"Memory of Two Cave in Jinhua" by Ye Shengtao
On April 14th this year, I was in Jinhua, Zhejiang, visiting two caves in Beishan, Shuanglong Cave and Curling Cave. There are three caves, the highest one is called Chaozhen Cave. The spring in the cave is connected with Curling and Double Dragon. I didn't go there because I was not strong enough.
It’s about five kilometers from Jinhua City to Luodian. The agricultural cooperative there also grows flowers, such as jasmine, white orchid, orchid, which is similar to our Suzhou Huqiu belt. It is said that the Buddha's hand needs to be cultivated in the soil there and irrigated by Shuanglong Spring water to grow well. If it is moved to another place, the formed Buddha's hand will be like a fist. Without long fingers, it cannot be called a "hand".
After passing Luodian, we gradually entered the mountains. The road winds up, and workers are filling rocks and cultivating soil to strengthen the road surface. The mountains are almost full of azaleas, and compared to the potted rhododendrons, both the flowers and leaves look particularly energetic. The tung trees are also blooming, a clump here, a clump there, quite a few. I thought it was a pear blossom at first, but then I looked at the leaves and realized it wasn't. There are several veins in the mountains, and the sand on the mountains is pink, which seems to have never been seen elsewhere. The pink mountains, the backlog of azalea, and the dark or light new green make the scene bright and beautiful.
Face the stream all the way. Along with the mountain topography, the stream becomes wider, sometimes narrower, sometimes gentle, sometimes faster, and the sound of the stream also changes its tune from time to time. About five kilometers into the mountain, you will reach the entrance of Shuanglong Cave, where the stream comes out of the cave.
Looking up from the entrance of the cave, the mountain is quite high, abrupt and gloomy, and very imposing. The entrance of the cave is domed like a bridge and is very wide. When you walk in, you feel like you are in a big hall, surrounded by stone walls and a high stone roof above your head. If a thousand or eight hundred people gather there for a meeting, it will definitely not feel crowded. The spring water flows out to the right of the cave entrance. This is the outer cave, because there is a cave entrance over there, and the light in the cave is bright.
Looking for the source of the spring water in the outer cave, it turns out that it flows from the hole under the stone wall on the left. Although it is a hole, it can still accommodate a small boat. What kind of small boat is it? It's just right for two people lying on their backs side by side. There's no room for a third person. It's such a small boat. There are ropes tied to both ends of the boat. Workers from the management office go first into the inner hole and pull the rope inside, and the boat goes in. Workers from the outer hole pull the rope at the other end, and the boat comes out. Out of curiosity, I lay on my back alone in the boat. Following the instructions, I thought that every part from the back of my head to my shoulders, to my buttocks, and to my heels was touching the bottom of the boat, and then I said, "Okay." The boat moved slowly. My eyes were dim, but I could still feel that the rocks on the left, right and above seemed to be squeezing towards me. I also felt that if I raised my head a little, I would definitely break my forehead and scratch my nose. After walking about two to three feet of water (it's not accurate to be honest), we landed and reached the inner cave. If it hadn't been for the workers holding gasoline lanterns, the cave would have been pitch black and nothing could be seen. Even with a gasoline lamp, it can only illuminate a small area, and the rest is completely dim, so I don't know how wide it is. As a tour guide, the worker raised a gasoline lantern and pointed out the scenery inside the cave one by one. First of all, of course, there are the two dragons winding on the top of the cave, a yellow dragon and a green dragon. I followed his instructions and saw something similar. Next are some stalactites and stalagmites. What is this and what is that? Most of them are imagined to be fairy houses, animals, palaces, and utensils based on their shapes. There are more than forty names. This is a common practice in caves everywhere, and all central caves have similar features. I wasn't interested, even though I listened, I didn't remember any of it.
The landscape with caves contains a lot of limestone. Limestone has been eroded by groundwater over a long period of time, forming caves. Groundwater contains carbonic acid. Limestone is calcium carbonate. When calcium carbonate meets carbonic acid in the water, it becomes acidic calcium carbonate. Limestone is calcium carbonate. When calcium carbonate meets carbonic acid in the water, it becomes acidic calcium carbonate. Acidic calcium carbonate is soluble in water, which is why caves are formed and gradually expand. As the water gradually dries out, the carbonic acid in it decomposes into water and carbon dioxide gas and runs away, leaving solid calcium carbonate behind. What hangs down from the top of the cave and solidifies is stalactite. What accumulates bit by bit and condenses at the bottom of the cave is stalagmites. The principle is the same. Only because of this, the shape of the condensation is so varied, and the colors are different, even if it is nothing special, it is worth watching.
