In Jin Yong's martial arts novels, the tomb of the living dead where Xiaolongnu lives is a peculiar place. It is not only hidden in the hinterland of Zhongnan Mountain, but also used to be the hermitage of Wang Chongyang, the patriarch of the Quanzhen Sect.
(Tomb of the Living Dead)
Wang Chongyang lived in seclusion here due to the failure of the army to resist Jin, but he did not expect that once he became enlightened, he would open up a new career.
For thousands of years, many people have lived in seclusion with different purposes, exploring their true selves in isolation.
Recently, a man known as the first hermit of Zhongnan Mountain surfaced, and it is said that he has lived in seclusion for more than 30 years, relying on clear water and cabbage every day, and even his relatives do not recognize him.
Why did he choose seclusion, and why did he choose Zhongnan Mountain?
Hermits back to basics
In the mainstream culture of the mainland, Confucianism occupies an absolute dominant position. Since Dong Zhongshu wrote to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to "depose a hundred schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone", it seems that all the rules revolve around "learning to become literary and martial arts, and selling goods to the emperor's family".
(Dong Zhongshu wrote to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty)
Because he joined the emperor's family and entered the official system, not only did he have a wide range of resources, but even his relatives and friends could follow him. Therefore, "becoming an official and sealing a wife and son" has become the highest pursuit in life, and the peddlers and pawns living at the bottom of the society have become the object of spurning by everyone.
However, resources are limited after all, and in order to be able to occupy a high position, not only does it take great effort from the individual, but even the entire family has to pay several generations of hard work, and it also has to meet absolute good luck.
Even if you sit in a position, you have to watch out for the covetous eyes of others and small movements in the dark. This kind of depression cannot be overflowing, it can only be "unbearable cold in high places".
(The King of the Heights)
Some people fell from a high position and became enlightened, downplaying fame and fortune in order to seek ideological liberation, while others broke free from the shackles of Confucianism from the very beginning and sought a new way out from the pre-Qin hundred schools of thought. In order to avoid the eyes of the world, they invariably chose seclusion.
Although there is a saying that "the big is hidden in the court, the middle is hidden in the city, and the small is hidden in the wild", but the people who can do the big and the middle are a minority after all, because this requires a strong psychological quality and the city. The vast majority of people also carry their luggage, climb high mountains, hide in the wilderness, and go to isolated or semi-isolated places to change their way of life.
(Taoist priest meditating)
Here, the mundane life is a thing of the past, a new life is coming, and of course Confucianism will be replaced by another system of thought.
The Taoist idea of the unity of heaven and man
Before Confucianism took shape, Lao Tzu, the patriarch of Taoism, had already clarified his thoughts through his 8,000-word Tao Te Ching.
During the Spring and Autumn period in which he lived, the Zhou royal family was weak and unable to manage the princes of various countries. In order to compete for territory, the princes constantly annexed each other under the banner of "respecting the king".
In the hundreds of years of scuffle, there are constantly people entering the game, and there are constantly people out, and those who enter the game may not be able to have the last laugh, and those who are out of the game and even the nine clans have suffered. Naturally, paying homage to the prime minister may not be the best choice in life.
(Lao Tzu)
Lao Tzu saw through all this early, so in his "Tao Te Ching" he clarified the Taoist idea of escapism.
After that, Zhuangzi and Huang Shigong further developed Lao Tzu's thought into Lao Zhuang Thought and Huang Lao Thought, which were studied and Xi by future generations. At this time, Taoism was only accepted by the upper echelons and applied to politics.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Daoling, a native of Fengxian County, Pengcheng, mixed other theories such as yin and yang and the five elements on the basis of Taoist thought, and founded Taoism with a specific organizational form in Sichuan, where the mind was relatively closed.
In the Taoist temple, he pushed Lao Tzu to the altar, known as Taishang Laojun, and canonized the gods from the ancient Three Emperors and Five Emperors and various legends, and at the same time widely absorbed the people in the middle and lower classes of society to become believers to join.
