The towering Qinwang Mountain is like a stream of water. Standing on the small Wuyun Bridge, facing the breeze blowing from the deep valley of Qinwang Mountain, I can't help but feel excited and excited.
The idea of ????looking for Yunmen Temple came about two or three years ago. Because I studied Wang Xizhi's "Lanting Preface" and copied the running script of "Lanting Preface" (Xu Suiliang's copy), I naturally learned something about the history of the "two kings" in the history of Chinese calligraphy - Wang Xizhi and his son Wang Xianzhi. learn. Wang Xianzhi's ancestral home is Linyi, Shandong, and he was born in Shaoxing. Later, he lived in Pingshui, about 15 kilometers away from Shaoxing City, in a mountain bend with Qinwang Mountain as his back and facing Ruoye River. The current name of this place is Silitou, and it is only two or three miles away from my hometown village in a straight line. Because we are separated by a mountain and it is inconvenient to travel, I have never been to the temple in the twenty years I have lived in my hometown since I was a child. Now that we know that there is this cultural holy land at our doorstep, how can we not visit and pay homage to it? Just because every time I go back to my hometown, I come and go in a hurry, so going to Yunmen Temple has always been an unfulfilled wish.
The Yunmen Temple ruins are located to the north of Siqian Village, where the former Pingjiang Town Government was located, echoing the Pingshui River Reservoir Dam. Turn from the main road to the north of Siqian Village into a side road, and a mile or two ahead is the ruins of Yunmen Temple. According to the information I have read in advance, the scale of Yunmen Temple in history was very large. On the more than one mile road from the sidewalk to the ruins at the bottom of the valley, there were several stone archways built in ancient times such as "Yunmen Ancient Temple" and "Zhuoli Yunmen". There are also the famous "Biancai Pagoda" and "Ligu Pavilion" beside the road. The Biancai Pagoda was built by Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, while the Ligu Pavilion contains poems praising Yunmen left by poets from past dynasties. Unfortunately, this is just a historical record.
When the car approaches Silitou Village, it has to pass through a road pavilion. This pavilion is like a mountain gate, standing there quietly, like a hospitable host, waiting here quietly. The road pavilion was built with donations from villagers, and two poems were inscribed on the white wall. This makes me respect the villagers here’s spirit of worshiping literature. Passing through the road pavilion, you can see green mountains, luxuriant forests and bamboo trees; here there are waves of pines and waves, and the environment is quiet and peaceful, like a paradise. The sound of gurgling water made us look forward, and we saw a small bridge spanning the stream. The two sides of the bridge were covered with vines. I leaned out and looked out. There was a very regular arc under the bridge. Judging from the degree of weathering of the bridge stones, this bridge has a long history. The signboard beside the bridge reminds that this is Wuyun Bridge and is a cultural relic protection unit.
Standing on the bridge and looking forward, there is already a dense area of ??new farmhouses. An enthusiastic villager said that the location of this small village was Yunmen Temple in ancient times. The yellow wall exposed in the center of the village was roughly the center of Yunmen Temple.
The mountain village is so quiet. Between the green mountains and the fields in front of the village is a sleeping history. According to some information, there were five entrances to Yunmen Temple in the past: Shanmen, Weituo Hall, Main Hall, Dharma Hall, and Zen Hall. In addition to the main temple, there are also subsidiary temples such as "Kanjing Temple", "Shaoshi Temple (Confession Hall)", "Guangfu Temple", and Guangxiao Temple. Yunmen Temple is built near the mountain, covering an area of ??13,300 square meters. At its peak, it had more than 200 halls and rooms. According to Lu You's "Yunmen Shousheng Yuan Ji": "Yunmen Temple has been famous all over the world since the Jin and Tang Dynasties. The elders said that in the old days, it was surrounded by mountains and rivers, with towers and towers, leaning on rocks and crossing ravines, with gold and jade flying... Tour sightseeing "I am tired every day and often cannot get out." This shows the grandeur of Yunmen Temple. In the 19th year of the Republic of China (1930), there were more than 200 monks. In the 32nd year of the Republic of China, some temple buildings were burned by the Japanese invaders. In 1949, there were 22 monks. In 1951, the temple buildings were abandoned and converted into residential buildings. The reason why this small village is called "Temple" is probably because it was built on the ruins of Yunmen Temple. The village in front is called "Siqian Village", which must be related to the name of Yunmen Temple.
