Xuedou Mountain, also known as Xuedou Mountain, is located 60 miles west of Fenghua County, Zhejiang Province today, with an altitude of 800 meters. It is a branch of Siming Mountain. A temple was built here in the Tang Dynasty. It was originally one of the ten temples of Zen Buddhism in my country. Although it is abandoned now, it still has many scenic spots.
Deng Mu visited Xuedou Mountain on the 24th day of spring in Guisi (1293). This travelogue left traces of him and allowed us to have a glimpse of the scenery of Xuedou Mountain seven hundred years ago.
In the first part of the travel note, the author uses four paragraphs to describe the journey from Shihu (ten miles southwest of Panmen, Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province today) to Xuedou Mountain, accounting for about two-fifths of the full text. Narrating the travel itinerary and explaining the journey makes the location of the scenic spots and the surrounding environment clear on paper, and also serves as a guide for later adventurers. This writing style has formed the unique characteristics of travel prose in my country. However, it is rare to see such a splash of ink in the opening chapter about the itinerary as in this article.
But it is not boring to read carefully. Hundreds of miles along the way, both land and water, starting from Shihu, the boat travels twenty-five miles to the river. "The river travels 90% of the way to the mouth of the river." When entering the stream, it travels "90% of the way to the spring mouth." In the shallow water, "the boat cannot enter." , then "traveled six or seven miles by land". After two days and two nights, they waded into small and large streams and reached the mouth of the river before turning into the mountain road. This simple text not only describes the long and tortuous journey, but also makes people see the author's enthusiasm for "going his own way" despite the dangers of the journey after "hearing that Xuedou visited the most mountains" during the long journey. .
The Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas are known for their beautiful scenery. There are many strange mountains and rivers along the way for hundreds of miles, so you won’t feel tired all the way. The author writes in a leisurely style: "Looking up and down the tide, you can travel dozens of miles in an instant." The joyful mood of the speeding boat pervades the words. After a while, the boat was traveling on a large stream, where there were deep ravines and dangerous ravines, which were very scary. After a while, the boulder was near the water, "like sitting with one's heels hanging down", how leisurely and comfortable it was. For a while, the stream surrounded the mountain and fell from a high place into the mountain stream. Looking from a distance, it looked like a snake rushing towards the big ravine, and the scenery was myriad. There are also "mulberry fields and wheat fields, connecting high and low", Tianjia cottages, "hidden bamboo trees", woodcutters and shepherds chasing and playing, which is quite like a peach blossom garden. The author really wanted to know the name and history of this place, but the villagers were not familiar with the Wu language and had no way of knowing. His regretful mood reflected his dissatisfaction with the dark reality and his yearning for a better life.
It seems that the author did not hesitate to write about this journey, and he recorded it carefully, not just casually.
From the fifth section, we turn to the mountain road and start climbing Xuedou Mountain. The author focuses on the Xuedou Mountain viewing pavilion, Qianzhangyan waterfall viewing and Miaogaotai viewing rocks.
Xuedou Mountain View Pavilion. The author moves and changes scenery. Climbing up to the second mountain peak, there are many scenic pavilions here, each with its own victory. Therefore, the author did not use "pavilions" as the object of description, but turned the lens to the scenery around them. The Yinxiu Pavilion is surrounded by thousands of fir trees; under the Shuyu Pavilion is a sweet clear spring; beside the brocade mirror is a pool surrounded by begonias, and the shadows of flowers reflect in the water, as brilliant as a brocade show; in the Hanhua Pavilion there are a collection of inscriptions and the essence of literary talent; on the pavilion is "Li Zong of the Song Dynasty" "Yingmeng Mingshan" Yubi? Sightseeing along the way is so beautiful.
Watch the waterfall at Qianzhang Rock. Qianzhangyan, as the name suggests, is a dangerous place with steep rock walls and a thousand-foot-deep valley. The author climbed to the "edge of the cliff", climbed a tree and "looked down" to the point where he was "dazzled and palpitated", and his feelings of adventure and victory were vividly displayed on the page. Watching the waterfall at Feixue Pavilion is a famous sight in Qianzhangyan. "At the beginning, if you practice hard, when you touch the rock, it will spurt like snow flying down." In just ten words, it describes the spectacular scene of the waterfall flying from the top of the cliff to the bottom of the pool: it sprays from the large garden with a diameter of more than ten feet. As it went down, it started out as wide as a big drill, and then collided with the rocks. Pearls splashed in all directions, as fine as flying snow, and they fell rapidly. Wetting the skirt of clothes is really intoxicating. "Emotions are born from things" (Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long· Quan Fu"), and "words are born from emotion" (Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long· Wu Se"). This surprise aroused the author's emotion. His lips moved, and when he was about to speak, he looked around, but there was no one who knew him, and he couldn't help but feel "sad for a long time." What does he want to say?" At this moment, the author definitely does not want to praise the mountains and rivers, he wants to "talk about metaphysics" (mostly referring to mysterious philosophy).
