The History of Rainflower Stone in Nanjing

As early as Wu Dong's time, Nanjing was named after Wu Dong built a stone city. At that time, Zhuge Liang praised the terrain of Nanjing with the words "the dragon in the mid-levels and the tiger in Shicheng". Therefore, the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Southern Dynasties, the Song Dynasty, the Qi Dynasty, the Liang Dynasty and Chen all built landforms here, which was called the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties in history. There is a poem that says, "The Six Dynasties' Gold Powder Land, Emperor Island of Jinling".

The most famous thing in Nanjing is the rain flower stone. Speaking of rain flower stone, it is a must in China, with a reputation abroad, famous at home and abroad, and countless collectors. Rain flower stone is a stone flower in the name of flowers, which combines the essence of the sun and the moon and the aura of heaven and earth. Throughout the ages, it has been loved and collected by some literati and poets. As early as the Song Dynasty, someone wrote the first appraisal book "Yunlin Stone Spectrum", which shows that many people collected and studied rain flower stones as early as the Song Dynasty. By the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, another writer wrote "The Stone Inscription of Rain Flower", which shows the unique charm of rain flower stone.

There are many legends about rain flower stones, the most representative of which are the cloud tour and Shang Yunguang in the Southern Dynasties.

It is said that it was in the Southern Dynasties. There was a monk whose dharma name was Guang Yun. He traveled around the world wholeheartedly, explaining the Buddha's message to the Buddha in order to persuade the world to do good. At that time, Buddhism had just been introduced to China, and when Guang Yun lobbied for Buddhism everywhere, there were very few believers, and even in the end, the audience was gone, and Guang Yun began to feel a little discouraged. Suddenly, one night, Guang Yun had a dream about Guanyin Bodhisattva. She gave Guang Yun a pair of Ma Xie and told him to wear it to spread Buddhism everywhere. When his shoes rot, he can live there and teach Buddhist scriptures. With that, he disappeared. When Guang Yun woke up, he realized that the Bodhisattva must have instructed him to go out of his own way and preach Buddhism everywhere.

Later, I don't know how many places Guang Yun went, but the grass on his feet was always worn by Ma Xie. Finally, one day, he came to a stone mountain in Nanjing, and Ma Xie suddenly died. He stopped at the stone mountain and began to tell stories about Buddhist scriptures. Not many people began to listen, but after a while, more and more believers came. One day, he talked about Buddhist scriptures as usual until it was dark and the branches on the moon were not finished. When Guang Yun talked about the cause and effect of past lives, it suddenly began to rain ... It turned out that Chang 'e in the Moon Palace was also attracted by what Guang Yun called Buddhism. As soon as he heard about the cause and effect of previous lives, he thought of all kinds of entanglements and doomed love with Hou Yi. When we can't get together again in this life, he can't help it.

Later, Guang Yun finally achieved a positive result and went to heaven. In memory of him, those who benefited from Buddhism in Guang Yun called these pebbles falling from the sky "Rain Flower Stone", and the pebble mountain of Buddhist scriptures in Guang Yun was called "Rain Flower Terrace".