Bermuda, China - The Mysterious Poyang Lake (1)

The legend of the Old Man Temple

Lao Ye Temple is located at the head of Longtou Mountain, Duobao Township, Duchang County, Jiangxi Province, across the river from Xingzi County. It used to be the Dragon King Temple, and the temple was built for a long time. The temple base is stacked with granite strips 7 meters high, there are steps on the right side to zigzag up, the total area of the temple group is more than 600 square meters, divided into the main temple, the dragon king hall, the Tongren Hall, the size of the living room, the kitchen 6 parts, the ancillary buildings are distributed on both sides of the main temple. The area of the main temple is more than 300 square meters, 9 meters high, 14.2 meters wide, 26.8 meters deep, and it is a mixed structure of piercing bucket and frame beam, with a total of 52 columns.

The temple is composed of three parts, the upper part is the main hall, the middle part is the tour building, and the lower part is the Wannian platform. The doors and windows in the temple are carved with patterns and painted with lacquer. There is a statue of "King Dingjiang" in the palace. The walls on both sides of the temple are embedded with 2 stone tablets, the right is "Ding Jian left Liyuan General Temple Record", the left is "Seal Xianying Yuan General Temple Record". There is a square granite stone pillar in front of the main hall, the upper yin is engraved with couplets, the upper link is "hundreds of years of temple appearance rebuilding partial praise of the merits of my king", the lower link is "90,000 miles of Wei Ling Pi Xian Dun Ping Lishui storm". There are 1 pair of stone lions on both sides of the temple gate platform. Behind the temple, there are the ruins of Zhu Yuanzhang's "point of the platform" and "the sword pool". There is a rock carving of "water surface Tianxin" on the left rock of the temple, which is said to be the title of Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty. According to the records of the old county chronicles, in the 22nd year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, the 15th year of Jiaqing and the year of Guangxu Xin, the temple was repaired and expanded three times. Guangxu Xin has been renamed "Dingjiang Wang Temple", the masses call the prince the master, so the descendants have been calling this temple the old man's temple. In the 27th year of the Republic of China, it was blown up by the Japanese invaders, and in the 35th year of the Republic of China, it was rebuilt according to the appearance of Guangxu under the donation of the monks who came and went to the ship. In 1983, the prefectural government carried out another renovation. It is a provincial protected cultural relic.

Legend has it that Zhu Yuanzhang fought Poyang Lake, and after losing the battle of Kanglang Mountain, he retreated in a small boat in the direction of the Lao Ye Temple at the mouth of Poyang Lake. Chen Youliang led the warship and then gave hot pursuit. He chased and chased, and was about to chase to the side of the old man's temple, when suddenly a big-headed turtle like a small boat surfaced in front of the boat and blocked the way. Chen Youliang ordered the guards to shoot an arrow at the big-headed turtle, and the big-headed turtle dodged the evil arrow and sank in a blink of an eye. It burrowed under the boat where Chen Youliang was sitting and clung to the bottom of the boat. Chen Youliang thought that the big ship was stranded, and he hurriedly instructed the sailors to use a penny to prop it up, who knew that the warship was like taking root in the lake, and did not move, watching Zhu Yuanzhang's boat gradually move away, and this great opportunity to capture Zhu Yuanzhang was about to be missed. Chen Youliang was very anxious, so he raised the order flag and waved: "Bombardment!" This cannon hit the stern of Zhu Yuanzhang's boat, and Zhu Yuanzhang's boat suddenly caught fire and sank with water. At this extremely critical moment, the big-headed turtle rolled over the waves and swam quickly towards Zhu Yuanzhang's boat. Zhu Yuanzhang kicked his feet and jumped onto the back of the big-headed turtle. The big-headed turtle quickly spread its four legs to step on the waves, and swam to the side of the old man's temple at once.

Chen Youliang had no choice but to look at Zhu Yuanzhang and escape, and sighed: "This is not my mistake, but the gods intend to help Zhu Yuanzhang!" At this time, the people around and left saw that Chen Youliang was worried, so they offered a plan and said: "King, this is the big-headed turtle in Poyang Lake, the turtle general in the old man's temple has appeared, it is better to go to the temple to burn incense and worship, and pray for it to help in the war." When Chen Youliang heard this, he said angrily: "I am the king of Poyang Lake, how can I allow the evil seed to be difficult with me?" I'm going to tear down its temple so he has nowhere to stay!" ”。

The big head turtle knew that Chen Youliang was not benevolent and righteous, and was determined to help Zhu Yuanzhang fight to the end, so he turned into a group of people and came to Zhu Yuanzhang's tent. Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly got up and saluted, and asked, "What does the immortal master have to teach here?" The big turtle said: "Chen Youliang wants to demolish the temple and capture the general alive, which will cause the wrath of the heavens and the resentment of the gods." I am willing to help you defeat Chen Youliang. When Zhu Yuanzhang heard that joy descended from the sky, he hurriedly said: "What is the plan of the immortal master? The Taoist said, "Please come with me." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang followed the Taoist to the lake, only to see the Taoist "poof" jump into the water and turn into a big-headed turtle. The big-headed turtle stopped for a moment, and then nodded its head. After a while, I saw thousands of big-headed turtles gathering and swimming over, and the black pressure filled a lake, hugging the leading big-headed turtle, and rushing towards Chen Youliang's warship together. Chen Youliang was shocked when he saw such a large group of big-headed turtles coming. Suddenly, all you could hear was the buzzing of the bottom of the boat, and then a hole was pierced in the bottom of the boat, and the water of the lake rushed in, and you were about to flee for your life. When he escaped and looked back, he saw that his warships were all sunk into the water, and the soldiers jumped into the water one after another to flee for their lives, and were eaten by the big-headed turtle one by one, Chen Youliang was defeated, and Zhu Yuanzhang survived a catastrophe safely.

Later, Zhu Yuanzhang became the emperor, rebuilt the old man's temple, and awarded the title of "General Yuan" as "King of Dingjiang".

Quoted from http://www.laoyemiao.com/