A Trip to Chi-nan 
(1235)
When I was a child, I followed my adoptive father to Yeh District when he went to serve in office there.[1] We passed through Chi-nan, but I could remember only the general appearance of the city. As an adult, whenever I heard others talk of the scenic beauty of the region and its wealth of sights, I always regretted not being able to travel there.
In autumn, during the seventh lunar month of the year i-wei [July
17-August 15, 1235], it had already been some three years since I had come north of the Yellow River.[2] Then, I had occasion to go to Chinan on account of an old friend, Li Fu-chih, and I compiled this record of my travels over a twenty-day period for all those who enjoy such things.
First, I arrived at Ch'i-ho District, where I met Tu Chung-liang, and we both proceeded east. The mountains alongside the road were connected to the Supreme Mountain to the south, but this day it was overcast so I could not see it. When we reached Chi-nan, Fu-chih and his colleague Ch'üan Kuo-ch'i arranged a banquet at the original site of the Pavilion Below Mount Li.[3] This pavilion is located behind the Official Residence and has existed since the state of Ch'i during the Chou dynasty.[4] Nearby are pavilions named "Encircling Waves," "Magpie Mountain," "Northern Isle," "Misty Ripples," "Water's Fragrance," "Westerly Water," "Frozen Waves," and "Frolicking Seagulls."[5] Both a terrace and a bridge are called "Wonderland of a Hundred Flowers";[6] a hall is named "Quietude"; a waterside pavilion, "Famous Scholars."[7] Below Westerly Water Pavilion is a lake named "Brilliance," whose source is Shun's Spring.[8] It is so large that it occupies one third of the city's area. The autumn lotuses were just in full bloom, red and green interwoven like embroidery, making one think that in its vastness, one is seeing islands in the Wu region.[9] Indeed, when times were peaceful, no place could compare with Chi-nan's architecture. But after twenty years of chaos,[10] only thorns, brush, roof tiles, and rubble remain, just like the former Palace of Abundant Virtue in the Southern Capital,[11] which has lain in ruins for what looks like a century. Situated among streams, brooks, grass, and trees, it has taken on a certain charm of cold desolation and unobtrusive antiquity. Although once there were high roofs with painted beams, it can never be restored. Still, Nature's skill lives on; it never depends on exterior decoration, yet it continues to seem wonderful.
Near Northern Isle Pavilion, one can see five solitary peaks in the northwest. One is named "K'uangs' Mountain."[12] The Ch'i River Road begins below it. It is generally believed that Li Po once studied here. Another is named "Millet Mountain," and another, "Medicine Mountain," which derived its name from its "sun stone."[13] Another is named "Magpie Mountain." The mountain folks say, "Every year around the seventh or eighth lunar month, magpies gather on its top." There is yet another mountain similarly named "Season of Magpies." This is how they got their names.[14] And there is another named "Flower Calyx."[15] Li Po's poem goes,
Fig. 36.
Sailing on Bright Lake in Chi-nan . From Linch'ing, Hung-hsüeh yin-yüan t'u-chi ,
vol. 1 (Peking: Pei-ching ku-chi ch'u-pan-she, 1984; rpt. of 1847 ed.).
In a former year, I traveled
to the City Below Mount Li
and climbed Flower Calyx Peak.
How majestic and flourishing this mountain:
blue and emerald like a lotus.[16]
This poem is truly a portrait of Flower Calyx Peak.
Brilliance Lake flows out from North Water Gate, where it merges with Relief River and spreads out boundlessly.[17] I gazed at this mountain in the distance, and it seemed to be in the water as well. This is the most scenic point in the City Below Mount Li.
