Hidden Mt. Tiko

Twenty kilometers south of Jinan, there is a mountain, named Taijia. The main peak of Taijia Mountain is only more than 500 meters above sea level, which is not very high in the area around Jinan, but it is famous for strangling the throat of the three rivers (Jinxiu River, Jinyang River, Jinyun River), steep and elegant, and stained with royal qi.

Taijia is the fifth king of the Shang Dynasty, more effective, the history of "Yi Yin put Taijia" story happened to him, in the "History" is also recorded. Legend has it that after Taijia died, he was buried on the top of King Kang, the main peak of Taijia Mountain. With some curiosity, on the morning of August 29, 2015, our group landed on Mount Taijia.

We started the climb from the northwest corner of the mountain. At this time, it is the ripening season of peppercorns, and there are many wild peppercorn trees on the hillside, one here, one bush there, and the red and bright green bean-like peppercorns are covered with trees, which is also a beautiful scenery on the mountain. As I picked the peppercorns, I climbed the mountain to enjoy the scenery, and by the time I climbed up the ridge, the peppercorns in my pants pocket were already bulging. Everyone was picking the fruits on the ridge, and their faces were beautiful.

There are also many sour date trees on the side of the road, some sour dates have been red, most of them are still green, and everyone is picking up mature tastes while climbing the mountain, which is also interesting.

After enjoying the scenery on the ridge for a while, we climbed several not very high mountains to the east, and finally reached the highest peak of Mount Taijia - Kangwang Peak.

I asked the donkey friends around me, who knows where the Taijia Tomb is? They were all dazed and didn't even know. Legend has it that before his death, Taijia looked after this feng shui treasure land on the banks of the south spring under The Taijia Mountain, but his helpless son Woding was a very stubborn person, telling him to go east and him to the west, telling him to beat the dog and pick the chicken, so when he made a will, he said the opposite and asked his son to bury him on the top of the mountain. Unexpectedly, the son's conscience found that he had not listened to a word from Lao Tzu in his life, and when Lao Tzu died, he would listen to it once, so he buried him on the top of the mountain according to Lao Tzu's will, which is now the top of King Kang. But on top of King Kang, in addition to the vast barren grass and dense forest, where is the shadow of half a royal tomb? Is Taijialing the whole mountain? Obviously not. If in a certain place, the tomb of the emperor of the Tang Dynasty did not even have any relics, it was really impossible to say. However, some locals said that several robbery caves were found on the top of King Kang, which were obviously the work of tomb robbers, and they do not know when they appeared, and now the robbery caves have been obliterated by wild grass and shrubs. Besides, who is this King Kang? Is it Taijia? Taijia does not have this title. Could it be Zhao Zhao, the King of Kang of the Southern Song Dynasty? It doesn't seem to be an edge either. There is no authoritative account of the origin of Kang Wangding, and it is still a mystery.

There are several statues of Moya in the Sui and Tang Dynasties on the north slope of King Kangding, which are said to have a high artistic standard and are worth seeing. Because we had just ascended to the top of Kang Wang, we were a little tired, so only a few people were willing to go down the mountain to have a look.

In about twenty minutes or so, we descended to the statue of Moya. There are three statues of various sizes, and the irregular inverted "pin" characters are distributed on the cliff stone walls. The lowest one is slightly larger, sitting, with adults within reach of The Buddha's feet. The two statues above are slightly smaller, one is a sitting posture, the other is a standing posture, more than three or four meters above the ground. Although the statue has passed through thousands of years, it is still full of images and vivid. The Buddha standing on the left side above, with the palm of his right hand facing outward and his left hand at his knee, is more unique. As for what is the exquisite gesture of standing Buddha, I don't know much. I searched for textual introductions on the stone walls around the statue, but found nothing. I think that who is on the cliff in this desolate wilderness, and why these three Buddha statues are carved, these are also mysteries. It is gratifying that although the Buddha statue has experienced generations of wars and wars, especially after escaping the "Cultural Revolution", it is fortunate that it has not been destroyed.

Overlooking the mountain from the statue, there was originally a temple called Nanquan Temple not far away. But the South Spring is still there, and the temple no longer exists, only a pavilion remains. Because we went down the mountain, we did not go, and after seeing the statue, we returned to the top of the mountain and continued to the east.

Climbing up another mountain, only to see that there is an isolated mountain not far to the north is very strange, and the distant view is like a round hat, and it is like an inverted oil basket, which is the oil basket peak. At first glance, you can see that nature is very magical, and the wonders of creation are often incredible. The summit is steamed bun-shaped and covered with pines. I guess that these trees are certainly not artificially planted, because the trees are surrounded by upright cliffs tens of meters high, and further down are steep slopes with dense plants and weeds, and it is very difficult for people to climb them with their bare hands, let alone plant trees. Looking at the mountain from the southeast, it is a bit elliptical, it is really "horizontally looking into the peak of the ridge side, far and near the height are different"! On the southeast edge of the mountain, a stone pillar stands close to the edge of the peak, as if a man were standing under the brim of his hat to avoid the rain.

Leaving The Oil Basket Peak, we continued east along the ridge, climbing up another hill where we began to descend. The slopes on both sides of the valley are densely covered with green trees, and occasionally I hear the chirping of autumn insects and grasshoppers in the bushes, and I sigh in my heart: It's autumn again! I was sighing, and suddenly I heard someone shouting in front of me, so cool! It turned out to be a transparent hole. As soon as I reached the mouth of the cave, before anyone had entered the cave, I felt a fresh breeze coming straight at me, blowing people very comfortably, and the sweat on my body disappeared instantly. Two or three of us were standing at the entrance to the cave unwilling to enter the cave. Some people reminded me not to stand on the wind outlet for too long, which is called piercing the hall wind and hurting people. I went into the hole and looked closely, the hole was not deep, about seven or eight meters high, three or four meters high, more than ten meters wide, like a bridge hole. Looking up at the top of the cave, like a half bracket, there is no trace of artificial excavation, and the magic of nature is very amazing. The bottom of the cave is messy with some rocks, the blocks are relatively large, obviously this cave is naturally formed after the collapse of the mountain. As for when the hole was formed, it is not known.

At about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, we had lunch and were resting under the cave, when we suddenly saw that the sky was dark, and there seemed to be a faint thunder, so everyone did not dare to slacken off and hurried down the mountain.

September 2015

About author:Song Wendong, pen name Qi Niu, Baimai Zhai Lord, Shandong Laiyang people. He is a member of Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association. His works have appeared in Qilu Evening News, Shandong University of Finance and Economics Daily, Shandong Workers Daily and other newspapers and periodicals. He is the author of the essay collection "The Alley in the Hometown" and the travelogue "Walking Manji".

One point old cow walking comic

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