Chunxun Eight Immortals Niangniang Temple

Baxianmiao Niang Temple is located at the top of Baxianling Mountain in the west of Huang Mao Town, on the east bank of Qianjiang River, with an altitud

Chunxun Eight Immortals Niangniang Temple

Baxianmiao Niang Temple is located at the top of Baxianling Mountain in the west of Huang Mao Town, on the east bank of Qianjiang River, with an altitude of about 500 meters. In the hearts of villagers in Shiliba Village, Fiona Fang, the Eight Immortals Niangniang Temple is both a secret and an open spiritual place.

The first time I went to explore the Eight Immortals Temple was on the fourth day of the first month of 20 19, and I planned to make a wish at the Eight Immortals Temple. This is when my sister-in-law came back from the second day of junior high school. We have already made an appointment.

We started from home at nine o'clock in the morning. In this nine-seat medium-sized van, there are nine people in my family: my niece, my husband and wife and two children, my grandmother and my uncle, my husband and wife.

After the car crossed the boundary of the breeding farm (the former military horse farm), it began to climb all the way south to Baxianling.

Before planting eucalyptus in early years, the green hills were covered with weeds all year round. Standing on the top of the mountain and looking north, you can see the Sanjiangkou where Hongshui River meets Qianjiang and Liujiang, and you can clearly hear the barking of dogs in Gao 'an Township and Wengyao Village under the jurisdiction of guests on the other side of Qianjiang. Looking south, you can see all the villages in the north of Ertang Town adjacent to Huang Mao Town.

As the saying goes, "the mountain is not high, but the fairy is in the spirit." In addition to the legendary gossip and geomantic treasures in Baxianling, the Niangniang Temple on the mountain is even more famous. Throughout the year, aspiring people or people who think their wishes have come true come to the temple with cooked chicken, meat, water wine and various sweets and cakes.

At the moment, this car, which has been driving for some years, is under the boulevard, and the road surface is quite flat by vehicles carrying wood up the mountain. Although there are deep steep slopes outside the car from time to time, perhaps because there are towering trees all around, I don't feel too much fear about the steep slopes outside the car.

On the treetops of 20 or 30 meters high, with the branches and leaves dancing with the mountain wind, occasionally a small lamp passes through the dense forest, and then those shining gold and silver, like a slim county of a pure girl, lie unscrupulously on the mountain road under the shade of the tree, and are crushed by four wheels and the body.

Niangniang Temple is located on the north slope of Baxianling. Although the mountain road from the south slope is steep many times in the early years, it is much closer to the mountain from the south slope than from the north slope. ) I went to the other slope of Baxianling to cut grass and firewood. Because they are all brothers or parents, the grass selected in advance is not near Niangniang Temple, so I have only heard of Niangniang Temple before and have never been to Niangniang Temple in person. Sometimes, standing on the top of the high Eight Immortals Ridge and looking to the north hillside, a small cluster of bamboo tails emerges gracefully from the hillside. My family once told me that Niangniang Temple is next to the bamboo pile under the hillside. At that time, I learned from the mouth of adults that the so-called Niangniang Temple was just a few broken walls destroyed by the wind and rain that could not be investigated. As for the specific year and who built the Niangniang Temple, it is unknown. Apart from the stories left by the villagers nearby, there are almost no written records in the early Eight Immortals Niangniang Temple.

Although my mother's family and her husband's family are both in the village near the foot of the mountain, this is the first time in my life that I went up the mountain to explore the Eight Immortals Niangniang Temple.

I went up the mountain specially this time, not only to make a wish for the Eight Immortals, but also to see what the rebuilt Niangniang Temple looks like. Because many years ago, I had a strange relationship with Niangniang Temple twice.

The first romance was in the early 1980s, and was entrusted by the commune (now renamed Xiang) and the county cultural center to write a folk story and legend. Wei Minhui, the predecessor of the commune cultural center at that time, gave me two themes. One is to write about a mountain in the east of the upstart brigade of this commune, called Shuangfeng Mountain; The other is that Jiudui Farm near the border between Ertang Commune and Huang Ju Commune has a large pond with an area of about 100 mu. I hope to write two themes as folk stories. At that time, the county cultural center planned to publish a book, Selected Folk Stories of Wu Xuan. Later, I chose to write the legend of Dadingtang. The hero of this legend is the Eight Immortals Queen of Eight Immortals Ridge. Before I started writing, I learned the general content of the story of the Eight Immortals by visiting several old people in the neighboring village.

