Anecdote of the Yellow River

Chapter 19 Fishbone Temple (1)
Our ship had just entered the cave when a huge wave hit the mountain wall and made a loud noise, which scared us into a cold sweat.If this wave hits the tin boat, then we are really in danger.

The inside of the cave was pitch black, and it was like another strange world, blocking all the storms from the outside.The cave was unusually quiet, save for the low rumble of the ship's engine.

The three fishing boats in front turned on their searchlights one after another, and Grandpa also turned on the searchlights on the tin boat.Four high-brightness searchlights illuminate the surroundings like daytime.We stepped out of the cabin one after another and began to look at the environment in the cave.

To our great surprise, the cave was many times larger than we had imagined. The four of our ships could move around freely in the cave without worrying about colliding with each other.

Inside the cave is a large water pool, with misty water vapor floating above the water pool, which makes people feel chilly and biting.There is no sunlight here all year round, and the temperature is very low, but in a short while, the ship is covered with a layer of crystal clear frost, as if wearing a transparent ice armor.

"Ah!" I sneezed loudly and sniffed, "It's so cold in here!"

Gu Meidi stroked his arm and said, "Yes, it feels like falling into a hole in the ice!"

Due to the long-term erosion of water vapor, the stones on the walls of the cave have become black and shiny. Many rock surfaces are covered with moss, and they are wet everywhere.There are many stalactites hanging upside down on the top of the cave, some are like upside-down swords, some are like upside-down monkeys, and some are like round flat peaches.Moist water vapor dripped continuously along the stalactites, and fell on the water surface tick-tock, as if playing strange music.Ripples rippled in circles, like lotus flowers blooming one after another on the water.

We followed the fishing boat in front of us and drove forward slowly. No one spoke, and the silence in the cave made people feel creepy.

I exhaled while rubbing my hands, and the breath I exhaled turned into frost on the glass window.

Grandpa took out a bottle of Laobaigan from the cockpit, took a big gulp, and handed it to me, "Come on, drink some, too, to warm up your body, don't let the cold damage your bones!"

I took Lao Baigan and took a big sip, probably because I drank it too fast. The spicy wine choked me to tears, but my body became much warmer.

Gu Meidi and Professor Ye also took two sips one after another, and the one-kilo bag of Lao Baigan was passed around in the hands of the four of us, and it finally bottomed out.

I hiccupped, looked up and looked outside the cabin, and saw that our ship had gone nearly [-] meters into the cave.A dark cave appeared again not far ahead, but this cave was several times larger than the one outside, and even a thousand-ton freighter could easily enter it.

Only then did we discover that the karst cave in the belly of the mountain turned out to be in the shape of a gourd.There is a narrow entrance outside, and there are two large and small caves inside. Now our boat passed the first smaller cave and slowly entered the second larger cave.

The karst cave inside is so huge that you can't see the top of the cave when you look up. It's like the whole mountain has been hollowed out. It's so empty that it's scary.It was pitch black above, and even the searchlights couldn't penetrate the darkness, and could only reflect a blurry scene.

This cave is even colder, and the walls of the cave are covered with a thin layer of frost, making it look like a huge freezer, and we are like frozen pork in the freezer.

What we never imagined in our dreams is that there is a tall platform in the deepest part of the cave, and a magnificent fish bone temple stands on the platform.Everyone couldn't believe their eyes, and couldn't help exclaiming: "Oh my God! Look, that's a fish bone temple! How could a fish bone temple be built here?"

Yes!This is also a deep question in my heart. How could there be such a magnificent fish bone temple in this extremely hidden water cave?Who built this fish bone temple?What is the purpose of building this fish bone temple?
We stared blankly at the Fishbone Temple not far ahead, speechless in astonishment.

According to legend, the Fish Bone Temple is built with the bones of big fish, which is very unique. It is a special temple worshiped by fishermen. Like the Dragon King Temple, the Fish Bone Temple also enshrines the Dragon King.There is no way to verify when the Fish Bone Temple was built, but it is said that it existed in the Sui Dynasty. In this way, the history of the Fish Bone Temple is at least 400 years.The most famous fish bone temple in China is the fish bone temple in Shalingzi Village, Taoluo Town, Donggang District, Rizhao City.

It’s just that the fishbone temple collapsed decades ago, leaving only fishbone beams. A section of fishbone beams from the fishbone temple where “fish scales make tiles and fishbone beams” are now preserved in Donggang District, Rizhao City. In the government meeting room of Taoluo Township, it is nearly two meters long and weighs more than 100 kilograms. It can be said that such a large fish bone is very rare.

Today, there are still fish bone temples in many places.These fishbone temples are usually built by the river or sea, and people burn incense and worship in the temples, praying for good weather and safe boats.Because the fish bones used to build temples are very rare, many fish bone temples are not built with real fish bones even though they bear this title.

The fish bone temple we see in the cave at this moment is a genuine fish bone temple.This fishbone temple stands on a platform more than three feet high.The platform is made of huge square rocks, and the outside is inlaid with blue square bricks. Each square brick is about two meters long and wide. It is very huge, and the surface of the square bricks is chiseled with strange patterns.

