The most famous building in Jinci is the Notre Dame Hall, which was built during the Tiansheng period of the Song Dynasty (1023-1032 AD). The Holy Mother is said to be Yijiang, the mother of Ji Yu. The Notre Dame Hall was formerly known as the "Girls' Temple". The hall is spacious and spacious, and contains 43 exquisite painted sculptures of maids from the Song Dynasty (including 2 later sculptures). Among these painted sculptures, Yi Jiang is seated in the middle, with a solemn expression, graceful and luxurious, with a phoenix crown and a garland. An image of a palace ruler. The statues have lifelike images, vivid shapes, and different moods. They are precious materials for studying the sculpture art and costumes of the Song Dynasty. The Yunuma Flying Bridge, built in the Song Dynasty, is in the shape of a cross bridge, like a roc spreading its wings. It is located in front of the Notre Dame Hall. It is elegant and generous in shape and unique in shape. It is the only existing ancient bridge in China. The four iron figures on the Golden Man Terrace have heroic postures. Because iron is a metal, they are called the "Golden Man Terrace". The iron man in the southwest corner was cast in the fourth year of Shaosheng in the Northern Song Dynasty (AD 1097). It has a history of more than 800 years. Light is quite unique. It is said that one summer the weather was extremely hot, and the iron men in the southwest couldn't bear the unbearable pain. Walking to the Fen River alone, Iron Man was worried about how to cross the Fen River. While I was in a hurry, I suddenly saw a small boat sailing down the shore not far from the upstream. Iron Man hurried forward to greet him and asked the boatman to ferry him to the other side. The boatman pondered for a while, and then said slowly: "There are too few people to ferry you alone, but you can wait a little longer to see if there is anyone else." Iron Man was anxious and said quickly: "If you can ferry me alone, you will be counted as you." You have the ability." The boatman looked at Iron Man and said, "You can weigh more than one person in a boat, unless you are made of iron." As soon as the words fell, the true nature of Iron Man was revealed. In an instant, the iron man stood by the Fen River, motionless. Why didn't this man speak? The boatman looked up and saw an iron man standing in front of him. It looks so familiar, oh, isn't it? He is a master of Jin Ci. The boatman didn't dare to neglect, and quickly found some villagers to carry the iron man back to the golden platform. The Virgin ordered her generals to chop the Iron Man's toes three times as punishment for disobeying the commandments. Today's Iron Man still has marks on his feet from three consecutive cuts.
The clay sculptures of maids are from the Song Dynasty and are treasures in ancient Chinese sculpture art. There are 43 of them in total, making them the most famous works of art in the Notre Dame Temple. Yi Jiang sits in the middle, with a solemn expression, a phoenix crown and a garnet, and is graceful and luxurious, which strongly reflects the queen's appearance and style. Other colored sculptures of maids include some holding food and drink, some serving daily life, some playing music, singing and dancing, and some holding inscriptions and calligraphy, etc. Their figures are almost life-size. These attendants are all based on the Qin system of the Six Shang (Shang Guan, Shang Guan and Shang Shang (Yi, Shang Shi, Shang Mu, Shang Xi, Shang Shu), the Tang and Song dynasties followed its system, each had its own specialties, and no one had the same identity or personality. They are either resentful, melancholic, sulky or sad, with natural and lifelike expressions, handsome and lovely faces, vivid shapes and expressive eyebrows, expressing the strong dissatisfaction of the palace ladies who were imprisoned in the palace and suffered physical and mental torture. Its shaping technique breaks through the blandness of religious themes in ancient temples, and adopts realistic creative techniques to create characters with rich thoughts and emotions. It is a fine product of ancient Chinese clay sculptures and has extremely high artistic value.
