The full text is as follows: Three Days on the Yangtze River
Liu Baiyu
November 17...
Shrouded in fog Facing the river, the weather is severe. At twelve o'clock, Jiangjin sailed down the river. After the Yangtze River merged with the Jialing River, the river surface suddenly opened up and the sky suddenly felt drooping. The thick yellow fog gradually obscured Chongqing. A quarter of an hour later, the boat was sailing on the narrow river between two steep cliffs.
Look at the rapid drifting waves, one after another. It is true that many waters are flowing together, and Qutang is competing for one. But the two or three wooden boats were swaying their two rows of wooden oars in unison, like birds flapping their wings, moving upstream. I think of Li Bai and Du Fu in that distant era, riding a small boat against the waves. How many majestic battles must have been, and how many magnificent poetic thoughts they would have inspired the poets! ...Soon, the river became more open and vast. The two rivers suddenly met and hugged each other joyfully, stirring up misty clouds and turbulent waves. Now they seemed to have calmed down a little. Where the water and the sky were as far as the eye could see, the gray distant mountains unfolded into a light ink painting.
I don’t know when this wish to go down the Yangtze River took root in my heart. Son, when I was young, I read about going east of the Yangtze River... I read about the sounds of apes on both sides of the river... I always yearned for it. Later, I heard that the Yangtze River originates from a glacier. The glaciers in spring are covered with strange and beautiful snow lotuses, and the Yangtze River is just a clear stream there; but when you see its roaring roar, like thousands of waterfalls suspended in the sky, it suddenly Wanli, it is inevitable that another layer of heroic glory will be painted on the fairy tale world with a mysterious atmosphere. Later, I went to Chongqing twice and climbed Loquat Mountain twice to see the night view on the river. Among the thousands of lights and the brilliant sea of ??stars, I could identify the slowly floating lights on the ship. I wanted to follow the stormy waves straight to Qutang and down to Jingmen. ah. But it was not until this time that I could appreciate the scenery of the Yangtze River in person. Therefore, this time on the Jiangjin, as I said in a letter written the next day:
For these two companies, I have been in the lounge all day long, through the glass window, Watching the Three Gorges. It was shrouded in hazy fog all day yesterday. It's sunny today. This majestic and beautiful Yangtze River is really beautiful.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, the sky turned brighter. On both sides of the Yangtze River, there are endless layers of majestic mountain peaks. The green pines and green bamboos cover an embroidered curtain. On the steep wall near the shore, you can clearly see the trackers with their backs on their backs. If you look forward, the mountains ahead are still shrouded in fog amid the mighty river, but the fog is not as thick and yellow as in the morning, but milky white. Now is the dry season, and a black reef and a yellow shoal suddenly appear in the river. The boat often makes a circuitous move between two very narrow navigation marks and sails down the river. The mountains are gathering together more and more, the dusk is gradually lowering, and it is gradually entering dusk. The traffic lights are gradually flashing, and the green mountains are blurred into a gray.
When I was feeling anxious for the night to fall, the Yangtze River in the dark showed another kind of charm to me. At first, there was a light here and a cluster of lights there, as if the Yangtze River was blinking at you. And a moment later it was pitch black again, and you could feel the waves rolling and boiling from the slight ripples of the ship's hull. A particularly majestic scene appeared late at night. I walked to the deck alone. At this time, the river was full of wind. It was dark up and down, front and back, and countless strong searchlights shot from the top of the ship to the river. The sky and the river were covered with clouds and mist, lightning flashed, and there was the sound of wind and water. , not only makes people deeply appreciate the majestic momentum of the thunderous battle in the rapid gorge of the Gaojiang River, but also you feel that you are so close to nature, as if the entire universe is listed in your chest. Water, sky, wind and mist blend into one, as if you are not a boat but yourself fighting against the current of the river. The dawn is ahead, and we should work hard. At this time, a solemn and beautiful emotion filled my heart. I felt that the great era I had experienced was suddenly reflected in the rushing Yangtze River. Yes, isn’t this how our entire life is fought, sailed, and walked through the night toward dawn? Now, everyone on the ship is sleeping soundly, the whole world is sleeping peacefully, and a peaceful light appears on the wheelhouse. Think about it, holding the steering wheel, using the flashing lightning torch, to find a way forward through the stormy waves, what a heroic life it is! Our philosophy is the philosophy of revolution, and our poetry is the poetry of fighting. Because of this, our life is the most beautiful life. Lenin once said it very well: Go forward! How wonderful this is! This is life! ...The Jiangjin sailed forward with its whistle high and deep.
