Text/Zhou Haoqing
Mountains have dragons, water has a source, Gaopingyuli, although the mountains are staggered and overlapping, but in the final analysis, Wangyun Mountain, known as "Xiaonanyue", is the ancestral mountain of these mountains and mountains, and even Jiulong Mountain, which is 1142 meters above sea level, is a branch of its branches. Going back, the zu mountains of Wangyun Mountain and other mountains in Longhui County are the Xuefeng Mountains, the Zu Mountains of the Xuefeng Mountains are the Kunlun Mountains, and the Kunlun Mountains are the ancestral mountains of all the mountains in China. And so on, the land of China is one.
From Longhui County to the north along the provincial highway S242, the standard version of the secondary highway, traffic is busy, each way. However, from the fork in Qijiang Town to the northeast to Gaoping and Luohong, the road narrowed in vain. From the highway, secondary highway, once entering such a road, the car is fast, not only must the car be skilled, but also the risk of being punished for violations, alas! If you have the strength to make it, you can't make it, and you don't dare to make it.
After passing through the bird tree, he began to climb the saddle boundary, the saddle boundary, which is the boundary between Qijiang Town and Gaoping Town, not steep, nor very high, but it is a circling road, in winter, if it encounters freezing weather, it is enough for the driver and passengers to tighten their heartstrings.
The saddle world, among the population in the area of Gaoping Maluoqiao, is also called "ant world". Legend has it that there is a story of witty and ingenious refuge here:
In the Qing Dynasty, the former Xinhua (now Gaoping Town, Longhui County) Zhou Gongxian learned literature from an early age, and succeeded in his studies, at the age of 26, that is, in 1766, the fifth place in the high school hall examination, the Qianlong Emperor admired his character, the book "Cai Bu Gaoxuan, The Famous Fu Shu Jin" Eight characters, gave the plaque to the family (this plaque is still collected by his descendants), at the age of 38, that is, in 1778, he was awarded jianshui zhi county in Yunnan, and he was honest and diligent and just during his tenure, offending many powerful people, and the people called him "Zhou Qingtian" (there are still statues of the people who still worship him in jianshui folk), After completing his term of office, he was promoted to prefect, and was later falsely accused of being exiled to Xinjiang.
In ancient times, exile was a heavy sentence, second only to the death penalty, and the ancients said, "If you are exiled, life is hopeless." "Those places of exile are mostly barren places with long distances, and nine times out of ten they are gone. Zhou Gongxian knew that he was caught in the charge of "false accusations", and there was no way to complain, so he could only retreat to the second place - his life was important, so he wrote to the imperial court overnight and applied to go to the more bitter and cold "ant world" and accept the bites and nibbles of thousands of ants to apologize for his sins.
The Qianlong Emperor knew this, knew his integrity, laughed and made an exception. After Zhou Gong first called out to the north three times, "Thank you Lord Long'en", he returned to his hometown to teach and educate people, and then did not enter the career path. Jiaqing Ding ugly life, seventy out of seven, self-authored that "the first twenty-five years of his life stepped on the field of science, the middle twenty-five trapped in the eunuch sea, the last twenty-five settled in Zili set up accounts and taught." ”
As can be seen by the ratio, this story is credible.
After getting off the saddle boundary, you will arrive at the intersection of Aoxia Village, go straight to Gaoping, turn left to the west to go to Meihuashan Village, Solitaire Temple, Wangyun Mountain, and turn right to the east to go to Aoxia School and Ancient Berlin Nunnery.
The place I went to this time was the ancient Berlin Nunnery, which was built in the snowy mountainside, a branch of the Wangyun Mountains. This nunnery, which is known on the Douyin video distributed by netizen Wang Dongbao, said that the nunnery enshrines the statue of Sun Wukong, the "Great Sage of Qitian", which aroused my curiosity, there are many nunnery temples in Gaopingyu, but the worship of Sun Wukong is afraid that it is the only one.
Taking advantage of the weekend holidays (April 11, 2021), as usual, one person and one car, unrestrained, feeling that it is wrong, just stop and inquire, and then turn around. From the side of the Aoxia School to the left, along the hardened group road towards the tea, the end is the ancient Berlin Temple,
At the edge of the stream where the tea is rushed, there is a Guandi Temple, dedicated to Guan Yu, a famous general of the Three Kingdoms who holds the Green Dragon Crescent Sword, the Red-faced Blue Hair Dan Phoenix Eyes, the majestic wind, and the righteous thin clouds. Taoism enshrines Guan Yu as the "Emperor Guan Sheng" and is one of the four protectors of Taoism. In my impression, in the Gumeishan area, where there are Water Mouth Covered Bridges and Ancient Road Tea Pavilions, there are many Guandi gods, and every june 24th of the lunar calendar (the birthday of Guandi), nearby believers will come to worship.
