[Comrade-in-arms' beautiful articles· Still remembering the past] I (Guo Lei) admired the "persistence" of the old Dean Tang Huazhong [Praise] [Rose] [Laugh] He explored Rongcheng's hometown of Longkou River and Longmen Mountain clearly [Praise] [Thank you] and said emotionally:

[ Comrade-in-arms' beautiful articles·The past still remembers ] I ( Guo Lei ) admired the "persistence" of the old Dean Tang Huazhong [like][rose][laugh][laugh] He explored Rongcheng's hometown of Longkou River and Longmen Mountain clearly [like][thank you] and said emotionally: I am proud that my hometown has such beautiful mountains and rivers - Longkou River, my mother river! Longmen Mountain, my father's mountain [Thank you][Heart][Bow]

Longkou River and Longmen Mountain

—Rongcheng's mother river, father's mountain

Picture and text/Tang Huazhong

In the south of Tangjia Village, Buliu Town, Rongcheng City, there is a mountain range that runs east and west across the wall that stretches for dozens of miles. This is the Weide Mountain Mountain with the highest altitude and largest altitude in the territory of Rongcheng City . The river originates from the western part of Weide Mountain. It flows westward through Qiaotou and flows into Shijia River. The northern foot flows westward through Wujia Village, Hebei and flows into Shijia River and into the sea. Among them, one of the tributaries on the northern foot of the river is found in historical records, which is the Longkou River, which is rich in legends. And Longmen Mountain is closely related to Longkou River. The Daoguang version of "Rongcheng County Chronicles" records the mountain and river volume: "Longkou River, forty miles west of the city, behind Longmen Mountain, cliffs and waterfalls fall into the grottoes, called Longweng, and the rain roars like thunder"; "Longmen Mountain, forty miles west of the city, there is a stone cave on it." There is a similar record in " Dengzhou Prefecture Chronicle": "Longkou River is forty miles west of the county, originating from Longmen Mountain, which is the waterfall flowing down"; "Longmen Mountain is forty miles west of the county, with stone caves on it. The cliffs behind the mountain are waterfalls falling down the grottoes, and the rain roars like thunder, and is called Longweng."

From the above records, the following information can be found:

First, Longkou River is behind Longmen Mountain.

Second, there is a stone cave on Longmen Mountain.

Third, the water of Longkou River forms a waterfall and falls into the grottoes, called "Dragon Urn".

Fourth, there is a unique natural wonder in Longkou River, that is, "the roar of rain is like thunder".

I am extremely familiar with Longkou River because I was born and raised here. Since I was a child, I have been digging wild vegetables behind Weide Mountain. Although Longkou River originates only behind Shuangdingzi Mountain, which locals call it one of the peaks of Weide Mountain, and belongs to a tributary, it has fascinating beautiful legends and unique natural landscapes.

On a wide stone boron on the north bank of the middle reaches of the Longkou River, two winding stone lines raised, like two wandering dragons. The stone dragon winds forward, and the dragon's head is facing the river. The surging river water rushed westward along the river channel, suddenly turned northward, pouring down on the completely stone and steep riverbed, forming waterfalls. The most turbulent water flow is above the "Dragon Urn" by the "Rongcheng County Chronicles" and the "Dengzhou Prefecture Chronicles". The roaring river water poured down from above the Dragon Pool and rushed into the Dragon Pool. In the dragon pond, the river water is rolling, deep and bottomless, and colorful. After several whirlpool, it flows out of the dragon pond. It rushes along the wide riverbed towards the gentle sandy riverbed at the foot of the mountain, and rushes forward to the south of Tangjia Village, merges with Kongjia River and goes west, then merges with Songjiadian River, flows northwest through Guanzhuang, to the south of Wujia Village, Hebei, merges with Shijia River, and goes west through Puwan Village. Above the dragon pond, natural wonders such as "dragon pot", "dragon bowl", "dragon chopsticks" and "dragon box" are also scattered in turn.

It is said that the two stone dragons originally had dragon heads. Because the dragon's mouth contained a pearl, the southern barbarian who knew the treasure smashed the dragon head and took it away. In my childhood memory, there are indeed traces of artificially cut in the dragon's head. What's even more amazing is that when it rains every day, the Longkou River water rumbles, and can be heard within eight or nine miles of the surrounding area, as recorded in the "Rongcheng County Chronicles" and "Dengzhou Prefecture Chronicles": "The sound of rain is like thunder." For a long time, villagers living near Longkou River knew that it was going to rain, and they rushed to harvest crops or clean up the dry food whenever they heard the rumbling of the Longkou River. As the saying goes: Water drips through the stone, this is true. When the Longkou River is in large quantities, the turbulent river water washed the stone slabs of the riverbed to a very smoothness.When the water volume is small, the river water flows along the lowest part of the riverbed for a long time. After a long time, a groove about five fingers wide and one foot deep is washed out above the dragon pond. The trickle of flows into the dragon pond along the groove. Although it is not as spectacular as when the water volume is large, it shows its softness and charm.

