The Loneliness of Wulingyuan

Published：2018-03-19 Source：Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network

The Loneliness of Wulingyuan
Zhu Xinhua
Long, long ago, heaven and earth were both lonely. 380 million years ago, perhaps on a cool autumn morning, the crust sneezed several times in succession, shaking off the waters of the vast ocean like a lion, and the Lord of Heaven used the palm of lightning and thunder to slash and hack at this sedimentary red sandstone landform, carving out in the vast hundred-li Wulingyuan 9,999 strange peaks and perilous cliffs.
This is a historical scroll of nature, and every stone peak is a monumental work that makes your head swell as you read it. At that time, the Lord of Heaven was an old playful child, like today's children playing with plasticine, kneading out some stone walls and stone cliffs in the sedimentary red sandstone landform of Wulingyuan, and also hacking out some giant whips for driving mountains, the brush of the Jade Emperor for correcting essays, stone peaks of husband and wife embracing, perilous cliffs where lovers meet secretly, General Stone lying drunk on the battlefield, the three natural bridges crossed by the fairy scattering flowers, neighing war horses, mighty warriors, roaring yellow lions, screaming skyward brocade rats, sky-piercing swords and halberds, cave dwellings where yellow dragons hide, Baofeng Lake like a heavenly pond on earth, the West Sea guarded by heavenly soldiers and generals, ten miles of gallery accompanied by stream water, the herb-gathering old man climbing by the cliff all day long... These countless bare rock peaks, carefully observe the cracks split open in the bare rock peaks, like the palm lines of a rough large hand. The cracks in the bare rock peaks were not entirely split by lightning; wind had also torn them, rain had also torn them, and sunlight had also torn them. The cold cliff stone walls are perhaps the watchers of the vast sky, watching over the heritage that nature left to humanity billions of years ago, watching over a piece of kindness that nature left to humanity, watching over the inspiration and imagination that nature left to humanity about the living environment. On the stone peak rock walls of Wulingyuan hang green moss, and in the stone crevices grow grass and trees, like the attire of men and women in the slash-and-burn era. On the towering and jagged peaks, seeing tree roots exposed bare like blue veins on a hand, gripping the bare stone peaks like eagle claws, and then looking at the cracks of varying length and width all over the stone peaks, you will marvel at the powerful vitality of tree seeds. Although the tree roots exposed like blue veins vary in thickness, they all began as a single tree seed, and after countless years, they burst open the stone peaks standing like pillars, bamboo shoots, whips, knives, and halberds. As the saying goes, "Absolute sincerity will move a stone." The perilous cliff stone peaks, one after another, are all a single color of dripping verdure. Inconspicuous miscellaneous trees, their trunks only as thick as a thumb or a wrist, curve and flourish in the strange peaks and secluded valleys. On the branches and leaves dancing with the wind, you can see the crisp and pleasant sound of a flute slipping down from the leaves! Looking back at the tree trunks, whether pine or miscellaneous wood, it is the powerful roots that make the branches and leaves luxuriant. This magical tension of life, could it be that ancient wanderers struggled and became human? Look at the trees on these cliffs and think about how harsh and long their living environment is. The trunks of the trees are not thick or tall and are crooked, yet they are lush and green. They never use their annual rings to show off their seniority and appear old and arrogant; they remain forever young. If people are unhappy in life, looking at those trees on the cliffs of thousands of peaks and valleys and letting their thoughts wander, the survival process of the trees will shake people's hearts. Perhaps in a certain instant, all the blocked acupoints in a person's life will be opened, the blood vessels will flow smoothly, the whole body will feel relaxed, and happiness will arrive.
Some people say that this vast natural historical scroll of Wulingyuan is too painful to read carefully, because wind and rain have carved too deep a bitterness. In the world, which natural landscape or humanistic spirit that is so beautiful as to shake people's hearts has not experienced loneliness, solitude, and bitterness? Qu Yuan was lonely, because his pure and beautiful inner world was poured out to heaven and earth during exile. Sima Qian, imprisoned and writing Records of the Grand Historian, was equally lonely; Chen Jingrun, on the way to climbing Goldbach's conjecture, did not even recognize an apple, was he not even more lonely? But the scenery they created on the lonely and solitary road of life has remained beautiful to this day. Permanent beauty is always transcendent and refined.
When I look up at the lonely cold moon of Suoxi, when I search for the lobster flowers by Golden Whip Stream, chat with the herb-gathering old man who hangs a pot to heal the world in Ten-Mile Gallery, admire clusters of wildflowers blooming among the cliff stone peaks on Tianzi Mountain, peek at macaques climbing and jumping among vines and trees on Monkey Slope, and am stunned by the flying fox in the West Sea canyon, I think: the forest of stone in the sedimentary red sandstone of Wulingyuan, because of the tenacity of trees, has greened the strange mountains and secluded valleys with ten thousand peaks clustered together, giving life to the stone peaks and cliffs. Life has already existed for billions of years. The stone peaks, one after another, are rugged and fierce, elegant, magical, strange, and yet wildly alluring, full of vitality. Wulingyuan is shrouded in fog for 3 months a year, and the Lord of Heaven sends rain to Wulingyuan every few days. Viewing the West Sea in rain and fog, a cliff can reveal several kinds of scenery from different angles. When the rain falls intermittently, the West Sea appears deep, solid, and mysterious, with colors of dark green, sea blue, tender green, and milky white alternating and changing, like the rich and unfathomable undersea world. Once the rain stops, you can see one emaciated and jagged stone peak after another, and one pot-bellied stone bamboo shoot after another suddenly waking up, embraced by clouds and mist, floating up and down, as if surfacing from the seabed. Magical clouds and mist wipe every tree and every cliff. When a gust of wind blows, stone peaks one after another welcome the surging wind and waves with thin yet firm, fat yet broad chests. As the weather gradually clears, white snow-like waterfalls can be seen everywhere in Wulingyuan, a forest of melodious and crisp birdsong can be heard everywhere, and everywhere you can feast your eyes on trees like jade hairpins inserted on the tops of stone peaks. The sun suddenly rolls out like an old playful child, spilling its light on the broad, high, and long stone wall of the West Sea. The exposed white, golden yellow, and dark blue on the stone wall show a kind of vicissitude, and a rainbow hangs in the sky, accompanied by beautiful waters. At this time, the waters of Golden Whip Stream and Suoxi run high and low like notes on a staff, and the waterfall of Baofeng Lake, about one zhang wide and a hundred zhang high, is like the white beard floating on an old man's chest. I once sat on a flat stone deep in the shade of trees, with a small bag of peanuts and two liang of small Xiangquan wine, savoring the flavor of "a pot of wine in the woods," and became an immortal no one had ever seen.
Human happiness should include the incomparable loneliness felt in Wulingyuan.

Source & reference

Source：Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network