Du Mu has a poem that says,"The spring breeze is ten miles across Yangzhou Road, but it's not as good as rolling a bead curtain." He said that on the spring breeze of Yangzhou Shili Street, when all the bead curtains are rolled up, the beauty exposed inside is not as beautiful as the girl in Du Mu's poem. I don't say ten miles of spring breeze, I say ten miles of spring breeze, because I have to travel thousands of miles from Beijing to Yangzhou. I'm not going to see the beauties, I'm going to see the scenery. This is the right time to go to Yangzhou to see the scenery, because people as ancient as Li Bai would leave the Yellow Crane Tower and go to Yangzhou in March with Fireworks. The global climate is now warmer than it was in Li Bai's time. I can see the beautiful scenery even if I go to Yangzhou in late February. After catching a windy day in Beijing, I packed my backpack and set out.

Yangzhou is a place with both history and culture. Under the efforts of Li Bai and Du Mu, it is one of the first batch of national historical and cultural cities. The central area of Yangzhou is called Guangling. Does this name sound very ancient? You will suddenly think of Guangling Powder. Guangling Powder is not a traditional Chinese medicine. It is an ancient song played with a guqin. The place name Guangling was used in present-day Yangzhou after Qin Shihuang unified China. Before him, King Fu Chai of Wu had actually built a city here. At that time, this land was called Shugang, and the city built by King Fuchai of Wu was called Hancheng. Nowadays, when Yangzhou people reminisce about the past, they often mention the two place names of Shugang and Hancheng. King Fuchai of Wu also did a great thing in Hancheng. He hired people to dig a ditch called Hangou. A thousand years later, this ditch was expanded by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, leading north to Luoyang and Nantong to Hangzhou. This was the ancient Grand Canal. Since the establishment of the Grand Canal, Yangzhou has become a famous logistics center, spawning salt gangs and transportation gangs of all ages.

Yangzhou was very complex in ancient times and it was not easy to plug into the current city. The name Yangzhou ended its drift and became fixed during the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty. Since then, Guangling has been called Yangzhou City. At that time, Yangzhou was a city with no level, neither provincial nor municipal level, but at most it was at the county and regiment level. It was not until the Yuan Dynasty that Kublai Khan established Yangzhou Road and sent a Grand Governor, which could be regarded as a prefecture-level city. Yuan Huizong, Emperor Zhizheng of the Yuan Dynasty, established a government in Yangzhou, and there were some prefectures and counties under his orders. Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the rule of Mongolia and Yuan Dynasty, and Yangzhou Prefecture led the prefectures and counties under his command to begin reporting to Yingtianfu. Yingtianfu is a provincial and ministerial level, and Yangzhou is a prefecture-level level. In the second year of Shunzhi (1645 AD), Duoduo, the fifteenth son of Nurhachi, led the Qing army to attack Yangzhou's Nanming Shi Kefa. The city was broken and the Qing army massacred the city for ten days. It was called "Yangzhou Ten Days" in history, and more than 800,000 people died. After the Revolution of 1911, Yangzhou Prefecture was withdrawn and Jiangdu County was established. New China established Yangzhou City and became a prefecture-level city. Therefore, Yangzhou is really an established prefecture-level city.

Yangzhou is a good place. In addition to Li Bai saying that Yangzhou's fireworks are beautiful in March, Su Dongpo, who was a tourist in the Song Dynasty, also said that "Luoyang is early summer, Guangling spring." Lu You, who likes to look at flowers, not only lamented Kuaiji's "spring palace walls full of willows", but also praised "Guangling Peony and Shu Begonia". Fireworks March does not mean setting off fireworks in Yangzhou in March, but that flowers bloom in March. Beijing's Jimen smoke trees do not mean that smoke is like trees, but that green branches sway like smoke. Chinese traditional culture has a deep-rooted hobby for smoke, and ink paintings must also have smoke clouds. Smoke can cover up ugliness, beauty, and everything. It is a manifestation of the golden mean since Kong Zhongni, which is implicit and hidden without revealing. Therefore, Shangyan is a reflection of freehand aesthetics. Unlike Western realism, Westerners do not understand the artistic conception of fireworks in March.

Going down to Yangzhou to explore the spring scenery is like a fireworks scene. Chinese people know that they must go to Slender West Lake.

