1. Pay attention to diseases that are destined but not determined
Some people say that for a hundred years of development, look to Shenzhen, for a thousand years of civilization, look to Beijing, for three thousand years of civilization, look to Xi'an, and for five thousand years of civilization, look to Hedong. Some people say that it was Ruicheng County that really made Hedong famous all over the world.
Regardless of whether there is any basis for this statement, the award speech for Yuncheng City in 2006 when it won the "Top Ten Charming" cities selected by CCTV was "The root of China, the country of integrity, the city of Universiade" It can be seen that it is not true to say that Hedong was the first place called China. Ruicheng County is a major cultural relics county in Shanxi. It has 48 key cultural relics protection units, including four or five national-level protection units.
When people think of Ruicheng, the first thing they think of is Yongle Palace. Yongle Chunyang, Dao Zong's divine paintings are praised by the world! This Taoist temple, which has suffered from wind and rain erosion, relocation, and vicissitudes of time, has attracted more and more artists and art lovers to "pilgrimage" because of its exquisite Yuan Dynasty mural treasures. The annual Ruicheng Yongle Palace International Culture and Art Festival has been held for eight times so far, making the beautiful business card of Yongle Palace spread wider and further.
Compared with Yongle Palace, Qingliang Temple is more like a "little jade" hidden in the boudoir, waiting for those who are lucky enough to "know the goods" to uncover its mysterious veil and see her beauty. .
Actually, it was last year that I heard her name.
In September 2014, I conducted a three-month internship at Ruicheng Beiguan Primary School. One day, I took a taxi and planned to visit the local Five Dragons Temple. The driver said that there was another place more famous than the Five Dragons Temple. I quickly asked where it was? He proudly said, Qingliang Temple! It is a national protection unit, and even archaeologists and historians from Shaanxi on the other side of the Yellow River came to inspect it. However, due to the tight schedule of the internship, the abundance of local cultural relics, and my limited financial resources, I was unable to go and see her "beautiful face" until the internship ended in March. This became a regret and a heartache during my internship in Ruicheng.
Heart disease also needs to be treated with heart medicine. In order to make up for this regret, in September this year, I made an appointment with a good friend to make a special trip to Ruicheng to visit Qingliang Temple.
2. Treasures hidden in the barren mountains and ridges
Due to Ruicheng’s profound history and culture and numerous cultural relics and sites, it has attracted many scholars and ancient visitors from other places to visit. However, these cultural relics seem to like peace and quiet, and most of them "live in seclusion" in remote mountains and forests. Don’t say that foreign tourists don’t know the specific location of the ruins. Even if they know, there is no direct bus to get there. This provides local taxi drivers with a unique business opportunity. They take advantage of the local know-it-all. As long as you can name the local attractions, they will enthusiastically lead you through the streets, around the alleys, climbing mountain roads, and deep forests. They will not stop until you reach your destination, and they will try their best to satisfy you when you visit the ancient times and explore the secrets. desire. Of course, Brother De’s charges are not low either.
These are all within my expectations. However, if you are reluctant to give up your children, you will not be able to trap the wolf, and if you are reluctant to give up your money, you will not be able to see the scenery in your heart. In order to fulfill my wish and see the beauty of Qingliang Temple, I decided to spend some money.
After many twists and turns, the taxi finally stopped in front of an ancient temple that was not large in size and could even be said to be inconspicuous.
Is this the legendary royal temple - Qingliang Temple?
If I had not come here in person, I would never have imagined that this Qingliang Temple, which is highly favored by the archaeological community and is famous for its prehistoric civilization and rich in historical and cultural atmosphere, is actually deep in this barren mountain. This place is so disgraced, so desolate and desolate! Perhaps this is in line with the old saying that "handsome birds emerge from deep mountains, and sunken fish appear in flying streams".
This Qingliang Temple was first built in the Yuan Dynasty. It has been highly valued by the imperial court in all dynasties. It was expanded and repaired in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. With the passage of time, erosion and vicissitudes of life, the glorious scene of the ancient temple has become a thing of the past, and the majestic "facade" has disappeared. There is only a sign saying "Qingliang Temple Cultural Relics Management Office", which proves to visitors that the temple's cultural relics are "valuable".
Stepping into the courtyard, there are towering cypress trees, scattered monuments, blue bricks on the floor, and green moss marks. In the middle of the aisle stands a modern imitation of the Nine Heavens Incense Burner, with purple smoke curling up and lingering. There are thick bamboo poles on both sides of the corridor, swaying in the wind, hiding the palace at the end of the corridor. It is a true portrayal of "the bamboo path leads to a secluded place, and the Zen room is filled with flowers and trees". The tranquility and purity of the Buddhist holy land make people feel awe.
