This is a poem "Denggu Mountain" written by Cheng Wei in Jingjiang in Ming Dynasty.
According to historical records, Jingjiang Gushan was originally a towering reef on the Yangtze River. Later, due to the influence of the river, sediment accumulated at the foot of the mountain, and gradually formed land around the Eastern Han Dynasty. This land continues to stretch and expand. In the first year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty (1488), all the isolated hills fell to the ground and became the unique peaks on this plain.
Gushan not only wins with "loneliness", but also surprises with smallness. Lonely Shandong, with steep east and west sides, only the south slope is gentle, the east and west are narrow, and the north and south are long. Seen from a distance, it looks like a big stone lion facing south. So the old Jingjiang county annals called it "like a sister-in-law", which is what it means. There used to be two natural landscapes on this mountain. One is Zhou Shi, the western slope of Gushi Mountain is very interesting, with huge stones like boats; One is the fairy cave, which is above the cliff on the east side of the lonely mountain. It is said that dozens of people can sit in it, which is out of reach. It is said that there is a fairy who can spin white cotton yarn into gold thread by shaking the gold winch all day. Unfortunately, these two landscapes were destroyed or blocked by landslides, leaving only beautiful imagination for future generations.
According to legend, when Gushan was an isolated island in the vast Yangtze River, a famous monk named "Dade" came here to reclaim land, subdue evil spirits and build a temple to run away. Since the county was founded in the seventh year from Jingjiang to Chenghua in Ming Dynasty (147 1), the compilation of historical books began in Zheng Deyuan (1506), and the written materials in this respect are not very informative. "Shi Chao in the Lonely Mountain" has Zhu Yifeng's "You Gu Shan" in the Yuan Dynasty, and the poem goes:
Cuiwei rushes to the head of a hundred feet, where you can swim quickly.
The stone ceiling is hung with moss and sewn, and Brahma clock is far away from birds.
Qian Fan's shadow is outside the arch of the mountains, and Wan Li is floating on a post.
The twilight is like water, and the cold invades the tall building when sitting.
As a result, at the latest in the Yuan Dynasty, there were temples in Gushan, and they had reached a considerable scale-there were "stone cliffs" for people to climb, "Brahma bells" for temples with distant bells, and "tall buildings" that were too high to be afraid of the cold. ...
The isolated mountain is wonderfully isolated from the world, which intoxicates people on the plain. Starting from the year of Zheng Deyuan in Ming Dynasty (1506), Jingjiang people deliberately decorated and dressed it, and successively built buildings centered on Gushan Temple on the mountain, making it a famous tourist attraction.
Along the mountain road on the southern slope of Gushan Mountain, there is a stone workshop on the way, titled "Nie Yunfang", so it is called "Nie Yunfang", which means "stepping on clouds". Yun Nie Square is the earliest existing stone workshop in Jingjiang with a history of nearly 400 years. The stone pillars on both sides are engraved with couplets: "At this point, the Yangtze River is now the top of the West Lake." Inscriptions and couplets were written by Zhao Ying, the magistrate of Jingjiang, in the forty-second year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty (16 14). This pair of couplets is magnificent and writes the characteristics of the lonely mountain. Unfortunately, due to the age, the couplets on both sides have long been eroded, and only the word "Yun Nie" is still shining.
Below Nie Yunfang, there is a cliff stone carving older than Nie Yunfang, which bears witness to the reputation of the lonely mountain. In the summer of Bing Xu (1526) during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Yi Zibo, a Taoist priest of Hunan Province, really prayed for rain once. In order to commemorate this rain-praying, people carved the inscription "Hunan foreign-funded Taoist Yi Zibo prayed for rain here in Jiajing and Xu Bingxia" on the nearby boulder.
