1895.06 华北佛教大圣地的朝圣之旅

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华北佛教大圣地的朝圣之旅
作者：威廉-伍德维尔-洛克希尔
1895年6月号
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" 汉明帝时，马腾从西域来到中国，他以超自然的眼光看出'清寒山'是文殊菩萨的居所，那里有阿育王建立的舍利塔。因此，他请求皇帝在那里建一座寺庙，它被称为 "大信鹫峰寺"；因为它所处的山峰与印度的鹫峰相似，而 "大信 "这两个字使人们知道，皇帝是全中国第一个对佛祖表示信任的人。

当我住在北京时，有一天我在一本繁琐的中文书中读到了中国北方最伟大的佛教圣地--俗称五台山1的历史，我下定决心利用当年的假期去参观这个著名的圣地。


对北京的外国居民来说，月复一月、年复一年地被关在肮脏、恶臭和无趣的城墙范围内，换个环境成为一种积极的渴望，哪怕是这么短的时间。为了得到它，他不仅会勇敢地，而且实际上会享受在中国旅行所带来的所有不适；当他发现了一些要达到的目标，一些要追求的目标，除了逃离北京的恶臭，他的快乐是完整的，他的热情是无限的。

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至少我是这样想的，1887年9月的一个早晨，我离开我们的公使馆，准备穿越蒙古南部，前往乌台，我的双腿蜷缩在身下，头伏在胸前，以便能够适应我的骡子轿子的低矮和狭窄的限制，那是所有交通工具中 "最令人恼火的"，大仲马如此恰当地称呼它。

我们所走的路引领我们向卡尔甘方向北行，先到南康，然后穿过长城，在那里穿过海拔一千九百英尺的山口。访问北京周边地区的外国人将这一点称为南柯一梦，尽管它的真正名称是朱勇隘口。中国人把它列为北京国家的八大奇迹之一：我在返回北京的路上要经过的浑河上的卢沟桥是另一个奇迹。

在南昆仑，我们可以看到长城最美的一面，它沿着岩石的山脊，从高处俯视着人们，而且，尽管它在中国的任何地方看起来都很奇怪，但它的维修状况相当好。中国政府应该禁止外国人在南昆仑及其附近地区以外的地方参观长城，因为这样他们就可以回家并真诚地写下这个 "世界第八大奇迹，两千多年来一直是中国的壁垒 "等。但是，所有世俗的伟大都是悲哀的！中国的长城并不是到处都有的。中国的长城并非处处都是长城；在某些地方，它是一道非常小的墙，而且我认为，在它存在的任何时期，它从东边到西边都处于良好的维修状态，这是很不可能的。

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中国人有两道大墙。外墙，或称边墙，从山海关开始，经过卡尔根，在国境线以北的钦榆关结束，以及内墙，或称 "妙利墙"，也叫 "长城"，从南口东北开始，向南延伸，构成池州和山海关的边界；它的北段有分支，穿过山海关，在黄河附近与边墙相遇。这些城墙不是一次建成的，而是在历代王朝中建成的，因为边界的某一部分似乎需要这种防御。有些部分直到最近才被修复；其他部分则完全被忽视，早已坍塌，在一些地方没有留下任何痕迹。这些墙的一部分是用砖头和石头建造的，或者仅仅是用石头，还有一些是用泥土建造的。

除了长城之外，在中国的整个边境地区，仍然可以看到复杂的烽火台网络，这些烽火台在古代用于向首都传递信号。大部分的烽火台现在已经成为废墟，但它们的一个特点仍然可见：只有通过从外面放下来的绳梯，才能登上它们的顶峰。Abbé Larrieu在他的小册子《中国长城》中，似乎将这些塔楼与那些构成长城本身的塔楼混为一谈。看到它们之间没有连接墙，他轻率地得出结论，长城不存在，也从未存在过。实际上，这些在城墙两侧延伸数百英里的烽火台，与城墙完全无关。

南昆仑山口以北的道路通向一个宽阔起伏的平原，被崎岖和光秃秃的山峰封闭，沿着山脚可以看到厚厚的黄土沉积；城镇和村庄，在柳树林和小米和高粱田中，点缀在宽阔的山谷中。每隔几英里就会经过一座有墙的城市。这些防御工事的长度和高度以及中国境内的大量防御工事都让我感到惊讶。十八个省的所有省、县、厅和区的城镇（它们的数量接近一千九百个）都被城墙所包围，其中最短的城墙不会少于一英里，而许多城墙至少有八英里长，其高度平均为十五英尺。与这些城墙的总长度相比，长城本身的长度和建造工作就显得微不足道了，特别是当我们考虑到不少于一半的长城是由泥土建成的，而所有的城墙都曾在某个时候用窑洞烧制的砖块从里到外铺设。

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离开北京后的第三天，我们绕过鸡鸣山（Ch'i-ming shan）的山脚，在泥泞的洪湖边。这座山是在去卡尔甘的路上看到的最引人注目的山之一，山顶上有一座佛教寺庙，其鲜红的墙壁和常青树总是在这种地方周围出现，给这块荒凉的褐色土地带来了活力和色彩。全世界的佛教徒都以完美的技巧选择了最美丽的地点来建造他们的寺庙，并不遗余力地保护他们所建造的每个地方的所有自然美景。从锡兰的亚当峰到中国的五台山和峨眉山，自佛教早期以来，山顶一直被视为建立寺庙的最理想的地方。由于佛教徒的审美倾向，我们几乎可以在中国的这一地区找到所有真正漂亮的风景；因为在远离寺庙的地方，我看到的每座山都像我们西方的荒野一样光秃秃。

离开鸡冠山后，我们沿着浑河的河道走了几英里--起初是在沙地上，然后是在斑岩上开出的道路，高过河水的黄色。在越过一个海拔约2100英尺的山口后，我们从那里看到了远在东方的山顶上的长城，我们来到了距离卡尔甘约20英里的大县城--宣化府，我们在第二天到达了那里。

卡尔干2号与桂花城分庭抗礼，是中国北方最重要的边贸市场；它是大量蒙古贸易的中心，也是俄罗斯与中国陆路贸易的大部分转运点。它位于蒙古大草原的山脚下，长城从镇子后面穿过，在通往蒙古的通道口周围呈不规则的长条状延伸。它的人口估计为十万，其中两万为穆罕默德教徒。后者和山西商人几乎垄断了中国这一地区最有价值的贸易。在卡尔冈，穆罕默德人有一座精美的清真寺和神学院；前者与其他穆罕默德国家的类似建筑有些相似，但其内部装饰完全是中国风格。

有几个美国传教士家庭住在卡尔甘的郊区，住在外国风格的漂亮房子里，这充分证明了一个中国农民曾经对我说过的话。"他说："外国人最奇怪的是，他们中没有穷人。"这个传教会已经存在了18年，现在有几百个皈依者，或多或少都有一些归属感。传教团最初的意图是致力于所有佛教徒中最虔诚的蒙古人的皈依，但没过多久就证明这是一项不可能完成的任务，就像在世界其他地方证明穆罕默德人的基督教化一样困难。

从卡尔根到蒙古的道路通向一个宽阔的石质山谷，在其他光秃秃的山坡上，偶尔有一小块耕地。通过一个非常渐进的上升过程，人们达到了四千两百英尺的高度；然后在岩石上急速攀爬了半个小时，就到了蒙古高原边缘的汉诺（四千九百英尺）。从这里，我们回首望去，一大片荒芜的山顶一直延伸到地平线。虽然视野开阔，但远非美丽：黄色的黄土给山峰和山谷以及流经它们的溪水带来了统一的色调；看不到一棵树，而且，由于是秋天，田里的庄稼与自然风景共同构成了一种普遍的黄色色调。

