Chapter 15 Eight Peng Yulin Jiao Shan fulfills his wish

After Peng Yulin returned to Zhajiang, Guoxiu's illness improved in a short period of time, but soon worsened.He was gentle in every possible way, invited famous doctors, and spared no expense to buy expensive medicinal materials, but he still couldn't cure him.Guoxiu was finally like my sister-in-law, she left Yulin at a young age and left alone. The difference is that she left Yulin a son.Peng Yulin lamented his suffering, and took a more indifferent view of the world.He buried Guoxiu next to his sister-in-law's tomb, and visited them every three or four days.He wants to fulfill what he said to the soul of his sister-in-law on the eve of leaving home. After he is done, he will not love wealth and honor, and return to the old life of poverty.So a thatched hut was built under Douli Ridge, and it was named Tuixing Nunnery.He lives in the retreat nunnery to study and paint plum blossoms, and he is accompanied by the resentful souls of his sister-in-law and Guoxiu every day.Peng Yulin asked the emperor to open a vacancy and let him recuperate from his illness.The emperor refused to allow him, and instead appointed him the governor of water transportation, but he refused to accept his resignation.The emperor had no choice but to give up, and returned to him the post of minister of the Ministry of War as usual, with a warm decree to comfort and recuperate, and then take on important tasks.If Zeng Guofan's two deeply affectionate letters in a row hadn't moved his nostalgic heart, and if it hadn't been for the letters repeatedly saying that he would discuss important matters about the navy, Peng Yulin would take his son Yongzhao and never leave his aunt and sister again. Guoxiu's grave never left Zhajiang again.

He wants to retire in the retreat nunnery to reflect and spend the rest of his life. Zeng Guofan saw that Peng Yulin was in a sad mood, so he didn't talk to him about the Yangtze River Navy for the time being. Every day in his spare time, he was invited to drink tea and play chess, and borrowed many authentic works of famous painters of the previous generation from the famous families in Jiangning City, and admired them with him, so as to relieve his worries. Just at this time, Dai Xi returned to his hometown of Qiantang when he became an official. He passed by Jiangning, and Zeng Guofan kindly stayed.

Dai Xi used the Hanlin three times to study in the South, and was an official to the Minister of the Ministry of War. He was famous in the capital for being good at painting.That year, he painted a picture of "Cangyu Valley" for Sun Dingchen. Later, both Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang couldn't put it down. Everyone wrote a seven-character ancient style on it, which became a good story in the literary world.Dai Xi admired Peng Yulin's name for a long time, and he was both an official in the Ministry of War and a master in painting. The two hit it off immediately.Talking about poetry, painting, and military affairs is very speculative.At the time of parting, Dai Xi gave Peng Yulin a picture of "Qiantang Tidal Wave", and Peng Yulin gave back a piece of "Nanyue Welcome Pine".Peng Yulin and Dai Xi met each other late, and felt that it would be too lonely to stay in Zhajiang for a long time, so he made an appointment with Dai Xi: Ten years later, he will also build a retreat nunnery by the West Lake in Hangzhou, and live in Zhajiang for half of the year. Jiang Tuixing lived in Tuixing nunnery in Hangzhou with his sister-in-law and Guoxiu's graves, and enjoyed paintings and poems with Dai Xi and other famous people from Zhejiang and Zhejiang provinces.

Peng Yulin was in a cheerful mood, and Zeng Guofan was overjoyed, so he told Peng Yulin about the smuggling of salt by the Yangtze River Navy and what Yang Yuebin said on the eve of his departure for Shaanxi-Gansu. Peng Yulin was jealous of evil, and was extremely indignant when he heard that the navy was smuggling, and he insisted on investigating and punishing them one by one.For Yang Yuebin's words, he naturally has a clear understanding.His views on the imperial court and officialdom are deeper than Yang Yuebin's, and he has a clear understanding of Zeng Guofan and his own situation.He belongs to the kind of person who is wise, courageous, and enlightened. At that time, he persuaded Zeng Guofan to gain momentum and stand on his own feet, and later he retired after his accomplishments, which are beyond the imagination of ordinary people.A few days later, Peng Yulin said to Zeng Guofan: "Di Zhang, let's go to Zhenjiang Jiaoshan Temple tomorrow!"

"Okay, I'll accompany you if you are interested in traveling in mountains and rivers." Zeng Guofan thought that Peng Yulin must take the opportunity of visiting Jiaoshan to talk about navy. "Before she died, Guoxiu told me that when she, her mother and elder brother went from Zhejiang to her uncle who was seeking food in Huangzhou, when the boat passed Zhenjiang, the Yangtze River was suddenly stormy. The wind was strong and the waves were high. The boat was bumping from side to side on the river, and it was about to capsize. , her mother was so frightened that she burst into tears, and her elder brother had no idea. Guoxiu knelt down facing the towering Jiaoshan Temple facing the river and prayed: I pray for the blessing of the Bodhisattva. After many times, the weather was calm and the mother was so happy that she shouted: Bodhisattva has spirit, Bodhisattva has spirit! Guoxiu said that she was uneasy when she failed to repay this vow before she was alive. Zhao has no disasters and diseases, and grows up."

