Banpo Mountain
Luhoi Mountain is located in the territory of Baiyang Town, Yiyang County, also known as Li Mountain, Longitudinal Mountain, Fei Mountain, Banbi Mountain and so on in ancient times, and is a section of the Bears Ears Mountains. Despite the fact that this mountain is not high, the highest peak is only 810 meters above sea level, but its fame in history is not small: it is the birthplace of Emperor Yan, the place where the Battle of Gan took place, and the location of the ancient city of Gan. There is an ancient stone city on the mountain, and there is the Nine Dragons Virgin Cave under the mountain, Wu Zetian once came to this mountain to play.
However, the names of those mountains are too quaint and carry too long a history. Today, people prefer to call it Banpo Mountain, and if you have nothing to do, come to make incense and make a wish, and the strong smell of fireworks will permeate the mountain.
The Battle of Ganshui
Before I went to Luti Mountain, Zheng Zhenfu, an expert in the city’s literature and history, told me that this mountain is worth writing about: it is the birthplace of Yandi Shennong’s clan and the birthplace of Ganshui. The first important battle of the founding of the Xia Dynasty – the Battle of Gan was also fought here, and the Zhou Dynasty set up the Gan State here, and the origin of the surname Gan was here. This historical mountain, which appears many times in ancient books, of course, cannot be ignored.
However, even today’s locals are not necessarily aware of these histories, as they are so old that they need to be retraced slowly. According to the “Chinese Jin Language”: “The former Shaodian clan married the Youfang (pronounced jiǎo) clan and gave birth to the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor. “The mother clan of the Yan and Huang Emperors has a formula clan that is active in the area of Pingfeng Mountain, and the paternal Shaodian clan lives in the Bears Ears Mountains between the Yiluo River.
The birthplace of Emperor Yan is Li Mountain in the “Mountain Classic: The Four Classics of the Middle Times”, and “the head of Li Mountain, called the mountain of deer hooves, has more jade on it and more gold under it.” Sweet water comes out, and the north stream is poured into Luo…… “The name of Lutei Mountain inadvertently broke into our eyes. After the Ganshui out of the Lutei Mountain, the Huanchun flows north into Luo, the Ganshui Basin in this area, and many major events happened later, the most famous of which is the Battle of Gan.
The Battle of Gan was a battle between Xia Qi and the princes with the same surname, Youhu, and the cause was the well-known “Yu Chuanzi, the family of the world”: Xia Qi became the successor of his father Xia Yu, and changed the democratic Zen concession system since the Yellow Emperor to the family hereditary system. For this great change in the succession system to the throne, not to mention that the tribe with a different surname could not accept it, even the clan with the same surname was also angry, and raised troops on the grounds of “Shun Juxian, Yu Du and Zi”, and began to oppose Xia.
At that time, the Xia Dynasty had not long been founded, and Xia Qi’s foothold was not stable, and he realized that if he wanted to maintain power, he had to have a decisive battle with the Youhu clan. This battle, which decided the life and death of the Xia Dynasty, took place in the Ganshui Valley, hence the name Gan Battle. Xia Qi not only personally led the troops to the battle, but also made an essay at the oath meeting, which was the “Willing Oath” in the “Book of Shang”.
As a result of the Battle of Gan, the Xia Dynasty won and the newly formed slave autocracy was consolidated, which also laid the foundation for the subsequent construction of the capital city of Yanshi Erlitou. After the defeat of the Youhu clan, another tribe with them that joined forces to fight against the Xia, the Gan State, was also destroyed. This Gan country is the feudal state of Zhu Li, the twelfth son of Emperor Yan, and it is also in the Ganshui Valley, and it is in-law with Youhu.
Gan Guodi, Gan surname source
During the Shang Dynasty, the Gan State was restored, and was later destroyed by the Western Zhou Dynasty. By the time of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the country surnamed Gan surnamed Ji was established here, and its founding monarch was Gan Zhaogong, that is, the son of King Hui of Zhou and the younger brother of King Xiang of Zhou.
This history of the Ji surname Gan Guo is very much like a court drama. King Hui of Zhou successively crowned two queens: Jiang and Chen. Prince Zheng was born to the Jiang family and was made the crown prince by King Hui very early. After Jiang’s death, King Hui made Chen his queen and gave birth to a prince. King Hui was very fond of the prince belt and sealed it in Gandhi, and then had the crazy idea of abolishing the prince Zheng Erli prince. However, he died before he could issue the edict.
When King Hui died, the prince was in Gandhi and not in the royal city. The crown prince Zheng was able to succeed in the throne, and he was the king of Zhou Xiang. However, the prince has been watching the throne, and three years later, he instructed the “Yiluo Zhirong” to attack the royal city in a big way, and he acted as an internal response. King Xiang was busy asking for help from various countries, and Qin, Jin, Qi and other countries successively sent troops, and the prince had to flee with him, and only returned to the royal city a few years later.