The real charm of Yunmen Temple, in my opinion, is due to the cultural allusions here. According to some biographies: Wang Xianzhi (the seventh son of Wang Xizhi), the great calligrapher of the Jin Dynasty, once lived in seclusion here and practiced calligraphy hard. The original "Lanting Preface" written by his father Wang Xizhi, "the best running script in the world", has also been preserved here for a long time. One night in the third year of Emperor An's Yixi reign (AD 407), colorful auspicious clouds suddenly appeared on Wang Xianzhi's roof. Wang Xianzhi reported the matter to the emperor. Emperor An of the Jin Dynasty learned of this and issued an edict to rename Wang Xianzhi's old residence "Yunmen Temple". . Since "Yunmen Temple" got its name, it has a history of more than 1,700 years and is one of the oldest ancient temples in China. Yunmen Temple occupies an extremely important position in the history of Chinese Buddhism.
During the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing, and the Republic of China, all the previous abbots were eminent monks at that time. Sun Zhiyong, the seventh generation of Wang Xizhi, also became a monk here and created the "Eight Methods of Yongzi" in calligraphy. Zhiyong had an apprentice named Biancai, who was also a famous calligrapher. When Zhiyong was dying, he passed "Lanting Tie" to Biancai. Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, was obsessed with calligraphy. He wanted to obtain the authentic copy of "Lanting Preface", but he couldn't get it, so he sent his confidant Xiao Yi to disguise himself and sneak into Yunmen Temple. He planned to steal the calligraphy from Biancai and give it to Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. According to legend, this authentic "Lanting Preface" later became a burial object for Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the calligraphy post of "Lanting Preface" that we are studying now is actually a copy of Yu Shinan or Chu Suiliang of the Tang Dynasty.
The three of us walked towards that section of the yellow wall. This yellow wall is actually a corner of a small temple built by local people at the core of Yunmen Temple.
The first entrance of the small temple is dedicated to the God of Wealth Bodhisattva, and the second entrance is the Mahavira Hall, which looks no different from many temples. When I walked to the end of the east wing of the second entrance, I saw a small sign on the wall that read "Wang Xianzhi, a calligrapher of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, washed inkstones", and my heart became excited. Because this inkstone washing pool is recorded in ancient books, fortunately it has been preserved. Looking in along the sign, there is indeed a 23-meter-square pond. The sides of the pond are stacked with stone strips. The water in the pond is a little turbid. An old wine jar stands quietly on the side of the step. The loofah trellis planted by the villagers was reflected in the water. I looked at the pond again and again. There seemed to be a reflection of Wang Xianzhi washing his brushes in the hazy water. Of course, this could only be an illusion. The branches and dead leaves of the loofah vine by the pond were reflected in the water. , making the water surface look like an ink painting just painted by an artist.
Coming out of the inkstone washing pool, I suddenly made a new discovery. On the wall of the wing, there is a stone tablet. Could this be the monument "Recruiting for the Construction of Yunmen Temple"? But we saw that the stele was about 1.5 meters high and about 70 centimeters wide. It was gray-black in color. It was surrounded by white tiles in a circle and covered with a glass frame. Although this protection measure is simple, it is practical. The glass was covered with some dust, and when I wiped it off gently, I found that the words inside were off-white, but still clearly legible. The inscription was written vertically, ***18 lines, divided into four parts. I looked at the inscription on the inscription with excitement. The title was indeed "Recruitment" "Repairing Yunmen Temple". It is said that "Recruiting for the Construction of Yunmen Temple" was written by Wang Siren, a native of Shanyin (now Shaoxing) in the Ming Dynasty, imitating the style of "The Preface to the Holy Religion", recording the history and construction of Yunmen Temple, and was written by Fan Yunlin, a calligrapher and painter at that time. Judging from the font, I feel that it has the characteristics of Wang Xizhi's running script, and the characters such as "raise", "xiu" and "ji" are similar in form and spirit.
Coming out of the temple and looking into the distance from the main entrance, you will see large golden rice fields in the distance and the Pingshui River Reservoir Dam standing on the Ruoye River in the distance, which is so refreshing. I firmly believe that in ancient times, when there was no reservoir, the sparkling waves of Ruoye Creek could be seen from this location.
Later, we wandered around the village road in Silitou Village and made some more discoveries. On the wall foundations of some villagers' houses, and even on the earthen walls of the small huts where chickens and ducks are kept, broken stone strips with carved characters or patterns can be found, and there are also some ancient stone slabs paved on the road. This can't help but make people think that these stone slabs come from the ruins of the ancient Yunmen Temple and are really cultural fragments of the Yunmen Temple.
When our group returned, I saw the Wuyun Bridge and the Wuyun River under the bridge. I saw a village woman washing freshly dug sweet potatoes by the stream in the crystal clear water, while a big yellow dog stood quietly next to its owner. It was such a picture of a village woman washing her hands. The stream is gurgling and the grass is green. Although it is impossible to hear the pure and distant bells of the ancient Yunmen Temple here today, and it is difficult to find the grandeur of the ancient Yunmen Temple, the fragrance of culture will always linger here. ?
?Original on October 7, 2013