The Zen and poetry that lasts for thousands of years in Hanshan Temple

Hanshan Temple is a Buddhist temple associated with poetry.

Time goes back to the Tang Dynasty thousands of years ago. Outside the city of Gusu, the Jade Rabbit was sinking in the west. On a ship moored at Maple Bridge at night, looking at the fishing fires in the distance, a lonely and sad wanderer chanted: The eternal masterpiece: "Hanshan Temple outside the city of Suzhou, the midnight bells are ringing to the passenger ship." In the quiet night, a few melodious bells established a certain connection between the solemn Buddhist temple and the sleepless poet, and also made the Zen spirit Reunited with the poetic spirit, a vigorous business burst out, which continues to this day, making Hanshan Temple prosperous and its writing style flourishing.

I have admired him for a long time but have never seen him, so I decided to go to Hanshan Temple to see his true appearance.

After a hasty lunch, I hurriedly boarded the 935 bus at Guihua Park Station. Not long after, it started to rain heavily outside the car, hitting the window glass. However, the joy of traveling has nothing to do with the weather, but with my mood. The rain not only did not affect my mood, but actually increased my interest.

Get off at Zilaifengqiao Station, pass through Fengqiao Road, and pass through the three-door archway where Han Shi left his name. I found a couplet on the back of the archway inscribed by Mr. Qi Gong: "The frost has fallen in the sky for nine days, the cold mountain is bright and the moon is shining brightly. I sleep on my pillow ten miles across the pond. Listening to this moment, the sound is still quiet. The boat stopped for midnight, fishing for red maples, and came to see the ancient temple of the Six Dynasties. "To this day, it is still like the outside world of three thousand dusts." The words "poetry and Zen" instantly came to my mind. This is my most intuitive impression of Hanshan Temple.

Go straight north along the road, turn right and you will arrive at the main entrance of Hanshan Temple. You will see the words "Hanshan Temple" engraved on a yellow screen wall in front of the temple. Many tourists also took photos here. Pass the ticket gate and enter the Tianwang Hall, where you will see Maitreya Buddha sitting in the middle. There is a couplet engraved on both sides of the Buddha statue: "Welcome the destined people in the world with joy, and the big belly can tolerate the unbearable things in the world." Behind Maitreya Buddha is a standing statue of Skanda Bodhisattva holding a vajra. However, the position of the Vajra in the hands of Skanda Bodhisattva is very particular. If the pestle is held on the ground, it means that the temple is small and cannot place orders; if it is placed horizontally on the wrist, it means that it can accommodate wandering monks to place orders for several days or one day. Hanshan Temple is undoubtedly a big temple.

After passing the Heavenly King's Hall, go straight to the Main Hall. There are several couplets hanging in the main hall, one of which best embodies the poetry of Zen. "The Buddhist temple has been majestic for more than a thousand years, Hanshan Temple outside the city of Suzhou; a hundred and eight pestles are warning people's hearts, and the sound of the sea tide in Jambu in the middle of the night." Jambu is the earthly world, the sound of the sea tide is also the continuous sound of Buddha. Buddhists believe that there are one hundred and eight kinds of troubles in life. The sound of the bell is the sound of Buddha. Listening to the bell will increase Bodhi and eliminate troubles. So when you arrive at Hanshan Temple, why don't you ring a few bronze bells?

The Bell Tower is on the right side behind the Main Hall. You can buy tickets for five yuan. The person who checked the tickets repeatedly warned that the bell should not be struck more than once, but could only be struck three times, which symbolized good fortune, wealth and longevity. If it was struck four times, all the bells would be empty. I used my villain's heart to guess the subtext behind these words. Just knock three times and it will be fine. There are still people who want to knock later, so don't keep occupying it. However, since you are in a Buddhist temple, you still have to be in awe, and it is a sin to speculate like this. When you get to the bell tower, you will see a simple copper bell hanging in it. The bell body is engraved with the four characters "Guhanshan Temple", surrounded by the Bagua runes of Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen and Kunyang. If my memory is correct, , ringing the bell should be in the dry position. After three heavy strikes, the bell sounded melodiously. The vibration of the eardrum caused the vibration of the soul, traveling through time and space, as if the bell Zhang Ji heard was struck by me.

Behind the Main Hall is the Han Shi Hall, which enshrines the statues of Han Shan and Shi De, who are also known as the "Two Immortals of Harmony". "Hanshan" in Hanshan Temple is also a poet monk from the Tang Dynasty. If you are not familiar with him, maybe someone has heard of this conversation.

"How do I deal with people who slander me, bully me, humiliate me, laugh at me, underestimate me, despise me, hate me, or lie to me?"

"Just tolerate him, Let him, let him, avoid him, be patient with him, respect him, ignore him, stay for a few more years, you see him."

This is a conversation between Han Shan and Shi De, Dao Jin and others. It was really enlightening to get along with so many wits, and I suddenly realized: all the gossip, right and wrong, are just floating clouds. I only saw five words floating in the sky, and it was nothing.

However, some people have written books saying that Hanshan has never been to Suzhou and has been living in seclusion in Hanyan near Guoqing Temple in Tiantai Mountain. Hanshan is not even a monk at all. If you are interested, you can read Professor He Shanmeng's "Wild Wild Mountains".

Behind Hanshi Hall is Puzhaoyuan Tower. Apart from climbing up and overlooking the pagoda, I didn't have much of an impression on the pagoda. However, the Hanshan Temple stele gallery surrounding the pagoda has more than 60 paintings of "Mooring on the Maple Bridge at Night" in regular script, cursive, seal script and other fonts embedded in the wall. The poets and monuments were written by both ancient and modern writers, all of whom were literary figures and dignitaries of the time. I am just a layman who knows nothing about calligraphy, but I have seen many familiar names, such as Wang Gui, Wen Zhengming, Qi Gong, Ji Xianlin, etc.

Among the many poetry steles, the most precious and sought after is undoubtedly the one written by Yu Yue. The stele stands independently in front of Hanshan Zhang's house. It is 133 centimeters tall and 86.5 centimeters wide. It has three lines of large characters on the face of the stele, with a cross in each line and 28 characters in total. The content is poetry. There are three lines of postscript, each line has eighteen characters, and it says from right to left: "Hanshan Temple has an old text waiting for the imperial edict to write the poem "Mooring at Maple Bridge at Night" by Zhang Ji of Tang Dynasty, which has been filled with water for a long time. In Bingwu of Guangxu period, Xiao Shizhongcheng was newly renovated in the temple. Several couplets belong to Yu Yue's calligraphy and inscriptions."

There is also an anecdote about this poem stele. During the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese coveted this monument and wanted to steal it for themselves, transport it back to Japan, and keep it forever.

Master Jingru, the abbot of Qianhanshan Temple, was quick to think and asked Qian Rongchu, a famous Suzhou teacher, to carve a replica of the original stele. The imitation stele was made of bluestone. stand up. Therefore, the monument escaped disaster.

Wandering around Hanshan Temple, an afternoon has passed without realizing it. Seeing that it was getting late and the temple was about to close, I looked for a small door and went out. When I raised my head and opened it, it turned out to be the door of liberation.