Damei Macheng: the magical Jiulong Mountain and the majestic Bozi Tower.

Macheng Bozi Tower, also known as "Shadow Tower", is located on Jiulong Mountain, about 10 km northeast of Macheng City, Hubei Province, and belongs to Bai Zi Tower Village, Yanhe Town, Jiulongshan National Geopark. Boz Tower was built in the fourth year of Tang Dezong (AD 783). It is said that it was built by Zen master Xu Ying. It is a rare hexagonal attic inner-rotating brick tower in the middle of Tang Dynasty. Lotus-shaped flat seats and straight lattice windows are popular architectural styles in the Tang Dynasty, and windows with spherical patterns have five generations of styles. The foundation of Bai Zi Tower is stone, covered with an iron pan, which is a regular hexagon on the plane, 5 meters long and 32.7 meters (34.72 meters) high. In 2006, it became a national key cultural relics protection unit.

Bozi Tower has a history of 1200 years. Taki is at the top of Kowloon. Jiulong Mountain is composed of volcanic rocks. Standing at the top of the tower, tourists can only see nine bare red stone mountains, which are endless and barren. Bozta stands on the top of the central mountain. Because a cypress tree was born in the middle of China, there is no shadow around the tower in early autumn every year, which is of great historical, artistic and scientific research value. According to (Records of Macheng County, 9th edition of Kangxi), "In the 4th year of Tang Dezong (783), the Zen master Xu Ying built a tower, which was of Grade 9 and covered with iron wok, with Bergen on its side. Every early autumn afternoon, this tower will disappear. " Therefore, "Bai Zi Qiu Yin" is one of the "three stops and eight scenic spots in Macheng". According to local villagers, the original tower had nine floors. During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, the top two floors were bombed by the Japanese army and never maintained. There are seven and a half floors, and the remaining height is 34.72 meters, which is in good condition.

There are "Tangwang Cave", "Longjing" and "Temple" beside the tower. 50 meters away from Tarnum is the "Jiulong Temple", which is a brick-wood structure with three openings. And monks are also the protectors of Bozi Tower. In addition, Li Zhi, a famous thinker in Ming Dynasty, gave lectures and wrote Longtan Temple and Diaoyutai Site. Jiulong Temple is located on Jiulong Mountain just south of Bozi Pagoda. There are antique Heavenly King Hall, Ursa Mahayana Hall, Tibetan Golden Pavilion and wing rooms in the temple, and Kowloon Temple has a leisure fishing center. The main attractions are: Jiulong Mountain, Bozi Tower, Jiulong Temple, Mopan, Shang He and Jiulongtan. Tangwang Cave is about 600 meters away from Bozi Tower, and its cave is built on the mountainside of Hongshi Mountain, as steep as a wall. There is a statue of King Tang in the cave, and the long-haired swords and arrows are clearly visible on both walls of the cave, which is lifelike. Stepping on the 13 stone steps and entering the cave, you can see that there is a Tang King's platform in front of the cave and a racetrack with a length of 200 meters and a width of 800 meters. When you enter the Tang Dynasty, you are immersed in this scene, as if you had entered an ancient battlefield. The main attractions are: Dianjiangtai, Ancient Post Road, Rescue Bridge, Tangwang Cave, Thousand Buddha Cliff and Rotating Landscape. Diaoyutai is located 3 kilometers northeast of Yan Jiahe Town. According to historical records, Longhu Temple and Zhifu Temple face each other across the river, and there is a stone platform called Diaoyutai by the river. Li Zhi, a famous thinker in Ming Dynasty, gave lectures and wrote books at Longhu Academy in 16. There is a gazebo on the platform, and there is a hole on the edge of the platform, which is where Li Zhi collects books. Numerous cultural relics, together with the Bozi Tower, bear a lot of rich history and humanities.

In recent years, whenever it rains heavily, the rain will flow down from the stepped mouth in the tower, taking away the yellow mud that binds the tower bricks, resulting in the tower body loosening layer by layer. In 20 13, in order to protect Macheng cultural relics, the Municipal Cultural Bureau organized the repair and protection of Bozi Tower. The maintenance project was undertaken by Hubei Yinzu Ancient Architecture Garden Company, with an investment of 2.9 million yuan in the first phase, mainly to repair and strengthen the damaged tower top, tower eaves, bucket arches, doors and windows, stairs, ceilings and other parts to prevent the tower from becoming brittle and collapsing. The reconstruction of the tower top will eliminate the biggest safety hazard of the tower protection. The Bozi Pagoda in Macheng, which bears the vicissitudes of thousands of years of history, has finally reappeared the charm of the Tang Dynasty in the new era after repair and protection.

In the future, Macheng plans to build the Jiulongshan National Geopark here, as the Dabie Mountain (Huanggang) Macheng Park (Macheng Park consists of five parts: Guifeng Mountain Reserve, Jiulongshan Bozita Reserve, Mu Zi Dian Ancient City Site Protection Site, Fuzihe Geological Relics Protection Site and Sanhe Bay Geological Relics Protection Site). ), covering an area of about 9.5 square kilometers, the park starts from Zhuyin River in the west, reaches Hengshan Chong in the east, reaches Jiulong Lake in the south and Wanjiagang in the north, integrating mountains, hills and lakes. Form a "torch" pattern as a whole. The scenic spots in the scenic area include Bozi Pagoda, Millennium Pagoda, Three Great Halls of Kowloon Temple, Leisure Fishing Center, Rock Climbing of Kowloon Temple, Tangwang Cave, Zhudehe River, Rescue Bridge, Farmhouse, Wanfang Leisure Water Center and so on. Around the scenic spot, there are parks such as the original appearance of ancient buildings in Ming and Qing Dynasties, Lizhi Academy and Diaoyutai. It is planned to build seven major parts, namely, the main entrance scenic spot, Lijiawa scenic spot, beacon tower scenic spot, Jiulongshan clause scenic spot, Longhu scenic spot, Hengshanchong folk customs area and Jiulonghu scenic spot.