There is only one main building in the temple, the Main Hall, and the charm of Qingliang Temple is here.
The main hall was built during the Dade period of the Yuan Dynasty. It is five rooms wide and three rooms deep. It is located on tall steps. It is extraordinary and majestic. The platform in front of the palace is spacious, and the plaque on the door of the palace has experienced vicissitudes of life. The roof of the hall is covered with tiles, the main ridge is small and flies into the sky into bliss, and lotus flowers on both sides of the roof proclaim the Buddha's Dharma. The hall is in the shape of a single eaves hanging from the top of the mountain, with a majestic shape, intricate bracket structure, bold and bold beams, and intrigues, which is quite distinctive.
In order to expand the practical area of ????the palace, the builders used the "column reduction" technique. The large climbing beams are supported directly below the flat beams from the rear end of the front eaves and brackets, which reduces the net span load of the beams. It is said that the architectural style of the temple is a major innovation in the architectural structure of the Yuan Dynasty, and it is a precious object for studying the architectural form of the Yuan Dynasty.
The original three Buddhas in the hall were destroyed by the vicissitudes of time and war, and the ones today were restored and reshaped by later generations. "The Bodhi tree has no tree, and the mirror is not a stand. There is nothing in the beginning, so how can it cause dust." Although the Buddha statue was sculpted by later generations, as long as there is Buddha in the heart, then the sincerity will be spiritual. Therefore, although the incense burner in the main hall is not very strong, it does not stop.
There are several stone tablets of different eras on both sides of the platform of the main hall. In particular, the wall on the right side of the hall is inlaid with inscriptions from the reconstruction of the main hall during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. Although it is severely weathered and the writing is blurry, as long as you look carefully If you look carefully, you can still learn about the past and present life of Qingliang Temple...
3. The ancient temple is as long as a paradise
It is said that Qingliang Temple was much more lively in history than it is now. .
Since its establishment in the Yuan Dynasty, Qingliang Temple has been valued by royal families of all dynasties. According to historical records, during the Wushen period of the Yuan Dynasty, a military envoy supported his troops and was very domineering. Once, this "military master" went to Qingliang Temple, plundered the temple's treasures, and snatched the monks' belongings. After harassing him and leaving, the abbot of the temple, Master Kong, rushed to the court to complain. When the emperor learned that Long Yan was furious, he issued an order on the spot to deal with it sternly. From then on, no one dared to harass Qingliang Temple anymore.
At that time, every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, a temple fair would be held here. Devotees from big cities and small villages would come together to worship Qingliang Temple. At that time, the temple will be filled with incense, the sound of bells, and crowds of people. Merchants will naturally not miss such good business. At the temple fair, sellers of jelly, mahua, fermented glutinous rice wine and other snacks are placed all over the roadside. There was even an invited troupe singing on the stage, singing at the top of their lungs, and the sound of gongs, drums and strings resounded throughout the country. This scene is as lively as the Lantern Festival on New Year's Eve, more prosperous than attending a fair. The green mountains are far away, the fertile fields are beautiful, the people are happy and the horses are joking, what a beautiful and harmonious picture of the peaceful years!
Walking out of the temple, you can see lush forests and bamboos all around, the sky is covered with green shade, and the birds are chirping. There is also gurgling spring water from the Gongshui Stream, which splits into two from behind the temple, flows around the temple, and then merges in front of the mountain gate, where it flows happily down the mountain. It is truly a combination of two waters, making it a treasured place for Feng Shui.
Looking around, you can see that the courtyards around the temple are uneven and the cave dwellings are scattered at random. Looking as far as the eye can see, Ganzao Mountain has steep peaks, deep ravines, lingering light mist, deep tranquility, cascading terraces, and belts of fruit trees. The entire temple and mountain village reflect each other and blend into one. Away from the hustle and bustle of the city, this place maintains a simple, quiet, elegant and poetic pastoral scenery. It is truly a realistic version of "the house is in a human environment, but I am noisy with cars and horses". It is a good place for meditation and leisure.
Look, here there are towering palaces and pavilions, melodious bells, lush bamboo groves, and gurgling streams. The farmhouses are simple and solid, with smoke curling from the kitchen stoves. The fields are green with wheat seedlings and the branches are full of fruits. Visitors from all over the world will be intoxicated when they come here. They embrace the green mountains and green waters, breathe the fresh air, eat natural and original seasonal vegetables and fruits, drink the natural mountain spring without impurities, and taste the flavor of southern Shanxi. How pleasant it is to eat at a farmhouse and look at the children playing on the hillside and the lovers strolling in the bamboo forest!
