Chapter 64 second quarter
Jinming Lake is an artificial lake located in the western suburb of Beijing with a radius of about nine miles.It was excavated in the fourth year of Zhou Shizong Xiande (957 AD), and has a history of more than 100 years.Zhou Shizong Chai Rong is a British lord with the spirit of founding a country and starting a business. The reason why he did not complete the unification of the country and end the situation that had been divided in fact for two hundred years, and even in name for fifty years, was only because of At the age of thirty-eight, a sudden inflammation took away his precious life.
During his short reign, Zhou Shizong formulated a very precise and correct overall plan for the unification of the whole country, and put it into practice one by one.He always focused his military efforts on dealing with the Khitan nobles, the powerful enemies in the north who already occupied Yanyun's sixteen prefectures. He knew that if Yanyun was not recovered, the Yellow River Basin would not be peaceful for a day.At the beginning of his accession to the throne, he defeated the Northern Han Army and the Khitan cavalry supporting the Northern Han Army in the Gaoping Mountains of Shanxi.Afterwards, after large-scale elimination and training, a strong army that ranks first in the country is trained.Then return to the northwest and southeast to defeat the two threatening local regimes of Houshu and Southern Tang to consolidate their defense.The use of troops in the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River Basin requires a navy. His purpose of digging Jinming Pond is to train a navy that can rival his army under his direct attention.Like all the founding heroes, they created something, not for eating, drinking, or having fun, but to realize their own ambitions, at least for a period of time before reunification.The rulers in the early Northern Song Dynasty also used Jinming Pool for the original purpose. Song Taizu was lucky enough to build ships and watch water battles. This ship building was located beside Jinming Pool.The water army they trained is called the "Tiger Wing Army", which means "adding wings to the tiger".
By the mid-Northern Song Dynasty, the rulers had long lost the entrepreneurial spirit of the founding emperors, and gradually turned this Jinming Pool, where the navy was trained, into a playground.Every March, after the water in the pool is thawed, Jinming Pool is partially opened, called Kaichi, and thousands of tourists flock there.A hundred years after its arrival, Jinming Pond has been rebuilt and rebuilt again and again. Even those who are familiar with the history of this dynasty have long forgotten its original purpose.Only one side of the dragon boat race on the Dragon Boat Festival still uses the traditional name of the Tiger Wing Army. From this clue, people will faintly recall that in a certain ancient era, it once had a serious purpose other than entertainment.
The government of the Northern Song Dynasty has always spared no expense in managing all consumer entertainment items, and it is also called "take it from the people and use it for the people." In small counties and counties, some places of interest and historical sites have to be built. Towers, towers, pavilions and pavilions are erected, cliffs and stones are erected, and they will last forever, let alone in Tokyo Prefecture, the capital of the city.The huge lake has been continuously deepened and expanded after generations of emperors Zhenzong, Renzong, Yingzong, Shenzong, and Zhezong, and a carved water-milled brick wall was built around it, and many new ones were built inside the wall. Building, I really want to build it into an artificial Yingzhou fairy island and Penglai Langyuan.Before Huizong came to the throne, it was close to perfection.
A person has a personality of a person, a city has a personality of a city, and a dynasty has a personality of a dynasty.If the process of changing a military-used Jinming Pool into an amusement park, and the process of continuous improvement is regarded as the process of characterizing the Northern Song Dynasty, this argument can also be established.
Emperor Weizong was the ruler who brought the character of this dynasty to a typical level, and he was also an all-rounder who created a false world of flowers and flowers.In the Xuanhe period, Jinming Pond was large in scale and luxurious in architecture, reaching the level of a palace.The long and winding palace wall built around it is a work of art in itself.There are three doors on all sides of the palace wall.The Daomen on the north and west is the main entrance, which is the most exquisite and widest, allowing several carriages to drive in parallel.On both sides of the gateposts of the main gate are towering towers that symbolize the sun and the moon. This gate is called the "Lingxing Gate".On the top of the gate between the two towers, another flying tower named "Baojin Tower" was built.When Baojin Building was designed, its purpose was not considered.Later, I thought that on the day of the race, the prostitutes of the Jiaofang Division could play and sing on the tall building to help the spirit, so it became a common practice.From now on, every time the race comes, Kaifeng Mansion will call the singing girls to play.There is no other way to climb up the Baojin Tower through the stairs of the Sun and Moon Shuangque, so a strange phenomenon happened. This sacred and inviolable Lingxing Gate became the official family, Gong Ji and singing girls on the day of the race. Common access door.
