The water curtain cave

Water curtain cave, located in Huaguo Mountain of Lianyungang City, is famous overseas for his journey to the West. Wu Chengen was inspired by this water curtain cave, and in his journey to the west, it provided the early monkey king with a very rich mythical activity place. There are many water curtain caves all over the country, but they are all named after the popularity of journey to the West. Only the water curtain cave here came into being before the popularity of journey to the West.

The water curtain cave

This entry is compiled and applied by "popular science China" Science Encyclopedia

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Shuiliandong is a famous scenery in Huaguoshan scenic park. It is located on the top of the mountain, on the east side of reunion palace of sanyuanjia temple. It is a natural cave to the south. The cave is wide and profound, with clear springs hanging. The water dripping from the cliff cracks at the entrance of the cave is just like an ice crystal jade ball. It forms a curtain everywhere, so it is named. On the stone wall outside the cave are the inscriptions of "Shuijiang cave" and "Lingquan". There are two pieces of stone in Ming Dynasty, which are "Shen Shen Shen Pu run" and "Gao Shan Liu Shui". The strokes are Liu Hun and bold. This cave has been recorded in the inscriptions written by Zhang Chaorui, a contemporary scholar of Wu Chengen. In journey to the west, it is written as the hometown of Monkey King. On the west side of the cave, there is a real book titled "yinxinshiwu" written by Emperor Daoguang of Qing Dynasty for Tao Shu, governor of Liangjiang. Now the cave has been renovated inside and outside for people to visit.

summary

One hundred dance steps from the reunion palace to the East is the "blessed land of Huashen mountain, water curtain cave and heaven" described in journey to the West. It is said that it is the place of three yuan cultivation. Shuilian cave is a natural cave with the shape of "human" in the south. It looks like a grand cave. There is a Mengquan in it. It is said that this spring is the entrance to the sea, which is called "Haiyan". It is said that sun Dasheng's Dragon Palace borrowed treasures from here. On the cliff outside the cave, there is a continuous trickle. "If you look closely at the drops in the cliff, you may think it's the Pearl rolling curtain.". On the cliff, there are eight characters named "high mountains and flowing water" and "Shenquan Purun" by Wang Tongyu in the 23rd year of Jiajing reign of Ming Dynasty (1544).

In addition, there are stone inscriptions such as "Lingquan" inscribed by Shi liangle and "yinxinshiwu" inscribed by Emperor Daoguang. In the late 1950s, due to the road construction on Huaguo Mountain, the water curtain of Shuiliandong was broken. Now, after being repaired by the management department of the scenic area, the water curtain is set off against the mottled inscriptions and green old rattan, which is enough to make people appreciate the style of the former residence of Monkey King.

Design of water curtain cave

The conceptual design of the water curtain cave in the garden comes from the description of the water curtain cave in Huaguo Mountain in the myth novel Journey to the West

There is a water curtain cave in Huaguo Mountain. There is water in the cave. Follow the water to find its source. Climb up the stream and find that the source is a waterfall and spring. The poem says:

A school of white Hongqi. Qianxun snow wave flying.

The sea breeze is blowing constantly, and the river is winding around.

The air conditioning is divided into green peaks, and the rest of the air is moist and green.

The famous waterfall is like a curtain.

It seems that the waterfall is shaped like a white rainbow, reaching as high as a thousand fathoms, splashing with water, which is the scenery; while the air-conditioning is like a green peak, flowing all things is its charity, or people's gratitude for it; and it also shows the spirit or backbone of letting the sea breeze blow and the river and moon shine without being moved. It is shaped like a waterfall, but the water flow is not fast, hanging down like a curtain. On the whole, it is a waterfall It's a kind of beauty, not as majestic as the Milky way.

In the practice of landscape architecture, there have been various shapes of water curtain cave, most of which only show the water curtain cave itself. The water curtain cave of Fengde Park, a mythical garden in Hong Kong, shows many scenic spots in journey to the west, such as dragon palace, Wuzhishan, Huoyanshan, etc., and the shapes of the scenery are abstract and characteristic.

The water curtain cave in Fengde park is located at the entrance square of the park, which is equivalent to the second gate of the park or the first stop of the whole park. It seems that you can enter the Dragon Palace after passing the water curtain cave, and then visit other scenic spots such as Wuzhi Mountain and Huoyan mountain.

The water curtain is on both sides of a bridge in the center of the big fake cave. There are skylights and sunlight shining on the left and right water curtains. Visitors pass through the dark cave bridge. The sound of the water strengthens the mystery of the cave. The shape of the cave is simple and low, while the top of the waterfall can't be seen because of the skylight, which leads to the contrast between high and low, light and dark.

After passing the water curtain cave, you enter the Dragon Palace. The Dragon Palace is represented by a floating fish on the ceiling and a circular building with a transparent glass roof. The ground around the building is painted with colorful dragon decoration patterns. In the central pool of the circular building, there is a rockery fountain. The red Ruyi golden cudgel of Monkey King, about 2m long, is horizontally placed on the stone. It gives people the mythical Association of sun Dasheng asking the old dragon king for weapons.