A long time ago, Dadingtang was not a pond, but a village. This legend may be based on it. The older generation said that there were many flower bowls and sundries near the Dadian pond, which was far from other villages. Where did those broken bowls and pieces come from? ) There are also a couple of orphans and widows living in the village. One day, someone in the village caught a big snake from the mountain and the villagers killed it. After the snake meat was cooked in the pot, everyone in the village was invited to eat it except the orphan and widowed mother. My widowed mother knows that she lost her husband in her early years and is living alone with her children, because poverty has always been looked down upon by the villagers. When all the men, women and children in the village happily went to eat snake meat, my widowed mother silently picked wild vegetables, cooked them and used the stove as a table with her teenage son, while the mother and son silently swallowed the wild vegetables without oil and salt on the table. Suddenly, several tender bamboo shoots soon grew on the stove. An old man with white hair and white clothes is floating among the bamboo shoots on the stove. The old man kindly said to the mother and son who were crying while eating wild vegetables: don't cry, this village will soon sink, be flooded and everyone will drown. You and your mother should run for your lives as fast as possible, run as far as you can and climb as high as you can. But remember! ! ! No matter what happens on the way to escape, don't look back. The white-haired old man said these words and disappeared in an instant. Widowed mother and daughter were stunned by the old man's appearance and were dubious about his words. However, the kind widowed mother decided to take her son with her, and immediately informed the villagers who were eating snake meat to let everyone run away from home at once. But when the villagers told the poor couple, some people gave a sarcastic laugh.

Believe it or not, NianLia decided to flee. My widowed mother put a valuable pot on her head, and her son called the thin dog to accompany him. Hardly had the mother and son left the village when a storm began to fall in the sky. Mother and son and the dog ran all the way to the mountain in the northwest (now Baxianling, Huang Mao Town) in the rain. After running for a few miles, there was a weak whine of the puppy behind the mother and son. Mother and son respect the old man's words and don't look back. Thinking that the dog may be tired from walking, let it follow slowly. When mother and son climbed a high mountain panting, my widowed mother planned to put down the pot that had been on her head all the way to rest. When she put down the pot and looked back at her village, the storm was still blowing between heaven and earth. In the hazy wind and rain, I instantly saw a black fog rising over my village. This black fog, which bends like a dragon, slowly hovers in the sky and disappears, and the village is instantly submerged by a large piece of muddy water without access. I don't know when the place where the puppy whines has become a short ridge. Widow, look at your feet again. The place where the pot was put just now has become a nest in the shape of the bottom of the pot.

The village turned into a pond and all the villagers disappeared. Later, someone called the village where my widowed mother lived "Dadiantang". The low ridge where the puppy finally brays is called Paogouling (note: Paogouling needs local Zhuang language, and Paogouling is located in the northwest of Huang Ju Village, Huang Ju Town, ten miles away from Dadiantang and several miles from Baxianling Mountain Road). My widowed mother put down the pot and turned it into a nest. People called it "the pot bottom nest". In order to commemorate the generosity and kindness of my widowed mother, later generations built a temple beside the mountainside of Guodiwo, admiring the kindness of the Queen. As for the Eight Immortals Temple Niangniang Temple, who built it and in what year? No one knows, only a beautiful legend has been handed down from generation to generation.

Shamefully, due to my limited level, I wrote a short story about the Eight Immortals, The Legend of Dadiantang, in simple words. And this book "The Legend of Dadiantang" was also selected in the Selected Folk Stories of Wuxuan published in the late 1980s, which should be the only written record about the origin of the Eight Immortals.

My second love affair with the Eight Immortals Queen was because of my mother, who wrote the article "The Legend of Dadingtang" and submitted it to the county cultural center. When I was twenty-five, just a few days after I registered my marriage with my fiance, one day I found my mother and my aunt next door, talking and laughing, coming back from the mountains with a small basket, because they saw dumplings and zongzi in the basket. I casually asked them what they were doing. Who knows, after hearing my inquiry, my neighbor's aunt smiled and said to me, "It's not because of you. Your marriage is settled. Your mother invited me to thank the Eight Immortals." Hearing my aunt say this, I was in distress situation. In my mother's mind, my marriage was arranged by the Eight Immortals? Can the Eight Immortals Queen order Yuanyang? In that case, there would be no bachelors in the world. But when I think about it carefully, I find that there were really no old bachelors in the village at that time. But I attribute the fact that there are no bachelors in the village to the water-conserving farmland around the village, and the land resources in the village are also very rich. In a word, Xiao Lang Village is a fertile place, and people are not lazy in the fields. In the hard times at that time, except for other miscellaneous rice, basically every household could maintain rice porridge during the day and rice at night. This standard of living makes many girls in other villages dream of getting married. What other places are there in the village?