After entering the Lingxing Gate, the car drives along a wide and neat royal road, which turns from east to south, and after hundreds of steps, it arrives at the majestic "Water Palace".Although the water hall is built on the east bank of Jinming Pond, half of the area extends deep into the water, making it a veritable water hall.There is also a platform with the same size as the hall itself outside the hall.When the officials and princes received Guo Yaoshi.Several yellow tents had already been set up on the platform, and many guards in brocade clothes stood outside the tents to guard the official's house.Even Guo Yaoshi, who was already very familiar with the court rituals of the Song Dynasty, took a few steps back after answering the official's inquiry, and made a gesture of being ready to meet the guards on the platform at any time to protect the official's house. The posture shows that he dare not presume to enjoy the privilege of serving the official family alone.His humble and courteous attitude undoubtedly won the favor of the officials. Instead of letting him retreat to the platform, the officials made a gesture to ask him to stand closer.
During the other days of midsummer and June, or during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the officials are occasionally happy, and they also use the spacious and cool place of the platform to give banquets to the prime minister.This is a place that everyone can see, but can't enter when they are waiting for leisure. It is indeed a fairy mansion on the sea that is beyond reach. The officials who receive the banquet can linger on the platform for several hours, and they all think it is a shame. receive a special honor.
The water hall and the platform are still the original buildings. Emperor Xuanhe further extended from the platform to the center of the lake and filled in a cross-shaped artificial peninsula. This is an ingenious and advanced design.The peninsula is covered with velvet-like Bisha, exotic plants, strange rocks and small and exquisite pavilions.Teams of "Hua Shi Gang" transported from the south of the Yangtze River, in addition to supplying "Gen Yue" and the palace garden, also distributed here, making it the third garden of the royal family.Both the palace garden and Genyue are forbidden areas for the royal family. Only the third field is semi-open. Although the peninsula and the water hall are not allowed to enter, the Jinming Pond allows them to feast their eyes in the distance when it is open. , This can be regarded as "the mighty grace of the emperor".
On the criss-cross foundation of the peninsula, the officials built five palaces according to local conditions, facing the water palace far away.The middle one of the five halls has a circular dome, and the doors and windows are also carved into domes.The curved lines are characteristic of the design of the rotunda.Around the rotunda are four smaller, but equally exquisite and equally luxurious rectangular palaces.This unique combination of round and square, dome and square roof, high and short, big and small, plane and three-dimensional combination of five palaces is a masterpiece in the history of Chinese architecture.Each of them has a beautiful name that is both pictographic and knowing, both eulogizing and welcoming the gods, but the common people in Tokyo are not appreciators of court literature and art, they generally call it "five halls", Or they are called "Round Hall", "East Hall", "South Hall", "West Hall" and "North Hall" respectively.
Although the five halls are all independent structures, they are connected by double-eaved corridors.Outside the hall is the red fence and white stone jade steps. Looking around by the fence, you can see the beautiful scenery of the whole lake at a glance. This is the most superior place to visit the race.When the race was about to be held, the guards followed the old rules and quickly covered the vertical part of the Cross Island with a set of exquisite brocade barriers, starting from the platform of the water hall and ending at the fifth hall.People only heard the sound of wearing rings, sometimes mixed with laughter, and knew that officials, saints, concubines, concubines, concubines, princes, and concubines all entered the five halls through this aisle to watch the race. up.At this time, the audience's emotions suddenly became tense, but it was still long before the official start of the race!Veteran spectators just took advantage of this gap to enjoy the music being played by the singing girls upstairs in Baojin Tower.
After the brocade barrier was removed, the audience's eyes followed their ears to Baojin Tower.At the northern end of the thousand-character island, there is an arched bridge leading directly to the north bank where Baojin Tower is located.The characteristic of this bridge is that the bridge spine is made very high, so that it can cooperate with Baojin Tower, which is hundreds of feet above the ground, and achieve a harmonious effect.People in Tokyo call it "Camel Rainbow" according to the image of this bridge.This is the name of a model of the combination of court literature and art and popular oral language. "Camel" is the pictographic view of Tokyo citizens, and the character "rainbow" is the official design's meaning.The bridge is intentionally painted in rounds of yellow, orange, red, purple and other colors. With the blue sky as the background, it bows across the clear water of the lake, really like a rainbow after the rain.However, "Camel Rainbow" is only of decorative significance and has little practical value.Cars and horses cannot pass on this designed too steep bridge.Even if people walk, hold on to the railing, and walk step by step, a negligence may cause the risk of falling.There was an accident where a deacon's concubine rolled down from the top of the bridge and caused injury. Therefore, both ends of the bridge have been blocked for many years.And in this festival, it happened to be an obstacle between the court and the singing girls.The bridge is impassable, and only under the control of an expert rower, the boat can zigzag through the twenty-five double row geese pillars arranged neatly under the bridge, and reach the north bank directly.
