Chapter 22 Pingsui Road Travel Notes

From July 3rd to July 7th, several of our friends—Mr. Jin Xunqing, Mr. Jin Zhongfan and his son Jianwu, Mr. Ren Shushui and his wife, Ms. Chen Hengzhe, myself and my son Sidu, had a total of seven days. People—traveled the entire line of the Pingsui Railway, a total of 1,600 kilometers back and forth.When we went, we didn't stop along the way until we arrived at Baotou Station in Xitou.We stopped in Baotou for a long time, on the way back we stopped in Suiyuan for a day, in Datong for most of the day, and in Zhangjiakou for a few hours.This is a very hasty trip, without any deep observations, only some first impressions, which will be written down as materials for revisiting later. (Last July, Mr. Gu Laigang, Zheng Zhenfeng, Wu Wenzao, and Xie Bingxin from Yenching University organized a tour group along Pingsui Road. They spent six weeks and visited more places than us. Ms. Bingxin has A travel post along the Pingsui Road with tens of thousands of words; Mr. Zheng Zhenfeng and others have "Sacred Sites of Xibei", which are indispensable reading materials for tourists traveling on Pingsui Road)

The people we are traveling with this time are all old classmates from Cornell University, which can also be said to be a tour group of Cornell classmates.Mr. Jin Xunqing (Tao) is the chief engineer of Husui Road, and he is the predecessor of our Cornell classmates.Mr. Shen Lisun (Chang), the current director of Pingsui Road, is also a late classmate of Cornell.Pingsui Road has always had a lot of Cornell students working as maintenance workers; the rectification of Pingsui Road in the past two years is the result of the hard work of Jin and Shen.One of the purposes of our trip this time is to observe the amazing achievements these few students have made in a short period of time.

Since 1923, Pingsui Road has been hit by military accidents many times, and the vehicle bridges suffered the most damage. In 1928-1929, there were only seventy-two locomotives, five hundred and eighty-three freight cars (one-third of 1924), and thirty-two passenger cars (one-sixth of 1926) ), both freight and passenger transport cannot be maintained.Add to that political turmoil, mismanagement, and the accumulation of debt, and the railroad became the most destructive and corrupt railroad in the country.Mr. Ding Zaijun always told us about the corruption of Pingsui Road every time he took Peking University students out of the mouth for geological trips; in his "Travel to Soviet Russia", every time he wrote about the pain on the train, he always mentioned Husui Road for comparison.I have lived in Peiping for so many years, and I did not visit the Great Wall until last year. Although this is because I am too lazy to travel, half of it is because I am used to hearing the terrible corruption on this road.

This time we traveled the entire Pingsui Road, which really made us feel a miraculous transformation.Although the number of vehicles (locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars) has not yet fully recovered to the heyday of the road, the repaired and purchased vehicles can barely meet the needs of the whole road.Everyone knows the arrangement of the special express train and the convenience of the special tour bus between Yungang and the Great Wall.There are some important and neglected major reforms, which are worth recording: the replacement of Bujimu.There are more than 1.5 million sleepers in the whole road, and many of them have decayed rings after a long time; in the past two years, a total of 600,000 sleepers have been replaced. (2) Building bridges.There are about 500 bridge holes in the whole road, and 100 holes have been rebuilt in the past two years; all newly built bridges use steel girders to increase the original load capacity. (3) Change the line.In some places on Pingsui Road, the slope is too steep and the bends are too tight, making driving difficult, so it is necessary to change the route.The most difficult part is the famous "Guangou section" (from Nanri to Kangzhuang).Over the past two years, about eleven miles of the route have been successfully rerouted.

The biggest rectification of Pingsui Road is the liquidation of debts.More than 20 years ago, this road had a total of more than 76 million yuan in domestic and foreign debts. When the price of gold was soaring, it was worth about 10 million yuan.And Quanlu's property is only worth 60 million yuan.That's why people say that Pingsui is the most hopeless path.After Director Shen Lisun took office, he was determined to rectify his debts.His method is to divide the debt into two types. The debt with a principal of more than 100,000 yuan is a huge debtor, and the debt with a principal of less than 100,000 yuan is a sporadic debtor.There are two ways to repay sporadic debts: one is to pay half of the principal in one lump sum without interest; the other is to amortize the entire principal in 60 installments without interest.The method of repaying the huge debt is to amortize the capital in 800 installments.Among the huge debtors, there are several large foreign debts, such as Taikang Matheson in the United States, Mitsui Mahogany in Japan and East Asia Industrial Co., Ltd., all of which are large creditors.Most of the debtors have been desperate for Pingsui Road for a long time. Now that Pingsui Road has a debt settlement plan, everyone is overjoyed, so they are willing to accommodate the road bureau's solution.Therefore, as a result of the first year's arrangement, 62 loans were cleared. The original principal and interest owed was more than 61.85 million yuan, accounting for eight tenths of the total debt of the whole road. More than 36.3 million yuan.Therefore, the result of the one-year arrangement actually reduced the debt by 25.5 million yuan, which is really a miracle.