From this upward, to the ancient Berlin Nunnery, there are about two miles of forest road, along the way there is no family, it seems particularly lonely and deep, into the mountain intersection, there are two warning piles, a pile of stele a line of words: "Steep slopes are sharp, safe driving; trees are thick and deep, pay attention to fire." "The payment is the old co-establishment under the pass. This shows that the Aoxia Village Elderly Association has made a lot of effort to repair the ancient Berlin nunnery, build village road construction, forest fire prevention in forest areas and other public welfare undertakings.
It is indeed a steep slope, rain, snow and freezing weather, it is best not to come up. I stood in the front of the nunnery and looked out, Wangyun Mountain is opposite, still under construction of the "Luoqi Highway", like a gray belt, tied to the waist of Wangyun Mountain, I look forward to this gray belt as soon as possible to build a fried sand road, hidden in the shade of the trees, in the waves of pine, from time to time to hear a louder "tick" and "beep" whistle sound.
Ancient Berlin Nunnery, also known as "Ancient Berlin Temple", courtyard layout, no corners of the building, wall enclosure, sitting east to west, which in the deep mountains, the adoption of yang is more abundant, invisibly let people feel the warmth of "Buddha's light".
The temple door was closed tightly, and the stairs were up, and the knock should not be, and the master in charge was out. Fortunately, there was a telephone on the wall, and through the phone, I learned that the master was already on the way back and asked me to wait a little longer.
There are reliefs of gods and immortals and landscape paintings on the wall of the main entrance archway, and there are dragons, unicorns, lions and other sacred beasts sitting on the cornices, and the overall effect is still solemn and majestic, but the two mythological story paintings of Sun Wukong and the monsters on the side of the gate will bring people some excitement and pleasure.
There is a small slope under the front of the temple, and there are many vegetables in the field, and there are five or six old hens wandering in the soil, either pecking at the leaves of vegetables or plowing the soil with their claws, looking for earthworms and silkworms. As soon as they saw me coming, they didn't need me to "cluck, cluck", they crowded up and walked around me, thinking that I was their master. Only the greyhound on the side door pillar of the nunnery was not interesting at all, and it kept barking. Don't blame it, it's its duty.
The Sacred Place of Buddhism should have been pure and quiet, but in this remote mountainous countryside, the incense money entered by the small temple and nunnery was far from enough to manage the daily expenses of the staff, and it was completely understandable and necessary for them to raise some chickens and ducks and plant some vegetables nearby. Life, there is faith, but also inseparable from chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea, food, clothing, housing, everything needs to use money.
It didn't take long for the master in charge to return, nearly seventy years old, thin, all the way up, did not see him panting, only unbuttoned his jacket to dissipate heat. He claimed to be surnamed Wang, and was a native of the nearby Village of Xiangshan (present-day Baidi New Village), and I will only briefly explain his intentions.
Opening the gate, the first thing that catches the eye is the Guansheng Temple, which resembles a shrine, enshrines three statues of Guan Shengdi and his eldest son Guan Ping and deputy general Zhou Cang, and the left and right couplets are "Yonggai Mountain and River Loyalty and Righteousness, Famous Sages Passed Down from Generation to Generation." Hanging in the middle of the walls on both sides is a couplet that praises the Great Saint Sun Wukong of Qitian: "The Great Saint Golden Hoop Town Demon, Wukong Fire Eye recognizes evil." In addition, some deeds and a list of donors for the construction of the ancient road are recorded on the walls. Before the construction of the pass down to the ancient Berlin Highway, there was only a sheep's intestine trail, praying to God to worship the Buddha, it was difficult to get up, bamboo resources, difficult to get down, now it is different, bamboo wood for money, pedestrians smile and smile. Merit has survived for eternity, and fame has been known for thousands of years.
In front is a brick house, a wooden house in the back is the main hall, on the Meru seat of the hall, the center is dedicated to the seated statue of the Buddha, next to him is guanyin bodhisattva and the fighting Buddha Sun Wukong, and then in turn to worship other bodhisattva gods, it can be seen that in this ancient Berlin nunnery, the fighting victory over the Buddha Sun Wukong is still singing the protagonist. Listening to Master Wang, the Great Sage of Qi Tian was very enlightened, in the past, in this area, when there was drought and rain, he must ask Wukong to show his spirit before he could send down Ganlin.