A bridge built with a lot of manpower and material resources cannot be used by people, but is actually just a decorative toy. This is probably a rare example in the history of architecture.But in the Xuanhe era, this is not surprising, because that era itself was a "toy era", everything was for fun, and all artificial things were as large as this false world of flowers and flowers. Battles, as small as this camel rainbow, this grand celebration, are all created for many people, for some people, or for one person to have fun.
The starting point of the race is neither on the north bank where Baojin Tower is located, nor on the east bank where the Water Palace is located, but on the empty and sparse west bank.There are no important buildings on the west bank, only weeping willows dipped in water, and the shade is like clouds.The finish line of the race is at the end of the cross island in the center of the lake.A long pole was erected there, and a whole bolt of plain silk was hung from the pole, with the words "Dragon Boat Race in the Fifth Year of Xuanhe Celebrating the Grand Ceremony of Recovering Yanshan Road" written on it.Gold medals, silver medals, gold cups, silver bowls, precious stones, colored silk and other valuables are hung on the top of the long poles, as prizes for the winners of the competition, shining in the bright sun.
In the so-called "Dragon Boat Race", the word "Dragon Boat" does not match the name. In fact, the boats used by both sides of the competition are called "Tiger Boats".The bows of the ten long and narrow boats participating in the competition are all carved in the shape of tiger heads, and painted in a tiger yellow color that is especially suitable for the Duanyang Festival.Since it is called "Tiger Wing Army", the two sides of the ship's side were originally depicted with tiger wings, but after more than a hundred years of handing down, this pair of wings, which are useless in practical applications and cause cumbersomeness, have long been omitted.Therefore, only the tiger head shape on the bow of the ship remains as it was when the navy was trained.
However, the Duanyang Festival is famous for its dragon boat races. In order to make the word "dragon boat" come true, before the competition, a boat with a length of twenty feet and a width of three and a half feet was slowly driven out from the "Okuya" on the south bank. There are real dragons with terraces and towers built on it.Its appearance will always cause a lot of noise, and people can't help repeating the old saying that has been repeated many times, saying, "Emperor Yang of Sui used to go down the river to see Qionghua, and he never sat in such a luxurious and elegant dragon boat." Sensitively speculating that since the government has built such a large dragon boat, they must take it to the south of the Yangtze River, and someone immediately made a list of those who will accompany them to the south of the Yangtze River: Cai Jing, Cai You, Wang Wei, Tong Guan, Gao Qi, Zhang Bangchang Li Bangyan, Li Bangyan, etc. are among them. As a native of Suzhou, Zhu Xi is of course the guide, but we must not forget the new bamboo shoot Guo Yaoshi that just emerged today.
The "dragon boat" that was going to carry the official family to the south of the Yangtze River is now sailing from the south bank of Jinming Lake.It raised its dragon head, raised its tail, and its whole body shone with golden scales carved with fine lines and painted with gold lacquer. It was indeed very mighty.It made its way slowly towards the finish line of the race in the center of the lake.The practical use of this dragon boat is for the deacons to issue orders on it during the competition.On the top of the three-story dragon boat building, stood two warriors wearing full armor. One of them was the leader of the "Longxiang Team" (the side that competed in the competition). Gao Si Ye", Gao Shen, Gao Qiu's brother.The other was the leader of the "Tiger Wings" (the other side of the game), a veteran who had won many prizes in the game.Gao stretched out his hand to hold a colored flag, and the other held a painting corner. Although the two stood at the same high position and had the same authority to issue orders, no matter in terms of their status, status, simplicity and luxury of clothing, and arrogance and arrogance of expression. Compared with indifference, the former is obviously superior. From the disparity in the status of the two team leaders, it can be seen that this is an unequal competition.
The two captains were waiting on the roof of the ship building, and when all the preparations were ready, the deacons at the starting point of the game waved the green flag to signal them that the game could start.This was a tense moment. The music on the Baojin Tower had already stopped, and the audience quietly focused their attention on the top of the dragon boat.At this moment, Gao Shen turned around and said a word to a chief guard standing at the end of the island wearing brocade clothes, and the chief guard immediately flew to the fifth hall; then flew back and conveyed the official's password to Gao Shen, The game must be passed by the official's password to start the game, which maintains that the game is directly hosted and directed by the official.During this festival, Gao Shen and the chief guard directly or indirectly transferred the word with the official and carried out his instructions, so they needed to have a fairly high grade and status, and the veteran standing aside was naturally dwarfed by comparison.
As soon as the chief guard finished his sentence, Gao Shen stretched out the colorful flag and waved it in the direction of the starting point.The leader of the Tigerwings followed suit and blew the horn.The ten tiger-headed boats that had already been on a buoy line on the west bank were ready to go. As soon as the signal was issued, they immediately paddled and rushed through the buoy line like arrows leaving the bowstring.
The game begins.
Notes:
Notes: