Night at Moon Pass
Night at Moon Pass Ye Meng "Brother looks out from the mountain, sister washes clothes by the river, sings a mountain song to send a message, the washing stick beats on the rock..." The singing voice flowed through the river of night like gentle whirlpools, as ethereal as celestial music. The red-lacquered wooden stilt houses swayed in the lamplight, as warm and enchanting as the fairy mountain and jeweled pavilions of myth. The dancing figures of Tujia, Miao, and Bai girls flitted back and forth across the lattice windows, like goddesses in a shadow play…
A Night at Moon Pass
by Ye Meng
“My love gazes from the mountain high, while his sweetheart washes clothes by the river low. He sings a folk song to send a message, and her washing stick beats upon the rock……”
The song ripples like gentle whirlpools, flowing through the river of night, as ethereal as celestial music. The red-lacquered wooden stilted houses sway in the lamplight, warm and enchanting like the mythical abodes of immortals. The dancing figures of Tujia, Miao, and Bai girls flit back and forth across the latticed windows, like goddesses in a shadow play.
In those stilted houses now fading into the distance, the song-and-dance gathering is still at its peak! Flashbulbs pop, tape recorders spin, and the music of reed pipes and flutes, the singing and dancing, the applause and laughter, along with the youthful vitality drifting from the girls' movements, fill that small hall to the brim. After eating and drinking their fill, people sit wide-eyed and ears pricked, mouths agape, notebooks clutched in hand, as if entranced…… The charm of Sangzhi folk songs truly lives up to its reputation.
My heart seems unable to contain so much joy. I can no longer stay amid this singing, so I grab a long flashlight and quietly slip out, heading toward Moon Pass in the darkness.
Why have I hurriedly bid farewell to the music and dancing, and, as if possessed, walked toward the wilderness in the dark?
I fear those overly lively atmospheres, afraid that my passion for nature, that stubborn attachment, will be diluted by all the bustle.
I also cannot bear to let myself be immersed in this ecstatic crowd. I fear that I will neglect and distance those rock peaks that I had no time to get close to during the day.
When will I ever change these ingrained habits!
I can see nothing! Except for the distant lights of the stilted houses, everything is pitch black.
Where are those elf-like rock peaks? I have come to visit you, yet you all hide beneath the black cloak of night, disappointing me greatly!
I can no longer make out the path up the mountain. The journey from Suoxiyu to Tianzi Mountain feels like a dream.
In the early morning, beneath Green Pine Ridge, in front of “Monkey Valley” (whether it is really called Monkey Valley, I do not know——but every morning troops of macaques come to forage, grimacing and winking at people), after waving goodbye to Suoxiyu, we plunged headlong into the dense forest of the Wild Botanical Garden. This is a semi-primitive jungle at the border of Cili and Sangzhi, reeking of wild mugwort and decaying grass, evidence that this was once a desolate, uninhabited place.
Everyone is drenched in sweat, every leg aching and foot weak. Dozens of miles of wild mountain paths are no joke; even the young can hardly bear it! Yet two elders, Lei Jia and Hu Zhen, who refuse to admit their age, have been walking at the front all along! Along with them are several “young stalwarts” like the general-like Mo Yingfeng and the gentlemanly Zhu Shucheng, half-bald, forming the “advance team” of the “Wuling Writers' Meeting” climbing Tianzi Mountain.
I do not feel tired at all, like a mountain monkey, bouncing and darting about. Even when walking, I cannot keep still. Everyone teases me, calling me “Wild Girl.” What can I do? It is all Elder Lei's fault—he gave me that nickname. Perhaps I was always destined for these mountains and wilds! Whenever I see the bearing of the mountains, whenever I smell the scent of the mountains, every cell in my body rejoices, so how could I feel tired?
When our “advance team” was the first to reach Moon Pass, the vast Tianzi Mountain seemed to lift a corner of its veil. Su Ye stood transfixed before the “sea of rock peaks”; I called her several times, but she did not move. It seems I am calmer than she, for I have long experienced the rock peaks—those strange fellows' bewitching power to torment people—but this was Su Ye's first time facing such a scene! I worry she may not be able to bear it. Is that not so?
Actually, who was not intoxicated by the scenery of Tianzi Mountain? That scene at dusk—did it not leave every one of us spellbound?
When I had gathered a big handful of dragon's beard grass and was climbing up from the deep valley, the sun was clearly shining overhead! Suddenly, raindrops came pattering down on us. Our guide—a Tujia youth—grabbed my hand and ran. There was no escaping the rain; my shirt was soaked through. I really could not run anymore. I raised my hand to wipe the raindrops from my eyelashes: Heavens! Was that not a seven-colored rainbow clearly hanging at the edge of the misty rain? I stood there foolishly, letting the rain pour over me.
I could see the stilted houses in the distance, and everyone was gathered at the railing, pointing and gesturing.
When I drew near, they all swarmed away from the rainbow to the railing on the west side of the building to see another wonder.
It was a marvelous neon light: the setting sun pierced through the clouds, shooting beams into the rain curtain, and after being transformed by the rain threads, they became an incredible rosy glow, colorful and shimmering.