4. Qingliang tombs are hard to find
Today, the abbot of Qingliang Temple is a nun, about 50 years old, wearing a blue robe and hat, with a solemn look on his face. According to her brother, she has been practicing in Qingliang Temple for more than ten years. On the one hand, she upholds the faith of a monk and devotes herself to practicing in Qingdeng Sanskrit; on the other hand, she also silently guards Qingliang Temple and tries her best to prevent it from being damaged by man-made damage. The driver also said that Qingliang Temple is most famous for its prehistoric tombs, and its discovery once caused a sensation in the domestic archaeological community.
Ah! There are also prehistoric tombs in this small place? Driven by curiosity, I couldn't wait to ask the nun about the location of the prehistoric tombs. She, who had a solemn face at first, became extremely alert at this time. She looked at her nose with her eyes, her nose and her heart, and she only thought of Amitabha. After my kind explanation and repeated flattery, the nun master reluctantly pointed to a general direction and emphasized that there is nothing interesting to see there now, and it is no different from ordinary fields.
The prehistoric tombs are nearby, how could I give up the opportunity to inspect them? We hurriedly pulled my brother out of the temple gate and walked in the direction pointed by the nun master. Brother De smiled bitterly and said, you shouldn't have asked so many questions just now. I looked confused. After listening to the driver's words, I understood why the nun was wary of me.
Because the Qingliang Temple tombs are so famous, more and more people come to visit and inspect them, but they also attract some tomb robbers with evil intentions. At first, the people in the mountains were kind and honest. They welcomed visitors from outside the mountains warmly, told them everything they knew, and answered every question. It wasn't until the local police station captured a group of tomb robbers that people in the mountains realized that the barren land beneath their feet was actually a treasure. In order to prevent being deceived again, everyone is extremely vigilant and tight-lipped when visitors who don't know the details ask about the ancient tomb.
Oh, so that’s it! After understanding the reason, instead of being angry with the nun, I admired her dedication even more.
Because the nun master did not provide accurate directions, we wandered around the hillside for a long time and found nothing. My brother pointed to the wheat fields at the foot of the hillside and said that should be there.
He said with style that in terms of Feng Shui, facing south and facing mountains and rivers, it was the most ideal burial place.
Isn’t that just an ordinary wheat field? How can it be connected with the prehistoric tombs? But I was unwilling to give in, and wanted to continue looking for clues about the prehistoric tombs. I tried searching on the mobile network, but the signal on the mountain was poor and I couldn't get online smoothly. Seeing the disappointed look on my face, my brother patted me on the shoulder and said, it is better to listen to the scenery than to see it, and it is better to miss it than to meet. Sometimes, some things look more beautiful through a veil, so just come and see it. I knew that the driver didn't want to delay his business, so he urged me to return. What's more important is that searching for ancient tombs is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Even if you find it, it has no practical significance. You can't dig, you can't dig, and you're still facing a wheat field that can't speak.
Although the driver’s words are somewhat utilitarian, they also contain some philosophy of life. yes! In life, we are very envious of things that others have but we don’t have, and feel that they are infinitely beautiful and extremely precious. But when you really get it, we often feel that it is nothing more than that. Over time, we turn a blind eye and do not cherish it.
Under the urging of my brother, I came back to my senses. After looking at this wheat field and recording this place called the tomb group with my mobile phone camera, I reluctantly left in a hurry. .
5. The vicissitudes of the tombs finally appeared
After returning home, I still can’t forget the prehistoric tombs at Qingliang Temple. If you can't find her in real life, then go online to find her.
Technology is the primary productive force, and the Internet is an "encyclopedia", which is no lie. No, with just one click of my mouse, it solved the mystery in my mind. I finally appreciated the vicissitudes and glory of excavating the prehistoric tombs at Qingliang Temple.
That was last century.
When the Yellow River Reservoir Archaeological Team came to Ruicheng in 1955, they discovered that the ancient remains here were very rich. However, due to various reasons, they left in a hurry without inspecting them in detail. I think they may be sorry now that they missed a major archaeological discovery.
When a farmer from Xiasi Village was digging a cave dwelling on the cliff east of Qingliang Temple, he unexpectedly dug out bones. Although they had taboos, they still dug the cave dwelling. One day, more than a dozen smooth stone pieces fell from the top of the kiln. The whole family thought it looked good and used it as decoration, and the children even played with a few small ones as marbles. Later, when the county cultural relics department heard about it, they quickly came to Xiasi Village and persuaded the villagers to donate the excavated things to the county museum. According to expert research, it is a jade from the Western Zhou Dynasty. Jade artifacts from the Western Zhou Dynasty were discovered in Xiasi Village! For a time, the news spread throughout the county, alarming the archaeological circles in the country and province.
