Where to go for the Spring Festival? Many people have their own plans and have already embarked on their trips, while some have just started their own holidays, and their previously planned trips have to be interrupted due to the new coronavirus pneumonia. So where to go next? Yu Fan feels that Nanjing, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, is a very good choice. It not only has a long history and rich culture, but also has beautiful natural scenery and attractive specialties. When it comes to specific places, China's first famous historical and cultural river--Shili Huaiqin feels it is worth a good visit.

The Qinhuai River is the cradle of Nanjing's ancient civilization and Nanjing's mother river. It is very famous in history. The Qinhuai Scenic Belt with the Qinhuai River as its axis is located in Qinhuai District, Nanjing. With the ancient architectural complex of Confucius Temple as the center and the Ming City Wall as the link, it connects many national key cultural relics protection units, provincial and municipal cultural relics protection units. It is based on Confucianism, imperial examination culture, folk culture, etc., and integrates natural scenery, landscape gardens, temples and schools, street houses, local customs, food shopping, popular science education, and festival culture. It is a place where Nanjing's history and culture gather, and it is also China's famous open national 5A-level tourist attraction and the top 40 tourist attractions in China.

On the Qinhuai scenery belt of Confucius Temple, there are many scenic spots such as Confucius Temple, the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, Zhanyuan, Bailu Island, Taoyedu, and Wu Jingzi's Former Residence. According to its history, the Dabaoen Temple, which has a history of more than 1700 years, is the first. Although there is only a piece of ruins left, it is still a national key cultural relic protection unit and an important part of the Qinhuai scenery belt of Confucius Temple, a national AAA-level tourist attraction.

Nanjing Dabaoen Temple is located outside Zhonghua Gate in Qinhuai District. According to its data, it is the oldest Buddhist temple in Chinese history. Its predecessor was Jianchu Temple and Ashoka Tower built during the Chiwu Period of Eastern Wu (238 - 250). It is the second temple in my country after the Baima Temple in Luoyang and the first Buddhist temple established in southern China. It has jurisdiction over hundreds of temples in Jinling, but it is said to be an important Buddhist center in my country.

Looking at the history of Dabaoen Temple, Du Mu, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, once wrote a popular poem,"There are 480 temples in the Southern Dynasties, how many towers are in the misty rain." The origin of the "480 temples" in this poem is Dabaoen Temple. The history of Dabaoen Temple began from Sun Wu and went through various dynasties. There were names such as Changgan Temple and Tianxi Temple. The predecessor of the Dabaoen Temple Tower was the Ashoka King Pagoda.

As for the origin of the name of Dabaoen Temple, we must start from the time when Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, expanded the original Jianchu Temple. The reason why it expanded this ancient temple was to commemorate Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, and Empress Ma, in order to repay their kindness. The expansion lasted for 19 years, cost 2.485 million taels of silver, and invested 100,000 military services and civilian workers.

The construction of Dabaoen Temple is extremely elegant, and it is built in full accordance with the standards of the imperial palace. It is splendid and bright day and night. The entire temple is extremely large in scale, with more than 30 temples, 148 monasteries, 118 corridor rooms, and 38 scripture rooms. It is the largest and highest-specification temple in Chinese history and the first among all temples.

In history, Dabaoen Temple once had a glazed pagoda, which combined the essence of Chinese architectural art before the Ming Dynasty. It was 78.2 meters high. It was fired entirely of glazed glaze. There were 146 permanent lights externally inside the pagoda, which consumed 64 kilograms of fuel every day. It was splendid and bright day and night. It was the tallest building in China from its completion to its decline and a miracle in the history of world architecture. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, some European merchants, tourists and missionaries came to Nanjing and called it the "Nanjing Porcelain Tower". Compared with the Roman Colosseum, Alexander's Underground Tomb, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it was a symbol of China at that time. It was also listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the World in the Middle Ages. It was known as "China's Great Antique and Yongle's Great Kiln Ware", known as the "No. 1 Tower in the World".

The reason why this glazed tower is a household name in Europe also benefits from the promotion of some literary works. For example, Andersen mentioned in "The Garden of Heaven" in 1839:"I (Dongfeng) have just come from China-I danced around the porcelain tower and made all the bells jingle!" The porcelain tower here refers to the glazed tower of Da Baoen Temple (and in the ruins of Da Baoen Temple, there is also a statue of Andersen).