I originally wanted to ask Master Wang to tell the story of the Ancient Berlin Nunnery and the Great Saint Sun Wukong of Qitian in detail, but Master Wang said that he did not take care of it for a long time, knew very little, and could not be arrogant. After throwing twenty yuan of sesame oil money into the merit box, the visit was hastily concluded, and even a fragment of a stele on the wall of the miscellaneous house that had been smoothed out by the years and there were few full words, forgot to take a photo.
In order to find out, I also contacted Comrade Wang Zaiyi, a retired village cadre in Shanghongshan Village, when I was working in Gaoping, he was the secretary of the village branch, and he was more familiar with each other, and then there was the place where the ancient Berlin Nunnery was located in Hongshan Village, but it was much more convenient to enter and exit the village of Jing'aoxia, it was estimated that he knew more, but he did not expect that after meeting, he said that he was not very clear. He then called his cousin Wang Zaiyi and accompanied me to the tea pit to find their cousin Wang Zaihai, saying that he might know better.
Wang Zaihai old man is not at home, we found in the nearby field busy digging soil to grow vegetables Wang Zaihai old man, Wang Zaihai is ninety-five years old this year, tall, tough body, is a little back, communication is quite difficult, shouting through the throat, basically figured out the ancient Berlin nunnery to build the temple time, so far, has been more than 200 years.
Elder Wang Yihai said: "Listening to the elders, when the nunnery was built to cover the tiles, the tiles were burned on the side of the tea pit, and the local people spontaneously lined up in a long line and handed the tiles to the roof to cover them, which lasted for two days. ”
Visually measured, from the place of the kiln to the ancient Berlin nunnery, the distance is about 500 meters. At that time, the great momentum in which everyone participated was really a miracle that the heavens and the earth could be learned, the sun and the moon could be watched, and the bodhisattva did not show his spirit to bless it.
The ninety-five-year-old Wang Zaihai was still diligent in farming, which was not unusual in Gaopingyu. Children are filial piety, but for the sake of a family's livelihood, most of them leave their hometowns or work or do business, what stays in their hometown is the 386199 troops (women, children and the elderly), the old people can only pick up the burden of agricultural work as always, as long as they are healthy and able to move, they can't bear to abandon the land, fortunately, in the past ten years, vigorously engaged in land circulation, the implementation of mechanized farming, released a lot of labor, however, there are many old people who are industrious and accustomed, and no one often accompanies them, so they choose to use labor to pass the lonely time, Wang Zaihai is one of them.
After visiting the elderly Wang Zaihai, the three of us went to the home of Comrade Yuan Mingding, another retired village cadre, who is seventy-eight years old this year, and from 1975 to 2005, he was re-elected as a village cadre for 30 years.
After learning of the arrival of Italy, comrade Yuan Mingding told me that in the past, there were two nunneries in Hongshan Village - the auspicious nunnery and the ancient Berlin nunnery. Auspicious nunnery for a longer time, built in the Ming Dynasty Wuzong Zhengde years, if it is still there, there should be more than 500 years of history, in 1958 the auspicious nunnery was demolished, all the wood tiles were transported to the bridge to repair the ten thousand pig farm, the ancient Berlin nunnery lived at that time two nuns from Shaoyang County, Liu Baosheng, Liu Baocheng, they are sisters, because of the many brothers and sisters in the family, it is difficult to make ends meet, they were sent to the nunnery by their parents to foster care, and then they took this as their home.
The ancient Berlin Nunnery has a permanent population and is located in the hinterland of the snow-capped mountains, which is inconvenient for transportation, so it has survived. Master Wang, who is now in charge of the nunnery, is purely helping his mother-in-law, and he does not know much about the situation of the nunnery, and he is also forgivable. His mother-in-law was a relative of the two masters of the previous generation, Liu Baosheng and Liu Baocheng, and after the death of the two masters, his mother-in-law gradually took over the daily affairs of the nunnery.
Comrade Yuan Mingding also introduced that when Master Liu Baocheng was alive, he wrote a good brush and writing, knew tailoring craftsmanship, was enthusiastic, and was willing to be charitable, which was also one of the reasons why the incense in the nunnery was exuberant. In addition, in the 1980s and 1990s, when planting double-cropping rice, encountering autumn drought, it was inevitable to go up the mountain to ask for rain, and the person in charge would often predict the weather changes, and the timing of the rain was relatively accurate, which played a mysterious effect of responding to every need. At present, the temple is usually lighter except for the birthday of Guanyin Bodhisattva (February 19 of the lunar calendar, June 19 of the lunar calendar) and the birthday of Sun Wukong (the fifth day of the first month of november in the lunar calendar). Of course, if it is a hit, it will be lively for a few days.
