Lao She wrote in an essay entitled Thinking about Peiping in 1930s: "Although I was born there, I didn't leave until I was 27 years old. As far as places of interest are concerned, I have never been to Taoranting. How ridiculous! " This shows the position of Taoranting in the eyes of old Beijingers. Not only that, many foreign writers often mention Tao Ranting in their articles recalling Beijing. When Ding Ling lived in Beijing in the 1920s, she seemed to have a preference for Taoranting. Yao Pengzi said that she "drifted to Beijing" and "fell into a kind of depression that no one understood and no one wanted to understand, but felt deeply sorry for herself", and often "went to Taoranting alone" (Ding Lingchuan by Li and Wang Zengru). Yu Dafu said in the article "Autumn in the Old Capital": "Autumn in the north has passed for nearly ten years. Every autumn in the south, I always think of the reed flowers in Taoranting, the willow shadows in Diaoyutai, the insects in Xishan, the jathyapple in Yuquan and the bells in Tanzhe Temple. " Shi Pingmei's "Snowy Night" said: "I love the snowy night and snow scene at this moment. Although I can't go to Taoranting, Shichahai, Beihai and Park because of the dead of night ... "In the 1950s, Zhang Henshui's article" Taoranting "said:" Taoranting is famous, just like the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuchang and Jinan. When people who have been to Beijing go home, their families must ask,' Have you been to Taoranting? Because of this, the first thing I did in Beijing 35 years ago was to visit Taoranting. "(Beijing Daily, August 20th 1956/2 1) In the past, these celebrities often listed Taoranting as the first scenic spot in Beijing, which many of us can't imagine today.
Taoranting is a famous historical pavilion. Some people call it the four famous pavilions along with Chuzhou Zuiweng Pavilion, Changsha Aiwan Pavilion and Shaoxing Lanting (also known as Hangzhou Huxin Pavilion). Taorange is the three halls built by Dr. Jiang Zao of the Ministry of Industry in the west of Bates Temple in Yuan Dynasty in the thirty-fourth year of Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty (1695). The name of the pavilion is taken from Bai Juyi's poem "Let's get drunk when the chrysanthemum is ripe" (Figure 1) ("Have a drink with your dreams and make an appointment later"). It is also called "Jiangting" because it was founded by Dr. Jiang Zao, who was the supervisor of the kiln factory at that time.
Figure 1 One of the three plaques of Taoranting, inscribed by Jiang Zao, a pavilion builder.
According to the usual understanding, a pavilion refers to a building with a roof and no walls, and of course it also refers to a small house with simple buildings. According to the previous explanation, there is actually no exhibition hall in Taoran Pavilion. Some people appreciate the Taoran Pavilion and spend a lot of effort to go there, but they don't see a pavilion with a roof and no walls, which makes them feel a little lost. Yu Pingbo's article Snow in Taoranting said that in the afternoon after a snowy winter, he made an appointment with his friends and hired two "rubber carts" (that is, rickshaws) from an alley near Donghuamen to Taoranting. After getting off the bus, I walked through the snow and across a piece of Yuan Ye, and saw a tall house. I thought it might be Jiangting (Taoranting), but I didn't see it inside or outside. Fortunately, there is a plaque on it. Otherwise, if it was Taoranting that day, it would be a joke if there were still doubts. There is no pavilion in Jiangting. Such a name is really bad, which always makes us feel lost. Zhang Henshui also said in the article Taoran Pavilion that "the so-called Taoran Pavilion is not a pavilion, but a hill on which a temple is built". In fact, there is a poem in the Qing Dynasty, "The houses are covered with gauze, and the land is famous, but there is no pavilion" ("Jinsu Fang Shan Shi Chao", volume 100), which expresses the regret and confusion for Taoranting.
