The legend of Cangjie Tomb

Source: Weinan Daily

Wang Xiaowen

Anyone who goes to Baishui to pay homage to the Cangjie Temple must go to the Cangjie Tomb, which is located behind the temple.

This ancient tomb near Cangjie Hand Cypress, which has experienced nearly 5,000 years of historical wind and rain, has been listed as a national security cultural relic, and is still majestic and tall, lush and vibrant, and still has many beautiful legends. I have here a few legends and stories that have been sorted out for everyone to enjoy.

The Yellow Emperor personally selected a tomb for Cangjie

The credit of Cangjie's character creation is really great. The Yellow Emperor specially gave Hou Gangjie, whose surname was Hou Gangjie, the surname cang, and hou gangjie was called Cangjie from then on. Originally, the ancient character for Cangchang was "倉", with a human character on the top and a Jun character on the bottom. The Yellow Emperor thought that Cangjie's merit in creating characters was too great, greater than his own, so he used the jun on the one person and the next jun to evaluate Cangjie's great contribution. But Cangjie was a very wise and humble man. He considered himself a very ordinary grass dweller. Therefore, he added a grass head to the barn character to become Cang, and the two words were common. This is generic and has clear comments in many dictionaries.

After the success of Cangjie's character creation, in order to reward Cangjie's great merits in making characters, the Heavenly Emperor sent the gods to seek Cangjie's opinion and ask cangjie what he loved and what he wanted. Regardless of the gold and silver treasures, as long as Cangjie opened his mouth, the Heavenly Emperor would be satisfied. But Cangjie, who had been the leader of the Yangwu tribe, knew that at that time, farming was initial, grain production was very low, hunger still threatened the people in his hometown, and solving the people's food was the top priority. So he told the Heavenly Emperor, "What gold, silver, treasure, glory and wealth, are not important to me, I just want my father and elder in my hometown to eat enough and not starve." After the gods listened, they reported to the Heavenly Emperor truthfully. After hearing this, the Heavenly Emperor thought that Cangjie's idea was very good, so he sent a rain of grain to The Yangwu Kingdom in Cangjie's hometown to relieve the people's famine.

The day when the Heavenly Emperor rained on the valley became the later Guyu Festival, and it also became the day when the hometown people sacrificed Cangjie. It is now listed by UNESCO as Chinese Language Day. Many of the village names in Cangjie's hometown still retain the afterglow of celebrating the rain in the valley of the heavens. Such as He Su, Fengle, Shouju, etc., He Su is to celebrate the rainy day, Fengle is the joy of harvest, and Shouju is the earliest to get the satisfaction of rain millet.

In order to reward Cangjie, the Yellow Emperor also did two major things: One was that during Cangjie's lifetime, the Yellow Emperor mobilized many tribes and personally presided over the construction of a stone tower high into the clouds to improve Cangjie's living conditions and meet cangjie's tibetan characters. Although the stone buildings have been in tatters after thousands of years of wind and sun, the ruins are still visible. Every year, many tourists still like to visit the stone tower, and another thing is to choose a tomb for Cangjie.

He did not inform Cangjie of this matter in advance. At this time, Cangjie was running around with his subordinates, busy creating and disseminating words. The Yellow Emperor ordered the feng shui masters, with a few trusted ministers, to run all over the Yellow River and Wei River valleys, over ninety-nine mountains, across ninety-nine rivers, but they did not find a satisfactory place. Later, when they walked to Cangjie's hometown in the Luo River Valley, climbed to the top of Huanglong Mountain, looked south, and immediately saw this feng shui treasure land near the water, so they decided to build a yin house for Cangjie here. Cangjie was very grateful after learning about this incident, and was determined to repay the Yellow Emperor's kindness with greater contributions, he worked harder, fought more for time, created more new characters, and spread them to more people farther away.

According to the will of the Yellow Emperor, Cangjie was buried here after Cangjie's death. Later, there were many moving legends here, such as the cypress that grew on the top of his tomb.

