Visiting Qingqiu Taibai Temple

Topaz

I have never paid attention to a temple before, and the same is true for Taibai Temple. I once accompanied my mother to visit some temples. With a sincere heart, I burned incense and kowtowed to the Buddha in every temple. Don't ask any questions about the names and allusions of the gods and deities enshrined in the Buddha, and just focus on worshiping the Buddha.

On December 29, 2018, I was fortunate enough to participate in the Mei County Writers Association’s collection activity. I went to Qingqiu Village, Huaiya Town, Mei County, and visited the historical site - Taibai Temple. The past and present lives of a village and a temple entered my understanding.

Qingqiu is located to the west of Huaiya Town in Mei County and to the east of Bawanghe Industrial Park in Mei County. It is adjacent to Taibai Mountain to the south and Wei River to the north. National Highway 310 passes through the center of the village. Qingqiu is a natural village with about 1,500 households. It is now part of Huaixi Village, Huaiya Town, Mei County. According to the professional determination of the national historical and cultural relics department in 1957, Qingqiu is a Yangshao cultural site. To this day, many remnants of farming remain, indicating that our ancestors were cultivating and eating here during the Neolithic Age, nearly 10,000 years ago. The Taibai Temple visited during this trip is located in the south of the village.

We arrived in Qingqiu and headed towards the Taibai Temple in the south of the village. A courtyard with red walls and blue tiles appeared in front of us. This is a newly built temple. The structural layout of the temple is no different from temples in other places. I heard it was only completed and consecrated last year. When we came to the gate of the temple, Teacher Yang, the vice chairman of the Writers Association, pointed to a pair of round and flat stones standing on both sides of the threshold and asked us: "Can anyone tell us, what are these?" I said casually, full of ignorance: "Stones Drums?!" Teacher Yang said: "They are shaped like drums, but they are not drums. They are called "mendang". Then, he pointed to a pair of protruding red wooden things on both sides of the door lintel and said, "Look. , this is a 'household pair'." We suddenly realized, "Oh! This sums up to a 'household pair'!" Later it was extended to the comparison of the strengths of the two families. these details. I used to turn a blind eye, but it turns out that they are all infiltrated with Chinese culture! I feel that the cultural heritage left by our ancestors is silent and silent, and future generations may not be able to fully understand it. I suddenly felt: "Culture" is valuable to those who understand it! Even before you step into the gate of Taibai Temple, you are already in awe. Guided by Director Liu of the Qingqiu Village Committee, the previous old secretary of the village and several elderly people in their eighties, we watched and listened to the historical stories about Qingqiu and Taibai Temple.

We came to the pavilion on the left hand side of the gate and looked at the stone tablet. Due to its age, the text on the monument has been almost worn away by erosion, making it blurry and difficult to read. The texture of the stone is exposed and mottled. A teacher came closer and looked at it carefully, trying to search for some stories about Taibai Temple from the few fragments of words that could be discerned, but to no avail. We can clearly see that this hard stone is standing there as solid as iron. It is one of the oldest witnesses here, like a venerable person from Taibai Temple. We stepped back respectfully, put our hands together, and bowed deeply three times to the stone monument!

Continue walking and arrive at the center of the Taibai Temple courtyard. The neat courtyard is bright and solemn. To the north is the main hall. The plaque on the lintel was inscribed by the calligrapher Mr. Yu Youren. The Taibai Mountain God is enshrined here. We gently opened the door and went in, bowed to the god, then gently opened the door and went out, burning incense outside the main hall. During this process, I did not and did not dare to look squarely at the statue of Buddha. Although I knew that these mountain gods were the protectors of our land, I was still full of awe for them.

Director Liu took us to the wing on the east side of the courtyard. He introduced that the most valuable relics of Taibai Temple are protected here. The ancient stone stele, which is relatively well protected by the three links, stands in front of you. He introduced us one by one to the origins of these monuments. A group of people stood in front of the stone tablet, interpreting the unclear words on the stone tablet word by word. In the neat inscriptions, the history of Taibai Temple in Qingqiu gradually unfolds before our eyes.