汉诺威以北的国家，直到我们转向西边的石巴儿台，都是连绵的高原，覆盖着短而粗的草，与我们的西部平原非常相似。我们不时地经过一个蒙古人的帐篷，附近有小群的牛、马或骆驼在吃草，或者可能是一个中国人的农舍，周围有燕麦或土豆田。事实上，我们所经过的蒙古南部地区都在经历着从牧区到农业的快速演变。来自山西的中国人正稳步地把游牧的蒙古人赶得越来越远，少数留下来的人不得不在很大程度上放弃他们的民族习俗。几乎在所有地方，我们都发现中国人的土坯房和蒙古人的毛毡帐篷并排在一起，在蒙古的这一地区，这种帐篷在很多年后就会成为历史了。而所有这些变化都是在过去十年里发生的。15或20年前，冯-李希霍芬男爵走过这条路时，在西边60英里远的石巴台和西营子之间没有看到一座中国人的房子，但我们每隔一英里左右就会遇到这样的房子。

虽然蒙古大草原的总体面貌让我想起了我们的西部大草原，但它的植物群却没有我在我国看到的那种多样性。让我印象特别深刻的是，在我看来海拔很低的地方发现了大量的酢浆草，大约海拔四千七百英尺。后来，在五台山，我在七千英尺以上的地方发现了这种植物，这是燕麦停止种植的海拔高度。

离开石巴儿台，我们转向西南方向，向山西的达翁府进发，途中我们看到了比利时天主教传教士的几个站点，其中最重要的是西营子的站点。蒙古与我们的西部大草原有另一个共同特点--迷失方向比坚持上路更容易。从石家庄出发的第一天，虽然我们设法保持了正确的方向，但我们四处游荡，以至于我们没有到达我们所期望的阶段。如果不是我的旅伴是伟大的德国旅行家冯-李希霍芬男爵的忠实崇拜者，这本身就会是一个非常小的意外。我博学的朋友手中一直拿着男爵的那本厚厚的著作，其中描述了我们正在旅行的那段国家；所以在这命运最差的一天，当我们不得不在与李希霍芬停留的地方不同的地方过夜时，他的悲伤和苦恼达到了极点，甚至他的晚餐和酒也失去了味道，他闷闷不乐地上床了。

第二天，我们到达了西营子，从远处就能认出它那漂亮的教堂，在它周围那些可怜的小木屋中，它似乎有大教堂的规模。我们受到了传教士们最友好的接待和款待，而且我们很幸运地见到了教区的主教Monseigneur Bex，他来这里几天是为了检查教堂的建设情况。这个传教所已经存在了大约半个世纪，起初是由拉扎里派负责，而在过去的17年里，是由比利时传教士负责。大家应该记得，胡克神父从这里附近的一个站点--黑水开始了他令人难忘的西藏之行。现在教区内大约有三千名基督徒，他们在村社中组织起来，由主教任命的头人指挥。诉讼几乎总是在不求助于本地当局的情况下得到解决，神父和主教实际上是其羊群的世俗和精神统治者。基督徒将他们的农作物的2%用于支持教会，再加上政府的重税，大约占他们收入的10%或12%，尽管如此，他们仍然享有相对较高的物质福利--这要归功于牧师们的保护，使他们免受当地官员的苛捐杂税，这对所有中国人来说是非常沉重的。虽然新教徒人数不多，但由于每个传教站都有附属的育婴医院，所以基督教人口不断地增加。中国各地普遍存在杀婴、遗弃或买卖女婴的现象，3 尽管所有教派的传教士都拯救了大量这些可怜的小生命，但在乡村和城市，许多人在出生时就被淹死或以其他方式丢弃。

几年前，在中国这个地区发生的可怕的饥荒中，有一天，一位本地的天主教神父以大约一美元半的价格买下了三车小女孩，他在西营子附近的路上看到这些小女孩。男孩在出售时，则要贵一些。我的一个喇嘛朋友，在这次饥荒期间也在五台山，他告诉我，当时许多喇嘛买了七八岁的男孩，让他们成为新手，价格大约是20美分一个人。天主教传教所的弃儿像普通的中国儿童一样被抚养长大--只有那些表现出明显天赋的儿童才会被教导祈祷和缝纫以外的东西--当他们大约16岁时就会被嫁出去，或者成为慈善修女。异教徒们非常愿意与这些女孩结婚，并自己接受基督教，因为与基督徒的关系可以带来物质上的好处。为了说明基督徒被他们的 "精神之父 "完美控制的情况，只需提到本教区的前任主教禁止压迫女婴的脚，尽管这种不遵守最珍视的习俗的行为必须永远给他们带来社会排斥，但每个人都服从了。当我们知道这个王朝最强大的皇帝康熙在努力了四年之后，不得不废除他颁布的禁止捆绑妇女双脚的法令时，就可以想象出执行这种措施所意味着的权威。

在西营子的南面，矗立着大清山，我对它特别感兴趣，因为李希霍芬说在山脚下发现了大量的石器。从主教到 "最古老的居民"，每个人都说他从未听说过这种事情，并认为李希霍芬一定是被误导了。

第二天早上，我们的路途经过玉树湾，那里矗立着一棵孤独的榆树，Abbé Hue在他那本迷人的游记中提到了这棵树，说它是 "蒙古国唯一的树"。离这里不远，在塔青山后面，是陪同胡克到拉萨的蒙古人桑坦西姆巴居住的村庄。父辈们告诉我，他精神矍铄，刚从陪同俄国旅行家波塔宁到可可诺尔回来。

在经过比利时传教团的另一个站--二石山站（Erh-shih-sou）之后，我们受到了Rubbens神父最亲切的接待，我们越过了几座低矮的山丘，最高的有5650英尺，之后我们迅速下降到Tat'ung Fu的平原。在距该城约20英里处，我们越过了横跨山谷的边疆墙：这是一道黄土泥墙，原本约有18英尺高，但在其大部分长度上，现在只有两三英尺高的墙。我们通过的大门由两根直立的柱子组成，上面横向钉着一块木板；小泥屋前挂着一块牌子，向所有来者宣布这是长城的一个门，也是海关的一个关卡。城墙上没有砖砌的痕迹，但在城墙前面大约两百码的独立塔上，我无法令人满意地看清其目标，一些砖砌的残迹仍然可见。这座城墙可能建于公元六世纪，在整个山西省和该省西部，它的结构和保存状况与这里的部分没有区别。Huc、Prjevalsky和最近的Younghusband都说这是一道低矮的泥墙，人们可以跳过去，他们看到的许多门都和我经过的门一模一样。

Ta-t'ung Fu，就像我在帝国这个地区看到的大多数其他中国城市一样，肮脏、破旧、无趣；商店很小，人们快乐、好奇，而且显然很懒惰。我在城内看到的唯一漂亮的东西是一堵风水墙，大约50英尺长，在一座寺庙前面；它覆盖着琉璃瓦，上面有九条四爪龙，黄色和红棕色的高浮雕，背景是绚丽的绿宝石蓝。第二天，我在去往永康美丽的石窟寺的路上也看到了类似的墙，虽然比较短。

当我在西营子的时候，父亲们告诉我，在塔城府附近的一个村子里有奇怪的岩石寺庙，所以我在那里停留了一天，以便能够参观这个地方，我在任何旅行书中都没有看到过这个地方。

永嘉庵是一个小村庄，位于大唐府西北约12英里处，在通往桂花村的路上，位于一个相当狭窄的山谷中，有一条很大的河流流过，即洋河。在这里，河水凿穿了砂岩床，有些地方至少有八十或一百英尺厚，在这里挖掘了许多洞穴寺庙，并在其中用活石雕刻了巨大的佛像和圣人像。这些挖掘的范围可能超过三百码，但所有的建筑--最初可能有四座--都已经倒塌，除了一座被称为 "石佛古寺"（Shih Fo ku sŭ）的寺庙，该寺庙由一个中国寺庙普通风格的木制门面组成，有四层楼高；每层的屋顶都覆盖着松石蓝色的瓦片。光线可以从建筑的正面进入，也可以从洞穴中的一个大洞进入，穿过中央图像上方的叠石。寺庙的主体是在岩石上开凿的，包括两个独立的小教堂，几乎是圆形的，直径约30英尺。东边的礼拜堂里有三尊镀金的佛像，中央的是释迦牟尼佛的坐像，高50多英尺。两边的图像有三十多英尺高。天花板和墙壁上到处都有雕塑，以相当高的浮雕形式表现了坐着的佛和圣人，每个人都有一英尺高，周围有树木、动物等图案；整个作品的雕塑效果非常好，但却用相当艳丽的颜色来描绘。另一个小教堂也是类似的；它供奉的是观音，观音的形象也是鎏金的，高约30英尺。在这个寺庙的左右两边的洞穴中，可以看到其他的神像，不过都比上述的神像小，而且没有显示出像石佛古寺中所显示的那样完备的工艺。后面这些屋檐现在被村民用来储存他们的农作物。