There is also a small temple built on the north bank of the gentle riverbed below the dragon pond, which enshrines the Dragon King and the Canggu. Silkworm is a fairy worshiper who is worshipped by silkworm farmers in the mountains. Every year on the 15th day of the seventh lunar calendar, silkworm farmers go to pay homage, praying for healthy growth of silkworm babies and a good harvest of silkworm cocoons. The Dragon King is visited by people when praying for rain. If there is no rain for a long time, the villagers will place three animals, burn incense and pray, asking the Dragon King to give alms and rain. If the "Rain Prayer Method" does not work, people will use the "Rain Purging Method" to force the Dragon King to rain. The method is: select 7 widows to take a bath in the dragon pond and deliberately dirty the water. Perhaps the Dragon King thought that the women had dirty the clear water in the dragon pond, so he laid heavy rain to wash the dragon pond, so the purpose of people's "rain" was achieved. Perhaps the Dragon King made a huge roar because of this, so whenever it rained, the Longkou River had a miracle of "the sound of rain is like thunder".

Of course, these are all folk legends, and the legendary dragon appears alive. It is a real fact that the rumbling of the Longkou River water before it rains, because I grew up with the rumbling of the Longkou River water. When I was a child, I didn’t understand the reason why the rivers sounded, and I learned some natural knowledge after going to school. I thought it might be the reason for the change in air pressure before rain: the lower the air pressure, the farther the sound spreads. Unfortunately, the wonder of "the sound of rain is like thunder" has disappeared for many years. Some people say that it was caused by man-made damage to Feng Shui, because in the early 1970s, the government organized the construction of the Longkou River Reservoir Dam at Shilong. Because of concerns that the dragon would turn over and collapse the dam, it first broke the dragon's body and then built a dam on it, pressing the Shilong under the dam. From then on, the wonder of "the sound of rain is like thunder" disappeared. I think that the reason why this wonder disappeared is because of the reduction in rainfall in recent years, and because most of the rainwater is blocked by reservoirs.

When it comes to Longkou River, we have to mention Longmen Mountain, which is closely related to Longkou River. Longmen Mountain only sees the "Rongcheng County Chronicles" and "Dengzhou Prefecture Chronicles". Longmen Mountain is also mentioned in the "Rongcheng Township Geography Education Book" compiled by Sun Degeng, a village in Buye Village, Rongcheng City, in 1928.

Sun Degeng Geography Education Paper

But when I asked the villagers living near Longkou River about the location of Longmen Mountain, they replied in unison: I have never heard of the name Longmen Mountain.

This is strange. Is there any record incorrectly in "Rongcheng County Chronicles", "Dengzhou Prefecture Chronicles" and "Rongcheng Township Geography Education Book"?

Indeed, as I both live near Longkou River, I have never heard of Longmen Mountain. Because I know clearly that the main birthplace of Longkou River is located in front of Dashiling in the southeast of Tangjia Village and behind Shuangdingzi Mountain, one of the peaks of Weide Mountain. Moreover, there are no "stone caves" in the mountains in this area. There is a stone cave on the south mountain of Songjiadian Village, a village adjacent to Tangjia Village. The locals call it "Tiger Nest". Some people have been in it. The cave is very big and deep, but Longkou River does not originate here.

In order to understand Longmen Mountain, I first carefully studied the relevant historical records and found that the records in the Rongcheng County Chronicle are not exactly the same as those in the Dengzhou Prefecture Chronicle. By comparing the two "Chronicles", we can see that the "Rongcheng County Chronicles" only mentions: Longkou River, behind Longmen Mountain; Longmen Mountain, there are stone caves on it; while Dengzhou Prefecture Chronicles mentions: Longkou River, originating from Longmen Mountain. Literally speaking, Daoguang's "Rongcheng County Chronicles" only indicates that Longkou River is located behind Longmen Mountain, while Guangxu's "Dengzhou Prefecture Chronicles" indicate that Longkou River originated from Longmen Mountain.

I think this contradiction is not difficult to resolve. Because the Dengzhou Prefecture Chronicle is obviously later than the Rongcheng County Chronicle, the records of the Longkou River and Longmen Mountain in the Dengzhou Prefecture Chronicle were obviously copied from the Rongcheng County Chronicle, but when transcribing, the word "original origin" was added, which confused the difference between "localization" and "original origin".

Since Longkou River is located behind Longmen Mountain and "there are stone caves on it", I followed this idea and clue and first started looking for the mountains with "there are stone caves on it".

After excluding the Songjiadian tiger nest, which is known to be not the Longmen Mountain stone cave, I asked the villagers about other stone caves in the mountains.