However, I once heard the old man Yuan Natural in Aoxia Village say that the fighting Buddha Sun Wukong enshrined in the ancient Berlin Nunnery hall is very spiritual, and the statue of Sun Wukong, which seems to be clever and small, with a sharp-billed monkey's cheek, is carved from a whole camphor tree, and when the carving is formed and opened, the carver can work three feet off the ground, until the Buddha statue is seated, and the carver returns to normal. The buddha statue is almost as old as the temple was built. Goku is a lord who can't stand loneliness, and often talks with the "King of the Top Mountain" who lives on the top of the mountain behind him, and exchanges skills. King Dingshan was a lord of the mountains before his death, serving righteously, excelling in martial arts, and deeply loved by the people, after his death, the people statued him, built a stone temple on the top of the mountain to sacrifice and worship, and changed the name of the mountain to "Dingshan King" Mountain.
At present, the stone temple on the top of the mountain is still there, but the statue of the king of the top mountain has been quietly collected. In the past, in the "storage" on the back of Buddha statues, there were usually sutras, grains, gold and silver jewelry, and thieves with dog guts, who often took advantage of the spirits of the gods to go out and travel out of the clouds to take out the treasures in the "hidden" and steal them.
These have become rumors and cannot be verified. However, a couplet written by the elderly Yuan Naturally when he was repairing the ancient Berlin nunnery, I copied it here: "The bell rings the forest and the sea, the drums sway the mountains and rivers, the ancient temple is magically beautiful; the Pine Around the Buddhist Hall, the Bai Embraces the Dharma Realm, and the Old Temple's New Appearance Shows Its Spiritual Light." "You can feel the scenery around the ancient Berlin Nunnery.
The son and daughter-in-law of the old comrade Yuan Mingding are also commercial workers in Guangdong, and in the process of my small talk with him, Wang Zaiyi and Wang Zaiyi, who have good cooking skills, help cook in the kitchen.
There is also Director Wang Zigui, a town cadre who gave up the weekend and is still visiting nearby villages and mobilizing encouragement for the masses to plant double-cropping rice. When Comrade Yuan Mingding saw Director Wang coming, he walked up and shook hands while saying, "Yesterday the gate was secured, and today the nobles are here." wedding! "Joy and delight.
In fact, our unprovoked visits will trouble people to some extent, but people are happy and welcomed - this is also one of the styles of our Gaoping people. The characteristics of Gaoping people who are not afraid of hardships, love freedom, and strive to be strong are also similar to the character of Sun Wukong, the Great Saint of Qitian, who longs for self-reliance, does not accept oppression, is not afraid of sacrifice, and has the courage to resist. This may be the reason why the ancient Berlin Nunnery chose to worship Goku, and there is not only one statue enshrined, but also three statues.
Not long after, several delicious and delicious dishes came to the table, and Director Wang and I did not drink, the three of them drank some millet wine. While eating and chatting, I learned the origin of some place names in Hongshan Village.
Hongshan Village, used to be called "Hongshatang". Legend has it that in ancient times, in order to survive, two tribes competed for territory, and a fierce battle occurred between Jianshan Lao and Zhoujiazhai, and the blood flowed into a river, staining the sankou pond downstream, and in order to avoid the recurrence of the tragedy, the posterity called the place where the most people killed the most "killing pit" and the area near the three ponds "Hongshan Tang".
As for "ancient Berlin", in the past, Gaopingyuli Mountain was densely forested, and there were many ancient trees, and there were more vigorous cypress trees in the ancient Berlin Nunnery, and people named themselves according to the trees. In the era of steel smelting after liberation, the ancient trees and large trees in Gaopingyu were basically cut down, and now the cypress trees outside the walls of the nunnery are not very old.
When talking about this year's large-scale double-cropping rice, I was really worried that in the autumn, there would be no drought and no rain, and the late rice harvest would fail, and I did not want to see farmers working hard to eat from the sky and rely on rain to ensure a bumper harvest.
I hope that my hometown, Gaopingyuli, in the near future, will look around, between the green mountains and green waters, the fields are blocked, the canals are connected, the roads are networked, and the houses are landscaped, and the agricultural production is efficient, time-saving, labor-saving, and circular sustainable development.
At that time, the temple and the temple were only places for people to cultivate themselves and travel.