管理该寺的牧师告诉我，该寺建于公元五世纪，虽然我找不到早于十七世纪上半叶顺治年间的碑文，但我的线人可能是非常正确的。事实上，为了证明他的故事的可能性，我可以说，在《魏书》或《魏国史》中，我发现了一段可能涉及永嘉寺的文字。公元461年，文成帝将佛教徒T'anueeh召至宫中，并在一段时间后将其作为精神导师。"在泰岳的建议下，皇帝在其首都西部的武周山岩石上开凿了五个洞穴，并在每个洞穴中雕刻了佛像，最大的有七十英尺高，其他的有六十英尺高；这些佛像都是以最精致的方式进行雕刻和绘画，是有史以来最美丽的作品。

据我所知，在今天，达翁附近没有叫武周的地方或地区，但在永安附近有一座被称为武周山的山，这在一定程度上证明我认为《魏书》中提到的地方可能就是我访问的地方。北魏的皇帝们被认为开凿了其他奇妙的洞穴，但其目的我并不清楚。因此，在魏朝历史的一个段落中，我们读到，在公元500年，"皇帝命令Tach'ang Ch'in-Ching在Lo[Lo-nan]南部的Yi-chüeh shall开凿两个石洞，类似于在Tai-ching[当时的首都Tai-chou]的Ling-Yen ssŭ中存在的石洞。"

在回塔城的路上，我经过一个路边的小神龛，上面挂满了祭品，但我不知道它供奉的是什么神。阳台上有一把巨大的铁戟，高约七英尺，重约三百磅，似乎是主要的崇拜对象。没有人在附近告诉我这个可怕武器的历史，但如果有人问起，我很可能会被告知它是自己来的，--"它知道如何飞行"，这是中国人提供的常见解释。

我可以在这里提到我在池州和山西注意到的一种奇怪的树木崇拜的生存方式。我们几乎每天都会经过一些村庄，每一个村庄都矗立着一棵参天大树--通常是柳树--上面挂满了祭祀牌和碎布条，上面写着这样的句子："由于精神的恩惠，""我已经寻找，我已经找到"，这些都是被一些人挂起来的，他们被一些抱怨困扰着，向树的精神祈祷，在它面前烧香，发现自己的痛苦得到缓解。

离开大唐芙后，我们向南走了三天，在一片广阔的平原上，许多地方的土壤被钾肥浸透，无法耕种。


第三天傍晚，我们再次遇到了长城，这次是内墙，在通往泰州的山脚下经过光武阁的地方。它在山谷的两边可能有半英里长，砖面和花岗岩角仍然完好无损，但在更远的地方，它的痕迹都消失了。这个地方防御设施的一个特点，也是我在其他地方没有见过的，就是城墙前面的分离式塔楼呈截顶状；我在其他地方看到的都是金字塔形。

从通往泰州的山口（5200英尺），我们第一次看到了五台山，这座北面的山峰似乎被白雪覆盖，据说它全年都在北侧。在这段旅程中，我们与一队士兵和两名被带往省城斩首的罪犯结伴而行。这两位先生似乎丝毫没有被他们迅速接近的结局所吓倒，和他们的指挥者一样欢快地慢跑着。每个人的喉咙和一只脚踝上都有沉重的铁环，由一条大铁链连接。这条铁链他们可以根据自己的需要取下并携带，当他们走到一个村庄时再把它放回原位。由于他们没有穿红衣，而红衣是这个国家被定罪的罪犯的通常服装，我没有立即认出他们属于那个阶层，看到一个人进入山口的寺庙，在神像前磕头，我把他当作朝圣者，并问他要去哪里，令我惊讶的是，他回答说："去太原府，要被处决，"然后安静地继续他的祈祷。


通往泰州的山谷下部充满了厚厚的黄土，道路深陷其中，就风景而言，还不如在铁路上行驶；但每当我们瞥见周围的山谷时，我们就会看到丰富的树叶，胡桃河水在镇子后面流淌时闪闪发光，以及远处的五台山的巍峨。

泰州的山谷给我的印象是特别肥沃；燕麦、小米、土豆和烟草是主要的作物。荞麦、红薯、卷心菜、大麻和一种靛蓝植物沿路生长，我们发现罂粟的种植一直延伸到海拔5900英尺的武当山侧面。许多村庄的房顶上都挂满了在阳光下晾晒的红辣椒，我仿佛又回到了韩国，那里的辣椒在秋天掩盖了所有的屋顶。

在泰州，我想买一些古玩，有人给我带了几个盘子、碗和一些刺绣；但它们没有任何价值。拥有这些东西的商人说，所有有价值的东西都去了北京，首都的古玩商不断来到这里，搜遍了整个中国北方，北京是唯一可以买到好古玩的地方。


离开泰州后，我们沿着滹沱河的河道走了大约8英里，到了吴哥窟，在那里我们拐进了一个狭窄崎岖的峡谷，顺着峡谷流淌着一条清澈、湍急的小溪--吴哥嘴；沿途每隔一英里左右就有一个被小块文化包围的村庄。

沿着Ngo-chui河道走了一天半后，我们登上了一个山口（7650英尺），Wut'ai的山谷就在我们脚下。在这个山口，矗立着一座漂亮的小寺庙，叫做狮穴，那里有一座漂亮的佛塔，高约七十英尺，上面覆盖着绿色的琉璃瓦，大约一英尺见方；每块瓦的中央都有一个黄色的浮雕佛像。根据《五台山志》的描述，这座寺庙建于明朝神宗二十六年（公元1598年），用于存放皇帝赠送的一套经典作品。

我们从这里可以看到五台山的五座山峰，其中最高的据说是北面的那座；虽然我们所看到的景色很宽广，也很有趣，但这些地方的所有山景通常都是裸露的，破坏了它的美感。五爱山，即 "五台山"，由于附近的五座最高峰有或被认为有平顶而得名。它是中国最著名和最古老的佛教--或更恰当地说，喇嘛教--朝圣地之一。撇开传统的说法，即印度君主阿育王（生活在公元前三世纪）在这里建造了一座载有佛祖舍利的佛塔，以及其他古老的传说，毫无疑问，早在公元五世纪，五台山就是一个非常有名的地方，而至今仍是其主要寺庙的显通寺，是由后魏王朝的一位君主在公元471至500年间建造的。


自那以后，每个朝代的皇帝都争先恐后地授予武帝特权和礼物，建立新的寺庙，并修复和修饰现有的寺庙。前面提到的《武当山描述》中说，在隋朝开皇年间（公元581-601年），在每座活山的山顶上都建有寺庙。目前，除了它们的废墟外，什么也没有。

每年都有成千上万的蒙古人、藏人和中国人到此参观。在那里停留的三天里，我遇到了来自俄罗斯边境附近的乌尔加、可可诺尔附近的安多和阿穆尔的喇嘛，他们都是来朝拜住在极乐世界的Jambal（印度文殊菩萨，中国文殊菩萨），他是每个善良的佛教徒都渴望去的地方，而且他特别关注那些在武当山呼唤他的人。

五台山的主要寺庙位于山谷的北部，那里有来自北部、东部、西部和中部山峰的道路汇合。它们聚集在中峰的山脚下，被称为鹫峰（灵丘峰）；山脚下流淌着一条小溪，被称为西支，从北峰冲下来。这座山完全被建筑物所覆盖；被人为削平的下部被一个 "御用旅行平房 "所占据。自从1786年皇室访问以来，没有一位皇帝来过这里，这些建筑以及通往它们的宽阔的石板路和大理石栏杆都被忽视了，现在部分已经成为废墟。


