On the rippling Luoyang River, there is a world-famous Luoyang Bridge. It has a long history and great momentum. It is the first Song Dynasty beam-type harbor stone bridge in China. It has left many ancient and beautiful folktales, adding wonderful brilliance to the famous city of Quanzhou.

According to legend, more than a thousand years ago, it was still an abandoned ancient ferry named "Wan 'an Ferry". The water here is deep and the waves are urgent. Passing ships will be destroyed every time they encounter strong winds. Many boats will sink and be buried at the bottom of the sea, and countless passers-by will be buried in the belly of fish ... It turns out that this is the monster of Jiang Yao making waves. When Emperor Zhenwu became immortal, he took out his stomach and threw it into Luoyang River. Unexpectedly, over the years, these intestines have become Master Roshi and basilisk, and they often make waves in Luoyang River.

One day, the ferry sailed offshore and approached the center of the river. Suddenly, two monsters, the tortoise and the snake, surfaced. Suddenly, the wind roared, the turbid waves soared, and the small ferry was in danger of being swallowed up. Suddenly, from the air, he repeatedly shouted, "Don't be rude when crossing the river!" " The tortoise and the snake ran away when they heard the sound. In an instant, it was calm and the ferry arrived safely. The passengers were surprised and didn't know who "Master Cai" was. There is a pregnant woman in Putian whose husband's surname is Cai. She thinks that the child born in the future will be an extraordinary person. She secretly wishes that if the child can become a useful tool in the future, she will teach him to build a bridge on the Luoyang River. When this woman returned to her hometown, she gave birth to a boy named Cai Xiang. His name is Mo Jun and his name is Hao Duan. She is very clever and intelligent. After Cai Xiang grew up and became sensible, Cai's mother told him the story of crossing the river in distress and urged her son to realize his long-cherished wish of building a bridge. Cai Xiang silently kept her mother's instructions in mind. Soon, the imperial court began to take officials. With his extensive knowledge, Cai Xiang was elected as an official of the DPRK, which was highly valued by the emperor. He is thinking about his mother's long-cherished wish, but he is distressed: when will he have the opportunity to build Luoyang Bridge in Quanzhou after staying in Kyoto?

One day, he was called to accompany the emperor to visit the imperial garden. Cai Xiang had a brainwave. He secretly asked the eunuch to write two lines of Chinese characters on the banana leaves with honey. Soon, ants climbed onto banana leaves and sucked honey. The emperor was surprised to find that many ants set up a word array on the banana leaves, and he couldn't help coming near. He looked at the handwriting on the banana leaf and blurted out: "Cai Duan Cai Duan, our government is an official!" " Hearing this, the Cai Xiang quickly knelt down and kowtowed to give thanks. The emperor changed his mouth: "I just read the words on the leaves and didn't take it seriously!" " "Cai Xiang can't afford to kneel:" How can you break your promise to me if you don't joke? "Then I honestly said that my mother wanted to build a bridge. The emperor had to make him the magistrate of Quanzhou.

Cai Xiang arrived in Quanzhou day and night for his post, immediately called the current township leaders to discuss, advocated the construction of Luoyang Bridge, and personally visited the river, ordered the recruitment of bridge builders, and raised funds for bridge construction. When people heard the news, they ran to tell each other and cheered. There was a time when craftsmen were running around. On the day of construction, the river bank was crowded with people. However, because the Luoyang River is "five miles wide" and "unfathomable", a ship full of stones was thrown into the river and instantly swept away by the raging river. The tortoise, the basilisk, desperately turned over the river and sank several wooden boats.

The satrap Cai Xiang was sad. One night, I suddenly dreamed that a white-haired fairy showed him "The Legend of the Dragon Palace" and quickly put on clothes and wrote on the table. Cai Xiang drew up a yellow die and asked the sea dragon king to lend a helping hand and let the tide ebb for three days, so as to get off the bridge foundation. After writing the yellow card, he sat in the classroom and asked the officials: "Who went to sea?" There happened to be an official named Xia Dehai. Hearing the call, he quickly replied, "Young Xia Dehai!" When he knew that the satrap was going to send Huang Die to the Dragon Palace under the sea, he could not help secretly complaining and had to bite the bullet and be ordered to go.

