Zhenjiang Jiaoshan Scenic Area is still relatively unfamiliar to many tourists. As a very popular local natural scenic area, it is very necessary to experience it. The environment inside the scenic area is quiet and tranquil, covered with green plants The rate is very high and it is an excellent tourist destination.
If today's Chinese people talk about the ancient cities of Jiangsu, the first thing they think of must be Nanjing's Dragon Panhuju and Suzhou's alleys. In fact, there are many famous ancient cities in the "Wu-Chu" land of Jiangsu.
In ancient Chinese cities, if there is the word "京" in the name, it must be a place with history and stories. In Jiangsu, there are at least two cities with the word "京" in their names. One is the old ancient capital Nanjing, and the other is called "Jingkou".
That’s right, it’s the Jingkou in Wang Jiefu’s poem “Jingkou is separated by water from Guazhou, and Zhongshan is only separated by several mountains.” Now, Jingkou has been renamed Zhenjiang.
Historically, Zhenjiang has been a very impressive city, and there have been countless epic and tragic stories in history. The hegemony of Soochow in Iron Urn City and the ambition of the emperors of the Southern Dynasties to "explore the north" have all written important chapters in Chinese history.
At the same time, Zhenjiang is also a low-key city. It is so low-key that many people are not familiar with many scenic spots in Zhenjiang. Thanks to the White Snake and Fahai, the world knows about Jinshan Temple. Thanks to Sun Quan, Liu Bei and Emperor Wu of Liang, Beigu Mountain is also well known
But it is a pity that Jinshan and Beigu Mountain are only famous " Two of the "Three Mountains of Zhenjiang", and the amazing Jiaoshan Mountain, one of the Three Mountains of Zhenjiang, seems to have been forgotten by the world. This is really a pity.
Jiaoshan is a small island in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It can't be said to be towering, but because it is independent from the middle of the river, it is indeed quite imposing. It is said that Jiaoshan was named after a hermit named Jiaoguang who lived there during the Han Dynasty.
I am not familiar with Jiaoguang. I checked a lot of information and found that Zhenjiang local chronicles and Zhenjiang Cultural Tourism have different descriptions of Jiaoguang, which is quite confusing. Of course, I am not very interested in Mr. Jiao Guang. There is nothing great about being a hermit in times of turmoil. I admire those who stand up and help the world in troubled times.
Compared with the hermit, I am more interested in Dinghui Temple at the foot of Jiaoshan Mountain. This Dinghui Temple was established during the Xingping period of the Eastern Han Dynasty and has a history of more than 1,800 years.
It turns out that this temple has come a long way from the depths of history, and has had many names after the changes of the past dynasties. It is said that Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty instructed the local monks to put the temple into the temple when he visited Jiaoshan. This temple was renamed "Dinghui Temple", and then the name of Dinghui Temple came into being. From then on, no one "challenged" Emperor Kangxi's opinion, so the name of the temple has been used to this day.
The word "Dinghui" comes from the Buddhist meaning of "Concentration arises from precepts, and wisdom arises from concentration" and "Silent illumination and integration, concentration and wisdom are equal". "Concentration" means getting rid of all selfish thoughts, not being confused or influenced by any external force, and being highly concentrated and focused; "wisdom" represents the growth of the three paths of "listening, thinking, and cultivation", seeing through logic and understanding the true meaning. wisdom. It can be said that the two words "Dinghui" are basically what Buddhists practice, and it is the highest realm that Buddhists hope for. Of course, this is just the superficial understanding of a vulgar person like me.
I am basically a layman when it comes to Buddhism, but I really, really like the Chinese classical architecture of Dinghui Temple. The main hall of Dinghui Temple is simple and elegant in shape, very solemn and solemn, and at the same time very smart and beautiful.
According to the monk on duty who explained it to me, the main hall of Dinghui Temple was built in the Qing Dynasty. Due to the high standards of design, construction and materials used, the structure of the house is very strong. It has not undergone major repairs for hundreds of years, which allows the hall to basically retain its appearance when it was first built.
The Arhat statues in the main hall are all antiques. Ancient people built houses that are national treasures. The towering roof with rainproof function is the top priority of the building. Inside the building, the ancients often used Some decorative building materials are used to shade the high tops of buildings.
In this way, the upper part of the originally empty room can be made more beautiful, and it can also increase the thermal insulation performance of the house. This kind of shielding component is called a ceiling. Generally, the interior of the building is flat.
In some large-scale buildings with "sufficiently deep" roofs, the ancients would use dome-shaped ceilings. Such ceilings are called "caissons". Only those higher-grade houses have such ceilings. Only then will they be decorated with gorgeous caissons. I noticed the caisson in the center of the main hall of Dinghui Temple, which is very spectacular and beautiful.
It is said that this "caisson" is exactly the same as the caissons in the three main halls of the Forbidden City in Beijing. What is even more commendable is that the shape of this caisson is not only a royal style, but also rarely seen in the Jiangnan area.
In addition to the main hall, the entire Dinghui Temple is also extremely large in terms of area. After all, Jiaoshan is a mountain, not flat land, and it is an island on the Yangtze River, so there is not much available land. It’s not a lot, but Dinghui Temple has made use of the limited land area to create a Buddhist holy land with well-proportioned layers.
After talking about the temple, there is another national treasure-level cultural relic on Jiaoshan Mountain that has amazed calligraphers for generations, and that is the famous cliff stone inscription "The Crane Inscription". "The Crane Inscription" is the original work of Jiaoshan Cliff. For thousands of years, it has become one of the holy places in the Chinese calligraphy community.
In a sense, if there had not been the "Inscription of Crane" of the Six Dynasties carved on the cliff, there would not have been calligraphers of later generations who would have traveled thousands of miles to Jiaoshan to inscribe it. Then there would be no famous "Jiaoshan Forest of Steles".
"The Crane Inscription" had a profound influence on later calligraphers and calligraphy of similar styles. Huang Shanshangu, a famous calligrapher in the Song Dynasty, called "The Crane Inscription" the "ancestor of large characters" and was recognized by calligraphy masters of all generations.
Chinese calligraphy has a history of more than 2,000 years. How many people can be called "ancestors"? This "Crane Inscription" is recognized by later generations as the "ancestor of large characters", which shows that it has an important role in China. It has a high status in the history of calligraphy.
Due to its long history, there is basically no evidence for the original situation of "痗 Crane Inscription". Based on the style of writing, the content of writing, and the style of wording, the academic community basically agrees that it is a relic of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
After the middle of the Tang Dynasty, "The Crane Inscription" began to appear in some books and works. Since the remains of the "Inscription of Crane" in the Song Dynasty were discovered due to the low water level of the Yangtze River during the dry season, calligraphers of all ages have spoken highly of it and considered it a "pinnacle" work of Chinese calligraphy.
The signature at the end of the Hehe inscription is "Written by Huayang Zhenyi, Zhengshu by Shanghuangshan Qiao". It has not yet been determined who the two authors and calligraphers are, and there is no relevant information in the existing historical materials. The records or clues have become an eternal mystery.