Located on the northern border of Jiangdu County, Poria Mountain is a remote hill with beautiful scenery. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Although Poria Mountain is not high, but because of the perennial fog, the mountain has enough rain, and many herbs grow, especially the Poria cocos in the shrubs on the mountain is larger, and the medicinal effect is excellent, attracting the patronage of many medicine pickers in the surrounding towns, and over time it gives this mountain a medicinal name.

Jietai Temple is the first to come to Poria Mountain to settle down, according to legend is built during the period of Emperor Wu of Liang, when Yangzhou has a Hu Yuanwai who was an official in Jinling, the old foreign official Zhishang Shu is the official Qingzheng, after telling the old man and doing good deeds on this Poria Mountain, calling on the squires and wealthy households of the surrounding towns to raise donations, built a temple on this beautiful Poria Mountain, named "Jietai Temple".

Time flies, time flies, this ancient temple has gone through three hundred years of wind and rain, has long been in disrepair, faded away from the glory of the past, but the heavy temple bells are still desolate as before, in this ancient land to cleanse those impetuous souls.

At this time, the Jietai Temple is shrouded in a golden sunset, just like the light of the Buddha, and like the heavenly palace.

The gate of the Jietai Temple has long been in disrepair, half of the green tiles on the gatehouse have fallen off, and there are still some messy dead grass on the eaves, swaying in the steep mountain wind. The ancient temple in the mountain is not as good as the temple in the city, there is nothing valuable, and building a mountain gate is purely an ornament.

Buddhism reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty, and a powerful dynasty needed the people of the country to live and work in peace and contentment, work hard, and not casually go to the door of the government to petition, shouting all day long, "Raise wages, adjust housing prices, extend festivals!" "Definitely not. Buddhism also advocates accumulating virtue and doing good, being content with poverty, opposing killing and slaughtering, and using knives and guns, which has won the love of rulers, so in the Tang Dynasty, from the emperor and the general to the homeless people, they all more or less worship and believe in Buddhism.

However, the increase in believers does not guarantee that every temple is doing prosperous business, and those famous five-A temples are naturally not worried about the source of customers, but for the ordinary small temples in remote mountainous areas, they can only guard the good mountains and rivers, and enjoy themselves.

The Jietai Temple has indeed been operating bleakly in recent years, and the more than 60 monks who were originally registered are now most of the laity, because there are not too many pilgrims, and the temple's income is pitiful. Although the monasteries of the Tang Dynasty were specially managed by the Chongxuan Administration of Shangshu Province, and financial subsidies were issued every year according to the size of the temples, but the finances of the imperial court have always been little left at the bottom, and even if there were, most of them were given to those well-known monasteries, and small temples like Jietai Temple could only be self-reliant.

As the sun gradually set, a touch of afterglow shone obliquely on the half-hidden mountain gate, and a few lively and active little novices were playing in the open space at the door. The old abbot Master Guangkong knew very well that "Buddhist education should start from the baby", so every year he personally went down the mountain to the nearby village to recruit some dropout children.

At that time, the children of poor families generally could not afford to go to school, and they could not even eat enough, as soon as they heard that the temple recruited monks, some poor families were willing to send their children to the mountains in order to save some rations, and the old monks also promised to teach these little novices to read and write, which was not the best of both worlds.

The children's world is always happy and simple, and although they have shaved their hair, they are still a group of angels with reflections of light on their heads. Five or six novices chased each other and played at the mountain gate, and their crisp laughter was like sparrows in the woods, chirping and carefree.

One of these naughty children had just turned five years old, and his small body was wearing an earthy gray monk's robe, with big eyes, a round head, and a fleshy little face, and he stupidly followed several little brothers to chase after him.

"Senior brother, don't run, take me to play!" The milky little novice stretched out his little hand and took a step to chase after the older children.

"Xiao Zhiben, come and chase me, you can't catch up with us!" A group of older kids touched his head and teased him.

Maybe there are no clothes suitable for Xiao Zhiben in the temple, the monk's robe on his body is obviously a little fatter, he just chased a few steps before he accidentally stepped on the corner of the monk's robe, and lay on the ground with a chirp.

"Woo woo woo ......" the little novice cried.

When several older children saw him fall and cried, they hurriedly came back to help him up, some patted him with dust on his body, and some even coaxed and deceived the good students to comfort them, because as senior brothers, if they didn't take good care of their junior brothers, they would inevitably be scolded by the master again.

A little monk named Zhibao squatted down to help him wipe his tears, and kept comforting him: "Okay, okay, Xiao Zhiben, don't cry, let's take you to play, okay, what are you running, and you tripped yourself!" ”

"Yes, yes, don't cry, Wisdom, let's play eagles and catch chickens together, okay?" Another little monk was also beside him and persuaded him, in fact, the children of poor families did not bump and bump, fall and beat, and the children would cry for a while.