Someone told me: There is a stone cave commonly known as "Wolf's Nest" in the middle and lower part of the valley on the east side of Longkou River Longchi.

I was overjoyed and immediately brought my digital camera and went to find the "wolf's nest". But when I found the "wolf nest" in the thorny grass, I was disappointed. The "Wolf's Nest" is located in a small ditch, under a granite rock. A very small and low hole appears in a very hidden way. Perhaps only badgers and smaller fox can enter. Animals like wolves still need to crawl to enter.

Obviously, this is unlikely to be the cave recorded in the Rongcheng County Chronicles and Dengzhou Prefecture Chronicles, nor is it the cave I am looking for.

In addition to disappointment, I went down the mountain from the "Wolf's Nest", flowed upstream along the sandy riverbed of Longkou River, walked to the bottom of the Long Pool, stood on the gentle riverbed and looked upwards above the Long Pool, and a spectacular picture appeared in front of me: above the Long Pool, a huge standing stone sat in the middle of the river channel, with rocks stacked together beside them, the river water flowed through the cracks of the rocks, flowed directly into the Long Pool, and then overflowed from the Long Pool, slowly flowing down the slope at an angle of about 45 degrees. The crystal water flow emitted dazzling white light under the sunlight.

Suddenly, my eyes lit up: On the steep stone wall on the right above the dragon pond, a flat rectangular stone cave suddenly appeared! Then patrolled the cliffs on the east and west sides of the river, and there were also several stone caves of different shapes distributed. Especially in the place where the riverbed is connected to the riverbed below the cliff in Hexi, there is a black hole hidden behind a clump of shrubs.

I couldn't help but be surprised. Could this be the "stone cave" recorded in the "Rongcheng County Chronicles"?

I carefully observed and analyzed the trend of Longkou River and found that the terrain gradually fell from high to low from high to low from the river from the birthplace to the top of Longchi, just like a dragon wandering in a mountain stream. When I reached the top of Longchi, the terrain suddenly became steeper, and the waterfall was formed. After passing through the stone slope of more than ten meters down from Longchi, it was a gentle sandy riverbed, and the river water began to flow along the smooth riverbed. From this we can see that the steepness of Longkou River is only in the section above Long Pool, and it is also the most important part of Longkou River. The surging river water roared down from above the dragon pond, like a dragon's mouth squirting water. Perhaps this is the origin of the name "Longkou River". The steep stone walls on both sides of "Longkou" are like a gate, and river water gushes out from the gate. This is probably the origin of the name "Longmen Mountain".

At this point, I finally understood why the river in the south of Tangjia Village has the word "dragon". I also understood why this originally inconspicuous river was recorded in historical records. There is a saying that "the mountain is not high, but the immortals are famous; the water is not deep, but the dragons are spiritual." I think Longkou River is because "the dragons are famous". Because of the existence of "dragon", an inconspicuous river is called "Longkou River"; a round stone pit in the middle of the riverbed that looks like an iron pot is called "Dragon Pot"; a round pit slightly smaller than the dragon pot is called "Dragon Bowl"; two straight and raised stone lines are called "Dragon Chopsticks"; even a nearly square rock standing by the river is also called "Dragon Box"; a turbulent waterfall pours into an unfathomable grotto, and this grotto is naturally called "Dragon Pool"; and the place at the mouth of the river that looks like a gate is of course called "Longmen", and the cliff where the Longmen is located is naturally called "Longmen Mountain".

It can be imagined that when the editors of the Rongcheng County Chronicles were interviewed and visited here, they must have stood at the mouth of Longkou River and looked up at the spectacular scene of Longkou River and the stone walls on both sides, and then they realized that this was Longkou River and the cliffs on both sides were Longmen. Therefore, they made records of " Longkou River,...behind Longmen Mountain, cliff waterfalls benched into the grottoes..." and "Longmen Mountain,...there are stone caves on Longmen Mountain". Otherwise, a river stretches for dozens of miles, and a mountain range should also stretch for several miles or dozens of miles. How could it be possible to just set Longkou River and Longmen Mountain at the point of "forty miles west of the city".

From this point of view, Longkou River may have been given the beautiful name of "Longkou River" by the locals because of the two stone dragons and the resulting "Dragon Pot", "Dragon Bowl", "Dragon Chopsticks", "Dragon Box" and "Dragon Pool", and Longmen Mountain may have given the same beautiful name by the compilers of the Rongcheng County Chronicles because of the existence of Longkou River. This may be the reason why the locals only know Longkou River but not Longmen Mountain.

! Longkou River, my mother river! Longmen Mountain, my father’s Mountain! I am proud that my hometown has such beautiful mountains and rivers!

is amazing! Longkou River! Great! Longmen Mountain!