Rock Ear
Rock Ear by Bi Ye. Rock Ear is a mountain delicacy, black as ink jade and extremely rich in protein. Eating it clears internal heat, nourishes yin, and moistens the lungs. Rock Ear grows in the "peak forest" of the Wuling Mountains in Xiangxi. The so-called "peak forest" refers to towering peaks rising straight from the ground like a forest. The peak forest is shrouded in clouds and mist, and Rock Ear, moistened by the clouds and mist, grows in the crevices of the layered rock of the pillar-like peaks. I went to visit a family that gathers Rock Ear. This was a hillside in Suoxiyu covered with emerald bamboo...
Rock Ear
by Bi Ye
Rock Ear is a mountain delicacy, black as ink jade and extremely rich in protein. Eating it clears internal heat, nourishes yin, and moistens the lungs. Rock Ear grows in the "peak forest" of the Wuling Mountains in Xiangxi.
The so-called "peak forest" refers to towering peaks rising straight from the ground like a forest. The peak forest is shrouded in clouds and mist, and Rock Ear, moistened by the clouds and mist, grows in the crevices of the layered rock of the pillar-like peaks.
I went to visit a family that gathers Rock Ear.
This was a hillside in Suoxiyu covered with emerald bamboo. A clear mountain stream gurgled among the scattered rocks in the bamboo grove. The host's house stood beside the stream, surrounded by lush green Chinese plum yews.
The Chinese plum yew is a rare and precious tree species, which shows the host's extraordinary bearing.
People in the mountain areas like to keep dogs to guard the house. Hearing the barking, a dark-skinned man came out. His eyes were bright, and he had a thick, bristling ring of beard.
He smiled, revealing a row of gleaming, sharp teeth: "Honored guest, please come in!"
He led me into the thatched cottage. This was the main room, with a copper kettle hanging over the fire pit and a hunting rifle hanging on the wooden wall. Even more striking was the rough newspaper rack on the wall, holding the Beijing Daily, the Yangcheng Evening News, the Science and Technology News, and the Travel News. At a glance, one could tell this was a new type of peasant household in the mountains.
After the host learned the purpose of my visit, he warmly brewed me a bowl of cloud-and-mist tea and brought out a small basket of pine nuts and hazelnuts to entertain me.
To satisfy my request, this shrewd and sturdy dark-skinned man, while fondling several newly sharpened, gleaming horn spades, talked on and on about his stories of gathering Rock Ear.
The dark-skinned man had once been a good hunter, swift as the wind, a sure shot who never missed. But in recent years, a wildlife reserve had been established in the Wuling Mountains, and hunting was forbidden. So, from spring to winter, he made his living gathering Rock Ear every month. The Wuling peak forest has three thousand pillars, but black rock, green rock, and limestone do not grow Rock Ear; Rock Ear grows only on ox-yellow rock and white sand rock.
He was in charge of gathering Rock Ear in more than seventy thousand mu of peak forest in Suoxiyu. Before dawn, he would go up the mountain with horn spades, a seat ring, a long cloth bag, and coir rope. He took no water and ate no lunch. Climbing cliffs to gather Rock Ear required full concentration, so he neither ate nor drank.
Gathering Rock Ear in the Wuling Mountain area had been passed down from generation to generation. In the past, when ancestors gathered Rock Ear, the first thing they did upon reaching the mountain was burn paper offerings and pray to the mountain god for safety. Of course, that carried strong superstitious overtones, but it also fully showed the hardship and risk of gathering Rock Ear.
Now it was the turn of the dark-skinned man's generation. He relied on wit and courage, and on faith in the socialist cause.
When the dark-skinned man went up the mountain, whether because they were overawed by his majesty or because of his sudden appearance, the peak forest became very still: crows did not call, birds did not sing, wild bees dared not sting, and the money-string snake dared not come.
His hands and feet were like iron claws and steel hooks as he climbed step by step through the air to the top of a ten-thousand-foot cliff. Above his head, wisps of white clouds drifted past; below his feet lay a deep valley filled with mist. On the cliff top ten thousand feet high grew ancient rock pines hundreds of years old. He "asked" them—shook them a little—and once he found the ancient rock pine firmly rooted, he tied the coir rope to the tree stump, fastened the seat ring, hung the long cloth bag at his waist, took the horn spade in hand, and, suspended by the coir rope, climbed down circle by circle and level by level along the fissures where the rock strata had split, gathering Rock Ear growing in the cracks and crevices.
In the peak forest there is a kind of "flying tiger" that likes to make its nest in stone crevices. This "flying tiger" has membranous wings and can glide through the air. Its teeth are as sharp as swords, and even tigers and leopards fear it. It is afraid that Rock Ear gatherers will raid its nest, and if it detects danger, it immediately flies over and bites through the coir rope, so that the gatherer falls into the abyss and his bones are shattered. Therefore, before starting to gather Rock Ear, the dark-skinned man alertly noted the rock caves where "flying tigers" came and went and avoided them as much as possible.
The dark-skinned man secured the seat ring firmly and tightened the coir rope, then, gripping with hands and bracing with feet, gathered Rock Ear from the crevices one horn-spade scoop at a time. Sometimes he happily gathered a piece as big as a bowl; sometimes even one as big as a palm-leaf fan. Such large Rock Ear weighed two liang each and took decades to grow. As the cliff wall grew hotter under the sunlight, the long cloth bag hanging at his waist became more and more swollen. When he came upon a peak pillar with abundant Rock Ear, he could gather twenty or thirty jin in a day. But around two o'clock in the afternoon, when the rock wall was scorched hot by the sun and the Rock Ear easily became brittle, he had to stop for a while. At such times, the gatherer could only sit on the seat ring, grip the coir rope, endure hunger and thirst, and hang suspended halfway up the peak.
