In Luofu Mountain, Huizhou, Guangdong, you are likely to see a scene like this: hundreds of vermilion stone carvings, distributed on strange rocks inside and outside the scenic area, hidden deep in Luofu Mountain’s eighteen caves, Tianxiu Valley, secluded rocks and famous waterfalls and springs in the surrounding stone walls. These stone carvings may be the names of scenery, or they may be poems and articles, but there are no signs or explanations around them, so they are easily ignored. In fact, these are the cliff carvings of Luofu Mountain, a cultural relic protection unit in Guangdong Province. The more than 230 stone carvings are basically more than a hundred years old, and the earliest ones can even be traced back to the Song Dynasty thousands of years ago.
Current situation
Lack of signs unknown to outsiders
Cliff carving is a stone carving art in ancient China, which refers to the calligraphy, statues or rock paintings carved on the cliff walls. , with exquisite carving skills and rich historical connotations.
According to the "Boluo County Chronicle", there are more than 2,000 stone carvings on the cliffs of Luofu Mountain. However, due to the age, many stone carvings have been difficult to find. According to Tang Xiaowen, director of the Cultural Management Office of the Luofu Mountain Scenic Area Management Committee, there are about 230 existing cliff carvings in Luofu Mountain, which were listed as Guangdong Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units in 1989.
Tang Xiaowen introduced that stone carvings have a long history. The oldest known stone carvings of "Changshou Stream" are from the second year of Emperor You of the Song Dynasty (1050 AD), and were inscribed by Guangdong Prison and Dr. Taichang Wu Zai. ; The largest existing stone carving of "Luofu" is as tall as a person and was carved during the Chunxi Jihai period of the Song Dynasty (1179 AD); in addition, countless cultural celebrities such as Zhan Ruoshui, the three ministers of the Ming Dynasty, and Qiu Fengjia, the Taiwanese patriotic poet of the Qing Dynasty, have Come here to visit and check in.
Tracing its origins
Thousand-year-old literary names are no longer cold in stone carvings
Bao Guotao introduced that in the past, Luofu Mountain was known as "the first mountain in Lingnan", and it was a Taoist advocating Nishui Holy Mountain is also an important node on the Lingnan Maritime Silk Road. Buddhism has since been introduced to South China. As the country's economic center moved south, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and Zhan Wang Xinxue came in droves during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Luofu Mountain became a place where Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism intertwined, and it was "called the deep valley of Lingnan". The more literati there were, the more natural stone carvings there were.
"The cold reception of the cliff carvings in Luofu Mountain can be said to be the epitome of the cold reception of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism." Bao Guotao said that the influence of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in Luofu Mountain has continued to decline. After the reform and opening up, The local development of Luofu Mountain and its ruins cannot be sustained. Its status as a cultural holy place will never return, and the attractiveness of the cliff carvings will naturally decline.
"To revitalize and utilize the cliff carvings of Luofu Mountain, we must first revitalize Luofu Mountain." Bao Guotao said that he suggested holding more academic forums, publishing books, inviting domestic and foreign media to promote it, and using VR, animation Use multiple methods to tell good stories.
Outlook
Create immersive products
"The stone carvings left by literati of the past dynasties are actually public cultural brand materials." South China Institute of Technology Professor Wu Zhicai, director and professor of the University's Guangdong Tourism Strategy and Policy Research Center, suggested that the first step should be to excavate and protect the materials, and secondly to transform the materials into tangible forms, such as transforming stone poems, stories, and relics into cultural and creative products; finally, let the cliff stone carvings contain Spiritual culture is combined with Huizhou city to form a large-scale cultural industry cluster.
"To be honest, no matter how long a history of a stone carving is, it is a stone carving that you can leave after just two glances. It is a traditional tourist attraction and must create a cultural product with an immersive experience." Wu Zhicai said , if the stories behind the cliff carvings can be told well so that there are things to see, play, and buy, there will be a lot of potential in the future.
