The magical Ziyun Mountain (4)
There are many famous mountain monks in the world, so there should be one or two extraordinary peaks left to rest on for my Taoist friends. The Buddha has said all the good things in the world. Who knows the five thousand wonderful theories and is my immortal master?
The beautiful Ziyun Mountain is known as the "Buddhist Country". There are 16 temples within a radius of 20 square kilometers. The largest jungle is Ziyun Mountain Temple, now called Laozu Temple. The temple is surrounded by seven hills, shaped like a lotus. At its peak, the building area was more than 1,000 square feet, and there were more than 600 monks.
The treasure palm of the founder of Laozu Temple came from the Indian Brahmin nobles. He was born at noon on July 7, 414 BC. He passed away in 658 AD at the age of 1072. It is commonly known as the "thousand-year-old treasure palm". Han Dynasty biography The founder of Buddhism is the longest-lived "mortal" in human history.
When we returned to the mountain gate of the Six Dynasties Ancient Temple, we deliberately slowed down and asked if we wanted to go in and take a look. Everyone said they would come again next time. This temple is very familiar to me. My hometown is just ten miles away from Shandong. Through the oral traditions of my ancestors and my own personal experience, the rise and fall of the temple for more than a century has been imprinted in my mind.
The modern decline of Laozu Temple began with the Taiping Rebellion in the middle of the 19th century. After being harassed by successive wars, by the time of the founding of New China, it was almost deserted, with ruins and ruins. In front of the main hall, the King of Heaven The four heavenly kings vaguely existed in the hall, and the various Buddha statues showed their ferocious faces, scaring countless children to tears. No incense, no one to manage.
After the land reform, the government nationalized the temple properties, established forest farms, and planted trees. A dilapidated building facing east was transformed into the office and accommodation of the forest farm, which is under the jurisdiction of the Wuzu Temple Forest Farm.
In the late 1960s, the County Education Bureau established Huangmei County Forestry Middle School in accordance with the spirit of the national education reform instructions. The north-facing Main Hall and Tianwang Hall were converted into classrooms and dormitories. Students worked part-time to assist forest farm employees in starting their careers. Dig fire lines and plant saplings.
In the early 1970s, the school was closed, and the Dagu Commune Tea Garden was immediately established. The Commune Revolutionary Committee organized hundreds of young people to fight in Ziyun Mountain, and after three years of hard work, more than 1,000 acres of high-quality tea gardens were developed. Thousand-year-old "Yunwu Tea" has regained its vitality.
Ziyun Mountain has a long history of growing tea. When Monk Baozhang opened up the territory, he began to plant tea. The ancient tea gardens are on the east and west sides of the temple. The natural acidic black sandy soil has created the ancient tea garden. The famous Laozu tea.
Lu Yu, the tea sage of the Tang Dynasty, was a native of Tianmen, Hubei. He once traveled to Ziyun Mountain and was received by the abbot of Laozu Temple. He tasted and discussed Yunwu tea with him and sighed: I can take Laozu tea with me, but I can’t. Follow the ancestors' water and write it into the "Tea Classic", turning it into a classic book for thousands of years.
In the spring of 1975, the school organized a work-study program to pick spring tea at Laozu Tea Farm. The green buds exude a delicate fragrance that makes people fall in love with them. I remember that under the instigation of the teaching director, Mr. Liu, everyone rushed to launch satellites upstream. Classmate Li created a miracle in this ancient tea garden. He picked 36 kilograms of fresh leaves in one day. No one has broken this record yet. It is a pity that these tea gardens were flooded by the lake during the construction of the Penxueyan Power Station in the early 1980s.
After the reform and opening up in the late 1970s, the national religious policy was gradually implemented, and Buddhist believers gradually returned to the temple. The state-owned forest farm and Laozu Tea Farm also moved out of the temple, taking away some thousand-year-old cornerstones. and utensils (stone sinks, stone tables and stools, etc.).
Everything had to start from scratch. In addition to policy support, the country had no financial investment. "Chumuchi" and "Chumishi" did not appear as they did thousands of years ago. The believers relied on their own efforts. , started from scratch and struggled.
I remember that the person who moved in early was a Qichun man with a common surname of Wu, who was called "Master Wu" ("Master" was an honorific title in that era). He was over fifty and seemed to be in good health. He worked tirelessly to restore the temple and asked for alms everywhere. After more than a year of hard work, two huts were finally built on the site of the original Mahavira Hall for worshiping the Buddha and for rest and recuperation. Master Wu left the temple three years later to find another way.
The next person to continue the incense was a female believer from the western suburbs of Huangmei County. Her common surname was Wei, and she was known as "Master Wei". She was kind, hospitable and considerate, and was deeply loved by the donors. In less than a year, , that is, three green brick houses were built, and the conditions were greatly improved. The central hall is dedicated to Bodhisattva, and the side rooms on both sides provide convenience for nearby villagers to transfer their daily necessities, temporarily store some goods and meet the needs of tea.
When I was young, I learned from adults that a Feng Shui master passed by the Laozu Temple and faced the ruins and said: The recovery of the Laozu Temple dojo will have to wait until the bamboo forest behind the temple develops. After crossing the mountain, you can see the hundreds of miles of plains beyond the mountain.
Nanzhu is originally a species from the south of the Yangtze River. It was probably transplanted to the Dabie Mountains in the late Song Dynasty. It took six to seven hundred years of reproduction before it spread to within 300 meters around the temple, which was still two miles away from the top of the mountain. In addition, at that time With the current situation, I never believed that it could become a reality. It was simply a fantasy and out of reach.
Fast forward to 2008, when Beijing successfully hosted the Global Peace Conference. The bamboos in Ziyun Mountain also crossed the mountains without people realizing it, and a corner of the "Buddhist Kingdom" ushered in. Master Jinghui, entrusted by the county party committee and the county government, invested hundreds of millions of yuan to restore the temple and opened three tourist roads leading to the temple.
Nowadays, the temple, hidden among the green pines and green bamboos, is antique and magnificent, promoting Buddhism, solemnizing the country, and making the lotus flower that has been dormant for hundreds of years reopen to the sun.
Nowadays, those who stay in the temple are no longer ordinary faithful men and women, but highly educated Buddhist disciples. Handsome men and beautiful women are no longer what they used to be; freedom of belief and love for China.
The ever-changing Ziyun Mountain has infinite scenery and exists like a god, constantly creating miracles in the world! (Stop writing for now)