According to the old man's legend, Slender West Lake used to be a river north of Guangling, called Baoshan River. In the early Qing Dynasty, dignitaries gathered together to build private gardens here, which gradually gained scale and became a climate. There was a poet who came to Hangzhou to buy salt and said,"Poplar trees are constantly picking up remnants, and geese 'teeth are drawing pictures on bridges. It is also a pot of gold, so it should be called Slender West Lake." Hangzhou people thought that this guarantee river was comparable to Hangzhou West Lake, so they called this river course Slender West Lake. From then on,"Slender West Lake" became famous all over the world.

To go to Slender West Lake, you must go through the North Gate of Yangzhou City. The gate has long been destroyed, but the place name is still there. It is called "New North Gate Bridge". Since it is called New North Gate Bridge, there must be an old North Gate. The old North Gate is in the east, and that street is called "North Gate Outer Street". After crossing the Xinbeimen Bridge, you can see old houses on the west side of the road.

The plaque on the forehead says "Rolling Stone Cave Sky", one of the twenty-four views of Slender West Lake. This is even the outer stronghold of Slender West Lake. Although the door is not open, you can enter through the side door and left road. This was once a garden in the early Qing Dynasty. It was destroyed during the Xianfeng period and has been gradually restored in recent years.

Walking west along the road, you can also see other attractions in the Ancient Garden. Below is the Xiyuan Wanshui River, which is also one of the 24 scenic spots of Slender West Lake.

At the end of the garden, you can see a building boat.

In front of us is a small bridge called Hongqiao. Only cars can pass on the bridge, and large cars are prohibited. Stand on the bridge and look north. Looking at Slender West Lake here is also one of the twenty-four scenic spots called the "Hongqiao Range Rover".

This is Slender West Lake, with some buildings, some pavilions, and some boats. It is March in the spring, and when it comes to late autumn, it will be "gradually windy, rainy, and cool." If it is a lake, the lake is really thin; if it is a river, the river is fat enough. It's still nice to call Slender West Lake, at least it looks slim.

To enter Slender West Lake Park, you must first cross the Hongqiao Bridge and then buy tickets so that you can enter the park and see it consistently. When you enter and have a look, you will see that the east bank of the river is a sunny avenue heading north. You can't help but pick up your pants and pull your feet apart and stride forward.

In fact, people who don't know what they are doing are walking forward hard. This road should be taken slowly, and it is best to take square steps and walk in a twisting and twisting manner. Look at the picture above, is it beautiful spring scenery? This is also one of the twenty-four scenic spots of Slender West Lake, called Changdi Chunliu.

Spring light in Guangling, spring fills Guangling. Looking at the willows along the river, the willows are green and pink, and people are not immortal.

The "Long Dike Spring Willows" in the pavilion was written by Chen Chongqing, a famous person in Yangzhou in the late Qing Dynasty.

Walking north along the long embankment, you will find a mansion.

White walls and gray tiles, double lions guard the gate. Although the door frame is square, the door opening is round, and the inscription "Xu Yuan" is engraved on the lintel. These two words seem quite bizarre. They were written by Ji Lianggong, a local eccentric in Yangzhou in the late Qing Dynasty. The Jiliang workers called him "Mr. Feng." Because of its style, the words are bizarre.

Xu Yuan's "Xu" was Xu Baoshan, a bully in Yangzhou in Zhenjiang at the end of the Qing Dynasty. He also had bandits 'loyalty and often collected salt taxes in Yangzhou to relieve the poor. Later, he joined the Revolutionary Party and joined the rolling torrent of the Revolution of 1911. He led the army to recover Zhenjiang and Yangzhou, and shocked the country. However, the bandits were still unreliable. This kid eventually turned to Yuan Datou and was eliminated by the determined revolutionary party with a express bomb. When Xu Baoshan ruled Yangzhou, he already had a large house in the city, but he occupied the territory of Taohuawu in the early Qing Dynasty here on Slender West Lake and built this Xu Garden as an ancestral temple. Although this is an ancestral temple, it is a very romantic garden.

When you enter Xuyuan, you will find a lotus pond surrounded by strange rocks. Cold water released from the strange rocks and fell into the lotus pond. The peach trees are beautiful by the pool, and the willow branches are swaying.

There is a house sitting south on the north bank of the lotus pond, looking across the water.