It turned out that my mother thought I was a girl in my twenties. In addition to doing farm work every day, we don't go to the market during the day and don't go out to play together at night. Although my neighbors visit me occasionally, I seldom get in touch with others. I have never promised the person who will pick up the media at home, but I have no intention of getting married at all. Seeing that my sisters and nieces are all married, my mother is afraid that I will not get married. I don't know when she secretly made a wish to the Eight Immortals without telling me, hoping that the Eight Immortals could help me with my marriage.

Now we can't get married until the man chooses an auspicious day. My mother attributed all this to the Eight Immortals, and her wish came true. Today, she went to the temple to make a wish.

I don't know if the Eight Immortal Empress really works. My mother once made a wish for me at the Eight Immortal Empress Temple, but it was true.

Our car bypassed one bend after another and climbed a long and steep slope. Although the car that drank oil gasped all the way, it finally sent us to the relatively flat hill behind Niangniang Temple. I saw a small white-walled, red-tiled temple with a square meter of 10 under the hillside, facing southeast, standing among the mountains and shaded by green trees. Because the mountain is covered with towering eucalyptus trees, standing on the top of the mountain next to Niangniang Temple, we can no longer see the villages a few miles away from the east, south and north mountains in earlier years. Today's Niangniang Temple has been surrounded by green curtains, and only Lin Tao and the distant and near birdsong have reached my ears. In the bamboo pile next to the temple, the wrist-thick pale yellow bamboo pole is handsome and straight, and the sun shines on the green leaves. This bamboo stake is like a boy waiting for the queen with awe. A cave pit of about three acres is just below Niangniang Temple. This round cave shaped like the bottom of a pot is the "pot bottom nest". There are no trees planted at the bottom of the whole mountain nest, and a ray of faint sunshine falls from the sky, embracing a piece of green grass in the "pot bottom nest". It's already beginning of spring on New Year's Eve. The low weeds seem to smell the breath of spring, and the grass leaves have been stirred up by the sunshine in early spring.

Modern people use mechanical dredging to fill the front of the temple into a slope. A new slope extends from the front of the temple to the bottom of the cave. The slopes extending on both sides are built into left and right steps for pilgrims to go up and down. The original mountain nest shaped like the bottom of the pot has been artificially transformed, and the original mystery of the bottom of the pot has been spread from ancient times to modern times, and it has been completely disappeared by two artificial stairs. Perhaps the people who designed and built the stairs simply didn't know the close relationship between the bird's nest shaped like the bottom of a pot and the queen standing on the hillside.

For many years, the incense of the Eight Immortals Niangniang Temple has been religiously continued by people in nearby villages. Especially in recent years, after Niangniang Temple was rebuilt by surrounding villagers and some pilgrims, the incense was more prosperous.

The platform in front of the temple and the steps on both sides have been covered with a thick layer of red gun paper. The long incense burner outside the temple is filled with incense ashes. The platform inside the temple is also filled with all kinds of fruits, sugar cakes and other tributes, and even drinks and wine bottles have been opened. It seems that there are quite a few people who come to the temple to make wishes for the empress these days. After our party burned incense, everyone made a wish to the Eight Immortals.

Usually, when you go to the Eight Immortals Niangniang Temple, the car can drive directly to the flat roof behind the temple.

However, every year, the sixth day of the eighth lunar month is the birthday of the Eight Immortals. From the fifth day, traffic control will be implemented for cars going up the mountain. At the foot of the mountain, all kinds of vehicles are parked along the winding road. From the fifth day before dark, people went up the mountain to wait, expecting to start burning incense at zero. In those two days, when men, women and children came and went on the narrow mountain road from the foot of the mountain to a few kilometers below, it was like ants migrating, dense and continuous.

After our party made a pious promise to the Empress, when we drove down the mountain, several cars in Lu Yu met us.