The Middle Temple is a masterpiece of the landscape of Chao Lake for 800 miles. The pedestrian street next to the temple, watching the lake and listening to the waves, it is inevitable to knock on the keys to express nostalgia.
Aerial panorama of the UAV in Zhongmiao Town
Recently, the author is stationed in the middle temple, leisurely swimming around, or visiting the remaining monuments, looking for natural scenery, or stopping at the shore, watching the lake and the sky is boundlessly confused, listening to the light waves kissing the sand of the shallow singing and whispering, from time to time sinking into the intoxication of nature, the remembrance of the historical past, so the window facing the lake, tapping the key lyrics, forming this temple style and object strategy.
If the shape of Chao Lake is regarded as a fetus conceived in the mother's womb, then the Middle Temple is in the position of the fetal umbilical cord, so it is appropriate to call the Middle Temple the umbilicus of Chao Lake. The magic of nature has created such a peninsula as the Zhongmiao Temple, surrounded by water on three sides, where the smoke and clouds of history have left a wealth of scenic spots and monuments, and the water of Chao Lake has created a rich fish and rice town between the Bay River and Huaihuai, the nourishment of Huitu culture, the intersection of Jiangnan and Jiangbei cultures, forming a unique local style of the Middle Temple.
1. Nodes on the way: Shikou Bridge, Liujiafa and SidingShan
After the opening of Huanhu Avenue, the Middle Temple is very close to Hefei, driving to it, there are two places that need to be mentioned on the way.
First of all, after passing through the wetland park, there is a village called Shikou Village, which is the place where the Nanmi River flows into Chao Lake, Shikou Village is on the east side of the confluence of rivers and lakes, where a river is separated from the road that has blocked hefei city to go directly to the Middle Temple, and it is necessary to bypass the town, and the Nanmihe River Bridge (also known as the Shikou Bridge) built the year before is the longest cross-river bridge in Hefei, this spectacular low tower cable-stayed bridge adds a beautiful rainbow to the Mother River, and the connecting passage of the downtown area to the Zhongmiao Temple. Nowadays, from Binhu New Area, drive the lake avenue to Zhongmiao Town, but 20 minutes by car, on the way, the lake avenue winds and stretches with the lake shore, on the one hand is a large green wetland that stretches unevenly, on the other hand, there are sparkling and scaly lake surfaces floating with dotted boats, mountain scenery and water color, lake light boat shadow, attracting many people to stop and watch on the side of the road.
Secondly, on the way to the road near the Middle Temple, there is an unusual village, named Liujiaba. This village originated from the Southern Song Dynasty Wu Yuan people Wu Wanting moved to the lakeside teapot Shandong, there are six grandchildren moved here to engage in farming, people prosper, Azure into a village, so the name of Liujiahua. For more than 800 years, the Wu surname has lived in a group of people, and the business of business and farming have developed into a well-known and prestigious family in Dongxiang, Hefei. The fourth ancestor Wu Zhen and Wu Liang were the Marquis of Jinghai and the Marquis of Jiangyin in the Ming Dynasty. The fifth ancestor Wu Yi was the overseer of the imperial history, and after that, Weike was constantly prominent, so there were a large number of ancient residences built by the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The unusualness of this village is also that in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, a group of people in the village followed Li Hongzhang as a Huai army, rose to fame because of the merits of suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and after returning to their hometowns, they built a large number of deep mansions and compounds. Since modern times, there have been hundreds of Huai Army generals here, such as Li Hongzhang, a fierce general of the Huai Army, wu Bohua, and during the Period of the National Revolution, dozens of senior Kuomintang generals came from the village, including Luo Kaibang, commander of the Republic of China Army and Navy, and Wu Peizhi. In the Wu Ancestral Hall in the village, there are also gold plaques of three lieutenant generals, Wu Tongren, Wu Zhongying, and Wu Peizhi, and on both sides of the hall are plaques issued by Li Yuanhong, Feng Guozhang, and others of the People's Republic of China. After liberation, many senior Kuomintang officials and their families of the six families avoided Taiwan, and some moved to Hong Kong, Macao and other places, and the six families became the largest overseas Chinese township in Anhui Province. According to relevant data, there are more than 2,000 overseas Chinese in the six families, distributed in 17 countries or regions such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
It is also worth mentioning that Wu Bangguo, former chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, is a member of the Wu clan of the village. Chairman Wu Bangguo once cared for and supported the transportation construction in his hometown, and there was a word of mouth among the people.
Liujia ancient residential complex is a relatively large preserved ancient building complex in the Jianghuai area, but also built by the Wu clan, the houses are Huipai buildings, brick and wood structure, brick carving wood carving fine, green brick gray tiles, Qishan cornices, each house on both sides of the wind and fire wall, the construction is exquisite. Among them, Wu Yulan's mansion is worth a look, Wu Yulan led the army to ping hong Yang rebellion, the ping twist army, the leader of the capture of the twist army Lai Wenguang, with military merit plus the rank of political envoy. The Wu Mansion has been carefully restored to reproduce the old scenery of the past, now known as the Wu Family Garden, and is a good spot worthy of tourists to visit along the way.