在宫殿的后面，稍高一点的山上，是塔庙（Ta-yuan ssĉ），它有一个巨大的粉刷过的dagoba，据说是阿育王建造的，里面有佛祖的遗物，是山上最引人注目的建筑。它是用砖建造的，末端是一个金色的尖顶，或者说是塔尖；整个结构的高度至少有七十英尺。在这座寺庙的一个建筑中，有一个巨大的祈祷轮，可以通过地下室的绞盘使其运转。它包含全套的藏文圣书，共一百零八卷，如果从左到右转动，就能为转动者带来一些功德，如果他们阅读这个旋转书架上的所有书，就能获得功德。再往上走，就到了普渡寺，据说是这里最古老的寺庙，我在里面看到了许多奇妙的青铜器--巨大的景泰蓝香炉、宝塔，最主要的是一个青铜小教堂，大约15英尺见方，可能有30英尺高，整个外表面都有精美的花纹，还曾经镀过金。这些青铜器是十六世纪后半叶的，是帝国的礼物。

但主要的礼拜场所是在山顶上，以神峰之名而闻名。它建于我们时代的第五世纪后半期。在所有的寺庙中，只有它的屋顶是用皇室的黄色瓦片盖的。一条宽阔的大理石台阶，共有一百三十级，通向庙门；每一级台阶上都有几绺人的头发，献给神灵，希望献出者能在他所统治的天堂里重生。这些建筑虽然具有严格的中国式建筑风格，但内部布置却像西藏的寺庙。寺庙所在的长方形的北侧是神的礼拜堂，里面摆满了喇嘛教万神殿中每一位神、圣人和天才的图像，这些图像由各种可能的物质制成，从金、银到面团和泥土。主要的神像有三尊，占据了建筑的中心位置，我相信是青铜的，镀了很多金，大约有五英尺高；在每一个肢体上，在文殊菩萨的腿上，在文殊菩萨的脖子上，也就是中心的那一尊，都挂着信徒们提供的丝巾。在玻璃箱中，小心翼翼地封存着许多具有特殊价值的小图像或物品，其中有一些圣洁的喇嘛吃饭时留下的大麦面团，上面印有神的图像。在更重要的图像前面有一个狭长的祭坛，上面有无数的蛋杯状的小灯，里面装着黄油、水果和糖果，还有一排纯净水的碗，都是给神的供品。墙壁上有很多架子，上面放着华丽的藏文和蒙古文的圣书手稿，用黄色的绸缎包裹着，还有很多教堂仪式上用的金、银、铜器。


其他寺庙不胜枚举（当地人说山谷里有或曾经有三百六十座），围绕着这个中心圣地延伸开来，它们之间的空地被商店占据，在那里出售所有朝圣者喜欢的东西--佛珠、书籍、护身符和图像；还有小木碗和白杨木盘，这个地方因此而闻名，它们被带到了蒙古和西藏各地。

在五台山停留的第二天，我登上了北台山，经过三个小时的陡峭攀登，终于到达了山顶；但不幸的是，一场暴风雪袭击了我们，我们没能欣赏到据说非常漂亮的风景，甚至可以看到东边的大海和北边的戈壁。我们通过沸点温度计发现高度为10,013英尺，而在进行了所有修正后，同时读取的两个航空器的高度为10,050英尺。

我曾希望在这里找到一些印度文字的手稿，因为我在《五台山》的历史中看到，"在明朝永乐年间，皇帝派一个叫侯显的官员和一个喇嘛（他的头衔是大智法王）到西域寻找佛教圣典。他们在棕榈叶上购买了一份印度（梵文）书籍的副本，并将其带回给皇帝，皇帝让梵净禅师（即印度经典书库）将文本刻在铜板上，并将第一份印本送到武则天的普萨亭。" 然而，我没有听说过印度文字的书，也没有看到任何古老的印度文字的铭文。由于我的逗留时间比我希望的要短得多，未来的一些朝圣者可能比我更幸运，可能会在这个著名地方的众多寺庙中发掘出一些古文字宝藏。


据说五台山的喇嘛人数约为五千人。他们受一位住在普萨亭的扎萨克喇嘛的临时控制，而且，像他们在中国的所有布衣一样，不受世俗的约束。

返回北京的道路沿着五台河谷而下，越过长城口（4925英尺），这标志着山西省和直隶省的边界，也是神圣的五台河区的终点。在山口，我们再次来到长城，我惊讶地发现长城是由石头砌成的，只有在修缮过的地方才有砖头。它在山口的两边只延伸了一小段路，靠近山门的地方高约十八英尺，顶部有十英尺，是用石头铺成的。在山的东面，我们来到了龙泉关，即 "龙泉关"，我们在那里停了一晚上。

离开五台三天半后，我们到达了都城省的首府--保亭府，在穿越了一个耕作良好但不吸引人的乡村后，保亭是一个繁华、丑陋的地方，街道狭窄、肮脏，矗立在池州东部肥沃但可怕的单调平坦的平原中。

从宝亭到北京，我们花了三天半的时间。在离首都大约8英里的地方，我们再次穿过了我们在到达卡尔根之前就已经离开的匈奴河，穿过了著名的卢沟桥，马可波罗说这座桥 "非常漂亮，很少有人能和它媲美"。它是用砂岩建造的，有一个由石板组成的栏杆，每隔几英尺就有一根低矮的柱子支撑着，每根柱子的顶部都有一个雕塑的狮子。这座桥大约有七百英尺长，三辆马车可以并排通过。中国人说，从来没有人能够数清桥栏杆上的雕塑狮子，所以我当然要试试能不能数清。我在一边的柱子顶上数到了142只；但在大狮子的背上、腿间和脚下还有许多小狮子，就普通旅行者而言，中国人的说法似乎是安全的。


从浑河有一条宽阔的堤道，用石板铺成，通向北京，但是，像中国所有的公路一样，它被修理得非常糟糕，以至于旅行者对它敬而远之。在我们的右边，我们看到了大狩猎场的围墙，而在我们面前，在这个季节像阴霾一样笼罩着北京平原的阴霾中，闪耀着天坛和大城市宫殿的蓝色和黄色瓦片屋顶，甚至比这些更高的塔楼耸立在城门上。随着我们接近首都，公路上的交通越来越密集，现在我们不得不慢慢地穿过一长串满载煤炭的骆驼，藏在巨大的陶器或蔬菜下的吱吱作响的手推车，以及在沉重的负担下弯腰的半裸的苦力，或在灰尘中卑躬屈膝的乞丐身边。最后，我们与人流一起被冲到了城门下，我们再一次置身于北京城中，感受到了它的恶臭，它的繁华街道，它的喧闹人群，以及它的寒酸的伟大。

威廉-伍德维尔-洛克希尔

或大武当，与位于北京附近的小武当相对。
1688年和1696年访问卡尔冈的Père Gerbillon称其为Hia-pon，并将Tchang-kia-keon这个名字留给了镇后长城的大门。见Du Halde, Description de l'Empire de la Chine, iv. 90, 337.
见英国皇家亚洲学会中国分会杂志第二十卷中一篇有趣的论文，第26-50页，关于中国杀婴的普遍性。还有Père Amiot在Mém. concernant les Chinois, vi. 320331.
1696年，葛比伦随康熙皇帝从蒙古来，看到了这些寺庙。皇帝亲自用父亲的一个半圆测量了最大的图像，发现它有五十七英尺高，或我们的测量值六十一英尺九英寸。Du Halde，描述，四，352。
1697年在Ta-t'ung的Pére Gerbillon说，那里有大量的肥皂，"用一种从地下大量涌出的硝石 "制造。Du Halde，《描述》，四，357页。





A Pilgrimage to the Great Buddhist Sanctuary of North China
By William Woodville Rockhill
JUNE 1895 ISSUE
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“ WHEN, in the time of Ming-ti of the Han, Ma-teng came from the Western regions (to China), he discerned by means of his supernatural sight that ‘ the Pure cold mountain ’ was an abode of Wen-shu, and that there was a relic tower there erected by King Ashoka. So he besought the Emperor to have a temple built there, and it was called The Great faith Vulture’s peak temple ; for the hill on which it stood resembled the Vulture’s peak of India, and the words ‘ Great faith ‘ made it known to all ages that the Emperor was the first in all the land to show his faith in the Buddha.”