November 18
In the letter, I said this: On this day, I feel like I am flying in a majestic and magnificent symphony. I have sailed on the oceans and flown in the sky, but on our mother river, the Yangtze River, for the first time, I was absorbed by such a power of nature.
In the hazy state, I heard the broadcast to Fengjie. It was already twilight when we anchored. I stood up and took a look. The peaks and mountains had just emerged from the dark night as a gray outline. After continuing our journey, I came to the rest room and saw two cliffs in front of me, and a narrow river in the middle, which had entered the Qutang Gorge. The river turned along the wall, and a patch of golden sunshine appeared in the sky in front of it, like a golden belt running across it. The rest of the sky was still filled with seas of clouds. The mouth of Qutang Gorge is the most dangerous place of the Three Gorges. Du Fu's "Kuizhou Song" said: Bai Di Gao is the town of Three Gorges, and Qutang narrowly passes Bailao Pass.
An ancient ballad said: The Yanli is as big as a horse, and one cannot go down to Qutang. The Yanli is as big as a monkey, and one cannot swim in Qutang. The Yanli is as big as a turtle, and one cannot go back to Qutang. The Yanli is as big as an elephant, and one cannot go up to Qutang. This Yanlidui refers to a pile of black giant reefs. It is aimed at the mouth of the gorge. As soon as the water rushes into the mouth of the gorge, it goes straight to the huge reef. As you can imagine, it was really thunderous, and the ship was like an arrow leaving the string, and it was smashed into pieces by just a few centimeters. Now, this giant reef has long been blown up. However, in Qutang Gorge, the rapids are surging, the waves are like thunder, and countless eddies are formed on the river surface. The boat rushes through the whirlpools, and only the sound of rushing water is heard. After eight kilometers of Qutang Gorge, the dark clouds and mist suddenly disappeared. A blue sky appeared on the top of the gorge, with a few small golden clouds floating on it. A ray of sunlight fell like lightning on the cliff on the left. A white cloud on the peak on the right shone like silver, but the sun had not yet fallen. At this time, far ahead, on top of countless mountains, among the misty clouds, a red mist suddenly appeared. You see, the purple mountain peaks set off this mist, it is so beautiful. Just like the flash of red gems reflected upward in the deep valley, it makes people feel as if they have entered a mythical realm. At this time, when you look up the river, it is also colorful: the two sides of the huge rocks are reflected like ink; the middle is winding, but like a shining road with fine waves; the nearby mountains are as green as emeralds . Time passed minute by minute, and the red mist in front became redder and brighter. As the boat got closer and closer, it gradually became clear that there was a tall peak standing tall and tall in the red mist. It gradually became clear that the red mist was actually thousands of strong rays of sunlight. At 8:20, we came to this clear golden sunrise.
Looking up, we have reached Wushan. The sun shines down from above, and the thick fog rolls up from below. The clouds are steaming and the clouds are bright, which is quite spectacular. As soon as I saw the straight peak from a distance, I stood at the mouth of the Wu Gorge. The mountain was as sharp as an axe, and it was beautiful and graceful. People told me that this was the first of the twelve peaks of Wushan. It seemed to be greeting the guests coming upstream. : Look, this is Wushan Wu Gorge. The Jiangjin cruised close to the foot of the mountain and entered the mouth of the gorge. The bright red sunlight shot into the glass hall at this moment and shone on my face. In the gorge, strong sunlight intersects with milky white clouds and mist. A few steps away, there is sunlight on one side and clouds and mist on the other. It is really unpredictable. Several wooden boats came up from the downstream, and the sails were illuminated by the sun like transparent white wings. The mountain gorge was getting narrower and narrower. The two mountains in front faced each other. It seemed that they were not even as wide as a gate, and outside the gate, there was completely white mist. .
At 8:50, the boat was full of people looking up. I also ran to the deck and saw a thin rock standing on the top of the Ten Thousand Rin Peak, like a person looking towards the river. That was the Beauty Peak, full of magical and ethereal legends. It is said that a fisherman was fishing in the river when he encountered a violent storm and the boat was destroyed. His wife took her child and looked from the top of the mountain, hoping for his return. Day by day, month by month, he never came back, but she did. Still ignoring the morning and dusk, regardless of the wind and rain, I stood there waiting for him. He is still waiting there today! ...
