Linhai|A mountain gathers four towers, the confidence of a thousand-year-old Taizhou prefecture

|A mountain gathers four towers, the confidence of a thousand-year-old Taizhou prefecture. When you brag to a friend about your experience visiting ancient towers on your journey, if the light in their eyes gradually fades, and they throw out a sentence at the end, "What's so special about towers, there are four on the small hill in front of my house." Don't get angry at this time, instead, you should be more tolerant of this straightforward friend; he just has some emotional intelligence problems, but he is very honest and deeply loves his hometown Linhai. "A mountain gathers four towers, a city hides eight temples", this phrase was not recently given to Taizhou prefecture, the old antithesis exists slightly deliberately but also emphasizes a fact. That is, throw the Jinshan Tower Group into the era where ancient buildings are common, it is still rare and outstanding. The four towers are distributed at different heights and ages, just occupying the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties after the Middle Ages. And thanks to the blessing of the southern section of the city wall facing the river, standing on the opposite river beach and looking north, the river wind ancient temple, the towering city defense, all these interweave under the distant view is no different from the old times. In an era where the antique style is prevalent and ancient cities and towns are rushing for commercial profits, the survival of the tower group undoubtedly retains a considerable amount of clues for us to reminisce about the past. Because whether it's a Buddhist pagoda or a geomantic tower, these old buildings required a lot of money and manpower, and they had to rely on cultural heritage as a foundation. And when these hard-to-get confidences met Taizhou, which happened to be one of the important towns for defense, transportation, and economy along the southeast coast, the gears of fate began to turn. I'm quite curious how many netizens who are passionate about "replacing Tang with Japanese" know that one of the sources of Japanese style is this small city in front of them. More precisely, at the foot of the mountain where the four towers are gathered, Jianzhen stayed here during his fourth eastward journey. Although his disciple Si Tuo is not famous, he brought the clay statue making technique originating from southeast Zhejiang to Japan. Since then, Japan's aesthetics and techniques in statue making have taken a significant step forward. The second reason is that half a century later, Zui Cheng came to Tang. This Japanese study monk who came from the sea traveled around Taizhou prefecture and Tiantai Mountain, during which he not only completed the ordination and seeking of the law, but also brought back several tea varieties in addition to the Tiantai sect's religious scriptures on his return journey. At that time, the Japanese court was smoky due to the inseparability of politics and religion by the Nara monks, and the introduction of the Tiantai sect seemed to be a clear stream, establishing a new religious reliance for the continuation of the Japanese imperial power in Heian-kyo. Two transmissions back and forth, both fruits borne from the rich cultural soil of Taizhou, are very local things when looked at closely. Then an interesting question arises here: the so-called Japanese envoys to Tang, is the cultural model they imitate more in Chang'an far away in Guanzhong, or closer in climate and distance in Jiangsu and Zhejiang? The obvious and abrupt changes in Japanese architecture or statues that do not match the Central Plains style, may form a closed loop in some archaeological studies along the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Anyway, protect Taizhou well, a complete ancient city can be a weapon of counterattack when necessary.