So I read one day, while living in Peking, in a cumbersome Chinese volume giving the history of that greatest of Buddhist sanctuaries of north China, commonly known as the Wu-t’ai shan,1 and I made up my mind to spend my holiday that year in making a visit to this famous shrine.


To the foreign resident of Peking, shut up month after month and year after year within the filthy, malodorous, and uninteresting limits of the city walls, a change of scene becomes a positive craving, be it for ever so short a time. To get it, he will not only brave, but actually enjoy all the discomforts incidental to travel in China; and when he has discovered some goal to reach, some object to pursue, beyond escaping the stenches of Peking, his pleasure is complete, his enthusiasm boundless.

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So, at least, I reflected, as, one morning in September, 1887, I left our legation for a trip through southern Mongolia and to the Wu-t’ai, my legs folded under me, my head bent on my breast, that I might fit in the low and narrow limits of my mule litter, that “ most irritating of all conveyances,” as Alexandre Dumas so aptly called it.

The road we took led us northward in the direction of Kalgan, first to Nank’ou, and through the great wall where it crosses a pass rising nineteen hundred feet above sea level. This point is known to foreigners who visit the environs of Peking as the Nan-k’ou pass, though its real name is the Chü-yung defile. The Chinese class it among the eight marvels of the Peking country: the Lu-kou bridge over the Hun ho, which I was to cross on my way back to, Peking, being another.

Here at Nan-k’ou the great wall is seen at its best, as it runs along rocky ridges and frowns down upon one from toppling heights, and, strange as it may seem for anything in China, is in fairly good repair. Foreigners should be forbidden by the Chinese government to visit the great wall elsewhere than at Nan-k’ou and its vicinity, for then they could go home and write in all sincerity about this “ eighth wonder of the world, which for over two thousand years has been the bulwark of China,” etc. But alas for all earthly greatness! The great wall of China is not everywhere a great wall ; in places it is a very little wall, and it is, I think, highly improbable that at any period of its existence it has been in good repair from its eastern to its western extremity.

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The Chinese distinguish two great walls : the outer, or Frontier wall, which, commencing at Shan - hai kuan, passes through Kalgan, and ends at Chin - yü kuan, north of the Koko-nor, and the inner, or “ Myriad li wall,” also called the “ Long wall,” which, beginning northeast of Nan-k’ou, runs south, and constitutes the frontier between the provinces of Chih-li and Shan-hsi; this branches off in its northern section, and, crossing Shan-hsi, meets the Frontier wall near the Yellow River. These walls were not made at one time, but during succeeding dynasties, as one or another portion of the border seemed to require this defense. Some parts have been repaired now and then down to recent times ; others have been utterly neglected and have long since crumbled away, in some places leaving no trace of their existence. Parts of these walls were built of brick and stone, or of stone alone, and others, again, of mud.

Besides the great wall, there is still to be seen all over the borderland of China a complicated network of beacon towers, used in olden times to transmit signals to the capital. The greater number have now fallen in ruins, but one of their peculiar features is still visible : their summits could be readied only by means of rope ladders let down the outside. These towers, it seems, Abbé Larrieu, in his pamphlet The Great Wall of China, has confounded with those that form part of the wall itself. Seeing no connecting wall between them, he rashly concluded that the great wall did not exist, and never had existed. In reality, these beacon towers, which extend for hundreds of miles on either side of the wall, have absolutely nothing to do with it.

The road north of the Nan-k’ou pass leads over a broad, undulating plain, closed in by rugged and bare mountains, along the base of which may be seen a thick deposit of loess ; and towns and villages, amidst groves of willows and fields of millet and sorghum, dot the wide valley. Every few miles one passes a walled city. The length and height of these fortifications and the great number of them in China have ever struck me with wonder. All the provincial, prefectural, departmental, and district towns of the eighteen provinces (they number nearly nineteen hundred) are inclosed with walls, the shortest of which cannot be less than one mile, while many are at least eight miles long, and their height averages fifteen feet. The length of the great wall itself and the work its construction entailed sink into insignificance when compared with the total length of these city walls, especially when we consider that not less than half of the great wall is of dirt, while all city walls have, at one time or other, been faced inside and out with kiln-burnt bricks.

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On the third day after leaving Peking we passed around the base of the Cock’s crow Mountain (Ch’i-ming shan), by the side of the muddy Hun ho. This mountain, one of the most striking ones seen on the way to Kalgan, has on its summit a Buddhist temple, whose bright red walls and the evergreens always to be found around such places lend life and color to the hare, brown landscape. Buddhists throughout the world have selected with consummate skill the most picturesque sites for the erection of their temples, and have spared no pains to preserve all the natural beauties of each spot on which they have built. Mountain tops, from Adam’s peak in Ceylon to Wu-t’ai shan and O-mi shan in China, have been regarded, since the early days of Buddhism, as the most desirable situations for the erection of temples. To the æsthetic tendency of Buddhists we owe nearly all the really pretty bits of scenery to be found in this part of China ; for, away from the temples, every hill I have seen is as bare as our Western wilds.

Leaving the Cock’s crow Mountain behind, we followed the course of the Hun ho River for some miles, — at first over a sandy plain, and then by a road cut in the porphyry rock, high above the seething yellow waters of the river. After crossing a pass at about twenty-one hundred feet of altitude, from which we saw the great wall running along the crest of the hills far off on the east, we came to Hsüan-hua Fu, a large prefectural city about twenty miles from Kalgan, which we reached the following day.

Kalgan 2 divides with Kuei-hua Ch’eng the privilege of being the most important frontier mart of north China ; it is the centre of a large Mongolian trade, and a forwarding point for the greater part of the Russian overland trade with China. It is situated on the foothills of the Mongolian steppe, and the great wall passes behind the town, which stretches out in long, irregular lines around the mouth of the pass leading to Mongolia. Its population is estimated at one hundred thousand, twenty thousand of whom are Mohammedans. The latter and the Shan-hsi merchants have nearly monopolized the most valuable trade of this part of China. At Kalgan the Mohammedans have a fine mosque and theological school; the former somewhat resembles similar buildings seen in other Mohammedan countries, but its interior decoration is strictly Chinese.

Several families of American missionaries reside in the suburbs of Kalgan, in pretty houses built in foreign style, which fully justifies the remark once made to me by a Chinese peasant. “ The most curious thing about foreigners,” he said, “ is that there are no poor people among them. “ This mission has been in existence for the last eighteen years, and has now a few hundred converts, more or less attached to it. It was originally the intention of the mission to devote itself to the conversion of those devoutest of all Buddhists, the Mongols, but it did not take long to demonstrate that this was an impossible task, quite as difficult as the Christianization of Mohammedans has proved to be in other parts of the world.

The road from Kalgan to Mongolia leads up a broad, stony valley, with an occasional small patch of cultivated soil on the otherwise bare hillsides. By a very gradual ascent one reaches a height of forty-two hundred feet; then comes a sharp scramble of half an hour over rocks, and one arrives at Han nor (forty-nine hundred feet), on the edge of the Mongolian plateau. From here we looked back over a vast wilderness of mountain tops stretching to the horizon. The view, though extensive, was far from beautiful: the yellow loess imparted a uniform hue to mountain and valley, and to the waters of the streams flowing through them ; not a tree was to be seen, and, it being autumn, the very crops in the fields conspired with the natural scenery to complete a general yellowness of tone.

The country north of Han nor, as far as Shih-pa-erh t’ai, where we turned to the west, is a rolling plateau, covered with short, coarse grass, and greatly resembles our Western plains. Now and then we passed a Mongol tent, with small herds of cattle, horses, or camels grazing near by, or perhaps a Chinese farmhouse, surrounded with fields of oats or potatoes. In fact, all the southern portion of Mongolia through which we passed is undergoing a rapid evolution from the pastoral to the agricultural state. The Chinese from Shan-hsi are steadily driving the nomadic Mongols farther and farther north, the few who remain behind being obliged to give up to a great extent their national customs. Nearly everywhere we found the Chinese adobe hut side by side with the felt tent of the Mongol, which before many years will be a thing of the past in this part of Mongolia. And all this change has taken place in the last ten years. Baron von Richthofen, who traveled over this road fifteen or twenty years ago, did not see a single Chinese house between Shihpa-erh t’ai and Hsi-ying-tzŭ, sixty miles farther west, but we came across such houses every mile or so.