After more than ten years, King Xiang borrowed troops from Di Guo to attack Zheng and was very successful. He was very grateful to Di Jun, so he deposed Concubine Yuan, and Na Di Jun’s daughter Kui (pronounced wěi) became the queen. Kui’s appearance is very beautiful, but he doesn’t understand women’s morality. She was originally a nomadic minority, accustomed to living an unrestrained life in the wild, and now lives in a deep palace, sullen, and asks to go out hunting from time to time. King Xiang was busy with state affairs and had no time to accompany her, so when he went out hunting, he was escorted by the prince.
It didn’t take long for the prince belt, who was good at riding and archery, to fight with the Kui clan. The adultery between the two was heard of by the government and the opposition, and King Xiang soon found out about it, and in a fit of rage, he deposed the Kui family. Kui and the prince fled to Di and told his father a lot of bad things about King Xiang. Di Jun didn’t know the inside story, raised troops to attack Zhou, King Xiang fled, and the prince took himself as the king, and established the Kui clan as the queen. The Jin State couldn’t see this, and sent troops to kill the prince Dai and the Kui family, and King Xiang returned to the throne.
After the death of Prince Gan Zhao, the people of Gan Guo set up his son as the heir, that is, Gan Chenggong. After that, it was passed down for several generations, and by the time of Gan Huan, he was defeated and died because of his participation in another turmoil of the Zhou Dynasty – the Rebellion of the Prince Dynasty, and the Gan Kingdom perished.
Today, Lutei Mountain, the source of sweet water, is considered to be the birthplace of the surname Gan.
Ancient Stone City, Nine Dragon Pond
Lutei Mountain is about 12 kilometers south of Yiyang County, although it belongs to Baiyang Town, it is located at the junction of Chengguan Town, Fancun Township and Baiyang Town. A few days ago, I set off from Luoyang New District, followed the Luoyi Fast Track to the east of Yiyang County, and then turned southwest, and arrived at Jiaodizhai Village, Baiyang Town, through Fancun Township. Asking for directions here, the villagers said that turning north from the bridgehead at the edge of the village, there is a road leading to Shibangou Village, where Luhoi Mountain is.
When I arrived at Shibangou Village, I found that the road into the mountain was not easy to walk. Enthusiastic villagers said that there was no need to worry, and that cars could drive all the way to the Cave of Our Lady of Kowloon at the foot of the mountain, and that “several cars had already entered in the morning.” Sure enough, walk three or four kilometers north in the ditch to the foot of Luhoi Mountain, and when you look up, you can see the landmark building on the top of the mountain – the ancient stone city.
When the ancient stone city was built, people do not know, only know that because Lutei Mountain is the source of sweet water, the ancient stone city is also called Gancheng. The terrain here is dangerous, and after the war, the city wall has three layers of ruins. In the “Notes on the Book of Water” of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Li Daoyuan has “the origin of sweet water…… On the non-mountain, the so-called ancient city of the world” records, it can be seen that Gancheng was already an ancient building at that time.
When I arrived, it was almost noon, and people from the mountain came down one after another, and the temple at the foot of the mountain also prepared a meal, and everyone stood or sat around with bowls and ate together. Yang Peng, 57, said that her home is not far from here, and she has come three or four times this year, “until the third day of the third lunar month and the ninth day of September, people from near and far come to the temple fair, and that is lively.” She told me that many people come here to climb the mountain in order to make incense and make wishes at the ancestral temple on the top of the mountain. “I usually go up from the south, it’s enough for an hour, but the slope is steeper. If you go up the mountain from the north, it takes more than two hours. ”
In addition to the ancient stone city, the Nine Dragons Cave at the southern foot of Lutei Mountain is also a major landscape. This is a natural limestone cave, and according to legend, it is here that the dragon mother gave birth to nine sons. According to Ms. He, who came to worship from Yichuan County, there are nine dragon ponds in the cave, as well as natural stone bridges, stalactites in the shape of nine dragons and stone statues of Our Lady of Nine Dragons, etc., and the scenery is very good. “The entrance to the other side of the mountain is still very narrow, and it takes more than two hours to get out. It’s too thick to wear now, and I can’t go, or I’m going to get muddy. ”
Two days ago, I borrowed a copy of “Selected Ancient Poems of Yiyang” from Wang Kai, secretary general of the Luoyang Center of the Tang History Society of China. Probably with Tang Gaozong’s “Wandering in the Non-Mountain”, she wrote a poem “Traveling to Jiulong Pond”: “The mountain window travels to the jade girl, and the stream is to Qiongfeng.” The top of the rock is soaring with two phoenixes, and the heart of the pond is poured into the nine dragons……” “Fangyu Minutes” said: “Luhoi Mountain is a longitudinal mountain, or it is called a non-mountain, in the first year of Tang Longshuo, it is also a non-mountain.” “It seems that the scenery here has been good since ancient times.
Because of the existence of the ancient stone city, the statue of Lutei Mountain has been cut off from the slope, so today’s people affectionately call it Banpo Mountain. I think that Banpo Mountain is secular and lively, while Luhoi Mountain seems to have always been accompanied by Ganshui and the ancient stone city, which is still hidden in the depths of history, lonely and leisurely. (Reporter Zhang Guangying, text/photo)
