It would be a pity to go to Suzhou without visiting Tiger Hill.

This oval-shaped stone is 2 meters long and 1.4 meters wide. There is a straight crack from top to bottom in the middle of the stone, which looks like a split sword, so it is called Sword Testing Stone .

According to legend, during the Spring and Autumn Period , King Wu Helu wanted to fight for hegemony in the world, so he summoned the famous swordsmiths Gan Jiang and Mo Xie to make swords for him, and Helu gave them to them. Three hundred boys and girls were asked to make swords in the furnace, and they were asked to promise to forge a unique sword within a hundred days.

Seeing that these children were still young, Ganjiang couldn't bear to hurt them, so he asked Helu to let them go and promised to forge a sword within a hundred days. Helu said: "As long as you refine the sword, I will agree to any condition you have. But if you fail to complete it, you and these three hundred boys and girls will be executed." So Gan Jiang and Mo Xie came to the craftsman's door in Suzhou to build a furnace. Sword Refining, the east-west avenue that now runs through Suzhou is named Ganjiang Road in memory of him.

They refined the sword for more than ninety days, but "no green or yellow color was visible." So they raised the temperature, but still no yellow, white, or green smoke appeared, indicating that impurities had not been separated.

Mo Xie saw the sad face of the general and thought that if the sword could not be refined, then the general and the three hundred boys and girls would be killed. Thinking of this, she threw herself into the furnace.

In an instant, the water in the furnace turned green, and two unparalleled swords were finally made. A male sword was named "Gan Jiang" and a female sword was named "Moye". However, Gan Jiang knew very well that King Helu of Wu was a tyrant, and he What he wants is a unique sword. If he is still alive, he will make a second, third or even more swords. It seems that this will be a disaster.

On the expiration day, he came to Huqiu Mountain with the "Moye" sword and presented the sword to Helu. In order to test the sharpness of the sword, Helu raised his sword to the stone and chopped it. For two, when Helu wanted to kill Gan Jiang, Gan Jiang pulled out the majestic sword, and the sword suddenly turned into a blue dragon. Gan Jiang rode the dragon and went straight into the sky to become the sword god. This is the legend about the sword test stone .

Of course, we all know that no matter how sharp a sword is, it is impossible to split such a stone in two. In fact, this stone is a typical volcanic eruptive rock tuff. It has been weathered for a long time and formed such a large crack along the crack. , exactly like a sword slashing.

According to legend, the famous monk Sheng Gong of the Jin Dynasty sat on this stone to read scriptures, and slept on this stone when he was tired.

This stone is also called "Ergofly Stone" because it is shaped like an anthellae, and this stone used to have clay, so it would stick to the stone and prevent it from falling.

Everyone must be very familiar with the story of "Tang Bohu Lights the Incense of Autumn". It is said that Qiuxiang's second smile stayed here. One day Qiuxiang accompanied Mrs. Hua to Yunyan Temple in Huqiu to burn incense. Tang Bohu slept on this stone and waited for them to come down. When he woke up, he saw Qiuxiang and Mrs. Hua coming down. At this time, a gust of wind blew Tang Bohu's hat to the ground. He took the opportunity to pick up the hat and put it on his head instead of picking it up with his hands. Instead, he lay on the ground and used his head. When he went to tip his hat, Qiuxiang saw that this man must be a fool, and his behavior was really ridiculous, so she smiled at him.

It is said that after King Helu of Wu died, his son Fucha buried his father in Huqiu Mountain. However, after the tomb was built, Fucha thought that so many people knew the location of my father's tomb. If one day they are short of money, they may go together to rob the tomb.

He thought of a cunning plan. One day he summoned more than a thousand craftsmen, invited them to drink wine, and watched the crane dance. Waiting until late at night, while they were all drunk, he ordered his officers and soldiers to kill all these more than a thousand people. It is said that their blood dyed this stone red. Every time it rains or cloudy, the stone becomes particularly red. When the rain washes away, it seems like blood is flowing down.

We now see that this stone is still red, which is certainly not the blood of ancient craftsmen, because the rock of Tiger Hill is acidic rhyolite, and its stone is originally red.

The strangest thing is the two protruding rocks in the middle. Their walls are very neat, as if they were split with a knife, but they are natural landscapes.

