主题：【文摘】纽约时报登的承德山庄游记 -- 林小筑

看洋人说中国文化总是很有趣的。有时候似是而非，有时候怪里怪气。比如好好的肉包子，他偏要叫 steamed bread stuffed with meat 有些又怎么也猜不透。为什么与释加牟尼并列的两个佛像会一个管钱财，一个管疾病。 是不是他搞错了？

原文在外链出处

Where Emperors Summered

By CRAIG SIMONS

Published: April 25, 2004

ON the way to Chengde, an imperial resort for Chinese emperors, I looked out the bus window at a beautiful fall landscape of russet leaves, umber earth and golden cornfields and imagined Emperor Xianfeng traveling a similar route in 1860. He was fleeing British and French troops who, in a late volley of the Opium Wars, had marched into Beijing and demanded that China open further to Western trade, and he must have been worried to have sped away from the Qing dynasty capital.

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Xianfeng was a weak emperor, more interested in enjoying the pleasures of his rank than in governing, but by birth he held the "mandate of heaven," the right to rule China and, the Chinese thought, the world. When the first British Ambassador to China, Lord Macartney, arrived at the Chengde palaces in 1793, the emperor received him cordially but then sent him away with a letter to the British monarch that concluded, "O king, Tremblingly Obey and Show No Negligence!" Half a century later, Xianfeng had turned tail and run.

I was also fleeing Beijing. I was in the middle of a semester-long language program at Tsinghua University and the school had arranged the two-day outing in October for our group to learn about China's history. We were accompanied by a flag-waving guide who had a minutely planned schedule.

I had mostly managed to avoid such tours after four years of living in Asia. But I wanted to escape the hectic city, and several weeks before I had come across a photograph of a bizarre 120-foot-tall stone spire on top of a hill east of Chengde. Called Sledgehammer Rock, the phallic protuberance has spawned a tantric temple and a variety of off-color folklore about the virility of local men, and it seemed worth a visit.

On the four-hour drive from Beijing to Chengde, about 155 miles to the northeast, I watched the city unfold into soft countryside and then into dry hills covered with pine trees, aspens and maples. Occasionally, a section of the Great Wall - actually many walls built over 19 centuries - appeared from behind a bend or along the top of a distant ridge, and it was easy to dream of imperial travelers as we passed small villages of traditional gray brick houses.

By the time we arrived at the Lolo Hotel, a comfortable, modern place with clean, quiet rooms, a large swimming pool and a sauna, the combination of sun and earth had stripped away the stress of fighting Beijing traffic jams and memorizing endless lists of Chinese characters. I was ready to see how Chinese emperors played.

For most visitors the next step - deciding what to see - is complicated. Chengde was just another village until the end of the 17th century, when the Qing-dynasty emperor Kangxi stumbled upon it during a hunting trip. The rolling hills along the Wuli River inspired him, and he decided to build a summer retreat, now called the Chengde Mountain Resort, a collection of wood and stone structures open to the public as a museum and park, where he could indulge his passions for hunting, riding and hiking. He ordered construction of the first palaces in 1703, and within a decade 1,500 acres dotted with dozens of ornate salons, temples, pagodas and many spectacular gardens and pools had been enclosed by a six-mile-long wall. By the end of the 18th century, when Chengde reached its heyday, it included nearly 100 imperial structures.

Besides luxurious quarters for the emperor and his court, great palaces and temples were completed both to house visiting dignitaries and to impress them with the grandeur of the Chinese empire. The largest of these buildings is the Putuozongcheng Temple, which is also called the Little Potala Palace. The stone structure, built in 1771, was modeled on the Potala Palace in Lhasa and has more than 60 halls and terraces. Even though it is not currently used by monks - Shu Hongyu, our guide, said the government would rather use it strictly as a museum - travelers who don't have the time or energy to fly to Tibet can get the feeling of what the original, a massive maroon and white edifice with large square windows, looks like.

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Near the Little Potala Palace are seven other major temples, all of them facing the emperor's summer resort in a show of carefully planned deference, and several are used for religious purposes. Tibetan and Mongolian monks live in the Temple of Sumeru, Happiness and Longevity, which was built for a visit of Tibet's sixth Panchen Lama in 1780, and the monks chant daily in its central Hall of Loftiness and Solemnity. Visitors are welcome, but are asked not to take pictures.

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Our itinerary directed us to the Temple of Universal Happiness, a tantric monastery that was said to be built in 1766 for a Mongolian official, a Buddhist named Bulu Ke. Inside the first hall, our guide described how pilgrims sometimes pray to three giant golden statues.

One of them, he said, can grant wealth. The second can cure illness. But the most important is of Siddhartha Gautama (Shakyamuni to the Chinese), the founder of Buddhism in the sixth century B.C. Buddhists believe that the man who became the Buddha, an Indian sage of the Shakya clan, reached nirvana when he realized that suffering is universal and that people achieve inner peace only by giving up worldly desires.

Though I have traveled in Tibet several times, nothing I had seen prepared me for the practices described in the temple's main building, a three-story hall with flamboyantly conical roofs and ornately carved marble balustrades. After we gazed at the Mountain Resort from a balcony on the building's top floor, our guide led us into the Pavilion of the Rising Sun. "This," he said, "is the feminine yin to balance the male yang of Sledgehammer Peak," which towered in the distance.

At the center of the room stood a giant wooden mandala, a design symbolic of the universe that is used as a meditation aid, and at the center of the mandala was a life-size copper statue of sexual congress.

