Chapter 56: Main Text Chapter 57 Fish Bone Temple

Main Text Chapter 57 Fish Bone Temple

The next day we got up early, packed our things, and headed to Dragon Ridge behind the village. Following what we had learned yesterday, we left the village, crossed two mountain ridges, and went to look for the Fish Bone Temple.

The two mountain ridges sound simple; the straight-line distance might be short, but actually walking them is not easy. Yesterday when we arrived here it was already dark, so we couldn't see the surroundings clearly. Now, with the dawn light, we looked out and saw gullies crisscrossing, broken earth platforms, ridges, mounds, and ditches standing all around.

Although this is not the Loess Plateau, the area has been affected by Yellow River floods, leaving a large amount of yellow hard clay on the surface. The wind is like the Creator's chisel, cutting and carving the originally undulating ridges into countless gullies and wind tunnels; in some places the gullies are frighteningly deep.

The natural environment here is harsh, the land vast and sparsely populated. Wind whistles through the mountain gullies, wailing like ghosts howling. The ridges are full of large and small caves, bottomless pits; from a distance they look like the mountainside covered in black spots.

We walked for nearly three hours and finally found the Fish Bone Temple in a mountain gully. It was even more dilapidated than we had imagined. We had heard that the Dragon King Temple's incense had been cut off for decades, so we were somewhat prepared, but seeing it in person, the ruined temple was on the verge of collapsing.

The Fish Bone Temple consists of a single hall, with no front or rear chambers, no east or west wings. The temple gate is long gone, but we could see the skull of the iron‑headed Dragon King Fish, whose mouth serves as the doorway.

Pangzi tapped it with an entrenching shovel, and it rang with a clang. The bone is really hard. We examined it closely and saw that this fish skull is utterly unlike ordinary fish bones; even without flesh, it still looks ferocious and ugly. We have never seen such a fish—it's neither a whale nor a common river fish, huge enough to be frightening, making us dare not stare too long.

Inside the hall, the clay statue of the Dragon King Lord had disappeared long ago, and the beams were covered in dust and spiderwebs. Yet we could not see that the beams were made of fish bones; apparently the bones are encased within the bricks and tiles.

The walls had not completely peeled off; we could barely make out the four large characters "Wind‑Adjusting, Rain‑Balancing." On the ground were several nests of small mice, which, upon seeing us enter, scrambled away in fright.

We didn't dare linger in the Fish Bone Temple's hall; the ruined building might collapse at any moment, and a strong gust could blow the roof away.

In front of the temple gate, Da Jin Ya said that Dragon King Temples built from fish bones exist in a few places along the coast, but are truly uncommon inland. During the Republican era there was one in Tianjin Jinghai as well—a large fish had died on the shore, a charitable person funded a temple made of its bones, the incense flourished, but that temple was destroyed in the early 1970s and has not been seen since.

I examined the Fish Bone Temple's position in the mountain gully and laughed, saying, "If this spot were considered a favorable feng shui location, I'd go home and burn my copy of the Sixteen‑Character Yin‑Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique."

Pangzi asked, "Isn't this place pretty good? The wind is howling, so we have the wind part of feng shui… uh… we're just lacking water; if there were a small river, it would practically be a feng shui treasure spot."

I said, "The site for building temples and shrines follows its own rules, different from those for houses and graves. Temples are meant to bless a locality; they cannot be just thrown up anywhere. The ground for a temple must be a piling up of star peaks and a bright mountain hall. Apart from this Fish Bone Temple, have you ever seen a temple in a gully? Even an earth shrine shouldn't be placed in such a deep ravine, as the saying goes: 'In a valley, hidden things must not be pierced through; to stand pierced through is not to appear.'"

Da Jin Ya asked, "Master Hu, what do you mean by that last sentence? Are you saying it's bad to build a temple in a valley?"

I nodded and said, "Yes, look at these gullies— they twist like a dragon coiling and a snake crawling, but the surrounding mountains are barren, lacking cover and support, so they lack proper form. Moreover, being deep in the mountains brings heavy yin energy. If the mountains were densely vegetated, it would be slightly better, called 'hidden line of immortals flying in the canopy, hidden protection deep and the master flourishing.' According to ancient Chinese feng shui principles, this broken gully is unsuitable—not just for building a temple, but even for burying a person. Therefore I conclude the temple is problematic; it must have been erected by the Gold‑Touching Lieutenants to conceal their tomb‑robbing. Seeing it today confirms my suspicion."

Pangzi said, "If the aim were to conceal something, there's no need to go to such trouble; a simple grass shed would suffice. Besides, who would come to this gully? At most an occasional shepherd. The villagers say that past this ridge lies the Dragon Ridge Labyrinth, which is extremely evil; normally no one goes there, so even shepherds would be rare."