In the west of Liujiafa, near ChaoHu Lake, there is an ancient pagoda, called Zhenhu Pagoda, which is the only well-preserved ancient pagoda in Hefei. This pagoda is a feng shui pagoda of the Wu clan of the Six Families. The pagoda is six prismatic, twelve meters high, seven floors, and was built in the eighteenth year of Qing Guangxu. The whole tower is exquisitely carved, the top of the top of the tower is painted with cranes, flying in the air, vigorous and posture, and there are brass bells tied to the corners of each floor of the tower, and whenever the wind blows the bells, it clangs, which is quite reminiscent of ancient humor. Climbing the tower to overlook the scenery of Chao Lake is a great place.
(Zhenhu Pagoda of Liujiafa)
Between the Liujiafa and the Middle Temple, close to the Middle Temple, there is also a Four-Ding Mountain with many Taoist legends. Legend has it that the Eastern Han Daoist master Wei Boyang once practiced Dan here. Wei Boyang was the ancestor of Taoism in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the most famous alchemy theorist of Taoism, and his important contribution to the history of Taoism was that, on the basis of inheriting the alchemy of the ancient Dragon and Tiger Classic, he concretized the alchemy method, personally repeatedly practiced it, recorded the alchemy process in detail, and reached the highest peak of the alchemy level at that time. His "Zhou YiShan Tongqi" has been passed down to this day and is revered by later generations as the "King of the Wangu Danjing". Legend has it that the dan sand and fairy powder left on the mountain when he was practicing Dan in that year shone brightly in the morning glow and radiated a different color. The four tops of Chaoxia have been listed as one of the "Eight Views of Luyang" and the "Eight Views of Chaohu Lake". There are places of interest and monuments such as Liandan Pond, Chaoxia Temple, Chaoxia Academy, and Dilujing on The Four Peaks Mountain; there are strange stone scenes such as frog stone, parrot stone, Diaoyutai, and Dutang stone, and The Four Peaks Mountain is being developed as a tourist scenic spot, which is a place worth seeing on the way to the Middle Temple.
Second, the temple on the boulder rock - the middle temple
The Middle Temple, also known as the Zhongmiao Temple by the people of Hefei, has different signs on the way. Is it the Middle Temple or the Zhongmiao Temple? Geographically, the location of the Middle Temple lies at the waist of the north shore of the Eight Hundred Mile Chao Lake, which is a peninsula where the land jures into the lake, and the ancient cause is in the middle of ChaoZhou and Luzhou, and is also in the middle of the Eight Hundred Mile Chao Lake, so it is called "Middle Temple". The Middle Temple was built in the second year of the Eastern Wu Chiwu, and has been repeatedly abandoned and repaired in successive dynasties, because the incense of the past is exuberant, it is known as "South Jiuhua, North Middle Temple". By the end of the Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang built the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall next to the Middle Temple, sacrificing many Huaijun soldiers who had sacrificed their lives in many years of conquest, so it was gradually called the Zhongmiao Temple. The two are confused because of the closeness of the sound, but in the final analysis, it should be called the middle temple.
Stepping into the town of Zhongmiao, the first thing that catches your eye is a memorial arch, which reads "The First Victory of Hutian", which is the handwriting of Mr. Zhao Puchu, a Buddhist scholar of Anhui nationality. Before staying again, there is a stone step down, which is called "Eighteen Da" by the locals. Below the "Eighteen Da" is the peninsula that juts into the lake, now called the Sunshine Pedestrian Street, and a large complex of quaint and elegant Huipai buildings comes into view. This is a small street half facing the lake and half facing the commercial street, and every holiday, the tourists are endless, revealing some bustling conditions. After walking this small street to the end, there is the Middle Temple, and the town of Zhongmiao has gradually arisen because of the existence of this temple.
(From the EighteenThira Temple)
Eighteen-year-old sunny pedestrian street
Panorama of the Middle Temple in 2019
The middle temple is built on a boulder rock protruding from the lake at the end of the peninsula, the color of the stone is like dansha, the sudden stone is flowing, and it is shaped like a flying phoenix, called "Phoenix Terrace". The author once asked the local villagers, this peninsula stretches into the lake alone, and for thousands of years it has been hit by water and waves on three sides. The villagers told me that their ancestors lived here, and that the foot of the temple was a large stone with a large protruding lake, so although it was perennial, it stood tall. The ancient temple sits north to south, across the shore of the lake, the sky reflects the waves, and the temple is high-pressure clouds. There is a book inscription on the temple door of the "Chao Lake In the Temple". The entire temple pavilion flew out of the eaves, like the crown of danfeng, and under the illumination of the sunset, it was brilliant. During the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, the Inspector of Jiangxi Province, according to Yushi Chu Liangcai, once wrote "Middle Temple", which said:
"The tall buildings on the lake are open on all sides, and the sunset is leaning back. Qi swallowed Wu Chu's thousand sails and fell, and the shadow moved the galaxy for five nights. Luo Yinshi remained in the Water Temple, and Boyang Immortal went to only Shan kuma. The long sky sent the clouds to the evening, and the two armpits of the sky wind under the Fengtai. ”
Three or four sentences have long been passed down as famous sentences.
