Twelve: The origin of Bailu Academy

Bailu Academy is located on Bailuyuan in the northwest of the county. It is also called Sulu'an.

There is a mythical story told here. During the Song Dynasty, a local official from Henan Province was transferred to Guanzhong. He rode a mule over the Qinling Mountains to Zishui County to transfer to a sedan chair. He saw a white deer, but he got off the sedan chair again. He couldn't see it either. He felt it was strange and asked the bearer what the name of the plain opposite was. The bearer said "White Deer Plain".

Before half a month passed, the clerk personally bought the land where the white deer appeared, built a house and a monastery, moved in his family, and ordered a tomb for himself. Later, his four grandsons all became Jinshi. One of them was Prime Minister Zuo. After the death of the four brothers, the emperor ordered a temple to be built to commemorate his merits. Four brick pagodas were built and he wrote the inscription "Si Lu'an". A descendant of the Lu family gave lectures in the temple and hung up the sign "White Deer Academy".

It can be seen that this little official named Lu in Henan has a lot of knowledge. At least he knows that the place where the white deer hangs out is a geomantic treasure. This was related to Bai Jiaxuan's later digging of White Deer Immortal Grass.

Bai Jiaxuan believed that the place where the White Deer Fairy Grass grew was a geomantic treasure land. Coupled with the myth of the White Deer and the legend of the Four Lus spread in the original area, he was forced to trade good land with Lu Zilin for Susukada. By chance, it happened that the woman he married in the seventh house was named Xiancao. With the blessing of these two gods, Bai Jiaxuan was able to revive his family business and prosper.

Let’s talk about Mr. Zhu, why did he single out the place “Silüan”? Based on his relationship with Fang Sheng at that time, it was not impossible to find a good place to seek immortality and worship gods. Readers were told in secret that when Mr. Zhu entered the "White Deer Academy", he was actually a white deer.

Literary mythology is not superstition. The white deer’s blessing connects the cause and effect of the entire novel.

The above is just my personal understanding, and it is just a crude expression of opinion.