"Yeah, I've heard of it before, but I've never been there." She was surprised that I didn't come, as if in her heart everyone around her should go there, but why she went there was unclear.

First meeting with Gu Chiyang

"You haven't even been to the Chenghuang Temple?"

"Yeah, I've heard of it before, but I've never been there."

When the driver stopped the car, I and a Miyuan sitting next to me People talked about my destination. She was surprised that I didn't come, as if in her heart everyone around her should go there, but why she went there was unclear. There are a thousand Hamlets in the hearts of a thousand readers, and each traveler has a different vision of Hamlet. Looking out the car window, tall and tall trees passed by my eyes. The fresh morning air filled my whole heart. At this time, my heart was full of longing.

whispered "Chiyang, Chiyang", and his mind flew to the Han Dynasty, and he couldn't help but imagine the scene of ancient Chiyang. For thousands of years, dynasties have changed and people have come and gone, but the yellow earth under our feet remains the same. The wheel of history rolled into the Northern Wei Dynasty, and Chiyang was renamed Sanyuan because of its land including Menghouyuan, Fengyuan, Bailuyuan.

Bailuyuan

"Yuan" is connected with "Plateau", so it is named Menghouyuan because there is Menghou Temple on the west plateau. Fengyuan got its name because there was Fengyuanli in the ancient environment, but Bailuyuan should be near Bahe River in Xi'an. How come there is also Bailuyuan in Sanyuan. In fact, both Bailuyuan are named after the white deer, but the protagonists are different. After King You of Zhou who loved Bao Si returned, King Ping of Zhou succeeded to the throne and moved the capital to Luoyang . Suddenly he saw a white deer running on the original slope. Because of its rarity, he called the plateau near Bahe River in Xi'an White Deer Plain. . In the fifth year of Wude , Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan hunted white deer in the east plateau of Sanyuan, so it was named Bailuyuan. If you explore carefully, there are unexpected stories behind each place name.

The old county annals said that "Jingzhao Shangjun, the Qu (qu) connects nine borders, and controls the three frontiers." After the Qin and Han Dynasties, military strategists repeatedly fought for the land; in the modern revolution, the Yingguo army was powerful, and the Wuzi District was glorious. Later, it was the birthplace of the Weibei Red Revolution, which shows that it occupies a very important position in politics and military.

strode north along Huaishu Avenue, like a fish swimming upstream, facing the rush of people. Maybe it was because the fellow travelers on the bus were too enthusiastic, but I didn’t feel any stranger to this small town. And I always believe that Miyuan will be worthy of my expectations.

One side is the City God, one side is safe.

The Qin opera excerpt "Dating the Casserole" sings "February 2, March 3." The City God's Temple was filled with excitement during the festival, the tents and mats were all set up, and lights were hung on the slopes. Grocery stalls, small shops, fermented glutinous rice and noodles, and stakes planted at the livestock market..." When I heard it in the past, I thought I must visit the Chenghuang Temple, even if I can't make it to the temple fair.

I always feel that I am lucky, just in time to catch up with the second half of "Tattooing of Mother-in-law". Stopped, shook the folding fan like the locals, and listened to the sound of traveling through history. Running along the path towards the screen wall, I thought that what was waiting for me was a deserted temple, but I found that there were active figures everywhere. It seems that Monday, which is a headache for office workers, can be lived like this.

The city god of one side helps one person. The city god of Guangxi Guilin is Su Mian, a local official who fought hard to kill the enemy in the Song Dynasty. The city god of Hangzhou, Zhejiang is the Zhejiang inspector in the Ming Dynasty Zhou Xin, etc. The city god of Suzhou is one of the four princes of the Warring States Period. Chun Shen Jun, the Shanghai City God was first worshiped by Huo Guang, and then Qin Yubo, and the Beijing City God was worshiped by Wen Tianxiang, the Prime Minister of the Anti-Yuan and Ming Dynasties... So who is worshiped in the Sanyuan City God Temple?

Qianlong County Chronicle records, "Tai Shi said: Woohoo! Since the beginning of the bandits, counties and counties have only regarded the survival of the city. The strong ones will be preserved, the weak ones will be trapped, and the weak ones will be destroyed. From then on, the tall city walls, towers, gates and trenches were City and moat began to appear. "Cheng" refers to the city; "Huang" refers to the dry moat, so the original city god refers to the moat outside the city. The earliest god of city protection ditches believed by ancient people was "Shuiyong God". It gradually evolved into the patron saint of the suburbs, that is, the city god .

After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the city god became an official position of a god instead of a god. The city god in various places was appointed by different people, or even elected by the local people. The selection criteria are loyal men who died for their country, or historical figures who meet Confucian standards of integrity and intelligence.The City God enshrined in the Sanyuan City God Temple is Duke Jingwu of the Wei State Li Jing. He is not only the guardian of the city, but also in charge of the good, evil and misfortune of the human world. He is also responsible for the underworld and the underworld.

With expectations for the City God's Temple, we walked around the screen wall with an open-carved "Carp Leaping Dragon Gate" in the middle. We can see that in front of it are a pair of iron flagpoles weighing more than 20,000 kilograms. The iron dragons are entwined and majestic.

A 12-meter-high Xieshan archway was built in front of the main entrance. The inscription on the forehead of the archway is "Weiling Zhaoying Temple", which clearly shows his great efforts in civil engineering and ingenuity in shaping. It was mentioned by Yu Gengyang, who was the magistrate of Sanyuan County, Shaanxi Province from the third year of Xianfeng to the fifth year of Tongzhi, to show the people that this temple was blessed by gods and that devout worshippers would have their wishes come true. The wood carvings on the square include auspicious patterns such as "Dragon Playing with Pearls", "Phoenix Returning to its Nest", "Lion Rolling Hydrangea", etc., which express people's worship of gods and auspicious animals, their yearning for the continuation of life and their good wishes to ward off disasters.