East of Flower Calyx Mountain is Recumbent Ox Mountain.[18] Directly east some fifty miles in the southern part of Tsou-p'ing District are the Long White Mountains.[19] It is where Fan Chung-yen's schoolhouse, also known as Collegiate Hall, is located.[20] More than three miles east of the range are North and South Marvelous Mountains. Min Tzu-ch'ien's grave is located between these two peaks.[21] To the southwest is Buddha's Head Mountain, at the foot of which is a temple.[22] West of Thousand Buddhas Mountain is Container Mountain, about seven miles long containing some ninety valleys.[23] It forms the northern foothills of the Supreme Mountain. The Supreme Mountain is as close to the city as thirty miles but is blocked from view by Container Mountain. On clear days, one can make it out faintly from Northern Isle Pavilion. Mount Li is about two and a half miles from the city. A stele on the mountain says, "This mountain, tall and extensive, produces an inexhaustible supply of timber." But today, it is just a flat-topped hill. In the southwest after a small gap there is Candle Mountain, which stretches east from the southern mountains, extending for some three hundred fifty miles until it connects with the mountainous isles in the sea.
Eruption Spring is in the southwest of the city.[24] It is the source of the Lo River.[25] The mountain streams converge at Thirsty Horse Cliff, where the water forms eddies and seems to stop flowing. But when it reaches the city, it surfaces as this spring. Some people who were curious once tested this by dropping some chaff in the water, and it proved to be so. Formerly, the water overflowed its banks; it was barely knee deep, so the spring would gush more than three feet high. But now, grass and trees obstruct the flow and its depth reaches from seven to about ten feet. Consequently, the spring only gushes two or three inches above the surface of the water.
Recently, a prefect changed the spring's name to "Fenced-in Spring" and built a "Fenced-in Spring Arch," alluding to a theme in The Book of Poetry .[26] But natives still call it "Eruption Spring" as before; Eruption Spring is also called "Leaping Spring," according to Tseng Kung.[27] Golden Thread Spring has a line like a golden thread undulating back and forth on the pool's surface.[28] Nowadays, located by the spring is the Cloister by Spirit Spring. The Taoist, Kao, has a marvelous talent for playing the ch'in zither. People call him "Zither Kao." He invited me to stay over for two nights. The Metropolitan Graduate Hsieh Fei-ch'ing enjoys fine company and takes pleasure in good deeds; he is a cordial, generous, and considerate man. He joined me in my travels for more than ten days and said that one day he saw what is called the "golden thread." Minister An-wen Kuo-pao said, "If one uses a bamboo pole to restrain the water so that it does not flow forth, one may be able to see it." Hsieh and I wandered back and forth to the spring again and again for three or four days, but we never saw it. Tu K'ang's Spring has been paved over, but a native was able to point out its location for me.[29] The spring is located below the western veranda of Shun's Temple. It is said that Tu K'ang had manufactured wine from this spring. Someone took some water from Cold Spring by the Long River and compared it.[30] Each sheng of Cold Spring water weighed twenty-four chu , but this spring's water was lighter by one chu . If it were used to brew tea, it would not prove inferior to any of the waters ranked by Lu Yü.[31]
There are two "Shun's Wells,"[32] and there is a poem by Ou-yang Hsiu engraved in stone in large characters. The chapter on "Springs in the City Below Mount Li" in Writings from the Sweet Dew Garden[33] says:
The source of the Relief River is quite distant. It begins at King's Chamber Mountain in Ho-tung,[34] where it is called the Yen River. It flows into the Ch'in Marsh,[35] where it sinks down into the ground, reemerging at Unity Mountain,[36] where it begins to be called "Relief." Therefore, "The Tributes of Yü" states that Yü led the course of the Yen River eastward.[37] It passes Wen District and the city of T'ui-ch'eng and enters the Yellow River, where it becomes a torrential flow at Hsing-yang, then it turns into whirlpools between Ts'ao and P'u. Then it flows out north of T'ao's Hill, merges with the Wen River, and passes north of the Lo River m the City Below Mount Li before flowing eastward.[38] Moreover, Relief River is considered a "tu "[39] —a great river that flows into the sea—together with the Long, the Huai, and the Yellow rivers, which arc similar in size and equally noble. It is because the Relief River is obstructed by the Grand
Row Mountains[40] and separated from the Yellow River that it flows into the sea on its own—otherwise it does not deserve to be called a "tu ." The paths of the Long, Huai, and Yellow rivers flow above the level of the land, demonstrating the constant nature of water, but the Relief River sometimes flows below the level of the land, showing the adaptable nature of water.
