"I have never been to Henan and Shaanxi, but the size of this Buddhist temple is not much different from those in Dunhuang..."
Mengzi had grown up and had only been to Dunhuang as far as he could. He couldn't answer Xiao Jia's words, but it was obvious that he was quite shocked by this dilapidated ancient temple.
Influenced by Dunhuang culture, Mengzi can be regarded as a Buddhist layman. He did not go straight up the stone steps like Zhuang Rui and others, but respectfully knelt down at the foot of the stone steps and worshiped in front of the temple gate.
"The architectural specifications and shape of this kind of temple are influenced by the culture of the Western Regions. It seems that it was built at least in the Sui and Tang Dynasties..."
Archeology can be said to be a relatively wide-ranging major. Whether it is chemistry, museology, history or even architecture, one must be able to explain it. Therefore, Dr. Ren judged from the appearance before even entering the temple.
The age of this ancient temple.
"Brother Mengzi, Brother Erdan, don't go in yet. By the way, Xiao Yan, you don't go in either, stay here with Zhongchuan..."
Zhuang Rui stood on the stone steps and carefully examined the wood on the temple gate. He found that even after hundreds of years, the wood was still not decayed. It was only due to disrepair that the joints of the temple were broken, which caused the gate to be damaged.
collapsed.
However, Zhuang Rui has no way of knowing what the buildings inside are like. Firstly, he is afraid that the palace inside will not be able to withstand the collapse and hurt people. Secondly, he is also afraid that people like Mengzi do not understand the knowledge of cultural relic protection and will destroy the cultural relics inside.
As for not letting Xiao Yan and the Japanese go in, Zhuang Rui did it on purpose. He just wanted to see what the Japanese's purpose was in coming to the desert. Now that he has found the ancient temple, he must also show his fox tail, right?
"#%￥#@#..." Sure enough, just after Yan Xiaowei translated Zhuang Rui's words, Zhongchuan shouted dissatisfied.
"Brother Zhuang, this little Japanese is clamoring to come in. He said that you are not law enforcement officers, nor are you the managers here, so you have no right to deny him entry..."
Yan Xiaowei didn't have a good impression of his employer. When translating, he often used Xiao Nippon to replace Nakagawa's name. Now that he heard Nakagawa make this request, he felt a little impatient.
Although this desert trip saw mysterious and beautiful mirages and strange-shaped Populus euphratica forests, it was a worthwhile trip, but the scene of the quicksand swallowing the camels also made Yan Xiaowei, a student who was not experienced in the world, feel a little scared.
Facing the ancient temple complex with a strong religious flavor in front of me, I only had fear of the unknown in my heart, but no desire to go in and explore, so I wished that Nakagawa would wait at the door with him.
"Xiao Yan, tell him that we are a formal national archaeological team that has been approved and registered. We have the responsibility and the right to prevent outsiders from destroying cultural relics..."
Zhuang Rui sneered in his heart. He just wanted to see if this little Japan had any excuses. If he insisted on entering the ruins of this ancient temple, there must be something wrong with him.
"Brother Zhuang, he said that his father was killed while exploring. He hopes to fulfill his father's last wish and go inside to take a look and promise not to damage anything inside..."
Although Yan Xiaowei hated Nakagawa, he still fulfilled his duty as a translator and translated Nakagawa's words exactly as they were said.
Dr. Ren also sensed something fishy. After thinking for a moment, he winked at Zhuang Rui and said, "Zhuang Rui, let him go in. Let's take a cursory look first. Then I'll urge the Dunhuang Cultural Relics Bureau to inspect this place."
Conservation excavation…”
"Okay, Xiao Yan, tell Zhongchuan to be careful and not to damage the things inside..."
When Zhuang Rui heard what Dr. Ren said, he smiled bitterly and shook his head. His senior brother had stayed in the ivory tower for a long time and did not understand the dangers of those cultural relic dealers.
Not to mention that this place has not yet been protected, even if the cultural relics department intervenes, those profit-driven cultural relic dealers, driven by money, can still hide the contents from the pirates. As for the capabilities of the government departments, Zhuang Rui takes it seriously.
Don't believe it.
Some time ago, Zhuang Rui heard something from someone in the industry. Jiaxiang, Shandong Province, is the hometown of Zeng Zi, a student of Confucius. There is a Zeng Temple there, which has been guarded by Zeng Zi's descendants in the past. However, after the death of Zeng Zi's direct grandson, the government
Request to take over Zeng Temple and turn it into a tourist attraction.
In order to attract tourists, the relevant local departments asked Zeng Zi's descendants to take out a white jade cauldron that had been preserved in Zeng Temple for thousands of years. However, Zeng Zi's descendants refused at that time.
But the arm could not twist the thigh. Finally, under the pressure of relevant departments, Zengzi's descendants finally took out the white jade tripod. However, within a month after the object was taken out, it disappeared.
Things were lost, and relevant departments began to pass the blame to each other. To this day, there is no news about the priceless white jade tripod, so it is simply impossible to expect those departments to protect cultural relics.
