"The Story of the Imperial City"—Tubao Flowing Spring
Halfway up the east mountain of Zhiyuan, adjacent to the Prime Minister's Mansion in the Imperial City, at some point, a clear spring gushed out of the soil embankment on top of the rocks, and a small mountain stream emerged from the soil embankment. As the soil was moistened by water, many unknown weeds and wildflowers gradually grew, attracting hares and foxes from nearby mountains to come here to dig holes and make nests. Whenever the weather is nice and sunny, groups of hares play and play near the water, and cunning foxes take the opportunity to jump out and catch the rabbits. For a moment, rabbits and foxes chased each other, forming a unique and wild picture. The local people often take the opportunity to catch a few foxes and rabbits. Later, people outside the mountain knew about it and often came to join in the fun. In this way, you passed it on to me and I passed it on to others, so they called "Tou En" "Tu En", and "Tu En Flowing Spring" became the emperor's name. One of the eight old sights in the Prime Minister's Mansion.
Speaking of this mountain spring, it really makes sense. The water is really sweet and delicious. Farmers who have been working for a day and people passing by here love to drink this water to quench their thirst. Villagers are willing to come here to fetch water for cooking, washing vegetables and laundry, so the local people call this water " Fairy Water". Some farmers visit relatives and friends. Instead of buying candies and snacks, they pick up a load of spring water to give away. Relatives and friends were more happy to receive this load of water than they were to receive sweets and snacks. Because you use it to order tofu, the tofu is white and tender and delicious, and the rice is sweet and soft. Just soak the bitter and astringent raw persimmons in this water, and the soaked persimmons will be sweet and crisp...
And for many years, no matter how long the drought lasted, the water never stopped flowing. Chen Tingjing’s second son Chen Yupeng gave it a nickname and called it "Lianquan".
There is an old saying that goes, "A big tree attracts the wind, and a lot of wealth attracts thieves." This is absolutely true. As soon as "Tuyuan Liuquan" was called "Lianquan", it caused trouble and aroused the jealousy of some people with ulterior motives. One year, a fat monk came from the south to beg for alms. He drank the water, looked at the mountains, and traveled all over Fanchuan for hundreds of miles. He knew that there would be a big shot in this place in the future, and someone would come out to pay homage to the prime minister. I suddenly wanted to destroy this feng shui...
On the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month this year, every household made moon cakes to worship the moon god, and there was an endless stream of people coming to pick up fairy water. In the middle of the night, with the bright moon in the sky, the fat monk came to the "Lianquan" with a Zen rod and a "suppression object".
He took the spring water and drank wildly for a while, then sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes and recited "Amitabha", prayed in a low voice, then got up, grabbed the Zen staff and dug towards the ridge. stand up. After the hole was dug, he took out the "token" in his arms and looked at it carefully in the bright moonlight. It turns out that this "town object" is a python he carved out of black stone. He means that only a python can make trouble, which will destroy the fairy spirit here and ruin the feng shui atmosphere of this place. Then, it was up to him to control everything here...
Unexpectedly, when he was about to put the ballast into the pit, there was a sudden thunderbolt in the clear sky, followed by a ball of fire. It fell from the sky and came straight towards him without any deviation. With a few "pop bang" sounds, it blew up the "token" to pieces, causing blood to flow from his hands and face. He was so frightened that he lost all his senses. He grabbed the Zen staff and jumped out. He ran away and has been missing since then...
Since the fireball hit, the water in the spring has slowly stopped flowing. The villagers are talking about it and don't know why. They only know that on the night of August 15th , saw a ball of fire, heard a thunderbolt falling, the sound was a bit strange...
Without water, the weeds on the soil could not grow well, and slowly the rabbits and foxes disappeared. Of course, people stopped coming...
About ten years later, another stream of water emerged from the recessed mountain in the south. The water flowed rapidly, as if it had been held in the belly of the mountain for many years. His whole body was full of energy, and he was spitting out jade all day long, and the water was flowing out along the mountain. Moreover, the water was still so clear and sweet, which made the villagers and the Chen family very unhappy.
Slowly, the water turned into a small river with nine twists and turns. According to the terrain, three ponds, two large and one small, were formed. The Chen family scholars named it "South Lake", "Beitang" and "Zhonghu" according to the directions. Lotus Pond", and also named this small river "Qujiang", and carried out extensive construction work, built waterside pavilions around it, built pavilions, planted flowers and grass, planted bamboo and willows, and expanded the mountain ridge of dozens of acres into a Jiangnan gardens also gave the garden the name "Zhiyuan", which means that people with rough desires, no knowledge of poetry, and no knowledge of etiquette are not allowed to enter. An academy was also built in Zhiyuan, where future generations could study and cultivate their sentiments.
Later, the descendants of the Chen family built a small bridge on the gurgling Qujiang River and named it "Zhuangyuan Bridge" to encourage future generations to study hard and obtain the number one scholar. The local people are even more interesting, saying that as long as you drink Lianquan water and walk across the Zhuangyuan Bridge, you can become a high official.
Later, the Chen family built a "Kuixing Pavilion" in Zhuangyuan Bridge. Kuixing refers to the four bucket-shaped stars of the Big Dipper in the sky. Legend has it that they govern the fortune of liberal arts. Therefore, scholars They all respect Kuixing very much. When you come to this garden, drink water, cross the bridge, and then enter Kuixing Pavilion to worship Kuixing, you can win the first prize in one fell swoop. Do you think that the literati students would be extremely unhappy after doing this?
When Chen Tingjing was old, he was tired of officialdom, but could not go home, so he wrote to his fourth brother Chen Tingsu, who was a county magistrate in Wu'an, Hebei Province, telling him not to be an official again after he expired. Go back to your hometown and be a free farmer. Chen Tingsu listened to his brother's words. After the expiration of six years and the seventh grade of county magistrate, the people of Wu'an cried and tried to persuade him to retain Chen Qingtian. After returning, he often made friends with local literati, talked about literature and poetry, and was edified in the mountains and rivers, which made him feel restless. One day, after visiting the garden, he suddenly had a whim and built a "Liubei Pavilion" on the "South Lake" water, allowing the water of the Qujiang River to flow slowly from the "Shou"-shaped stone tank on the ground in the pavilion, and made an appointment to go to the countryside. Literary friends were drinking and composing poems in the pavilion. When composing a poem, a glass of wine is placed in the sink and floats down the water. The wine glass floats in front of the poet. If he cannot compose a poem, he is forced to drink wine for fun. This elegant drinking style not only makes the drinkers have a lot of fun, but also allows them to experience the charm of culture from the deep friendship, which is really amazing.
Although the original landscape of "Tuyuan Flowing Spring" has been changed beyond recognition, the garden scenery that emerged from it is even better than it. Throughout the year, wind, rain, frost, and snow make the peach, pear, pine, and plum blossoms, flowers, birds, insects, and fish in the garden change their gorgeous style at any time, adding infinite longing to people. People say that entering this garden is like eating sugar cane and going up the stairs, getting sweeter and sweeter every step of the way. Some people also laughed and compared the beauty of this garden to a sesame falling into the eye of a needle - they were stunned by the coincidence.