There is a stone step in the center of the platform, and below the stone step stands a row of stone sculptures of fish heads, which are stakes for mooring boats.When the boat is docked under the platform, in order to prevent the boat from drifting away, the cables on the boat can be wrapped around these stone sculptures of fish heads.

The iron boat slowly leaned against the shore. I jumped onto the deck and was about to reach out to pull the cable. Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of a strange face passing by under the water. The face was pale and swollen, showing a hideous and terrifying expression. Like a devil's face.I froze, quickly rubbed my eyes, and looked underwater again.This time, nothing could be seen underwater anymore, and the eerie face disappeared.

"Tuobagu, what are you doing? Hurry up and tie up the cables!" Grandpa poked his head out from the cockpit.

I responded and tied the cables on the deck to a fish head sculpture. I didn't tell the others about it. I shook my dizzy head, thinking that I must be dazzled.

After we parked the boat, we went up the stone steps and came to the main entrance of the Fishbone Temple.

Standing at the main entrance and looking at the Fishbone Temple, it is even more magnificent and awe-inspiring.

This fish bone temple is almost as high as a three-story building. What is amazing is that the whole fish bone temple is built with real fish bones.We have never seen such a huge fish bone. The smallest fish bone is as thick as an adult's arm, and the largest fish bone used as the backbone of the temple is even more huge, with a length of 20 meters.We couldn't help being secretly surprised, where did these fish bones come from?What kind of colossus should a fish with such a thick skeleton be?

In addition to the amazing fish bones, the shape design of the fish bone temple is also amazing.The whole fishbone temple is built in the shape of a huge fish head, and the opened fish mouth is the temple gate.Walking into the Fishbone Temple, there is no special decoration in the temple. There is a big bronze tripod in the center. This is a vessel for burning incense and offering sacrifices. It is probably too old. black.Facing the bronze tripod stands a bluestone case, on which three-dimensional waves are carved, which shows the exquisite skills of the craftsmen at that time.On the stone case is a stone carving of the Dragon King. The outside of the stone carving is covered with painted gilt, which makes the stone carving of the Dragon King look lifelike, especially the dragon head, with flying beard and wide-eyed eyes, which adds a sense of majesty, as if only a gust of wind blows However, the Dragon King will be able to go against the wind.

The storm outside will not stop for a while, but in the depths of this cave, the rolling thunder can no longer be heard.In such a peaceful environment, exhaustion quickly surged up, so we picked a corner in the temple to rest.

There were quite a few people in that fleet of ghost relatives, I counted twenty of them, they sat together in twos and threes, their faces were full of exhaustion.Some people wiped the moisture from their faces, some people folded their arms and trembled, and some people shook their heads and sighed bitterly, cursing bad luck secretly.

A middle-aged man in his forties came over and greeted us: "We are friends when we meet by chance. I don't know how to call you?"

Professor Ye returned the courtesy and said: "We are from the Northwest Archaeological Team, and we are going to conduct an investigation along the ancient Yellow River road. We did not expect to encounter a storm here. My name is Ye Sheng, and these are my two disciples, Tuoba Gu and Gu Meidi, this old man is our guide, his name is Tuoba Lie!"

The middle-aged man nodded and introduced himself: "My name is Mao Chengke. Three generations of my ancestors have been fishing on the banks of the Yellow River for a living. It's really sad to say that my eldest daughter went home to visit her relatives a few days ago, but unfortunately she died in This section of the river fell into the river and died. My eldest daughter is a college student, and she is quite well-behaved, and she will graduate soon. Who would have thought... oh..."

The expression on Mao Chengke's face was very sad, with tears flickering faintly.He quickly sniffed, forced a smile and said, "Today is a happy day, I can't cry!"

"What big day?" I deliberately pretended not to know anything.

Mao Chengke said: "According to our local customs, as long as a girl dies in the Yellow River, it is the King of the Yellow River who has taken a fancy to him. We must dedicate the girl to the King of the Yellow River as his wife, and let the King of the Yellow River bless our family. The custom here is called "send ghost relatives". Today we are here to send ghost relatives. We were going to sink our daughter's body into the Yellow River and dedicate it to the King of the Yellow River. However, before we even reached the place where the corpse was buried, there was a storm .Sigh, this really worries me, I don’t know if the Yellow River King is angry.”

When Mao Chengke mentioned the "King of the Yellow River", his face was full of piety.The King of the Yellow River is the river god in the ancient road of the Yellow River. These fishermen who walk on the Yellow River all the year round are naturally in awe.

Not far away, a middle-aged woman suddenly burst into tears, "Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo my

The sound of crying broke the tranquility of the Fishbone Temple, and the old man with the goatee came quickly to the middle-aged woman and hurriedly advised, "Mother Dahua, don't cry, don't cry, you cry the King of the Yellow River Not happy!"

The middle-aged woman cried even harder, "King of the Yellow River, why did you just fall in love with my family's big flower? We finally made a big flower offering to college students, you... why did you take our big flower away?" ?”