The history and culture of Taibai Temple begins with the Shang and Zhou civilizations and has a history of more than 3,000 years. This temple is famous because ancestors relied on Taibai Mountain to pray for rain. Since ancient times, Taibai Mountain has been revered as a sacred mountain. The god of Taibai Mountain cares for the common people and responds to their requests. There used to be three courtyards in Taibai Mountain: the upper courtyard, the middle courtyard and the lower courtyard. The upper courtyard is located at Baxiantai, Taibai Mountain, the middle courtyard is at the bottom of Taibai Mountain, and the lower courtyard is located at Qingqiu. In ancient Qing Dynasty, there were five Dalianchi pools, among which three major pools, namely "Da'afu", "Er'afu" and "San'afu", were later divided by the emperor and revered as Yechi. According to legend, it was later pulled up to Taibai Mountain by the "sweating cow", forming today's Dayehai, Eryehai and Sanyehai.

The "Lotus Pond" in Wudalianchi has a unique chicken-headed lotus, which is called a wonder. The original construction of Taibai Temple was related to praying for rain.

In the long historical development, farming is related to the security of the world. While water is the lifeblood of agriculture, productivity is relatively backward and it mainly depends on the weather. Worshiping the rainwater of ancestors has become a natural thing, especially in the prosperous Guanzhong, the common people infinitely worship the god in charge of rainwater - the Taibai Mountain God. In the minds of our ancestors, it rains when the gods tell them to rain, and it doesn’t rain unless the gods tell them to rain. Therefore, if you want to get rain, you have to pray to the gods. As early as the Yin and Shang Dynasties, rain praying activities have been popular. Taibai Temple was built at this time. ?

At the end of the Shang Dynasty and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, there was a severe drought in the world. The fields were dry and they prayed to Mount Taibai for rain. However, the journey was long and difficult, so they ordered the Taibai Temple to be built in Qingqiu, the lower courtyard of Mount Taibai, for worship. For the purpose of praying for rain, all Buddhist services for praying for rain are held in Taibai Temple. According to legend, the Taibai Temple here is the main altar of Taibai temples across the country. There are records of praying for rain in the history books and inscriptions left over from the Shang, Zhou, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Due to the passage of time and the changes of the times, many historical materials have been lost. So far, there are only the "Edict Stele of Fengji Minhou" from the Song Dynasty, the "Reconstruction of Taibai Temple" stele from the Yuan Dynasty, and the "Imperial Brushwork" specially written by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty for Taibai Temple. "Poetry" monument. Among them, Bi Yuan, the governor of Shaanxi Province, made a report, and the handwriting of Qianlong's imperial pen on the stele was clearly legible. The stele said: "When the rain comes in front of the wheat, it will wait for more than 20 days after the wheat. In order to pray for the blessing of Lingshan, the nectar and fruit are amazing." "From the remaining inscriptions, we can get a glimpse of the grandeur and effectiveness of the rain prayers in Taibai Temple.

Su Shi, a writer and calligrapher in the Northern Song Dynasty, also went to Taibai Mountain to pray for rain. In the sixth year of Jiayou's reign, Su Shi became the judge of Fengxiang Mansion. In the eighth year of Jiayou's reign, there was a severe drought. On the east slope, I went from the Xie Valley to Taibai Mountain to pray for rain. I wrote three poems on the way, one of which is very famous: "I have heard about Taibai all my life, and I saw it standing on the road. Who can try the drum horn? Whether the wind and thunder have caused it or not, the cliffs are already amazing, and the ice and snow are even more carved. There is no wheat in the spring, and the mountain spirits are happy to have autumn. The dragons are lazy and can be stolen. "The last sentence is to use bottles and jars to steal. Qiuzi is a metaphor for getting rain. The admiration for the Taibai Mountain God is revealed between the lines.