The Southern Song Dynasty fell when the author was 32 years old. He was filled with grief and indignation and refused to serve as an official. After wandering around the mountains and rivers, he would "sit in danger and eat only day and night" ("Dongxiao Picture Chronicles") when he stayed in the mountains and rivers. From then on, he lived in seclusion in Dongxiao Palace. He lived a poor life of "having no clothes to protect him from the cold and heat" ("Bo Ya Qin"). Until he passed away without any illness in the Transcendental Pavilion, he never changed his mind. What a difficult and dangerous life path he followed! There are two good friends, Xie Ao and Zhou Mi (who are also anti-Japanese hermits), but they have never traveled together and are in similar situations. The author's deep resentment and longing are revealed in the laments about his grief.
Viewing rocks from Miao Gao Terrace. The rocks and rocks here have strange shapes, and the author tried his best to describe their images, praising them as "natural and moving", which is far better than "looking at flowers". The "sadness" just now disappeared. In fact, the pain of this kind of injury is very close to the skin, and it comes out from the heart at the slightest trigger. There are three places mentioned in the above article about the sound of reading: one is the sound of monks reading from Yaoshi Temple, one is the "sound of chanting" coming from the large abandoned house in Xikou, and the other is Shaoye, the chief monk of Xuedou Temple, reading poetry. Voice. Hearing these friendly sounds of reading, the author not only stopped to listen, but also analyzed and commented. The way of life for ancient Chinese intellectuals is to cultivate one's morality, accumulate knowledge, and manage the family and the country. The author said in "Reverse Journey on the Wall": "It has been passed down from generation to generation in Yu's family, but only a bunch of books." This scholarly brother felt cordial and surprised by the sound of reading, which reflected that although he was living in the mountains and rivers, he could never forget his love for the world. humane. It can be seen that living in the wilderness is out of helplessness. The author was afraid that no one would understand his heart, so he named his collection of essays "Bo Ya Qin", probably because of this.
Deng Mu said in his autobiography: "If you ask for it in writing, every article will be praised and praised. It's not the person who asked for the generous gift." We don't need to criticize him for asking for the generous gift. Let’s see how much he respects his writing. Looking at the whole text, the author is very good at grasping the characteristics of the scenery: the pavilion in Xuedou Mountain, the waterfall in Qianzhangyan, and the rocks in Miaogao Terrace, each with its own characteristics. In the Fujian and Zhejiang areas, the three rivers and nine streams, Cangshan Mountain and clear water are always dependent on each other, especially Xuedou Mountain. But the author chooses his own beauty when writing about water: he may write the form, such as "the white snake winds"; or the sound, "the sound of the stream wraps around the pavilion"; or the taste, "the sweetness of drinking"; or the movement, "the big stream is thin". "Mountains turn"; or write quietly, "flowers and shadows pour into the water"; in short, it allows people to appreciate the uniqueness of each scene.
The author describes the shape of the scenery in an eclectic way. The color of the rocks at Miaogaotai is "either cyanotic (gān slightly reddish black) or pale". Some are like buckled bowls; some are like discarded hats, lying on the ground aggrievedly; some are like dragons jumping; some are like beasts squatting. On the mountain peaks in the distance, "green mist floats up, like a virgin's brilliance overflowing her eyebrows" - the green mist is lingering, the sun shines through, and the colors are colorful, just like a girl with beautiful eyebrows and tender eyes, no matter how beautiful the flower is, it can't compare. This description of the scenery, which is less than a hundred words, actually combines emotions, metaphors and personifications, distant and close views, contrasts and contrasts. It is so delicate and smooth that I don't stop writing until all the images are exhausted.
It is the tradition of our country’s travel prose to place feelings on the scenery and reflect on the objects. By the Tang and Song Dynasties, it had reached the realm of "the two parties of things and myself". The author of this article integrates his sad feelings into the scenery, which is natural and friendly, and makes people understand.