Chapter 9 Lecture 02

The protagonists of the story are Liu Bowen (Mingji) and Yao Guangxiao (Daoyan).Yao Guangxiao is Zhu Di's military adviser and counselor, as introduced earlier.After he became a monk, he visited Songshan Temple, and the acquaintance said that he was "Liu Bingzhongliu", the counselor of Kublai Khan, the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty.He was the supervisor who rebuilt "Ming Taizu Shilu" and the editor who edited "Yongle Dadian". He has made great achievements in both political and literary affairs. Liu Bowen (1311-1375), named Ji, was born in Qingtian, Zhejiang, and was Zhu Yuanzhang's military adviser and adviser.Qingtian has beautiful mountains and rivers, winding valleys, waterfalls and cascading waterfalls. There is a stone cave, which is said to be the place where Liu Bowen studied and cultivated his mind.Liu Bowen is good at learning, has extensive knowledge of classics and history, and is proficient in Yi Li. He has the style of Zhuge Kongming shaking a feather fan and figuring out the universe. Long beard, one-of-a-kind talent.He is also full of temperament, "generosity has great integrity, when talking about the safety and danger of the world, righteousness is reflected in color".Zhu Yuanzhang "observed Liu Bowen's sincerity and let him be honest", and often summoned him to discuss secrets in secret.Because it was a private conversation between the emperor and his ministers, little was known about it, and Liu Bowen was proficient in "Xiangwei learning" (divination of good and bad luck), so there are many magical legends about him, and the repair of Beijing City is an example.

According to legend, Emperor Yongle sent Liu Bowen and Yao Guangxiao to Beijing to plan and design the capital.After arriving in Beijing, Liu Bowen called the Great Army Division and lived in the Dongcheng Mansion; Yao Guangxiao called the Second Army Division and lived in the Xicheng Mansion.They agreed to think about their own ideas. On the tenth day, they each took out the design drawings of Beijing City, and then sat back to back and exchanged views to see if each other's thoughts were right.The next day, the two went to inspect the terrain separately.But in the ears of both of them, a child's voice was heard saying: "Follow my drawing, and it will be (complete)!" Master Liu Dajun couldn't figure it out, and Master Yao Erjun couldn't figure it out either.On the third day, they each saw a child in a red coat and shorts walking ahead. If you walked fast, he would walk fast, and if you walked slowly, he would also walk slowly.Back at the mansion, the whisper from the previous day sounded again: "Just follow my drawing, and it will be the end!" Nezha holding a vajra fork and eight arms!Isn't that whispering voice the voice of Nezha!At noon on the tenth day, Liu Bowen and Yao Guangxiao put down the tables and chairs. Liu faced east and Yao faced west, and sat back to back to draw the city map of Beijing.After exchanging views, the two couldn't help laughing: the two city maps drawn are exactly the same, both are Eight-Armed Nezha City!

Liu Bowen explained: The gate in the middle of Zhengyang Gate is called Zhengyang Gate, which is Nezha's head; Chongwenmen and Dongbianmen on the east side of Zhengyangmen, together with Chaoyangmen and Dongzhimen on the east city wall, are the four arms on the left side of Nezha; Xuanwumen and Xibianmen on the west side of Zhengyangmen, plus Fucheng on the west city wall The gate and Xizhimen are Nezha's four arms on the right side of his body; the Andingmen and Deshengmen on the north wall are Nezha's two feet.The square imperial city in the capital is Nezha’s five internal organs. The main gate of the imperial city—Chengtianmen (Tian’anmen) is the entrance to the five internal organs. The long flat road between the five internal organs and Zhengyang Gate is Nezha’s food path.That Miyagi is Nezha's heart.The imperial road running through the palace city from Xuanwumen (Shenwumen) to Damingmen (Daqingmen) is the backbone of Nezha.Therefore, the old Beijingers said that the city of Beijing is an eight-armed Nezha city. (See Jin Shoushen's "Legend of Beijing")

The legend above does not have to be taken seriously.When the Beijing city was built, Liu Bowen had died for more than 20 years, and Yao Guangxiao was practicing. Neither of them participated in the construction of the Beijing city.What's more, the east and west gates mentioned in the legend were all opened on the outer city, and the outer city was not completed until Jiajing, more than 100 years later.So, how did this story transfer to Liu and Yao?Based on more than 20 years of research, Professor Chen Xuelin, head of the History Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, made a detailed textual research in the monograph "Liu Bowen and Nezha City--The Legend of the Founding of Beijing".The legend that Liu and Yao built the city of Beijing according to the image of Nezha originated from the story of Liu Bingzhong building the capital city of Yuan Dynasty.Liu Bingzhong was the chief architect of Yuan Dadu. He had been a monk, and his life experience was similar to that of Yao Guangxiao.In this way, the two protagonists of the story are together.So how did the scene of the story move from the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty?Zhu Di's Mongolian blood was transplanted into this story and acted as a bridge.It turned out that according to scholars' research, Zhu Di's biological mother was not Zhu Yuanzhang's original wife, Empress Dazu Ma, as recorded in official history, but a gong concubine of the Wanggu tribe of Mongolia.Both Chinese and Mongolian documents record that when Zhu Di built the city of Beijing, he turned to his birth mother, Concubine Qi, for help. His mother gave him great ideas and asked him to ask Liu Bowen for help.After Liu Bowen was ordered, he was instructed by a god-man with a black face, black clothes, and black horse, and acted according to the plan, and built the city of Beijing.This story has a Chinese version, a Mongolian version, and an English version translated from the Mongolian text. Therefore, it has been widely circulated at home and abroad, in Mongolian and Han areas, especially in Beijing, and has lasted for a long time.This story reflects that in the planning and construction of Beijing city, Mongolian and Han, Chinese and foreign, Yuan and Ming, monks and laymen multiculturalism exchanged and merged in Beijing.

So, according to Nezha's legend, Beijing Miyagi is the heart of Beijing city. Is this really the case?