(Taoist)
In the following hundreds of years, as more and more people joined, the development of Taoism became more and more prosperous, and it snowballed, getting bigger and bigger, and at the same time constantly attracting talents in medicine, music, painting, and even Confucianism and Buddhism to enrich and enrich the theory and content of Taoism.
When people were discouraged by the utilitarianism of Confucianism, the ideas of Taoism took them in. Under the guidance of doing nothing and going with the flow, they began to read through the Taoist collection to change their way of life.
They no longer seek to be the masters of society, but to become a part of nature, to achieve the state of unity between nature and man.
But who would have thought that after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the ancestor of Taoism was actually used by the Tang Emperor, which also opened the prelude to the glory of Zhongnan Mountain.
(Tang Taizong Li Shimin)
The splendor of Jungnam Mountain
Since Confucianism is about entering the ranks, what about the emperors at the top of the ruling class?
In order to show the legitimacy of their imperial power, they will dig out their hearts to find famous people from history to put gold on their faces.
Because the emperor of the Tang Dynasty was surnamed Li, from the time of Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, he assigned the patriarch of Taoism Lao Tzu (whose real name is Li Er) to his own family, and established Taoism as the state religion.
(Taishang Laojun (Lao Tzu))
Therefore, Taoism throughout the Tang Dynasty has always been prosperous, and many Taoist temples have received royal offerings and have been able to carry forward.
Zhongnan Mountain is close to Chang'an (Xi'an), the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and naturally becomes a famous Taoist mountain. Not only have many Taoist temples built on the mountain for the emperor and princes and nobles to worship, but also many celebrities from all over the country come here to live in seclusion.
The Tang Dynasty had a developed culture, and its poetry was particularly famous. When many literati visit Zhongnan Mountain, they can't help but write poems to express their feelings.
(Jungnam Mountain Taoist Temple)
These popular poems will spread all over the streets and alleys in a short time, and they will invisibly advertise Zhongnanshan.
After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the economic center began to move eastward, and the glory of Chang'an was no longer there, and Zhongnanshan was bound to be affected.
It's just that this kind of influence has just promoted Zhongnanshan to truly return to the core of Taoism's cultivation with a pure heart and few desires.
(Taoist priest on Jungnam Mountain)
There are many hermits on Zhongnan Mountain
The more prosperous the economy, the heavier the color of fame and fortune. While people are chasing fame and fortune, they will inevitably fight with each other. Even the Taoist temples in monastic places are inevitably worldly Xi.
The Tang Dynasty was no longer prosperous, and the subsequent dynasties either set the capital in Kaifeng or Beijing and Nanjing. Although Xi'an still retains the status of a metropolis, the popularity of Zhongnan Mountain has since decreased.
This decline in popularity, although in a sense reduced the amount of money for incense offered by the government, provided a place for true cultivators to do nothing.
(Xi'an)
They didn't need to rely on a formal Taoist temple, they just built a small house in the depths of a mountain forest to start the life of a hermit.
There are two kinds of hermit's life. One is the undisputed civilian life of the remnants of the Qin and Han dynasties described in Tao Yuanming's "The Story of the Peach Blossom Spring". This kind of person does not have too much pursuit, but just wants to simply escape from the world, and has long eliminated the concept of time in their lives, and lives their lives plainly through simple labor.
(The Story of the Peach Blossom Spring)
There is also the kind of intellectual who has otherworldliness. They were full of poetry and books, tired of the worldly torrents, and wanted to improve their ideological realm through traditional Taoist philosophy. This kind of person breaks the original thinking system, finds an entry point from Taoist thought, and opens up a new future in life.
Zhongnan Mountain is rich in resources, and the mountain is long and narrow, which can accommodate many hermits. They look for the right place according to their actual situation. The years have passed, and it is still impossible to count how many people live in seclusion here.
(Jungnam Mountain)
It wasn't until one day, when a group of uninvited guests with cameras in their hands arrived again, that people's dusty memories were awakened.
Tourism exposes recluses
After the reform and opening up, the tertiary industry began to develop rapidly, and the development of tourism was particularly rapid.