The authenticity of a group of scriptures known as tantras are hotly debated within Buddhist circles, but Tibetans claim they are the most powerful tool monks have of reaching enlightenment. One of the methods suggested is sex, which, when practiced by a skilled monk, can induce what Shu called a state of "inner bliss that is free of desire." One of my classmates, a graduate student studying Chinese religion at Stanford University, clarified by explaining that before monks are allowed to engage in tantric practices, if they ever are, they must complete 24 years of monastic study.

Because it was getting late, we passed up hiking two miles from the temple to Sledgehammer Peak and instead took a chairlift that gave us stunning views of the spire and a bird's-eye look at farmers harvesting cabbages. According to legend, a dragon used Sledgehammer Peak to plug a hole that allowed the sea to flow into the valley. But local folklore offers another interpretation: it is said that if the rock falls, it would have a disastrous effect on the virility of local men.

On our second morning, after a delicious breakfast of fried dough and steamed bread stuffed with meat, we followed our guide's yellow flag through the main gates of the Mountain Resort and into China's largest imperial playground. The palace itself takes up only a small part of the 1,500-acre park, which is twice as large as Beijing's Summer Palace, but there is plenty to see.

We started in the Front Palace, in several small but fantastically furnished rooms built from an aromatic hardwood called nanmu where the emperors lived and worked. Beyond giant bronze lions were several rooms full of graceful furniture and ornaments - traditional ink brushes, fine silk screens, ornate fly whisks. Chengde's architecture largely survived the destruction of the Cultural Revolution, and the buildings have been well preserved.

Today many of the structures house small collections (with English explanations) of imperial odds and ends. There are exquisite porcelain containers, jade jewelry and fantastically embroidered clothing, all of it pointing to the opulent lives of the Qing dynasty rulers. Shu gestured to the door where eunuchs delivered concubines to the emperors each night. "The emperor made his choice by selecting a slip of white jade with the name of his choice on it," he said.

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IN another hall I found a list of the animals Kangxi slew while hunting at the Mountain Resort. According to the declaration, he killed 135 bears, 93 boars, 14 wolves and 318 deer. A painting hanging beside the ancient parchment showed how he managed such spectacular figures: Kangxi and several assistants stand with their rifles in the middle of a clearing as hundreds of soldiers prowl the woods to flush out game. It was such distractions, our guide informed us, that led to China's weakness and the eventual end of dynastic rule.

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In the Hall of Refreshing Mists and Waves, where the emperors slept and met with their ministers, visitors can see a small writing table. "This is where Emperor Xianfeng signed the Beijing Treaty, which gave more of our country to the British and French," Shu said. A sign on the end of the building records the 1860 event: "No Forgetting the National Humiliation."

We headed out a small gate at the northern edge of the complex and into the park where Kangxi hunted. There are several ways to get around the park: on footpaths, by rowboat through a series of connected lakes and waterways, or by small comfortable tour buses that whisk visitors to pagodas on nearby hilltops. With only a few hours, we chose to take a bus.

Part of Chengde's appeal is that it provides a glimpse of China's diverse landscapes and cultural traditions in one place. Besides the Little Potala Palace, there are gardens sculptured to look like those in the cities of Suzhou and Hangzhou, and a grassland landscape with Mongolian yurts where Emperor Qianlong received dignitaries.

There is even a miniature Great Wall. At the northern edge of the park we climbed along the ridge of the wall and looked down into the valley, where on Sundays there is a festive market.

Later, we stopped at the Clear Green Wind Pavilion to listen to musicians play classical Chinese music on ancient bells and chimes. I was thoroughly enjoying the Mountain Resort, but our guide was moving again, his yellow flag bobbing between ancient incense burners and sweeping wooden eves.

Our last stop was at the Temple of Universal Peace, a Unesco World Heritage Site and an active temple. In the first of several halls, the architecture and iconography were similar to what we had seen - giant statues of smiling Buddhas, steles covered with beautiful Chinese characters, thick red walls. But at the back of the monastery was Chengde's treasure. I found myself looking up at a 75-foot-tall wooden statue of the Buddhist saint Guanyin.

Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, is the most popular saint in China, and statues of her are often ornate. But confronted with this huge statue, I was astonished. First I was struck by the detail of her 42 arms. More slowly, I was overcome by the incredible effort the statue must have taken to build. As in much of imperial China, resources and persistence created a work of extraordinary grandeur.

Visitor Information

These sites are open daily.

Temple of Universal Happiness and Sledgehammer Rock; admission $2.50; it takes 30 minutes to hike to the rock. There is also a chairlift, $5.

Chengde Mountain Resort; $11 admission covers all museum fees.

Admission to the eight outlying temples is $2 to $5; they are two to five miles from the Chengde Mountain Resort front gate; most taxi rides cost less than a dollar. Hotels can provide maps and arrange English-speaking guides for about $20 a day.

Getting There

Several trains run between Beijing and Chengde each day. The four-hour trip costs about $5. Xieli International Travel Service, (86-10) 8511-6996; fax (86-10) 6523-5094; e-mail, [email protected], can arrange transportation, hotels and guides.

Hotels and Dining

The modern Lolo Hotel, 6 Cuiqiao Road, (86-314) 206-8888, offers 141 rooms with private bathrooms and a hearty breakfast for $75 a night (often lower online through services like www.chinatravelhub.com).

The Mountain Villa Hotel, 11 Shan Zhuang Lu, (86-314) 202-5588, fax (86-314) 203-4143, is next to the Chengde Mountain Resort and has 350 clean, large rooms starting at $20.

For restaurants, head to Qingfeng Dongjie, a popular shopping street. Chengde offers excellent local chestnuts, mushrooms and apricots, as well as a locally popular glutinous rice snack called fengjia dangao, for under $1. Most dinners for two cost less than $10.

CRAIG SIMONS, a freelance writer, lives in Beijing.