After the completion of Taoranting, especially from Ganjia to the early years of the Republic of China, it became a tourist attraction for literati. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Zhu Pengshou's "Essays on An Le Kang Ping Room" has six clouds: "Doumen is the place where people gather, and bureaucrats feast every day. However, restaurants are like forests, and the noise is very different. Therefore, those neutral and elegant literati often pretend to be in ancient temples, lingering and talking about the end of the dynasty. After Yu Zichou (1889) entered Beijing, every time he met an elegant collection of literati, most of them were in Taoranting and Liujushi in Nanxiawa, Songyun Caotang and Songyun Temple in Zhaziqiao, Yunshan Villa in Xiaxie Street, Jifu Ancestral Temple, Bug Temple in Baizhifang, Gaomiao in Jishuitan and Nanhebo outside Guang 'anmen. "
At that time, Taoranting was the first choice for celebrity banquets such as Chinese New Year holidays, promotions, relatives and friends coming to Beijing, and friends traveling far away.
Many people come to Taoranting Yaji, especially People's Day, Lantern Festival, Shangsi, Qingming and Chongyang. For example, check the "Wuhuang Village Test Lights, Gather Taoranting in the same year" cloud: "Spring comes, sunny day, invite me to visit the city that never sleeps. The lights in the north of the pavilion are poor, and the strings are brittle at the beginning of the month. " Wan's "Taoranting March 3" says: "Poetry becomes ugly. If it is occupied by friends, it will benefit the southwest." Hong Youshi's poems "During the Qingming Festival, everyone brings wine to Taoranting, and Wu Hou reads the rhyme of Qi Zhi" and "Notes on Qingming Festival" say: On September 9, Chongyang, "Everyone needs to carry pots and jars and go out of the country. In Tianning Temple, Taoranting, Longzhaohuai and other places in the south, Jimenyan Tree, Qingjing City and other places in the north, as far away as Xishan Eight Monasteries, etc., are all works of Taoranting elegant collections of Qing literati, such as Yuanxiao, Shangsi (March 3), Qingming and Chongyang.
The most intoxicating scenery of Taoranting is the reed flowers in summer and autumn. There are many poems about Taoranting Luhua by ancient and modern literati, which can be described as countless. Li Guangdi's Autumn Table of Taoranting in Qing Dynasty says: "If you want to make an appointment in summer, come to the kiosk and sit down at leisure. Green is in the water. There are three dragons in the water. Autumn sounds ring in the middle of the night, and the bleak is just listening ... Friends will talk about clouds and music, words will move, and words will be remembered. " Among them, "the pale sword is in the water" will naturally remind us of the sentence "the pale sword is pale and the white building is frost" in the Book of Songs. Zanjian and Ling are the names of aquatic plants, and Zanjian refers to reeds. Gu Taiqing's "In the early winter of Queqiao Fairy, Yunlin invited his family to see chrysanthemums in Longzhaohuai, Xiaxian County, and visited the Western Hills in Taoranting" said: "It is past the yellow flower season that an old friend invited me to enjoy chrysanthemums in the south of the city. Asked where Fang Qiu was, I saw frost forest and leaves all the way. My Lord, outside the Taoran Pavilion, reeds are as cold as snow. The cold smoke and mist turned white in the setting sun, and the western hills overlapped. " Zhang Wentao's After Rain in Taoranting: "Jiang Ting looks at the clear rain in the west Chu, and the mountains embrace the setting sun and want to be beautiful. The height of Qiu Shu is the same, but the wind cicada has different emphases. Wine can be drunk far away, and poetry is well known. After a hundred years of banquet, Lu Hua should see the ancient and modern feelings. " Zhao Yi's Tao Ran Pavilion: "Riding near the south of the city, the virtual pavilion leans against the female wall. Lotus is red, reed is white, and Jiangnan is in August and autumn. " Cao An wrote a poem, "Wear a car like a boat, climb a mountain and go out of the forest" (quoted from the Record of Banana Gallery, Volume 2, Tao Ran Ting Zai). Some critics say that these two sentences are familiar and can be translated into couplets. Approaching Yu Dafu, "Every autumn in the south, I always think of the reed flowers in Taoranting".