"I will accompany you to fulfill your wish tomorrow." Zeng Guofan looked at Peng Yulin's dignified and slightly desolate expression, and a thought of compassion floated in his heart.He felt that this kind of idea seemed to have never happened before. Zhenjiang City is really a place of majestic momentum and beautiful mountains and rivers.The Yangtze River passes through the north of the city. The river is wide and turbulent. In the middle of the river stand Jinshan, Beigushan and Jiaoshan. The mountains are not high but steep, and the trees are not deep but quiet.Throughout the year, the waves of the river beat against the cliffs and splashed into the sky. They are like three diamonds made of iron, standing still.Year after month, the river wind caresses the mountainside and the top of the mountain. The grass is green and the birds are clustered. They are like three girls who wash the gauze, beautiful and graceful.In particular, the beautiful and moving legends and historical stories related to them, such as flooding Jinshan Temple, recruiting relatives at Ganlu Temple, Sun Liu chopping stones to divination the world, Kangxi and Qianlong's southern tour poems, etc., make them even more mysterious, like Three venerable historical elders who overlook the vicissitudes of life help the younger generation remember the past and enlighten the future.

Zeng Guofan, Peng Yulin, and two other accompanying Goshhas, all dressed as ordinary people, set off from Jiangning early in the morning on the small steamer manufactured by Anqing Nei Ordnance, all the way through the waves and down the river, and have arrived in Zhenjiang city.First climb Jinshan and Beigushan to watch, and after eating a fast meal at Ganlu Temple, we came to Jiaoshan. As soon as he went up the mountain, Zeng Guofan was immediately fascinated by the scenery in front of him. He smiled and said to Peng Yulin, "Xueqin, don't rush to fulfill your wish. Once you fulfill your wish, you won't be able to get away. Let's have a look around first, shall we?"

"It's a great honor for Dizhang to accompany me to fulfill his wish. Can I not agree to this small request?" After speaking, he smiled comfortably. Jiaoshan got its name because Jiao Guang lived here in seclusion in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and because the pines and bamboos on the mountain are green, like a jasper floating river, it is also called Fuyu Mountain.In the northeast of the mountain, there are two giant stones, called the Big and Small Songliao Mountains, which the ancients called Haimen.Its highest point is only more than forty feet away from the sea, and it is only about six hundred feet if you walk around the mountain for a circle.But this small island is dazzling and beautiful.Not to mention the white waves, majestic and open scenery of the Yangtze River when climbing the mountain, nor the undulating mulberry forest, which is like a broad and charming life covering it. The ruins are enough to make people intoxicated and linger.

Zeng Guofan and Peng Yulin watched with great interest the ancient cypresses of the Six Dynasties with semi-dry trunks and strong branches, the old locust trees of the Southern Song Dynasty with thick bodies and full of green leaves, and the towering and proud Yongle ginkgo of the Ming Dynasty.Then, the two visited Sujiang Tower, Huayan Pavilion, Spectacular Pavilion, and Guanlan Pavilion hand in hand. These are the best places to watch the sunrise, enjoy the moonlight, send the sunset, and listen to the sound of the waves.The pavilions are ingeniously built, and the location is poetic and picturesque. For the governor of Liangjiang, who is busy with the rectification of salt affairs, and the commander of the navy, who is nostalgic for the hometown of his deceased wife, he is temporarily relieved both physically and mentally.

After seeing the ancient cave of Sanzhao, they wandered around the reading place of Zheng Banqiao in Biefeng Nunnery for a while, and saw that the famous couplet inscribed by Banqiao for Biefeng Nunnery is still up to now, saying: The mountains are shining in the face after the new rain, and the river turns back to be the evening sunshine .Peng Yulin praised: "As expected of Banqiao's pen, it is really unique!" The two came to Baomoxuan again, which is the essence of Jiaoshan cultural relics.The four walls of Baomoxuan are inlaid with more than 200 famous inscriptions from the Six Dynasties to the Daoguang period of this dynasty, and there are many treasures.There are the Monument of Master Wei, the Fatie of Chengjian Hall, the Monument of Beavers, the Monument of Su Dongpo’s Poetry in Zhaoyin Temple, and the Monument of Yinxin Stone House set up by Tao Shu. Ming".This stele is vigorous and muscular, and has a tight structure. It is the ancestor of big characters and has always been respected by the calligraphy world.Zeng Guofan has experienced three major changes in writing in his life, from Liu Chengxuan to Huangshan Valley to Li Beihai.When I was learning willow script in my early years, I copied the "Inscription of the Crane" carefully hundreds of times. Today I am here to see the original stele. How can I not be happy!Zeng Guofan looked at the stele very carefully, and saw hundreds of words engraved on a small stele next to it, introducing the process of losing it and getting it back.

