Chapter 1113: Ancient Temple of the Thousand Years (II)

“Henan and Shaanxi I have not been, but the scale of this Buddhist temple, is and those temples in Dunhuang up, also not much difference.”

Mangzi grew up so big, the farthest is to have been to Dunhuang, for Xiao Jia’s words can not make an answer, but it is clear that this dilapidated ancient temple, also let him quite shocked.

Influenced by Dunhuang culture, Mangzi is also considered a Buddhist householder, he didn’t walk straight up the stone steps like Zhuang Rui and the others, but respectfully kneeled down at the bottom of the stone steps, towards the temple door.

“The architectural specifications and form of this kind of temple have been influenced by the culture of the Western Regions, and it seems that it was at least founded in the Sui and Tang dynasties.”

Archaeology can be said to be a more widely involved profession, no matter if it is chemistry, museology, history or even architecture, one has to be able to tell a thing or two, that’s why Dr. Ren had not even entered the temple yet, he had judged the age of this ancient temple from its appearance.

“Brother Mangzi, Brother Erdan, you guys don’t go in first, right, Xiao Yan, you don’t go in either, stay here with Zhongchuan!”

Zhuang Rui stood on the stone steps and carefully examined the wood on that temple gate, he found that although it had lasted for hundreds of years, the wood still had not rotted, it was only due to the age that the joints and tenons had broken, and this had caused the gate to collapse.

But inside the building exactly how, now Zhuang Rui also have no way to know, one is afraid of inside the temple can not withstand the collapse hurt, two he is also afraid of fierce these people do not know the knowledge of cultural relics protection, destroyed the cultural relics inside.

As for not letting Xiao Yan and the Japanese in, Zhuang Rui is deliberately, he wanted to see this Japanese to the desert in the end what is the purpose, now has found the ancient temple, I think he will also reveal the tail of the fox, right?

“#￥#@#…… “Sure enough, right after Yan Xiaowei translated over Zhuang Rui’s words, Nakagawa shouted out in dissatisfaction.

“Brother Zhuang, this little Japanese is clamoring to go in, he says that you guys are not law enforcement officers or managers of this place, so you’re not qualified to keep him out.”

Yan Xiaowei did not have a good feeling towards this employer of his, and often used Little Japan instead of Nakagawa’s name when translating, and now that he heard Nakagawa make this request, he felt even more impatient.

Although this desert trip to see the mysterious and beautiful mirage, to see the strange shape of the poplar forest, can be regarded as a trip, but the scene of the quicksand swallowed camel, but also let Yan Xiaowei this world of students feel a little afraid.

For this ancient temple complex with strong religious colors in front of him, there is only fear of the unknown in his heart, without a trace of wanting to go in and explore the mind, so he can’t wait for Zhongchuan to wait at the door with him!

“Xiao Yan, you tell him, we are the approved and filed national formal archaeological team, we have the responsibility and the right to stop outsiders from destroying the cultural relics.”

Zhuang Rui laughed coldly in his heart, he wanted to see if this little Japanese had any more pretexts, if he insisted on entering this ancient temple ruins again, then he must have a ghost in his heart.

“Brother Zhuang, he said that his father was killed in an expedition, and he wishes to fulfill his father’s last wish by entering to have a look inside here and guaranteeing that he won’t damage anything inside.”

Although Yan Xiaowei hated Nakagawa, he still did his duty as an interpreter and translated Nakagawa’s words as they were.

Dr. Ren also sensed something fishy and after thinking for a while, he gave Zhuang Rui a wink and said, “Zhuang Rui, let him go in! Let’s take a cursory inspection first, and I’ll urge the Dunhuang Cultural Relics Bureau to conduct a protective excavation here.”

“Alright! Xiao Yan, tell Zhongchuan to be careful, don’t damage anything inside.”

Zhuang Rui heard Dr. Ren give his word and shook his head with a bitter smile, this senior brother of his had stayed in the ivory tower for a long time and didn’t understand the dangers of those artifact dealers.

Not to mention that this place has not yet been protected, even if the cultural relics department to intervene, those lucrative heritage dealers in the money driven, is also able to hide from the sky and sea stolen inside the things, as for the ability of the government departments, Zhuang Rui is not believe in the heart.

Some time ago, Zhuang Rui heard people in the line said a thing, Shandong Jiaxiang is the hometown of Confucius student Zengzi, there is a Zeng Temple, generations are by the descendants of Zengzi care, but in the current generation of Zengzi first grandson passed away, the government asked to take over the Zeng Temple, will be converted into a tourist attraction.

In order to attract tourists, the local authorities asked the descendants of Zeng Zi to take out a white jade tripod furnace that had been preserved in the Zeng Temple for thousands of years, which was rejected by the descendants of Zeng Zi at that time.

But the arm can not twist the thigh, and ultimately under the pressure of the relevant departments, and ultimately the descendants of Zeng Zi or the alabaster tripod out, but the object out of less than a month, it disappeared.

Something lost, the relevant departments began to shirk their responsibilities to each other, until today, there is no news of that valuable white jade tripod, so counting on those departments to protect cultural relics is simply a pipe dream.

