Dengfo Mountain Jinggu suburb

Mount Foshan and visit the ancient suburbs.

Text/Su Zhongxue

? As one of the three major religions in the world, Buddhism is believed by many people all over the world, especially in East Asia and Southeast Asia. There are also many people who believe in Buddhism in China, and Buddhist temples and monasteries are widely distributed in many parts of the country. In my hometown, few people believe in Buddhism, and the temples left by Buddhism in history have not been found so far, so most local people don't pay much attention to Buddhism. There is a mountain called Foshan, which often interests me and has climbed to the top many times. First, Foshan stands out from the crowd. Standing on the top of the mountain, you can see the beautiful scenery of many villages in Shili ancient suburb and the endless peaks and valleys at the southern end of the majestic Taihang Mountain. The vast green forest at the southern foot of Taihang Mountain is like a magnificent picture. There are peaks like women's nipples and steamed buns living in Mawuzhai.

The same mountain peak is also displayed on the distant horizon. Second, standing on the quiet top of the mountain, the breeze slowly flows through the cleanest air that can be breathed. If you climb to the top when the weather is clear, you can see the mountains dozens of kilometers away clearly, which makes you feel relaxed and happy.

? Since it is called Foshan, it may have something to do with Buddhism. With this question, I also learned something about Foshan from some local old people, and what they know is also some legends left over by predecessors. A few days ago, on my fifth trip to Foshan, I met local villagers Shen and Song Qifu, who were doing farm work in the fields. They told me some legends of Foshan. In ancient times, a fairy hovered in the sky for a long time, and finally landed on a hill, inviting all kinds of immortals to gather on this mountain. Because many immortals called this place Shenshan, people often came here to burn incense and pray. Later, people called this mountain Foshan. The legend of the Dragon King here and Huangshuigou in Huixian County, Henan Province is the most widely circulated among the villagers in Dongshanghe Village. In Huixian, there is a place called Huangshuigou, which is located at the foot of South Taihang Mountain. The ravine is deep, surrounded by cliffs, and the climate is warm and humid. This is a place rich in forests and crops. There is a local legend that "seventy-two dragons pull the mill, and ninety-nine hectares don't depend on the sky." There are abundant hydraulic resources here, and grain processing uses hydraulic power instead of human and animal power to drive stone mills and stone mills to rotate. The local water resources are abundant, and all the land can be irrigated, which ensures the stable and high yield of grain every year. One year, a boss of Huang Shui traveled to Shaanxi and came to Foshan. When he visited the temple, he found a Buddha statue. This bronze statue is the Dragon King. He sarcastically said, "What's your role? The fine weather there, we don't need your dragon king. " When he came back, he took the bronze statue back to Huangshui, hung it with a rope and put it in a toilet, leaving the Dragon King alone. Many years later, a man in Shanxi thought of going to the toilet when he passed the yellow water on his way back from Henan. It was inconvenient for him to sit in the pit, so he stood up and looked at a rope in the pit carefully. He pulled the rope out. When the rope was pulled out, he found a bronze statue hanging at the end of the rope. After cleaning the bronze statue, put it in your own salute and continue to return to Shanxi. When he went up to Dishui Village in the Mid-levels, he looked at the yellow ditch behind him, and the clouds were lingering and gathering. The yellow ditch was out of sight. He was afraid of rain and didn't dare to rest.

(Narrator Song Qifu? Shen Xia Cheng Gui)

Keep moving. At the top of the mountain, I looked back at Huangshuigou. Dark clouds covered the whole ravine, lightning and thunder, and heavy rain poured down. After a short rest, I continued to walk home. Walking to Miaowan Village at the foot of Foshan, I felt that the burden on my body was getting heavier and heavier, so I put down the salute and prepared to have a rest. As soon as the salute was released, the bronze statue flew out of the chosen salute, rose to the sky and landed slowly on the top of Foshan. The rainstorm in Huangshuigou lasted for a day, all the fertile fields were washed away, and local residents fled Huangshuigou one after another.

Foshan is located between Gujiao Village and Dongshanghe Village in Gujiao Township, about 25 kilometers away from lingchuan county City, which is even closer if you take the Gaoxin Expressway. The solitary peak on the mountain is conspicuous, and the newly-built temple can be clearly seen from a distance. Halfway up the mountain, four or five small protruding peaks snuggled up to their mothers like children. The whole mountain is covered with dense Chinese pine and green bar trees. From a distance, the dark green Chinese pine and the emerald green blue bar trees complement each other, like a vibrant landscape painting. 18 On the afternoon of May, I made an appointment with two companions. The three of them drove three kilometers to Miaowan Village at the foot of Foshan, and then walked around the newly paved cement road. At the foot of the mountain, the corn planted by the villagers is at the seedling stage, and large fields are turning green. Along the winding road, the road gradually goes up.

Pears, lotus leaves and Pulsatilla on both sides are swaying in the breeze to meet passers-by. Several green shells are in embryonic stage, and the petals have withered. After chatting with each other for about ten minutes, we entered the cement road covered by Chinese pine and green bar trees, and unknown birds sang from near and far from time to time. Although it was sunny and the temperature was high that afternoon, it was cool and pleasant to walk in the Woods. Fresh air is constantly exchanged inside and outside everyone's body, and it feels unique. People who have lived in the city for a long time can hardly feel this quiet and elegant time. The cement road is newly built in the village in recent years, with a width of 2.5 meters. It spirals up to the top of the mountain to facilitate pedestrians to go up and down the mountain. Because the mountain is high and the road is steep, halfway up the mountain, several of us were panting, took a break in the middle and continued to climb to the top of the mountain. It took about half an hour to climb to the top of the mountain.

