Zhenwu, a plum blossom Taoist, was born here in the Southern Song Dynasty. When I was a teenager, I dropped out of school because of my poor family. I taught myself poetry and calligraphy and studied hard. However, he has a strange temper, preferring to make friends with fortune tellers and poor monks rather than dude.
On one occasion, his family advised him: "A big man across the hall can write and draw, and he is busy all day. If you study calligraphy and painting, you should ask him for advice. "
Zhenwu shook his head and said, "He only knows how to entertain celebrities, but he is not a real calligrapher. I'm not going! "
Everyone in the family knows that even if there are good words and wonderful paintings, only celebrities can become famous by inscriptions. It is better to persuade him to go.
Zhenwu proudly said: "Success is natural. Don't believe it, look after 20 years! "
Since then, Zhenwu has learned calligraphy and painting more frequently. He found a landscape picture of Qiuyuan by Dong Yuan and Ju Ran, a poet of the Song Dynasty. If you get the treasure, read it every day, copy it every day, and gradually get the message and master the painting skills.
This year is an important year. After repeated persuasion by his family, he finally agreed to go to Beijing to catch the exam. But as soon as he left home, he only paid attention to traveling and making friends with literati. From Zuibaichi in Songjiang to Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang, from Xuanmiao Temple in Suzhou to Daochang Mountain in Huzhou, and from Tiaoxi River to Gushan Mountain in Hangzhou, he made a living by selling some calligraphy and painting. Year after year, when I left home, I was still a young man, and when I came back, my sideburns were gray. At this time, his poems, characters and paintings are very famous, but his temper has not changed at all. Whenever a powerful person asks him to write poems, he always treats him coldly. For those poor people, it is responsive. Sometimes I will take out my favorite works and let others choose and give them generously.
When Zhenwu, who was over half a century old, returned to Tang Wei, all his family members had died, leaving only broken walls, his former residence. So he rebuilt three huts on the old base and planted plum blossoms around the houses. His only companion is a little black mule.
One day, he was sitting in the hall, drinking and writing poems. He saw a plum blossom in front of the door, with five forks and branches full of flowers. The more he looks at it, the more he likes it. He felt that plum blossom's personality was just like his own, so he named himself plum blossom Taoist, also known as plum blossom monk. Since then, Zhenwu's real name has been changed to this nickname in his calligraphy and painting. The villagers also know that there is a plum blossom master who doesn't recite scriptures or do Dojo.
Every party day in Tang Wei, Zhenwu took the black mule, hung a bamboo basket around its neck, put some calligraphy and paintings and containers full of oil and rice in the basket, then patted it gently and sent it out. The little black mule is with his master all day. He knows his master's mind very well. Zhenwu packed his things, took his hoof, walked out of the gate, crossed the bridge and crossed the garden until the East Gate Market stopped. When market participants saw black mules taking to the streets, they all came up to watch. The person who asked for calligraphy and painting took it out of the basket as usual, and then looked at the note sandwiched inside. According to the Meihua Taoist, he bought all the items he needed and put them in the basket. Then, the little black mule will shake his head and wag his tail, quietly leave the market, take four hooves and return to the Meihua Taoist.
One day in the 14th year of Yuan Dynasty, some people who wanted to ask for calligraphy and painting from the plum blossom Taoist gathered in the Tang Wei market, waiting for the little black mule. However, this day the market has passed, and the little black mule has not been seen. Everyone had an ominous premonition, so they met in the garden to find out. Sure enough, when people came to Meihua Temple, they saw the little black mule standing beside the bed of the late famous contemporary painter Meihua Daochang. On the table, there is a piece of paper with six Chinese characters "Plum Blossom and Monk Tower" written on it. The villagers buried the plum blossom master next to his own home, and these six words were engraved on the tombstone.
700 years later, the tombstone written by him still stands in front of his grave.
Meihua Temple is now a key cultural relic protection unit in Zhejiang Province. Up to now, Zhenwu's posthumous works "Eight Bamboo Monuments" and "Heart Sutra in Cursive Script" are still preserved in the temple.