Chapter 23 amazing discovery

The five-hundred-mile bell cannot wake up the long dream of a vast Buddhist kingdom. The vastness of the clouds and nine schools, the lushness of the smog and mist, and the beauty of the pines and danxia, ​​float and sink in the quiet snoring of five hundred miles away. Five hundred miles of magnificent scenery, five hundred miles of Manjusri Dojo, five hundred miles of Buddhist temples, the sound of bells, and the sound of rocks, the endless jungle looks very indifferent. Wanghai Peak in the east, Guaiyue Peak in the west, Jinxiu Peak in the south, Yedou Peak in the north, Cuiyan Peak in the middle, and five peaks competing for beauty. Among the green bushes, the cornices of glazed tiles of temples flash from time to time, resplendent in the sun.Among the group of pagodas, the relic pagoda is embellished with fat and jade, which is extraordinary and free from vulgarity, holding up a mysterious power.This is the meaning of fate coexisting with the sun, moon and stars in the world, allowing the soul to transcend even higher peaks.

Foguang Temple is independent at dusk.The ancient trees are towering, covering the majestic palaces and pavilions, the mountain gate is deep, and the green lantern Buddha scrolls are enclosed, and the tomb pagoda forest stays in the evening, welcoming the visitors who are on the road. Before that, Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng made an ecstatic discovery when they passed Yuci on their way to Taiyuan.Afterwards, everyone said that the discovery was purely God's will. Lin Huiyin poked her head out of the carriage, and the cornices of the small hall just caught her sight. Its unique construction method made Lin Huiyin immediately feel that it was a different building. A building of ordinary value, that small hall is the Yuhua Palace of Yongshou Temple.Through investigation, it really proved this point. The structure of Yuhua Palace uses the simplest method to save unnecessary structural materials. At the same time, when dealing with various structural materials, it produces the beauty of pure structure without any special addition. decorate.This hall, built in the first year of Xiangfu in the Song Dynasty, is also an important example of the transitional form of wooden architecture between the Tang and Song Dynasties.

Lin Huiyin, Liang Sicheng, Mo Zongjiang, and Ji Yutang rode donkeys up the mountain early in the morning. On the rugged cliff path, they walked and stopped, up and down, and searched for a day before they saw the corner of the pine wall. cornices. "That's right, that's it!" Lin Huiyin exclaimed excitedly. The temple was built on the hillside of Foguang Mountain, facing east to west, surrounded by mountains on three sides. The buildings in the temple are high and low, and there is a master-slave arrangement. Due to years of disrepair, the oil paint on the carved beams and painted buildings has peeled off, like a group of unkempt Arhats who are exhausted Resting on the hillside.

Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng had read Pelliot's "Dunhuang Grottoes Catalogue", which recorded the Foguang Temple in Wutai Mountain, and then they read "Ancient Qingliangzhi", "Biography of Eminent Monks", "Buddha Statistics", " In the historical materials such as "Fayuan Zhulin", we consulted the records about Foguang Temple.Founded in the Northern Wei Dynasty, this temple is one of the famous temples in Mount Wutai.Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty "when the Dharma was destroyed in Huichang, the Foguang Temple was destroyed. Twelve years later, the monks of the temple who fled abroad asked for funds to rebuild."

They knocked on the mountain gate, and it was an old monk in his 70s who opened the door.The old man was very happy to hear what they said about their visit, so he took them to see the Stone Sutra Building in front of the Daxiong Hall while it was still dark.Lin Huiyin turned on the flashlight, brushed off the floating dust on the stone tablet, and vaguely read out a few lines of "Ning Gongyu, the master of the Buddha Hall", and "October 4th, 11th year of Dazhong".She blurted out: "Sicheng, Xiao Mo, Xiao Ji, come and take a look, this tablet is written in 857 AD, and it has a history of more than 1,000 years."

Liang Sicheng also said excitedly: "Looking at the outline and proportion of this hall, there will be no buildings after the Tang Dynasty. Now we are not in vain, and we are holding the big golden doll." The old monk said: "A few years ago, this monastery was not dilapidated like this. Now Master Yuancheng's pagoda has also collapsed, and the temple has also collapsed. Here, a dumb disciple and I continue to burn incense." The next day, they started a comprehensive inspection.The buildings of the temple, the East Hall is from the Tang Dynasty, the Manjusri Hall is from the Jin Dynasty, there are also the Tianwang Hall, the Jialan Hall, the Wanshan Hall, and the Xiangfenghuayu Tower. The age of the buildings is still unknown.