Xia Dehai took the document and secretly complained: If you want to go to the sea, you can't live; If you don't obey orders, your life is hard to protect. He simply sold a pot of wine and got drunk. Xia Dehai stumbled to the seaside and passed out on the beach. At this time, the high tide just happened, and he seemed to be brought into the Shuifu by Chen Bo, and the beautiful and kind Princess Dragon Palace held out the nectar. ...

I didn't know that when I woke up, my yellow die was gone, but the word "vinegar" was written on my palm. Xia Dehai hurriedly stumbled back to the office and reported to the prefect. Cai Xiang frowned at the difficulties of bridge foundation. Seeing the word "vinegar", he suddenly realized: isn't this word "vinegar" just the "twenty-one unitary time" when it is disassembled? It's obviously time for Poseidon to hint at low tide! Cai Xiang turned grief into joy, and immediately sent someone to post a notice on the head of the company, telling the people and craftsmen on both sides of the Luoyang River to prepare the foundation stone as soon as possible. 2 1 day, the raging tide really receded and the whole river bottom was exposed. Cai Xiang personally directed thousands of craftsmen to throw stones to lay the foundation stone and build piers, and the traffic on the banks of Luoyang River continued. Strong piers stand in the river. However, when the 46th pier was laid, all the stones along the river were used up. If the last pier can't be built within the three-day time limit of ebb tide, once the tide roared, the bridge foundation would be washed away, and all previous efforts would be in vain! At the critical moment, it happened that Lv Dongbin, the Eight Immortals, passed by here in a cloud. Deeply moved by Cai Xiang's extraordinary boldness of vision in building bridges, he unhurriedly fell to Wanan Mountain. With a wave of his hand, he gently brushed away the dust and nodded all over the mountain. With another wave of his hand, all the rocks on the mountain emerged; With another wave of his hand, all the big stones became "pig mothers", rushing down the mountain in droves, running to the beach and jumping into the river bottom where the pier was built. In a blink of an eye, these "pig mothers" have turned into big stones and piled up layer by layer. A "mother pig" accidentally fell and hurt her leg. She walked slowly and fell behind. When she reached the river, the last pier had been built. It had to lie next to it and become a fat "pig mother stone".

When the surging tide swept in again, Cai Xiang had commanded craftsmen to lay the bridge foundation. The first battle was successful, and the crowd was excited and cheered like thunder. These 46 piers are like the mainstay of the town, which makes turtles, snakes and monsters tremble with fear.

There was a monk named Yibo in the nearby Baisha Temple, who tried his best to raise funds for the construction of the bridge, and was ridiculed by many Zhumen giants. He worked hard and spent every copper coin he begged on building a bridge. Regardless of the severe winter and summer heat, monks always go around tirelessly, cooking tea and delivering meals for migrant workers enthusiastically, and often go to the mountains to collect medicines and treat sick craftsmen. On one occasion, due to days of wind and rain, all the firewood in the kitchen was burned out. The firewood cut temporarily from the mountain is too wet to burn. In order to construct the long bridge as usual and build it as soon as possible, monk Yibo quietly closed the kitchen door and resolutely put his foot into the stove to cook instead of chopping wood. Strange to say, a wave of monks' feet are like two burning firewood, raising a raging flame. When his feet burned to ashes, a large pot of rice in the kitchen was cooked. The bridge builders were moved to tears. Later generations wrote poems praising Yi Bo's noble deeds: "Give your life for Hongqiao and make your knees cry." . The bottom of the pot is as red as blood, and it will be remembered forever. "

In order to lay a 360-foot-long and 10-foot-wide stone bridge, it is urgent to put thousands of huge stone slabs on the pier. At this time, there is a lack of Chinese fir shipbuilding and loading stone, so the construction progress is slow. Cai Xiang is very worried about this. One night, Cai Xiang was thinking about how to solve this difficult problem. Thinking about it, he fell asleep on his desk. I suddenly saw a white-haired fairy in my dream and instructed him to send someone to the foot of Qingyuan Mountain to ask for help from the "three-person fairy". Cai Xiang woke up with a grain of salt, summoned the official Xia Dehai, and went down to Qingyuan Mountain to find out. Xia Dehai hurried to Qingyuan Mountain, and waited for half a day, but he didn't see the shadow of "three people with one eye and one fairy". Towards dusk, I suddenly saw three beggars in rags, holding hands and queuing side by side. First, one eye is open and the other is blind; The other two are blind. Xia Dehai couldn't help but be surprised and happy: Isn't this "three people with one eye and one fairy"? Hurriedly ran over and stopped to beg. Seeing his sincerity, the three beggars agreed. One of them murmured, "There is an ancient well at the source of Luoyang River, where wood can make boats and water can be drunk ..." At this moment, three beggars suddenly opened their eyes. It turned out to be Li Tieguai and Zhang. The three immortals laughed and drifted away like a gust of wind. Xia Dehai was dumbfounded and came back to inform the prefect Cai Xiang. A few days later, sure enough, in an ancient well by the Luoyang River, many Chinese fir trees gushed out like fountains. Cai Xiang and the bridge builder were overjoyed and applauded. The migrant workers who built the bridge went to the well to fetch water, and the wine smelled good. After drinking the water, they felt hungry and thirsty. Everyone took a bite, and I drank happily. And this well will never dry up, and the wine is overflowing, so it is called "Sakai Well".

