The carriage of the Yang family left Nanjing City early in the morning, went east, crossed Xiaolingwei, and arrived at the Linggu Temple on the southern slope of Zhongshan Mountain.

Linggu Temple is about six miles away from Xiaoling, although the road is mostly mountainous, but the road is not bad.

Because this was originally a blessed land of Buddhism, Buddhism flourished in the south of the Yangtze River during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the 480 temples of the Southern Dynasties were an imaginary number, and the real number was much higher than this number, and there were 70 temples in the Zhongshan area alone.

Linggu Temple was formerly known as Kaishan Temple, originally in front of Zhongshan South to play Mount Everest, Emperor Wu of Liang Xiao Yan buried Master Baozhi here, built about the good essence house and Zhigong Tower. In the Tang Dynasty, it was renamed Bao Gongyuan. In the Southern Tang Dynasty, it was a good dojo. During the auspicious period of the Northern Song Dynasty, the temple was renamed "Taiping Xingguo Temple". In the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it was called "Jiangshan Temple".

Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang because the original temple tower is too close to the palace, and at the same time ready to build the Ming Dynasty filial piety mausoleum, so the Jiangshan Temple, Song Lin Temple, Zhuyuan Temple, Zhigong Pagoda, Song Xi Temple, Wuzhen Temple, etc. all moved to the present site, and gave the amount of "the first Zen forest", called "Linggu Temple".

Therefore, Linggu Temple was not originally in the current location, and Linggu Temple was not originally a temple, because in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to build a filial piety mausoleum, and valued the location of Linggu Temple, so he encircled it as a royal garden and built a filial piety mausoleum at the same time, and then used the army to build Linggu Temple in its current location.

There is a 10,000-worker pond in Linggu Temple, which is said to have been excavated by tens of thousands of soldiers.

Although it occupied the ground of the ancient temple, and the nearby Jiangshan Temple, Songlin Temple, Zhuyuan Temple, Zhigong Pagoda, Songxi Temple and other temples were relocated to Linggu Temple, Zhu Yuanzhang also had to take into account the influence of Buddhism, so he did not hesitate to build Linggu Temple, and used a large number of troops, so even the roads were built quite well, and countless good men and women donated money to repair them. The road conditions have always been good.

Yang Chao, his mother, and his younger sister were able to ride the carriage all the way to the mountain road below the temple.

The stone steps of the mountain road climb up, and the pines and cypresses on both sides are shaded. An ancient charm.

When I climbed in front of the gate of Linggu Temple halfway up the hill, it was already noon.

The gate of Linggu Temple is a three-arched foyer. It is covered with green glazed tiles and flanked by red walls. The title on the middle door is "Linggu Shengjing", and the books on both sides of the door are "Songsheng" and "Quantao". Directly south of the gate, there is a crescent-shaped release pond nearly 100 meters long, which is Wangong Pond.

However, her mother Zhao Lan led Yang Chao and Yang Yue, as well as the coachman and his party, but stopped in front of the mountain gate and did not go in.

Yang Chao somehow didn't know much. At the foot of the mountain, there is another group of people slowly climbing the mountain, hugging each other in front and back, so not magnificent.

When these people walked in, Yang Chao knew that his mother was waiting for these people.

Because these people are people from the Shangshu Mansion of the Ministry of War.

Shi Kefa, the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department, accompanied his mother to Linggu Temple to make a vow.

Yang Chao was still in a daze, and Zhao Lan had already greeted him.

Yang Chao was quite curious when he saw his mother's appearance, because she walked completely differently from the past, and her mother in the past was a fiery and capable housewife. Now it is three shakes in one step, and small steps are frequent, making Yang Chao feel twisted and pinched.

Apparently the mother was deliberately imitating the posture of the housekeeper woman.

Yang Chao cared a little less about his family during this time. I don't know that since my mother got the title of Mrs. Erpin, she has always been very particular about etiquette, and often goes to visit some official wives, and secretly learns the sitting and lying behavior of those women.

"Wife Zhao Lan, I've seen Mrs. Shi!"

Mother went over to salute Mrs. Shi, who was supported by Shi Kefa.

Old Madam Shi smiled and helped Zhao Lan up.