The towering ancient tree Zhou Cypress, with old branches crisscrossing and intertwined roots, is located on the left side of the Notre Dame Hall. It is said to have been planted in the Western Zhou Dynasty, more than 2,700 years ago. The tree body has tilted about 40 degrees to the south, but it is still full of life. The two trees on the left and right were planted in the same year, so they are called Qinian Ancient Cypress. One is a long-standing cypress in the southwest of Dongyue Temple. It is 15-16 meters high and more than 2 meters thick. It looks like a rolling dragon and has leaves like dense clouds. It is tall and majestic. The other one is the Qinian cypress on the north side of the Notre Dame Hall. Unfortunately, one plant was cut down during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty. The remaining one, lying like a horned dragon, leans on the cypress and covers the left side of the Notre Dame Hall. Ouyang Xiu of the Northern Song Dynasty came to Jinci in the third year of Qingli (1043) and wrote a poem: "The herbs of the earth are still moist, and the ancient cypresses are thick with green smoke." Boshan, a famous calligrapher in the late Ming Dynasty, also left "The cypress of Jinyuan" beside the tree. "One Chapter" famous pen. Jinci Temple has many ancient trees. The oldest and most famous trees are the two cypress trees planted in the Zhou Dynasty and the three locust trees planted in the Han, Sui and Tang Dynasties.
The stele pavilion of the Tang Dynasty is the "Zhenguan Baohan" pavilion. The pavilion displays the inscription "Inscription and Preface of Jin Temple" written by Emperor Taizong Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty. There are more than 1,200 characters in the stele. The calligraphy is cursive, the bones are strong, the pen is powerful and subtle, and it has the charm of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy. It is a treasure of calligraphy art. On the right side of the Notre Dame Hall is the thousand-year-old tree "Wolong Zhou Cypress". The Hard-Lao Spring, commonly known as the "South China Sea Eye", comes from a faulted rock formation and has water flowing all year round. In the Northern Qi Dynasty, someone named it "The Hard-Lao Spring" based on the sentence "It's hard to grow old in Yongxi" in "The Book of Songs". Zhou Bai, Nanlaoquan and the Maid Statue are known as the "Three Wonders of Jin Temple".
Above the Nanlao Spring Pavilion of Jinci Temple, there is a jellyfish building, commonly known as the Dressing Building, also known as the Crystal Palace. Inside the building, there is a jellyfish statue made of copper and gold, sitting upright on an urn, with its hair untied and a calm expression. According to legend, Jellyfish, whose surname was Liu, was a virtuous man. He lived in Jinsheng Village near Jinci Temple and married into Jinci Temple as his daughter-in-law. Unfortunately, after her marriage, she was abused by her mother-in-law, who forced her to fetch water from a distant place every day. When carrying the water back, my mother-in-law only wants the front bucket, not the back bucket. This is called dirty, but in fact she is deliberately making things difficult. One day, Liu Nu was returning from carrying water. On the way, a horseman asked to borrow water for his horse to drink. Liu Nu happily agreed. When Liu Nu returned to pick up the load again, the man gave Liu Nu a golden riding whip and told her to put the riding whip in an urn and just lift it up slightly, the urn would be filled with water. Liu Nu went back and tried it, and it really worked.
This secret was soon discovered by Liu Nu's sister-in-law. One time, while Liu Nu was away at her parents' home, she picked up the riding whip from the urn. Suddenly, water rushed out of the urn. The flood will soon submerge the nearby villages... Liu Nu was combing her hair at her parents' home. After hearing the news, she came over and sat on the urn resolutely. The water suddenly became smaller, people were saved, and the jellyfish never left the water urn.