Cai Xiang concentrated the wisdom of craftsmen and created a "raft foundation", which separated the sharp pier of the ship from the water potential and reduced the impact of waves. He also invented "crane floating" by using the buoyancy of seawater. With the help of the high tide and the height of the ship, he gently lifted a large stone slab weighing several thousand pounds and laid it between the piers, making Luoyang Bridge gradually show its majestic posture.

One day, Cai Xiang found that every reef in Luoyang River was densely covered with oysters. He thought that it would be great if oysters could be multiplied in large numbers by the method of "planting oysters to consolidate their roots" and cement the bridge foundation and pier stones into a solid whole! Suddenly, there was a huge wind blowing on the river, which blew off all the oysters on Luoyang pier like rain, as if hitting countless steel nails, making the stone bridge on Xiongzhihe more indestructible. Cai Xiang was extremely surprised. Looking up, I saw Guanyin standing in the clouds and smiling. "I really feel the pains of the bachelor, but I just did a little trick." Guanyin in Nanhai went on to say, "It took 12 million yuan to build this long bridge, and the national treasury is already in short supply. When I help you raise enough money, I will ask the Eight Immortals to help you exorcise evil spirits, so as to avoid endless troubles! "

Then Guanyin in Nanhai suddenly turned into a stunning beauty and went boating on the banks of Luoyang River, claiming that she would marry anyone who had the money to vote for her. At that time, the Yangtze River was crowded. People are watching the beautiful women on the Yanbo River, scrambling to invest money. The children of rich people who are always greedy for money will spend a lot of money. Money rained down on the boat, but no one could hit it. Don't go home full of money every day, dude is depressed and frustrated. In this way, a large sum of money was raised for the construction of the three-wing handrails on both sides of the long bridge and the "seven pavilions, nine towers and twenty-eight stone lions"

Seeing that the Lingbolong Bridge is about to be completed, the turtle essence and basilisk lurking at the bottom of the river will not give up. They gathered ninety-nine dragons in the upper reaches of Luoyang River, set off strong winds and waves, and rushed to the stone bridge. Zhang rode on a donkey and trampled the evil turtle into a ball of mud. Li Tie opened the fire gourd, and suddenly a thick smoke and fire spewed out from the gourd, burning ninety-nine dragons alive. At this time, a rainbow appeared in the sky, the waves on the river were as flat as a mirror, and the strings on the shore were singing. People on both sides of the Luoyang River were beaming, beating gongs and drums and cheering for the Yu Jiancheng Sea-crossing Bridge, which was completed seven years later. People on both sides of the Yangtze River specially built a "Cai Xiang Temple" in the south of Luoyang Bridge to commemorate Cai Xiang's contribution in advocating the construction of Luoyang Bridge, and erected statues and monuments.

"Three Musts" on Luoyang Bridge

After the completion of Luoyang Bridge, people summed up three wonderful characteristics for it, which were called "three wonders". First, the project is arduous and huge; Second, the story of Wan 'anqiao is concise; Third, monuments and monuments are all carved by art.

Luoyang Bridge, built entirely of hard granite, is a famous beam-type stone bridge in ancient China. It is not only the first time to build a pier with raft foundation, but also it is scientific and economical to plant oysters to strengthen the pier according to local conditions. This is an important invention of bridge dispatching engineering in ancient China. In the construction, the "floating method" using tidal transport beam bridge is still in use today. Luoyang Bridge has 46 piers, 360 feet long and 1.5 feet wide. There are 500 pillars on both sides of the bridge. There are stone carvings to protect pedestrians. During the two surveys of the bridge, nine stone pagodas were built to calm the wind, and seven stone pavilions were built on the bridge for riding and resting. There are many artistic stone pagodas in the bridge and its affiliated buildings, which are beautifully shaped-there are stone lions with their heads held high, and there are also ball lions with stone balls in their mouths. The whole bridge is large in scale and beautiful in appearance, costing more than two taels of silver14,000, all of which were donated by the people. Cai Xiang also sold his home 160 mu of land and donated Luoyang Bridge.

