Duxiu Peak
Qing Yuan Mei
There is no trace of the whole thing, but suddenly a peak jumps into the south. Guilin has eight or nine extraordinary landscapes, and its Solitary Beauty Peak ranks first among them.
Climb to the top of the 360th level, and a city of smoke and water comes before you. The green hills are as straight as strings, so why does it hurt to live in isolation?
Travel to Huangshan Mountain
Qing Yuan Mei
On the second day of April in Guimao, I finished my tour of Baiyue Mountain and bathed in the hot springs of Huangshan Mountain. The springs were sweet and chilly. Under the cliff. Stay overnight at Ciguang Temple.
The next morning, the monk told him: "From now on, the mountain path is flat and dangerous, although the cage cannot accommodate it. It is a good walk for the public. Fortunately, there are natives who are accustomed to taking guests away, named Haima, and they can be used." Five or six strong men came with several feet of cloth in their hands. Is Yu Zixiao an old man going to be an infant again? At the beginning, he was still strong, but when he became exhausted, he was tied to his back. So step forward and take half the losses. Walking to Yunchao, the road is dead. Climb up the wooden ladder. Thousands of peaks pierce the sky. Ciguang Temple has fallen to the bottom of the cauldron. That evening, we stayed at Wenshu Monastery.
It’s rainy and cold, and the Dragon Boat Festival is still covered with heavy furs and embracing the fire. Yun walked into the house, and there was chaos for a moment. The two of them sat down and just heard each other. After leaving, walk to Lixue Terrace. There are ancient pine roots growing in the east, with the body leaning to the west and the head facing south, penetrating into the stone and cracking out of the stone. The stone seems alive and hollow, so it can hide in it and transform into it. It also seems to be afraid of the sky and does not dare to go up. It is as big as ten circumferences and no more than two feet high. There are so many other pine species that it is impossible to remember them all. In the evening, the clouds became clearer and the peaks fell down like children and grandchildren.
The next day, I turned left from the platform and went down a hundred steps of ladder, but the road was dead again. Suddenly he saw a stone like a big turtle, which opened its mouth. He had no choice but to walk into the fish's mouth, pierce the belly and come out of the back, not for a day. Climb the Alchemy Platform and go up to the Guangming Peak, which forms a tripod with the two peaks of Lotus and Tiandu, standing high against each other. The wind shakes people and makes them unable to stand. In the evening, we stayed at Shilin Temple. Climb Shixin Peak before the sun sets. There are three peaks. From a distance, the two peaks stand sharply, but when you look closer, you can see that one peak is hidden and behind. The peak is high and dangerous, with a bottomless stream at its base. I stand on the top of it, with my lowered toes hanging out. The monk was afraid to hold him back. Yu Xiao said: "It doesn't matter if you fall." He asked: "What?" He said: "The stream has no bottom, so if you fall, you will also have no bottom. How can you know where to park? Even if there is a bottom, it will take a long time to reach it. You can do it. Just a moment to survive." The monk laughed.
The next day, we went to the large and small cooling terraces. The peaks under the stage are like pens, arrows, bamboo shoots, bamboo forests, knives and halberds, the masts of ships, and the arsenal of soldiers scattered on the ground like the emperor's play. When I was eating, there was a white dog lying around the tree. The monk happily said: "These clouds cover the sea." At first it was misty, and the silver was scattered and became one after a long time. The peaks of the green mountains are exposed, and there are preserved bamboo shoots in the thickened fat. If they are separated, thousands of peaks will remain in their original shape. I was sitting on the top of a pine tree in the bitter sun. Suddenly a cloud rose up to provide shade, and I realized that the clouds were higher and lower, and they were not of the same family.
On the ninth day of the lunar month, we turned down from behind Tianzhu Peak, passed through the white sand, and arrived at Yungu, where we were greeted by our family members. We plan to walk more than fifty miles and enter the mountain for seven days.
(Abridged from "A Collection of Famous Prose Essays of the Ming and Qing Dynasties")