Watching stars on Songshan Mountain

If you want to appreciate the best quality culture of Central Plains, you’d better go to the Songshan Mountain. The splendid cultural starlight may make your eyes shine.
Not to mention the literary excellence of Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty, the splendid culture of Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty, just the history of Chinese even the world astronomy, you will suddenly find two dazzling stars risen from here: one is Zhangsui (monastic name: Yixing) in Tang Dynasty and the other is Guo Shoujing in Yuan Dynasty. These two persons had special relations with the Songshan Mountain: Yixing abandoned his government post and secluded himself in Huishan Temple of the Songshan Mountain; Guo Shoujing changed the calendar under by order and built the Star Observation Platform at Gaocheng Town. The former was more than 500 years earlier than the latter, but both of them set foot in Songshan Mountain and were nurtured by the abundant landscape of Middle Yue.
Huishan Temple, under the Jicui Peak of Taishi Mountain hides itself in intense forest. When you walk into the forest, you can see red walls, green trees and feel ancient customs. All these suddenly make you feel clear and still. It’s really a good place for self-cultivation. The powers of the Buddha are unlimited. Refreshing breeze blows over with the quacking of wild geese. Countless smiles brew within the wind. Are they the smiles of Yixing? I think so. He smiles for his success and his magnificent life. As a Buddhist, he ordained more than one thousand people in a year when he took charge of the temple. The burning incense in Huishan Temple exceeded the East Capital (Luoyang) at that time several times. This resulted in a master of Buddhism secret sect. As a scholar, he not only compiled “Dayan Calendar”, but also actually measured the length of terrestrial meridian. All these eventually made him splendid in history. He made great contributions in academy and Buddhism and was unprecedented in history. A life with so many achievements is enough!
The Star Observation Platform is located at Gaocheng Town. It has always been the geomantic treasure land: Yangcheng was the first capital of Xia Dynasty, Chou Kung measured the shadow here, Chen Sheng was born here and Wu Zetian renamed it. It has other glories: in the Zhougong Temple, the monument of Guo Shoujing towered aloft. He was put in an important position by Kublai Khan to modify the calendar. He designed a new set of instrument (abridged armilla and high meter) and established 27 observation points across the country. The Star Observation Platform at the foot of the Songshan Mountain was its central observation point. He referred to sun shadows in the daytime and observed stars at nights to rectify the day and night. Thus Guo Shoujing compiled the “Time Service Calendar” which was put in use for 400 years. It was as accurate as the current used western calendar “Gregorian Calendar” but more than 300 years earlier than that. On seeing the spoiled platform, who can imagine its glorious history and its wonderful application?
Unfortunately, only a small number of people may visit this place with so much scientific knowledge. Indeed, there’s no wonderful mountain and water, no enchanting spots, no romantic themes, no immortals. It only has broken stones and spoiled platform, how many people may have interested in it? Does Guo Shoujing lose at the present? But I think it should be others who lose the game. People's Congress Standing Committee of Zhengzhou City has passed regulations to specially protect it and list it with the Pagoda Forest of Shaolin Temple and Songyue Pagoda for the declaration of world cultural heritage. On hearing this, an idea suddenly came to my mind: why not build a Science and Technology Museum to give people knowledge and give Guo Shoujing an account?
Standing on the platform, thoughts or recollections flashed across my mind. Looking back, I imagined Yixing, Shoujing were still there and toasted to each other happily. Maybe they were discussing how to make new achievements in the history of astronomy in China. Anyhow, make it an eternal scenery in our hearts.
Introduction of the author: Guo Liang, male, 33 years old, graduated from Henan University, a member of Degnfeng Writers Association, more than 40 publications on Guangming Daily, China Education Daily, Educational Times and Zhengzhou Daily. At present a teacher in the First Middle School of Dengfeng.