from Diary of a Boat Trip to Wu
Fan Ch’eng-ta (1126–1193)
[Sixth lunar month] twenty-fifth day (22 July 1177): Set out from Omei town. Leaving by the West Gate, we began climbing the mountain and passed the two monasteries of Benevolent Fortune and Universal Security, White River Manor, and Shu Village Way-Stop. After twelve tricents came to Dragon Spirit Hall. From here on, mountain torrents ripped and roared; shady forests stood mighty and deep. Took a brief rest at Avataṁsaka Monastery. Then crossed Green Bamboo Bridge, Omei’s New Abbey Crossroad, Plum Tree Bank, West Dragon Hall, and reached Central Peak Monastery. The monastery has a Samantabhadra Gallery wreathed by a circle of seventeen peaks. It nestles against White Cliff Peak. The highest of the peaks rising prominently on the right is called Shout-and-Response Peak. Below is the retreat of Mao Chen the Venerated One—a place rarely visited by man.1 Sun Ssu-miao lived in seclusion on Mount Omei. When Mao Chen was here he often shouted and responded back and forth with Sun Ssu-miao from this spot, or so it is said.
Left the monastery and passed the two precipices of Camphor-Wood and the Ox Heart Monastery Crossroad. Then we reached the Twin Stream Bridges. The jumbled mountains hereabout huddle together like standing screens. There are two mountains opposite one another, each of which produces a stream. Side by side they flow to the base of the bridge. Their rocky channels are several tens of fathoms deep. With dark waters of deep green hue, the soaring torrents spurt foamy snowcaps as they race beyond the bridges and then pass into a high thicket. Several tens of paces from there the two streams form into one and then plunge into a great ravine. The waters in the abyss, still and deep, clear and pure, disperse to form stream rapids. All the small stones in the rapids are either multicolored or have patterns of green on a white background. The pale yellow hue of the water complements the colors of the stones, making the rapids look like an outstretched piece of emerald-colored brocade. This scene is not something that could be captured in a sketch. When the sunlight of dawn shines on the water and rocks, a shimmering brilliance emits from the surface of the stream that reflects off the cliffs and ravines. Tradition says this is a “Minor Manifestation” of the Noble Master (or Samantabhadra). As for Ox Heart Monastery, when Chi-yeh,2 Master of the Tripiṭaka, was returning home from the Western Regions he was going to found a sect here. He came upon two rocks poised against one another on the bank of the stream. He picked up one of them, in which there was an eyelike hole that ran straight through to its base. Chi-yeh regarded it as something precious and auspicious. To this day it still is housed in the monastery. The river here is thus named “Precious Manifestation Stream.”
From here we climbed some precipitous stone steps and passed the Bodhisattva Gallery. On the road there was a sign that read: “The Empire’s Great Mount Omei.” Then we reached the White River Samantabhadra Monastery. Every step along the way from the town to here is nothing but steep hillsides for more than forty tricents. Only now are we beginning to climb the foothills of the crested peaks.
Twenty-sixth day (23 July): Spent the night at White River Monastery. It was raining heavily, so we could not ascend the mountain. Paid a visit to the bronze statue of the Noble Master Samantabhadra. It was cast in Ch’eng-tu by imperial decree at the beginning of the dynasty. Among the gifts conferred on the statue by the courts of the emperors T’ai-tsung,3 Chen-tsung,4 and Jen-tsung 5 are more than one hundred scrolls of texts of imperial authorship, a seven-jeweled headdress, a gemmy necklace of gold and pearls, a Buddhist’s cassock, a gold and silver urn, an alms bowl, a makeup case, a censer, an incense spoon, joss sticks, a fruit plate, a bronze bell, a drum, a gong, a stone chime, “foamy” tea,6 a pagoda, and a chih-mushroom.7 There are also many other items conferred on the state by the Empress during the Ch’ung-ning reign,8 such as pennants embroidered with gold coins and pennants woven with red silk. Among these treasures is a Buddhist cassock of red silk with purple embroidery conferred by the emperor Jen-tsung. On it are proclamations written in the emperor’s own hand that read: “‘Buddha’s Dharma is enduring and exalted’; ‘The Dharma Wheel is forever turning’; ‘May the Empire be mighty, the people secure, winds favorable, and rains opportune’; ‘May spears and pikes be forever at rest’; ‘May the people know peace and joy’; ‘May sons and grandsons be abundant’; ‘May all living beings reach to the opposite shore of salvation.’ Recorded and signed by the emperor in the Hall of Prosperity and Peace on the seventh day of the tenth month in the seventh year of the Chia-yu reign (20 November 1062).”
