The third day of the first lunar month is the day when the Jiming Temple holds a temple fair.
This thousand-year-old temple was built in the Western Jin Dynasty and is the oldest Buddhist temple in Nanjing. It is located on the mountain at the eastern foot of Jilong Mountain. It includes the Heroes Temple, the City God Temple, the Temple of the Emperors of the Past Dynasties, the Jiang Zhonglie Temple, the Bian Yi Temple, and the Liuzhou Temple in the south of the Jilong Mountain.
The "ten temples" including Yuewang Temple, Caowu Huiwang Temple, Wei Guogong Temple, Zhenwu Temple and Guandi Temple form a large temple complex, attracting faithful men and women from all over Nanjing and even Huizhou to burn incense and worship Buddha.
In order to compete with Taoism for believers, this place is obviously a pure place for Buddhism, but it holds the most lively temple fairs. In this way, the monks attract people to come for entertainment and join in the fun, and subtly bring the Buddha and Bodhisattva closer to the general public.
distance.
Because they are familiar with each other, when people encounter difficulties, they will be the first to think of this temple they often come to and the common Buddha in the temple. They feel that the Buddha here should be more likely to grant their wishes than the gods elsewhere.
The Jiming Temple Fair has a history of nearly a thousand years and is also the earliest temple fair in Nanjing every year. On the early morning of the third day of the Lunar New Year, the boats ferrying on the Xiang River were busy coming and going, picking up the men, women, old and children who came to visit the temple fair.
Send it to the southern foot of the mountain to land.
Zhu Di also took his younger brothers and sisters and mingled with the crowds at the temple fair. Although they were crowded around, they were not crowded at all.
I don’t know if the common people automatically stood far away when they saw the menacing men. Or there were plainclothes guards who separated the crowd.
In short, Xu Miaoqing only saw the bustling crowd, but she didn't feel crowded at all. Her eldest sister was very strict and rarely visited such crowded places in the past, so she couldn't help but feel a little excited.
So he changed his usual quiet and taciturn attitude and kept asking questions about this and that.
"What is this place for?"
"What's for sale over there?"
"That's over there..." Xu Huizu next to him was about to answer his sister, but was pulled aside by his brother-in-law.
"Ah, Huizu, what do you think that is?" Zhu Di used his big hand like a cattail leaf fan to force Xu Huizu's head to the other side, and whispered in a low voice: "What did I tell you yesterday?"
"Oh." Xu Huizu then remembered that today's task was to fully cooperate with his brother-in-law to create a good dating atmosphere for Miaoqing and King Chu.
He obediently followed his brother-in-law behind, letting Lao Liu walk beside Miaoqing.
Zhu Zhen gave the two of them a look of thanks, then walked around the temple fair with Miaoqing, and acted as her guide at the same time.
He is the head of the beggars gang who can beg for food from the street to the end of the street, and sing different lyrics in every shop. He is knowledgeable, smart, has a good tongue, and has excellent improvisational rap skills.
The main character is a lotus with a bright tongue. She talks about one thing after another, making Miaoqing giggle non-stop.
She also deliberately asked Lao Liu about some of the trades she knew, just to hear an interesting talk from him.
"Brother Six, what about this?" Xu Miaoqing asked, pointing to a stall selling sliced noodles.
"This is just a noodle seller." Lao Liu said with a bitter smile.
"I just want to hear you talk." Xu Miaoqing begged softly: "What you said is really interesting."
"Okay, Brother Six, just listen to my sister." Lao Liu smiled and said:
"To talk about noodles, let's just say noodles and mix them together with an egg.
Roll it out into a large piece and cut it out into a line.
Go down into this pot, turn around, and get the lotus petals in the bowl.
It's delicious and beautiful. One person can eat half a catty, and three people can eat one and a half catties..."
"Okay, okay!" Xu Miaoqing also clapped her hands happily, with that youthful smile that made Lao Liu drunk.
At this moment, a discordant voice sounded.
"It's vulgar and really disgraceful."
The two of them looked around and saw that it was a scholar setting up a stall.
"Who are you talking about?" Before Lao Liu could speak, Xu Miaoqing became unhappy.
"Tell me about the guy next to you." The scholar shook his head and said, "His limericks are not limericks, and his jingles are not jingles. They are just for coaxing a little girl like you who is not familiar with the world."
"Damn it." Xu Zengshou, who was following the two of them, heard this and was about to step forward to help the picker.
But he was grabbed by the fourth child and whispered to him: "The sixth child can handle it."
"Oh, right, right, we can't steal his limelight." Xu Zengshou said suddenly.
But Xu Miaoqing didn't care about this. She smiled faintly and said coldly to the scholar: "We were just chatting and having fun. He likes to talk and I like to listen. What does it have to do with you?"
"He insults the gentlemen, so he has nothing to do with me." The scholar glared.
"You are really lenient." Xu Miaoqing sneered: "Yan Fusheng in the Confucius Temple should be made a saint. You should sit down and be the protector of Saint Confucius."
"You!" The scholar held his breath for a long time and said, "Only women and villains are difficult to raise. I will not deceive a saint sincerely."
"Yes, I am a woman and you are a villain." Xu Miaoqing smiled.
"You, you..." The scholar did not expect that this innocent and beautiful little girl would have such a poisonous mouth, and he almost cried because of her.
Zhu Zhen had no choice but to smooth things over and said: "Sister, don't be angry, I'll ask him."
Then he asked the scholar: "You said that I am disgraceful to elegance, but what is elegance?"
"Poems, lyrics, songs and couplets, these are the most elegant." The scholar pointed to the couplets around him that had only the upper couplet but no lower couplet and said:
"Students set up an arena today. There are ten pairs of eternal absolutes. If you can match one of them, I will give you a gift. If you can't match any of them, then just bow and apologize and admit that you have insulted the gentlemen. How about, this condition is enough
Simple, right?”
"This young man, don't be fooled by him. He has been setting up his stall all morning, and no one can get it right." Someone next to him kindly reminded him.
"Yes, Sixth Brother." Xu Miaoqing also said to him softly: "This man's first couplet is the kind that no one has gotten right for many years. Don't fall for his provocation."
"Haha, don't worry, sister." Zhu Zhen raised his thick eyebrows and said with a confident smile: "I am a man known as the 'King of Right'. There is no second line in the world that I can't fault."
"Hahaha..." The onlookers were all amused by this bragging young man.
"Come on, Your Highness." The scholar handed the brush to Lao Liu with a provocative tone.
"Oh, it's hard to get off the tiger..." The two brothers Zengshou Huizu secretly worried about Lao Liu. They had studied with Lao Liu in the main hall, so they knew that Lao Liu's cultural level was only higher than that of the second and fourth lao.
If he could match these absolutes, they would rip off all these couplets and eat them.
Zhu Zhen took the pen calmly under the questioning eyes of everyone, walked to the first couplet, and saw the following letter:
‘Lighting up the tower, every layer of the sky is illuminated.’
Some onlookers commented that this first couplet not only contains the mythical figure King Tuota Li, but also cleverly uses his magic weapon to bring out Zhuge Liang's name and surname. It is indeed very difficult to figure it out, no wonder it is called absolute.
Anyway, no one thinks that a young man like this door panel can produce this couplet.
However, before they finished speaking, Zhu Zhen wrote the second couplet——
‘Ao Guang held up the fire, lighting up the clouds and Zilong every step of the way.’
