Notes from Huang Shan

In China, there are Five Sacred Taoist Mountains and Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains. The Taoist mountains are associated with the cardinal directions, although their titles may have more to do with their relative locations in the country. T’ai Shan is the most important. It is the mountain of the East. It is the first of all mountains in China to greet the rising sun. Song Shan is the mountain of the Centre. Hua Shan near Chengdu is the mountain of the West. It is the most dramatic. The two mountains of the north and South are both called Heng Shan.

Pu Tuo Shan is the Buddhist mountain of the East.
	It is the home of Kuan Yin, Bodhisattva of Compassion.
Emei Shan is the Buddhist mountain of the West.
	It is the home of Samantabhadra, Bodhisattva of Perfect Giving.
Jui Hua Shan is the Buddhist mountain of the South.
	It is the home of Bodhisattva Ksittigarbha.
Wu T’ai Shan is the Buddhist mountain of the North and the most revered.
	It is the home of Manjushri, Bodhisattva of Wisdom.

Make pilgrimage to these nine sacred mountains and you would have no interest in visiting any other mountains, the Chinese say. You will likely experience a spiritual awakening. However, once you visit Huang Shan, the Chinese also say, you will lose interest in making a visit to those other nine. They suggest this not to diminish the significance of the journey to the other places, nor to diminish the quality of any spiritual awakening awaiting you. It is an expression of the sublime beauty of Huang Shan. Make the pilgrimage to Huang Shan and your heart will be uplifted with boundless aesthetic joy from its splendour and grandeur.

Some mysterious sensual delights await you at Huang Shan --
Celestial mountains like temple steeples,
Castles of the Immortals
Float above oceans of clouds,
Sunrise and sunsets
Fill heavenly carpets with radiant light,
Pine trees root precipitously in the rock cliffs
Reaching outwards to the heavens.

A few of the names given to the seventy-two peaks of Huang Shan –
Beginning-to-Believe Peak, Lotus Peak, Fairy Maiden Peak, Nine-Dragon Peak,
Stone Pillar Peak, Double-Scissors Peak, Twin Bamboo Shoot Peak

A few of the names given to the Huangshan Pines --
Welcoming Guest Pine, Accompanying Guest Pine, Send-off Guest Pine, Gazing Guest Pine,
Loving Couple Pine, Phoenix Pine, Black Tiger Pine, Dragon’s Claw Pine

A few of the names given to the jagged rocks of Huang Shan ---
Flying-in Stone, Monkey Viewing the Sea, Two Men Talking Heart to Heart, Fairies Carrying the Bag, Heavenly Dog Looking Up to the Moon, Gazing-at-Guest Rock, Bodhisattva on the Red Cliff

Huang Shan means Yellow Mountain. It was once called Black Mountain, named after the black granites of which it is composed. Then the legendary Yellow Emperor Huang Ti made a journey and discovered the Elixir of Immortality here. Black Mountain was renamed Yellow Mountain to honour his journey. It is reputed to be “First Mountain Under Heaven.” Given the accolades, it is curious that Huang Shan has not been bestowed with “official status” as Sacred Taoist Mountain.

Was this Elixir some kind of substance, liquid or food, medicine of potion, a recipe concocted by the deities, a menu of indescribable delight, a celestial cocktail? Could it be discovered in the grounds or above in the skies? Could you purchase it off the shelf from the kiosk at the base off the Meteorological Observatory? Perhaps you could find it along the path, if your mind were so ripened. A ripened mind would chance to see every liquid as of the heavens, every solid as of the heavens, the air you breathe and every gas as of the heavens. A ripened mind would be a purified mind, one taste with the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, completely and utterly present. The noble emperor mixed this Elixir somewhere on this mountain here at Huang Shan. With the sun rising on the dawn of awareness as you strolled and sketched did you chance to discover the Elixir here, as well?

Thunder lightning torrential rains
Pouring, screaming, crashing tidal-like forces
Electric lightning bolts streak through your gut
Sheets and waves of sheets
Curtains of rainfall

You came to discover what imaginative fantasy landscapes could inspire Chinese landscape painting, and to sketch and photograph them. You awakened to dense fog, completely socked in and unable to see ten feet in front. Misty clouds veiled the Four Treasures you came to see. What Lion Peak? What Bell Tower? What Monkey Watching the Sea? Perhaps you had best look inside, and then sketch whatever could be seen – details, small streams and waterfalls, individual trees, outlines of rocks. He too, the photographer, wished that it not be like this the entire stay, and waited for the clouds to lift.

Earth turned its face to meet the night Dusk and you said a joint blessing
	Jupiter winked And brother Saturn
The first night of the journey You‘ve seen stars light the sky
	Your heart cries with joy

How did the mountain speak to you? The ferocious winds shutting down the cable car,
	obliging you to walk up thousands of steps to the top?
The young Chinese woman, a porter, who carried your bag? Mountain streams cascading through small ravines? The thunder and lightning? The torrential rains? The Cloud Dispelling Winds blowing vigorously
	following entreating from the viewing platform?
The fog lifting? The morning light? The bird with whom you sang? Tastes of magnificence

4:2002

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