Luoyang　Traveling through thousands of years, looking for the disappearing imprint of the ancient capital

Luoyang

Luoyang is located in the north of Luoshui River, and the north of the water is called Zhiyang. Luoyang. This capital of thousands of emperors has the ruins of Erlitou, the Xia capital, Yanshi Shangcheng, the royal city of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the ancient city of the Han and Wei dynasties, and other ancient ruins. In front of it, Xi'an in the prosperous Tang Dynasty and Nanjing, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, are also inferior.

Now that I have arrived in Luoyang, of course I have to live in the old city.

When we got off the train, it was already dusk. Sitting on the bus, driving through the wide roads and passing through high-rise buildings, the roads slowly become narrower and narrower, and the houses begin to show signs of erosion over time. When we arrived at the youth hostel, it happened to be next to the old street.

Well, in Luoyang, when we meet for the first time, I will eat first as a sign of respect.

 

Just like the night markets in major tourist cities, the common Xinjiang barbecue, octopus balls, perverted grilled wings, and stinky tofu flown from Changsha have no special features at all and are just enough to fill your stomach.

However, as the city's style improves, night markets and food stalls in more and more cities have almost disappeared. This leaves many young people like me who love to eat, and whenever night falls, their lonely souls who love to eat have nowhere to rest. .

I have long said that the fastest way to understand a city is to immerse yourself in the city in its restaurants. So I found a crowded food stall, got two side dishes, a few bottles of beer, and soon I was chatting and laughing with some big brothers at the next table.

"The sound of someone's jade flute is flying silently, spreading into the spring breeze and filling Luo City"

 

In order to promote the scenic spots, the local government really spares no effort. For the most famous Longmen Grottoes, a railway station was built directly, Luoyang Longmen Station. A Guanlin station was also built near Guan Yu's tomb. I have to say it is very powerful. Sit on the Bus Gate Bridge, pass through Longmen, and feel the Buddhist spirit from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the prosperous Tang Dynasty at the Longmen Grottoes.

 

The Longmen Grottoes were excavated during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Afterwards, large-scale construction continued for more than 400 years through the Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song and other dynasties. They are 1 kilometer long from north to south. Today, there are 2,345 cave niches. There are more than 100,000 statues and more than 2,800 inscriptions on tablets.

The social customs of that time can be seen from the Buddha statues. Most of the Buddhist statues in the Northern Wei Dynasty are thin, while most of the Buddhist statues in the Tang Dynasty are rich and graceful. Two of the largest Buddha statues were bombarded during the Cultural Revolution. The Buddha statue is speechless, and the broken Buddha body is a silent complaint of history and culture against the sufferings of the past.

There are many Buddha statues in Longmen Grottoes, but the one below has become an internet celebrity.

That’s right, it’s this “Scissorhands Buddha”. It turns out that this is exactly what has been passed down for thousands of years. For those who like taking pictures more than Scissorhands, the roots of Scissorhands are here.

All joking aside, the Buddha's handprints are actually very particular. "Buddhist Mudras" explains "mudra" this way: the mark made by the fingers. Seal means mark, and can also be used as seal, secret seal, etc. In layman's terms, mudra is to make various shapes with your fingers, which is a symbol of Buddhist etiquette, rules and regulations. Different handprints represent the different identities of the Buddha statues and various Buddhist teachings, which are extremely rich in meaning. There are many types of Buddhist mudras, and there are 387 types recorded in the book "Buddhist Statue Mudras" alone. There are five most common types of mudra: Dharma seal, fearless giving seal, meditation seal, demon subduing seal, and willing grant seal, which are the "Five Seals of Sakyamuni". When you see a Buddha statue with this kind of mudra, you can roughly know that it is a statue of Sakyamuni Buddha. There are many mudras in Buddhism, and even common mudras may have another meaning when combined. There are currently between three and four hundred types of handprints known, but the true meaning of the handprints of this "Scissorhands Buddha" is still an unsolved mystery.

Tickets for Longmen Grottoes are sold in combination tickets, so we also visited Xiangshan Temple and Baiyuan.

Picturesque.

Not far from the Longmen Grottoes is Guan Lin, the place where Guan Yu's head is said to be buried.

No matter where he is, Mr. Guan is always the most popular.

Before I knew it, it was afternoon, and the piece of bread for lunch had long been consumed. Back to the city, ready to eat and drink. So I went to Luoyang Old Street and looked for local famous food under the famous Lijing Gate.

Climb the Lijing Gate and look out into the distance, you will see courtyards with gray bricks and gray tiles, criss-crossing ancient streets, and wine shops and teahouses that pretend to be inviting guests. You can see the grandeur of Xi'an, the bustling atmosphere of Pingyao, and the ancient charm of Nanjing. There are also the vicissitudes of the ancient city of Kaifeng.

Not far from Lijingmen, there is a famous Luoyang snack bar, which is said to have been featured on several CCTV food programs. The few low tables and chairs at the door were obviously not able to accommodate the tourists who came here to visit.