If Qutang Gorge is like a gate, then Wu Gorge is like a winding gallery on the river. The boat bends left and right along with the mountain. Every bend and turn unfolds a wonderful landscape painting to you. The mountains on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are extraordinary and continuous. There are twelve peaks in Wushan. Each peak has its own posture. People give them high evaluations and names of beauty, which obviously adds poetry to our country, and poetry is endlessly changing. . Suddenly, the dark gray rocks dropped straight down from the sky and dipped into the middle of the river, which reminded people of a huge exclamation point; suddenly there was the green grass slope, like a piece of music full of emotion; what is particularly beautiful is the pile of autumn frost on the hanging rock. The wild grass dyed bright red is like a mountain full of cuckoos. The gorge is steep and the river is steep. The river surface is covered with large and small whirlpools. The boat can move slowly, like a traveler walking slowly among the mountains. But this just gives people from far away enough time to appreciate the vast and majestic beauty of nature on the Yangtze River. Goshawks hover over the high gorge, and the river waves follow the waves of the mountains. The shadows of mountains, clouds, sun and water are intertwined into one.
At ten o'clock, the river gradually became wider, the rapids crossed steadily, and passed through the Wu Gorge. Arrive at Badong at 10:15 and have entered Hubei. When we arrived at Niukou at half past ten, the waves in the river were surging, pushing the boat forward on the waves, swinging forward. The river had just rushed out of Wu Gorge, and before it had time to breathe, it rushed into the third gorge, Xiling Gorge.
Xiling Gorge is relatively wide, but the river flow becomes particularly fierce at this point, with rapids and dangerous shoals everywhere. The boat was like a shooting star rushing along with the raging waves, and then it was floating around the dangerous shoal. The three most famous dangerous shoals are: Xietan, Qingtan and Kongling Beach. When you first step off the beach, when you look at the galloping river, you will suddenly feel that the river is simply spinning. There are one thousand or ten thousand whirlpools, making the Jiangjin ship violently vibrate. Although this section of the river is dangerous, there are countless beautiful legends circulating there. Arrive at my sister's home at 11:15. According to Yuan Song's "Records of Yidu Mountains and Rivers": Sistergui is the hometown of Qu Yuan and the place where Xiong Yi, the son of Chu, founded the country. Later Qu Yuan was exiled to the Miluo River and died there. It is said among the people that on the day of Dr. Qu's death, someone saw him riding a white horse on the banks of the Miluo River. There is another legend: After Qu Yuan died, he was carried back to his sister by a big fish, and finally returned to Chu State from the place of exile. All this sounds too mysterious and bizarre at first, but it reflects the people's infinite nostalgia for Qu Yuan.
There is a large iron-green reef in front of Jigui, standing tall on the river surface. After a long period of rapids, it bypasses the Xietan. In the most dangerous place, Jiangjin used all its energy, trembling and trembling to move forward.
Just as the rapids passed, I saw a strange peak protruding in front of me. The river was running along the right side of the mountain peak, but another river appeared on the left side of the mountain peak. It turned out that this was Xiangxi, the birthplace of Wang Zhaojun. It immediately reminded people of Du Fu's poem: The mountains and valleys go to Jingmen, and there is a village of Mingfei. We looked at the Xiangxi River in the distance, and then the boat followed the mountain peaks and entered the Bingshu Baojian Gorge, an extremely steep long gorge. This is a completely narrow alley. When I got to the bow of the boat and looked up, I saw yellow stones and blue rocks as high as the sky. After driving for a while, I reached Qingtan. The river surface drops suddenly, the waves are turbulent, and the waves are splashing. Before you can take a closer look, the boat has been flying down like an arrow. The huge waves split the bow of the boat, swirled around, joined together, and surged away again. The river seemed to be boiling, with foam and waves everywhere. The comrades on the boat pointed to a town on Yanshang and told me: Many pilots on the Yangtze River ships were born here... Every wooden boat that wants to cross Qingtan has to ask people here to guide it. At this time, I was looking at a wooden boat going upstream. The momentum of the Qingtan Beach seemed very scary, but when people grasped a way forward from the rough waves, they defeated nature.
At noon, we came to the Mountain Ridge Beach. Everyone on the Yangtze River knows: Xietan Qingtan is not a beach, Mountain Ridge is the gate of hell. It can be seen that it is dangerous. Seeing a gray rocky reef covering the water, the Jiangjin anchored. It turned out that only one boat could pass through the narrow channel of Kongling Beach. At this time, a river ship was going up, so we had to wait. Unexpectedly, it took so long to wait, which shows how cautious the boat going up was. When we drove down to Kongling Beach, it turned out to be a forest of rocks. It seemed like we were not on the mighty Yangtze River, but on our way to find a path in the vast jungle.