The East Hall is lined with seven couplets horizontally, four rooms in depth, with a single eaves and hipped roof.The beams and eaves supported by layers of brackets, the brackets are flying, and the wings spread far and wide, as if the roc is about to fly.The roof of the hall is covered with slab tiles, and the ridges and beasts are all yellow-green glazed artworks. A pair of tall glazed owls stand at both ends of the main ridge on the roof of the hall, making the hall more magnificent and vigorous. In order to find out the exact construction period of the main hall, they climbed up to the roof, and the date of construction of the temple is usually written on the spine.The light on the roof was very dark. They crawled in from the gap under the eaves, stepping on a few inches of floating soil. The little dumb apprentice lit a flashlight for them. Thumb, screaming in surprise.There are large groups of black bats perched on the beams of the roof. When the flashlight shines on them, they fly up in a fright, and hit people directly.When taking pictures, the spotlight flashed, and the bats were more like headless flies, flying the dust from the roof, making them unable to open their eyes.

On the first day of inspection, they had a very fruitful harvest. In the East Hall, there are more than 500 colored clay sculptures from the Tang and Ming Dynasties. In the middle of the main hall, there are 30 colored clay sculptures, which are works of the same period as the main hall. The statues on the altar include sitting statues of Sakyamuni Buddha and Maitreya Buddha. The half-legged statue and the sitting statue of Amitabha are also 3 meters high; on the altar are the supporters, holding a bowl in their hands, containing the pure fruit.These painted sculptures are finely crafted, with appropriate body proportions, smooth lines and plump faces. They are obviously the artistic achievements of Buddhism in its heyday.

After non-stop inspection for a few days, Lin Huiyin, who is farsighted, suddenly found that under the beams of the main hall, there were faint ink marks, which seemed to be inscriptions. The main hall was more than 9 meters high, and a layer of soil floated on the beams. The monk went to the village to find someone to help.This area is sparsely populated. The old monk and his dumb apprentice went all day before they found two old men. After another day of busy work, they put up a shelf. Lin Huiyin was the first to climb up. The soil has been lingering for a long time, so she told Liang Sicheng to tear off the quilt, soak it in water and hand it over, wipe it, and the handwriting appeared, but once the water dried up, the handwriting disappeared. The inscription under the beam is clearly recognizable: "The master of merit is the king of the right army", the font is just like Tang style.This line of characters indicates that Foguang Temple was built in the eleventh year of Tang Dazhong, which confirms the age recorded in the inscription.On the third beam in the middle, the words "Zezhou Gongcao, Zhang Gongchang, who helped to build the Buddha Hall" were found. Everyone worked hard, and the handwriting under the southern beam in the mountain was finally recognized: "Chihe River East Jiedu Observation and Disposal and Other Envoys and Calibration Departments" Gong Shangshu and imperial historian Zheng."

Lin Huiyin said: "This meritorious person may be an eunuch. Since Tang Zhenyuan, the lieutenant of the Shence Army has been set up by the eunuch. He's calling it a day, and it's a prominent role." This discovery made everyone happy.They sang and danced, and even the old monk and the dumb apprentice were infected. In the atrium of Foguang Temple, there is the Guanyin Hall on the left and the Manjusri Hall on the right, which are divided into north and south.The brackets between the front and rear eaves of the temple are decorated with huge oblique arches.The tween under the eaves is made of oblique arches, which are very wide, exquisite in structure and special in shape, just like blooming flowers.They verified that the "column reduction method" was used in the construction of the main hall. Both the front and rear troughs of the main hall used a large inner forehead with a long span of three rooms. A roof truss similar to "herringbone frame".The center of the main ridge on the top of the hall is decorated with a glazed temple, which is rich in color and beautiful in shape. They have verified that this is an architectural feature of the Liao and Jin dynasties.