There is a circle of railings in front of the house, and an iron pot is squatting inside the railing. That is not a pot, but a "wok". The pure ancient wok is a vessel with two ears and is used for stewing meat. The gable wall of Lingnan buildings is called the "wok ear wall", which is shaped like the ears of this wok. The wok in Xu Garden does not have ears. It is not a domestic item for stewing meat. It should be a ritual vessel or a mascot. According to nearby texts, it is said that these two iron pots are from the Northern and Southern Dynasties. They are 1,400 years old and are older than the Iron Lion of Cangzhou. Iron is easy to rust, and the rust structure is loose, and it will gradually rust through the inside and outside. Therefore, it is difficult for ancient ironware exposed to wind and rain to pass down. It is not easy for the thousand-year-old iron lion in Cangzhou, Hebei. It is even more difficult for these two iron pots to be used for 1,400 years.

Go around the lotus pond and see the house.

This should be the main room of Xuyuan's ancestral hall. It has a width of three rooms and a depth of two. It has gray tiles and single eaves on the top of the mountain, and there are eaves corridors all around it. Go in and have a look.

The roof is a beam lifting structure, which is made entirely in the Ming Dynasty. This is the most common building in Hui style. There is a shrine on the north wall of the Ming Dynasty, and the rosewood carved door cover outside the shrine is quite gorgeous, which is also in the style of the Hui Dynasty. The time "Daoguang Wushen" on the horizontal plaque illustrates the date of this plaque, which is the 28th year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1848). But Xu Baoshan was born in 1866. Whose family did he get this plaque? The name of the signature was Xu Peishen, a supervisor of Jiangnan Road during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty. He was convicted and dismissed from his official position because of his integrity. In his later years, he gave lectures at the famous Meihua Academy in Yangzhou, which is now the Yangzhou Academy Museum. The Plum Blossom Academy in Yangzhou is very famous, as famous as the Yuelu Academy in Changsha. I don't know which restaurant the "Restaurant" on the plaque was titled for at that time, but I guess it was a couple's restaurant. The bird is a bird with wings. The ancients used "the bird" to describe the couple's good relationship, and the flounder (the bird) is a flounder.

There are also matching wing rooms on both sides of the main room. On the left hand is an open pavilion with double eaves and a mountain top, and on the right hand is the subhall below, which is three rooms wide and one room deep.

There is a wall in front of Xuyuan and a curved corridor behind it.

Walking out of Xuyuan, I saw another house on the other side of the river. Looking sideways, there is a small bridge leading to the other bank on the river.

Green willows stand slowly at the water's edge, and the lattice windows of old houses open to the water. Old branches on the river block the sunrise, and green water under the river and lotus trees are planted in darkness.

That small bridge is called Changchun Bridge. After crossing the small bridge, it should be called Changchun Zhai. When I stepped up the bridge and saw that the garden was a small gold mountain.

This used to be a shoal to protect the river. The ancient rich people in Yangzhou raised funds to dredge the river here, so they piled the dug river mud here. When there is too much river mud, it will tip out and become an island. Yangzhou lacks mountains. Whenever there is a high place, the local people call it a mountain and name it "Changchun Ridge", so there is a Changchun Bridge on the river. Since the people of Yangzhou said that the heights of this ridge were extremely cold, some monks entered the mountain to build a temple, which became Xiaojinshan Temple. There is no clue when the monks fled or when the rich occupied the mountains. Today's Xiaojinshan is a garden with mountains stacked with rocks, houses built into halls, walls built into courtyards, and trees planted in shade. It is the residence of an immortal near mountains and rivers. The immortal said that there should be music, so there was a piano room. When music begins, all people in the scenery are immortals. "A river loops around the willows, and a painted boat travels back and forth to the lotus roots and flowers in the sky."

Immortals are happy to follow, and go and splash ink to write pictures. Let's take a look at Xiao Jinshan's studio, called Yueguan. In fact, although this is called a studio, it is not a place for painting. Instead, sitting here and enjoying the natural scenery is better than a picture scroll. The Moon Temple was originally a Guandi Temple. For a place as good as Changchun Ridge, in addition to Buddhist temples, there must be temples.

Cottage on the lake.