Although the general aspect of the Mongol steppe reminded me of our Western prairies, its flora presented none of the variety I had seen in our country. I was especially struck by finding edelweiss in great quantities at what appeared to me a low altitude for this flower, about forty-seven hundred feet above sea level. Later on, at Wu-t’ai shan, I found this plant at and above seven thousand feet, the altitude above which oats cease to be cultivated.

Leaving Shih-pa-erh t’ai, we turned in a southwesterly direction towards Tat’ung Fu, in Shan-hsi, taking in on our way several of the stations of the Belgian Catholic mission, the most important of which was at Hsi-ying-tzŭ. Mongolia has another feature in common with our Western prairies, — it is easier to lose one’s way than to keep on the road. The first day out from Shih-pa-erh t’ai, though we managed to keep in the right direction, we wandered about so that we did not reach the stage we had expected to. This of itself would have been but a very slight mishap, had not my compagnon de voyage been a devoted admirer of the great German traveler, Baron von Richthofen. The ponderous volume of the baron’s work, in which he describes the section of country through which we were traveling, was ever in my learned friend’s hands ; so on this most ill-fated day, when we had to pass the night at a different place from that where Richthofen had stopped, his sorrow and vexation were extreme, and even his dinner and grog lost their savor, and he went sulkily to bed.

The next day we reached Hsi-yingtzŭ, recognizable from afar by its pretty church, which seemed of cathedral-like dimensions amidst the miserable little hovels which surrounded it. We were most kindly received and entertained by the fathers of the mission, and it was our good fortune to meet Monseigneur Bex, the bishop of the diocese, who had come here for a few days to inspect the building of the church. This mission has been in existence for about half a century, at first in charge of the Lazarists, and for the last seventeen years of the Belgian mission. Abbé Huc, it will he remembered, started from a station near here, Hei-shui, on his memorable voyage to Tibet. There are now about three thousand Christians in the diocese, organized in village communities, under the direction of headmen receiving their appointments from the bishop. Litigations are almost invariably settled without recourse to the native authorities, the fathers and the bishops being practically the temporal as well as the spiritual rulers of their flocks. The Christians contribute two per cent of their crops for the support of the Church, and this, together with the heavy taxes due the government, absorbs about ten or twelve per cent of their receipts, notwithstanding which they enjoy — thanks to the protection that the priests can grant, them from the exactions of native officials which weigh so severely on all Chinese — a comparatively high degree of material welfare. Although neophytes are not numerous, the Christian population is being continually added to by the female children taken into the foundling hospitals attached to every mission station. Infanticide and the desertion or sale of female infants prevail all over China,3 and, notwithstanding the large numbers of these poor little creatures saved by the missionaries of all denominations, many are drowned or otherwise got rid of on their birth, in the country as well as in the city.

A few years ago, during the terrible famine which carried off so many victims in this part of China, a native Catholic priest one day bought three cartloads of little girls, which he saw on the road near Hsi-ying-tzŭ, for about a dollar and a half. Boys, when sold, are somewhat dearer. A lama, friend of mine, who was at Wu-t’ai shan during this same famine, told me that many lamas then bought seven or eight year old boys, to make novices of, for about twenty cents a head. The foundlings in the Catholic mission stations are brought up like common Chinese children, — only those who show any remarkable aptitude being taught anything beyond their prayers and sewing, — and when about sixteen they are married off, or else become sisters of charity. The heathens are quite willing to marry these girls and embrace Christianity themselves, in view of the material benefits which are derivable from connection with Christians. To illustrate the perfect control under which the Christians are held by their “ spiritual fathers,” it will suffice to mention that the former bishop of this diocese forbade the practice of compressing female infants’ feet, and, in spite of the social ostracism which this non-observance of a most cherished custom must forever bring upon them, every one obeyed. The authority which the carrying out of such a measure implied may be conceived when it is known that K’ang-hsi, the most powerful Emperor of this dynasty, was obliged to repeal a decree he had issued forbidding binding women’s feet, after trying for four years to have it enforced.

Facing Hsi-ying-tzŭ on the south stands the Ta-ch’ing Mountain, in which I took special interest, as Richthofen says that stone implements have been found in great numbers at its base. Every one, from the bishop down to the “ oldest inhabitant,”declared that he had never heard of such things, and thought Richthofen must have been misled.

The next morning our road led us past Yu-shu wa, where stands a lone tree, an elm, which Abbé Hue speaks of somewhere in his charming book of travels as “ the only tree in Mongolia.” Not far from here, behind the Ta-ch’ing Mountain, is the village where Samtanshiemba, the Mongol who accompanied Huc to Lh’asa, was living. I was told by the fathers that he was hale and hearty, and had just got back from accompanying the Russian traveler Potanin to the Koko-nor.

After passing Erh-shih-san hou, another station of the Belgian mission, where we were most kindly received by Father Rubbens, we crossed several ranges of low hills, the highest 5650 feet, after which we rapidly descended to the plain of Tat’ung Fu. When about twenty miles from that city we crossed the Frontier wall, which here traverses the valley : a wall of loess mud, originally about eighteen feet high, though along the greater part of its length only two or three feet of it are now standing. The gate through which we passed consisted of two upright posts with a board nailed horizontally across the top; a sign stuck up before the little mud guard-house announced to all comers that this was a gate of the great wall and a customs barrier! The wall showed no traces of brickwork, but on the detached towers about two hundred yards in front of it, and the object of which I could not satisfactorily make out, some remnants of brickwork were still visible. This wall was probably built in the sixth century A. D., and throughout Shan-hsi and west of that province it does not differ in structure or state of preservation from the part here crossed. Huc, Prjevalsky, and, more recently, Younghusband, all speak of it as a low mud wall which one can jump across, and many of the gates they saw were exactly like the one I passed through.

Ta-t’ung Fu, like most other Chinese cities I have seen in this part of the empire, is dirty, dilapidated, and uninteresting ; the shops are small, the people jolly, inquisitive, and apparently lazy. The only pretty thing I saw within the city was a feng shui wall, about fifty feet long, in front of a temple ; it was covered with glazed tiles, on which were nine four-clawed dragons, yellow and reddish-brown, in high relief, the background of a splendid turquoise-blue color. The following day I saw a similar wall, though shorter, on the road to the beautiful cave temples at Yung-k’an.

While I was at Hsi-ying-tzŭ, the fathers told me of the curious rock temples at a village near Ta-t’ung Fu, and so I stopped over a day to be able to visit this place, of which I had seen nothing in any book of travel.

Yung-k’an is a small village about twelve miles northwest of Ta-t’ung Fu, on the road to Kuei-hua Ch’eng, in a rather narrow valley through which flows a good-sized stream, the Yang ho. Here the waters of the river have cut through a bed of sandstone, in places at least eighty or a hundred feet thick, and in this a number of cave temples have been dug, and enormous statues of the Buddha and saints sculptured within them out of the living rock. These excavations extend over perhaps three hundred yards, but all the buildings — there were probably four originally — erected against the caves, and forming the fronts of the temples, have fallen down, except the one called the “ Old Temple of the Stone Buddha ” (Shih Fo ku ssŭ)This temple consists of a wooden facade, in the ordinary style of Chinese temples, and four stories high ; the roofs over each story are covered with turquoise-blue tiles. Light is admitted from the front of the building, and also by a large hole cut in the cave through the superincumbent rock above the central image. The body of the temple is cut in the rock, and comprises two separate chapels, nearly circular in shape and about thirty feet in diameter. That on the east side contains gilt statues of the three Buddhas, the central one a seated image of the Buddha Gautama, over fifty feet high.4 The priest who showed me about said it was fifty-two feet five inches, Chinese measure, or sixty-one feet and a half. The images on either side are thirty odd feet high. The ceiling and walls are everywhere sculptured, representing in rather high relief seated Buddhas and saints, each about a foot high, with encircling designs of trees, animals, etc. ; the whole work, which is of a very good order of sculpture, is painted in rather gaudy colors. The other chapel is of a similar description ; it is dedicated to Kuan-yin, the goddess of mercy, whose image, also gilt, is about thirty feet high. In caves to the right and left of this temple may be seen other images of gods, all smaller, however, than those above described, and not showing such finished workmanship as is displayed in the Old Temple of the Stone Buddha. These latter eaves are now used by the villagers to store their crops in.