This Zhiben saw that he had fallen, and everyone immediately played with him, and immediately turned his sadness into joy, forgetting about the fall, he wiped his tears, and still had a bright smile on his face.

Just as the children were frantically scurrying like hares in the mountains, a little novice spotted a monk and a girl walking down the mountain, and the monk was none other than their elder brother.

"Look, the senior brother is back!"

"Where?"

"Isn't that right? Still carrying a baggage, I must have bought something delicious! Hurry up and greet the elder brother! ”

This group of children is really sharp-eyed, Zhiqing took a woman up the mountain, they didn't care at all, just stared at the burden on his body and rushed up.

"Senior brother, you're back, you brought us something delicious!" The novices couldn't wait to gather around.

When Zhiqing saw the juniors running over, he hurriedly agreed with a smile: "Hey, I'm back, do you miss me?" I bought you fried cakes and sweets! ”

"Oh! I'm going to eat fried cakes! ”

"I'm going to eat it too!"

A group of imps will naturally cheer when they hear that there is delicious food, although Zhiqing is a monk, but as a senior brother, he is like their own brother. For Zhiqing, he still doesn't know who his parents are, let alone any siblings, Jietai Temple is his home, and his master and disciples are his relatives.

Ziyun girl was originally holding Zhiqing with one hand, but when she saw a group of small bald heads running around, she quickly took her hand back, and she was just watching by herself. Although these little guys didn't care much about Ziyun's existence, seeing their happy appearance, Ziyun would be somewhat infected, so they smiled slightly beside them.

Ziyun saw the little novices surrounding Zhiqing cheering, and Zhiqing was busy opening the bag of snacks and distributing the bag of snacks to these little ghosts, his delicate face showed deep satisfaction and happiness, obviously an atmosphere and feeling of reunion with his family.

"I didn't expect Brother Zhiqing to be so popular, you little junior brothers are so cute!"

Ziyun has always liked children, because she is also a half-old child, she couldn't help but bend down and pinch it when she saw Xiao Zhiben's chubby little face.

"What's your name, how old are you?" Ziyun asked Zhiben with a smile.

Xiao Shami only cared about eating the fried cake in his mouth, only glanced at Ziyun, and replied casually: "My name is Xiao Zhiben, and I am five years old this year!" ”

The little monks got a good meal, so they naturally had the intention to come and see the living person brought by their senior brother. They saw Ziyun wearing a bright red dress, with silver hairpin beads in her hair, and a pair of pink plum blossoms on her temples, dressed like a fairy in a painting.

The eldest of these children, Zhibi, is nine years old this year, and when he saw Ziyun's dress, he immediately recognized her as a bride who got married. While purssing his mouth, he asked Zhiqing casually:

"Senior brother, have you married a daughter-in-law?"

"Huh? No, it's not... She's not my daughter-in-law! Zhiqing knew that this little ghost was sharp-eyed and quick-mouthed, for fear that he would talk nonsense.

"Not your daughter-in-law? So why is she dressed as a bride? She must be your daughter-in-law! Oh, oh, the elder brother marries his daughter-in-law......"

When a group of children saw that the senior brother was finally going to marry his daughter-in-law, they hurriedly cheered again, jumping up and down to report the good news to the elders in the temple.

"Senior brother marries a daughter-in-law! ……”

"Hey, don't talk nonsense, she's not my daughter-in-law, she's not ......" Zhiqing saw that this group of little ghosts didn't listen to his explanation at all, and couldn't cry or laugh for a while, he wanted to run to the front to stop them, but he couldn't let Ziyun stand alone at the door.

This Ziyun girl heard that the little novices had misunderstood her, and she was already blushing beside her, and she was even more amused when she saw Zhiqing's anxious face.

"Brother Zhiqing, your master won't really believe their words, right? If that's the case, will your temple still take me in? ”

"This... No, my master has always trusted me, and he will definitely not believe the words of these little ghosts! Let's go, I'll help you in! Zhiqing said that he was going to help Ziyun again, although Ziyun looked worried, but the matter had come to this, and she had nowhere to stay, so she had to resign herself to fate.

As soon as Zhiqing took two steps, he saw a little monk running out of the mountain gate in a hurry, the monk ran to the door in a panic, only stepped one leg out of the threshold and stopped, leaned over and glanced at Zhiqing with a surprised face, and hurriedly turned around and ran back to the temple.

"Hey, second junior brother! I'm back......" Zhiqing hurriedly shouted to him.

The monk didn't bother to listen to what Zhiqing had to say, he just ran out to confirm the news in the mouths of the little novices, and when he saw his senior brother supporting a woman wearing a phoenix crown, everything didn't need to be explained!

"Master, it's not good, come and take a look, Senior Brother has broken the vows!"

With this shout, the entire Jietai Temple became lively......