As for winter, enjoying the snow in Taoranting is also a great interest of ancient and modern scholars. Some colleagues or close friends even "book every heavy snow, don't invite each other, and the latecomers will be the drinks" (Chen Kangqi's "The Legend of Waves", Volume 10, "Drinking Taoranting Elegant Club in the Snow"). There is a saying signed by Shen Yin, "The feeling of riding a donkey through the snow to Taoranting at the end of the year": "The mountains outside are hooligans, but the battlements in my eyes are like this. Don't complain about Xiao Shufeng and Xue Jun. Whoever pays for his fame will always pay. " (Journal of Chinese quintessence 1905No. 1 Vol. 5) It's quite interesting to visit Taoranting by riding a donkey through the snow. Yu Pingbo once let us feel lost because there was no pavilion in Jiangting, but the snow in Taoranting left an unforgettable impression on him, which made him "unable to recall the story of playing with snow in Jiangting".
Taoranting is a place for candidates who came to Beijing in those days (called Chinese candidates in the same subject in the old imperial examination) and scholars in Beijing to meet their relatives and friends. Qian Yiji compiled "Biography of Monuments" Volume 49: "Zhucheng is a place where people gather. Shuntian got the provincial exam and did the exam, and people from all directions were particularly prosperous. (Zhu Yun) Before the announcement, Mr. Wang invited five or six celebrities to recruit talents. He chose Taoranting for a one-day meeting, a banquet for a while, a rhyme for a while, and a taste for algae for a while, depending on its quality. " In the same year, the preface to the reprint of Ji Hai Ke Lu said: "In April, those who have tasted Ji Hai will draw a picture in Taoran Pavilion in the south of the city and write it down." (Yu Sheng's "Eight Banners Classic", Volume XIII) Jin Hajj (Noon Pavilion) "Poetry of Sanhuai Bookstore" contains that because he went to other places in the same year, he "invited all the people to gather in Taoranting for drinking in the same year" and wrote a poem as a farewell. There is a line in the poem, "Ten years ago, they led the spring breeze together, and several people are so drunk today." Baoting has a poem "Tao Ranting sends Xiang Tao to Guangdong and Zhang Youqiao to Fujian": "Life has its own business, but it can stop at the same time. After a hundred years, everyone is willing to suffer. A few great men in ancient and modern times have friends. Parting is common, but don't cry. Today, the weather is fine, there is wine, and we are sharing. Don't look at the ancestors' account, go to Jiangting. Overlooking the vast land, looking up at the sky. The rest of my life is still geometric, and I would rather be drunk than awake. Modern Wu Zhiying (Zi Ying) said in his poem "Four Poems of Fishing Sword Lake": "When Jianhu (Qiu Jin) traveled eastward a few years ago, Yuji sisters from Beijing got married in Taoranting in the south of the city to strengthen their behavior. Jianhu had a poem" Bao Dao Ge ",which was circulated for a while. "Qiu Jin once wrote a poem for this party and gave it to Linjiang Xian. Xiao Xu said, "My wife invited Tao Ranting to bid farewell, and my sister wrote a couplet to bid farewell. Time flies, together for a year, romantic clouds, thousands of miles apart, can not help but feel dejected. Studying abroad in her spare time, Ziying wants to go back to the south. " It expresses the infinite feelings of Xia's meeting with Tao Ranting's sisters, while the song expresses the tragic feelings of "following the great reputation of our Lord Huangdi and washing away the strange shame of thousands of years of national humiliation".