Looking at the main hall of Xiaojinshan, although there are no traces of the temple, the couplet has a Zen meaning. "The fingers of the finger are empty. Have you ever left the jade bureau? If the fist is not big, Jinshan is willing to cross the river." The two stones in front of the hall are the flower stone of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, and they are left here for some unknown reason.

People in Yangzhou said that the high places in Changchun Ridge were extremely cold, so they built a pavilion on the ridge called Bamboo Pine Wind Pavilion.

Although there are bamboo and pine trees, how can it not be cold when there is wind? Zheng Banqiao wrote a couplet in this pavilion,"The autumn river presses the green mountains; the day is thin and the pine trees are cold." One of the reasons why Yangzhou has culture is that there are many strange people who are very literary and artistic. They are the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou. Today, people know most about Zheng Banqiao and Dr. Lan Zhushi. Qianlong once named Zheng Banqiao a history of calligraphy and painting. When Qianlong came to visit Slender West Lake, he also went to this small gold mountain to patrol around like me. When he was tired, he sat in the green shade hall below and asked people to bring tea. Therefore, this green shade hall was called Qianlong Hall.

Qianlong didn't name Zheng Banqiao a history of calligraphy and painting here. That was what he did when he was on a tour of Shandong. Qianlong watched the scenery here, drank a pot of green Yang spring tea produced in Yangzhou, and ate half of a steamed lion's head. After that, he stood up and walked out from the gate of the Green Shades Pavilion. When he looked forward, he saw a long embankment leading to the lake. At the end of the long embankment, there was a square pavilion with double eaves and four corners.

He walked along the long embankment to the pavilion, passed through the moon gate to see the water upstairs on the bridge.

Don't get me wrong, the person sitting in front of the moon in the picture is not Qianlong, the reincarnation of Qianlong, nor is it one of Qianlong's hundred concubines. She is just a very ordinary Huaiyang aunt. Qianlong also called for someone to bring a fishing rod, vowing to fish a shad here and steam it for lunch. Think about it, fishing shad here is definitely not as good as Fuchun River. Qianlong could only let it go, but there was still a steamed shad on the lunch table. Because Qianlong did not catch shad here, this pavilion was called Diaoyutai by later generations.

Slender West Lake turns a corner here at Xiaojinshan, and from here it flows slowly westward. Standing on the Diaoyutai and looking towards the south bank of the river, there is a water pavilion there.

This is the Chengxian Water Pavilion. Pavilion, there is a house on the platform. The water pavilion is a pavilion that sits half on the bank and half stands in the water. This clear and fresh water pavilion is very regular, with three rooms wide and two rooms deep. It has gray tiles and single eaves emblem style on the top of the mountain and is surrounded by eaves corridors. There is a door in the bright room, and there is a window between them. You can stand in front of the door and view the water features, or you can sit in front of the window and view the water features. If you are not happy yet, you can walk out the door and stand under the eaves porch to view the water features. There is a back railing lintel below between the eaves columns and an upside down lintel above. If you don't enjoy yourself, you can still walk down the eaves corridor to a white stone terrace to view the water features. There is a circle of hollow stone railings on the platform, and stone lions are on the observation pillars. There is a couplet in front of the door, copied from Tang poetry. The first sentence is from Du Fu and the second sentence is from Chen Xilie.

Enjoy the scenery on the water along the coast. When you walk here, you can rest in this water pavilion, sip a cup of tea, add a cup of wine, and swallow three peanuts. Not only that, this water pavilion is also one of the scenery on the objective bank upstream of the water. Precisely because its shape is very regular, it contrasts with the disorderly trees and flowers around it. It is also a sense of rhythm pursued by Chinese garden construction and belongs to the finishing touch of the coastal scenery. The square pavilion and round gate in Diaoyutai is also a contrast, a contrast in architectural form.

There is a single-hole high-arch stone bridge between Xiaojinshan and the north bank of Slender West Lake called Yubanqiao.

Climb the Jade Banqiao Bridge, come to the north bank of the lake, and continue westward. You can face the Diaoyutai and Qingxian Water Pavilion across the water.

But he saw a big house on the roadside.