What stands out in front of us is a temple built in Dongshanghe Village in recent years, which is located at the highest point of the mountain. Red walls and blue tiles look dazzling, adding a beautiful scenery to the quiet mountain peak. We walked in along an open door in the northwest corner. The whole top of the mountain is a circular platform, surrounded by huge stones, about six or seven meters high, one meter wide and more than twenty meters in inner diameter. The upper part of the platform is a wall made of red bricks, about one meter high, to prevent tourists and pilgrims who burn incense from falling under the platform. The platform is like a courtyard, and several beautifully shaped Chinese pine trees grow in different corners of the courtyard, which makes people feel quiet and solemn. In the center of the courtyard is a newly built shrine, which is divided into two courtyards. We went up the stairs and came to the highest hall. In front of the main hall, there is a huge iron incense burner. The history of incense burners is not long. This was cast in recent years and marked Dongshanghe Village, an ancient suburb. Looks simple and generous. There is an iron bell hanging on the east side of the temple gate, which was also cast in recent years. The statue of Sakyamuni sitting in the center of the platform in the temple gives people a sense of seriousness. In addition, both sides of Sakyamuni are also dedicated to Master Kao Yue, Amitabha Buddha and Puxin Buddha. There are cushions under the platform for burning incense and bowing down, and the merit box is placed on the ground. After bowing and kowtowing to Sakyamuni, we returned to the First Hospital. The first courtyard consists of two houses of more than 10 square meters, symmetrically arranged on the east and west sides, and looks very harmonious and beautiful in the high place and the main hall. The east room is dedicated to Guanyin Bodhisattva and the statue of Dragon King. The statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva looks very kind and feels very close. The houses in the west are dedicated to bodhisattvas hidden in the soil and bodhisattvas in charge of Yin and Yang. These statues are colorful and lifelike. We walked down the steps and went back to the yard. The ground of the compound is paved with many green stone slabs and river pebbles in some places, so people walking on it have a certain massage effect on the soles of their feet. There is also a paper-burning stove more than three meters high in the courtyard, which is located on the east side of the courtyard to prevent people from causing forest fires when burning paper, and at the same time add beauty to the courtyard.

The most worthwhile visit is not a temple, but a circular building surrounded by huge stones, which has stood here for thousands of years. Many boulders seem to weigh seven or eight hundred kilograms to more than one thousand kilograms. I came here twenty years ago. At that time, the temple had not been built. Due to the age and lack of maintenance, many stones in the upper part of the wall have rolled down the hillside, but the lower part of the wall has remained basically the same. The walls are all about five meters high and three meters wide, and the courtyard enclosed by the walls is more than twenty meters in diameter, which is estimated to accommodate hundreds to thousands of people. On the south side of the fence, there is a passage three meters long, one meter wide and two meters high for people to enter and exit, which is still intact. After reading it, I feel that it used to be a place where people avoided war and defended themselves. Geographically, there are isolated peaks and steep walls, so it is difficult to climb, and there is no place to use military forces. The city wall is high and thick, suitable for defense, blocking access, and it is difficult for outsiders to enter. If we only build temples here, there is no need to spend so much manpower and material resources to build such a large-scale building to protect temples under the circumstances that the production tools are extremely simple and the construction technology is extremely backward. The above is just my opinion. Tracing its true history should be the answer given by historians and archaeologists.

The most beautiful thing to go to Foshan is to see the colorful beautiful peaks and the new look of Shili ancient suburb on the edge of South Taihang Mountain. Standing on the top of Foshan, looking to the southeast, the peaks on the edge of the rolling Taihang Mountain are of different shapes, including Kong Long, Nipple Mountain, which is shaped like a woman's nipple, and Huangzheng Mountain, which is shaped like a cornmeal bun. Dense forests and hanging

The cliff is clearly visible. Sometimes at the top of the mountain, you can see the fog in the middle of the mountain, and the mountain comes out of the fog. Overlooking the ancient suburb of Shili, many villages are connected together like a big village, end to end. Gaoxin high school

Expressway and Ma Zhao Highway are like two dragons passing through the ancient suburbs, and the expressway exits are combined together like a beautiful picture unfolding in the ancient suburbs. From the Song Temple in the west to the ancient suburban village in the east.

At first glance, small buildings with red walls and blue tiles, green trees, schools and hospitals that have been rebuilt and expanded are like bright pearls embedded in green hills, and they have also witnessed the great changes that have taken place in the ancient suburbs since the reform and opening up 40 years ago. Standing on the top of the mountain is like traveling in the air by plane, which makes people feel relaxed and forget to return.

? On the way back, I kept thinking that if Foshan is a tourist attraction, it must be a place where many tourists go. If it is in the suburbs of the city, it will definitely attract many tourists and fitness enthusiasts to climb. The natural landscape on the mountain is far superior to the man-made landscape built by the city at a high price.

Written on May 26th, 20 19 in my hometown Song Temple.

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