It is an interesting fact that this place is so little known among foreigners, and yet, almost any Chinese scholar, if asked to recommend the most interesting and beautiful spot in this part of China, would without hesitation recommend Yentang Shan.
I know of no place in this part of Asia with which Yentang Shan can bbs compared except the Diamond Mountains of northern Korea. Yet they are very different. In the Diamond Mountains there are hundreds of saw teeth projecting upward Into the sky, with wonderful. gorges Jand canyons "below. In Yentang /Shan there are many precipices, rising to great vertical heights, "piling upward in huge terraces, a thousand feet to a terrace. Huge mountains were split apart by volcanic forces} and their segments were set up as great cliffs at right angles to. their original positions. Then there are many caves, different from ordinary Jeaves because they were not formed by the erosion of softer strata within horizontal formations. Of course there are a few of the more ordinary kind! Dut most of them were formed by the Jgrand toss-up of gigantic cliffs and by [great vertical seams and assures, Many of these high cliffs are fairly dat on the top and the slightly sloping, peak formation seems to be in its earlier stages.
The earliest records of this place began with the Chin Dynasty about 11650 years ago, when it is said that the fifth of the eighteen Lohan, Nob GyU-na by name, brought from India }8000 disciples of whom 500 went to [Tientai Shan and 300 went to Yen-tang Shan. Noh Gyi-na is said to have died while looking at the Dragon Priest ana Evil Spirits In the Tang Dynasty, about 965 AD. there was a cave said to be infested with evil spirits. A. priest named "Noble Effort" came to this cave, chanted the "Glorious Classics" fand drove the spirits away. In the 'Sung Dynasty, about 1108 AD, a scholar came who was cai' Liu Yung-sheng and he dedicated this to the Goddess of Mercy. It has been called the Cave of Kuan-yin fever since.
This Cave is formed by the leaning! together of two huge dif, called the mited Palms" peak. Imagine a cave so high that two Wing On stores could be put above two Sincere stores. I use this simple illustration to bring more forcibly to the reader some idea of the great height of this cave. One ascends by stone steps from the foot of the cave for a vertical height of 100 feet. Then one climbs the staies Jof a monastery nine storeys high to the roof where the great temple hall located, a cave space extending upward for perhaps 400 feet, in the lower part of which were the principal Buddhas and Lohans.
The cliffs, parapets, and fanciful formations are all given names, many of them exhibiting a fine poetic imagitation. It is said that Yentang Shan was most prosperous in the [Sung Dynasty about 1,000 _years ago. There was then a priest named Chuan Liao who was told by his friends to discover a place where the hills were named afler birds and a village was named after a\ flower. He searched far and wide until he came to this place and found a village yuaned Fu-yung. There he spent the est of his life and built a monastery. hich is called Fu-yung Monastery.
The Pillar of Heaven Very near to the Cave of the Goddes of Mercy' is another one, called the "Cave of the Great Dipper", This /was opened by a priest in the reign of the Emperor Kwang List. It 1s large enough for an entire monastery establishment, including outer walls, court yard, temple hall and a storey dormitory for guests. It this dormitory hat 1 ing my frst visit to year 1922. My recent visit last autumn." But the [wonder of these great rock format of these marvellous caves has been augmente®-by further acquaint.
Another most famous monastery, in location of exceptional sublimity and grandeur, is the "Monastery of Spirit Cliffs" From the more open valley one enters through a huge rock gate. One then proceeds along narrow valley with tall precipices fon either side until. one enters a hugh amphitheatre. To the left is an immense vertical cliff called the "Pillar of Heaven" and to. the right is the "Peak of the Unfurled Flag." Both rise to the height of about 1000 feet. At the rear of the monastery are many other great piles of vertical rocks and the effect of the entire setting, especially by light from the monastery court: yard, is one never to be forgotten.
On the "Pillar of Heaven" about 100 feet from the ground were inscribed two characters, about Six feet In height, JAO of which the the English name" isa translation, The Commissioner of the Chekiang Highway Administration, who was the leader of our party, surmised that in order to cut these characters it was necessary for a man to be let down from the top. On discovering that his surmise was correct he arranged that the original carver of these rock Jcharacters should show how thad been Jdone, With two associates he climbed the Pillar through a cleft in the rear. When these three men at the top rst appeared, 1,000 feet above, they looked like grasshoppers, they. were so small. The two associates had united several long coils of hemp rope, Beginning atone end they formed a small loop. The stone cutter had a belt around his waist with a ing attached, The rope was passed through this ring and he let himself down by his hands only. The purpose of the loop was that if he slipped, for lost his hold, he would only slide down to the end of the Icop and this be sale from further falling. 'The farther end of the rope was gradually extended and the bottom end of the loop gradually lowered, In order to pass over certain abutments, the man would spring outward with' both hands and feet and when out about twenty feet from the precipice would slide past such projections, "it was 'a marvellous sight. 'Thus did he, let himself" down 900 feet until' he was at one side of the original carving. The farther end of the rope was then dropped down the 1,000 feet and "a man at" the base caught hold and drew the rock cutter toward the place where the actual work of cutting could be done,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.