According to the book, the author was invited by an official in Yong 'an of Wei Xiao Zhuang (528-529) to see Luoyang in its heyday. After two years, Emperor Xiaojing was in Wuding for five years (547). He revisited Luoyang because of his service, and saw that its "battlements collapsed, palaces overturned, temples vanished, temples were covered with mugwort, and alleys were covered with thorns", and even the bells were rarely heard. Looking back, it is inevitable that there will be sadness in Mai Xiu, so write it out and pass it on to future generations.
From the seventeenth year of Emperor Xiaowen of Wei to the seventeenth year of Taihe (493), Luoyang moved its capital here, and in the first year of Emperor Tian Ping of Xiaojing (534), it moved its capital to Yecheng. It has always been the political, economic and cultural center of the North. Especially after Emperor Xiaowen's reform, Luoyang City achieved unprecedented prosperity, and at one time the cultural relics laws and regulations were extremely impressive. In the meantime, because the emperor and empress took the lead in worshipping Buddha, princes and scholars competed to give their homes to monks, from the last years of Taihe (477-499) to Yongxi (532-534). In forty years, more than 300 temples have been built. The magnificence of these floating buildings, the gorgeous decoration and the luxury of your home have left a deep impression on people. The temple witnessed the rise and fall of Luoyang, the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and many great Galand (such as Yongning Temple built by Hu Taihou) also became the stage of major historical events.
The Map of Luoyang was written after the demise of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the split of the Eastern and Western Wei Dynasties (534). Yang Xuanzhi reflects the rise and fall of the country through the rise and fall of Buddhist temples, which not only entrusts the grief of the old country, but also contains the lessons of dealing with chaos. As for the collection of anecdotes about Gyeonggi and the detailed description of the geography of Gyeonggi, it is Shu Wei's original style, which makes up for the lack of historical records and occupies an important position in the study of historical geography. The summary of the total content of Sikuquanshu says that "his prose is beautiful and elegant, and he never tires of it". It is simple and elegant, and it is also excellent from a literary point of view.
Galand in Luoyang is a five-volume local chronicle, which records the rise and fall of Buddhist temples in Luoyang, the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-58 1 year). The writer is from Beiping (now lulong county, Hebei Province). After the Eastern Wei Dynasty moved its capital to Yecheng, he went to Luoyang in Wuding five years (that is, AD 547), and saw that the local area was devastated by the East-West Wei War, and it was a dilapidated scene, so he wrote this book, recalling the prosperity of Luoyang after Wei Xiaowen Emperor Justin moved his capital. Because he opposes Buddhism and thinks that the almsgiving of nobles is a waste, and the state's support for Buddhism affects the tax revenue and the income of soldiers, the book makes a lot of mockery of the splendor of temples and the luxury of nobles.
This book focuses on more than 40 famous temples in the order of city, east, south, west and north, taking into account the lanes, directions and even places of interest, and at the same time describes related deeds. From the book, we can learn the story of Emperor Xiaowen's move to Luoyang to rebel against Jules, the distribution of Luoyang in recent 40 years, and even the residence of foreign businessmen in Luoyang, the customs and habits of various countries, and the distance between roads. The content includes politics, economy, society, literature, art, thought, religion, etc., and the historical materials are of great value. Among them, Family History of Song Yun, Travel Notes of Sheng Hui and Biography of Daorong, which are included in the fifth volume, record Song Yun's trip to Tianzhu in detail and become precious historical materials for studying the traffic history of China and India today. This book is also of high literary value.
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Yang Xuanzhi's Luoyang Galand is a masterpiece in the literary world of the Northern Dynasties.
After Buddhism was introduced into China, its influence on social culture became more and more profound. Since the fourth century, Buddhist temple buildings and related activities in metropolitan counties, especially in the capital with rich cultural heritage, have been recorded in writing. Although there are many pioneers in the book Galand in Luoyang, in fact, because of its creativity and personal talent, Galand in Luoyang has become a model of temples in existing literature and history books. Its height and reputation are beyond the reach of several similar works later. Yang Xuanzhi also regards this book as a famous mountain, as the preface says: "There are more than a thousand temples inside and outside the capital. Today, it is vast and bells are rare. I am afraid that there will be no descendants, so I want to write a book. " With the pen in his hand, he will make the elegant demeanor and stories of Galand's generation of celebrities immortal. Structurally, this book adopts the combination of Buddhist classics and annotations in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, that is, the way of matching words and annotations, and organizes Qi Bo's contents in an orderly way. This book is not written for a reason, but because of personal inner vicissitudes and ups and downs, so the pen is either hidden or obvious with feelings. In the preface, the author traces back to the Buddhist temples in Luoyang in the heyday of the Northern Wei Dynasty:
Therefore, pagodas are parallel; Strive to write the posture in the sky and copy the shadow in the mountain; Jindian is higher than GV, and A Fang of radio and television is as strong as others. Is it really embroidered with wooden clothes and painted with cinnabar?
Five years after Emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty (547), it has been 13 years since the Northern Wei Dynasty split into the Eastern and Western Wei Dynasties and Luoyang ceased to be the capital. The author revisited Luoyang because of his service, and the scene before him is:
The city walls collapsed, palaces were overturned, temples were reduced to ashes, and temples and pagodas were in ruins. The walls are covered with mugwort and the alleys are covered with thorns. The den is in the wilderness, and the mountain nest is in the courtyard tree. Wandering in Jiukui; The farmer ploughs the old, and the art is in the double gap. Mai Xiu's feeling is not unique to Yin Ruins; The sadness of separation is believed in the surrounding room.