“Senior brother, turn around and take a closer look, if there is something of research value, let’s take it away directly.”

Zhuang Rui walked ahead and whispered to Dr. Ren, who froze for a moment at his words, then nodded slightly after looking at Zhongchuan.

The temple door still lost its original purpose, and after stepping over the fallen pillars and half of a wooden door with a door nail, Zhuang Rui’s group of eight people entered the ancient temple ruins in a row.

At the back of the temple door, is a large area, the ground is covered with green stone open space, think it is usually monks and virtues of the practice of events used, because the open space at the end of the door of the main hall, there is a long about two meters wide about a meter of the large iron tripod.

In previous years, the place of incense, is now a long time no one, the ground on the stone, also covered with a layer of thick gravel, step on it issued a “cha-ching” sound.

Walked to the door of the main hall looked up, “Maharishi Treasure Hall” four words into the eye, decades of wind and sand just make its golden font slightly dull, still standing high in the hall.

However, the broken window panes around the main hall and the dust that filled the room were witnesses to the rise and fall of this ancient temple that was perhaps famous hundreds of years ago.

“Brother Ren, be careful, let’s not go in yet.”

The main door of the Maharajah’s Treasure Hall was open, and after Dr. Ren walked to the door and surveyed it, he crossed the threshold and was about to go inside, but he was pulled by Zhuang Rui.

To know, when wood collapses, it can also smash people to death, this Great Xiong Bao Dian has been deserted for eighty to ninety years at the very least, not to mention that it has been enduring the baptism of wind and sand for half a century, so it might collapse just by blowing on it!

“It’s alright, Zhuang Rui, look at these pillars, they are all made of good nanmu and pine, and looking at the age it shouldn’t be more than 200 years old, coupled with the fact that this place is always dry and has little rain, it won’t collapse.”

Dr. Ren smiled and waved his hand to Zhuang Rui, doing archaeology in this line of work, for all kinds of building materials to be very knowledgeable, not to mention that in the ancient tombs, there is also a large amount of wood used.

A qualified archaeologist, must be able to according to the performance of the wood, roughly determine its age and species, such as the pillars in the palace of the Ming Tombs, almost all are made of expensive gold nanmu, that kind of wood to the Qing Dynasty when it has been extinct.

Legend has it that when Emperor Qianlong was building his own mausoleum, he once ordered the repair of the Ming Emperor’s tomb, in fact, in order to steal that golden nanmu wood for the construction of his own chambers.

And the structure of this temple, completely adhering to the ancient architectural style, the use of wooden pillars, wooden beams to form the framework of the house, the weight of the roof and eaves through the beams transferred to the columns, the walls only play the role of partition, rather than bear the weight of the house of the structural part.

In this way, even if the four walls of the hall collapsed, the top wall will not collapse, just as in ancient architecture, “the walls do not collapse”.

After hearing Dr. Ren’s explanation, Zhuang Rui also put down his heart, and followed Dr. Ren into the hall, the entire Maharishi Treasure Hall is about ten meters high, but in addition to the middle of the three statues enshrined in the middle of the three statues of the Buddha, it is empty.

The three statues are up to seven or eight meters high, solemn posture, kind face, the colorful plastic on it has not completely faded, just around the body enshrined in the yellow cloth mantle, has rotted into ash.

Seeing the shape of those three Buddha statues, Zhuang Rui said with a smile, “Senior brother, this temple is a bit earlier than we thought!”

The center of the temple is for the present Shakyamuni Buddha, the left side of the past for the burning lamp Buddha, the right side of the future Maitreya Buddha, this is the “vertical three Buddhas”, respectively, refers to the past, present, the future three generations.

After Buddhism was officially introduced to China in the Eastern Han Dynasty, many Chinese elements were added in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and most temples enshrined Sakyamuni Buddha in the Saha World, Medicine Buddha in the Eastern Pure Glazed World, and Amitabha Buddha in the Western Elysium World.

The three kinds of Buddha statues mentioned above are called “horizontal three Buddha”, only the temples before Sui and Tang Dynasty would worship “vertical three Buddha”, that’s why Zhuang Rui had this expression.

“Well, Zhuang Rui you are quite knowledgeable in this area, go, go to the back and take a look.”

After Dr. Ren circled around the three Buddha statues, he found that there was nothing else on the ground other than gravel dust, not even a single table, chair or offering table, he shook his head with some disappointment, they were here to look for excavating cultural relics left over from the ancient times, not to enter a temple to worship the Buddha.

“Brother Zhuang, Nakagawa said he wants to worship Buddha.”

Just as Zhuang Rui was about to walk out, Yan Translator’s voice suddenly came from behind him, looking back, Nakagawa was kneeling in front of the World Sakyamuni Buddha in the middle of the main hall, performing a big kneeling salute.

“Give Nakagawa said, let him hurry up, this ancient temple is very big, a moment to see the end, one by one all worship down, I guess the sky is dark.”

Japanese religious beliefs to Shintoism as the main, Buddhism second, in Japan also has a large number of Buddhist believers, so Zhuang Rui on Nakagawa’s this move is not much on the mind.