The plaque on the forehead says "Water and Clouds Win the Summary", which is also one of the twenty-four scenic spots in Slender West Lake. Water and clouds are easy to understand. The clouds are formed by water, and the clouds and water are connected. Victory means a scenic scene, a magnificent scene, and a scenic scene. There was originally a garden here called Quyuan. It was built by Huang Luxian, a big boss of the Salt Gang in the Qing Dynasty. There were a number of towers and pavilions in it. During the Jiaqing period, the yellow man passed away and gradually became abandoned. This house was rebuilt in recent years and exceeded its specifications.

Standing at the water's edge in front of Shuiyunshengge, you can see the signature Wuting Bridge of Slender West Lake.

In addition to the Wuting Bridge, you can also see through the tall white tower and the water pavilion under the bridge at a glance. If you still have to walk west unremittingly, you will get closer and closer to Wuting Bridge.

That was really:

Spring peaches and green willows, in front of the Wuting Stone Bridge. Under the smoke trees and white towers, there are clusters of blue waves and painted boats. The spring breeze is everywhere, the cattle are everywhere.

Looking at Wuting Bridge from the above perspective, it is a gate to a water village. When you reach the bridge, you can see the five pavilions on the bridge.

Yangzhou is famous because it relies entirely on Slender West Lake; Slender West Lake is famous because it relies entirely on this Wuting Bridge. Whether viewed from a distance or up close, this Wuting Bridge is amazing. Its function is not surprising, but its shape is unique, and it is the only place in the four seas. Beautiful is beautiful, strange is also strange. This Wuting Bridge is so beautiful, but among the twenty-four scenic spots of Slender West Lake, there is not a scene like the sunset on the Wuting Pavilion. It doesn't matter. Although it is not among these twenty-four scenic spots, it is one of the ten famous bridges in ancient China. The top ten famous bridges include Beijing Lugou Bridge, Chaozhou Guangji Bridge, Yangzhou Wuting Bridge, Hebei Zhaozhou Bridge, Fujian Anping Bridge, Jinci Yuzhao Feiliang, Guangxi Fengyu Bridge, Sichuan Luding Bridge, Qing Dongling Wuyin Bridge and Summer Palace Jade Belt Bridge. With this count, I have only seen half of the top ten famous bridges, and I must continue to work hard to see the other half.

The name of this Wuting Bridge is called "Lotus Bridge", and there is a plaque to prove it. It is an "I" shaped stone arch bridge overlooking the lake from north to south. There is a large arch in the middle, and the four piers on both sides have their own small arches. Above the bridge is a corridor with yellow glazed tiles and double eaves, and a peak at four corners in the middle. There is a square pavilion on each of the four piers, with yellow glazed tiles, single eaves and spires at the four corners. The four single-eaves spires are hooked together with the lower eaves of the middle corridor. It can be called a five-scroll hook connection. From a distance, it looks like the King Kong Throne Tower. The five pavilions are rolled with curved corners and gray brick carvings are built on the ridges. This is the style of the Hui School. There is a circle of inverted lintels under the red pillars, and there is also a circle of stone railings on the bridge. The north and south approach bridges are made in the form of vertical straps and stomping, and the upper half has handrails with stone lion observation columns. Judging from the red pillars and yellow tiles, this bridge is built with the royal imperial imperial decree. Sure enough, they said that this bridge was built for Qianlong's southern tour, which means that Qianlong was aiming at the hook under the bridge when hanging the pole on the Diaoyutai Islands. However, this is definitely not the bridge that Qianlong saw back then. I dug up an aborigine beside the bridge and asked about it. He said that when he was a child, there were only bridges and no pavilions here. His family lives in the south of the bridge, and their production team's crop field is in the north of the bridge. Planting crops often has to travel to and from this bridge. Cross the river to sow seeds in spring and cross the river to harvest in autumn. Grain and straw are loaded on tractors and pulled home. Tractors can get on the bridge without charging. The bridge I show me now was rebuilt in 1990.

I asked the aborigine, is the Buddhist temple under the white tower still there? He said it was long gone, it was just an empty space. After his family was relocated from there, officials built a new temple there. In that case, I'll go and watch a lotus. I aimed at the tower and began to move forward, climbing a number of steps in the process.

The lintel says "Step Cloud". When you get up in the early summer, this door is the place where the morning fog is thickest. Look at the handwriting, it's thin enough. Different from the thin gold body of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, let's call it a thin body because we can't understand whose inscription it is.

Go and see the White Tower.