Walk past Nie Yunfang to the east, the terrain is slightly flat, not far from the Shengdi Temple, turn west to the Earth Temple, and then turn north to the Shanmen Gate, with Sanmao Zhenjun Temple in the east and xianrentai in the west. Here, Cooper is towering and lush. There is an nunnery among the cypresses called Guanyin nunnery. There is a heavy door due north. When you enter the heavy gate, you arrive at Dongyue Palace, which is the main hall of Gushan Temple. There are hundreds of Buddha statues in the temple, resplendent and colorful. On top of the peak, Buddhism and Taoism are adjacent, which is in line with the poem "There are many famous mountains and monks in the world". Behind Gushan Temple, there is a "Not Lonely Pavilion", with cornices and corners, carved beams and painted buildings. There is a "Wangjiang Building" on the top of the mountain. When you climb the building, you can see the river, as if it were an exercise, and the scenery is not inferior to the "West Lake". Due to frequent wars, all buildings except Nie Yunfang were destroyed during the Republic of China, but from historical records, we can still imagine the magnificent scene of the lonely mountain in that year.
Beautiful mountain scenery, magnificent architecture and beautiful myths and legends make Gushan favored by poets, writers and county officials for its extremely rich cultural heritage. They came to express their feelings, sing poems and sing songs, and sincerely praise Gushan. There are dozens of poems praising the lonely mountain in the old county annals alone. Some poems have beautiful artistic conception and high artistry, and have become masterpieces that have been passed down through the ages. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Xun's prose "Story of the Lonely Mountain in Jingjiang County" described the value of the lonely mountain from a military point of view: "... more troops should be built to connect this mountain with the wolf (referring to the wolf mountain in Nantong and the town of Jiangshan), and then control Jiangbei from the outside, consolidate the Jiangyin fence from the inside, and make it fly across the river?" This shows that it was very dangerous to stand on the lonely mountain by the river.
Scholars love lonely mountain, and ordinary people regard it as a holy land. Jingjiang has a famous folk proverb, which is called "March 3rd, go to the lonely mountain". Every year, on the third day of the third lunar month, a temple fair is held in Gushan. There is an endless stream of good men and women in Jingjiang and neighboring Taixing and Rugao, and people are rushing into the mountains to make pilgrimages. There are folk songs that record this grand occasion:
On the third day of March, when it rains in Mao Mao, pilgrims in Xisha always run east. There is a lonely mountain festival in Jingjiang, where incense is burned on the mountain every year. Really go to the lonely mountain, not afraid of the drizzle. Walk two or three miles nearest, and bring a lathe worker far away. Father and son, husband and wife, brothers and friends, friends all the way, believers all the way. Put your hands on your shoulders and carry a child on your back. There are countless pedestrians on the road, and the garden is full of flowers.
Besides incense, we have to go to the market. At the foot of the mountain is a grand festival filled with all kinds of goods. In addition to agricultural appliances and daily groceries, there is also a special product of Gushan-"mud dog". Artists drill holes before baking, and then paint with colored pigments after baking, which can not only blow, but also play, and children can't put it down. Today, there are still whistlers on the stalls at the foot of the mountain, which are full of children's joy and evoke memories of adults' childhood.
For hundreds of years, the scenery of the lonely mountain has changed a lot. There were few buildings left in those years, and even many myths and legends were gradually unknown. At the same time, however, Gushan, a "Baoshan" that condenses Jingjiang's natural and human wonders, has attracted more and more attention and protection from Jingjiang people. Since 1993, the development of Gushan has been included in the construction plan of Jingjiang Municipal Government. When the "March 3rd" Gushan Temple Fair resumed, the grand occasion was no less than that of that year. Jingjiang Municipal Government and Gushan Town Government have also made specific plans for the buildings and scenic spots above and below Gushan. Over the past ten years, Gushan Temple has successively built facilities such as Shanmen Hall, Guanyin Hall, Daxiong Hall and Sanbao Building. The 6.5-meter-high white marble Guanyin statue and the 8-meter-high high-speed high-speed cast pharmacist Buddha statue in the temple are the largest Buddha statues of the same material around.