Zhu Yuanzhang's writing is inconsistent.
Mr. Yang Songtao, a writer of Nanjing literature and history, told reporters that Lion Mountain was the place where Zhu Yuanzhang defeated his old enemy Chen Youliang. After Zhu Yuanzhang made Nanjing his capital, he wrote a story about Yuejiang Tower, in which Jia Yinchun ordered workers to build a tower at the top of the mountain because of the high mountain in the seventh year of Hongwu, to the effect that Yuejiang Tower was built on Lion Mountain in the seventh year of Hongwu (1374). The article also mentioned that the completion of this building gives people the feeling that the Yuejiang Building on Lion Mountain has been completed.
However, it is a bit strange that Zhu Yuanzhang has another article "Reading the River in Lou Ji" (preface), in which he wrote: The prisoners who are going to serve their sentences this year will build the Yuejiang Tower in Lion Mountain, and they will do their best, but they will not be admonished. Don't worry, I arrived on time and hung down like an elephant in heaven. If you are afraid of it today, you should stop it. Zhu Yuanzhang originally wanted the prisoner to build the Yuejiang Building on the Lion Mountain, but because of some astronomical phenomena, he was told not to rush to build the building, so he stopped the project.
Today, building a building is He Shen's business. Both of them were written by Zhu Yuanzhang, but they are contradictory. Yang Songtao suspected that Reading Lou Ji (Parallel Preface) was written before Reading Lou Ji, so it can be inferred that Reading Tower was finally completed, but the word Reading Lou Ji is difficult to explain. On the other hand, if Lou Ji on the River is written after Lou Ji on the River, it can be explained that the Yuejiang Tower was not built in the Ming Dynasty.
There are also two versions of Records of Scholars in Ming Dynasty.
Since the Ming Dynasty, many scholars have left records about the Yuejiang Building in Lion Mountain in their poems. Yang Songtao said that Wang Shouren, a thinker in the Ming Dynasty, wrote a poem "Climbing the Jiangta": The top floor was deserted and famous, and Longjing Huanggao once lived here. Danger exists in the moral virtual barrier, guarding the barbarian stone city. The mountains and plains are full of ancient and modern morale, and the rivers turn into autumn sounds. Who can give it to Jane when she is on the board? This old new pavilion is full of emotion. It proves that there is indeed a Yuejiang Tower on Lion Mountain in Ming Dynasty, but it has been abandoned. Chen Yi, a contemporary of Wang Shouren, wrote in Jinling Century: (Yuejiang Tower) was built in the lion's head in the seventh year of Hongwu.
The historical materials cited by Zhu Binggui, a map collector, were also recorded by scholars in Ming Dynasty, but they were inconsistent with previous historical materials. Qiao Yu, a senior Ming official several years older than Wang Shouren, wrote in "Lu Longshan Tour" that the building (Yuejiang Tower) has been destroyed, so the site still exists. Lv Nan, another Ming Dynasty official who was contemporary with Wang Shouren, wrote in A Brief Visit to Lulong Mountain: Even the top of the mountain (Lion Mountain) is Mopingping, the former site of Yuejiang Building. At the same time, Luo Qinshun, a senior official in Nanjing, wrote a poem "The Rhyme of Finding the Old Site of Jianglou in Lion Mountain in Autumn".
Published in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Ge edited the "Lulong View of Lion Mountain" Volume III: Yuejiang Building: located at the top of the mountain, and proposed marriage without success. In other words, Yuejiang Tower is located at the top of Lion Mountain. It was intended to be built, but it was not built later.
Zhu Binggui said that there were contradictions in the records of Ming people. On the one hand, some people say that there was indeed a Yuejiang Tower on Lion Mountain at that time. On the one hand, there are several records that only the base address and former site of Yuejiang Building in Ming Dynasty are left on Shishan Mountain, and there are even records that Yuejiang Building was originally located at the top of Shishan Mountain and was planned to be built, but it was not built in the end.
Can't find it on the map
More yuejianglou
There are contradictions in the records of documents. What about the marks on ancient maps?
Yang Songtao found that the Yuejiang Tower was painted in the upper left corner and clearly marked with the words Yuejiang Tower in the General Plan of Jinling included in Wonders in the Sea published in the thirty-eighth year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty. This is also the only ancient map of Nanjing in Ming Dynasty marked with Yuejiang Tower that he has consulted so far. Zhu Binggui consulted various maps of the Ming Dynasty. He told reporters that many maps included in the "Hongwu Capital Map" written during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty were not marked with Yuejiang Tower; However, the map of the Imperial Capital in Chen Yi's Textual Research on Jinling in Ancient and Modern Times did not mark Yuejiang Tower, but marked a Wangjiang Tower beside Lulong Mountain. '
As a map collector, Zhu Binggui never found a map of Nanjing in Ming Dynasty marked Yuejiang Tower. In his view, although the "Jinling Map" marked the Yuejiang Tower, its credibility is not high, because it is not entirely a map of the current situation and has a strong sense of nostalgia. There are many old-time scenic spots on the map, such as Grandma Pavilion, Phoenix Terrace, Wuyi Lane, the Forbidden City in the Six Dynasties and Rouge Well, many of which no longer exist at that time. The note marking Yuejiang Tower on the map may indeed mark a scenic spot, but it may also mark the old address of Yuejiang Tower.
Yang Songtao believes that according to the current literati records and ancient maps, it is not yet possible to draw a definite conclusion on whether the Yuejiang Tower was built in the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Binggui thinks that it is very likely that Zhu Yuanzhang originally planned to build the Yuejiang Tower, but soon stopped the construction, thus laying the foundation. Therefore, old sites and old sites often appear in the poems of later generations.
Whether the Yuejiang Tower on Nanjing Lion Mountain was built in the Ming Dynasty is still controversial, and more historical materials are needed to clarify this mystery.