Below is a two-foot-high square brick platform. There is a circle of white marble hollow railings and stone carvings on the platform. In front of it is a eight-character climbing ladder. The white tower sits in the middle of the platform, and at the bottom is the four-sided Xumizuo with twelve corners on all sides. Above the Sumi seat are three layers of white diamond rings, and above it is the body of the Tuoba Tower. The eyes on the tower are closed, so no auspicious words or Buddha statues can be seen. Maybe some treasure belonging to the monk is hidden inside. Above the tower are thirteen layers of phase wheels, which are thirteen days. There are hexagonal golden canopies above the thirteen days, and gold dores hang on each corner. At the top is the yellow treasure gourd pagoda. "White Tower Clear Clouds" is written in front of the platform, which is also one of the twenty-four views of Slender West Lake.

The introduction of the White Pagoda said that it was built during the Qianlong period. I don't think it is right. It should have been earlier. The style of this tower is not a Qing Dynasty Tibetan pagoda, but it is also different from the Yuan Dynasty Tibetan pagoda. The difference between the Fubo Pagoda in the Qing Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty is that it is different in thirteen days. The Yuan Dynasty is thicker and thicker than this; the Qing Dynasty is very thinner and thinner. However, whether it is the Qing Dynasty or the Yuan Dynasty, the tower body is not like this. Such a tower is older than the Yuan Dynasty and dates from the Liao and Jin Dynasties. Beijing has the Beihai White Pagoda of the Qing Dynasty, and then there is the White Pagoda of the Baita Temple in the Yuan Dynasty. There is also the Fubo Pagoda of the Liao and Jin Dynasties, and the Yinshan Tallinn in Changping. At a glance, this tower belongs to the Liao and Jin Dynasties. The characteristics of the Liao and Jin Dynasties Tuoba Tower are that the lower mouth of the Tuoba is small, like this one. The gourd pagoda on it is not the original work, it is a fake work in recent years. The canopy above the thirteen days is not the original style. No such canopy existed in the Qing Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, or Liao and Jin Dynasties. The base, tower base, cover bowl and thirteen days of this tower should be original, even if it is not the original, it is the original style.

There was originally a temple under the tower, which is said to be first built in the Sui Dynasty. The records of Yangzhou Prefectural Chronicles start from the Yuan Dynasty. It is said that it was renamed "Fahai Temple" after reconstruction from the Yuan Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty. In the local chronicles, it is said that "Yuan Dynasty was built, and Zhao Youcheng, a county person, built a tower next to it." That's right. In the early Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan, the Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty, in Yangzhou so far south away from Dadu, it would be understandable if he still built a Jin-style white pagoda.

Look at the host of this white tower, Fahai Temple.

It was not open during the epidemic, so I went to the back and took a look. Inside was the Goddess of Mercy Bodhisattva.

There is also an imperial stele pavilion next to the white tower. Almost all things like the Imperial Stele Pavilion have crooked poems written on Qianlong, and he likes to do this kind of thing. This pavilion was also newly built in recent years. The proper Imperial Stele Pavilion should be topped with yellow glazed tiles. It is called the Yellow Pavilion among the people.

Speaking of folk, there is a folk garden called Fuzhuang at the foot of Baita Mountain and at the east edge of Wuting Bridge. What is Fu (Nian Fu)? A duck is a wild duck, which means that this is a pastoral house with wild ducks.

This Fuzhuang is on a small island, a very comfortable scenic spot. You can walk around the island along such a verandah.

When you walk to a corner, you can sit down and watch the Afive and Asix on the Wuting Bridge.

You can also turn around and admire the riddled stones placed on the island by predecessors and the pavilions built by descendants.

There must be a big house in front of the flowers and behind the trees on the island.

Walking in and seeing that it was a teahouse.

The small teahouse is very romantic. I asked the shopkeeper if there is coffee? Answer "Of course". Before I met, there was a paper plaque hanging on the windowsill,"Furong", so I asked the shopkeeper who was making coffee for me who wrote it and said that it was Jinnong, one of the eight strange creatures of Yangzhou. Ji Huang (who remembered famine), who was contemporaries with the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, was also a native of Yangzhou. In addition to how to manage rivers, he could also drag literature. He once sang harmony with Qianlong poems. Ji Huang once had a lotus couplet: "A lotus flower newly emerges from the water, and a thousand layers of fragrant grass float far away on the mountain." The lotus is the bank. This plaque should be a horizontal copy of Ji Huang's couplet written by Jin Nong, but there is no place where the couplet is found.