The most famous gathering of courtiers and celebrities in the history of Taoranting was the Longju Temple Fu Meeting during the Tongzhi period. Longju Temple is located in the northwest of Taoranting. According to Zhicheng Deng's Notes on Bone Cave and Xuannan Scenic Spots, Xingcheng Temple, the main hall of Longju Temple, and the nearby Sophora japonica were replanted in Jiaqing, and then they were abandoned for a long time. Two plants were replanted in the cave in Zhang Wenxiang, Nanpi, "It was praised by celebrities, and now it is a temple dedicated to Wen Xiang". According to Liu Yusheng's Miscellaneous Notes on the World Hall, the ban on writing was strict at that time. "Chao's poems are unique, with Pan (Zuyin) and Weng (Tongzhi) as their predecessors. Li Keke (Ciming) from Huiji also went out to compete with Zhang Xiangtao from Nanpi for the altar. At first, Li and Zhang had something to say. Later, when Zhang Zhidong was in charge of Hubei politics, he invited Li Ciming. Li was very unhappy. He left the museum. After entering Beijing, Li Ciming lost many times in Jinshi, and took his anger out on the Hanlin at that time, saying that most of them were uneducated. Some people accused him of being angry with Zhang Zhidong. After ten years of Tongzhi, Zhang Zhidong returned to Beijing after his term in Hubei, but there was no rift between Zhang and Li. At that time, "the officials and celebrities of the DPRK and China were excited and pushed to offer a drink", with the elders as the first banquet. At that time, Zhang Zhidong invited Li Ciming to Longju Temple, and Ci Ming took Pan as the ally, so he was invited to attend. Zhang Zhidong initiated the Longju meeting and sent a letter to Pan: "The four directions win the flow, and under the crowd, there can be no single episode. This is my intention at night. Taoranting sits with its back window, and Xiegong Temple can't bring its own kitchen. Tianning Temple is a little farther away, and Longju Temple is better. "Attending this day are Wuxi Qin Bingwen, Nanhai Gui Wencan, Yuan Zhuo, Jixi Hushu, Huijizhao, Li Ciming, Wu Gengyang, Xiangtan, Suixi Chen, Huangyan Wang Yongni, Qian Yu, Chao Yi Yan Naitong, Nanhai Tan Zongxun, Yi Rong, Ruian Sun Yirang and Hong Tong Dong. Qin Bingwen painted, Wang Renqiu wrote poems and Gui Wencan took notes. Bing Wen wrote, "It's raining and sunny, and the green reeds rustle. Generally speaking, it lingers in the past and the present, so this is a picture of Ji Hong's paw. "From the last years of Tongzhi to the early years of Guangxu, these years are the key to the biggest friction between the North and the South. Li Ciming is the leader of the Southern School and Zhang Zhidong is the leader of the Northern School. There is no longer an elegant collection of North and South factions.
As Taoranting is a gathering place for literati, there are many excellent couplets besides many poems and poems, which give people fun. For example, "No one came to the ancient temple in the smoke, and there was a moon on the couch", which was written by the famous scholar Weng Fanggang. Liang Zhangju's "Couplets Conghua" Volume III: "Guanyin has the most couplets, but Taoranting, the capital, has several better couplets than others, and forgot the names of the people who signed them. Li Anyun:' Guang Yun Yin has no place to live; There is a sky high in the sky. "There is another cloud:' Soak dry, makeup is expensive; The world of color and fragrance calls out empty flowers. "There is another cloud:' Lian Yu is critically ill, and I will go to Wu Tianchi to face Qu Wei; Lutang Miao people, the water center recognizes tuo. "Then you can cut the scenery of Taoranting." Volume 2: "Lin Shaomu (Ze Xu)" has a set of sentences entitled Shi Jing Taoranting Li Anyun:' It seems that Ling Tao has opened three roads; Come and share a niche with Amitabha. The post in the pavilion should be the first one. Up to now, Taoranting has plaques inscribed by founders Jiang Zao, Qi Baishi and Guo Moruo.
In the Qing Dynasty, there were court officials, famous politicians, thinkers and scholars who left footprints, poems, couplets and plaques in Taoranting, such as Li Guangdi, Cha, Zhao Yi, Weng Fanggang, Hong, Gong Zizhen, Wei Yuan, Gu Taiqing, Zhao, Li Ciming, Weng Tonghe, Zhang Zhidong, Wang and Sun Yirang.