Here, the author reveals a strong sense of the old ministers of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Galand, the ancient capital, is not only a symbol of the prosperity of Buddhism in the Northern Wei Dynasty, but also a symbol of national luck in the Northern Wei Dynasty. On the occasion of "revisiting Luoyang", the author, who has experienced great historical changes, is determined to make the lost voice of Brahma reverberate for future generations in the text, and the people between the lines are like the sorrow of a lifetime ago, which constitutes the emotional theme of the book. That is, taking Yongning Temple, the most spectacular building in Hu Taihou, as an example, on the one hand, the author reveals his dissatisfaction with the "indiscriminate construction" of the supreme ruler; On the other hand, through the praise of the monks in the western regions to the Yongning Temple Tower, they showed their pride in the national strength and Central Plains culture in the heyday of the Northern Wei Dynasty:
From time to time, there are shaman bodhidharma from the Western Regions and conference semifinals from Persia. When I visited China, I saw a dazzling golden plate shining in Yun Biao, full of treasures and winds, and singing praises. This is really a miracle. Ziyun: I 150 years old and have traveled all over the world, but this temple is exquisite and beautiful, and it is very Buddhist. There is no such thing. Sing south, put your hands together for more than ten days.
There are also two places in the book that talk about "extreme Buddhist realm" or "Buddhist country". The tone seems objective, but they all contain the same pride. One is the grand activity of Sanjingming Temple to record Buddhist images. "Sometimes, when the shamans in the western regions see this, they praise the Buddha country"; First, during Song Yun's trip recorded in Volume V, King Wuchang asked Song Yun, "Are there any saints in that country?" Song Yunju said that Zhou Kongzhuang had the virtue of being old, and the rank was tapiscia sinensis Jintang on Penglai Mountain. King Wuchang sighed: "If it is as you say, it must be a Buddhist country. I will die and hope to live in that country. " The author's mourning for the "ashes of temples and ruins of pagodas" in the old capital is intertwined with the prosperous memory of the "Buddhist country" in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The destruction of Yongning Temple is also very exciting, and it has also become a Buddhist spiritual symbol of the demise of the dynasty:
In February of the third year of Yongxi, Futu was burned. ..... At the beginning of the fire, Ping Dan was furious from the eighth grade. At that time, the thunderstorm was dark, the snow was mixed, the folk customs, the salt came to watch the fire, and the sad voice shocked Beijing. Three monks died in the fire. The fire will not go out in March. There is fire in the ground to find columns, and there is smoke on the anniversary. In mid-May of that year, someone came from Donglai County and said: I saw the floating map on the sea, shining as new, and everyone at sea saw it. Suddenly the fog rises and the floating picture disappears. In mid-July, King Pingyang was sent to Chang 'an by Hu Sichun, a servant. In October, move the capital to Ye.
Whether it is real personnel or weird content, the author can describe it vividly and be good at expressing praise and criticism. For example, Volume 4 "The Collection of Zen" mentioned Prince Fang, and the extravagance and greed among the royal families in the Northern Wei Dynasty were exposed. Hejian Wang Yuanchen boasted that he was rich, and even said, "I don't hate not seeing Shi Chong, and I hate not seeing Shi Chong." The insatiable wealth of Zhang Wurong, "can't lie at home for three days". When officials were asked to choose silk at will, "the courtiers all said they would leave, but they only merged Chen's negative silk and hurt their ankles." Cui Guang no longer rides two horses. The Queen Mother asked,' Why are there so few servants?' Yes:' I have two hands, only two hands. I have gained a lot. "The DPRK rules its incorruptibility." Another example is the story of Xiaozong, a southerner who fled to the Northern Wei Dynasty, and Princess Shouyang in Longhua Temple. Volume 2: When they first got married, "The princess was beautiful, respected her very much, and often claimed to be an official. ..... The capital capsized again and abandoned the state to the north. At that time, Zhu Shilong was in power and wanted to send the princess to Luoyang, but Shilong forced her to do so. The princess scolded: "Hu Gou, how dare you humiliate the heavenly king and his daughter!" " Shilong got angry and killed it. "In silence, he mocked Xiao Zong as a glutton, but praised the princess's fortitude.
The author is good at using neat syntax in language expression, mainly four words, and sometimes uses four or six compound sentence appropriately. At the same time, he can give full play to the advantages of loose sentences, and organically combine the sense of rhythm with the sense of freedom, thus forming a classical and elegant style. It is worth mentioning that he is good at absorbing the experience of ci-fu works, especially the scenery writing of Kyoto Dafu, such as Volume III, which describes the king's mansion in Levin: "White walls are covered with Dan, flying over the sky, lingering." The word "cornice against the universe" here is a dynamic description of static architecture, in order to directly adopt the language of "cornice sacrifice" in Zhang Heng's Xijing Fu. It can be seen that the author's "Great Ode to Kyoto" of the previous generation, because it mainly shows the beauty of the palace space, is consistent with this book to some extent and must be boring. When describing the luxurious life of a noble or the grand ceremony in Beijing, his pen seems to intentionally bring the charm of Han Dafu, which undoubtedly conveys the exaggerated essence of a specific object in a mutually beneficial way. "Siku Summary" comments on the beauty of this book's writing with the words "beautiful and elegant". Judging from the book, the author is good at four-character syntax, which should be the most "beautiful".