The two said a few common words, and then Zhao Lan shouted to the back: "Chao'er, you haven't come to see Master Shi yet." ”

Yang Chao was still stunned because of his mother's behavior, and only then did he realize that Shi Kefa was also here. Shi Kefa is his boss.

So he came over and bowed down to see: "I've seen Master Shi!" ”

Shi Kefa nodded.

It's all casual clothes, and there is no need to make a big salute.

"General Yang has also come to Linggu Temple."

Shi Kefa said casually.

Yang Chao replied: "Accompany my mother to repay my wishes." ”

After Yang Chao was besieged Haizhou. My mother made vows in dozens of monasteries near Nanjing, and later repaid them one by one. I heard that the incense money alone exceeded 10,000 taels, and I have to say that my mother was in a hurry at that time, and she dared to open any Haikou with the Buddha and Bodhisattva.

Linggu Temple is the farthest away temple, and it is also the last one to come to repay the vows, and the mother insisted that Yang Chao come and kowtow to the Bodhisattva.

Shi Kefa smiled: "Coincidentally, the official also accompanied his mother to repay his wishes." ”

Yang Chao smiled and nodded, but it seemed that this was not a coincidence, but that his mother did it intentionally.

I couldn't help but look at my mother a few more times, when did my mother have this kind of heart, and she actually knew how to help herself create opportunities to get close to Shi Kefa.

But Yang Chao doesn't think it's necessary, with his relationship with Shi Kefa, there is no need to be close, and he will almost never be rejected if he asks to see Shi Kefa, but whether Shi Kefa will help him do things, it depends on what it is, it doesn't matter if it hurts, if it is related to the imperial court, Shi Kefa often will not show favoritism, he is completely different from Xiong Mingyu in this regard.

But with his mother's kindness, Yang Chao couldn't refuse, so he could only follow and enter the temple together.

Linggu Temple because it is a merger of several temples, Zhu Yuanzhang also spared no expense, so this temple is extremely grand, covering an area of more than 500 acres, and you have to walk five miles to see the continuous building when you enter the mountain gate. Every day, the monks ride horses to close the mountain gate.

Entering the mountain gate, it is a pine path through the secluded, the pine shade on both sides of the road, green like a bath, this pine path is five miles long, there is also a famous name "Linggu deep pine", it is one of the 48 views of Jinling in the famous Yashi.

After this pine path, only to really see the building of Linggu Temple, King Kong Palace, Tianwang Palace, Wuliang Palace, Wufang Palace, ** Hall, Law Hall, Baogong Pagoda and so on are connected into one extremely magnificent, there is also the Great Treasure Dharma King Hall in the northeast, the hall contains ninety-nine houses.

Mrs. Shi is a true believer, and she walked over to the Buddha hall one by one and entered the incense to worship the Buddha.

Zhao Lan is just an opportunist, temporarily clinging to Buddha's feet, because Yang Chao was surrounded, so she asked others where the gods and goddesses were, so she went to make wishes one by one, but this time she also seemed very pious. Accompany Mrs. Shi to incense one by one.

Yang Chao doesn't believe in these, and Shi Kefa believes in Confucianism, so the two have always been a little unhappy.

Until the Hall of Immeasurables. Yang Chaocai suddenly became a little interested.

Not because it is the Buddha Amitayus, who has a high status, is enshrined here, but the Buddha hall itself.

Immeasurable Temple. It is a building without beams.

This hall is 16 zhang long, 7 zhang wide, 12 zhang deep, the outer eaves pick and angle with bucket arch to support the eaves, it is a Chinese-style palace structure, but the inside is built with large rectangular bricks to form an arch round hall roof, do not use beams. It is known as the beamless hall.

There are three arches on the back of the beamless hall, the arched windows are placed on the left and right, the temple base is a solid pedestal, there is the top of the hill, the shape imitates the wooden structure.

It is clear that this is a combination of the Western-style arch structure and the Chinese-style palace form.

Yang Chao originally studied architecture, and his master's degree was in classical architecture, and he was very familiar with the arch structure of palaces and churches in the West, and also had an understanding of ancient Chinese architecture.

But it has been forgotten. At this time, I had the opportunity to visit the Hall of Immeasurables inside and out.

It is generally believed that there is no Western-style arch structure in China, and traditional Chinese architecture is a brick and wood structure. Western classical architecture, including Baroque, Rococo, etc., are all masonry arch structures, resulting in a result that wooden Chinese buildings are rarely preserved for thousands of years, while Western such buildings abound.