It turned out that after the "Hua Crane Inscription" was engraved, it has been erected on Jiaoshan Mountain.During the Zongdali period of the Tang Dynasty, it was lost in the Yangtze River and lay on the bottom of the water for three hundred years. It was not until the Xining period of the Northern Song Dynasty that a broken stone was fished out of the river.A hundred years later, during the Chunxi period of the Southern Song Dynasty, three more pieces were salvaged.Unexpectedly, during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, these four broken stones fell into the river again.During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, Chen Pengnian, the magistrate of Zhenjiang, was an expert on gold and stones. He spared no expense in recruiting boatmen to salvage them, and finally fished out these four remnants of stones three miles downstream from Jiaoshan Mountain. The ups and downs in "The Inscription on the Crane" made the two celebrities in central Hunan sigh. Seeing that the red sun was approaching the river, Peng Yulin said, "Di Zhang, it's time for me to fulfill my wish." Zeng Guofan said with a smile: "Look at what we were playing, and almost missed your business." The two came to Dinghui Temple, the main building complex on Jiaoshan, side by side.Dinghui Temple, formerly known as Puji Temple, was built in the Xingping period of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was one of the first batch of temples built after Buddhism was introduced to China.It was renamed Puji Temple in Song Dynasty, and Jiaoshan Temple in Yuan Dynasty.Kangxi's southern tour stationed here and named it Dinghui Temple.The temple has magnificent buildings and numerous halls, and has always been one of the Buddhist holy places in the south of the Yangtze River. After the two passed through the front hall, they came to the Daxiong Hall, and the two lines of large-character couplets that came to them were very thought-provoking: the four elements are all empty and clear the Buddha-nature, and the six roots are quiet and realize Bodhi.There is a golden statue of Buddha in the treasure hall. On the right side is Samantabhadra Bodhisattva who responds to every request, resolute and solemn, riding a white elephant.On both sides of the main hall are the four heavenly kings who stare blankly, show their teeth, and dance with fists and kicks.In the center, the green lanterns on the table are always bright, the flowers are endless, the cigarettes are lingering, and the candles are flickering.The empty hall is solemn and solemn, with a formidable atmosphere, without any casual people coming and going, and not a single lie.There was only an old monk sitting in a corner of the main hall, his eyes were slightly closed, his left hand was outstretched, and his right hand was beating the wooden fish from time to time.The crisp sound of wooden fish echoed in the lofty hall space, adding to it a sense of sacred and inviolable majesty. Zeng Guofan felt extremely small when he was in the middle of it.In front of the unattainable Tathagata Buddha, the first-class marquis, co-organizers, princes and governors, governors of Liangjiang and other officials who dazzled the world all lost their brilliance.The Buddhadharma is vast and the universe is boundless. He, a layman in the sea of ​​suffering, is like a speck of dust in the vast universe, a drop of water in the deserted Milky Way, insignificant and humble.Compared with Buddha, human life is too short.Buddha is eternal.He examines the past, the present, and the future. He doesn't know how many years he has existed, and he will continue to exist forever like the heavens, the earth, and the mountains and rivers. But life is just a flash of lightning in the night sky, fleeting, like a gap between white horses, Not in a blink of an eye.For a moment, Zeng Guofan felt helpless sadness in his heart. Following the precepts of his ancestors, Zeng Guofan has never worshiped Buddhism, but he also does not reject Buddhism. He has also dabbled in important Buddhist scriptures. In particular, he has read them many times, and he is quite satisfied with some of the discussions.Today, in the temple on this island mountain in the middle of the vast Yangtze River, after experiencing great achievements, great pains and sorrows, a sense of disillusionment came over him faintly.Seeing Peng Yulin kneeling piously on the cattail mat, he also knelt down involuntarily, prostrating himself at the feet of the supreme Buddha who saves all living beings, and Peng Yulin murmured prayers in his ears: "Peng Yulin, a disciple of Hengyang believer, kneels on the At the feet of my Buddha. Fifteen years ago, my disciple’s late wife, Yang Guoxiu, encountered a hurricane on the river, and the boat capsized. Fortunately, thanks to my Buddha’s boundless magic power, the wind calmed down and the family was safe. At that time, my deceased wife made a vow to thank my Buddha’s kindness, The golden body will be rebuilt, but due to the chaos caused by the army and horses, the result was unsuccessful. Now that his deceased wife has passed away, Yulin came to fulfill her wish on her behalf. The disciple has traveled thousands of miles, with a sincere heart, and I would like to present five hundred taels of silver at the table." After finishing speaking, he stood up, took out a silver ticket from his cuff, placed it respectfully on the desk, then stepped back, knelt down on the cattail mat again, and worshiped the Buddha.Zeng Guofan kept his head half down, squinted his eyes and said nothing. He was infected by Peng Yulin's piety, and he showed a kind of respect to Buddha. "Two laymen, please rise. The abbot of the small temple, Venerable Jiehang, is waiting in the abbot's room." At some point, behind Zeng Guofan and Peng Yulin came a monk with a good figure in his fifties.The monk clasped his palms together and said with a smile: "The poor monk is an acquaintance of the small monastery. Please invite the two lay monks to go with the poor monk to the backyard." The two Gong Bao lords got up obediently, followed the Zhike monk of Dinghui Temple, and walked out of the Daxiong Hall through the back door.