Since the Han Dynasty, the Middle Temple has been repeatedly abandoned and repaired, and in the 15th year of Guangxu, Li Hongzhang proposed to raise funds to build the temple, and there were more than 70 temples in the heyday. In Chinese history, the two families of Buddhism and Taoism have their own origins, and have had the experience of mutual denigration but mutual influence and coexistence, it is said that when this temple was first built in the Han Dynasty, it was dedicated to the Taoist figure Bixia Yuanjun, who is said to be the daughter of Emperor Dongyue, because she lived with her father on top of Mount Taishan for many years, and longed for a free life, so she dreamed of giving a Taoist monk who went up the mountain to incense. In his dream, the Taoist priest promised Miss Bixia to help her pursue a free life. The next day, just after dawn, this Taoist priest sneaked into the Bixia Palace, carried the idol of the Bixia Yuanjun, ran all the way, settled on the north shore of Chao Lake, and since then enshrined in this temple, becoming the supreme goddess "Zhongmiao Niangniang" who has been enshrined in the Middle Temple for thousands of years. In this way, the Middle Temple was originally a Taoist temple. The Four Peaks Mountain near the Middle Temple is also said to be the place where Wei Boyang, the Taoist ancestor and alchemy theorist of the Eastern Han Dynasty, practiced Dan, and there are alchemy furnaces and stove ruins on the mountain. In the old days, although the stove on the mountain was empty, the Dan qi was always there, and the remnants of dan sand in the stone gap sometimes glowed with the brilliance of the bright candle sky, so there was a scene of "Four Peaks Chaoxia", which was also the allusion to the previous poem "Boyang Xian went to only shan kuma", and the Four Peaks Mountain was being developed as a tourist attraction by the Chao Lake.
However, dating back to the wei and jin dynasties of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism began to prevail, the king respected the Buddha, and the influence was great, and the original Taoist temple of the Middle Temple gradually became a Buddhist temple. Although it has changed, but there are still many Taoist furnishings in the temple, The two religions of Buddhism and Taoism are compatible in the middle temple, you see, at the head of the middle temple, there is a pair of head poles, the head pole is used to hang spells when the Taoist monks in the Taoist temple do it, and it is unlikely that the front of the Buddhist temple is such a tall and symmetrical head pole. Entering the main hall, I was confronted by a couplet: "The belly can tolerate the intolerable things in the world, and when you open your mouth, you will laugh at the ridiculous people in the world", and you know that maitreya Buddha is enshrined in the middle. Entering the second hall, there is a well in the courtyard courtyard. This well is connected to the cave, the cave is connected with the lake water, the lake water seeps into the well water, surrounded by water, but to dig the well, probably or the well water is more pure and sweet. The Temple has been a spectacle for 2,000 years on this cave-filled stone rock. The second is dedicated to jizo bodhisattva, the same as Jiuhua Mountain, and it seems that jizo bodhisattva and Anhui are very related. The third treasure hall in the back, the Tibetan Scripture Pavilion, is said to have been a three-story all-wood structure, but unfortunately it was destroyed by a fire in the winter of 1948. The third hall seen by tourists today was rebuilt in the 90s of the last century, and now the ground floor is dedicated to Guanyin Niangniang, while the upper floor is still dedicated to the "Middle Temple Niangniang", that is, the Taoist Bixia Yuanjun, during the birthday party of the eighteenth Niangniang in the fourth month of the lunar calendar, people still have to come to pay homage to the Bixia Yuanjun. The worship of the unity of the two religions and the coexistence of temples and Taoist temples is somewhat strange, and it can also be regarded as a major feature of the Middle Temple. Today's young people come here on pilgrimage, and when they see the painted clay statues, they prostrate their heads, and they don't pay much attention to which is a Buddhist ancestor and which is a Taoist lady.
At present, the middle temple is being expanded, and the expanded part is mostly piled up in the lake as a foundation, which has now been basically completed, and is undergoing internal decoration, and the expanded building complex is more huge and spectacular, showing the style of standing on the lake and the waves.
3. Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall, the soul of the Huai Army returned
Inside the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall
The most touching thing about the Middle Temple, which triggers the heavy sense of tragedy and vicissitudes of the history of tourists, is the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall.
Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall is a temple or ancestral hall built in ancient China to commemorate the soldiers who died in the Great Patriotic War, and is named after the meaning of showing the loyalty of the soldiers. There are four Major Zhaozhong Ancestral Halls in the country, namely the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall of Jingshi, the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall of Fuzhou, Fujian, the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall of the Chaohu Temple in Anhui Province, and the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall of Yingkou in Liaoning. Speaking of Shōjo Shrine, it is reminiscent of Japan's Yasukuni Shrine, which has similar functions despite its difference in nature. According to the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty", the Yongzheng Emperor proposed that the "generals and ministers, officials who guard the land" who sacrificed their lives "since the founding of Taizu" to defend the Qing Dynasty and mountains were all enshrined and sacrificed to honor their loyalty and martyrdom, and as a model for the world, the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall of the Capital Division was built. After Xianfeng, the Huai Army rose and gradually became the main force of the Defense Force of the Gongwei Qing Dynasty, and countless Huai Army generals spilled their blood on the battlefield and their souls were everywhere, so this Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall was built in the hometown where the Huai Army originated.
The Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall of the Middle Temple is next to the temple, not more than 100 meters apart, and it is Li Hongzhang who asked the Qing court to build it in honor of the generals of the Huai Army, also known as the Huai Army Ancestral Hall. This is a simple and elegant ancient building that is still well preserved in the late Qing Dynasty. It sits north and faces south, and the chao lake faces the mountain, which is magnificent. The ancestral hall is composed of an entrance hall, a main hall and two compartments, with a total of 30 rooms, all covering an area of 1800 square meters. The main hall is a 7 palace-style building with thick beams and columns, and a spacious hall, which is the largest ancient building in Chaohu City.
Recently, Anhui Television Station filmed a TV documentary "Huai Jun", which recreates for us a tragic and magnificent history of the Huai Army rising from the chaos of war and being engulfed by the tide of history. As the main force of China's modern national defense forces, a large number of its generals were the sons of gentry and peasants who had come out from the shores of Chaohu Lake; at the beginning of its founding, 6,500 people from the ragged hometown were transported to Shanghai by ship to join the bloody battle of defending Shanghai and capturing Tianjin There was Liu Bingzhang, who fought bravely and witfully against the French invaders and won a great victory at Zhennanguan; there was Ding Ruchang, who struggled to kill the enemy and martyr himself in the Sino-Japanese War; and there were many soldiers and warships who sank the Yellow Sea together... They were all people who had walked out from the shores of Chao Lake. Most of the battalions of the Huai Army founded by Li Hongzhang are composed of disciples and soldiers of the neighboring clans, as the saying goes: "Fight brothers in battle, fight father and son soldiers." In the years of beacon battles, they paid countless flesh and blood bodies, turning into the deep scarlet color on the top of li hongzhang and the huai army generals.
Li Hongzhang was originally a very nostalgic and nostalgic person, so many soldiers sprinkled with his blood on the battlefield, he could not help but be sad, as his song Zhang Yun said: "Fathers and brothers and sons from the four directions, long and never return, frost dew when the years are old, good feet are sentimental." So he asked the construction of a shrine to commemorate, which also reflected Li Hongzhang's friendship with the children of the township from one side.
Why build the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall dedicated to the Huai Army in the Middle Temple? First, because the source of the Huai Army's generals was mainly peasants centered on The area around Feixi, Feidong, and Hefei, and second, because in May of the 5th year of Xianfeng, Liu Bingzhang, a general of the Huai Army, died of overdose after leading the regiment to the Middle Temple. At this time, Li Hongzhang was leading his headquarters to train in the area of Dongguan in Chao County, and together with zhongtai, the deputy capital of the Qing army, he fought fiercely with the Taiping Army. After receiving the obituary, Li Hongzhang rushed to the funeral. Soon after he left, the Qing army in Chaohu was completely destroyed by the Taiping Army, and Li Hongzhang, because he had recovered a life from the funeral, thought that the Middle Temple was the "auspicious place" where he could rise from the dead, so he donated funds to build the Middle Temple and built another ancestral hall nearby.
Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall was originally a three-way, two-entry building, and there were stone beasts in front of the tall gatehouse of the original building. And the tree has a towering flagpole. The existing second road entrance hall side room and the third road main hall enjoy the hall, the main hall is dedicated to the Huai Army's fallen senior generals the gods of the hall, Li Hongzhang once personally wrote the inscription: "Than Lu Tooth Blade, swear to have the same vendetta, that year the blade is like a return, really with one heart to return to bad luck; The town of Liezhen, the number is extremely prosperous, this day is too peaceful, and the bones should be gathered successfully." Liu Mingchuan, the former governor of Taiwan, was the most prestigious Huai general, and when he built the temple, he not only donated hundreds of taels of silver himself, but also wrote two paintings for the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall, one of which was: "Elevate to look at Dongguan, move with the situation, and fight in a hundred battles and rivers like yesterday; the accumulation is still returned to Nanyue, only then will it be born for the world, and the regeneration of Shen Fu will be more years." This is to recall the past of the generals of the Huai Army from the grass; the second is "the ancestral halls of Kyushu look at each other, the souls are knowledgeable, and the hundred-year-old juju is thinking of the hometown; the ancient lakes and mountains do not change, the wind and clouds gather, and the spirits of the crowd are suspicious of the angry waves." This is reminiscent of the Huai Army soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for the four seas and defended national defense, and hope that the souls of these martyrs will return to their hometowns to rest in peace. Wu Rulun, who was the head of the Tongcheng Sect at the time of the Lianchi Academy, also embraced the disease at that time, and with his outstanding literary style and the insight of historians, he wrote a 1,800-word "Record of the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall of the Huaijun Army in Hefei". In the form of pictures and text descriptions, the temple lists the major battles of the Huai Army from the ragged township to the main force of the National Defense Forces in the north and south, and the blood-sprinkled battlefield, which makes people feel bloody and rainy and sighing.
In and out, I felt that the humiliating and tragic modern history of the Chinese nation was condensed between this small courtyard, and I couldn't help but remember the "Ancient Battlefield Text" that I had memorized when I was a teenager: "Vast and vast, the flat sand is boundless, and no one is seen." The river is haunting, the mountains are disputed. The gloom is miserable, and the wind is sad. The grass is dry and frosty. Birds can't fly, beasts are dead. It was vaguely as if the sons of Jianghuai had walked out of the land of Jianghuai and merged into the Taotao Army Brigade, "The battle is fierce, and the bones are gravel." The birds are silent, the mountains are lonely, and the night is long and windy. The soul is thick and the sky is heavy, and the ghosts and gods are gathered in the clouds and the power of the power". Fortunately, despite the passage of time, the hometown of the heroes has not forgotten them.
Fourth, Li Gong Ancestral Hall, the ruthless wind and dust of the years
(The ruined Li Gong Ancestral Hall)
Renovated Li Wen'an Ancestral Hall
In the alley east of the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall, after entering, turn left into a door, you will see a small farm yard, and looking to the right, it is the Li Wen'an Ancestral Hall, which is now dilapidated. Li Wen'an is Li Hongzhang's father, and the villagers say that the reason why Li Hongzhang is so powerful is that his father Li Wen'an has accumulated good deeds throughout his life.
After Xianfeng, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising was in full swing, and because the children of the Eight Banners were becoming more and more arrogant and lascivious, they were no longer able to bear the heavy responsibility of "suppressing And handling Guangdong and twisting". The imperial court was in a hurry, so it ordered Li Wen'an and Li Hongzhang's father and son to return to their hometowns, and formed a Huai army based on the civilian self-defense armed forces that originated on both sides of Chao Lake and were originally established by the people to prevent banditry. As a senior gentry in this land, Li Wen'an played an important role in the process of forming the Huai Army.
(Li Wen'an's family portrait)
Li Wen'an (1801-1855), also known as Yuchuan, also known as Yuquan, alias Yuquan, was named Wenxuan, Daoguang Pengshu Nianjinshi, official to the Punishment Department Langzhong, and named Yushi. He was a kind-hearted magistrate and a very good poet.
Li Wen'an's father, Li Dianhua, was a rural scholar who "did not go to the city for fifty years", and his family had dozens of acres of land. He never went into the city, but he always wanted to go out of the yellow land, so he was very concerned about the kung fu of the science field. However, he always did not succeed in the exams, and he was repeatedly frustrated on the road, and later he set up a library at home to teach students and children to read, and pinned his hopes on his sons. Li Wen'an studied very hard in his early years. He was the youngest of the brothers and was physically weak from an early age. Someone else's smart kid began to enlighten at the age of four, and he didn't read until he was eight. By the age of thirteen, everyone else had been admitted to xiucai, and he had only finished reading the "Four Books" and "Mao Poems". The father looked at him and worried, did not see that he was a talent with a large instrument and late formation, and thought that he was greedy and did not use merit, so he asked his eldest son Li Wenyu to supervise the battle and specially manage his reading. Li Wenyu's science field was also not smooth, and after the examination, he did not grow anymore, and he also learned from his father's appearance, and opened a library at home to receive apprentices and teaching. This big brother is really good at dealing with the younger brother, and every year the school starts on the third day of the first month of the first month, and he has to read it until the Chinese New Year's Eve, and he does not relax. With a lot of effort, Li Wen'an painstakingly read until he was thirty-five years old (1834) before he won the Jiangnan Township Examination. Before this, he had experienced more than ten years of cold light torment, during which he also became a teacher, or an apprentice, or a family, but his homework would never relax. After another four years, he finally passed the jinshi examination, at this time he was almost forty years old, and he spent most of his life (see Li Wen'an's "Dumen Wangyun Homesick Endowment").
Li Wen'an has a relatively introverted personality and is "middle and lower in seniority", but he knows everything in mind, his eyesight is not bad, and he has always been very tight with Zeng Guofan, who was a jinshi in the same year. At that time, Zeng Guofan was just an ordinary Beijing official, who first served as a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy and a bachelor of the cabinet, but was just an idle official who compiled history books, and later became a ceremonial department, a soldier, and a servant of the official department (equivalent to the current deputy minister). And Li Wen'an arranged early on for his two sons, Li Hanzhang and Li Hongzhang, to visit Zeng as a teacher and learn the "study of the world" with him, and once it was time for them to forge ahead, it would come in handy. This is probably the highest wisdom that Li Wen'an contributed to his family.
As a judicial official, he himself was honest and upright, fang gang was thick and thick, insisted on judging cases according to law, and whenever the case was finally decided in the autumn, he always read the case file until late at night, striving to accurately determine the sentence, and not wronging a good person. But he "did not win the shangguan with his stubbornness" (according to Li Hongzhang's Epitaph, written for his mother). In fact, this has always been the case in the official arena, and it is necessary to do things seriously, but not to be too serious, to see what is going on. If you are too serious about anything, it is not pleasing to be an official. The problem is that Li Wen'an's temper in Anhui is too serious in everything, and he is bound to dislike his superiors, so he has never been able to become a "ministerial-level cadre." They all rose very quickly in the same year, and he went around looking at the prison.
In the "Anecdotes of Celebrities in the Qing Dynasty" compiled by Ge Xuancun, it is recorded that this old gentleman was a gentleman who was a gentleman who was loyal to his duties. Li Wen'an was a law enforcement officer in the Beijing Punishment Department, a former division officer in charge of Guangxi, Fengtian, and Shanxi, and a supervisor of the Prison Office and the Autumn Trial Department, in charge of the life and death of prisoners, and personally managed two prisons. Supposedly, this is a fat difference, and what prisoner's family does not ask the warden? And Li Wen'an worked in the Punishment Department for eighteen years, always acted impartially, and there was no gossip in the officials and privates, and finally the official went to the inspector of the arrest of SiLang, and recorded the name of Yushi, this position was really not easy to come by, it was completely the result of his twenty years of hard study and diligence in the cold window.
The two large prisons of the Qing Dynasty's Punishment Department actually held 50,000 prisoners! Each prison went from south to north for a circle of five miles, and he had to tour the two prisons every day, and walking once a day was ten miles, and he always insisted on personally inspecting the scene every day, which alone was not easy. Abuse of prisoners was commonplace at the time, and in the prisons he administered, it was customary for all prisoners to receive only one spoonful per meal, so they often did not have enough to eat. In order to prevent the abuse of prisoners, Li Wen'an managed to distribute meals so that every spoonful would be full, and the prisoner's meals were often poorly done and difficult to swallow, so he would personally go to the kitchen, seriously taste the prisoners' meals, and donate rice and porridge himself, so that the prisoners who had been taken in after the meal time could eat; the plague in the prison was easy to spread, he often prepared medicinal materials for emergency use in the season of the epidemic of disease, and earnestly prayed to God to bless the prisoners; in the summer, he spent money to donate pu fans, and every autumn the departments donated cotton clothes. He also added twelve quilts to each house for use by prisoners who were sweating and recuperating. There is another poem by Li Wen'an in the Chronicle of Guanyuan that shows his attitude that to be an official is to do good:
"Every Sigong Department thousands of buildings, more love Fragrant Mountain Wanli Qiu." And I gave the quilt to the prisoner, and laid the grass and cut the wild pond autumn. Running north and south for ten miles, dressed in neat sand rows. Give the fish a meal, and wait for the feeding. Dressed in neat clothes, the daily safe bamboo newspaper. I always wish that the two prisons will not be sick, and the merits will not be tired of the discipline window south. ”
Some upright colleagues saw it in their eyes and wrote poems praising Li Gong's virtues, as evidenced by "Mr. Yong Li Yuquan's Poem for Prison":
"A soup and a meal are shallow and deep, whether it is enough to taste every meal." Sweet bitterness can push the army to 100,000, and the name left in prison is fragrant. Dinner came over, and his eyes were shining with sorrow. Fortunately, there was Tui Enmi in prison, and Mr. Zi came here to drive. The thorn wall is deeply closed to the sky, and the fumigation of the summer is not easy to disappear. Lai Youren blows the wind across the seat, and Pu Kui 50,000 wavers together. The bowl is fed along the door, and the yellow cotton is replenished at the autumn and deep inspection points. The gentleman gave the sick prisoner a cold, cold to the point of not shrugging his shoulders. ”
Who knew that the good times would not last long, and in a few years, "a thunderbolt shook the heavens", the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom soared, and in the plight of the Eight Banners, the Qing Dynasty royal family had to hope that the talented Han scholar and doctor Xie Imperial Court was crumbling, and Li Wen'an and his son Li Hongzhang were ordered to return to their hometown to practice township courage, and they had to roll up and return to their hometown in Hefei. Not only did no official do it, but "reading to become an official" suddenly became "recruiting soldiers and buying horses" and students fighting wars. Faced with the serious situation of the loss of anqing in the provincial capital of his hometown of Anhui, Li's father and son could only sigh that "the fate of being born in the last days has disappeared." In the chaotic world, the heroes were born, and the father and son conspired together in the chaos, from gathering township heroes to creating the Huai Army, and since then composing a tragic and magnificent historical story of the Huai Army supporting the Chinese society.
After Li Hongzhang asked the Qing court to build the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall and was approved, Shen Bingcheng, the inspector of Anhui, after receiving Li Hongzhang's message on the construction of the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall of the Huai Army, also played a message to the imperial court, saying that the people of Hefei and Chaohu counties still remember li Hongzhang's father Li Wen'an's achievements in defending the township, and requested the construction of a commemorative shrine near the Zhaozhong ancestral hall of the Middle Temple, which was approved by the imperial court. Therefore, when the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall was built, the construction of two ancestral halls was actually started at the same time, namely the Huaijun Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall and the Li Wen'an Ancestral Hall (referred to as "Li Gong Ancestral Hall") adjacent to it. The scale of the Li Gong Ancestral Hall is slightly smaller than that of the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall, and now the old appearance of the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall is still there, and it has been repaired and expanded, while the Li Gong Ancestral Hall next to it is only a corner of the broken wall, which is dilapidated, and it is unknown when it will be repaired and rebuilt. After visiting the Zhaozhong Ancestral Hall, most tourists do not know that there is a Li Gong Ancestral Hall behind the east side. The Li Gong Ancestral Hall that the author saw was not only dilapidated and fallen, but also surrounded by a fishy place where fishermen handled fish and shrimp, and could not help but feel a sense of nostalgia and sadness.
Fifth, The Mountain, The Boat Pond and the Local Customs
In the heart of Chao Lake, where the vast smoke and waves are, there is an imposing oval island, which is the first resort of Chao Lake. Legend has it that in ancient times, when Chaozhou was trapped, Jiao Yao sacrificed herself to save the world and became this mountain, hence the name. Mt. Mushan is 105 meters above sea level and has an area of 0.86 square kilometers. The mountain is oval in shape, three mountains in the distance, and nine peaks in the near view. According to the "Nantang Tongzhi", "MuShan, also known as Nantang. "Zhongmiao Town is about 4 kilometers away from Mushan Island, which is the closest peninsula to Mushan Island, so on Mushan Island, you usually take a cruise ship from Zhongmiao Temple, or take an airboat. Mushan Island is not only mountainous, dangerous and beautiful, but also has many places of interest and historical sites, which make people linger.