The old man with the goatee said: "Dahua's mother, you should be careful what you say. You are very lucky to be a girl who is favored by the King of the Yellow River. As long as you sink Dahua's body properly, your family will be able to do well in the future." , everything is going well!"

The middle-aged woman kept whimpering and crying, Mao Chengke's expression changed, and he clasped his fists at us and said, "That's my daughter-in-law Xiang Qinmei. I'm sorry, I'll go and have a look first!"

As he said that, Mao Chengke turned around, came to Xiang Qinmei in three steps at a time, raised a palm the size of a cattail fan, slapped Xiang Qinmei's face with his head, and cursed angrily: "Cry, cry, you are so unlucky!" The dead old woman knows how to cry! Didn’t Mr. Goat tell you? You can’t cry when sending off ghost relatives, otherwise the Yellow River King will be angry. Didn’t you see the storm outside? I got angry, that's why the world changed! Fuck you, if you cry again, I will smack your mouth!"

Xiang Qinmei was slapped by Mao Chengke's slap, she looked at her man with a face of fear, wanted to cry but didn't dare to cry out, the depressed look was not to mention how ugly.

The scene in front of us made us both funny and angry. What we laughed at was the ignorance of these people, and what made us angry was that a big man beat and scolded his wife.I couldn't stand it anymore, and just about to say something, Professor Ye quickly waved his hand at me, signaling me to shut up, and then said in a low voice, "Don't talk too much, this is someone else's housework! Also, this is a local custom , if you say something disrespectful to the King of the Yellow River, I'm afraid it will cause conflict!"

We sat in the temple for several hours, during which Mao Chengke gave us a roast goose for us to share.

Grandpa said: "This storm won't stop for a while. Even if it stops, it will be late at night. It seems that we have to sleep in this temple tonight and go out until dawn."

The temperature in the temple was very low and the humidity was heavy. Everyone was shivering from the cold.We found some wood from the boat and threw it into the big bronze cauldron, and lit a fire. More than [-] people gathered around the big cauldron with the burning bonfire, and immediately felt that the chill had subsided a lot.

The flames were crackling, and Mao Chengke told us the mythical story about the King of the Yellow River with great interest.

The legendary King of the Yellow River is a giant god with the sky above his head and his feet on the earth. He wears a golden scale armor made of dragon scales and holds a pair of sky-opening axes. With one swing of the axe, he can cut mountains and rivers into two pieces.The King of the Yellow River is the patron saint of the Yellow River. He usually lives in the palace at the bottom of the Yellow River. Once there are monsters and beasts in the ancient Yellow River Road, the King of the Yellow River will show his real body from the bottom of the river and use his magical powers to suppress the monsters. Disaster the Yellow River.

Among the many myths and legends about the King of the Yellow River, the most famous battle is the battle between the King of the Yellow River and the Hydra.The nine-headed demon snake was originally a monster that was suppressed by the gods in the snowy mountain. Later, the nine-headed demon snake escaped when the sky collapsed and the earth cracked and the sea changed, and hid in the Yellow River.

This nine-headed demon snake is very terrifying. It goes to the sky to hide from the earth, tosses rivers and seas, and is omnipotent.The snake's body was hundreds of feet long, and its whole body was black and shiny, wrapped in hard scales.The most peculiar thing about the monster snake is that it has nine heads, each of which has its own magic power, which can swallow flames, floods, lightning, storms, poisonous smoke, etc.Since the nine-headed demon snake appeared on the ancient Yellow River Road, it can be said that the ancient Yellow River Road has been devastated and the people are in dire straits. The bustling and busy ancient Yellow River Road in the past has become a daunting death channel.

The incident of the Hydra's chaos spread to the ears of the King of the Yellow River. The Yellow River King was extremely furious, and rushed out of the water with the sky-opening axe, trying to suppress the arrogant Hydra again.Facing the menacing King of the Yellow River, the nine-headed demon snake had already prepared for the battle, and did not pay attention to the King of the Yellow River at all.

This battle between gods and monsters lasted for nine days and nine nights. Relying on the magical weapon of the sky-opening axe, the King of the Yellow River finally defeated the nine-headed demon snake, beheaded all nine heads of the nine-headed demon snake, and sealed them in the The nine bends of the Yellow River Ancient Road.Then he set a real fire of samadhi and burned the bones of the nine-headed demon snake.Because the bones of the Hydra were huge, it took a full three days and three nights to burn the bones into fly ash and throw them into the Yellow River.

Since then, the Yellow River ancient road has returned to its former prosperity, the number of boats has gradually increased, and the people on both sides of the river live and work in peace and contentment.

After listening to Mao Chengke's narration, sleepiness surged up, and we didn't know when we fell asleep.

I had a dream, dreaming that I became the king of the Yellow River, wearing a golden scale armor, holding a giant axe in my hand, and fighting the nine-headed demon snake in the Yellow River until the sky was dark and the sun and the moon were dark.Just when I was about to cut off the last head of the Hydra, a terrified scream woke me up from my dream.I opened my eyes suddenly, what happened?
Accompanied by that scream, people ran to the outside of the Fishbone Temple, followed by more screams.

(End of this chapter)