"Sheng Gong's Lecture Hall" was written by Li Yangbing in the Tang Dynasty. Sheng Gong was a famous eminent monk in my country's Jin Dynasty, Zhu Daosheng. At that time, he mainly expounded the Nirvana Sutra and preached "The sea of ​​suffering is boundless and you can turn back to the shore, put down your butcher knife and become a Buddha immediately" and "All living beings have Buddha nature", but he was not tolerated by the old school and was ostracized by the northern scholar-bureaucrats, who demoted him from the capital.

He traveled around and came to Huqiu to preach here. There were many people listening to his sermon at that time. About a thousand people sat around this stone, so we can see next to these four green characters. The three blue words "Thousands of People Sitting" were written by Hu Zuanzong in the Ming Dynasty. However, his views were also rejected by the southern scholar-bureaucrats. They drove away all the listeners and prohibited them from coming to listen to the scriptures again. However, Sheng Gong was not discouraged. He lectured on the stones left by the listeners. He spoke for three days and three nights, his mouth was dry, and when he talked about how all evil people are When he became a Buddha, one of the stones suddenly nodded slightly to him, as if to say, "I understand." This stone was the nodding stone in the pool.

Although it was cold winter at that time, the white lotus flowers in the pool were blooming one after another, and the pool water was full. Therefore, there is a saying that "the pool is full when you are born, and it is empty when you are born", "The old man preaches the sermon, the stubborn stone nods, and the white lotus flowers bloom" statement.

This pavilion was originally built in the Song Dynasty and was rebuilt during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty. Its carvings are very detailed and vivid.

There are two stone tablets in this pavilion, respectively engraved with two gods, one is Chen Tuan and the other is Lu Dongbin. It is said that one day these two immortals were playing chess here. A woodcutter saw it, so he came over to watch them play chess. After watching a game of chess, he returned home, but no one knew him. Later, people learned from him. His clothes suggest that he was a person from thousands of years ago.

So there is a saying, "A game of chess between immortals and a thousand years in the world" . Explain that Huqiu is the place where gods live. There are two couplets in the pavilion, one of which is: "It is not a dream to say a dream in a dream, and it is a yuan to seek the yuan in the yuan." The first couplet tells the story of Chen Tuan. According to legend, Chen Tuan slept for many years, and when he woke up he met a man. The woodcutter told him that several generations had passed. Chen Tuan didn't believe it and regarded the woodcutter as a character in his dream. The second couplet means the Taoist way, which can only be obtained through the study of exquisite and profound principles.

Another couplet is: "In the past, Yueyang showed its traces; today, Huqiu leaves traces again " This means that Lu Dongbin once showed his traces in Yueyang Tower and later came to Huqiu Mountain.

The four characters "Huqiu Sword Pool" were written by the famous calligrapher Yan Zhenqing in the Tang Dynasty of my country. The Yan body is known as the "silkworm head and swallow tail", and his attainments are extremely profound.

It is said that after he wrote these four characters, the word "Huqiu" gradually disappeared over many years. In the Ming Dynasty, Ma Zhijun, the prefect of Suzhou, ordered the famous carver Zhang Zhongyu to re-carve the word "Huqiu", but later generations looked at it. I always feel that the word "Huqiu" is not as well-written and beautiful as the word "Jianchi", so there is a saying of "Fake Tiger Hill and Real Sword Pond".

Maybe you will ask "Why do you say that the word "Huqiu" is not as beautiful and good as the word "Jianchi"?

In fact, if we carefully look at the stroke of tiger in "Huqiu" and the stroke of sword in "Jianchi", we can see the difference between the two characters. The stroke of "Jianchi" sword feels very smooth, while the stroke of "Huqiu" makes people feel very smooth. "The tiger's stroke has an obvious feeling of being drawn hard.

The name "Fake Tiger Hill and Real Sword Pond" has another meaning, which also hints at the secret of Helu's Tomb, because the steep cliffs on the east and west walls of the Sword Pond are naturally formed, while the back hill of Tiger Hill is artificial. It was built with earth mounds for the purpose of covering up the tomb of King Wu Helu.

The first leaning tower in China - "Yunyan Temple Tower", commonly known as "Huqiu Tower".

On March 4, 1961, it was designated as a national key cultural relic protection unit by the State Council.

It was built in the sixth year of Zhou Xiande (959 AD) after the Five Dynasties and in the second year of Jianlong of Song Dynasty (961 AD). It has a history of more than a thousand years.

