Appreciating the cliff stone carvings and understanding the feelings of literati
Anning Hot Spring is not only a hot spring town famous for its hot springs, but also a cultural town full of books. It can be said to be a truly outstanding place. In addition to having the only drinkable and bathing calcium-magnesium hot spring in the country, it also has a national key cultural relics protection unit Cliff Stone Carving Group.
The cliff stone carvings are located on the Fengshan Cliff Wall and Hot Spring Hotel on the east bank of Mantis River in the Wenquan Subdistrict Office. The hot spring cliff stone carvings are distributed on the cliffs of Fengshan and Longshan on the east and west sides of the Mantis River in Wenquan Town. They are divided into three groups from "Jiuqu Longwo" to "The World's No. 1 Soup", with a total length of at least 200 meters. There are now 171 cliff stone carvings such as inscriptions, poems, paintings, etc. from the Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. It is the most complete and research value cliff stone carvings preserved in Yunnan Province. Each cliff stone carving work has different glyphs, fonts, and writing styles, but it can match the location and size of the cliff title. The author arranges the number of words and character trends according to the stone surface. The content of the work is presented in the form of poems, couplets, short sentences, travel notes, stone carvings and inscriptions. This is a good place for calligraphy enthusiasts and ancient prose lovers to appreciate excellent copying works. It forms an art corridor for tourists to understand the history of hot springs and watch paintings and calligraphy from past dynasties. It is an important cultural landscape in the hot spring scenic spot. Classified from the stone carving calligraphy, the collection of Zhen, Cao, Li and Zhuan can be called a collection of calligraphy
Many inscriptions from the Ming Dynasty to the Republic of China are mostly two, three, four, five words, with simple words and endless connotations. They are not only unique calligraphy and paintings, but also precious historical relics. They gather elites from all over the world and gather hundreds of talents from all over the world. With the expertise of watching here, you can linger in the hot springs over the thousands of years and marvel at the writings of poets from past generations. There are many cliff inscriptions in the hot spring, with different font sizes. The calligraphy styles are all prepared in upright, Li, seal and grass, and the Yin and Yang inscriptions coexist. It gathers more than 400 years of elites and gathers the strengths of hundreds of schools from all over the world in one wall, reflecting the tranquility and rich historical and cultural heritage, and has certain historical and artistic value of calligraphy.
The earliest stone carving should be the "Tingquan" engraved by He Mengchun, then governor of Yunnan, during the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty. Two top scholars in the Ming Dynasty: Yang Shen's title "Must Drink", and Yuan Jiagu's title "The Hometown of Duke Yang Wenxiang".
It is inlaid on the east wall of the semicircular spring pool in the bathroom yard of the Hot Spring Hotel of Hot Spring Street Office. "The No. 1 Soup in the World" was originally an old title given by Yang Shen, a famous scholar demoted to Yunnan in the Ming Dynasty, for Anning Biyu Spring (i.e. hot spring). Due to the loss of the old inscription plaque, it was re-written by Wang Jingfu in 1942. Long Yun wrote the inscription and postscript on the stone wall.
This stone carving has 6 squares, arranged horizontally and on the left. Each side has one character. The first to fifth sides is the "No. 1 soup in the world", with an area of 4 meters and a width of 0.5 meters. It is engraved with 5 gold characters in official script; the sixth side is a rectangle, with 17 lines of postscript engraved on the top, straight script, in regular script, totaling 130 words. The full text is as follows:
Yang Sheng 'an, the new capital of the Ming Dynasty, wrote and revised it to discuss great ceremonies. He was demoted to Yunnan by the court and lived in the Golden Jade Realm of Cang' er for 40 years. Central Yunnan is famous for its mountains and rivers. It is sung almost everywhere, but I especially love Lianran Jasper Spring. Zeng titled it: "The best soup in the world", which lasted for more than 400 years. Anyone from all directions who came to bathe in this spring would wear it and write it with praise. Because the old topics have been lost, I have revised the topics I wrote, supplemented them by the spring, and briefly explained their origin to highlight the achievements and express the clouds.
From the various short sentences of poems and praises engraved by celebrities of various generations, we can understand the feelings and literati atmosphere of ancient celebrities who expressed their affection to the mountains and rivers when they were happy and frustrated. The cliff stone carvings on the banks of Mantis River in Anning Hot Spring are not only a gathering place of ancient poetry, but also a treasure in ancient Chinese calligraphy art.
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