The full text of Wan 'an Bridge written by Cai Xiang is only 153, and the inscription is extremely concise. This paper describes the time, significance, source of funds, main personnel and completion time of the bridge, the joy of the county people and the beauty of the inscription. This is a wonderful word. Inscription day:

Quanzhou Wanandou Stone Bridge was built in April of the fifth year of Hu Di in Gengyin, and completed in December of the fourth year of Jia Hu. Tired toes in the yuan, water is forty-seven, and the beam is empty. It is 3600 feet long and 5 feet wide, and its wings are supported by railings. If it is the same as its length, it will cost14 million, so please donate. Cross the ocean and go aboard as an apprentice. Easy to live in danger, bad people, their duties are: Lu, Li, Li, Fu, Bei, etc. Established, Cai Xiang, the magistrate of Puyang, fell for it. The following autumn, he was recalled to Beijing, and his way out was outside. Because of his discipline, he stayed on the shore.

The full text is concise and cadence, which fully embodies the characteristics of Cai Xiang's writing style. The inscription is engraved on two stone tablets, each of which is 2.98m high,1.64m wide and 0.30m thick. There are six lines in the inscription, except one line 13, and each word is 1.5× 1.8 square inch.

When Cai Xiang wrote the inscription, he showed a very modest character, and the inscription was not worried about his contribution at all. The inscription is exquisite calligraphy. Cai Xiang is one of the four great calligraphers in Song Dynasty. This inscription is his outstanding work. His calligraphy is vigorous and vigorous, and his carving is exquisite and vivid. Exquisite craftsmanship, the crown is temporarily weak. The evaluation in history is extremely high.

Third, the story and legend of Luoyang Bridge

Luoyang Bridge is one of the greatest stone bridges in the history of China. Such a huge construction project touched the feelings of thousands of passers-by in Qian Qian, and they all expressed their admiration for Cai Xiang, the county magistrate who advocated bridge repair. People of all ages actually praised each other and praised each other. Some anecdotes and deeds in the process of building the bridge are gradually processed into beautiful and magical myths and legends, which are widely circulated among the people.

Legend has it that Wan 'an Ferry was once troubled by storms and monsters. Every year, many ships sink and countless people drown. This year, Cai Xiang's mother came back from her mother's family before Lu Linpen, passing through Wan 'an Gudu. It was already evening, and the last ferry had rowed offshore to the middle of the river. Lu hurriedly shouted, the boatman heard a woman calling on the shore. Turn the boat around and let the woman on board. Then the ship sailed to the center of the river, when the wind suddenly blew.

The waves were rough, and the ferry bumped badly in the middle of the river, and all the passengers turned pale with fear. Just about to capsize, a loud cry came from the air: "Cai is coming." No wonder water is rude. " Brake time. It was calm, and the ferry rowed across the waves. Everyone on board was very happy and knew that it was Cai's blessing, but the owner asked all the people on board, and none of them was named Cai, only one pregnant woman's husband's family was named Cai. Everyone thought that the son in the woman's womb might be Cai in the future. Lu smiled and made a wish: "If a boy is really born in the future, when he grows up, please ask him to build a bridge in this place to ensure peace for all generations." Soon after she returned to her husband's house in Fengting, she gave birth to a boy named Cai Xiang.

Cai Xiang was smart since he was a child, and he could read the Five Classics at the age of seven or eight. Late one night. Cai Xiang was reading in the study when it suddenly thundered, which was very scary. Cai Xiang pushed open the window and looked out. He saw a giant in the cloud, with an axe in one hand and a plate in the other. From time to time, he beat the chisel with an axe and made a thunderous sound. He was fascinated when he saw a grain of rice flying from there to the table. He picked up the rice, and suddenly it said to him, "Cai Shixue, help me quickly." The original Lu violated the dogma and flew into a rage. He sent Lei Gong to kill him, so he turned into a grain of rice and fled to Cai Xiang's study. Knowing that Cai Xiang would be a bachelor in the future, and worried that beating Lu would hurt Cai Xiang, Lei Gong turned around and reported to me. When Lu saw that Lei Gong had left, he showed his true colors, thanked Cai Xiang for saving his life, and presented Cai Xiang with a pen and ink, telling him that in case of difficulties, he could write with this pen and ink, which was handy.