November 19
In the morning, a patch of red sunlight illuminated the calm river water as brightly as glass. Three days along the Yangtze River, the scenery is in various forms. Now it is no longer as foggy and misty as the day before yesterday, nor is it the desolate Wushan Gorge yesterday. Instead, it is: the Chu land is vast and boundless, and the vast expanse is connected. After passing through the Yangtze Gorge, the Yangtze River has now become so peaceful, as peaceful and loving as a young mother who has just given birth to a baby. The skylight and water color are really soft. The river water is like slightly fluttering silk, and two snow-white gulls are slowly flying in parallel with the Jiangjin. As far as the water and sky can be seen, a kind of transparent mist condenses, with clusters of sails, like a bunch of sails. A bouquet of snow-white flowers shines under the blue sky.
On such a day, a very peaceful day on the riverboat, I immersed myself in the red "Prison Letters" by Rosa Luxemburg.
This was the most steadfast leader of the German proletarian revolution in 1918. From her letter, I felt the light of the thought and the warmth of the heart of a great revolutionary, breaking through the shackles of the bars and shining in the world. In the human world, look at this page:
Raindrops fall softly and evenly on the leaves, purple-red lightning shines again and again in the leaden gray, and in the distance, rumbling thunder sounds like surging waves. Waves of waves continued to roll in. In the midst of all this gloom and bleakness, suddenly a nightingale screamed in a maple tree in front of my window! In the rain, lightning, and rumbling thunder, the nightingale crows like a crisp silver bell. It sings like a drunkard. It wants to overwhelm the thunder and sing to brighten the darkness...
Last night, about nine o'clock, I also saw a magnificent scene. From my sofa, I found a rose-colored reflection on the window pane. This surprised me very much, because the sky was completely gray. I ran to the window and stood there fascinated. In the gray sky, a huge rose-colored cloud appeared in the east. It was so beautiful that it was rare in the world. It was separated from everything and floated there alone. It looked like a smile, like it came from a stranger. A greeting from afar. I breathed a sigh of relief and involuntarily stretched out my hands towards this charming picture. With such colors and images, life will be wonderful and valuable, right? I feasted my eyes on this glorious picture, swallowing up every rosy ray of light in this picture, until I suddenly couldn't help laughing to myself. Oh my god, the sky, the clouds, and the beauty of life as a whole do not exist only in Fronke. Do I need to say goodbye to them? No, they will follow me, no matter where I go, as long as I live, the sky, clouds and the beauty of life will be with me.
The Jiangjin sailed slowly in the calm waves. As I read the book, a very precious feeling penetrated my whole body. I must write it down immediately, and I am willing to write it down together with the roaring, quiet and gentle Yangtze River, because it reminds me of the imagination I had the day before yesterday of fighting and sailing through the night towards dawn. In the past, How many people are looking forward to a better tomorrow from their arduous battles! And when I endure the bright sunshine and the beautiful scenery like today, I can't help but realize that the fragrant and peaceful breath that our entire earth exudes today, this breath of socialist life, is exactly All over the world, whether in Asia or Europe, America or Africa, the blood of all pioneers unites and emits the freest and most powerful light. After I finished reading "Prison Letters", a setting sun was as round and as big as a bright red coral ball. It enveloped the entire river in a faint red light, and there was like a thin silk curtain in front of me. Scattered down gently.
Finally, let me end the day by copying a paragraph from my own letter:
At night, after nine o'clock, from the dark night in front, I saw many things. A few tiny lights. People pointed out to me that it was the Yangtze River Bridge, and the Jiangjin was steadily approaching Wuhan. Since then, I have been standing on the boat and looking out, and gradually I can see the neat rows of pearls shining brightly. As I looked at it, I felt that on this vast river, this was the crown of pearls we dedicated to our mother river! ...Moving forward, countless blue, white, red, and green lights on the river are floating with long reflections. They are countless ships sailing, and the outline of the bridge drawn by pearls is completely like It's like rising in the clouds, high in the sky, and on the other side of the bridge, the lights are so dense that it looks like a brilliant golden river. What is that? After careful identification, it turned out to be hundreds of millions of lights on both sides of Wuhan.
When our Jiangjin ship loudly saluted and cheered for Wuhan City, a solemn emotion arose in my heart. Take a look! How splendid the new world we create is! ...
1960 (selected from "Selected Prose by Liu Baiyu", People's Literature Publishing House, 1978 edition)