Ningpo to Shanghai in 1857/Woo-ling-sze to the Eastern Teen-muk-san
The pass above the Monastery spoken of is built in with an arched gateway; and as the mountain rises on each side of it and forms part of a chain extending for a considerable distance E. and W. the means for keeping the country safe from roving bands are very efficient. At the bottom of the Ling on the western side, in the U-tsien district is the village of Chow-loong of 100 families, and by a wide stream runing from the E. N. E. is Lang-kew of 30 families. Hence to the Vok-hing Monastery the distance W. by N. is one mile.
The number of pilgrims passing this way to the Monasteries on the eastern and western Teen-muh sans, give to the occupation of the priests the character of Hotel keepers. The Szes, indeed, should be called Caravansaries, not Monasteries. The Vok-hing Monastery (Carvansera)is a two storied building about a hundred feet square, in the midst of a garden of mulberry trees. On the upper floor, the front rooms, with a south-eastern aspect, are in the centre left open for travellers' baggage, whilst each wing contains three large rooms, with standing bed places covered with straw for the lower order of travellers, of whom they could accommodate a hundred or so;—musquito curtained beds (Oh, the Fleas!) being for the better class;—the Abbot having a room to himself, and four resident priests another.—The back rooms, commanding a view of the Eastern Teen-muh, are filled with lumber, winnowing machines and such like farming implements. Below, in the centre, is an open court yard,–the front hall, with an idol or two in it, being given to the use of devotees;—the back and side rooms to the accommodation of guests, as refreshment rooms, &c, whilst on the north stands the kitchen, decorated with the bamboo flogger for the refractories upon whom judgment has been passed.—Outside, again, is the bath room, in which travellers, for the cost of the fern that lights the fire, can indulge in the luxury of a hot bath, contrived simply enough in the large iron pan in which the water is boiled;—the fire being lit from the outside.
It is customary for the European traveller to give the priests a small present, say half a dollar a night for the use of the rooms;—and as the priests are money changers, giving on the average only 980 cash for the best of Carolus dollars, some little is obtained by them in the way of legitimate business. Of the priests here there is one who has been on the eastablishment twenty nine years, and from the age of ten served a novitiate of ten years at one of the Monasteries on the adjacent mountains. Another, the Guest Chancellor, has been nine years a priest, and yet so ignorant is he that he cannot write the name of the Monastery in which he serves. A short distance N. W. of the Vok-hing Monastery is a public cemetery and receptacle for dead children. Not many, however, appear to be deposited in it;—those who can afford it burying the remains of their friends under brick tombs. Some of these tombs are large enough for two or three coffins (15).
Chi-ling-jow W. N. W. of the Monastery is distant 5 lē from it, and boasts of 40 families; whilst Che-ching-way-loo, 8 lē N.W. registers 30 families. At Chi-ling-jow characters painted on the walls point the traveller to the proper roads either to the eastern or the western Teen-muh,—the rule with Chinese being directly opposite to that followed by the English in their finger posts. The women in this quarter dress their hair modestly, simply tying it up behind and confining with a small silver ornament.
The road to the Eastern Teen-muh is very beautiful, through groves of lofty firs and shrubbery;—though cultivation here is not so luxuriant as in other parts of the province; nor do the loftier mountains bear that profusely studded appearance so characteristic generally of the hill scenery of Che-kiang.
Ten lē N. by W. from Che-ching-way-loo is the hamlet of Le-chin of 50 families; and a little further on a comfortable Monastery or Caravansera called Lung-zee-way-Mew-qui-deo. An intelligent looking young priest here, a lad of the name of Sheo-zin, appears disposed to give much attention to the foreign visitor;—though, in the Spring of 1857 the writer was the only one he had ever seen. His confreres are similarly attentive, and similarly unsophisticated.
Lung-zee-way is only a little distance from the commencement of the ascent of the eastern Teen-muh, the first Ding on the hill bearing W .N. W. from the foot of the roughly laid path. Four Dings are met between the hill foot and the Monastery at the top, and are placed as follows. From the hill foot the first Ding is reached in 18 minutes walking. From Ding No. 1 to Ding No. 2 the course is about North, and can be reached in 30 minutes. From No. 2 to No 3 the course is about N. and of 23 minutes walking—From No. 3 to No. 4 the course is northerly and westerly,—25 minutes walking—Ding No. 4 is the entrance to the Monastery grounds, and is gratefully cool.
Neither at the first nor the second Dings are there any idols; only at the second there is a tablet bearing the inscription 亭止且 (16) Ding No 3 has a small idol of Yen-Dah, the god of wealth, sitting on a seal like long tailed animal, and holding forward a shoe of tinsel resembling a lump of Sycee. Ding No. 4 is a small temple with a shrine to the god Wei-doe, and attended by a priest who receives his meals from the Monastery above. Besides the Dings there are several conveniently placed stone seats under lofty firs. Should the traveller apprehend thirst on his way up, he must not neglect to provide himself with liquid before starting, for though cascades are abundant enough within his sight on the opposite side of the gorge and above, not a dribblet is met until after he has passed the third Ding.
Experienced Geologists will decide, perhaps, that the Eastern Teen-muh and adjacent mountains are of primary, secondary and tertiary formations The strata, at the base, in layers slightly removed from a dead level, is composed of blue black slatey shale. At the height of Ding No. 2 the rocks resemble a brown sand stone, quite distinct from the black strata on the opposite side of the glen of similar elevation; that strata bearing, in places, a pitch of 15, in others 50 and even 70 degrees. Between the 3d and 4th Dings another species of formation is met with;—and over it tea is cultivated in patches with maize,—firs growing to great heights and of considerable girth. On the oppos ite mountain, bamboo is the cherished tree; not growing wildly, but regularly planted; each plot or grove bearing marks, painted with indian ink, to distinguish it from a neighbour's stock. Chareoal burners do a large business in these regions, the weights carried by them being far in excess of what would be borne by labourers of western lands. Provided with an iron shod staff to serve two purposes, one to help them up ascents, the other to rest one end of their shoulder stave on without placing both packs on the ground, Chekiang land carriers go over immense distances, and up trying heights, for small remuneration.
Passing Ding No. 4 through a grove of Fir, Cypress and Bamboo trees of splendid growth and exuberance, and still ascending, the traveller reaches the Monastery called Chaou-Ming-Sze, an establishment of 50 priests, and containing some fine idols; the three principal ones being lofty god desses on lotus leaves, concealed, until the hours for worship, by yellow silk hangings. There is a fine brass idol too, and, singularly, in one of the upper rooms, a white porcelain image which the priests call the Goddess of mercy. A cross on the breast, however, and foreign crown, at once stamp it as a "Mary" of Roman Catholic manufacture.