About ten years later, Cai Xiang went to Beijing to catch the exam and was admitted to imperial academy. Song Renzong saw that he was brilliant and his brushwork was good, so he left him in the palace, made him a bachelor of Duanming Temple, and entrusted him to teach the Prince. Cai Xiang took his parents from his hometown. Once, when he saw his mother Lu crying, he knelt on her knees and asked why. Lu explained the promise made in Wan 'an Gudu more than 20 years ago. Cai Xiang promised that she would request to be an official in Quanzhou before the emperor, and then build the bridge. But the emperor attached great importance to him and refused to let him leave Beijing easily. Seeing that he was depressed and haggard, the prince sent him a jar of honey to recuperate and gave a banquet in the imperial garden to relieve his worries. Cai Xiang had a brainwave when he saw ants crawling. He used words to contain the prince. Dipping his brush in honey, he wrote eight characters "Cai Xiang, Cai Xiang, our government officials" on a banana leaf beside the road in the imperial garden where the emperor frequented. Soon the place where banana leaves were dipped in honey was covered with ants, forming eight words. Later, when the emperor came, Cai Xiang turned to the banana tree. Emperor Injong was surprised to see the ants on the banana leaves. He couldn't help but blurt out, "Cai Xiang, Cai Xiang is an official in this house." Cai Bao quickly flashed out and knelt before the emperor and said, "Thank you for your kindness." Emperor Injong couldn't understand what was going on at the moment, so Cai Xiang told him his mother's wish made more than 20 years ago. Injong was very moved. And people who have already opened their mouths are inconvenient to retain, so they have to order Cai Xiang to go to Quanzhou as a magistrate.

After Cai Xiang took office in Quanzhou, he personally visited Wanan Gudu and posted a notice to build Luoyang Bridge. Soon, thousands of people came to build the bridge, and the bridge workers worked hard for months. Cai Xiang was on pins and needles because the wind was tight and the tide was fierce, and the bridge infrastructure could not be built. One day, he was worried in court and suddenly thought about Lu, so he wrote a letter to Poseidon with the pen and ink that Lu gave him, asking Poseidon to help him decide.

On the day of Kiki Bridge Foundation, he intends to send a person to Poseidon to submit official documents and ask for a reply. So he called the officers in the yamen and asked who could go into the sea. One of them, Xia Ming, is on a business trip, drunk and out of his mind, and he can't hear the main points clearly. Thinking that his name was called, he rashly replied, "Young Xia Dehai." Cai Xiang left it to him to do, and when Xia Dehai woke up, he realized that he had caused a big disaster. Where can he find Poseidon in the vast sea? No way, Shangguan was ordered not to disobey, so he had to bite the bullet, bid farewell to his wife and children, buy wine and drink heavily, and lie on the beach drunk with official documents, ready to be drowned when the tide came. Unexpectedly, when I woke up, the tide car receded and I met the official document around me, but it turned into another letter cover, so I took this letter with me and gave it to Cai Xiang. Cai Xiang opened it and found only the word "vinegar". There is nothing else to say. Cai Xiang understood the inspiration of the word "vinegar": he chose 21st to lay the foundation stone. At that time, the sea will not rise day and night, and the bridge foundation will be built. However, the money and grain transferred from the seven provinces had already been spent, so Cai Xiang called all the squires from all over the country and asked them to raise money. But who will donate these misers?

Cai Xiang's sincere heart in building bridges for the people touched Guanyin Bodhisattva in the South China Sea, and she came to Wan 'an to help her. Guanyin bodhisattva turned into a gorgeous and extraordinary girl, sitting at the bow, claiming to marry someone who can throw money at her. Those rich people salivate at the sight of this beautiful woman. One by one, the servants were asked to carry the gold and silver to the river. I saw pieces of gold and silver flying to the boat like snowflakes for three days, but no one could throw them at the girl. Guanyin Bodhisattva saw that the ship full of gold and silver was enough to build a bridge, so she sent the gold and silver to the magistrate Cai Xiang. Before long, Luoyang Bridge, a huge project, was successfully completed.