This pagoda is the earliest existing pagoda in Jiangnan, with a large scale and exquisite structure. The pagoda is an Indian Buddhist building. In India, its shape is relatively small. As Buddhism was introduced to my country, pagodas were also built and formed in various parts of our country. It has a unique pavilion style and the buildings are taller than those in India.

The Tang Dynasty was the period when Buddhism flourished in my country. The pagodas were basically square in shape. From the Five Dynasties to the Song Dynasty, they gradually evolved into polygons, brick and wood structures, and double cylinders. The Huqiu Pagoda typically reflects this major change. It has a similar structure to this pagoda. The one is Leifeng Pagoda in Hangzhou, but unfortunately, Leifeng Pagoda collapsed in 1924. Mr. Lu Xun wrote a special article about this, but this tower is tilted. It does not fall down, so it is even more precious. Since this is the only example left in the country, the tower has a unique and important position in architectural science, plastic arts, historical research and other aspects.

The tower body is composed of three parts: the outer wall, the cloister, and the center of the tower. On the inner and outer walls of each floor, there are dozens of peony reliefs carved by the Song Dynasty in red, white, and black colors, and on the foreheads of the first to fifth floors. Colored sculpture patterns, with lake stone railings as decorative paintings on the fifth floor, express Suzhou’s local characteristics and Suzhou-style color painting style.

The tower underwent two major repairs after liberation, the first was from 1956 to 1957, and the second was from 198l to 1986. In the 1940s, Mr. Liu Dunzhen, an architect, personally surveyed the tower regardless of his old age. He found that there were huge holes in the tower, longitudinal cracks, and partial cracks in the tower. So he proposed renovations and wrote an academic paper on the current situation of Tiger Hill Tower. Treatise.

Repairs began in 1956, and experts used the "iron hoop grouting method" to strengthen and renovate the tower body. During the renovation, some precious cultural relics were discovered in the third mezzanine, the most valuable of which was a Yue kiln celadon lotus bowl.

The fundamental reason why this tower is tilted is that the foundation rock of the tower is higher in the south and lower in the north, and the fill soil is unevenly thick, causing uneven settlement. After years of rain erosion, the fill soil will naturally loosen, and our tower The dead weight reaches 6,000 tons, which continuously presses the foundation downward, causing it to tilt. But the first repairs did not do a good job of addressing the substantial reason for the tower's tilt. In 1976, the number of cracks in the tower piers increased, the tilt speed accelerated, and the danger worsened.

In 1981, in order to correct the inclination of the tower, according to the characteristics and current situation of the ancient tower, the craftsmen took the approach of raising part of the tower wall and formulated a specific Four steps: "surround", "fill", "cover" and "change" "Encirclement" means using 144 large-diameter piles to fix the foundation soil; "pouring" means injecting cement mortar into the cushion layer to fill the gaps and improve the bearing capacity of the foundation; "covering" means forming a 19.5-meter-diameter basin-shaped reinforced concrete "shell" to prevent ground rainwater from penetrating into the tower base. "Replacement" means replacing the broken bricks or parts in a timely manner.

Through these four steps, the tower now maintains its tilt and no longer tilts toward the northeast.

Have you noticed that the seventh floor of this tower is not actually tilted? Why is it straight? Because the tower has experienced seven fires since its construction. The most serious fire occurred in the Ming Dynasty, when the seventh floor was completely burned down. The tower was already leaning at that time, so when it was rebuilt, people thought, if the seventh floor was built straight, would it be able to alleviate its leaning? Indeed, this step has enabled the ancient tower to be preserved to this day.

If you look closely at the seventh floor, you will find that the bricks on it are different from those on the lower floors, because it uses the "Fu Lu Shou" bricks from the Ming Dynasty, which are larger and The color is also darker , and the architectural style of the upper floor is different from the lower floors.

Our tower has another feature that is not easy to detect with the naked eye, that is, There is no fixed rule for decreasing the height of each floor The sixth floor is 20 centimeters higher than the fifth floor. Tiger Hill is a witness to the vicissitudes of Suzhou over the past 2,500 years. The Tiger Hill Pagoda standing high on the top of the mountain has become a symbol of Suzhou.

Therefore, it also confirms Su Dongpo’s words that when you go to Suzhou, you must visit Tiger Hill. I would also like to add this: When you go to Tiger Hill, you must take a photo of the Tiger Hill Tower.

When there is no thunder and lightning, the bottom floor of the ancient pagoda is open to the public, and you can go in and visit.