Next we reached the monastery’s Sūtra Depository, which is a treasure-depository built by artisans from the Directorate of Manufacturing dispatched here by the Imperial Court. The front of the depository is a gate-tower. Smaller towers flank it on both sides. The gate-tower’s nails and hinges are all made of jade-stone, and are extremely well crafted and amazingly extravagant. Tradition says they are modeled exactly after the style of the main gate in the National Capital.9 The sūtras here were produced in Ch’eng-tu. They use blue, weighty paper with characters written in liquid silver. At the head of each scroll is a picture painted in liquid gold. Each picture covers the events in one scroll. A wheel sign 10 and objects such as small bells and pestles are embroidered on the outside covers of the sutras, as well as expressions such as “Peace in the Empire!” and “Long Live the Emperor!” which are placed amid patterns of dense flowers and elaborate foliage. Today one no longer sees this type of embroidery pattern.
Next we reached the Hall of the Three Thousand Iron Buddhas. We were told that Samantabhadra resides on this mountain, and that a company of three thousand disciples live with him. Thus, they built these Buddhas. The casting is very plain and simple. On this day we set out offerings and prayed to the Noble Master (or Samantabhadra), begging for three days of fine, clear skies so we could climb the mountain.
Twenty-seventh day (24 July): It was a clear, beautiful day and so we began our ascent to the upper peak. From here to the Luminous Form Monastery and Seven Treasure Cliff on the peak’s crest is another sixty tricents. The distance there from the level terrain in the town is probably no less than one hundred tricents. Moreover, no longer do we find any stone-step paths. Timbers have been cut and made into a long ladder, which is fastened into the cliff wall. One ascends the mountain by crawling up it. I submit that of all the mountains to climb in the empire, none matches this one in danger and height. As strong yeomen supported my sedan-chair in its forced ascent, thirty mountain lads drew it upward while they advanced pulling on a huge rope. My fellow travelers made use of the “ladder sedan-chairs” on the mountain.11
We left the White River Monastery through a side gate and then ascended to Touching Heart Mountain. It is said to be so steep that it makes climbers’ feet and knees touch their hearts and bosoms. Passed Thatch Pavilion Point, Small Stone Thunder, the Greater and Lesser Deep Gullies, Camel Precipice, and the Clustered Bamboo Way-stop. Generally, when one speaks of a way-stop, they mean a one-room wooden structure facing the road. If there are travelers about to climb the mountain, monks at the monastery first dispatch men ahead to boil water at a way-stop so that a hot, steamy meal will await the travelers.
Next we passed Peak Gate, Arhat Way-stop, the Greater and Lesser Supports and Lifts, Illusory Joy and Delight, Tree Bark Village, Monkey’s Ladder, and Thunder Cavern Flat. Generally, when one speaks of a flat, one means a place where one can more or less find a foothold. As for Thunder Cavern, the path here is on a steep cliff ten thousand rods high. There is a breach in the stone steps. If you spy down through it into the murky, black depths, it seems like a cavern. Tradition says that a divine dragon lives in a deep pool down there. In all, there are seventy-two caverns here. If there is a drought, people pray for rain at the third cavern. At first, they cast down perfumes and silks. If the dragon does not respond with rain, they then cast down dead swine and worn-out women’s shoes, which are meant to excite and arouse him. Often, thunder and wind then suddenly burst forth. Most of the so-called fleecy clouds above the Luminous and Bright Cliff on the peak’s summit are produced in this cavern.
Passed New Way-stop, Eighty-Four Switchbacks, and Teak Tree Flat. As for the teak tree, its frame and leaves are similar to those of the tobira shrub. They also resemble the red bayberry tree. Their blossoms are red and white, and they bloom between spring and summer. Teak trees are found only on this mountain. I first saw them when we had reached halfway up the mountain. But when you get here, they are everywhere. For the most part, the plants, trees, birds, and insects on Mount Omei are not found anywhere else in the world. I certainly heard about this long ago. Today I personally verified it.