Resting halfway up the cliff, he raised his head and looked up: the drifting white clouds flashed dazzlingly; he looked around: the surrounding peak forest was lush and green; he looked down: the deep valley was vast and misty. Placed in this wild mountain and ridge, he could hear neither the voices of passersby nor see the cooking smoke of distant villages.
Hanging in the air, scorched by the sun, baked by the cliff wall, burning with hunger, tormented by thirst—this was the most difficult time for him to endure while gathering Rock Ear.
On the surrounding mountains, among the green trees, there were bright red wild fruits, but he could not pick them to satisfy his hunger; from the foot of the mountain came the gurgling of spring water, but he could not scoop it up and drink his fill.
From time to time he raised his eyes to the sky, and what he longed for most was for the sun to hurry westward so that he could go down the mountain with his long cloth bag full of Rock Ear.
Just as he hung on the cliff lost in thought, suddenly a flapping sound came to his ears. He looked up sharply and saw a "flying tiger" flapping its membranous wings and circling the cliff. It flew far, then near; wild animals also have intelligence, and it was observing the movements of the Rock Ear gatherer. The dark-skinned man was very calm and composed and did not provoke the "flying tiger." If at that moment even a slight movement angered the "flying tiger," and it swooped over and cut the coir rope with its sharp teeth, it would all be over. In the end, the "flying tiger" felt that the visitor meant no harm and would not raid its nest or harm its little "flying tigers," so it folded its membranous wings and slipped into the rock cave.
But one crisis had just passed when another arrived. Suddenly, a tremendous roar rolled through thousands of mountains and ridges, like mountains collapsing and the earth splitting, and the peak pillars beside him swayed. A wild wind came charging through the mountains and valleys!
In the howling wind, he was like a leaf drifting on the cliff wall. The long coir rope bound him tightly; when the great wind came, his body was flung dozens of meters away and then violently whipped back. The wind roared, the mountain shook, and his ears were filled with the sound of wind and the crackling of broken branches. If at such a time the Rock Ear gatherer lost his head, he would be smashed to pieces against the cliff. But the dark-skinned man was agile and brave; the wild wind blew him far through the air, yet each time he was able to drift back with the force of the wind, bracing himself slantwise against the cliff with hands and feet, safe and unhurt.
The mountain wind came suddenly and left suddenly. After the wind stopped, the peak forest returned to silence. He looked at the sky: the sun above his head had already slanted west; he listened to his surroundings: the flowing spring below his feet gurgled. It seemed as if no dangerous thing had ever happened in nature. After the great wind, the whole peak forest became fresh and cool, and the dark-skinned man took advantage of the fine weather to quicken his gathering of Rock Ear.
He descended rapidly and skillfully, circle by circle and level by level, gathering Rock Ear from the peak pillar, and by the time both his feet touched the ground, his long cloth bag was already bulging. That day, he again had a bumper harvest of Rock Ear.
It grew dark, and he went down the mountain treading on starlight. Winding along the mountain path, he returned home. The first to welcome him back was his big male dog. The creature had not seen its master all day and seemed especially happy, bounding wildly around the dark-skinned man by the bamboo grove where the stream gurgled, whining softly...
After learning about the process of gathering Rock Ear, I was full of joy. Now the setting sun shone through the bamboo grove into the thatched cottage, making it a scene of golden green. I saw the dark-skinned man pick up the sharpened horn spade and fondle it again, and I exclaimed:
"Gathering dozens of jin of Rock Ear in one day is no easy thing!"
He lovingly stroked the sharp horn spade in his hand and said with a smile:
"Tomorrow, I should go up the mountain again to gather Rock Ear."
As he spoke, he quickly brought out a large sack from the side room and placed it before me.
Just as I was startled and doubtful, he took out a full handful of ink-black things from the big sack: "Look, this is Rock Ear!"
Curiously I opened my eyes wide and examined it. Rock Ear really was black as ink jade; the back was grayish white and covered with fine down.
"Rock Ear is a tonic. Stewed, it is both soft and gelatinous." The dark-skinned man showed two rows of sharp, gleaming teeth and said with no little pride, smiling, "It does not grow worms or mold, can be kept as a standing dish, and one never tires of eating it year after year."
I marveled inwardly: this is the mountain delicacy that the dark-skinned man, braving the dangers of the peak forest, gathered for people beyond the mountains.
I raised my head and studied the dark-skinned man. His eyes were bright, his black pupils crystal clear, his ring of beard dark and thick, as black as Rock Ear itself. I thought to myself, the Wuling Mountains of Xiangxi produce this mountain delicacy, Rock Ear, and also produce good men like this dark-skinned man.
When I left the bamboo grove and thatched cottage, the dark-skinned man, amid the barking of dogs, saw me down the hillside. We went around the Chinese plum yews, through the bamboo grove, and followed the stream gurgling among the scattered rocks, descending step by step.
On the difficult steep cliffs or beside the moss-slippery stream, the dark-skinned man always reached out to steady me. His rough big hand was strong and powerful, trained by climbing dangerous cliffs and sheer precipices. Leaning on it, I felt a hundred times safer. His hand passed on to me a warmth, a strength.
A feeling of respect and affection rose in my heart. This dark-skinned man lived deep in the mountains, yet brought benefit to the world of men. But how difficult it is to benefit the world of men!