I was told by the priest who tends the temple that it was built in the fifth century A. D., and though I could find no inscriptions dating back earlier than the Shun-chih reign, in the first half of the seventeenth century, my informant may have been quite right. In fact, as proving the likelihood of his story, I may remark that in the Wei-shu, or History of the Wei Dynasty, I have found a passage which may refer to the Yung-k’an temples. In it I read that in 461 A. D. the Emperor Wen-Ch’eng-ti called the Buddhist T’anyüeh to his court, and after a while made him his spiritual preceptor. “ At T’anyüeh’s suggestion the Emperor had five caves cut in the rock of a mountain in Wu-chou, to the west of his capital, and in each of them had images of the Buddha sculptured, the largest seventy feet in height, the others sixty feet; they were executed and painted in a most exquisite way, and were the most beautiful ever made.”

At the present day there is, so far as I know, no locality or district near Tat’ung called Wu-chou, but there is a mountain near Yung-k’an known as the Wu-chou shan, and this justifies me, to some extent, in thinking that the place referred to in the Wei-shu is probably the spot I visited. The northern Wei Emperors are credited with having caused to be excavated other wonderful caverns, the purpose of which, however, is not known to me. Thus, in a passage of the history of the Wei dynasty, we read that, in 500 A. D., “ the Emperor gave orders to Tach’ang Ch’in-ch’ing to make two stone caves in the Yi-chüeh shall, south of Lo [Lo-nan], similar to the one existing in the Ling-yen ssŭ at Tai-ching [the then capital Tai-chou].”

On the way back to Ta-t’ung I passed a little roadside shrine covered with votive tablets, but I could not learn to what god it was dedicated. On the veranda was a huge iron halberd, about seven feet high, and weighing perhaps three hundred pounds, which seemed to be the chief object of veneration. No one was near to tell me the history of this formidable weapon, but it is probable that if there had been any one to question, I should have been told that it had come there of itself, — that “ it knew how to fly,” a common explanation offered by Chinese.

I may mention here a curious survival of tree worship which I noticed in Chihli and Shan-hsi. Nearly every day we passed villages in each of which stood a gnarled and twisted tree — generally a willow — covered with votive tablets and bits of rag on which were written such phrases as, “ By the graciousness of the spirit,”“ I have sought and I have found,” all hung up by persons who, troubled with some complaint, had prayed to the spirit of the tree, burnt incense before it, and found relief from their sufferings.

For three days after leaving Ta-t’ung Fu we traveled southward over a broad plain, the soil in many places so saturated with potash that cultivation was impossible.5 The poverty-stricken peasants extract the alkali from the earth wherever there is a little water with which to enable them to do so, and send it to Peking or sell it to the Mongols, who use it in making their tea.


On the evening of the third day we again came across the great wall, — the inner wall this time, — where it passes Kuang-wu k’ou at the foot of the pass leading to Tai-chou. It is visible for perhaps half a mile on either side of the valley, the brick facing and granite angles still intact, but farther away all trace of it disappears. A peculiarity of the defenses at this place, and one which I have not seen elsewhere, is the truncatedcone shape of the detached towers in front of the wall; all those I have seen elsewhere were pyramidal.

From the pass (fifty-two hundred feet) leading down to Tai-chou we had our first glimpse of the Wu-t’ai shan, the northern peak seemingly well covered with snow, which, we were told, remains on the north side all the year. We made this part of our journey in company with a squad of soldiers and two criminals who were being taken to the provincial capital for decapitation. These two gentlemen did not appear to be in the least flurried by their rapidly approaching end, and jogged along as merrily as their conductors. Each had round his throat and one ankle heavy iron rings connected by a big iron chain. This chain they could remove and carry as best suited them, putting it in place again when they came to a village. As they did not have on red jackets, the usual garb of convicted criminals in this country, I did not recognize them at once as belonging to that class, and seeing one enter the temple on top of the pass to kotow before the image, I took him for a pilgrim, and asked him where he was going, when, to my amazement, he answered, “ To T’ai-yüan Fu, to be executed,” and went quietly on with his devotions.


The lower portion of the valley leading to Tai-chou is filled with a thick deposit of loess, and the roads are sunk so deep in it that one might as well travel in a railroad cut, so far as scenery is concerned; but whenever we got a glimpse of the surrounding valley, we saw the rich foliage of trees, the glimmer of the waters of the Hu-to ho as it flowed behind the town, and the imposing mass of the Wu-t’ai in the distant background.

The valley of Tai-chou struck me as particularly fertile; oats, millet, potatoes, and tobacco being the principal crops. Buckwheat, sweet potatoes, cabbages, hemp, and a kind of indigo plant were growing along the road, and we found the poppy cultivated all the way up to the flank of the Wu-t’ai, at an altitude of fifty-nine hundred feet. The tops of the houses in many of the villages were so covered with red peppers drying in the sun that I seemed once more in Korea, where peppers hide every roof in autumn.

At Tai-chou I tried to buy some curios, and a few plates, bowls, and bits of embroidery were brought me ; but they were of no value. The dealers who owned them said that everything of any worth went to Peking, that curio dealers from the capital constantly came here and scoured the whole of north China, and that Peking was the only place where good curios could be bought.


Our route led us, after leaving Taichou, up the course of the Hu-to River for about eight miles to Ngo-k’ou, where we turned up a narrow, rugged cañon down which flowed a clear, rapid brook, the Ngo-chui; every mile or so along the way was a hamlet surrounded by little patches of culture.

After following the course of the Ngochui for a day and a half, we ascended a pass (7650 feet), and the valley of Wut’ai lay at our feet. On this pass stands a pretty little temple called the Lion’s Den, where there is a handsome pagoda, about seventy feet high, and covered with green - glazed tiles about a foot square ; in the centre of each is a yellow figure of the Buddha in relief. According to the Description of the Wu - t’ai shan, this temple was built in the twenty-sixth year of Shen-tsung of the Ming (1598 A. D.), to contain a set of canonical works presented by the Emperor.

We could see from here the five peaks of Wu-t’ai, the highest of which is believed to be the northern one ; and though the view we commanded was extensive and interesting from its associations, the usual nudity of all mountain scenery in these parts destroyed its beauty. Wut’ai shan, or “ The Five terraced mountain,” owes its name to the five highest peaks in the vicinity having, or being supposed to have, level summits (t’ai). It is one of the most famous and oldest places of Buddhist — or, more properly, lamaist — pilgrimage in China. Setting aside the tradition which attributes to the Indian monarch Ashoka, who lived in the third century B. C., the building here of a pagoda containing relics of the Buddha, and other ancient legends, there is no doubt that as early as the fifth century A. D. Wu-t’ai was a very celebrated spot, and that the Hsien-t’ung ssĉ, which is still its principal temple, was built by a sovereign of the latter Wei dynasty between 471 and 500 A. D.


Ever since that period the Emperors of each succeeding dynasty have vied with one another in conferring privileges and gifts on Wu-t’ai, erecting new temples, and restoring and embellishing those already existing. It is stated in the Description of the Wu-t’ai, referred to previously, that in the Sui dynasty, during the reign of Kai-huang (581—601 A. D.), temples were built on the summit of each of the live peaks. At present nothing but ruins of them exists.

This place is visited every year by thousands of Mongols, Tibetans, and Chinese. I met, during the three days I stopped there, lamas from Urga, near the Russian frontier; from Amdo, near the Koko-nor; and from the Amur, — all come alike to worship Jambal (the Indian Manjushri, the Chinese Wen-shu P’u-sa), who lives in the Land of Bliss, where every good Buddhist longs to go, and who gives special heed to those who call on him from Wu-t’ai shan.

The chief temples of the Wu-t’ai are situated in the northern part of the valley, where the roads coming from the north, east, west, and central peaks converge. They are clustered on a foothill of the central peak, called the Vulture’s peak (Ling-chiu feng) ; at its base flows a brook, known as the West branch, which rushes down from the north peak. The hill is entirely covered with buildings ; the lower portion, which has been artificially leveled, is occupied by an “ imperial traveling bungalow.” Since the imperial visit of 1786, none of the Emperors have been here, and the buildings, as also the broad stone walk with marble balustrades leading up to them, have been neglected, and are now partially in ruins.