Geological magic of Jiulong Mountain

Jiulong Mountain, where Bozi Pagoda is located, is a rare geological and natural landscape in China. It consists of nine red hills composed of Cretaceous purple gravel 65.438+0.4 billion years ago. The longest is 2 kilometers, and the shortest is more than 500 meters, covering an area of about 654.38+00 square kilometers. Bozta stands in the middle of the top of the mountain. Bozi Pagoda is also called Bai Zi Pagoda, and Bai Zi is associated with Bai Zi and Beizi. Therefore, the Kowloon Temple was built under the pagoda. Because incense works, many people burn incense to have children. This is why this ancient pagoda has stood for thousands of years. However, nothing grows in Jiulong Mountain, and the erosion of years has left mottled rocks and red soil here, which are exposed in the air and present a desolate Danxia landform. There is a bamboo garden, two cypresses and a stone pond in front of the Kowloon Temple, which is even more quiet and quiet.

The touching legend of Jiulong Mountain

There is a big double temple at the foot of Jiulong Mountain, that is, Jiulong Temple. It turns out that this is the dragon-shaped land mentioned by Mr. Feng Shui, and this ancient pagoda was built by Li Shimin, the king of the Tang Dynasty, in order to contain the dragon-shaped land here and preserve the land of the Tang Dynasty.

Why did Li Shimin, King of the Tang Dynasty, come all the way to Macheng to repair this ancient pagoda? It turns out there is a magical legend here. According to legend, during the Tang Dynasty, Jiulong Mountain was very prosperous, with 72 firms alone. There is a Feng Shui gentleman in Lijiawa, Jiulong Mountain, Yanhe River. His wife is blind due to illness and has only one son. This gentleman has been showing others the land all his life, and many people have been promoted and made a fortune because of his good view of the land, or become either rich or expensive. And his own family is poor. To this end, his son often blames him for not showing his family a good piece of land.

One day, Mr. Feng Shui was repeatedly begged by his son, and he couldn't get rid of it, so he had to tell the truth. It is said that if he shows the land to his home, he will reveal the secret and he will be punished, ranging from blindness to life imprisonment.

Seeing that he is old, Mr. Feng Shui also wants to leave a family business for himself. On his deathbed, Mr. Feng Shui said to his son, "My home is very close to the site of the Jade Pavilion Temple, which is a treasure house in Kowloon. After my death, you wrapped my body with nine straw ropes and threw it into the well of Yu Gedi. You can't go out for 7749 days after you go home. Every day, paper horses are cut at home and thrown into the bamboo forest through the window. After July 1st, you open the door and shoot three arrows in the direction of Dongcheng, and the land of Datang is yours. Remember, you must not go out for forty-nine days. You can't tell anyone about this! " Not long after Mr. Feng Shui told him, he died of illness. According to the will, the son wrapped his father's body with nine straw ropes and threw it into the well. After returning home, he kept the door closed, cut paper-cut horses every day and threw them into the bamboo forest through the window.

Mr. Feng Shui's family is very poor, and he has to worry about rice every day. His mother mistook his son for being lazy when he stayed at home. After a long time, you will inevitably be scolded. Until the forty-eighth day, because my son couldn't resist his mother's scolding, he had to open the door one day in advance and shoot three arrows in the direction of Dongcheng according to his father's will. Later, my son picked a cart of dry wood and planned to sell it to buy food to go home. I don't know. I walked around the street and no one bought his firewood at all. It turned out that his firewood was a sword, spear and halberd in people's eyes. The son had to pick it home again. When I passed the bamboo forest behind the house, I saw that all the bamboo was broken, and the paper figures and horses inside were almost real. Because of opening the door in advance, those soldiers and horses have not yet reached a coma.

On this day, the emperor went to court and suddenly saw three arrows falling from the sky, flying over his head, armpit and waist in an instant, without hurting the dragon's life. He was frightened to disgrace and hurriedly summoned the Zen master Xu Ying for divination. When he learned that there was a rebellion in Jiulong Mountain, he immediately dispatched troops and tracked them to Jiulong Mountain day and night. They said to Mr. Feng Shui's tomb, "Unfortunately, there is only Kowloon. If you have ten dragons, Jiangshan will give them to you. " At this time, a dragon flew from the southwest to Longshan. The emperor sneered, "You bastard, you are a quarter of an hour late. I want to pull your muscles and skin you! " "He took a nine-section golden whip, killed the dragon, skinned it, cramped it, and turned it into a red stone mountain. Up to now, there are still whip marks here, blood marks are visible, and nothing grows.

The emperor was afraid that the fairy land in Kowloon would reappear a hundred years later, so he built a pagoda here and buried a cypress seed on it, aiming to suppress evil spirits and make the tower not fall down for a thousand years and not be ground for generations. Therefore, this tower is called Bozi Tower. In recent years, the state has allocated funds to repair the tower, so it has to be demolished for fear that Bergen soil will erode the tower body. The original tower is covered with cypress trees, which has been lush for thousands of years. Every noon in beginning of autumn, the sun shines and there is no trace on the tower, so it is also called the shadowless tower, and the phenomenon of "autumn cypress shade" comes from this.

Today, there is a dragon chopping platform next to Jiulong Mountain, which is said to be the place where Li Shimin chopped dragons in those days.