There are also many ancient pagodas in Foguang Temple, almost all of which are isolated examples of domestic architecture.On the south side of the East Hall is the tomb tower of Yuan Cheng, the founder of the mountain. The upper half collapsed, leaving only the tower carved with lotus petals and orbs.Lin Huiyin said that this method of partial decoration is a typical Northern Wei style.The towers in the entire forest of tomb towers are from the Tang Dynasty and some from the Song Dynasty.They really seemed to have walked into a maze of ancient times, and there were so many things that they were dizzying. After finishing the inspection of Foguang Temple, they went all the way north, visited Lingjing Temple, Jinge Temple, Zhenhai Temple, Nanshan Temple, and finally arrived at Taihuai, Xiulishan Town, the northernmost part of Wutai County. Taihuai Town is located in the embrace of the five peaks of Mount Wutai. This small town is home to nearly 2,000 people from four ethnic groups: Han, Manchu, Mongolian, and Tibetan. There is a Vulture Peak in Taihuai Town, also known as Bodhisattva Peak. According to Buddhist historical records, Duo Moteng and Zhu Fa, the first propagators of Buddhism in China during the Eastern Han Dynasty, came to Taihuai Town and saw the shape of the Bodhisattva Peak, which is quite similar to the Vulture Peak in India. , hence the name. Buddhist history records also record that under the Dabai Pagoda in Taihuai Town, the relics of Sakyamuni are hidden. Therefore, throughout the ages, the imperial court and Buddhist believers have built temples in Taihuai Town and its vicinity, forming a row of Buddhist temples here. , Pagoda-like Forest Wutai Mountain Buddhist Center.More than half of the Buddhist temples in Wutai Mountain are concentrated in Taihuai Town. Four people including Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng looked at twenty or thirty temples nearby, including Xiantong Temple, Tayuan Temple, Wanfo Pavilion, Luohou Temple, and Yuanzhao Temple. Most of them were built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The discovery of the temple was full of joy.Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng immediately wrote to the Taiyuan Department of Education, stating the value of the history of Foguang Temple in detail, and suggested that they immediately formulate a permanent protection method. Before going down the mountain, Lin Huiyin sent a letter to her daughter Bao Bao, who was in the third grade of elementary school, describing in detail their route up and down the mountain, and drew a map.The longer she was away from home, the more she missed her daughter and son.Every time she goes out to investigate, she has to write a letter to her daughter, treating an eight-year-old child as an adult.She told the baby about the journey life and the results of the investigation. At the beginning of July, they began to return, riding mules, climbing mountains, or taking trucks along the way.It was already July 12th when we walked out of Mount Wutai, passed Shahe, Fanzhi, and arrived at Dai County. After arriving in Dai County, they heard the news of the "Marco Polo Bridge Incident" in Beiping. The excitement along the way was like pouring cold water on their heads, and everyone's mood immediately became heavy. All kinds of atrocities in Shenyang, I couldn't help but look up to the sky and sigh. They decided to rush back to Peiping immediately, but the Pinghan and Jinpu railways were no longer open to traffic, so they could only return by detour.Fearing that Pingsui would not be able to reach Pingsui, he had to ask Ji Yutang to take the catalog and manuscripts and return to Taiyuan temporarily to wait for news.The four of them set off from Dai County the next morning, walked to Yangming Fort in the middle of Tongpu Road, separated hastily, and went their separate ways.Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng left Yanmen Pass, passed through Datong and Zhangjiakou day and night, and rushed back to Peiping. Back in Beiping, they immediately smelled a strong smell of gunpowder. The soldiers of Song Zheyuan's 29th Army roared past the street, and when they returned to their home at No. 3 Beizongbu Hutong, they saw soldiers digging trenches at the door, as if they were going to fight. Looks like a big battle.Hearing the news that Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng had returned from their investigation, friends invited them to their home.Everyone met to support Song Zheyuan with practical actions. Lin Huiyin, Liang Sicheng, and Liu Dunzhen signed the appeal letter from Professor Beiping to the government to resist Japan. Due to the cloud of war overwhelming the city, the work of building a society can no longer be carried out.Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng were worried all day long. The fellows of the construction society were most worried that the large amount of investigation materials accumulated in the past few years would fall into the hands of their opponents. They decided to transfer these materials to the British bank vault in the British Concession in Tianjin for storage. A few days later, the defenders quietly withdrew. On July 28, the Japanese army occupied Beiping.Looking at the sun flags all over the street, the sense of national shame suddenly occupied Lin Huiyin's heart. Suddenly one day, Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng received an invitation signed by the "East Asia Co-Prosperity Association" and asked them to attend a meeting. Lin Huiyin tore up the invitation angrily. They decided to leave Peiping, go to the rear, and go to the southwest.Although Beiping had their warm and comfortable home and excellent academic conditions, the war forced them to leave everything here. This season, the lilacs in the yard bloom more brilliantly than in previous years, exuding a rich, peaceful and tranquil fragrance unrestrainedly. But their whole family hurriedly left Peiping with simple luggage in one evening.