People began to take their families to Zhongnan Mountain with filming equipment to enjoy the mountains and rivers and feel the nature. Some people found traces of human habitation in the depths of the dense forest, and even in an unknown cave somewhere.
(Yu Yu)
They watched with curiosity, trying to communicate with the occupants.
Although there is no such thing as the old man in "The Story of the Peach Blossom Spring": I don't know that there is a Han, but no matter how exaggerated the Wei and Jin dynasties, there is already a huge generation gap between the two sides in words and thoughts.
In line with the miracle of one day in the mountains, the world has been a thousand years. Depending on how long they have been out of the world, their brains may not be able to keep up with the times.
Visitors from outside are curious about where the hermit comes from, and the hermit is often tired of the interference of outsiders. Some hermits will choose another place to continue their seclusion, while others will unceremoniously drive outsiders away.
(Hermit's House)
With the development of self-media, more and more people have exposed the recluses through platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. What's more, there are people with good deeds who use Internet big data to go to the hermit, trying to dig deep into the stories behind them, and as a result, a person who is known as the first hermit of Zhongnan Mountain was dug up.
The first hermit of Zhongnan Mountain
Once, some tourists inadvertently broke into a dense forest. They saw a middle-aged man meditating cross-legged on the rocks of the mountain stream at the end of the jungle.
The middle-aged man was dressed in dirty coarse cloth clothes, with a bearded face and a bun of hair, his hands on his knees, his eyes slightly closed, and he was meditating.
The person in front of him seemed to be a master from the ancient world, and the young tourist involuntarily stepped forward to take a group photo.
As soon as they approached each other, the middle-aged man opened his eyes and stared at them. They tried their best to greet each other in the most polite language, but they didn't expect the other party to ignore it and get up and leave.
(Dan Hou)
The unwilling tourists then followed the middle-aged man, but they were used to living a pampered life in the office for a long time, and they couldn't keep up with each other's pace.
Fortunately, just as they were about to be lost, the man disappeared after entering a cave.
They were not reconciled, so they followed all the way into the cave, only to find that this was the middle-aged man's "home" when they arrived at the entrance of the cave.
The cave is not large or deep, and it contains pots and pans for cooking, and one of the large flat stones is covered with bedding.
It's just that there is no electricity, and they can only see the middle-aged man continuing to meditate on the futon from the faint sunlight reflected in the cave outside.
(Dan Hou)
About a moment of incense, the middle-aged man jumped out of the "bed", put on his shoes and walked outside the cave to greet them.
Perhaps due to the fact that he had not spoken for a long time, the middle-aged man's speech function had deteriorated, but his name was still known from his vague dialect - Dan Hou.
Hou was reluctant to talk about his origins, but it had been more than 30 years since he remembered that he had first come here to live in seclusion.
For the past 30 years, he has lived alone in this cave, drinking mountain spring water when he is thirsty, picking wild fruits when he is hungry, and planting some cabbage in his residence.
Due to a long period of vegetarianism, his body fat percentage is very low, and he looks very thin, but his body is very healthy. This is the envy of outsiders who live on junk food all day long, but it is obviously impractical to really let everyone live such a life.
As the exchange deepened, everyone found that he spoke extraordinarily and had a very deep understanding of Taoist thought, and judging from the book he took out, which had been crumpled, it was obvious that he had read it countless times. Seeing that the sky had darkened, the tourists hurriedly said goodbye to Dan Hou and returned to the hotel.
Perhaps because they were too curious, some tourists began to use the Internet to flesh Dan Hou, and they inquired from the clues in Dan Hou's dialect and even words, but they didn't expect to finally contact Dan Hou's family.
However, after Dan Hou's family saw the group photo of the tourists and Dan Hou, they couldn't recognize their relatives.
More than 30 years have passed, and a person has already changed. The young man who was red in the dust back then has become a man who has returned to nature. Seeing that persuasion was hopeless, the family members could only let each other, and let the relatives, who were known as the first hermit of Zhongnan Mountain, continue to participate in Zen and enlightenment.