Continue west along the lake:

Flowers are red, willows are green, and clear water flows, and jade girls on both sides of the strait are wearing flower furs. She didn't allow Wu Ji to suppress wine customers, but tasted Yangzhou lion's head.

There is Huaiyang Restaurant deep in the flowers and willows on the lake. Go in and sit down, and the waitress brings a dish plate and asks the guests to order. One lion's head and two Huangqiao sesame cakes are full.

After eating enough, I felt even more charming when I looked at the scenery on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

This is the famous female spy white peach blossom.

If you go further, you will find a building.

This is Xichun Terrace and one of the twenty-four scenic spots: Chuntai and Bright Moon. The Slender West Lake River turns again at Xichun Terrace and flows north.

Qianlong sat upstairs in front of the window open, holding a bowl of fragrant tea and looking up into the water. I saw the ice wheel slowly emerging, the shadows of the trees on both sides of the river gradually disappeared, the water was cold, and the moon shadow disappeared, and the spring light in the sky disappeared. Emperor Fengtian Chengyun sighed: The clouds are light, the wind is light, the jade rabbits are clear, but there is no way to do anything but the flowers fall.

Xichun Terrace is a pair of buildings. The main building has five rooms on the second floor, and the front three rooms on the second floor lead out of the building. The annex buildings below are built on all sides.

If you look at the picture above, there are colorful Chinese ladies in front of all scenic spots. The monochrome Chinese men are all bored on the roadside waiting for the aunts to return.

They dared not go near the water's edge for fear of being dragged into the water like this below.

Wu Ji Yue Yan and Chu princesses all color at the hem of flowers.

Look across the Xichuntai River.

On the plaque on the front of the water pavilion is the "Painting of General Xiao Li" inscribed by Zheng Banqiao. General Xiao Li is talking about Li Zhaodao, a painter of the Tang Dynasty, and his father is Li Sixun, an old General. The father and son are both painters, but both have the name of a general. Li Zhaodao works in mountains and rivers, and his paintings contain pavilions, pavilions and tourists in the mountains and rivers. The garden here has the artistic conception of Li Zhaodao's landscape paintings, so it was titled by Zheng Banqiao as the Painting of General Xiao Li.

There is a stone tablet under the stage of Xichun. On it is Chairman Mao's handwritten calligraphy of Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty,"To Judge Han Chuo of Yangzhou"."The green mountains are vaguely distant and the grass in the south of the Yangtze River has not yet withered. On the bright night of the twenty-fourth bridge, where can the jade man teach to play flute?"

There are several interpretations of the 24th Bridge mentioned in the poem. It is said that the twenty-four bridges in the Tang Dynasty are the twenty-four bridges in Yangzhou City. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Shen Kuo, who lived in Mengxi Garden in Zhenjiang on the south bank of the Yangtze River, once mentioned these twenty-four bridges in his "Mengxi Bi Tan". Shen Kuo said that when Yangzhou was at its peak in the Tang Dynasty, there were twenty-four bridges with names alone, but when Shen Kuo came to count the bridges, there were only six left. There is also a saying based on what Li Dou, a native of Huaiyang in the Qing Dynasty, wrote,"The Twenty-Four Bridge is the Wujia Brick Bridge, a Hongyao Bridge, behind the Xichun Terrace." I estimate that there were indeed twenty-four bridges in Yangzhou in the Tang Dynasty. Later, the rivers in the city were emptied of water by residents, and the bridges were no longer useful. Roads and houses were built on the rivers, so the bridges were all demolished. In order to preserve the name of the Twenty-Four Bridges in Tang poetry, later generations found a bridge where the gardens in the suburbs were piled up and named the Twenty-Four Bridges. It's the bridge below.