After Cangjie was buried, a cypress tree grew on the top of the tomb. The cypress tree grew quickly and tall, with branches sticking out in all directions. Curiously, the growth of this branch is different every year, sometimes withering, sometimes exuberant, rotating from year to year, people call it turning cypress. At first, it didn't catch everyone's attention. According to legend, Cangjie once told people to dream: I was blessed by the Yellow Emperor and enjoyed the best feng shui treasure in my hometown, and behind me there was only gratitude and could not repay. I put my soul on this cypress tree and used the branches to predict the year to everyone. It is also said that if anyone learns well, the wind and rain will be smooth and the grain will be abundant; if the party does not learn well, the heavens will have less rainfall, increase drought, and reduce production. Legend has it that there was a family in a nearby village, the son was not filial piety, the parents were angry to death, so the cypress leaves in this direction withered and dried up, and there was a lack of rain for 3 years, and the crop yield was reduced a lot. The villagers understood the reason, severely criticized and condemned the children of the family, and took this as an example to carry out respect for the elderly education in the whole village, which greatly changed the village style, and later the wind and rain were smooth. There is also a village, where the dead branches of the cypress are turned, and there has been a drought for many years. It turned out that gambling was a common practice in this village, and theft was a common practice. After knowing these circumstances, the elders in the village came forward and said that they wanted the children to respect Cangjie, love to learn, take the right path, and change the village style. Since then, the myth of the turning branch cypress has spread, and people everywhere have competed to learn to do good deeds, read and learn words, plant crops diligently, strive for smooth wind and rain, resurrection of dead branches, and good harvests in good years. The cypress of Cangjie's tomb has become a sacred tree, and it has become a behavioral teacher who teaches people to learn well.

General Zhu Qinglan funded the repair of the tomb wall

All those who have visited the Cangjie Tomb are attracted and impressed by the exquisite walls of the Cangjie Tomb. The wall is 3 meters high and has 7 faces and 8 velvety doors. The design is magnificent, the work is fine, although after more than 80 years, it is still as clean as ever. Especially in the east and west doors, the carving is gorgeous, the pattern is exquisite, and the calligraphy with profound meaning and flying dragon and phoenix is more solemn, elegant and literary.

When it comes to the construction of this wall, there is really a moving story. This wall was built in 1939, when the anti-Japanese flames were raging, and was completed thanks to the advocacy and funding of General Zhu Qinglan.

Zhu Qinglan (1874-1941), Ziziqiao, a native of Licheng, Shandong, whose ancestral home was Shaoxing, Zhejiang. After leaving politics in 1925, he devoted himself to social charity and relief. He has made great contributions to the rescue and protection of Famen Temple and the rescue and protection of many cultural relics in Xi'an. The construction of the wall of Cangjie Tomb is an example. This wall was inspected by him in the Huanglong Reclamation Area, passing through the Cangjie Temple to pay homage to Cangjie, and when he visited the temple, he found that the Cangjie tomb was desolate, that is, he had a heart of compassion. Immediately in the autumn of war and turmoil, at a time of difficulty, he generously donated more than 800 oceans and handed them over to Zhao Zijian and others in Baishui Township to build a wall and protect the Holy Sepulchre. At the same time, he also personally wrote two couplets, carved into the east and west doors of the tomb wall, respectively, and made an accurate and high evaluation of cangjie's merits and the status of cangjie's tomb. The couplet of the east gate is: "Painting Gua re-opening the ancestors of the characters, knotting the rope to create a new bird and worm book", which tells the history and great deeds of Cangjie in creating the text and finally ending with the knotted rope; the Ximen couplet is "Yusu felt the Heavenly Emperor in that year, and the same Wen Yongshi was paired with the Bridge Tomb", indicating two meanings: First, Cangjie's merits touched the Heavenly Emperor, and a grain rain was rained to reward Cangjie's merits. The second is the relationship between the Cangjie Tomb and the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, "tongwen Yongshi with the bridge mausoleum", which shows that the Cangjie tomb is the companion mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum, which is in line with China's ancient burial ceremony, the subject accompanies the king, and the monarch accompanies the emperor. In fact, there is another layer of meaning here, that is, who can be qualified to be the king's companion, naturally it is the meritorious, the virtuous and the high-ranking. Cangjie, who made the character, meets this condition, and the Cangjie tomb is fully qualified and should accompany the Yellow Emperor's mausoleum forever.

General Zhu Qinglan also inscribed two horizontal batches, the east gate is "Tongde" and the west gate is "similar situation.". It shows that the arrangement of cangjie tomb is the virtue of heaven and earth, the love of all things, and further emphasizes the status of Cangjie tomb, which is in line with the hearts of the people of heaven and earth. Cangjie Tomb has been repaired and protected by Zhu Qinglan's donations, and the inscription has been donated, which has added incomparable brilliance, which is really a bit of a magic of stone into gold, attracting great interest from pilgrims and tourists from all over the world, and becoming the most interesting place for Cangjie Holy Temple. It has also become a monument to this patriot. Unfortunately, in 1941, General Zhu Qinglan died in Xi'an due to overwork, and was forever buried in the land of Sanqin.

The story of protecting the tomb of Cangjie

Since General Zhu Qinglan, the Cangjie tomb has been well protected, not only has a tall wall, but also a gate for the east and west of the wall, the door leaf is hard in wood, the material is thick, the nails and palladium are strong, and there are usually special guards, not a big thing, not easy to open. Today, the legends and stories of tombs and walls have become the most talked about by explainers and the most touching places for tourists.

This article is from [Weinan Daily] and only represents the author's views. The National Party Media Information Public Platform provides information dissemination services.

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