The south of Jinci Temple is called Fengsheng Temple. According to legend, it was once the villa of Yuchi Jingde, the general of the Tang Dynasty. At Fengsheng Temple, there is a stupa with a height of 38 meters and a seven-level octagonal shape. Near Fengsheng Temple, there is a giant locust tree, with old stems and tender branches, green and simple, unique. It is said that this locust tree has a long history and has long since dried up. I don’t know how many years have passed. By the 21st year of Qianlong’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1756), the 21st day of the third lunar month, there was a gathering in Fengsheng Temple, and people came and went. The bustle is extraordinary. It happened that there was an old Taoist priest selling plasters under the withered locust tree. He shouted: "The plaster works well and can cure all diseases. If you are lucky, come and buy it. If you are not lucky, you will not believe it." After hawking for a long time, no one bought his medicine. The old Taoist continued to sell: "Such a fairy medicine, no one comes to buy it, mortals are not blessed, and the withered locust tree is suitable for growth." After that, he put the plaster on the withered locust tree. He fluttered his sleeves and walked away. What a coincidence, in less than a month, this withered locust tree came back to life. The branches and buds are spreading, and they are very lush. When people saw this, they exclaimed that this dead locust tree was called the resurrection locust tree. In fact, as the saying goes: "Thousand-year-old cypresses, ten-thousand-year-old pines, and old locust trees sleep for hundreds of springs." The resurrection of this withered locust tree probably happened because it happened to wake up after sleeping for many years. Jinshui flows upstream from Zhibo Canal, which is the Nanlao Spring. The entire spring system forms a group of architectural combinations. Among them are seven holes and eight eyes of springs, the magical mainstay, Zhanglang Pagoda, Butie Zhou, Renzi Weir, Xierdong, Zhenqu Pavilion, the "Eye of the South China Sea" Nanlao Spring Pavilion, and then the Jellyfish Tower . Nanlao Spring is known as "the first spring in Jinyang". The spring water gushes out from the rock formations at the foot of Xuanweng Mountain, with an undercurrent of more than ten meters. It pours into the pond from the stone carved dragon mouth on the west bank of the pond. It looks like it is dancing in vain, but it sounds like The ensemble of harps and zithers constitutes the "Sound of the Hard-aged Spring", one of the eight scenic spots in Jinci Temple. It is the main spring of Jinshui, with a flow rate of 1.8 cubic meters. Ten holes in front of the source divide the water, and there are two canals in the north and south. Because it is crystal clear, warm in winter and cool in summer, flowing continuously, and growing all year round, someone in the Northern Qi Dynasty named it "Hard-Aging Spring" based on the famous line "It is difficult to grow old in Yongxi" in "The Book of Songs·Song of Lu". The Nanlao Spring water has irrigated thousands of hectares of fertile fields near Jinci Temple for generations, creating a fertile scene where "thousands of families are irrigating rice, and the fields in the south of the Yangtze River are everywhere". Because the spring water contains a variety of minerals, the water temperature is constant, and the water quality is excellent, the Jinci rice irrigated by Jinshui water is crystal clear, full of grains, fragrant in taste, and has an endless aftertaste. It is the best rice as famous as Tianjin Xiaozhan rice. Above the spring is the Jellyfish Tower built during the Tianbao period of the Northern Qi Dynasty. It has three rooms on the first floor with a corridor and three rooms on the second floor. It has a gable-shaped roof with a seated jellyfish and a maid inside.
There is also a touching legend about the origin of Nanlao Spring: It is said that in Jinsheng Village, twenty miles north of Jinci Temple, there was a girl named Liu who married into Gutang Village where Jinci Temple is located. Her mother-in-law abused her and never allowed her to return to her parents' home, forcing her to carry water every day. The water source is far from home and can only be carried once a day. My mother-in-law also had a bad temper. She only drank water from the bucket in front of her, deliberately making it more difficult to carry the water. She was not allowed to change shoulders and tortured her. One day, Mrs. Liu was halfway carrying water when she met an old man leading a horse and asked her to drink the water she carried. The old man's face was dusty and he seemed to have come from a long way, so Liu agreed without hesitation and handed the last bucket of water to the horse. But the horse seemed to be very thirsty. After drinking the last bucket of water, he also drank the previous bucket of water. This made Mrs. Liu very embarrassed: Let's carry it again, as it will get late and it will be too late to go back and forth; if we don't carry it, we will carry the empty bucket home, and we will be scolded and whipped by her mother-in-law. When he was hesitating, the old man gave Mrs. Liu a riding crop and asked her to take it home. As long as she whipped the riding whip in the urn, the water would naturally gush out and fill the urn. In a blink of an eye, the old man and the horse were gone. Mrs. Liu went home worriedly and tried the method, and it worked. She won't worry about it anymore. The mother-in-law saw that Mrs. Liu had not carried water for a long time, but the urn was always full, which was strange. I asked my sister-in-law to take a look and discovered the secret of whipping. Another day, her mother-in-law allowed Mrs. Liu to return to her parents' home for the first time. My sister-in-law whipped the urn with a whip, and the water spurted out and overflowed. My sister-in-law panicked and immediately ran to Jinsheng Village to find Mrs. Liu. Mrs. Liu was combing her hair. Before she could finish combing, she hurriedly bit a lock of hair into her mouth and ran back to Gutang Village. Without saying anything, she sat down on the urn. From then on, water flowed out from under Liu's body continuously for thousands of years. This is the "Spring of Hard Age".