In the autumn of 1984, it rained continuously, and the cave dwelling of this villager suddenly collapsed. Fortunately, there were no casualties. "A blessing in disguise is a blessing in disguise." When the villager was cleaning up the ruins, he discovered dozens of jade objects of various sizes. People in the village say that this house is a geomantic treasure, and treasures often fall from the sky. Not long after, a group of people calling themselves the archaeological team came to the village. They not only purchased the jade artifacts picked up by the villagers, but also hired the villagers to dig in the terraces near Qingliang Temple at a price of 300 yuan per cubic meter. Sure enough, after they dug out some more jade objects, they fled. A year later, the gang was all caught by the police. Only then did the villagers realize that they had been deceived. This group of people were tomb robbers disguised as "archaeological teams." Although all the tomb robbers were captured, only 64 of the hundreds of lost precious cultural relics were recovered, and the whereabouts of the remaining cultural relics are unknown.
In the spring of 2003, an archaeological team from Shanxi Province came to Ruicheng and officially conducted rescue excavations at the Qingliang Temple ancient tombs to study the ancient civilization of Ruicheng. However, the scientific expedition team was not welcomed and cooperated by the villagers, and was even somewhat rejected. Because of the lessons learned from the theft of ancient tombs, the villagers no longer want to believe in "archaeologists." After many explanations, we finally got the support of the villagers.
While everyone was digging in full swing, SARS spread ruthlessly, and the archaeological work had to be suspended. Once the SARS epidemic is over, archaeologists can’t wait to get to work.
The winter on the banks of the Yellow River is colder than elsewhere. It is no exaggeration to say that the cold wind is biting and the ground is freezing three feet deep. Even standing in the village is shaking with cold, let alone digging in the ground. Summer is even more unbearable. Not only are the temperatures unbearable, but there are also attacks by flies and mosquitoes. In this difficult working environment, archaeologists braved severe cold, scorching heat, and fought mosquitoes, and finally completed the archaeological excavation of the Qingliang Temple tombs at the end of 2004.
It took a year for archaeologists to excavate more than a hundred cemeteries near Qingliang Temple, and found more than 200 jade objects buried with them, a large number that is rare in the country. This scientific research is extremely valuable for a detailed understanding of the ancient civilization of Hedong, the culture and etiquette of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and for the identification of Chinese ancestors. The excavation of the Qingliang Temple tombs was also rated as one of the top ten amazing archaeological discoveries in 2003-2004. It can be said that "it has been sleeping for thousands of years, and when it wakes up it shocks the world."
According to expert analysis and research, the Qingliang Temple tombs should be very large. What archaeologists have excavated may only be the "tip of the iceberg", and there are more tombs hidden underground. Although the mystery of the tombs has been lifted, many unsolved mysteries remain.
For example, why are there so many tombs here, and why have ancestors of all generations chosen to be buried here, and why are they arranged so neatly? Another example is why are there alive people buried? etc. I think that one day, these mysteries will be solved one by one with the progress of the times, the development of science and technology and the unremitting exploration of archaeologists.
History is very interesting. A small movement will trouble future generations for most of their lives. However, all human civilizations advance through constant exploration, right?
6. Just a brief encounter
This article should end here, but I think it would be more perfect to add the following words.
Later, my friends and I searched and compared on the Internet, and finally confirmed that the large wheat field I saw at Qingliang Temple in Ruicheng was indeed the site where prehistoric tombs were discovered.
What a twist of fate! I thought I was destined not to see it, but I didn't realize that "it was just because I was in this mountain." It's a pity that I didn't stay there for a while to fully feel the rich historical civilization, appreciate the long history and culture, and bask in the aura of the sacred treasure land.
Of course, these are no longer important. Because Ruicheng has a long history and rich accumulation, it is possible to discover historical relics wherever you step. As a non-professional archaeologist, if you go around looking for tombs, you might actually be regarded as a tomb robber. Therefore, it is enough to be in awe and be grateful for this ancient land in Hedong.
In life, many people don’t understand some of my actions. They think that I went all the way to those places, exhausted and exhausted, and only took a few crappy photos when I came back! Isn't this what you feel after eating enough? But I feel that I am following the footsteps of ancient civilizations, feeling the charm of history and culture, talking to the ancients, absorbing rich nourishment, and constantly improving my knowledge. Why not?
If a person stays in a place for a long time but does not understand the history and culture here, it is like not knowing where he comes from and where he is going. Every day he "stares up the mountain in confusion and crosses the river in confusion." . I don’t want to be this kind of person who has no soul, no thoughts, no pursuits, and no interests. I am not an archaeologist, but I am keen on inspecting cultural relics and studying ancient sites. Although the journey of searching for them is tiring, I feel happy. Everything arises and moves due to temperament.
Don’t be pretentious about your temperament, don’t change your interests, and don’t need to explain your likes!