I said, "This is probably mainly about winning the locals' trust. Outsiders fund the locals to build a Dragon King Temple, promising favorable winds and rains, peace and prosperity, so the people won't suspect anything. If they simply built a house in the gully, wouldn't that seem odd and inexplicable? Why would anyone erect a building in a perfectly fine gully? That would raise suspicion. It's better to claim the spot is a feng shui site and erect a temple there—that's deceptive. In the past there were also pretenses of farming fields, planting green sand covers and working, all with the same goal: not letting others know."

Da Jin Ya and Pangzi listened to my analysis and both agreed that outsiders building a temple in a gully is indeed easier to disguise than building a house.

What Pangzi said isn't without reason, but we still need to go up onto the ridge to examine Dragon Ridge's terrain in order to further judge the tomb's location and why the temple was built here. I estimate the ancient tomb containing the Fish Bone Temple isn't far off; otherwise digging a tunnel would be an enormous undertaking.

We have finally reached the foot of Dragon Ridge. My two biggest worries are: first, whether there is a large tomb in Dragon Ridge; looking now, the answer is almost certainly yes.

Second, this tomb is so huge, and the fake merchant who built the Fish Bone Temple has had his eye on it for a long time. Whether he has succeeded is still uncertain, but given his actions and his operation, he is surely determined to obtain it.

Even if the Dragon Ridge ancient tomb has already been robbed, I think we can still go in and have a look, to see how other experts conducted their work; perhaps it hasn't been completely emptied, and a few items might remain.

The Gold‑Touching Lieutenant's rules are strict: when opening a tomb, one may take only one or two items; any more would break the regulations. Looking at this expert who built the Fish Bone Temple, since he managed to find a large tomb in Dragon Ridge that nobody else could locate, he must be a veteran.

The more veteran and expert one is, the more they value these rules, sometimes regarding them as more important than life itself. However, these fine traditions probably no longer matter to anyone nowadays; today's civilian thieves are much like the bandits who fought the Japanese, basically carrying out a 'three‑all' policy wherever they go.

We walked around the Fish Bone Temple several times, but found no trace of the tunnel entrance. It appears to be extremely well concealed, not easy to locate, and it's possible that after the Gold‑Touching Lieutenant completed his work, he sealed it completely.

Da Jin Ya asked whether we could make out the exact location of the ancient tomb. I said it can't be seen from the gully; we have to climb up onto the ridge and look down from a height to see it clearly.

Da Jin Ya usually indulges in eating, drinking, gambling, and prostitution; his health isn't great, and he can't endure long treks. He was already exhausted from walking to the Fish Bone Temple, and having to climb up the ridge and back would be too much for him. So I told him and Pangzi to stay at the Fish Bone Temple, look around for any tunnel nearby, and warned them that if they entered the hall they must be careful and avoid being struck by falling debris.

I myself climbed up the slope using hands and feet, and before long I reached the ridge. Below, the gullies crisscrossed; the land looked as if someone had grabbed it, forming folds, uneven in height, the terrain very complex.

The overall characteristic of Shaanxi's terrain is high in the north and south, low in the middle, high in the northwest and low in the southeast, sloping from west to east. The north is the Loess Plateau, the south the Qinba Mountains, and the middle the Guanzhong Plain.

In this area, due to the continuation of the Qinling's terrain, a rare expanse of low hills and ridges has appeared; these ridges are not very high, and viewed from above they might look like a scar on the earth.

I erected a simple shelter and carefully examined the shapes of the ridges ahead. Dragon Ridge truly lives up to its name—its veins run crisscross, branches and trunks rising together. As the Dragon‑Seeking Maxim says: 'Great mountains and rivers, a hundred and ten strands; the Dragon Pavilion Treasure Hall is gone without number.'

Within Dragon Ridge lies a deeply hidden 'Dragon Pavilion Treasure Hall.' Its situation follows the currents, gathering and embracing the surroundings; these continuous, undulating mountain ranges manifest the hall's presence. The dragon's 'situation' here is not the kind suitable for burying emperors; an imperial mausoleum needs stability and strength, like famous mountains towering, great rivers flowing around, commanding heights overlooking depths, supreme under heaven. The situation displayed by Dragon Ridge is one of lying deep and remote, a tranquil, storing and preserving condition.

Such a situation can be used to bury imperial kin— for example, empresses, empress dowagers, princesses, princes and other close royal relatives. Buried here, it would make the imperial house flourish and remain stable, the court peaceful and tranquil; in short, it's akin to securing one's own backyard.

However, this situation has been destroyed by the natural environment— wind and rain cutting, earthquakes and landslides. Soil loss here is severe, the surface fragmented, and it no longer resembles its former state.

Nevertheless, at a glance one can see that the Dragon Pavilion Treasure Hall in Dragon Ridge lies just below the ridge where I stand. This is a slope heavily damaged by the natural environment; all the nearby ridges and gullies extend from this hill, and that Tang‑era ancient tomb is certainly inside the hill's belly.