The curved shore of the mountain is overhanging, the water is wide and far away, covered with pine bamboo, perennial green, the shore looks at the three mountains from afar, the sails in the lake are weaving, and the nine peaks are close to see, such as the floating water of Qingluo, outside the boundary of Penglai. Guo Moruo once circled here, and waved his letter: "Looking at the golden waves of Chao Lake from afar, I love her aunt's hair like oil." So romantic! What a wind! The four seasons of The Mountain are beautiful, as if the landscape paintings of different shades are different. In the spring of March, the mountains are new green, the lake is rippling, the mulberry is Chuchu, the peach blossoms are dying, the green willows are whispering, the birds are chirping, and it is most suitable for sightseeing; in the heat of summer, the flowers of the mountain are fragrant, the green trees are lush, cool and pleasant, and it is most suitable for summer and heavy fishing; in mid-autumn, the blue sky and white clouds, reflecting the lake, the lake and the sky are colorful, the fruits are abundant, and the scene is colorful. The unique "Empty Mountain Transmission", also known as "Empty Valley Transmission", "Stone Drum Transmission", is a must in The Mountain. When tourists go up the hill from the gentle slope, the footsteps are slightly heavier, you can hear the banging sound; walk along the rugged trail drums, you can see more than 20 strange caves, large to accommodate hundreds of people, small can hide 20 or 30 people, the cave stalactites are full of strange stones, curvy and dangerous. On the south side of the mountain, there is a harbor formerly known as "Nantang", which was built when the anti-Yuan generals Yu Tonghai and Yong'an led the water division Tunzhai Yaoshan at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. The pond is all made of stone, and after more than 500 years of wind and waves, it is majestic, the scenery is still the same, and the ruins are still visible.
(Wenfeng Pagoda, Mt. Mushan Island)
Wenfeng Pagoda is the first attraction of Mt. Mu. Wenfeng Pagoda stands on the Beacon Hill at the top of Mount Yao, follows the rugged and quiet bluestone slope path upwards, and the majestic Wenfeng Pagoda is the best place to enjoy the scenery of Chao Lake. Legend has it that Jiao Yao climbed the pagoda to better visit Gushan, so it is also known as the Wang'er Pagoda. This pagoda was built in the fourth year of Ming Chongzhen, and the prefect of Luzhou, Yan Ergui, initiated the construction of four floors, and quit work due to the peasant uprising. In the fourth year of Qing Guangxu, Li Hongzhang advocated donations, and wu fen, an alternate road in Jiangsu, was commissioned to complete the construction of three floors. The tower has 7 floors, 133 steps, 51 meters high, tie stone blue brick structure, octagonal, layered cornices, hanging iron bells at each eaves, 802 brick carved Buddha statues, 25 plaque inscriptions. Because the tower was built to show the local cultural victory, it was named Wenfeng Pagoda. There is a folk song cloud: "The tip of the pagoda of Mushan is a tip, and the Luzhou capital is out of shape." "The tower body is composed of three parts: the outer wall, the gallery, and the center of the tower, which is very coincidental. The pagoda door is engraved with the word "cloud ladder", and its upper floor is majestic. Enter the tower, the door ladders are staggered, and the left and right turns are like entering the maze. There are stone plaques on all sides of the tower wall: "Wenguang Shooting Bucket", and wu Shufang of the Qing Dynasty "Mushan Song" stone carving. The tower decreases from the bottom to the top, spiraling upwards to the top of the tower. Inside the top of the tower, Li Hanzhang, the governor of Liangguang in the Qing Dynasty, inscribed a plaque with the inscription "Raising The Head is Near", and the whole mood of the tourists here and now. When people stand in the middle of it, they only feel the sound of the wind whistling, and the brass bells clang, like standing above the clouds. Leaning on the railing, the smoke waves are huge, and the water and sky are colorful. Everything in the world can be seen from the bottom of the eyes. The seven-level ancient tower is empty, and the ten thousand waves are welcomed, and the momentum is magnificent. The lake is spectacular. Climb the tower and look out of the window, but see the water and light, the waves cover the snow, the distant mountains are ethereal, the gulls and cranes fly together, making people fly happily, and the heart is relaxed; below it, the cliffs and waves, whenever the sunset is on the mountain, there is a mirage of wonders, only to feel ethereal.
Shengfei Temple, on Yangshan Mountain, one of the nine peaks of The Mountain, is built by leaning on the foothills of the mountain and looking at the lake, the temple is dedicated to the main lake goddess Divine Concubine, that is, Jiao Yao, so it is commonly known as "Xianmu Temple", also known as "Mushan Temple" or "Niangniang Temple". The temple was built at the end of the Han Dynasty, and the Jin Dynasty was enfeoffed as the "Sacred Concubine Temple". The Tang poet Luo Yin and the Song poet Jiang Kui both chanted poems about this temple, engraved on the pillars. Tang Luoyin's poem "DengshengMu Temple" states that "Lintang Ancient Temple is a god, and the embroidered flowers look like colors", which refers to this. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, when Li Hongzhang advocated the construction of Wenfeng Pagoda, he rebuilt this temple to build a temple with twelve brick and wood structures. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Chen Youran, a Hunan man, wrote: "Fu Yao Yang Kun Ling, photographing the light of the lake, directly tracing the mainstay; Ciyun Honghou Zai, looking at the thousands of sails, such as Dengtan Road less frightening waves."
Returning from the island, looking for a lakeside restaurant, drinking with friends in the lake light and twilight, talking with the villagers, and more appreciating the unique local style of Zhongmiao Town because of its unique geographical location and historical heritage.