Walking forward, you can see the four characters "Zhi descends here" engraved on an archway, which comes from the "Zhi descends here" in "The Book of Songs", "Zhi descends here, and the prisoner is here", which means wealth, and official luck rises and falls here. After walking for a while, I felt that profound culture was reflected everywhere, from the brick carvings of "Cang Long Xunzi" at the door, to the stone carvings of "Eighteen Bachelors Ascend Yingzhou" and "Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage" on the second stone archway, to the third stone carving. On the wooden archway, there are wood carvings of "King Yao visits the wise", "Yue Fei rushes to take the exam", and "Li Bai drunkenly writes". If you like traditional Chinese historical allusions, Sanyuan City God Temple is a place not to be missed.

I can always feel the taste of a certain place, and the Chenghuang Temple gives me a sense of astringency. I began to think that it was my senses that made no sense, and then I read a sentence from Jing Chen: "What is history? It is the taste of time, the instinct to seek interest, and the dream memories of sensitive people." Perhaps, the astringency I feel is because The hard and sour taste of things that were made more than 600 years ago is the astringency of ashes accumulated like rain over time. Perhaps astringency is the taste of time.

Indeed, I met a sensitive person in the Chenghuang Temple. At that time, I was staring at a dead tree, frowning. I didn't know why the tree was dead, but there were still a few wooden sticks to support it standing there. As he glanced deep in thought, he saw the old woman walking out of Xiang Pavilion. Our eyes met, and a smile appeared on her lips. She enthusiastically told me a possibility: if the tree falls, the rubble on the archway will be torn off. I didn’t know whether it was true or not, and I didn’t hesitate. For the next period of time, I was obsessed with her dream memories.

The old man who told the story was shy when he saw the camera.

It is usually very interesting for the elderly to remember the stories of their childhood, and it is also very interesting for young people to listen to the memories of the old people.

"Insects eat wood. How come these pillars are still in good condition?"

"These have been renovated, but this is good wood. We used to criticize the Zhou Family Courtyard during the Cultural Revolution and saw the workers repairing it with our own eyes. When building the pillars, six layers of red paint were applied to the pillars. The wood that was peeled off at that time was all good." Her eyes swept over the pillars, as if the monotonous red pillars triggered a memory in the depths of her mind.

"Then the City God's Temple was not destroyed during the Cultural Revolution?"

"No, that's lucky. The person who protects the cultural relics happens to live here."

I breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the main hall in the distance, thinking about A.D. The temple built in 1375 is right in front of me, and I feel lucky.

After staying for a while, he ran towards the main hall. Looking closely at the 600-year-old main hall, I only felt a chill, but fortunately I was able to blend in with the scenery: the giant statue of the City God, the statues of the four heavenly kings, and the terrifying paintings of the Ten Halls of Yama and the Eighteen-Storey Hell Temple.

There is always something that can impress me when traveling, whether it is a beautiful building, a person with true temperament, or a simple sentence. In the main hall, there is a couplet: "Ask how many people in the world know that rice is cooked by rice. Looking up at the gods in the temple, there is no one who doesn't know where Tian Zixin comes from." Everyone knows that rice is cooked by rice, but they say that everyone does not know this. Popular truth. Looking up at the gods in the temple, they all know that only those who have a heart can cultivate a field. God teaches and transforms all living beings, and all living beings also understand that fields come from their own minds, but they do not understand that rice is cooked by the same principle.In my opinion, this is to teach people to "understand" and "do" to truly understand. It seems that everyone has a different view. Some people say this is to say: you can’t just know the big principles, you must understand real life. The catchy couplet, if you think about it carefully, hides a philosophy of life, which is difficult to understand.

Whether you come or not, the Chenghuang Temple is always here, conveying peace with a sincere heart. Just like the song of the City God for peace and prosperity, "If you want your career to be successful, you have to worship the City God; if you want the sea of ​​love to be smooth, you have to worship the City God; if you want the wind to go smoothly when sailing and driving, you have to worship the City God; if you want to be healthy, you have to worship the City God. The City God; if your business is to prosper, you must pay homage to the City God..."

If you have nothing to do, come and visit the small town of Sanyuan, see the Town God's Temple, taste the delicacies of Lao Huang's family, and waste your time on the endless road.

References:

"Talk about culture, eat delicious food - Taste the ancient city of Sanyuan" Travel Notes

"Complete History of Place Names in Sanyuan County"

"The City God is the patron saint of the ancient city. Local officials first pay homage to the City God when they take office" News

The author of this article, Su Yuan, likes A girl from Guanzhong in a small county town.

Personal profile: I am Cheng Yingying (WeChat chengyingwen1982), a doctor of tourism, teaching at the School of Tourism of Xi'an International Studies University. Travel, outdoor, cycling, and photography enthusiasts. He has cycled to more than 20 provinces in China. He has published "Cycling Beijing" and has traveled to all districts and counties in Shaanxi. He has explored all the major ruins, imperial mausoleums, ancient villages, and museums in Shaanxi. .

is very happy to communicate with you through Toutiao. Everyone is welcome to leave messages, forward and comment! Your encouragement is my motivation to keep moving forward.

All pictures and texts are original by me, no reproduction is allowed.