Chapter 78 important discovery

The dark roof algae well is a dark attic, and the algae well is thick with dust that has accumulated for thousands of years.Thousands of black bats were hanging from the purlins, and many dead bats were piled up in the dust.Bats gather in dark corners, their triangular wings flapping the suffocating dust and foul air.The algae well is full of dense bedbugs, which feed on the blood of bats. Sicheng and the others wore masks and stayed for hours in the choking dust and unbearable filth.Disturbed bats flew around them, and they just kept measuring, recording and taking pictures. Bedbugs crawled all over their bodies and backpacks, and they were extremely itchy.

After three days of working in the temple, their eyes had adjusted to the dim light on the roof.Huiyin found faint handwriting on one of the main beams of the main hall.This discovery is so important! Although Sicheng can be sure that this is a Tang Dynasty building, how can the Tang Dynasty be accurately defined from 618 AD to 907 AD? There is no such thing as writing on the main beam of the building. The date on the tablet or the date engraved on the stone foundation of the stele is more accurate. Everyone was excitedly busy, and decided to set up scaffolding between the Buddha statues and remove the dust from the beams to see the inscriptions clearly.Huiyin's farsightedness came in handy at this time, and she eagerly tried her best to identify it from all angles.She could see that there were names and long official titles in those indistinct handwriting.She read the following words intermittently: "... female disciple... Ning Gongyu".Suddenly, Huiyin remembered that he seemed to have seen similar names on the sutra pillars outside the hall.She hurried out to check, and sure enough, "Ning Gongyu, a female disciple of the Master of the Buddha Hall" was engraved on the sutra pillar.

Huiyin happily reported this discovery to everyone, and made it clear that the sitting statue of a woman in casual clothes with a humble face in the main hall was not the statue of "Empress Wu" as he said by the monk, but the statue of a woman from this temple. The benefactor Ning Gong met his wife. Sicheng asked the monks to go to the village to hire people to build scaffolding.The monks couldn't figure out what these gentlemen were going up and down in the temple, but they knew that these gentlemen said that this temple was very important, and it seemed that the incense in the temple would be full in the future, which is always good matter.

Dou Village is located in a remote place with few people. The monk went out for a whole day before he invited two old farmers.The old farmer had no idea what they were asked to do, and under Sicheng's instructions, it took a lot of effort to set up a shelf.Huiyin tore off the bed sheet, soaked the bed sheet in water and passed it to the beam, wiped off the dust, and the soil was soaked in water, and the ink stains appeared; but when the water dried, the handwriting was blurred again.It took them nearly a day to read and write down all the inscriptions on the four main beams. The main hall building has a history of thousands of years. It is the only Tang Dynasty wooden structure that Sicheng and his colleagues have found in their search and investigation over the years. It is more than a hundred years earlier than the oldest building they found before.Not only that, they also discovered murals, calligraphy, and sculptures of the Tang Dynasty here. This is the happiest day since they were engaged in field investigations.The joy of discovery paid off all their hardships.

Sicheng, Huiyin and his entourage worked in Foguang Temple for a whole week and made detailed inspection records of the whole temple.Before leaving, Sicheng also wrote a report to the Shanxi provincial government, asking them to protect this precious architectural relic. Huiyin reluctantly bid farewell to this ancient building that was of great significance to her and Sicheng's academic career.Standing in front of the statue of "Female Disciple Ning Gongyu", she wanted to take a picture of her and the statue.Looking at the benevolent and plump face of the statue of Ning Gongyu, Huiyin wondered what kind of woman she was.She donated her family property to build this temple for her faith. When the temple was completed, she left herself here forever, listening to the morning bell and chanting every day, and humbly guarding the lingering incense and green lights. yellow roll.