Wu Zhicai said that only by telling the story of stone carvings can a strong gathering force and a relatively complete chain be formed. At the specific operational level, Huizhou’s previously launched historical and cultural trails, greenways and other products are starting points. Wu Zhicai said that it is necessary to hold more cultural activities, create an industrialized model, build IP brand culture, and form a highland for cultural consumption.
"It is recommended that the government, civil society and social groups play their role to make stone carving culture related to ordinary citizens and create cultural consumer products that can be enjoyed by both the host and the guest."
Observe the present and learn from the past.
p>A brief discussion on the stone carvings on the cliffs of Luofu Mountain
Text/He Qiwen
The ancients carved historical events, psychological activities, poems and songs into stones and hid them in Luofu for posterity. . They are not only the totem of Luofu Mountain and my spiritual home, but also the source of motivation that drives me to overcome obstacles time and time again in my work.
Cliff carvings are also known as gold and stone. According to the "Biography of Emperor Mu", "The emperor then drove up to Mount Yan, and left no trace of the rocks and locust trees on Mount Yan." This is the earliest stone carving record in China, dating back more than 3,000 years. Cliff carvings flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties and continued until the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The beauty of Luofu makes people look up and down, and it must be carved into stone to show its elegance. Daozong Ge Hong, literary giant Su Shi, Neo-Confucianists Zhan Ruoshui and Pang Song, politicians Ye Chunji and Qiu Fengjia, calligraphers and painters Xie Lansheng, Huang Peifang, Qin Jiesheng, social activist Li Yingzhong, and countless officials, literati, and tourists. Unable to avoid customs, they all wrote their own "personal signatures" on the rocks scattered throughout the peaks and valleys.
The cliff carvings of Luofu Mountain are an important part of Guangdong's ancient documents and calligraphy art. They have extremely important reference value for us to understand the culture and development history of Luofu Mountain. In terms of quantity, more than 230 titles have been found so far; in terms of calligraphy style, there are all kinds of styles including seal script, official script, regular script, running script, and cursive script; in terms of specifications, some are small but large, and have their own world; The wall of the Ax Mountain was chiseled to make a large character. There are characters, lyrics, poems, articles, notes, biographies, or poems, all of which are eye-catching and of great value for research and protection.
At that time, "No one in the world was more prosperous in giving lectures than Luofu." The Confucianism of Luofu Mountain was once proud of the mountains due to Zhan Ruoshui, Pang Song and others, and it also made Luofu Mountain the proud cultural label of the three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. However, time has changed, and the Tao of Luofu is now represented by Chongxu, Huanglong, and Sumin, and Huashou, Nanlou, and Yanxiang are the benchmarks of Shishang. Only Confucianism has few traces of history, which is regrettable. The author once found a stone tablet engraved with Pang Song's name in front of Huanglong Temple, and several crosses were vaguely identifiable. However, today's people are blind and blind, allowing them to lie down and look in front of them, reduced to stone steps. Ironically, in order to make pilgrimages to this modern temple, the real monuments have been stepped on again and again by tourists.
When looking at the present, it is advisable to learn from the past, as the present cannot be achieved without the past. If the tourists are not at fault, then who is responsible? Who can bring it to light again? How many other ancient monuments have been trampled upon like this? There are so many questions bothering me. The content on the stone tablet has gradually become unclear, and the vaguely visible "Pang Butang" will eventually be healed by time. Ma Junsheng, a scholar of the Republic of China, lamented when he visited Huanglong more than a hundred years ago: "I saw ruined tiles and ruined buildings scattered all over the ground. I thought about the people in my hometown and couldn't help but feel the vicissitudes of life and feel sad that the essence of the country has been lost. I can't bear to leave." Woohoo! Isn’t this what the author feels? Alas! Isn’t that what we see today?
"To save monuments, we must first save people's hearts!" I was shouting in my heart. "Let's get started! Start with the excavation, arrangement and protection of cliff carvings!"
Source | Yangcheng Evening News·Yangcheng School
Editor | Wenqiao
Review Sign | Zheng Zongmin
Intern | Yuan Mengyang