Xinglong Temple, with its red walls and blue tiles, faces the western corner of the Forbidden City. It is a temple with a rich history. It is famous among the eunuchs who left the palace in Beijing. Inside the temple, a passage was erected during the Qianlong period.
The stone tablet records in detail the long history of this temple.
This temple, built on Beichang Street in the strategic capital of Gyeonggi Province, was first built in the Ming Dynasty. According to legend, it was originally the "family temple" of Wang Zhen, the great eunuch of the Ming Dynasty. At one time, Xinglong Temple was changed to the "Bingzhangju"
, where ordnance was stored. This ancient temple with a weather-worn appearance covers a large area and leads directly from Courtyard No. 5 of Houzhai Hutong to Qingfeng Ancient Temple.
It is not a "descendants' temple" like Baiyun Temple, but a "brothers' temple". Every eunuch who enters the temple must pay at least one hundred yuan to the temple before leaving the palace, otherwise he will not even be able to step through the threshold.
After leaving the palace, he will have to serve four years of compulsory labor here, and he will have no misconduct before he can be formally admitted.
This is a time-honored rule that no one can break. Once you return to the temple, no one can control anyone else. There is no abbot here, only an "abbot". When you go out, as long as the police don't care, no matter what the temple is doing,
No one interfered with the temple.
At the end of the late Qing Dynasty, most of the eunuchs who lived in the temple were extremely wealthy at first. They were powerful and powerful in the palace, and there were also many eunuchs who were allowed to live outside the palace. Later, when the emperor left the palace, there were rich and poor people.
All the eunuchs had lost their jobs. Even if they had not paid any money before leaving the palace, as long as they could afford to rent a room, they could live here. According to the eunuch, Xinglong Temple had become a "miscellaneous place".
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Helpless, the abbot of the temple followed the rules and set some rules. To be clear, the so-called rules are only for poor eunuchs who have no money. Rich eunuchs can hire people to cook and have three meals a day.
, a meal of chicken, duck, fish, meat, the fragrance fills the courtyard. If you are a poor eunuch, you have to pay a deposit in advance and come to the temple for three years before you can have a house, and you can barely go to the big kitchen to get a meal.
Naturally, the eunuchs in the temple are undoubtedly divided into three, six, nine and nine grades. Some are hungry and cold, while others are fat and rich. Some eunuchs are rich and even take their wives to live in the temple, and they call them euphemistically.
"Enjoy the beauty and happiness". What's more, three generations of children and grandchildren came to stay in the temple. People came and went, making it more noisy than a hotel. But no one could control it, because they had a lot of money.
Stepping into the threshold of Xinglong Temple, Sun Yaoting, the former imperial physician of the Imperial Court, met his old friend Ma Deqing. He stepped forward and cupped his hands: "Hey, I haven't seen you for a long time. How are you?"
"Well," Ma Deqing, a native of Qingxian County, Tianjin, spoke in a strong Tianjin dialect, "I have returned home and have nothing to lose. Now, I have nothing to do. I have come back to Xinglong Temple." He said.
Opening both hands, looking helpless.
From the looks of it, Ma Deqing is a lean man, more than a head taller than Sun Yaoting, with a high nose and big eyes. Having said that, which eunuch who entered the palace did not have good facial features? He did not make a name for himself in the palace.
, otherwise he would never have entered the palace at the age of thirteen, and only served as an "imperial eunuch" for two or three years before leaving the palace. In fact, he has a good character, but one thing is that he has a bad temper. In the palace, he always behaves like other people.
When the eunuch makes a fuss, no matter how hard he tries to persuade him, it won't be over until his anger subsides.
It was not that his fate was bad, but that he was too stubborn. At that time, a group of elderly eunuchs were leaving the palace. Before leaving, they wanted to sell their names and money, but he refused to buy it. "I won't buy it.
I have no money! I can still live regardless of whether I buy it or not, so why spend that wasteful money?"
No matter how much others tried to persuade him, he would not listen, and in the end he was still a "black eunuch".
"You suffered a loss because of your bad temper." Sun Yaoting told him bluntly.
"Now, it hasn't been changed, so it's just like this. What's the point?" He didn't have too high expectations: "Living in this temple can be regarded as a retirement home."
"What are you doing here, Tatsuko? I heard that your brother went to a foreign company? Is this a good thing?"
"Hey, why are you mentioning that shabby thing? First, I went to the 'Xing Chun Xing' foreign trade company owned by an old man named Wei in Tianjin. To put it bluntly, I just picked foreign hair. I didn't even get paid for a month.
Son, are you a foreign trader? What a shame!"
Forget it, as soon as this matter was mentioned, Ma Deqing immediately became furious.
"But yes, I'm thinking, if your brother is doing well, why do you still go back to the temple?"
Although he has a bad temper, he has nothing to do with Sun Yaoting. The two have lived in peace and harmony for many years and get along fairly harmoniously.
"Hey, Shou'er, I haven't seen you for a long time."
"I went home a while ago." On the afternoon of the day he entered the temple, he met fellow villager Chi Huanqing again. The two hadn't seen each other for a long time, and they were particularly affectionate.
"Let's go up to the house." Chi Huanqing grabbed him and left.
"I haven't seen you in the past few days, but you still look so unfamiliar." In Mr. Chi's room, the two of them started chatting.
"Oh, don't talk about it. I'm very old these days. Well, I'm useless when I get old." Chi Huanqing couldn't help but sigh.
When Mr. Chi was young, he was a famous "pretty girl" in the palace, with a thin figure and extremely handsome. The most valuable thing is that he has an easy-going temper, never gets angry in a hurry, and is calm in situations. Although he is six or seven years older than Sun Yaoting
Years old, yet he looks much younger.
