Riding the wind of rebirth

Zhou Zhi said before that this courtyard is not as good as a house with a water view and is not as good as a house by the lake. In fact, he was just humoring himself in future generations. The courtyards along Yindingqiao Hutong, even if they can't see the lake from the door, will only be worth sky-high prices in future generations.

However, now that Mr. Qiao reminded him, Zhou Zhi took a closer look at this place and found that the gatehouse was indeed somewhat different from the general courtyards in the capital. The gate was higher than the courtyard wall and was more like a "gatehouse".

On both sides of the gatehouse, under the illumination of street lights, you can see that the gate with its red and pink wall covering is removed is surrounded by bluestone columns, on which a couplet can barely be made out:

Tianzhu overlooks the river, and the eyes are clear and refreshing;

Yunshan has been washed by the rain, and the nodding of the strange rocks is also spiritual.

"I'm going! Jesse has been tricked!" Zhou Zhi slapped his forehead: "Is this a temple?!"

"To be precise, it's a nunnery." Mr. Qiao smiled a little gloatingly: "Haichao nunnery, also called Guanyin nunnery."

In the couplet, the two allusions "Tianzhu" and "Stubborn Stone Nodding" were used, making it clear that it was a Buddhist place, which made Zhou Zhi feel a little unlucky.

"Who is it?" The door creaked open, and an old man stood inside. When he saw Wei Yi, he smiled and said, "Hey, my boss is here?"

"Hello, Uncle Ge! I'm not the boss, this one is." Wei Yi smiled and introduced to Zhou Zhi: "This is Uncle Ge. He used to rent here. Now he is arranged by the street office to look after the yard here. By the way. , the sub-district office said you have to control Uncle Ge’s salary from now on.”

"This is easy to talk about. Hello, Uncle Ge. My name is Zhou Zhi."

"Come on, come on." Uncle Ge said with a smile, "They are all rare people!"

When everyone walked into the courtyard, Zhou Zhi realized that it was actually very big.

Although the residents here have been divided into small rooms to live in, the general structure can still be seen. The sutra room, meditation hall, incense plot, and abbot are all still there, but they were later plastered and wooden boards were installed to sandwich the walls.

Such a small house will not be soundproofed. Zhou Zhi can imagine how frustrated the residents who lived here were.

However, when Uncle Ge led everyone through the corridor next to Guanyin Hall to the backyard, they discovered an empty mansion.

"Hey! What a great place!" Zhou Zhi clapped his hands together and said, "It turns out that Jesse is not stupid at all!"

"Yes, the Feng Shui here is good!" Uncle Ge said: "Our place is the famous Yinding Bridge in the west of Beijing. Crossing the alley is Nanguanfang Hutong. What is Nanguanfang Hutong? Go there, then The people living in this alley are foreign officials who have come to the capital to serve, so it is called Nanguanfang. Do you think the feng shui can be worse?"

"Just talking about this place, Haichao'an Guanyin'an, that's all happened later. In the early years, this place was a property purchased by the British government in the Ming Dynasty. It's getting old!"

"The British Duke?" Zhou Zhi asked, "Zhang Fu? Or Zhang Weixian?"

These two British princes were relatively famous in the Ming Dynasty. Zhang Fu was originally the eldest son of Rong Guogong and Zhang Yu, the king of Hejian. Later, because of his meritorious service in the battle of Jingnan, he wrote to An Bo and was granted the title of Marquis of Xincheng. In the sixth year of Yongle, he was granted the title of British Duke for his conquest of Annan.

The most important thing is that this title has the word "hereditary" in front of it, which is extraordinary. From then on, the bones and tendons of the royal family are broken, and the formal title should be called "Xunqi".

The news spread all the way to Zhang Weixian, the British prince, who at that time controlled the military power in Beijing. When Tianqi died, he secretly entered the palace under the orders of Queen Zhang, came out to support Chongzhen, and easily killed Wei Zhongxian's "eunuch". "The last time I came here to listen to Uncle Ge's story, I went back to check it out." Mr. Qiao said: "In ancient times, there was a Guanyin Temple south of Yinding Bridge. There is a record in "The Scenery of the Imperial Capital", 'In the deep winter of the year of Chongzhen and Guiyou years, The British public took an ice bed, crossed Beihu Lake, and crossed the Yinding Bridge to see the Guanyin Nunnery. He was shocked when he saw the site. He hurriedly bought half of the nunnery land, built a garden on it, and built a pavilion, a pavilion, and a terrace."