The full name of the current Dabaoen Temple is called Dabaoen Temple Heritage Park. The original buildings are basically no longer there. The high-profile glazed pagoda has not been rebuilt as it was in history, but has been reproduced in the form of a light steel-frame glass protection tower. Reappearance, giving it symbolic meaning and connotation on the premise of completely protecting the site, leaving everyone with infinite imagination about this lost macro structure and grand scene.

In the current Dabaoen Temple Ruins Park, the most important building is a ruins exhibition area, which mainly displays the development history of Dabaoen Temple, temple ruins, gallery ruins and cultural relics unearthed in the underground palace, respectively presenting: thousand-year Buddha veins, thousand-year-old eyes, past and present, hydraulic relics and Yijing, unearthed cultural relics (Shihan, Iron Han, Ashoka Tower), etc.

The galleries in the ruins of Dabaoen Temple are also a major feature. Unlike the small courtyards of other temples, the courtyards in Dabaoen Temple restore the large pattern of the royal courtyards in the Ming Dynasty, surrounded by galleries. To the south is a restored complex corridor with a clear depth of 8 meters and walking on both sides. In the middle is a painted wall telling Buddhist stories, while the gallery in the north retains its original true appearance based on archaeological discoveries.

According to local friends traveling with him, Zhu Di spent huge amounts of manpower and material resources to expand the Dabaoen Temple and used practical actions to tell the world that he was doing his filial piety to his parents, that is, to answer his parents 'gratitude. However, there is another saying among the people. Some people think that Zhu Di rebuilt the Da Baoen Temple to atone for his sins and repent for his crimes. The basis for this statement is Zhu Di's brutal deeds.

Why is Zhu Di so cruel? There are two examples that many people know about this move. One is that Fang Xiaoru, an important minister in the early Ming Dynasty, was exterminated from ten clans. Fang Xiaoru was a prominent scholar in the early Ming Dynasty. He studied under Song Lian, one of the three great families of the Ming Dynasty, and was also a courtier specially left by Zhu Yuanzhang to Emperor Jianwen. During the reign of Emperor Jianwen, Fang Xiaoru was in a high position and was the left and right man of Emperor Jianwen. Later, Zhu Di launched the Battle of Jingnan. After invading Nanjing, Fang Xiaoru refused to surrender and refused to write an edict for Zhu Di to ascend the throne. In the end, Zhu Di was angered and ordered the extermination of Fang Xiaoru's ten clans. He was also the only person in history to be exterminated.

Fang Xiaoru is just a representative person, and the other old ministers of Emperor Jianwen did not end up much better. They were either executed by the entire family or imprisoned. Zhu Di cleaned up the old ministers of Emperor Jianwen in an extremely brutal way. Because of its cruel methods, it has been criticized by many people.

Coincidentally, Zhu Di's second very brutal incident was the killing of 3,000 palace maids alive. The cause of the incident occurred in the harem. At the beginning, Zhu Di loved Xinna's Consort Quan, but she passed away mysteriously, which made Zhu Di very sad. Afterwards, Consort Quan's personal maid reported to Zhu Di that Consort Quan was poisoned and killed by Consort Lu. After hearing this, Zhu Di went on a killing spree, killing all those involved. He thought the matter would end here, but Zhu Di accidentally discovered that the informer maid and the eunuch had abnormal interactions, so Zhu Di ordered a thorough investigation of the matter. Finally, a palace maid couldn't stand the torture and lied that there were people in the harem who were trying to assassinate the emperor. Zhu Di became furious. Another large number of people were implicated. In this way, Zhu Di killed a total of 3,000 palace maids.

It is precisely because of the existence of these folklore that it is said that Zhu Di rebuilt the Dabaoen Temple in name to repay his parents, but in fact he confessed for the crimes he committed. Of course, these are just legends, and the authenticity cannot be verified. However, what is certain is that this Da Bao 'en Temple, which has a history of more than 1700 years, is not only a national key cultural relic protection unit, but is also included in the World Cultural Heritage Preparedness List. Walking through it, in addition to reading the history and culture and Qinhuai events inside, you can also climb the Da Bao' en Tower, enter the Yunzhong Buddha Hall, overlooking the misty rain in the south of the Yangtze River, and enjoy the charm of Jinling.