"My fate is not wrong. As soon as I entered the palace, I was made a little eunuch for Queen Mother Longyu, ahem." He said a few words and fell silent.
"It's true. When I entered the palace, you had already taken it seriously. Among our fellow villagers, you have always lived a decent life!"
"But it's so frustrating to have reached this point before our eyes!"
As soon as he heard it, he knew that this person who was usually calm and unhurried was now filled with sadness. Back then, when he was working as a little eunuch in the palace, he made a lot of money, but who knew that his
His father was a well-known "bad guy" who smoked, played with money, and messed around all day long. Mr. Chi was a strong man who cared about his head and his face. He bought the family property three times, but in the end, his father was ruined.
Empty.
He didn't like to be angry in his life. That time, he got really angry and said, "Let him be in trouble? I'll be in trouble myself!" From then on, he started smoking cigarettes passionately until he was so poor that he couldn't control it.
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After his family was ruined, he left the palace. He had no choice but to live in Xinglong Temple.
When the fellow saw him, tears welled up in his eyes. Mr. Chi sat with him in tears, and he felt calm because he had quit smoking. He had no money, so he had to quit even if he didn't want to. Mr. Chi became very irritable again.
, he was very popular, and he greeted everyone he met with a smile. Sun Yaoting felt that he was pitiful, but he had no other choice, and he had no luck yet.
At noon on the evening of the day he entered the temple, he went to the east room to meet Wang Yuezheng. Eunuch Wang was from Qingxian County. He was fair and fat. If he hadn't shaved his face without beard and looked so happy, he would have seemed a bit serious.
He had the style of an official. He was well-educated, could write and calculate, and was a capable person among the eunuchs. At that time, he was serving as the abbot of Xinglong Temple. After leaving the palace, he had opened a sedan chair shop in Tianjin Wei, which was very prosperous.
, when he usually speaks, he is very discreet and precise, and he always says "what's going on" when he opens his mouth. But there is one thing: he is too eloquent, so some people think that his mouth is too "poor".
"Is Mr. Xin here?"
"Well? Sometimes I don't know if he's here." When Sun Yaoting asked Xin Xiu Ming, Wang Yue Zheng suddenly looked unhappy.
Among the many eunuchs, Sun Yaoting had some experience with ink, and Xin Xiu Ming was naturally a well-known "scholar" both inside and outside the palace. Wang Yuezheng was Xin Xiu Ming's disciple, and he knew that Sun Yaoting's master had an unusual relationship with Xin Xiu Ming, and Xin Xiu Ming Cai always took care of Sun Yaoting. He was jealous in his heart and became unhappy when he heard about Xin Xiu Ming.
It's really hard to mess around in the temple. These eunuchs all got through the intrigues and deceptions in the palace. Now that they are together, and there is no emperor, why don't they fight in the same place at a high price? Sun Yaoting is in this kind of situation Living in the cracks.
A few days later, Xin Xiu Ming walked into Xinglong Temple. He hurried there as soon as he heard about it, but to his surprise, Wang Yuezheng sent him away on the pretext of asking him to buy something. He knew that this was Wang Yuezheng's deliberate act. But I couldn't think of any other reason, so I had to go first. As expected, when I returned to the temple, Master Xin had already left. He was unhappy, but Wang Yuezheng bared his teeth and said happily: "Master Xin is leaving... ..." He deliberately made a long voice to annoy him.
"Shou'er, you didn't go out?" Mr. Xin left, and one of his younger brothers, Zhang Xiuyue, came to Xinglong Temple to play again. He was very polite to see Sun Yaoting, and he was more polite than him Although he was much older, he always called him "you", which showed that he had great respect for Sun Yaoting.
"Okay, Mr. Zhang, I'm here to say hello to you!" Sun Yaoting always bowed his hand at this time.
This Mr. Zhang opened a dim sum shop in Dong'an Market, and the business was booming, so he often said jokingly: "It's because of the glory of your Xinglong Temple that it became prosperous!"
"What did you say? This is your fortune. We are all staying in Xinglong Temple and we haven't prospered. Aren't we suffering from poverty?"
Haha called, and Sun Yaoting asked about Mr. Xin Xiu Ming's current situation. Xin Xiu Ming and his honest and honest junior brother had close contacts. Although Wang Yuezheng blocked Sun Yaoting from seeing Xin Xiu Ming, Zhang Xiuyue often worked with Mr. Xin on his behalf. Matchmaking between father and mother.
Most of the eunuchs who lived in Xinglong Temple were homeless. The one Sun Yaoting was most familiar with was Tian Bichen from Zhuozhou. He was a tall, thick-looking old eunuch who was blind and illiterate. He was at least ten years older than him and was middle-aged. He became a monk and was a kind man. He was purified, but he could not even enter the Heavenly Palace, so he had to work as an eunuch in Taobele Mansion and Yulangbeile Mansion.
At first, he worked as an errand in Yulang's Mansion, the governor of the Nine Gates, where he only had three meals a day and didn't even bother to buy clothes and hats. In this way, when Eunuch Tian arrived, he was still extremely poor, which became a popular saying among the eunuchs of the prince's palace in Beijing. A joke. After entering Xinglong Temple, he finally found a place to eat. When he mentioned the life in Lambelle Mansion, he became angry: "Either there is no money in his house, or he is too stingy. Earn money With my limited money, I can’t even buy boots!”
Usually, he wears rags. When people see him in the temple, he wears an old blue robe for many years without even replacing it. In spring, summer, autumn and winter, he is always the same, and never changes much!