"Then I checked the lineage table of honorable ministers in the Ming Dynasty. At this time, the British Duke was no longer Zhang Weixian, but the eighth British Duke Zhang Shize."

"Can you two shut up? Listen to Uncle Ge first."

"Oh, Uncle Ge, go on, go on."

"Well, I don't know which British public it is. Anyway, this place was established in the Ming Dynasty." Uncle Ge continued: "Yinding View Mountain was originally one of the eight scenic spots in Yanjing. I used to go here to Yinding Bridge. There aren’t many houses here, and the Shicha Lake is quite large. The land in front of the nunnery has not yet been cleared, so it is right next to the Qianhai Lake.”

"It is said that when the wind stops and people are quiet at night, you can hear the sound of waves crashing on the shore from Guanyin Nunnery just now, so it is commonly known as Haichao Nunnery."

"When looking at a mountain with a silver ingot, are you looking at Jingshan?" Zhou Zhi asked.

"No." Mr. Qiao said: "It's Xishan. "Rixia Jiuwen Kao" cited "Yandu Tourist Records" has a description: Yinding Bridge is to the north of the three Haizi bridges in Bei'anmen. It was the first place to see Xishan from the waterside in the capital at that time. It is an absolutely beautiful place. There is water both east and west of the bridge, with lotuses and wild cattails, not hiding the color of the ripples. Looking to the south is the palace, to the north is the blue sky of Lin Palace, and to the west is the thousands of peaks outside the city. They are exposed in the distance, unlike the Jingye Lake. It’s forced and hindered.'"

"Really?" Zhou Zhi looked to the west: "Is there?"

"That was a scene from the old days. Now when you look to the west, you can only see the inpatient building of Jishuitan Hospital!"

"It was different before. In the section about the British Park in "A Brief View of the Imperial Capital", it is also written that here, "the smoke is green in spring and summer, and the clouds are yellow in autumn and winter, and the rice fields are also there; the smoke trees are here in the north, and there are hundreds of millions of smoky trees." There are white clouds on the top of the wisp. It is connected to the West Mountain in the west, and the layers are curved. It is green at dawn and purple at dusk, and it is as close as you can climb.'"

"It's very beautiful, but it's all literati embellishment." Zhou Zhi laughed: "In fact, in the Ming Dynasty, this was a rural area separated from the capital by a lake!"

"Actually, that's what happened." Uncle Ge said: "The water surface was large at that time, and there were ten famous temples and nunneries surrounding the lake. There is a saying that 'Nine nunneries, one temple, three bridges, the eye of the sea is in the golden Silk sleeve', the name Shichahai came about like this."

"By the way, old man, where did the name Yinding Bridge come from?" Mr. Qiao asked, "That bridge looks like an ordinary arch bridge. Does it have anything to do with Yinding Bridge?"

"The current arch bridge... was probably built in 1984. It was newly built." Uncle Ge recalled: "The original bridge shell was not what it looks like now. It was built in the Ming Dynasty. It was not an arch bridge, but a flat bridge. "

"There are many theories. One is that the bridge resembles an inverted ingot; the other is that the stone slabs on the early bridge deck were connected with iron curiums. The iron curiums were in the shape of a figure 8. They were polished by cars and pedestrians until they shone brightly, and their shape and luster They all look like silver ingots; San said that the cypress pile foundation under the bridge is connected with iron ingots, and the iron ingots are shaped like silver ingots."

"No matter which way you say it, in short, this bridge was finally called Yinding Bridge."

"The second option seems to be the most reasonable. If I were a foreigner who came to the capital and saw bright silver iron ingots connecting the cracks on the bridge, I would be surprised for a long time." Zhou Zhi nodded: "It's a pity that the bridge Everything has been replaced, and the old landscape is no longer visible.”

Uncle Ge pointed to a place and said: "There are two steles here, which seem to be poems about old scenes. You are all scholars, you can take a look."