ancient country that lasted for 300 years, nearly half of the kings became monks, and they were all forced by the prime minister

Number of days: 12 days
Time: December
With whom: With friends
Tour kinds: photography, self-driving, free travel
The author went to these places: Dali Erhai Cangshan Tianlong Temple
Updated: 2022.07.02

The last time I went to Dali, it was 18 years ago in the blink of an eye, and I revisited the old place, a little cordial, a little emotional, that time I followed the tour group, came and went in a hurry, did not go to the Chongsheng Three Pagodas, did not live on the shore of Erhai Lake, and did not know how to take photos, and the trip was like a market. Over the years, I have been to Yunnan many times, and I am often discouraged by the right and wrong of Dali.

The ancient city is still the same ancient city, I remember going up to the city tower, it seems that there is no grass growing on the city wall. After the city gate was renovated in the 80s, nothing should have changed now, but I heard that there was a fire in the ancient city the year before last, but fortunately there was no major problem overall.

The commercialization of the ancient city is inevitable, after all, in the Tang Dynasty, it was the old capital of Nanzhao Kingdom, and later the capital of Dali Kingdom, which has been vigorous for 300 years and has a large scale. Tourism was developed early and cannot be like some remote ancient towns, and it still maintains the original folk customs.

So the focus was chosen on Chongsheng Temple, along Erhai Lake all the way north, through the open small plain, east to Erhai Lake, west to Cangshan, is the Chongsheng Temple called "Tianlong Temple" in Jin Yong's martial arts novel "Tianlong Babu", the ancient temple in the early years has been destroyed by the wars and natural disasters of the past dynasties, and was rebuilt in 2003.

The three pagodas of Chongsheng Temple are the original towers, but they have been repaired, located at the entrance of the scenic spot, particularly eye-catching, the three pagodas are composed of one large, two small and three pavilions, the local people call it "Wenbi Tower", historical materials are verified to be built in the Nanzhao Fengyou period, is a witness to the history of Dali. It is estimated that Nanzhao Dali Buddhism was closely related to the Central Plains Buddhism at that time, absorbing more mainland skills and culture, and also showed that the Cangshan Erhai region was economically developed at that time, and the productivity and technical level were high.

Nanzhao Kingdom, the predecessor of Dali Kingdom, advocated Buddhism, and after arriving in Dali Kingdom, Buddhism has become the state religion, and temples are spread all over the country. Dali Kingdom governs the country with Confucianism and Buddhism governs the heart, Chongsheng Temple has become the center of Buddhism, and the national temple of Dali Kingdom, monks have generous treatment, and they can also take the imperial examination.

In fact, in addition to promoting Buddhist culture, the reason for building the pagoda is that Dali was a marsh country in ancient times, and there were many floods, so the pagoda was built to suppress it.

In "Tianlong Babu", the old man Jin Yong gave the Baoding Emperor and Master Yideng some lofty reasons for becoming a monk for the sake of the plot of the novel, and became a monk to defend the Tianlong Temple, without attachment to the beauty of the country, which is really admirable. But in fact, the kings of the Duan clan are very sad, the Dali Kingdom, which lasted for 300 years, was controlled by the prime minister Gao family, played between the palms of the hands, the king became a puppet, and becoming a monk was just a helpless move.

In the second year of the Daguan era of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, he succeeded his father Duan Zhengchun as the 16th king of the Dali Kingdom, reigning for 39 years, and was the longest-reigning king among the kings of the Later Kingdom. Duan Heyu was a monarch who made a difference, and he understood that establishing friendly relations with the Song Dynasty was the foundation of the country. Although the relationship between the Song Dynasty and the Dali Kingdom was alienated due to the policy of "no time for foresight" of Song Taizu, the Dali Kingdom still paid tribute to the Song Dynasty, paying tribute to Dali horses, musk, bezoars, fine felt and other local specialties, and also sent phantom opera musicians to perform in the Song Dynasty, which won the courtesy of Song Huizong, and canonized him as a Golden Purple Guanglu Doctor, Yunnan Jiedushi, King of Dali, etc., until the seventeenth year of Shaoxing of Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty, Duan Heyu abdicated as a monk.

Subsequent kings of Dali could not escape the fate of becoming monks, and among the twenty-two generations of kings of Dali, nine of them went to Chongsheng Temple to become monks, including the sixteenth king of Dali. Duan Yu in Jin Yong's "Eight Parts of the Heavenly Dragon".

Choose a hotel facing Cangshan, the Nordic-style room has an oversized balcony, overlooking Cangshan Mountain in the distance, Erhai Lake up close, early sunrise, sunset colorful clouds, out of history , quietly in a daze for two days.

The Central Plains called the border area of the Southern Yi, and there are many unknown swords and swords in history, love and hatred. Looking at the Cangshan Mountains on the other side at this moment, the coast is brightly lit, and the sea has long been turned into a mulberry field.