Below the stilted houses is a deep valley with towering peaks. Mist like light smoke rises from the valley floor, steaming upward……
Dinner was served, and everyone had no choice but to sit at the table. I had no heart for eating; several times I carried my bowl to the edge of the steps and peered out from under the eaves. Suddenly, a gust of wind swept up from the deep valley, carrying dense rain, splashing my clothes and the rice in my bowl. It was both laughable and exasperating.
For a while, everyone seemed to go a bit mad. The painter from Shanghai, who usually spoke little, now would not stop talking, in his halting Wu dialect, telling everyone he met that this was a wonder everyone had seen; the fellow was excited beyond measure.
The dusk of Tianzi Mountain is truly indescribably beautiful.
The rain gradually stopped, the rainbow gradually withdrew, the neon glow gradually faded, leaving only the rain-washed green mountains, the distant sea of clouds, and the strange peaks wrapped in light smoke in the deep valley below.
People were perhaps tired from joy and went inside one by one. I hid under the eaves to wash clothes; the eaves dripped steadily—it was still raining! I happened to look up and caught sight of the golden-red, perfectly round setting sun in the western sky, hanging unobstructed in the rain, so vivid and deep red.
I could not bear to enjoy this wondrous scene of sunset in the rain alone. With one call, everyone came running out again.
After all, the setting sun will not linger; in the blink of an eye it quietly departed, slipping behind the curtain of gray clouds. We could not see its final farewell, leaving only a sense of loss and a sigh.
Who could believe that this pitch-black valley had once staged such a dazzling scene!
Alas! Where is the moon? That moon which was full yesterday! You will surely begin to wane day by day again. At Suoxi, Su Ye and I watched the moon every night, lingering by the stream late into the night, unwilling to return.
Probably the singing and dancing had ended, for Su Ye came looking for me, along with Elder Mo and Old Jing, the host of Tianzi Mountain. We gathered on a large overhanging rock slab. Everyone was in high spirits, talking about all sorts of things, but I heard none of it, only staring blankly at the gray-blue night sky.
Tonight is finished, there is no moon. I thought.
Just then, at the horizon where a faint glimmer appeared, a tiny arc of the moon slowly grew. Damn! How had the moon turned this color, veiled in celebratory red clouds, like a bride's veil. How could my heart not stir! Yet I did not dare rashly reveal the “heavenly secret,” for I feared that if everyone cried out, the red moon would be frightened back into the clouds.
I tugged at the corner of Su Ye's clothes and whispered to her: “I have something to show you.”
“Ai yo! Mother!” she cried out in surprise, her face pale, her soft little hands already clammy with sweat.
She thought I was using a snake to scare her again! At that moment, I had no mood to joke with her. I took her hand: “Look at the sky!”
Su Ye was dumbfounded, her mouth wide open, and after a long while she softly breathed: “Ah, incredible!”
How could the moon be red! Everyone was astonished.
The moon was full, not perfectly round, but so warm and fresh red! Like the golden-red, warm yolk of a newly laid egg, very fresh; or like the face of a girl secretly kissed, burning red.
This magical red moon of Tianzi Mountain!
Gradually, gradually, the red moon faded, turning silver-white like a jade plate, cool and pleasant.
The surroundings slowly became hazy in the darkness, revealing countless ghostly rock peaks.
The night was deep, the moonlight faint, and the conversation also faded, so everyone unconsciously walked back to the stilted houses.
I lay on the bed without undressing, but how could I sleep! When all voices ceased and the night was at its deepest, I became more and more awake, not a bit sleepy.
I tiptoed out of bed and gently opened the hall door. The door creaked, and that “creak” probably carried several miles.
How bright! Moonlight poured down over my head, like transparent silver waves.
The deep valleys on both sides floated with a layer of pure white cloud wadding, revealing the dark blue tips of peaks.
Were those rock peaks sleeping under this soft white blanket? No wonder the world was so quiet!
Moonlight like silver. Mist like silver. The moonlight dissolved the mist, and the mist was saturated with moonlight.
The Imperial Brush Peak also seemed splashed with a ladle of silver moonlight, half bright and half dark, hiding in the deep valley. The Goddess Offering Flowers Rock, however, was draped in a milky, semi-transparent cloak, revealing only the side profile of her flower-adorned hair bun and her charming cheeks.
Here was a hazy, floating, pure, tranquil, dreamlike atmosphere.
Was this night? Yet it did not seem like night; it was clearly the daylight of a fairyland!
I walked along the cliff edge, as if walking in the moon, feeling as if my body would float and fly, the ground beneath my feet unsteady.
That frozen white cloud beckoned to me! Tempting me to jump down. Below the cliff was a hundred-zhang abyss; to jump, I only needed to lift a leg.
I rubbed my drowsy eyes hard, and after all did not jump; I was not that foolish! Suddenly, I saw two arhat-like dark shadows standing by the railing of the wooden stilted house. Could it be that rock pillars in the deep valley had become spirits and climbed onto the wooden house? I was so startled that my palms broke out in sweat. Then I heard a few soft coughs; it turned out to be the photographers in our group, waiting there for the sunrise! I looked at my watch; it was only four o'clock. These people! I fear they are all bewitched by the fairies of Tianzi Mountain.