After walking around in the cave, I felt that the inner cave was much larger than the outer cave, about as big as a dozen houses. The spring water flows slowly to the right, with a gentle sound. The source is in the deep black cave.
Looking up "Xu Xiake's Travels", Xiake visited three caves on the tenth day of October in the ninth year of Chongzhen (1636). Yu Dafu was also there. Looking up his travel notes, it was November 12, 1933. Dafu's Travel Notes said that on the stone wall of the inner cave, "there are many stone carvings with inscriptions by people from the Tang and Song Dynasties. Among the stone carvings I have seen, the one in the fourth year of Qingli is the oldest. ... There are absolutely no inscriptions by people from the Qing Dynasty since Qianlong. The cave here has been clogged with sand since then. "When Duff went there, Beishan had just been tidied up and the old caves were newly opened. It has been more than 20 years now. Recently, Beishan has been reorganized, roads have been built, places for resting and dining have been arranged, and the outer and inner caves have been tidied up. The day I went there was Sunday, and there were a lot of tourists, including workers, farmers, cadres, and students. The outer cave and the inner cave were noisy, and you had to wait in line for a long time to get on the boat. This kind of scene, let alone Xu Xiake, if her ex-husband were still alive, would definitely say that she would never have imagined it twenty years ago.
I waited in line, then lay on my back in the boat and got out of the cave.
After resting for a while in front of the outer hole, we headed to the curling hole. Based on the experience just now, I know that the cave is damp. Wearing cloth shoes will not only get wet easily, but also make your feet unstable. I just bought a pair of straw sandals and put them on my cloth shoes.
There are stone steps from Shuanglong Cave to Curling Cave. I usually don't exercise. After climbing thirty or fifty levels, I feel angry. My legs are too heavy every step, and I have no intention to look at the trees and rocks on both sides. I climbed and rested until I reached the curling hole. I didn’t even count how many levels there were. There were probably three or four hundred levels. The entrance to the cave is only as big as the city gate of a small county town. Once you enter the cave, you have to walk down. Stone steps were carved along the stone wall, and wooden railings were erected on the side to prevent falling. Falling is really no fun. A coworker held a gasoline lantern to guide me in front. I paid attention to my steps, stepped on them firmly and then moved them. I felt that walking down was not as easy as climbing up.
Suddenly I heard the sound of water. Not many steps further down, the sound was very loud, as if the whole cave was filled with this roaring sound, which was really impressive. I saw a waterfall spitting out from a gap in the rocks. The rocks where it spit out were protruding, so the waterfall was completely suspended in the air. It was narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, and was about ten feet high. I was in a cave of unknown size, looking straight at the image of flying beads and jade by the light of a gasoline lamp. I could only hear its roar in my ears, and my face and hands were covered with flying droplets. This was a life-long experience. It was a state I had never experienced before, and the feeling at that time was really hard to describe.
Going down dozens of steps, the waterfall is right above us. We have to look up. At this time, I saw a strange scene, as if it was raining heavily in the bright sky, thousands of silver arrows were shooting straight down, and there were still a few remaining stars in the sky. This comparison was told to me by a co-worker. After listening to what he said, when I looked up at the waterfall, the more I looked at it, the more meaningful it became. This comparison compares stalactites to lions and elephants, and the artistic conception is much higher.
Looking up from that position, the waterfall is receiving the light from the entrance of the cave, so there is no need to illuminate it, and the whole body is bright. The so-called residual stars are actually reflections of white stalactites.
This waterfall is not like ordinary waterfalls. There is no pool at the bottom. When it falls to the bottom of the cave, it becomes a submerged stream. It is the source of the spring water in Shuanglong Cave.
Now I’ll copy the words about Xu Xiake’s Curling Cave here for reference. "The door of the cave was raised like a kiss. First, I threw my stick and hung the torch down, but the bottom was not visible as it rolled. Then I climbed into the gap and leaned in the air. Suddenly I heard the sound of water roaring, and when I held the torch and went down, in the center of the cave, a waterfall fell from the sky. , Ice flowers and jade fragments shine from the dark place into pure colors. In the water cave and stone, Mo Min goes. :
Ye Shengtao, formerly known as Ye Shaojun, is a famous Chinese writer, revolutionist and educator. His major works include the novels "Ni Huanzhi" and "An Overharvest of Three to Five Dou of Rice", fairy tale collections "Scarecrow", "Stone Statues of Ancient Heroes", etc.