As the saying goes: "Rely on the mountains to eat the mountains, rely on the water to draft water", for a long time, the rich aquatic resources of Chao Lake have made the villagers of the Middle Temple gradually form the habit of fishing for a living. Many of the people in the temple have fishing boats, and when they are farming, they cultivate the fertile land on the lakeside, and when the lake is opened, they go down to the lake to fish. On the east side of Zhongmiao Street, there is a water inlet, which is the harbor where the fishing boats of the Zhongmiao Temple are moored, and during the closed period, a large number of fishing boats are moored here to avoid the wind and waves, forming a spectacular scene of boats lined up one after another.
(Fishing boats lined up in the pond of the Temple)
There are various ways to fish in Chao Lake, there are large fishing boats, more is a kind of iron-hulled boat built on Zhongmiao Street, the stern is equipped with diesel engine-driven water wheels, and the large ones are equipped with two water wheel drives. This kind of boat movement is flexible, fast, the boat price is about 200,000 yuan, which is very suitable for fishing operations in Chao Lake. There are also some small rowing boats with human movement, and it is also very light to catch some small fish and shrimp in the lake. Fishermen here have some special tools for catching shrimp, mainly shrimp cages, cages, square cages and cages, etc., every year there is a certain period of time that fishermen can only catch white rice shrimp and can not catch fish, then these various shrimp cages will play a big role. In order to protect the fish resources of ChaoHu Lake, Chaohu Implements a six-month ban on fishing in the spring and summer of Chaohu Lake, during which most fishermen are busy with farming, and some devote their main energy to tourism and commercial services. With the increasing number of tourists in recent years, tourism business has gradually become an important source of income for villagers.
(Homemade fishing boats made by chinese temple fishermen)
From other places to the Temple of Tourism, first go through a torii, the archway is the Anhui Zhao Puchu inscription plaque: "The first victory of the lake sky", and then to a step, the locals call it "Eighteen", on the steps, is a naturally formed fish market, local fishermen here to sell a variety of fish and shrimp and crabs just caught, the price is significantly lower than the city market, wild and fresh is its selling point, the natural freshness of the lake fish is not to say; under the steps is a pedestrian street of Huipai buildings, the pedestrian street stretches out of the lake, Leading to the Middle Temple, there are a variety of shops on the pedestrian street, mainly in five categories: One is to sell fish and shrimp products caught in Chao Lake, such as white silk fish, small white fish, white rice shrimp, silver fish, noodle fish, knife fish, blue fish (also known as black carp), bighead carp, carp and other dried fish, these dried fish are made by fishermen themselves, some directly dried into dried fish, some with a small amount of sea salt lightly pickled, the processing of fish and shrimp is a very hard work, dirty and tired, fortunately in the local people for many years, the technique is quite skilled. The second is to sell local cultured pearl crafts, villagers buy pearl mussels from the local breeding factory, cut open and take out the pearls, according to the size and quality of different classifications, and then weave into a variety of pearl crafts, the price is very cheap, and there is no fake, very popular with tourists. The third is the restaurant that serves tourists. The characteristics of the restaurants here are different from other places, in that the main dishes are made of fish and shrimp fresh fish and shrimp that have just been caught from the lake, the author has tried several, the chef's skill level is quite good, coupled with the original ecological taste of the real materials of various lake fish and shrimp, its deliciousness is unbearable, long-term aftertaste. Fourth, all kinds of tourism crafts, a variety of colors to attract people to stop and linger. Fifth, various local specialties produced by the lakeside, such as farmers' homemade dried vegetable shoots, various local fruits, and newly baked hemp cakes, arouse the distant local feelings in the memory of tourists.
On the eastern side of the Zhongmiao Peninsula, on the tip of a smaller peninsula, there is also a white-clothed temple. The temple where female practitioners live and live, it is separated from the middle temple by a lake, and it seems to float in the lake. The author walked here, and what attracted the attention was the vegetable garden planted by the nunners, which flourished and was tender, and finally left with the desire to pick.
There are villas such as Country Garden and small high-rise residential areas newly built on the lakeside in recent years, and these newly built communities mostly extend along the shore of the lake and face the lake, which is a wonderful place for leisure and vacation. Recently, the local government is focusing on adjusting the commercial street environment around the Sunshine Pedestrian Street in Zhongmiao Town, and striving to make it a more beautiful water tourism resort town.
The twilight is getting thicker, the lakeside railing looks to the south, the sunset is sprinkled obliquely on the vast lake, reflecting the heavens and the earth, the lake light and shadow and the floating mountain between the lakes not far away, and the stars and dots of the boat shadow, constitute a magnificent colorful landscape picture, so that people immerse themselves in the ethereal and flexible atmosphere, enjoy the poetic dream realm, those chaotic world affairs and worries seem to go with the waves, full of mind only the warmth embraced by nature, only the unimpeded feelings of the unity of things and me rush in the brain, pervading between heaven and earth...
Supplement:
This article was written around 2012. Nowadays, the Middle Temple has been renovated and renovated, such as the renovation of the Li Gong Ancestral Hall, the construction of pavilions on the shore of the Eighteen Temples, and the rebuilding of the Baiyi Nunnery.
According to my check information, the small market parking lot on the eighteenth day, there was an ancient tower in ancient times, the ancients had a unique vision, the tower here is too suitable, but unfortunately the ancient tower no longer exists, and even the tower that once existed is rarely known.
The Huipai architectural complex of the backstreet of the Zhongmiao Peninsula is very beautiful, such as the combination with the boat pond to build a commercial street and scenic land, which is excellent and expects the commercial prosperity as soon as possible.