After the 1920s and 1930s, due to the turbulent situation and other reasons, although Taoranting's reputation existed, it gradually lost its former prosperity and tended to decline. Ding Ling said in a lecture given by the Chinese Department of Tsinghua University on 1952: "When I was studying in Beijing (according to the author, Ding Ling had attended a literature class at Peking University on 1924), I read the poems written by Tao Ranting and heard that Tao Ranting was so good that I went. At first glance, I really think Taoranting is better. " At that time, the Taoran Pavilion was just "a few hills on a reed", with few people and desolate scenery, but it felt good, because it was in line with the lonely and depressed mood of tourists (The Biography of Ding Ling by Li See Xiangdong and Wang Zengru). In the 1930s, an unsigned "Old Capital autumn scenery" also revealed the desolation of Taoranting: "The moon is bleak and autumn, and Fengyue Resort is in ruins." When I boarded the Taoran Pavilion, a bleak scene came into my eyes. Scholars used to sing, but today it has become a place where people mourn the dead. This romantic relic has become an unguarded ruin, which makes people marvel at the speed of vicissitudes (New Life Weekly No.65438 +0935, No.65438 +0, No.68). When talking about Taoranting at that time, I quoted "Essays on An Le Kang Ping Room" (written in 1940) and said, "The world has changed, so don't follow the fashion. Those who used to call them places of interest were already overwhelmed and covered with dark clouds, but now they are lonely and desolate, and their horses and chariots are extinct. " The decline in gas and fruit is true, and it is also transferred with people! "From the above literature and poems, we can roughly appreciate the trajectory of the rise and fall of Taoranting from the Qing Dynasty to the 1930s and 40s (Figure 2).
Fig. 2 Qi Baishi goes to Taoranting and looks at the Western Hills.
In the first 20 years of the 20th century, Taoranting, which was famous as an elegant collection of literati, seemed to decline, but it had another glory that was little known at that time. Taoranting and Bates Temple are places where China's early leaders engaged in revolutionary activities, and there are footprints of Li Dazhao, Li Dazhao, Li Dazhao, Li Deng Zhongxia and Li Hui. In recent years, the "Red Dream" exhibition area has been opened in the park, leaving a red memory for future generations.
In the early 1950s, the Beijing Municipal Government decided to open Taoranting Park centered on Taoranting and Bates Temple. Clean up the surrounding pits, divert water to build lakes, plant grass and trees, build pavilions and pavilions, and relocate Yunhui Building in Zhongnanhai, Yin Qing Pavilion and East and West Chang 'an Avenue archway into the park. Later, the tombs of the martyrs and Shi Pingmei were built in the park. In 1970s and 1980s, a famous China Pavilion was built in imitation of famous pavilions all over China. Since its establishment more than 300 years ago, Taoranting has been known as an elegant collection of literati and officialdom, and has become a place for revolutionary pioneers to carry out secret revolutionary activities, and a garden for the broad masses of people to relax and relive revolutionary history and traditions (Figure 3).
Figure 3. The inscription inscribed by Guo Moruo, the second part of which is "No one came to the ancient temple of Yanzang, and the couch leaned against the deep hall in January" was written by a man.
There are many describable relics and stories in Taoranting, such as Shou Chang Five-year Classics Institute in Liao Dynasty and Jintianhui Nine-year Classics Institute in buddhist nun, which are of great historical value to the popularization of Buddhism in Beijing and the determination of the location of Jindu in Liao and Jin Dynasties. Although it has been recorded in many collections of Liao and Jin stone carvings in the past, as a scholar of Liao and Jin history, I naturally feel cordial when I can witness the real thing with my own eyes. Other relics, such as Saijinhua Tomb, Xiangzhong Tomb and Parrot Tomb, have not been found in this trip, and many stone carvings and couplets in the park have not been carefully read, so we have to wait for the next time to pursue and appreciate them.