What are the legends about the Summer Palace?

1. On the east bank of Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace, there is a bronze bull that is said to be the incarnation of the Cowherd, and on the west bank there is a plowing and weaving picture, which is said to be the incarnation of the Weaver Girl. They look at each other across the Kunming Lake. These two landscapes The origin is also due to the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.

In the fifteenth year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1750), when the Qingyi Garden (the predecessor of the Summer Palace) was first built, Emperor Qianlong also compared himself to the Jade Emperor in heaven, and passed down an imperial decree to build the imperial garden into "heaven and earth". The Buddhist Incense Pavilion should be built majestic and gorgeous, symbolizing the Lingxiao Palace in the Heavenly Palace.

Kunming Lake should be as wide as the Tianhe River, and a bronze ox and a farming and weaving diagram were built on the east and west sides of the lake (river). The body of the bronze bull faces east and its head faces west, just facing the picture of Weaver Girl. In this way, it looks more like the Tianhe River. There is Weaver Girl in the sky and Cowherd (copper bull) on the ground, looking at each other from a distance.

In 1860, the British and French allied forces burned down the "Three Mountains and Five Gardens", and the farming and weaving pictures in the Summer Palace were also destroyed, leaving only the "Farming and Weaving Pictures" stone tablet inscribed by Emperor Qianlong. After liberation, the farming and weaving plots were removed from the walls of the Summer Palace and became a large courtyard where production and life were mixed.

It was taken back by the Summer Palace at the end of 1998 and gradually restored to its original appearance, highlighting the meaning of the landscape theme of "cultivation" and "weaving". The scenery here is beautiful, like a fairyland, and it is open to the public.

2. Viewed from a high altitude, Kunming Lake looks like a longevity peach. Emperor Qianlong created a puzzle in the landscape. Following the example of West Lake, Kunming Lake is divided into "inner lake" and "outer lake", and a branch embankment is added to further divide the outer lake into two parts. The main purpose of dividing the lake into inner and outer lakes is to guide the water to the sides and back of the mountains to achieve a "mountain surrounded by water" pattern.

Why should we be surrounded by mountains and rivers? "Surrounded by mountains and water, there must be Qi", this is an important law of traditional Feng Shui. The essence of traditional Feng Shui is to emphasize the feelings that are beneficial to people's body and mind.

Therefore, in traditional Feng Shui, mountains should have a meandering curve, water should have a lingering curve, roads should have a curve of dark willows and bright flowers, bridges should have a curve of arches, and corridors should have a curve of ileum. And what does Qu mean? Implicit, embracing, accumulating, affectionate, and then there must be vitality. So we need to be "surrounded by mountains and rivers". And Qianlong knew this well.

3. It is said that on Nanhu Island in Kunming Lake, there was originally a three-story attic building called Wangchan Pavilion. There is also a very tall attic building called Foxiang Pavilion on Wanshou Mountain in the north, which corresponds to the north and south. But Wangchan Pavilion became shorter later. What happened?

More than 250 years ago, Emperor Qianlong wanted to build a garden in the western suburbs. At this time, a minister named Aligun wanted to please Qianlong. When he was working in Huguang, he thought that the most famous thing in Huguang was the Yellow Crane Tower, so he took the money himself. , I bought some wood in Hubei and made a replica according to the ratio of 1:1.

After it is completed, it is transported to Nanhu Island for assembly. This was later called Wangchan Pavilion. Because the craftsmen did not lay a solid foundation at that time, which caused the building to subside, Emperor Qianlong also punished a group of related people.

Later, when Emperor Jiaqing came to power, when he saw the tilted Wangchan Pavilion, he ordered it to be demolished and rebuilt from three floors to one. However, in 1860, Hanxu Hall was also burned by the British and French forces. After the burning, when Cixi rebuilt it, she rebuilt Hanxu Hall exactly as it had been during the Jiaqing period.

4. When Cixi built the Summer Palace, she wanted to imitate the Queen Mother in Heaven, so she passed down a handwriting: The Summer Palace should be built into "Heaven on Earth". The Pavilion of Buddhist Incense symbolizes the Heavenly Palace, Kunming Lake is like the Tianhe River, and the Bafang Pavilion and Dragon King Temple are the human world. Since there is Tianhe, of course there is also the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.

So a bronze bull was placed on the edge of Kunming Lake under the Bafang Pavilion to symbolize the Cowherd; and a Weaver Girl Pavilion was built next to the stone boat. The body of the bronze bull faces east and its head turns to the northwest, facing the direction of the Weaver Girl Pavilion. With Kunming Lake as the boundary, a formation is formed with the "Cowherd" on the left and the "Weaver Girl" on the right. ?

From then on, the "Bronze Bull" looked at the "Weaver Girl" day and night. One year on July 7th, it was the day when the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl met in the sky. The copper bull suddenly came to life.

It left its original position, walked step by step into the lake, and then swam in the direction of the Weaver Girl Pavilion. Unexpectedly, Kunming Lake was so big that the bronze bull sank to the bottom of the lake halfway through its swim and could never come out again. ?

Someone reported this strange thing to Cixi. She didn't believe it at first, so she went to the Seventeen-Arch Bridge to see it in person: the copper bull was indeed missing. what to do? "Tianhe" cannot be without Cowherd! So he sent someone to imitate the bronze bull in the past and put it in its original place. Afraid that it would escape, I locked it with an iron chain. ?

On July 7th of the following year, the second copper bull started to move again, and it seemed that the iron chain could no longer be locked. Cixi hurriedly sent several strong men from her bodyguards to catch it. These strong men used all their strength to pull the "cow" by the tail. Due to excessive force, the tail snapped with a "click".

At this time, someone found a thicker iron chain, and finally locked the copper bull with all kinds of tricks. From then on, a bronze bull with a broken tail was left on the edge of Kunming Lake. However, this is already the second one. Where's the first one? It’s still under Kunming Lake!

5. The naming of Wanshou Mountain was decided more than 230 years ago when Emperor Qianlong celebrated the birthday of his mother, the "Filial Sage" Empress Dowager. Wanshou Mountain was originally called Wengshan. According to legend, an old man dug out a stone man at the foot of the mountain, so it was named Wengshan. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Shiweng was lost, but the name Wengshan has been passed down.

In AD 1494 (the seventh year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty), the emperor's nurse, Madam Luo, built a large-scale Yuanjing Temple on the back of Wengshan Mountain and facing the water. Its former site is Paiyun Temple in the Summer Palace today. Where the temple is located.

AD 1751 (the 16th year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty) was the "prosperity of Qianlong". This year happened to be the 60th birthday of Qianlong's mother, the "filial piety" Empress Dowager Niu Hulu. In order to show his filial piety, Qianlong In this year, Wengshan was changed to Wanshou Mountain.