, like a huge "crab claw", surrounding the valley full of green bamboo in front of the temple. According to reports, the name of the bell temple is an, which is actually a Taoist temple, and until the liberation, there were two Taoist monks who stayed here for life. There is a tall masson pine on the lower left cliff slope of the temple, and the trunk needs to be hugged by two or three people. According to legend, the Tang Dynasty grand prize Xue Rengui once tied a horse here, so it was called "Tethered Horse Song", which shows that the temple here was founded a long time ago.

Along the rugged S-shaped mountain gravel trail, step by step upwards, stopping at a "mountain and river plain" of tens of square meters in front of the nunnery, only to see weeds, full of eyes, piles of incense and ash, although the wind and rain, some even accumulated inches thick. From here, it can be seen that "the god of the temple is destroyed", and countless believers in all directions around the world have not snubbed this deserted nunnery, and countless people have come here from time to time to sacrifice and burn incense.

Leave the Bell Temple and look for the place where the gods live--- the "Rokujindai". Along the grassy slopes. The thorny sheep gut trail grops forward. Some of the trails are steep and difficult to climb, while others are unable to stand. Tourists sometimes hold hands with each other, sometimes drag a small number of branches, and walk forward with difficulty, about an hour, and finally climb the "Six Gods Platform" at the northwest watershed of Mount Ilu. There is a grotto between the cliffs of the different peaks here, and there are six "gods" on the east wall of the cave, which is probably the origin of the name "Six Gods". Despite thousands of years of wind and rain erosion, it is still vivid and clearly visible. Some are in a standing posture, holding their hands in fists; some have their eyes small on the cliff, and their majesty is terrible; some are kind and kind-eyed, and their looks are serene. It is not easy for people to climb the grotto, and its west side is next to the cliff, and the south side is only a foothold under the stone wall.

The "Six Divine Platforms" were verified by experts as a relic of Buddhist art in the Tang Dynasty, and as early as 1995, the provincial government announced it as a provincial cultural relics protection unit. At the top of the cliff of the "Rokujindai" there is a cobblestone of less than 1 square meter carved with a faintly visible chessboard, which is where the legendary gods and immortals play against each other. The mountains here are steep and inaccessible. At that time, Wu Zhenbo, a famous scholar in Haizhou in the Qing Dynasty, also wanted to climb the "Six Gods Platform", but "everything that could not be found", because the path was remote and far-reaching, he had to sigh: "The encounter with the immortal edge is not expected, and the winding path of the rock is full of flowers." I don't know how to read all the human affairs and get a few games of chess in the mountains. ”

From the "Six Gods Platform" to stay down, on the western half of the cliff, the cultural landscape is more dense, and the stele stone carvings can be seen everywhere, such as "Alpine Flowing Water", "Dragon God Rock", "First Peak", "Yunlongtan", "Cuipei", "Cloud Cave", "Hanguang", "Qiquan" and other stone carvings. Seals, subordinates, and grasses are all available. The calligraphy is exquisite, the law is strict, the rules are exquisite, the literary style is flying, and the momentum is magnificent. Some of the stone carvings are unrecognizable due to their age. There are also monuments such as the old site of the Dragon Ancestral Hall, the former site of the Stone Buddha Temple, and the legend of the Iron Ship Port, which have countless legends and describe the long-standing cultural landscapes and historical sites of Mount Ilu.