I often like to tell a story to my friends who have returned from studying abroad.In the mid-nineteenth century, there was a religious movement in England called the "Oxford Movement," and one of its leaders was Cndinal Newtnan, who later joined Catholicism and became a bishop.Niuman and his comrades wrote a lot of religious poems and wrote them in a booklet; on the front of the booklet, Niuman inscribed a poem from Homer, which he himself translated into English: "Youshall see the difference, nowthatwebackagain." Once translated into Chinese, it is: "Now we are back, please see, we are going to change our appearance." I often say that every international student should engrave this sentence in their hearts and make it a slogan.It is a pity that many friends who have returned from studying abroad do not have the courage to accept this slogan.This time we saw one of our young classmates (Director Shen is only 31 years old this year) transform a corrupt railway into a most successful railway in the shortest period of time. Changing color, Niuman's motto is not difficult to do.

Of course, the reform achievements of Pingsui Road are not all due to one or two people.The biggest boost is that the political power of the central government has reached all regions.This road passes through four provinces (Hebei, Cha, Shanxi, and Sui). If, as in the previous separatist regime, the armies can seize vehicles, interfere with road administration, withhold road money, and fight casually, then even if there are hundreds of Shen Chang, there will be no results.Now the power of political unity can reach the whole road, so the reform of the whole road can be gradually implemented.Now Husui Road only bears 600,000 yuan a month for the Beiping Army Branch. In addition, the provinces have never heard of interfering with the railway revenue; the leaders of the two provincial governments of Chahar and Suiyuan also understand that the rectification of the railway is effective. It is to directly and indirectly increase the fiscal revenue of the provincial governments, so they also sponsor the reform work of the railway authorities.This shows that political unity is the basic condition for all innovations in internal affairs.With this basic condition, coupled with personal courage and new knowledge training, those who are willing to do things are definitely not afraid of not having good grades.

Another purpose of our trip this time is to visit the Yungang Grottoes in Datong.Personally, I have held You Yungang's wish for at least ten years, and it was only this year that my wish came true, so I am very happy.When we arrived at Yungang, we realized that these big grottoes could not be seen in a few hours, but at least a week of detailed climbing and viewing, and we had to bring good tools to get some correct impressions.We stayed in Yungang for only two hours, so of course we were unable to make a detailed report. Yungang is located in the west of Datong, on the west bank of Wuzhou River. It was named Wuzhou Village in ancient times, also known as Wuzhou Mountain.From Datong to here, about 30 miles away, there is a newly built road for cars. Although it has to cross the Wuzhou River twice, the road is very good, and it is not difficult in heavy rain.Among the grottoes in Yungang, there were ten old temples, which have been destroyed for a long time.In the eighth year of Shunzhi, the governor rebuilt a small part of it, which is called the ancient stone Buddha temple.There are two three-story buildings in this part, which are very small and simple, and it is by no means the large-scale temple built on the mountain.Each of the two floors has a big head, more than five feet high, and the head can only be seen from the third floor.This part was rebuilt at the end of the Qing Dynasty. The big Buddhas were all covered with gold, and the stone carvings on the rocks were also decorated with Xu Cai, covering up the original shape of the original carvings.

Daoxuan's "Continued Biography of Eminent Monks", Volume 1 "Jingyao Biography", said: Tan Nan... Live in Tongle Temple in the Heng'an Grottoes, which was built by Emperor Wei. Go to the stone rock in the north of Wuzhou Valley, thirty miles northwest of Heng'an, and engrave it.A Buddhist temple was established, named Lingyan.The big one can hold more than 20 wen, and it can accept 3,000 people.The face is different from the elephant, which is full of beauty; the niche is different from the shape, which is shocking and moving.The sparse batches are connected, more than 30 miles away.Dongtou Seng Temple has a constant offering of thousands of people.The tone of the stele exists, but it has not been commissioned.

