After finishing speaking, the abbot pointed to a copper plate hanging in the pavilion and said: "This plate is filled with sesame oil, which can be added at any time. In addition, the rush wood has been processed long ago and is hollow. The lamp in the oil lamp in the treasure vase is twisted.
It is tied directly to the copper plate filled with sesame oil through the middle hole of the rush wood, so the oil supply problem is solved."
After he finished explaining the problem, without waiting for Zhong Jinwei to ask again, he introduced: "The waste smoke produced by the oil lamp in the treasure vase after being lit is smoothly discharged through the small hole opened on the top side without leaking.
Water comes in."
Zhong Jinwei nodded repeatedly after hearing this. Although this pavilion is not big, a lot of thought must have been put into it. Ordinary people really can't make it so perfect.
When the abbot saw that Zhong Jinwei also admired it, he praised it again: "Xu Qiaojiang is a famous carpenter in Suzhou. He spent seven months alone to design and build this pavilion. He has a heart to worship Buddha and is extremely pious."
Then the abbot walked to the outside of the pavilion, pointed to a stone tablet and said: "Donors, please look at this. In order to thank them for their donation, Bei Temple specially carved a merit tablet to commemorate it."
Zhong Jinwei walked over casually and looked at the stone tablet. The first line on the stone tablet stated that the person who donated the work was Xu Zhengming, and the names of some people who contributed money and materials were listed at the back.
He found that there seemed to be something wrong with the information on the stone tablet, so he said to the abbot: "Master, you praise this craftsman Xu for his superb skills, his heart to worship Buddha, and his piety. But why do I feel that this man's skills are good, but his heart to worship Buddha is not good enough?"
It doesn’t seem possible to be extremely pious?”
The reason why Zhong Jinwei said this was because he vaguely felt that by saying so much, the abbot was actually hinting that he would make more contributions to his Fahua Temple.
But Zhong Jinwei himself did not believe in Buddhism. Instead of donating more money to the temple, it would be better to donate it to help refugees and disaster victims. Therefore, he found this flaw and refuted the abbot.
When the abbot heard this, he didn't understand why Zhong Jinwei had such a guess, so he asked, "Why did the donor say this?"
"The master also said that Xu Qiaojiang is a famous person in Suzhou, with such high craftsmanship. As far as I know, a craftsman who is proficient in a craft has a good living standard. So if his heart to worship Buddha is so pious,
"Why didn't you also donate the materials, but only the labor?" Zhong Jinwei asked the abbot, pointing to the stone tablet.
Unexpectedly, the abbot smiled and shook his head, and then said to Zhong Jinwei: "Donor Miao, this craftsman Xu is famous for his superb skills. However, he has not spent any effort to earn the necessities of life, and only concentrates on doing some strange skills.
He was so promiscuous that his carpenter shop could not make ends meet and his life was in embarrassment. As a result, he had no money left over to donate merit."
Zhong Jinwei is most disgusted with what the ancients said about strange and obscene skills, because it is for this reason that many good things in ancient times were suppressed and were not passed down to later generations.
So after hearing what the abbot said, he instead asked the abbot: "What is a miraculous skill?"
Zhong Jinwei was ready to hear what he had done so that he could refute the abbot and talk to him well.
Since the abbot had already guessed Zhong Jinwei's identity and wanted to reap benefits, he naturally told everything he knew. Just listen to his reply: "This craftsman Xu spent all his wealth and put all his efforts into making many ingenious and useless things."
The most famous thing is the 栠栳车.”
Not understanding, Zhong Jinwei asked again: "What is a chariot?"
The abbot began to make gestures and said: "It is like a chair with a mechanism underneath and staggered teeth. When a person sits on the chair and uses two feet to step on the board and rotate it up and down, the chair can be raised more than a foot off the ground and fly across the harbor.
No need to cross the bridge.”
Zhong Jinwei listened in a daze and was suddenly startled. What the abbot said seemed to be very similar to the helicopters of later generations. So he quickly asked: "Can it really fly?"
When the abbot saw Zhong Jinwei's appearance, he nodded and said, "You can fly. But there is a bridge that you can't walk on, but it took more than ten years to make this thing. It's really not doing your job properly..."
Zhong Jinwei got confirmation from the abbot, so no matter what he said later.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, someone made something similar to a helicopter, which could use human power to rotate and fly people over small rivers and ditches. For people in later generations, it was really unimaginable.
Zhong Jinwei immediately didn't care about chatting with the abbot, let alone seeing the scenery, so he asked the abbot: "Where is this Xu Qiaojiang? Send someone to take me to see him."
When the abbot heard this, he was a little unhappy. Before all his goals were achieved, the noble man was about to run away.
Zhong Jinwei saw what he meant from the abbot's face, and immediately said to Gu Baichuan who was following him: "Donate some more incense money to Fahua Temple."
Then he turned back and said: "I don't have much time, so I would like to ask the master to send someone to take me to Suzhou immediately to find this Xu Qiaojiang."
When the abbot heard this, he hurriedly said: "The donor has misunderstood. It is fate that the donor came to my Fahua Temple and the Buddha appeared and gave instructions. The poor monk was shameless and did not ask for incense or money from the donor. He only asked the donor to leave a calligraphy treasure.
, to commemorate it in Ibei Temple.”
When Zhong Jinwei heard this, he was very speechless. He was very good at writing calligraphy with a dog-like calligraphy brush. But why did these ancients just like this and insist on some kind of calligraphy?
The abbot saw that Zhong Jinwei didn't seem to want to give, and he was a little anxious, so he said again: "Donor, there has never been a Buddha in Bei Temple. Today we will see the victorious Buddha coming..."
"Okay, okay, I'll leave one for you." Seeing that the abbot was nagging again, Zhong Jinwei interrupted him.
When the abbot heard this, he didn't care about the impatience in Zhong Jinwei's tone, and hurriedly said to the young novice who followed him outside the pavilion: "Quickly present the Four Treasures of the Study."
As soon as the young novice monk received the abbot's instructions, he immediately took out the Four Treasures of the Study and presented them to him.
Seeing this posture, Zhong Jinwei clearly had a premeditated plan and wanted to leave some calligraphy treasure for himself.
Grandma, you are deliberately planning to get a calligraphy treasure, right? Well, I will give you a calligraphy treasure. Zhong Jinwei was thinking about it, and he had someone polish it in the pavilion.
Zhong Jinwei's guards were a little curious and wanted to see what calligraphy treasure the Duke had left, so they all focused their attention on the pavilion.
Gu Baichuan, who had a high status, was right behind Zhong Jinwei, watching the Duke's calligraphy work with Zheng Zhilong.
After everything was ready, Zhong Jinwei grabbed the brush and wrote on the rice paper. Then he threw the brush away and said, "Okay, take it!"
Gu Baichuan and Zheng Zhilong didn't understand what Guogong was writing about. They looked at each other and saw the confusion in each other's eyes.
The abbot couldn't help stroking his beard while saying continuously: "Okay, okay, it is indeed the reincarnation of the Buddha who defeated the Buddha in a battle. I am very lucky to have this calligraphy treasure in Bei Temple!"
Zhong Jinwei was speechless. He refused to answer the topic and urged the abbot: "Go back to the temple now and send someone to follow me to Suzhou to find Xu Qiaojiang."
"Well, the donor forgot to use the seal." The abbot reminded him quickly.