If there is a river, there should be a bridge. So there were people who built bridges. So there was Li Chun.
Of course Li Chun was not the first person to build a bridge. There have long been records of "Fuliang" in ancient Chinese books. The Ba Bridge on the Wei River outside Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty was also very famous. Even Li Chun was not necessarily the first person to build a bridge on the Mihe River. Maybe people had built pontoons, wooden bridges, or even stone bridges long before him.
But those bridges no longer exist. The combined force of floods and time has eroded them without a trace. However, the "oldest existing" laurel crown is fortunate to be worn by Li. On this exquisite stone bridge built in spring.
The reason why Zhaozhou Bridge stands out from many bridges before and after it and remains unique to this day is, according to experts, its scientific and reasonable structure, especially its four small shoulders. Arches, on the one hand, they reduce the weight of the bridge itself, on the other hand, they increase the discharge of flood water. This principle has long been promoted by bridge dyeing experts and everyone who has read elementary school textbooks for several years knows it. But when I stood by the river and looked at the rainbow-like Zhaozhou Bridge, I still had questions in my heart. What kind of wisdom made Li Chun, the bridge builder, come up with such a wonderful idea.
I don’t know if Li Chun and others have read Lao Tzu’s books. Maybe they have never even entered the school. However, the wisdom of Chinese philosophers has deeply infiltrated the mind and body of every Chinese through Laozi and Confucius. Isn't it? High and low are related to each other, existence and non-being are related to each other. Li Chun didn't actually apply Laozi's dialectical philosophy to his bridge building. He who built the bridge really fully understood the magical effect of nothingness. Only by making more space for the flood would the bridge itself gain a longer life. Therefore, there is no pier in the water of this bridge to stop the flowing water, so four small arches are added on both sides of the bridge. The Ba Bridge outside Chang'an City has disappeared, and many famous bridges in history have also disappeared in the floods. Only the Zhaozhou Bridge, after thousands of years of wind and rain, is still stably crossing the Mihe River.
When the stone bridge crossed the river lightly like a flying rainbow, Li Chun, the bridge builders, patted the stone chips on their bodies and packed the blunted chisels into their luggage. They actually forgot one thing, that is to carve their names somewhere on this great bridge so that their names can be as immortal as the bridge - these are the literati who are playing with the soft hair. What they dream about, their ancestor Confucius once said, "Establish morality and establish words." Didn't Sima Qian never forget to "hide a few of his books in famous mountains and pass them on to future generations"? ——No, Li Chun is the real wise man. They know that no matter how deeply they carve their names, there will be a day when they are eroded by wind and rain and finally blurred. What will never be erased is the memory of mankind, as long as this great As long as the works exist, their names will be immortal in people's word of mouth. Even if unfortunately their names are lost in the long river of history, they have no regrets. Their life is to build bridges, to build great bridges. As long as the bridge still exists and still transports pedestrians, their lives will not be in vain. It does not matter whether their names exist or not.
So the Li Chuns took one last look at their newborns, then picked up their bags and walked to the next Jindu with fast currents to continue their bridge-building business. Leaving a miracle and a string of myths on the Mihe River forever.
Two and a half centuries after the stone bridge over the Mihe River was completed, an old monk looked at this masterpiece and asked the young monk next to him what made the stone bridge. Telling him that it was Li Ying (I don’t know if Li Ying was a misinformation from Li Chunzhi or if someone really participated in the bridge building project), the old monk asked where he started building the bridge. The young monk was speechless. Yes, the old monk said with a smile, usually he always talks about stone bridges like this and stone bridges like that, but now when asked where to start, he doesn’t know why.
Where to start when building a bridge? This seemingly simple question actually has profound implications and is indeed difficult to answer. At the beginning of building the bridge, the first stone that the craftsmen put down casually may be clear to everyone at the time, but when the bridge is completed as a whole, this stone has been integrated into the many stones, and no one can anymore The difference is clear. From this stone, you can develop many philosophical thoughts. For example, the vast universe is composed of thousands of stars, but who can point out the speck of dust when the universe was first formed and chaos was first divided. For example, there are boundless Buddhist teachings and countless essences, but who can say what the Buddha thought of in that flash of lightning when he first realized enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. There was so much potential in this hypothetical question that the young monk found it difficult to answer. This old monk is the world-famous ancient Buddha of Zhaozhou.
Chieh was originally from Qingzhou, Shandong Province. After becoming a monk, he first studied Zen with Nanquan. After that, like all Zen monks, he traveled around the world and made great progress in his practice with eminent monks. When he was eighty years old and tired of the life of mango shoes and canes, he put down the burden that he had carried for many years and rested in the Guanyin Yuan beside the big stone bridge. He continued his philosophical thinking among the cypress shadows in the courtyard. When he was one hundred and twenty years old, he went to the Buddha's kingdom. During the decades when he presided over Zhaozhou Guanyin Temple, monks and laypeople from all over the world came to see the splendor of the ancient Buddha and listen to the monk's music. Each of his philosophical words turned into pearls, and it didn't take long for them to be spread to Zen forests and Buddhist temples everywhere for people to read.