This bowl of snack is called "Bufan Tang", which is actually meatball soup. Use a small spoon to scoop some thin mung bean batter into the pan and pour it into a thin sheet similar to spring rolls. It is cooked without turning it over, so it is called "no turning". I also learned how to eat like the locals. I squatted on the roadside with a bowl in hand and ate heartily. As for the taste, it was just so-so.

Just when I was eating my third piece of sesame seed cakes and my second bowl of soup, the boys and girls at the table next to me obviously looked at each other wrong. A girl next to me looked at me for a long time and asked me timidly, is this so good? Eat? Have you eaten so much? I swallowed the sesame seed cake in my mouth and told them that it tasted ordinary and that I was just really hungry. So the young man opposite me nodded tacitly and continued eating with tears in his eyes.

Judging from their accents, they must be from the South. They may not be able to tolerate the northern specialty snacks such as spicy soup.

I would also like to complain here. During the little half a month I was in Henan, I ate braised noodles every day and it was so difficult to eat bowls of rice with rice. By the end of the meal I really wanted to stew myself.

If you ask why there are so many Buddha statues in Luoyang, it is because Luoyang is the starting point of Chinese Buddhism, and this starting point is the White Horse Temple.

Liu Zhuang, Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han Dynasty, dreamed one night that a six-foot-tall golden man with a shining head came from the west and flew around the palace. The next morning, Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty told the ministers about this dream. Dr. Fu Yiqi reported that "there is a god in the west, called Buddha." So he sent people to the west to collect scriptures and brought back the scriptures and Buddha statues on a white horse. The eminent Indian monks who came with him temporarily stayed at the "Honglu Temple" in charge of diplomacy. In order to commemorate the White Horse pilgrimage, the White Horse Temple was built. The name of the Chinese Buddhist "temple" comes from this.

At White Horse Temple, I met a great master and talked with him about the Surangama Sutra. The great master thought that I had wisdom and wanted to accept me as his disciple, so he had to politely decline. After all, I still had to wander in the world of mortals.

In addition to temples, there are two must-see things when coming to Luoyang. One is to see peonies, and the other is to see the museums everywhere. It's a pity that when arrived in Luoyang, the peony flowering season was over, so I wandered around in various museums.

The Emperor's Six Drives Museum truly displays the grand scenes of Emperor Zhou's travels.

Most of the museums in Luoyang are built on the original site of the cemetery.

For example, the Luoyang Ancient Tomb Museum is built in a far away suburb. When I arrived, it was already late, it was about to close, and there were very few tourists.

This museum can satisfy all the fantasies about going to the tomb of friends who like "Tomb Raiders" and "Ghost Blowing the Lantern". On both sides of the long corridor are the tombs of various princes and generals. I casually walked into a tomb, the lights inside were dark, and I was about to turn around after watching it, when I heard a terrified scream at the door, and a guy turned around and ran away. I was also shocked. There were all kinds of scary legends about museums and ancient tombs. It flashed through my mind, could it be that the corpse was raised? I didn't know what was going on. The guy who yelled was running so fast that Bolt probably couldn't catch up with him. This guy was running and screaming, which was particularly scary in this confined space. It also frightened a young couple who had just entered the corridor and was so overwhelmed that they turned around and ran away.

I also hurriedly chased him out. This guy was already shivering at the door and lighting up a cigarette, but his hands were shaking and he couldn't light it. He looked at me in horror as I went over to light the cigarette for him, too scared to speak. I asked him what was wrong. It turned out that it was because it was dark under the lamp. He came in and saw my shadow but not me. He was muttering to himself when he suddenly saw me turning around with an expressionless face, thinking that he had encountered a supernatural event.

Haha, it turns out that I almost became the protagonist of a supernatural incident.

Henan is located in the Central Plains and has always been the center of "rituals" in the Chinese nation. At that time, Confucius was also in Luoyang asking Laozi for advice on "Zhou Rites". Thousands of years have passed, and there is only an archway left where Confucius asked for rites, whose position cannot be determined on the navigation system. The place in front of the store has been occupied by various food stalls.

So what is etiquette? Today's urban construction always excludes night markets, food stalls, roadside stalls, motorcycles, and electric vehicles, thinking that only high-rise buildings and cars can make a city tasteful. In fact, giving people the right to make their own choices and providing convenience to the people is the greatest "courtesy".

Regarding Henan, many friends may not have a good impression. Scammers and manhole cover thieves are common in the area. I would like to say that cockroaches and rats can be found everywhere. No matter where they are, there will be good and bad people. At least most of the people I met in Luoyang were very enthusiastic Henan people.

Perhaps the meaning of travel is not to be blinded by a leaf, and to experience the customs and customs of this place yourself, rather than from other people's mouths.

If you only want to go to one place in Henan, then this place must be Luoyang.