I came here during the last month of summer. A few days ago there was a heavy snowfall. The tree leaves were still marked with mottled patterns of snow. As for the extraordinary vegetation, examples would be the eight immortals, which here is deep purple, the herdboy, which here is several times the usual size, and the knotweed, which here is pale green. I heard that in springtime the extraordinary flowers are especially numerous. But in that season the mountain is cold, so few people are able to become acquainted with them. As for the extraordinary plants and leaves, their numbers are also beyond calculation. The mountain is high and windy. Trees do not grow well here. Their branches all droop down. Ancient mosses, like disheveled hair, hang loosely and laxly from treetops, drooping to the ground, several yards long. There are, as well, pagoda pines that resemble conifers in shape, but their needles are round and slender. They are also unable to grow tall. Layer upon layer, they turn and twist upward like a pagoda. When you get to the mountain’s summit they are especially numerous. Furthermore, there are absolutely no birds here, probably because the mountain is so lofty that they cannot fly up this high.
From Teak Tree Flat we went on to pass Longing-for-the-Buddha Pavilion, Tender Grass Flat, and Foot-washing Stream. Then we reached our destination, the Luminous Form Monastery on the peak’s summit. This monastery is also a wooden structure with several tens of rooms. No one was staying there. Inside there is a Minor Hall of Samantabhadra. We had begun our ascent in the mao double-hour (5:00–7:00 A.M.). When we reached here it was already past the shen double-hour (3:00–5:00 P.M.). At first, I wore my summer garments, but it gradually got colder as we climbed higher. When we reached the Eighty-Four Switchbacks, it quickly turned cold. By the time we got to the summit of the mountain, I hastily put on two layers of wadded jackets, over which I added a fur cloak and a fur robe. This exhausted all the clothes stored in my trunk. I wrapped my head with a double-layered scarf and put on some felt boots. Still, I couldn’t stop shivering and trembling. Then we burned some coals and sat stiffly as we pressed against the brazier.
On the summit of the mountain there is a spring. If you boil rice in the spring water it will not cook. It just disintegrates into something like fine sand. One cannot cook things in the icy, snowy juices of ten thousand antiquities! I knew about this before. I had some water in an earthenware pot brought up from the lower reaches of the mountain, which was barely enough for myself.
A short time later we braved the cold and climbed to the Heavenly Immortal Bridge. Reached the Luminous and Bright Cliff. We burned incense in a small hall covered with a roof made of tree bark. Wang Chan-shu,12 the Vice Grand Councilor, once put tiles on the roof but they were worn away by snow and frost. Without fail, the tiles crumble to pieces within a year. Later he changed the roof back to tree bark, which on the contrary can last two or three years.
Someone told us that “Buddha’s Manifestation” (or “Buddha Light”) only comes out during the wu double-hour (11:00 A.M.—1:00 P.M.). Since it was already past the shen double-hour, we thought it might be best to return to our lodgings and come back the next day. Just as we pondered our decision, clouds suddenly emerged from the gorge to the side and below the cliff, which is Thunder Cavern Mountain. The clouds marched in columns like the Imperial Honor Guard. When they met with the cliff, the clouds halted for a short while. On top of the clouds there appeared a great globe of light with concentric coronas of various colors in several layers positioned opposite one another. In the middle was a watery, inky reflection that looked like the Immortal Sage (or Samantabhadra) riding an elephant. After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the light disappeared. But off to the side appeared yet another light just like the first one. In an instant it too disappeared. In the clouds there were two shafts of golden light that shot across into the belly of the cliff. People also call this a “Minor Manifestation.” At sunset all the cloud forms scattered. The mountains in the four directions fell silent. At the yi night-watch (9:00–11:00 P.M.) the lamps came out.13 They teemed everywhere below the cliff—tens of thousands of them filling our gaze. The night was so cold that we couldn’t stay outside for too long.