The inspiration of the design of Fengde park is: whether the Shuibu cave and the dragon palace can be combined to form a Crystal Kingdom dominated by mythical waterscape; to make visitors feel as if they have really entered the underwater Dragon Palace, it will be more convenient and safer than wearing a diving suit for underwater sightseeing.

In fact, this idea has been partially realized in the Shark Aquarium of Ocean Park in Hong Kong: visitors stand on the slowly moving flat elevator, with underwater shark ponds on the left and right. Passing through this transparent water tunnel, it is like they are also moving in the water to watch. It not only enhances the feeling of people and fish dating, but also enhances the "underwater" mood. If we can expand the underwater world further, More facilities and scenery for the life of the Dragon King's palace, or some games for direct touch and appreciation, can make visitors feel that they have entered the mythical Crystal Dragon Palace, which may be welcomed by the elderly and children.

Shuiliandong Grottoes

Shuiliandong Grottoes is located at the foot of Lianhua Mountain. It is cut in a wide and steep natural cave on the hillside. The width of the cave is 50 meters and the height is 30 meters. There are pavilions around the cave, such as Bodhisattva hall, wugonglou and Sisheng palace. Although Qiuzu hall, sanshengshen, Laojun Pavilion, Zisun hall, wusheng palace, Duxian bridge, liujiao and so on are mostly modern buildings, their layout is rigorous and the environment is elegant. Because of the clear spring seepage on the top of the mountain, especially after the waterfall and rain, the water looks like a pearl curtain hanging hole, so it is named "shuilian cave". The existing frescoes in the cave are more than 30 square meters, 77 meters wide and 78 meters high. They can be divided into six groups, all of which are illustrations.

Among them, the first group is the best, accounting for half of the mural area. In the middle of the painting, two Buddhas, two disciples and two Bodhisattvas, both standing on the lotus platform, are painted. Under the Buddhas and disciples, two Bodhisattvas are painted, half kneeling to the Buddhas. On both sides of the top green of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, four Bodhisattvas, disciples and flying Apsaras are painted. The mural is outlined with smooth, bright, vigorous and powerful single lines, which is quite the style of Gu Kaizhi, a famous painter in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

There are two murals in the sixth group, each with an area of about 1 square meter. Among them, the Bodhisattva, the high bun crown, and the pink cheek are red. They are slim and graceful, like a reserved and devout girl. The second one is located at the bottom of the first one, with an area roughly similar to that of the first one. The upper one depicts one Buddha, two disciples, two Bodhisattvas, with Buddha feet sitting, disciples and Bodhisattvas standing, and the men and women offering sacrifices at the bottom It is a figure painting with high artistic value, especially the use of Chinese painting techniques, which makes it have a strong national style. According to the characteristics of figures, costumes and lines, most of the murals were painted in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, except for the re painting in the Song Dynasty.

There is also a wonderful fairy tale about Shuiliandong. It is said that during the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty, there was a beautiful girl named Li Zhenxiu in Lijiagou of Beishan. She was intelligent and hardworking since childhood. She twisted hemp thread all day long. On her wedding day, she came to the door in a sedan chair. Suddenly, the girl ran away with hemp thread. Her brother was holding a poker and her sister-in-law was holding a pot washing brush, The girl ran to the water curtain cave. After pulling the hemp thread, she took out her intestines and tied them to the hemp thread. She climbed up the stone ridge of the water curtain cave and sat down dead, which is also called sitting. Brother and sister-in-law arrived and saw that he was supernatural and suspected that he was a God. Brother said: if you are God, I will stick fire on the ground to make it take root and sprout; sister-in-law said: if you are God, I will stick vetch brush on the ground to make it grow leaves. Inspiration appeared. The fire stick and the sweet potato brush took root, sprouted, and grew green leaves to become a tree. In particular, the sweet potato brush tree, with roots, feet, waist, legs, half withered and half green, looked like a cricket dragon. From then on, people began to believe in Gu Geng, who loved twisting hemp thread, and worshipped her as Ma xianniang. Some people say that Madame Ma xianniang was born to dashizhi Bodhisattva. She was afraid of causing trouble in the world, so she escaped marriage. Therefore, Madame Ma xianniang is also called dashizhi Bodhisattva. Recently, it has been said that the girl fled with hemp rope in order to fight against the feudal arranged marriage, and was choreographed into a drama to reflect the tragic myth of Da Duan's love. In a word, it adds a bit of mythological color to Shuiliandong grottoes.

Address: Huaguo Mountain, Lianyungang, Xinpu District, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province

Longitude: 119.293674072

Latitude: 34.646485663041

Ticket information: included in the ticket of Huangguoshu scenic area

Opening hours: peak season (March 1 ~ November 30): 07:00 ~ 19:00

Off season (December 01 ~ February 29): 07:30 ~ 19:00

Chinese PinYin : Shui Lian Dong