From what we have seen in the grottoes, there is no niche that can "accept three thousand people", and there is no temple that can "constantly provide thousands of people".Probably the magnificence and grandeur of the ten temples in the Grottoes that day is beyond what we can imagine today.In the heyday of a religion, believers and women are full of crazy psychology, and they don't care about burning their arms and bodies, let alone money donations?Therefore, the poverty and splendor of the Buddhist temples from the Six Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty are beyond our imagination in this age when Buddhism is at its weakest.Datong, the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, "Wei Shu · Shi Laozhi" said that in the early years of Taihe, "there are hundreds of temples in the capital, old and new, and more than 2,000 monks and nuns. The temples in the four directions are six thousand four hundred and seventy-eight. There are 77,258 monks and nuns." In the 17th year of Taihe (493), the capital was moved to Luoyang, and Yang Jiezhi said in "Luoyang Shulanji Preface" that "there are more than a thousand temples inside and outside the capital." Yang Jiezhi returned to Luoyang in the fifth year of Wuding in the Eastern Wei Dynasty (547). He only saw the city wall collapsed, other rooms overturned, ashes appeared in the temple, and the ruins of temple towers and mounds.The walls are covered with wormwood, the alleys are covered with thorns, the lairs of wild animals are barren, and the mountain birds nest in the garden trees; wandering land, shepherds and gods drown in nine speeds, and farmers plow and cultivate millet in double broads.