Twenty-eighth day (25 July): Again we climbed up to the cliff to view and gaze at the sights. Behind the cliff are the ten thousand folds of the Min Mountains. Not far to the north is [Little] Tile-roof Mountain, which is in Ya county. Not far to the south is Big Tile-roof Mountain, which is near Nan-chao.14 In shape it looks just like a single tile-roofed house. On Little Tile-roof Mountain there is also a luminous form called the Pratyeka-Buddha Manifestation. Behind all these mountains are the Snow Mountains15 of the Western Regions. Their jagged and cragged peaks, which seem carved and pared, in all number in the tens and hundreds. When the first light of day shines on them, their snowy hue is piercing and bright, like glistening silver amid the dazzling and resplendent light of dawn. From ancient times down to today, these snows have never melted. The mountains stretch and sweep into India and other alien lands, for who knows how many thousands of tricents. Gazing at them now, they seem spread out on a little tea-table right before my eyes. This magnificent, surpassing view tops everything I have seen in my life.
We paid a second visit to the hall on the cliff and offered prayers. Suddenly a dense fog arose in the four directions, turning everything completely white. A monk said: “This is the Silver World.” A short time later, there was a heavy downpour and the dense fog retreated. The monk said: “This is the rain that cleanses the cliff. Buddha is about to make a Great Manifestation.” The fleecy clouds again spread out below the cliff, gathered thickly, and mounted upward to within a few yards of the cliff edge, where they abruptly halted. The cloud tops were as smooth as a jade floor. From time to time raindrops flew by. I looked down into the cliff’s belly, and there was a great globe of light lying outstretched on a flat cloud. The outer corona was in three layers, each of which had blue, yellow, red, and green hues. In the very center of the globe was a hollow of concentrated brightness. Each of us onlookers saw our forms in the hollow and bright spot, without the slightest detail hidden, just as if we were looking in a mirror. If you raise a hand or move a foot, the reflection does likewise. And yet you will not see the reflection of the person standing right next to you. The monk said: “This is the Body-absorbing Light.” When the light disappeared, winds arose from the mountains in front and the clouds scurried about. In the wind and clouds there again appeared a huge, globular form of light. It spanned several mountains, exhausting every possible color and blending them into a beautiful array. The plants and trees on the peaks and ridges were so fresh and alluring, so gorgeous and striking, that you could not look at them directly.
When the clouds and fogs have scattered and only this light remains shining, people call it a “Clear-Sky Manifestation.” Generally, when the Buddha Light is about to appear it must first spread out some clouds—this is the so-called Fleecy-Cotton World. The light-form depends on the clouds to make its appearance. If it does not depend on the clouds, it is called a “Clear-Sky Manifestation,” which is extremely rare. After the time it takes to eat a meal, the light gradually moves off, traversing the mountains and heading off westward. If you look back to the left, on Thunder Cavern Mountain another light appears like the first one but a little smaller. After a short while, it too flies off and beyond the mountains. When the light reaches the level countryside, it makes a special point of circling back into direct alignment with the cliff. Its color and shape change completely, turning into a golden bridge that somewhat resembles Suspended Rainbow Bridge on the Wu River.16 But the ends of this bridge have purple clouds holding them up. In general, the cloud forms clear away between the wu and wei double-hours (11:00 A.M.—3:00 P.M.). This is called “Closing the Cliff.” Only the “Golden Bridge Manifestation” waits until after the yu double-hour before it disappears.
Those accompanying me to the peak’s summit included the Aide-de-Camp Chien Shih-chieh, style Po-chün; Yang Kuang, style Shang-ch’ing; Chou Chieh-te, style Chün-wan; the Presented Scholar Yü Chih, style Tzu-chien; as well as my younger brother Fan Ch’eng-chi. Today we were also joined by my fellow graduate Yang Sun, style Po-mien, and the Aide-de-Camp Li Chia-mou, style Liang-chung, both of whom had come from Chia-chiang town to join us. The light appeared just when they arrived.
Twenty-ninth day (26 July): Started down the mountain. When we first made our ascent, although we clambered upward with difficulty and had ropes pulling us in front, it was dangerous but not perilous. When we started down the mountain, although ropes were again tied to our sedan-chairs to lower us down the rungs of the ladder, the bearers found it difficult to keep their footing, and it was both dangerous and perilous. As we went down the mountain, gradually I began to feel the hot summer air, and so I peeled off my heavy winter garments one by one. During the wu double-hour, when we reached the White Water Monastery, I put on the light summer linens I had on before….
