“东骧神骏，西翥灵仪，北走蜿蜒，南翔缟素。”This couplet may be quite difficult for students of Mandarin program in China to understand. People will hardly think of it that the center coordinate of Kunming is hidden in this couplet of Da Guan Pavilion written by Scholar Sun Ran.
Here I’d like to uncover the secrets for everyone, especially students who are having Mandarin program in China in order to increase their interest in learning Chinese language.
The four ancient towers structure the ancient coordinate system
East Temple Tower and East Tower of Da De Temple are on the same meridian line; the longitude D-value of these two points is very tiny. While East Temple Tower-West Temple Tower locates on the same prime vertical circle. Therefore, they structure the ancient coordinate system of Kunming whose horizontal axis consists of East Temple Tower and West Temple Tower and vertical axis consists of East Temple Tower and Da De Temple. East and West Temple Towers and East and West Temple Towers of Da De Temple should be considered as an indivisible tower group and protected as a whole. The relationship of these four towers in geographic coordinates is uncommon and rare, for it is the unique thing of Kunming and can be regarded as the landmark of Kunming.
If you are having Mandarin program in China and interested in this, you can measure these four towers by yourself and check this statement.
The center coordinate of Kunming is hidden in the long couplet of Da Guan Pavilion
“东骧神骏，西翥灵仪，北走蜿蜒，南翔缟素。”which are mentioned by the long couplet of Da Guan Pavilion actually refer to the four mountains in the east, west, south and north of Kunming: Bi Ji Mountain, Jin Ma Mountain, Chang Chong Mountain and Bai He Mountain. Some of the students of Mandarin program in China have probably been there.
The east and west horizontal axis of Jin Ma Mountain-Bi Ji Mountain and East Temple Tower-West Temple Tower fits mainly on the prime vertical circle and the south and north axis of Chang Chong Mountain-Bai He Mountain and East Temple Tower-Da De Temple mainly fits on the meridian line. Obviously, the center coordinate of Kunming is hidden in the long couplet of Da Guan Pavilion. The coincidence of the small landmark structured by East Temple Tower-East Tower of Da De Temple and East Temple Tower- West Temple Tower and the big landmark structured by 东骧神骏 (Bi Ji Mountain)-西翥灵仪 (Jin Ma Mountain) and 北走蜿蜒 (Chang Chong Mountain)-南翔缟素 (Bai He Mountain) can show that Kunming people’s coordinate concept of east, west, south and north has been formed like these above since the Ming and Qing Dynasty or even further time. After this explanation, I suppose that students of Mandarin program in China will find the hiding meaning of these four verses from the long couplet.
The ancient coordinate system is the soul of Kunming landmark
East and West Temple Tower and East and West Tower of Da De Temple are the coordinate of Kunming in ancient time. If you can take part in a Mandarin program in China, you can go to have a look at the historical landmarks of Kunming and experience the old Chinese science in person.
No matter it is from the aspect of the geosciences of ancient coordinate system or from the historical culture connotation of Kunming, East Temple Tower-East Tower of Da De Temple, East Temple Tower-West Temple Tower and the natural-formed Bi Ji Mountain, Jin Ma Mountain, Chang Chong Mountain and Bai He Mountain should be protected as the landmarks of this city. Landmarks of city are the accumulation of history, the carrier of nature and morality and more the soul of the city.