"Senior brother, go back and take a closer look. If there is anything of research value, we will take it away directly..."
Zhuang Rui walked in front and whispered to Dr. Ren. Dr. Ren was stunned for a moment, then looked at Zhongchuan and nodded slightly.
The temple gate still lost its original function. After stepping over the pillars that had fallen to the ground and half of the wooden door with door nails, Zhuang Rui and his party of eight entered the ruins of the ancient temple.
Behind the temple gate, there is a large open space covered with bluestones. It is probably used by eminent monks and great sages to perform rituals, because at the end of the open space, at the entrance of the main hall, there is a large space about two meters long and one meter wide.
The large iron tripods on the left and right.
The place where incense was flourishing in the past has now been deserted for a long time. The bluestone on the ground is also covered with a thick layer of gravel, which makes a "chacha" sound when stepped on.
When I walked to the door of the main hall and looked up, the four words "Mainxiong Hall" suddenly came into view. Decades of wind and sand had only slightly dimmed the golden characters, but they still stood high in the hall.
However, the dilapidated window lattice and the diffuse dust around the main hall bear witness to the rise and fall of this ancient temple that may have been famous hundreds of years ago.
"Brother Ren, be careful, we'd better not go in yet..."
The main door of the Main Hall opened. Dr. Ren walked to the door and took a look. He crossed the threshold and was about to go in, but was stopped by Zhuang Rui.
You know, if a piece of wood falls down, it can kill someone. This majestic palace has been abandoned for at least eighty or ninety years, not to mention that it has been baptized by wind and sand for half a century. It might collapse if you blow on it.
"It's okay, Zhuang Rui, look at these pillars. They are all made of fine nanmu and pine. They should not be more than 200 years old. In addition, this place has a long-term drought and little rain, so they will not collapse..."
Dr. Ren smiled and waved to Zhuang Rui. To work in archaeology, you need to have a good understanding of various building materials. Among other things, a large amount of wood is used even in ancient tombs.
A qualified archaeologist must be able to roughly judge the age and tree species based on the performance of the wood. Just like the pillars in the Ming Tombs Palace, almost all of them are made of expensive golden nanmu.
Timber had become extinct by the Qing Dynasty.
It is said that when Emperor Qianlong was building his own imperial mausoleum, he ordered the renovation of Emperor Ming's mausoleum, in order to steal the golden nanmu to build his own palace.
Moreover, the structure of this temple completely adheres to the ancient architectural style, using wooden columns and wooden beams to form the frame of the house. The weight of the roof and eaves is transferred to the columns through the beams. The walls only serve as partitions, rather than bearing the weight of the house.
structural part.
In this way, even if the four walls of the main hall collapse, the top wall will not collapse, which is in line with the saying in ancient architecture that "the house will not collapse if the wall falls".
After hearing Dr. Ren's explanation, Zhuang Rui felt relieved and followed Dr. Ren into the main hall. The entire Mahavira Hall was about ten meters high, but except for the three Buddha statues enshrined in the middle, it was empty.
The three Buddha statues are all seven or eight meters high, with solemn postures and kind faces. The colorful sculptures on them have not completely faded away, but the yellow curtains surrounding them have decayed and turned to dust.
Seeing the shapes of the three Buddha statues, Zhuang Rui said with a smile: "Brother, this temple is earlier than we thought..."
The center of the hall enshrines Sakyamuni Buddha in the present life, the Buddha of the past life on the left, and the Maitreya Buddha in the future life on the right. This is the "Buddha of three generations", which refers to the past, present and future three lives respectively.
After Buddhist culture was officially introduced to China in the Eastern Han Dynasty, many Chinese elements were added during the Sui and Tang dynasties. Most temples enshrine Sakyamuni in the Saha world, Medicine Buddha in the Oriental Pure Glaze world, and Amitabha in the Western Paradise world.
The three kinds of Buddha statues mentioned above are called "Horizontal Buddha of the Three Worlds". Only temples before the Sui and Tang Dynasties would enshrine the "Three Worlds of Buddha". That's why Zhuang Rui had this saying.
"Well, Zhuang Rui, you are quite knowledgeable in this area. Let's go and take a look at the back..."
After Dr. Ren walked around the three Buddha statues, he found that there was nothing else on the ground except gravel and dust. There was not even a table, chair or altar. He suddenly shook his head in disappointment. They came to search for and excavate ancient times.
The cultural relics left behind, rather than entering the temple to worship the Buddha.
"Brother Zhuang, Zhongchuan said he wanted to worship Buddha..."
Just as Zhuang Rui was about to walk out, Yan Translator's voice suddenly came from behind him. Looking back, Zhongchuan was kneeling in front of the Sakyamuni Buddha in the main hall, performing a great kneeling ceremony.
"Tell Zhongchuan to hurry up. This ancient temple is very big. You won't be able to see it all in a while. Everyone is bowing down. It will probably be dark..."
The main religious belief of the Japanese is Shintoism, followed by Buddhism. There are also a large number of Buddhist believers in Japan, so Zhuang Rui didn't take Nakagawa's move seriously.