Translated by James M. Hargett
This selection is an excerpt from a well-known travel diary titled Wu-ch uan lu (Diary of a Boat Trip to Wu). Written in 1177 by the famous Sung dynasty statesman and poet Fan Ch’eng-ta, this text describes a boat journey from Ch’eng-tu (in modern-day Szechwan), where the author had just finished serving as governor, to his home in Wu township (near modern-day Soochow, Kiangsu). After an initial sightseeing trip that took Fan to several scenic and historic sites situated to the north and west of Ch’eng-tu, his custom-made riverboat carried him, his family, and attendants down the Yangtze River all the way to Chen-chiang (modern-day Kiangsu). From there they proceeded south on the Grand Canal directly to Soochow. In all, the trip took 122 days (from 27 June to 26 October) and covered a distance of almost two thousand English miles.
During the journey, Fan Ch’eng-ta kept detailed records in the Wu-ch uan lu of his many visits to local places of interest. Among these, his account of a ten-day trip to Mount Omei (Omei shan) in Szechwan is the most widely acclaimed, not only because it is the earliest detailed account of the mountain known, but also because of Fan’s lively prose style and eye for fascinating details. The excerpts translated here describe his ascent to the mountain’s summit. Without a doubt, his observation of the “Buddha Light” (Fo-kuang), an optical phenomenon that the devout believed to be a manifestation of Omei’s “resident” Bodhisattva, P’u-hsien (Samantabhadra in Sanskrit), is the highlight of Fan’s experience on Mount Omei. We join Fan and his traveling party (which did not include his family; they were sent earlier to a town downriver to wait for him) just as they are departing from the town at the base of the mountain and begin their ascent into the clouds.
1. Mao Chen was a Taoist adept of the Sui dynasty who supposedly gained immortality during his stay on Mount Omei. Sun Ssu-miao, mentioned in the next sentence, is also reported to have sought eternal life during his residence on Omei in the Sui and T’ang periods. He had a strong interest in alchemy and is well known for having authored several important medical treatises.
2. Chi-yeh was a famous Buddhist monk from Kaifeng who, under imperial auspices, traveled with three hundred other monks to India in 964 in order to get copies of various sūtras. He did not return to China until 976.
3. Reigned 976–997.
4. Reigned 997–1022.
5. Reigned 1022–1063.
6. Fan is probably referring to a special variety of tea from Fukien which, when brought to a boil, produces a waxlike film on the surface of the water. It is also possible, however, to read this as “candles, tea….”
7. A chih is a wood-fungus believed by some to confer longevity.
8. 1102–1107.
9. That is to say, the gate is styled after the main access gate to the Forbidden City in Kaifeng (Honan), the capital of the Northern Sung dynasty.
10. Referring to the nine-leveled wheel or karma sign placed on top of a pagoda.
11. The term “ladder sedan-chairs” probably refers to wooden litters for one person that are tied on a bearer’s back.
12. Or Wang Chih-wang (1103–1170).
13. Earlier in his journey Fan Ch’eng-ta had observed similar “lamps” on Mount Green Wall in Szechwan and commented on their possible origins: “Some people say they are the glow of cinnabar drugs hidden away by the ancients. Others say they are the essence of plants and trees, which has a glow. And still others say they are made by dragon spirits and mountain demons. The explanation most people believe is that they have been devised by immortals and sages.” Others in traditional China identify these same lights as “flitting fires,” which, they explain, emit from long-standing concentrations of blood found in places such as old battlefields. Western scholars have also offered possible explanations of these “lamps.” Some equate them with ignis fatuus (or “will-o’-the-wisp”), the spontaneous combustion of an inflammable gas derived from decaying organic matter. Others say they might be the result of sparks of static electricity or a kind of electroluminescence known as ignis lambens. All these explanations, however, are tentative at best. For now at least, the precise origin of Mount Omei’s “lamps” remains a mystery.
14. An ancient Buddhist kingdom situated in what is now Yunnan province.
15. The Himalayas and their associated ranges.
16. This famous bridge was near Fan Ch’eng-ta’s home in Kiangsu.