There is a Tongjin Bridge on the small river of the Drinking Horse River, and because of the existence of this bridge, a street near it is also called Tongjin Bridge Road.
▲ Tongjin Bridge (photo taken from near and far)
In fact, in the past, there was no bridge here. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in order to facilitate the evacuation of the residents in the city, an opening was opened in the city wall of Xichengjiao Street, and a simple wooden bridge was built on the Drinking Horse River outside the opening, which was not named at that time. When it was rebuilt in 1952, it was still a suburban field, so it was named Tongjin Bridge to facilitate the suburban people to enter and exit Jincheng, and was later expanded in 1960. Of course, Tongjinqiao Road, which has become a road today, did not exist in the past, and its predecessor was a small street opened up during the War of Resistance Against Japan- Xichengjiao Street, which was also farmland on both sides, and was gradually expanded after the founding of New China. Its basic size was not fully formed until 1964.
Tongjinqiao Road New Second Village
There is also a Tongjin Road west of Tongjinqiao Road and north of Majia garden road, which is also named after Tongjin Bridge. This street is little known in today's Chengdu, but it is home to one of the most famous temples in ancient Chengdu, the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple.
▲ The former site of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple
Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, built during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, was originally named Anpo-ji Temple and Zaixing Temple. In the sixteenth year of the Tang Dynasty (728), the Silla monks rebuilt it without phase and renamed Italia Temple, also known as Bamboo Forest Temple. In the Southern Song Dynasty, it was changed to Jingyin Temple, and at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it was renamed Wanfu Temple. The temple was destroyed at the end of the Ming Dynasty and renamed the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple after being rebuilt during the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, but its scale was much smaller than in the past.
Poets of the Tang and Song dynasties had many chants on this temple. The Tang Dynasty Li Dong once left a poem "Su Chengdu Songxi Courtyard", "Song Zhi Jie Cao Xi Cheng, a fire Lan smoke pressure temple corner..." Zheng Gu also wrote that the Jingzhong Temple "can penetrate the temple, and Yu Qi is not in the city." ”
▲ Chengdu Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple unearthed Liang ordinary four-year-old statue niche of Shakya
From 1882 to 1954, more than 200 fine sand stone Buddhist stone carvings from the Southern Dynasty Liu Song to the Tang Dynasty have been excavated here, which should be the Buddha statues that were destroyed during the destruction of the Buddhist temple in the Tang Wuzong Huichang period (841-846) and were deliberately buried in the ground by posterity. This batch of Buddha statues, which are mainly collected in the Sichuan Provincial Museum, is extremely exquisite, not only the earliest and most valuable batch of Buddhist cultural relics that have been discovered in Chengdu, but also a rare sculpture in the history of Sichuan Art.
▲ Sichuan Museum Wanfo Temple Stone Carving Hall
Among these sculptures, the statue of Ashoka is the most precious.
▲ Head of Ashoka (Collection of Sichuan Museum)
In the Stone Carving Hall of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple in the Sichuan Museum, two Buddha heads with beards, round eyes and exotic styles are particularly eye-catching. Such statues are the statues of Ashoka, and 7 have been excavated from the ruins of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, of which 5 are remnants of the body and 2 are heads. Ashoka was a famous King of the Peacock Dynasty of India who promoted Buddhism, and in his later years he compiled and organized Buddhist sites and sent a large number of monks to spread them. The statue of Ashoka Shakyamuni Buddha, created by him, is called the Statue of Ashoka. Interestingly, although ashoka statues appear frequently in history books, statues are extremely rare in China. At present, in addition to being excavated in Chengdu, only the Longmen Grottoes and Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes have been found occasionally, and the statue of Ashoka excavated by archaeology has only been excavated in Chengdu so far.
Tongjinqiao Road itself has a short history, and its name comes from Tongjin Bridge. Tongjin Bridge doesn't have a long history either; but they all really record those histories—those years of war and peace. The passage from death to life has been opened, and the bridge from despair to hope has been built.
▲ Tongjinqiao Road
The former Tongjin Bridge and Tongjinqiao Road, those wars and those years of change, we need to firmly remember; now Tongjin Bridge and Tongjinqiao Road, those happiness and tranquility, those dawns, are more worthy of our cherishing.
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Edited by: Wang Yang
Proofreading: Nam Po Wan Lee Shengli
Producer: Mao Shengwen
Review: Tang Yuanbo
Source: Qingyang District Local History Office