I like this concept of water as "adaptable" and "constant," for it matches my own mind on the subject. Therefore, I have transcribed this passage.
Pearl Spring[41] now lies within Drafter Chang's garden. Twenty years ago, my friend Lei Hsi-yen wrote a poem about it.[42] I realized the skillfulness of this poem only when I visited the spring myself. In all, there are seventy-two famous springs in Chi-nan. Eruption ranks as the best, then Golden Thread, and then Pearl. As for Jade Bracelet, Golden Tiger, Black Tiger, Willow Catkins, Imperial Glory, Carefree, Washing the Alms Bowl, and Crystal Pond,[43] it isn't that they lack beauty but that they cannot be equated with the top three springs. During this journey, I visited Eruption Spring six or seven times, stayed at the Cloister by Spirit Spring on three occasions, and made two excursions by boat on Brilliance Lake.
I then turned eastward and passed through wooden barricades on the river. The name of this waterway is Embroidery River,[44] and it originates at the foot of the Long White Mountains, winding its way around for ten or fifteen miles. Regional Councillors Chang Tzu-chün and Chang Fei-ch'ing entertained me with wine at the Embroidery River Pavilion. We floated on a boat through more than three miles of lotuses, and the songs we sang were in the old style of the capital. There were lively discussions, and the hearty drinking ended only when evening fell. I stayed there for five days and then returned. The road passed by the estate of Drafter Wang. By the side of the road was a stone inscription that read:
Epitaph of Ch'ien Chen written in the twelfth lunar month of the year ping-wu during the K'ai-huang era of the Sui dynasty [January 15–February 12, 587]: He was a man from Wu-ch'ang in Pa Commandery,[45] was well versed in the Three Teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and content to remain in the country, where he lived to a ripe old age.
The language of the inscription was crude and the character pa was written as szu , no doubt a popular confusion of similar characters passed down from the Northern Chou and Sui dynasties. It also said that he was buried west of Pao's Mountain, from which I could discern that the small hill to the southwest was Pao's Mountain.[46] I calculated the years from ping-wu , the sixth year of the K'ai-huang era of the Sui, to chia-wu [1234–1235] today: the stone stele has stood by the grave for 649 years.
South of the road was the Schoolhouse of Vice-Minister Chang Shan[47] of the Dragon Diagram Hall, who personally attended the Jentsung Emperor [r. 1022–1063]. The characters for "Schoolhouse" were written by Su Shih, and there was a regulated verse by Fan Ch'unts'ui,[48] both of which were engraved in stone. Chang Shan's courtesy name was Shu-wen.[49] He himself wrote,
After I began my career, whenever I visited my family while on official business, I would meet my nephews who lived in the countryside. We would get thoroughly drunk, stopping only' when we felt completely happy, and would note each time the month and the year.
Shu-wen gained a reputation for his writing and had a successful official career, but because of his fame he was able to return to visit his family only three times during his life. This is the degree to which a famous official must labor; it makes one sigh with regret.
I arrived at Chi-nan, where I stayed another two days, making an excursion by boat on Brilliance Lake. I waited for Tu Chung-liang, who failed to arrive. The next day, I took the Ch'i River Road. After a light rain, the peaks of the Supreme Mountain could all be clearly distinguished. On either side, small mountains could be seen, layers upon layers of them. Clouds and mist appeared and disappeared, but I had no time to observe it all. I regretted that no fine words came to me so that I might write them down.
In all, I was able to write fifteen poems, to which I add those written in response by my friends, transcribing them as follows.[50]
Fig. 37.
Geese Gate Pass . From San-ts'ai t'u-hui (1609), Richard C. Rudolph
East Asian Library, University of California, Los Angeles.