Behind the palace, and a little higher up the hill, is the Temple of the pagoda (Ta-yuan ssĉ), with its great whitewashed dagoba, said to have been built by Ashoka and to contain relics of the Buddha, and which is the most striking building on the hill. It is built of brick, and terminates in a gold spire, or tee; the height of the whole structure is at least seventy-live feet. In one of the buildings of this temple is a huge prayerwheel, which can be put in motion by means of a capstan in the basement. It contains a full set of the Tibetan sacred books, one hundred and eight volumes, and if set in motion from left to right procures to the movers some of the merit they would acquire if they read all the volumes this revolving bookcase contains. Still further up the hill one comes to the Temple of universal effulgence, said to be the oldest one in the place, in which I saw many wonderful bronzes, — huge cloisonné incense-burners, pagodas, and, chief of all, a bronze chapel, about fifteen feet square and perhaps thirty high, the whole exterior surface of which was beautifully chased, and had once been gilded. These bronzes date from the latter part of the sixteenth century, and are imperial gifts.

But the principal place of worship is on the summit of the hill, and is known by the name of the Peak of the God. It was built in the latter part of the fifth century of our era. It alone of all the temples is roofed with tiles of the imperial yellow color. A broad flight of marble steps, one hundred and thirty in number, leads to the temple door ; on every step were locks of human hair, offered to the god in the hope that the giver might be reborn in the paradise over which he rules. The buildings, though of a strictly Chinese style of architecture, are arranged in the interior like Tibetan temples. The chapel of the god, on the north side of the rectangle in which the temple stands, is literally filled with images of every god, saint, and genius in the lamaist pantheon, wrought of every possible substance, from gold and silver to dough and clay. The chief images, which are three in number, occupy the centre of the building, and are, I believe, of bronze, heavily gilded and about five feet high ; on every limb, on the lap, and around the neck of the image of Wenshu, which is the central one, hang silk scarfs offered by the faithful. In glass cases, and carefully sealed, are numerous small images or objects of special value, among others discs of barley-flour dough left from the meal of some holy lama, on which are stamped images of gods. A long but narrow altar extends in front of the more important images, and on it are innumerable little egg-cup-shaped lamps fed with butter, dishes of fruit and of candies, and a row of bowls of pure water, all offerings to the gods. The walls are lined with shelves, on which are splendid illuminated manuscript copies of the sacred works, in Tibetan and Mongol, wrapped in yellow satin, besides many utensils of gold, silver, and bronze used in church ceremonies.


Other temples, too numerous to mention (the people of the place say there are, or were, three hundred and sixty in the valley), stretch out around this central shrine, and the vacant spots between them are taken up by shops where are sold all those things pilgrims delight in the world over, — beads, books, amulets, and images ; also little wooden bowls and plates of poplar wood, for which the place is famous, and which are carried hence all over Mongolia and Tibet.

On the second day of my stay at Wut’ai I ascended the Pei t’ai, or north terrace, the summit of which was reached after a rather steep climb of three hours ; but, as bad luck would have it, a snowstorm overtook us, and we could not enjoy the view, which is said to be very fine, reaching even to the sea-on the east, and to the Gobi on the north. We found the height by boiling-point thermometer to be 10,013 feet, while two aneroids read at the same time, after all correction had been made, gave 10,050 feet.

I had hoped to find here some manuscripts in Indian characters, for I had read in the history of the Wu-t’ai shan that, “ in the reign of Yung-lo of the Ming, the Emperor sent an official called Hou hsien and a lama whose title was that of Ta-chih Fa-wang to the Western regions to look for Buddhist sacred works. They procured a copy of the Indian (Fan) books on palm leaves, and brought it back to the Emperor, who had the Fan-ching ch’ang, or Depot of Indian classics, engrave the text on copper plates, and sent the first copy printed to the P’u-sa ting at Wu-t’ai.” However, I could hear of no book in Indian script, nor did I see any inscription in Indian characters of any great antiquity. As my stay was much shorter than I could have wished, some future pilgrim may be more fortunate than I, and may unearth in one of the many temples of this famous place some paleographic treasures.


The number of lamas at Wu-t’ai is said to be about five thousand. They are under the temporal control of a Dzassak lama, who lives in the P’u-sa ting, and, like all of their cloth in China, are not subject to the secular arm.

The road back to Peking led down the valley of the Wu-t’ai and over the Ch’ang-ch’eng ling, or “ Great wall pass ” (4925 feet), which marks the boundary between the provinces of Shan-hsi and Chih-li, and also the end of the holy Wu-t’ai district. On the pass we came once more to the great wall, which I was surprised to find of stone, with brickwork only where it had been repaired. It extended but a little way on either side of the pass, and near the gate was about eighteen feet high and ten feet across the top, which was stone-paved. At the eastern base of the hill we came to the Lung-chüan kuan, or “ Dragonspring barrier,” where we stopped for the night.

Three days and a half after leaving Wu-t’ai we reached Pao-ting Fu, the capital of the metropolitan province, after traveling through a well-cultivated but unattractive country, Pao-ting is a bustling, ugly place, with narrow, dirty streets, and stands in the midst of the fertile but horribly monotonous and flat plain of eastern Chih-li.

The journey from Pao-ting to Peking took us three days and a half. When about eight miles from the capital, we again crossed the Hun ho, which we had left before reaching Kalgan, by the famous Lu-kou chiao, the bridge which Marco Polo says “ is so fine that it has very few equals.” It is built of sandstone, and has a balustrade of stone slabs with low pillars supporting them every few feet, and on top of each pillar is a sculptured lion. The bridge is about seven hundred feet long, and three carts can cross it abreast. The Chinese say that no one has ever been able to count the sculptured lions on the parapets of the bridge, so of course I had to try if I could. I counted one hundred and forty-two on the tops of the pillars on one side ; but there were many other diminutive ones on the backs, between the legs, and under the feet of the larger, and the Chinese appear to be safe in their belief, so far as the common traveler is concerned.


From the Hun ho a broad causeway, paved with flagstones, leads to Peking, but, like all highroads in China, it is left in such bad repair that travelers give it a wide berth. Away to our right we saw the walls of the great hunting-park, and before us, half lost in the haze which at this season hangs like a pall over the Peking plain, shone the blue and yellow tiled roofs of the Temple of Heaven and the palaces in the great city, and higher even than these rose the towers surmounting the city gates. The traffic along the highway grew denser as we neared the capital, and we now had to pick our way slowly through long lines of coal-laden camels, creaking wheelbarrows hidden under huge loads of crockery or vegetables, and half-naked coolies bending under their heavy burdens, or beside beggars groveling in the dust. Finally we were swept with the human stream under the city gate, and once more we were in the midst of Peking, its vile smells, its teeming streets, its noisy people, and its shabby greatness.

William Woodville Rockhill.

Or Great Wu-t’ai (Ta Wu-t’ai), in opposition to the Little (Hoiao) Wu-t’ai, situated near Peking.↩
Père Gerbillon, who visited Kalgan in 1688 and in 1696, calls it Hia-pon, reserving the name Tchang-kia-keon for the gate in the great wall just behind the town. See Du Halde, Description de l’Empire de la Chine, iv. 90, 337.↩
See an interesting paper in vol. xx. of the Journal of the China branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, pp. 26-50, on The Prevalence of Infanticide in China. Also Père Amiot’s paper in Mém. concernant les Chinois, vi. 320331.↩
Père Gerbillon, coming from Mongolia in the suite of the Emperor K’ang-hsi, saw these temples in 1696. The Emperor himself measured with one of the father’s half-circles the biggest image, and found it to be fifty-seven Chinese feet high, or sixty-one feet nine inches of our measure. Du Halde, Description, iv. 352.↩
Pére Gerbillon, who was at Ta-t’ung in 1697, says that a great deal of soap was made there “ with a kind of nitre which comes out of the ground in great abundance.” Du Halde, Description, iv. 357.↩