Like the jade bridge in Xiaojinshan, this is also a single-hole high-arch stone bridge. Such bridges are typical of ancient Chinese bridges. The most famous one is the Summer Palace Jade Belt Bridge among the ten famous bridges in ancient China mentioned above. Why is this bridge called the 24th Bridge? Because it has to go up twenty-four steps to cross the bridge, and then down twenty-four more steps. There are forty-eight steps in front and back, which is more thrilling than Hitchcock's "Thirty-Nine Steps". In order to prevent tourists from falling into the water from the bridge because of fear, the construction unit built handrails on both sides of the bridge. There are twelve observation posts on each side of this handrail, and a total of twenty-four on both sides. The leader of a tour group was telling his members,"This bridge is 24 meters long, so it is called the Twenty-Four Bridge." Don't believe him. Whether it is Du Mu's Tang Dynasty, Shen Kuo's Northern Song Dynasty, or Li Dou's Qing Dynasty, Chinese architectural design institutes do not use "meter" as a unit of length.

In order to confirm that the twenty-four bridges in Du Mu's poem were not the twenty-four bridges in the city, but this bridge, they made up a paragraph. It is said that Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, accompanied Du Mu to visit Slender West Lake, and he floated to the bridge on the water at night. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty said to Du Mu, Aiqing, stand on the bow of the ship and compose a poem. The poem must have the words "Twenty-Four Bridges". You see on the bridge in front, there is a concubine from my harem standing next to every railing post, a total of twenty-four people. They held a bunch of flowers in one hand and a brick in the other. If our ship reaches the bridge and you write a poem with "Twenty-Four Bridges", each of them will throw you the flowers in their hands, for a total of twenty-four bunches of flowers. Otherwise, they will hit you with the bricks in their hands. There are twenty-four bricks in total. You can do it yourself if you want to die. "Lights, music, action hit time, One-Two-Three, Go!!!" Du Mu saw that this was a life-and-death situation. He had no choice but to quickly shout four sentences fiercely, so the poem contained the content of a bright moon night and music playing. When the boat passed through the bridge hole, sure enough, the beauties on the bridge threw flowers at Du Mu. However, there was still a brick smashed into the water at the bow of the ship. It should have been a certain beauty standing in the back row who had heard Du Mu's "Twenty-Four Bridges" as "Twenty-Four Beauties", thinking that the poet was disrespectful to Emperor Yang's harem. You see, Du Mu's Qin opera accent almost killed him. This is the story of the tour guide leader. Let's not really believe it. Not to mention anything else, were Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty and Du Mu from the same dynasty? Besides, did Emperor Yang of Sui speak English?

The railings of the 24th Bridge are different from the previous waterside pavilions. This one is called a stick seeking railing, and the one on the waterside pavilions is called a fence railing. This hunting stick railing also has a handrail on the railing board, called a hunting stick. There is a clean bottle support between the finding stick and the fence. The railings of the 24th Bridge are engraved with auspicious clouds embossed, and the observation columns are also filled with auspicious clouds. Normally, the name of the bridge should be engraved on the middle fence. There are no "Twenty-Four Bridges" or "Hongyao Bridge" here, which shows that the "Twenty-Four Bridges" are very controversial. In addition, there should be a stone dragon head under the side eaves under the middle railing of the ancient bridge to suppress water monsters. The 24th Bridge does not have this stone dragon head, and it does not seem to exist on all the bridges in Slender West Lake.

On the east bank of the 24th Bridge, there is a square pavilion and water pavilion called the Blow Xiao Pavilion. It is the Blow Xiao Pavilion that asked in Du Mu's poem,"Where does the jade man teach to blow the flute?"

There is something in the water in the pavilion. It seems that there were wild ducks in the Fuzhuang in front of us back then, and now these wild ducks have grown into geese. Looking north, there seemed to be a tall tower standing there in the mist. That is the sleeping pagoda of Daming Temple. You will visit it tomorrow.

I walked all the way here and actually only saw half of the Feng Shui Lake at the 24th Bridge. After crossing the 24th Bridge and heading north, there are a number of pavilions, pavilions, flower willows, fish turtles, and turtles. At the end of the way, the North Gate is Daming Temple. I have limited leg strength today, so let go of those landscapes and talk about it later.

Take advantage of the rising spring breeze to go to Yangzhou to enjoy the spring light. It is:

The spring breeze blows green Yangzhou willows,

Drink a glass of Yangzhou wine.

There are no three palaces and six hospitals in Yangzhou,

There are buildings and pavilions in Yangzhou.

Green goose ducks green water, white towers produce green smoke.

On the bank of peach and bamboo trees, tourists are dancing.

(To be continued)