When we visited Yungang 1,500 years later, we only saw this very simple dilapidated temple. A broken short wall outside the temple surrounded seven or eight large grottoes; to the west of the short wall, there were nine large grottoes and many small ones In front of the grottoes, there are mud huts of the poor, pig and dog dung are all over the road, and the grottoes are often full of pigeon feathers and pigeon droppings, and traces of beggars' lodging can often be seen.There are many large and small round holes in the body of the elephant, which were inlaid with jewels at first, but now they are all hollowed out; the eyeballs of the elephant are all polished with a kind of black stone, and only a few of them still exist now.Of the small statues in the various caves, all the heads that could be severed were probably chopped off and sold.The power of the Buddha has been ineffective for a long time, and the common people have no food to eat. Isn't it justified to sell the heads and eyeballs of the Buddhas for a few dollars to survive? The Japanese Sato Takatoshi once worked in Yungang for a month, and wrote a book "Yungang Grand Grottoes" (published by North China Zhengbao Press), which records the situation of many grottoes here in detail, with many drawings, some of which cannot be photographed, often It is sketched and sketched with a pen, so it is a very useful reference book for Yungang tour.Sato divided Yungang into three areas: Four Eastern Grottoes Central ten caves (within the wall) Western Nine Caves Xiduanhua Xiaocao The eastern caves are scattered on the banks of the Wuchuan River, and we didn't visit them.We have never been to the caves at the west end.We looked at the ten central caves and the nine western caves.The most common open-air Buddha (more than five feet high) that we usually see in geography books or travel books is the ninth cave in the west.Looking at this open-air stone Buddha and its back seat, we can imagine that there was a niche and a temple for this large statue at that time. Also collapsed. From my stupid point of view, the big Buddhas here are nothing more than big surprises, with little artistic meaning.The most artistic value is the relief on the wall and the statue of the god in the small niche. The technology is relatively free, so the composition of creation is often more than that of imitation. The central caves, because most of them were decorated with gold and painted by later generations, it is not easy to see the original carving art.Most of the caves in the West have not been refurbished, and are often eroded by wind and rain, and the original ax chisel marks have been erased, so they are often extraordinarily round and clumsy and cute.The rock of this mountain is sandstone, which is most susceptible to wind erosion; we often see thousands of small Buddha statues on the whole piece of rock several feet high have been worn away to the point where only a few traces remain.There are many reliefs with no line traces. We can only infer the traces of the year from the arrangement of the carvings next to them. So we have two inferences: First, the Yungang Grottoes were an important center of Buddhist art 1,500 years ago. From the standpoint of religious history and art history, they should be preserved.In the past 1,500 years, natural wind erosion and man-made damage have ruined a lot.The country should pay attention to this large collection of ancient sculptures, and try to protect it, not only to prevent it from being stolen and destroyed artificially, but also to prevent it from being eroded by wind, rain and sand fields. Second, we can make a historical inference.Daoxi in the early Tang Dynasty mentioned the Grotto Temple in Wuzhou Mountain in "Advocating Yao Zhuan", and there is a saying that "the stele is uncovered and it is preserved".Why are there almost no inscriptions to be found in the Yungang caves today?Why is there no inscription of Yungang in the ancient books recording Shanxi Jinshi (such as Hu Chengzhi's "Shanyou Stone Inscriptions Series")?We can infer that the statues and steles of that day were exhausted and carved on sandstone, and all those exposed to the erosion of wind and sun were obliterated by nature.The inscriptions on the steles are not very deep, and the relief Buddha statues have been eroded by the wind, let alone the shallow inscriptions? Mr. Ma Shuping said that there are three ancient monuments in Yungang.I only see one place.Mr. Zheng Zhenfeng recorded "Da Ruru" inscribed on the stone, and there are about 20 recognizable characters. I have not seen this stele.It seems that Mr. Zheng has not seen the rest of the stele.The one I saw was on a very high stone wall of the so-called "Central Seventh Cave" in Sato's book. This wall is in the inner layer and is not easily eroded by wind. Therefore, the whole tablet is about 350 characters, and it is generally still readable.The first line of this stele has the four characters "Yi Shi Fa Zong", which seems to be the author of the article. The article says: In the seventh year of Taihe (483), at the age of August 30th in Guihai, fifty-four people including Yixin scholars and women... obeyed the Holy Lord, the Taoist world, and the three treasures of Shaolong.... Si Wu.Disciples and others...wanted to admire or Hongze...with the merits of the republic and the prosperity of the country, I respectfully presented the ninety-five districts of the stone house image, and the Bodhisattvas...the inscription on the statue said that the ninety-five districts of the image were created, which is evidenced by the statue of Huamen "Inscription on the Stele", the word 'vomit' was later used as "body" space, which refers to the ninety-five small statues, and "and all Bodhisattvas" are large statues.This stele shows that the emperors, empresses, and princes spent a lot of money to build this big grotto, and there were also many private efforts. Such a cave is the skill of fifty-four individuals. Yungang used to belong to Zuoyun County, Shuoping Prefecture.Regarding the records of the grottoes, both "Shanxi Tongzhi" (Yongzheng Jianjueluo Shi Linxiu) and Hongping Fuzhi both said: Ten temples in the Grottoes,... built in the later Wei Dynasty, Shishenrui (414-415) at the beginning and Zhengguang (520-524) at the end, completed after a hundred years.The temple was promoted at the same time, the second Lingguang, the protector of the country, and Wang Chongfu.Six boys, seven Nengren, eight Huayan, nine Tiangong, and ten Tushita.Emperor Xuewen is eager to travel.Are there twenty niches for stone Buddhas inside? (At the end of "Jiaqing Yitongzhi", it is "There are twelve stone Buddha niches built by Yuan Zai". Yuan Zai was the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. "Yitong Zhi" seems to have evidence, "Tong Zhi" and "Fu Zhi" seem to be arbitrarily changed) Shenduan was before Emperor Taiwu destroyed Buddhism, and Zhengguang was far after moving the capital to Luoyang.As recorded in the old records, there should be a basis.Probably before Tan Nuan, some people had carved stone niches and carved Buddha statues in the mountains.The destruction of the Dharma (446-451) made ordinary Buddhists feel that political power can protect the Dharma, and it can also eradicate the Dharma.Tan Yao probably got a big hint from the original stone niche in Wuzhou Village, so he made a big wish to live on the solid sandstone.On top of it, large grottoes and huge Buddha statues were carved out, so that these big grottoes and stone statues could never be destroyed by political forces. "Wei Shu·Shi Lao Zhi" records the date of this event is not very clear, probably he did this huge project during his tenure as a "Samana". "Shi Laozhi" records that his generation of teachers and sages was "Sramana Tong". Playing", we can see that Tan Yao's "Sramana" has been doing it for seventeen or eighteen years.This is the highest official governing Buddhists in the country.He was also able to implement a large-scale fundraising policy (see "Shi Laozhi"), so he was able to fully use the financial resources of the country and Buddhists across the country to "dug mountains and rock walls, open five caves, engrave one Buddha statue, The first is seventy feet long, the second is sixty feet, and the carvings are magnificent, crowning the world." We can say that although the Yungang Grottoes originated in the early fifth century, the great scale was actually created by Tan Yao as the Salmonella after the middle of the fifth century. era.Although the capital was moved later, the stone carving project in Daidu continued until the early sixth century, and the royal family and Buddhists in Luodu dug a larger Longmen Grottoes in the "Zhundaijing Lingyan Temple Grottoes" on Yikuo Mountain in Xinjing. . (The Longmen Grottoes began in the early Jing and Ming Dynasties, five hundred years in the Western calendar, and had not stopped until the Sui and Tang Dynasties.) Therefore, Tan Yao is not only the designer of the Yungang Grottoes, but also the indirect designer of the Yiguan Grottoes. Tan Yao chiseled rocks to make big Buddha statues, in order to make Buddhism and rocks have the same durability and never be destroyed by political forces.This volunteer is very admirable.It's a pity that people's ignorance and fanaticism cannot last as long as rocks!Times have changed, ignorance has gradually been eroded by reason, and fanaticism has gradually become calm.The rock-hewn Liuwen Buddha still stands upright in the wind and sand, and Buddhism has long been destroyed and dissipated without being destroyed by the "Three Wus and One School".Yungang Yijing is only enough to increase our feelings about the ancients and make us lament the ignorance and fanaticism of the ancients.