In the long history, Taibai Temple has experienced changes in dynasties and vicissitudes of life. In addition to its mysterious mythological color, it is also full of red memories. According to Fan, an over-80-year-old man in the village who is eager to learn, Taibai Temple once had a construction area of ??48.6 acres. It was large in scale, complex in structure, exquisite in architecture, with carved beams and painted buildings. It is said that it was made by Lu Ban, and the exquisite craftsmanship is amazing. During the Anti-Japanese War, Taibai Temple became an orphanage for the children of battlefield martyrs. After liberation, these orphans were taken to northern Shaanxi. Later, a normal college was moved to Taibai Temple (the details are unknown) and then moved away. During the War of Liberation, a temporary hospital for wounded soldiers was built in Taibai Temple. There was a Henan Opera Troupe accompanying the army, which sang operas for the sick and wounded every day, enriching cultural and entertainment life. Later moved to northern Shaanxi. Later, Taibai Temple became Murakami Elementary School. Later, the Taibai Temple was demolished to build a grain station, and the monuments and other items in the temple were also used for other purposes. According to the old man's recollection, "After the Taibai Temple was demolished, a large amount of wood was pulled back to Mei County. There was a door left with Luban carvings on it. After being dismantled, it remained intact after being soaked in "Yechi" for several months, which shows that the quality of the wood was unknown. , guessing that it might have been burned down during the steel smelting." The old man also elaborated on the layout in his childhood memory. Someone next to me took out a 2-inch drawing, and after identifying the layout one by one, he said it basically matched. The old man who took the drawing introduced the origin of the drawing. This only precious drawing was drawn by an old man over ninety years old in Shanxi after recalling it. This old man lived in Taibai Temple when he was six years old. Now he is paralyzed and unable to take care of himself. He only hopes to return to Taibai Temple in Qingqiu in his lifetime to see it again. So the old man's son took him back to Taibai Temple, but at this time the original appearance no longer existed, so he made this layout map of Taibai Temple based on his memories.

In May 1983, Zhang Zifen, a librarian of the Shaanxi Provincial Research Institute of Literature and History and former Senate President of the Provisional Senate of Yi County, visited Qingqiu. Zeng Liumo sighed and said: "There is a bridge over the Yinma River canal, and two stone tablets are used to cross Xiaobo. The Qianlong throne is not valuable, but there are not many iron paintings and silver hooks." After seeing this poem, people will build a bridge on the river to "cross Xiaobo" The Qianlong imperial pen monument was rescued. A small temple was built on the original site of Taibai Temple to protect the stone tablet. Since the carts used by people at that time were all iron wheels, the writing on the monument was seriously damaged. Some of the other steles were burned, some were broken, some were built as bridges... Nowadays, people can only see three or four ancient steles, and the writing on several of them has been blurred, which is sad.

In 2017, Murakami organized the reconstruction of Taibai Temple and reorganized the historical remains of Taibai Temple to its current scale. When Taibai Temple was consecrated, its history was revealed to the world.

While listening to the old people’s stories about Taibai Temple, I was very moved. I thought history was far away from us, but those stone carvings, those stories, and that land were all filled with history, and the accumulation was so thick and heavy! I am suddenly grateful for the land under my feet. How many touching stories are buried deep?

At this time, I looked at Taibai Temple, Qingqiu, and Taibai Mountain with admiration. A small village, a temple, a mountain, they are so small that they are difficult to identify on the Chinese map. And I grew up near her. In the decades of my life, I have never heard about their secrets; in our father's generation, or even further, we have never heard about this village, this village. What a shame for the history of a temple. I listened to their stories as if listening to a distant legend. This village, this temple, like Taibai Mountain, always maintains the same posture: silent...not speaking for thousands of years, not speaking for ten thousand years...but we children, from her piece of tile, piece of soil, In a drop of water, the taste of her vicissitudes of life can be read, an unforgettable taste. At this time, a river full of tears flows quietly down from Taibai Mountain, flowing through Qingqiu, flowing through Taibai Temple, and flowing through my heart. I put this piece of tile, this piece of soil, this drop of water It all melted in, and the river was clear and unharmed, still flowing quietly.

When I left, I faced Taibai Mountain and Taibai Temple, clasped my hands tightly, closed my eyes slightly, nodded in silence, and was as pious as a believer. I have never been so devout to a mountain, a village, or a temple, because every stone that fell from the broken tablets fell on my soft heart; I have never been so devoted to a piece of history. I have a clear understanding, because the vicissitudes of Chinese civilization are engraved in the dust of this period of history; I have never been so in awe of a homeland, because every inch of the land under my feet has been deeply questioned. I heard her talking, telling stories that spanned thousands of years.

About the author: Huang Yu, a teacher at Shoushan Wangzhai Primary School in Mei County and a lover of calligraphy and literature. Contact number: 13892413083

Email: huangyushuxue@126.com