In fact, China also has Western architectural styles, you must know that the Mongols during the Yuan Dynasty were all over the East and the West, and have the tradition of searching for craftsmen everywhere, so it is not surprising that a large number of Western craftsmen went to China, this is the immeasurable hall built in the early Ming Dynasty. Apparently built by a craftsman who was well versed in Western architecture.

It's just that the Hall of Immeasurable is still different from Western architecture.

Arch coupon structure, in simple terms. It is like an arch bridge, where the weight is distributed in an arc to both sides. This begs the question, how to bear the weight of the outermost wall? The bridge is okay to say, there is a riverbank to bear, but the house cannot have a riverbank protection.

Westerners invented a kind of buttress to share the pressure on the main wall.

The walls on both sides of the Wuliang Hall adopt another method, that is, thicken the wall, and the thickness of the wall reaches more than one zhang.

If the wall is too thick, it will affect the effective space.

Of course, as a combination of Chinese and Western architectural style, Wuliang Hall still maintains the characteristics of large-span Western architecture, the hall is composed of three long arches in the east and west horizontally, the middle coupon span is close to four zhang, nearly five zhang high, the span of the front and rear two coupons is close to two zhang, and the height is more than two zhang, obviously much more than the span of the river house of the brick and wood structure by the Qinhuai River, but it is not as good as the span of the church in the West.

In addition, another difference between the Wuliang Hall and the West is that the West mainly uses stone and bricks as an auxiliary, while the Wuliang Hall uses a large number of large-scale city bricks with skilled skills in the Ming Dynasty, and the stone has become an auxiliary material, which is obviously related to the fact that the Ming Dynasty has the world's most advanced brick-making technology.

Yang Chao is very sure that the architectural skills of the Wuliang Hall come from the West, and at the same time combine the traditional craftsmanship and aesthetics of the East, but it is different from the later building technology of the West, obviously this is the technology introduced before the Western buttress technology was adopted in large quantities, and it can be judged that it is the architectural art introduced in the Yuan Dynasty, and then soon the East and the West were separated from the West again because of the division of the Mongol Empire.

After that, the Western buttress technique developed rapidly, while China continued to follow its own brick and wood palace style.

"General Yang, are you also interested in the Infinite Palace?"

Yang Chao admired this kind of ancient architectural art that combined East and West little by little, and suddenly Shi Kefa turned around.

Yang Chao said with a smile: "I know a little bit about it, and the last general thought to himself, this beamless hall doesn't need a single wood or a nail, but it saves materials." ”

Shi Kefa said with a smile: "No, no, this beamless hall can't be built in ten years, and the labor is much more expensive." ”

Shi Kefa went so far as to explain from another angle why China did not have the complex stone architecture of the West.

This made Yang Chao quite aware that some churches in the West are often built for decades or even hundreds of years, which is unimaginable in China.

This may be the real reason.

However, Shi Kefa really had no interest in discussing architecture with Yang Chao, and he didn't understand this, and he wasn't interested at all.

He actually came to talk to Yang Chao for another purpose: "General Yang is free, how about getting together with this official?" ”

It turned out that he was invited to a party, and Yang Chao naturally would not refuse: "Adults are free, just come and recruit." ”

Shi Kefa nodded, seemed to be quite worried, and nodded: "Then tonight, go to your Jinchai Tower!" ”

Jin Hai Lou, famous in Nanjing, even Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou and other merchants come to Nanjing, often have to go to Jin Hai Lou, otherwise it will be regarded as a pity, but Shi Kefa has never been to Jin Hai Lou, this time to invite Yang Chao, but also set in Jin Hai Lou, so that Yang Chao felt that Shi Kefa was showing favor to himself, and couldn't help but wonder, is Shi Kefa have something to help himself?

But Yang Chao still nodded and agreed.

After a whole day in Linggu Temple, when the sun was setting in the west, Mrs. Shi and Zhao Lancai finished worshipping the Buddha, and the group got into the carriage and returned to Nanjing City.

Sending his mother to the door, Yang Chao was about to go to Jinchai Tower, but before parting, his mother said to Yang Chao pointedly: "That little Wan girl is good, if you take a concubine, your mother will not object!" (To be continued...... ）。