Ningpo to Shanghai in 1857/The Choey-yen-sze to the Western Teen-muk-san
At the top of the gorge N.N.W. from the Choey-yen-sze is another Monastery of thirty priests, a building which, though no older in establishment than the grander one below, is not particularly substantial in appearance, being constructed of wood principally. On the way to it, and immediately in the rear of the north wall of the Choey-yen-sze, is a pleasant summer house; and a quarter of an hour's walk further on, on the left, is the small building or Cremating house in which the bodies of the deceased priests are burnt to ashes. It is a small hexagon of eight feet sides, and similar height, with a coved roof, all built of brick. When Buddhism was practised with more strictness then it now appears to be, the legend runs that priests disobedient to the rules of the order were burnt alive here ;—but such deeds have not occurred within the present century.
Half an hour's walk from the Monastery, travelling in chairs is no longer possible for the male adult;—though small footed old ladies and unused-to-travelling Chinese teachers, with heads insensible to giddiness from the peculiar swinging motion imparted by the bearers to chairs when ascending heights, do manage to keep their seats without flinching. The first Ding from the commencement of the ascent is reached in about seven minutes, and eight minutes walking further on brings the traveller within view of the small temple at the entrance of the Sze-tze-kow, or Cave of the Lion's mouth. The strata at this height is of the red brown hard sand stone before spoken of. Few or no birds or animals are to be seen in this quarter; indeed, throughout the province, the brute creation is sparse ;—the necessities of the people, perhaps, inducing them to destroy and use for food all the caro crossing their path.
Seventeen minutes walking from the first bridge brings the traveller to the second resting house, called the Ping-sang-Ding. In neither of these Dings are there idols, pictures, or tablets,—the vicinity of so much priestly sanctity being quiet sufficient for the native wayfarer apprently ;—apropos to the old English saying—"the nearer the Church the farther from the Divinity." Five minutes' walk from the second Ding are the quarters of a priest whose main occupation appears to be that of keeping the kettle or rather kettles boiling to supply passers by with warm tea. Here too can be obtained for a few cash, sweet cakes, dates, ground nuts &c.
The contrivance for keeping kettles away from or close to the fires, which are usually made of charcoal in large iron pans placed on trussels, is most ingenious. A hollow bamboo, four or five feet long, is suspended from the ceiling, and a rod with a crooked end, on which hang the kettles, is placed within it, and kept up or down by a small bamboo spoon shaped stopper attached to the upper bamboo by a string; the angling of this stopper, through which the crook stick runs, having the effect of keeping it at whatever altitude the cook wishes.
Chinese say that good tea can only be made with the purest hill spring water; and here, at this little cot, the purity of the water, which is led through a hollow bamboo direct from the rill to the kitchen, certainly produces a beverage such as connoisseurs would pronounce exquisite. Some of the tea obtained at the way side dings is as different from the tea Europeen-ne as can well be imagined. If an Englishman's mode of giving it a similitude can be realized,—it is the flavour, imaginary of course, of "buttered cowslips." So proud are the Chinese of their hill water tea, that throughout the country it is not uncommon to see sign boards announcing the fact that good "san suey" hill water, can be had within;—in the same way that Tavern keepers at home advertise their Burton ale, Devonshire cider, and Dublin stout.
It takes upwards of 20 minutes to walk from the Tea Ding, or Temple as it should be called, there being a small idol within it, to the point where the road branches off to the S. W.; and if, instead of going on, the traveller sends on his chair to wait for him at the top, and then himself proceeds along this sou' western path, he reaches, in about seven minutes, the very celebrated mausoleum of a priest whose remains were interred beneath it so many centuries ago that tradition is faulty with the record. Here reside two priests, their cot or perch being on such a narrow ledge that to reach the tomb the traveller has to pass through the house itself (22).
Since Dr Medhurst's visit to this place in 1854, several Gentlemen from Shanghae have left their names in Indian ink on the external wall of the mausoleum. *
The rock here again, a grey granite, is quite different from the strata lower down. The mausoleum measures 13 feet 8 inches in diameter, and is built of square blocks of stone in a dome, the crown of which is about 3 feet above the spire of the tomb. The base of this tomb, a hexagon of two and three quarters feet wide sides, and three feet high, decorated with antique sculpture in relief, is constructed of the red sand stone spoken of, surmounted by a plastered cone, four feet high, and within which, it is presumed, is the honoured urn.—Pilgrims from afar immediately on reaching the entrance, or arch way, six feet high, prostrate themselves, and render as much homage as the most devoted Catholic would give to Corpus-Christi. The paved floor sounds hollow;—beneath it, perhaps, is another cave. Without the entrance is the following inscription 面目現在 (23).
Ten minutes walk from the mausoleum in an easterly direction, brings the traveller to the Woh-mai-mew, a Temple for the departed spirits of seven respected priests, for whom there are hexagonal columns 6 feet high, the centre one 7 feet, the
tablets of the honored ones being locked up in the plinths. Two or three minutes walk farther on is another temple, with an idol in front of a tomb as ancient as that just described. Some very fine firs are to be seen here; one by the Woh-mai-mew, at five feet above the soil, measuring 23 feet in girth, the spreading base covering space enough to give a table-top ten feet square. A Plant in this locality emits a peculiar gas-like scent, so strong that it is unpleasant. Here among the peaks, uninterrupted even by the chirp of birds, the silence in a stilly day is most solemn, the rustle of the leaves and the silent dripping of water being the only sounds.—Between the temple last mentioned and a few minutes further walk to the monastery, the traveller passes several monumental relics, and will pause on the edge of some cliffs to take a comprehensive gaze at the scenery beneath; far in the distance running a chain of mountains from E. by N. to West by South apparently—the proportion of valley to mountain seeming less than one to ten—the Choey-yen-sze, in full proportion below, bearing S. S. E.
Three goddesses seated on lotus leaves are also the favoured divinities at the upper Teen-muh sze, or monastery on the western mountain; but after seeing so much of Bhuddism at the grander establishment just left, there is no great attraction in the services, and the traveller turns his observation to the devotees, from great distances, continually arriving, resting for the night and then proceeding to one or the other of the more important shrines. These pilgrims are generally dressed in new clothes, and wear hats which foreigners in the south of China are accustomed to call mandarin caps—but which, in the north, decorated with a gilt button or other wise, are worn on what may be called state occasions—such as worshipping at the tombs of ancestors, on pilgrimages to temples, or other superstitious performances.
A good walker can reach the top of the western Teen-muh-san in about 50 minutes from the monastery; but it is a tiresome ascent, and, unless the day is clear, hardly repays the labour it costs. The ground sounds hollow to the feet,—the path being laid with rough slabs of the hill strata.
On top of the mountain is what is termed the cave—a collection of large rocks on end, or across, a-la Stonehenge.—One of these is a slab of about 12 feet long and five feet wide, length ways, and resting on a rough upright, so forming a square aperture not unlike a door way.—This is the cave. From this point, about a mile and a quarter above the Sea, the vallies below appear to diverge like streams from a common centre (24).