Hollow Valley Orchid: A Visit to Contemporary Chinese Hermits (Part 4)

 The Zhongnan Mountains are interpreted by some as the 'Moon Mountain.' Legend has it that this is where the sun and moon sleep. Among its mysterious peaks lies the celestial emperor's earthly capital and the home of the moon goddess. Thus, it has become a place where certain individuals come to attempt to approach the divine virtue and power source of the moon, making it a paradise for hermits. 

 When I first heard of the Zhongnan Mountains, I knew neither their location nor their importance. In Beijing, someone told us they were near Xi'an, which was all the information we received. When we first set out for the mountains, we found no hermits in Mount Heng or Mount Wutai. So Stephen and I boarded a train heading south. We ended our journey sharing a compartment with two Xi'an businessmen—one of whom had heard of the Zhongnan Mountains, saying they were somewhere south of Xi'an, but that was all he knew. In Chinese, nouns do not change form, so it is impossible to distinguish between singular and plural; therefore, I still did not know whether 'Zhongnan Mountains' referred to a single mountain or a range of mountains. A few days later, I discovered it referred to both. After returning to Taiwan, I learned that it referred to much more than just a mountain range. 

 In modern times, there is a much larger mountain range called the Qinling Mountains, of which the Zhongnan Mountains include only the eastern-western range at the northernmost end of the Qinling. 

 The term 'Qinling' began to be used approximately two thousand years ago, shortly after the ancient State of Qin unified China. The ancestors of the Qin people lived for generations on the Wei River plain north of the Qinling Mountains, and it was from there that they unified China. 

 Today, geographers, meteorologists, naturalists, and historians all consider the Qinling Mountains to be the dividing line between northern and southern China. Since the mountains rose up one million years ago, they have had a profound impact on China's temperature and rainfall patterns: in winter, they block cold air from moving south, and in summer, they prevent humid air from moving north. Wheat, millet, and broomcorn millet are the main crops north of the Qinling, while rice is grown to the south. 

 The Qinling Mountains also serve as the main watershed for China's two largest rivers. Streams on the northern slope flow into the Wei River, a major tributary of the Yellow River, while streams on the southern slope flow into the Han River, a major tributary of the Yangtze. In ancient times, during droughts, this was where officials came to pray for rain. 

 However, a thousand years before the term 'Qinling' began to be used, the Chinese referred to this entire range as 'Zhongnan Mountains,' sometimes abbreviating it to 'South Mountain.' The Book of Songs mentions it in poems composed at least 3,000 years ago: 

 What is in Zhongnan? 

 There are jujubes and plum trees. 

 …… 

 What is in Zhongnan? 

 There are cypress and hall trees. 

 The term 'Zhongnan Mountains' as used today refers both to the 2,600-meter-high peak forty kilometers south of Xi'an and to the mountain ranges within one hundred kilometers east-west adjacent to it. However, 3,000 years ago, 'Zhongnan Mountains' referred to all mountain ranges from the south bank of the Sanmenxia section of the Yellow River in Henan Province, westward along the Wei River, to its source—the Mount Niao and Mount Shu in Gansu Province—spanning 800 kilometers. 

 In even more distant mythological pasts in China, the scope of 'Zhongnan Mountains' was even broader, extending far beyond Mount Niao and Mount Shu. This larger mountain range included both the Kunlun Mountains and the Zhongnan Mountains, extending to Mount K2 on the current border between China and Pakistan, and even slightly beyond, spanning 3,500 kilometers. 

 When explaining the now much-reduced scope of 'Zhongnan Mountains,' early Chinese historians said that 'Zhong' means 'end,' 'Nan' means 'south,' and 'Shan' means 'a mountain' or 'mountains.' Thus, 'Zhongnan Mountains' was described as the eastern end of the series of mountains along the southern branch of the Silk Road. This explanation gave meaning to the compound word, but in reality, it is quite forced and useless in explaining the special significance these mountains held for early Chinese people—who viewed the peaks and valleys of Zhongnan as the home of the most powerful celestial and earthly deities. 

 Taiwanese linguist Du Weiwei offers a more interesting explanation. He insists that 'Zhongnan' and 'Kunlun' are cognates derived from the same character, which means 'Moon Mountain.' In his book *Kunlun Culture and the Concept of Immortality*, Professor Du explains that China's earliest religion built a bridge over the dark river between life and death through the concept of 'immortality'—manifested through the waxing and waning of the moon—and the Kunlun-Zhongnan mountain range was the mystical center of this religion. Furthermore, because the moon goddess resides in the Kunlun-Zhongnan mountains, this place became where certain individuals came to attempt to approach the divine virtue and power source of the moon. 

 They were not ordinary members of society. Nor did they enter the mountains like ordinary people. They walked the 'Yu Step' (the Walk of Yu), dragging one foot like an injured beast to evoke the sympathy of the mountain god. Like the Great Yu—the 'Yu Step' is named after him—they were shamans, and the Kunlun-Zhongnan mountain range was the earliest known home of these people. 

 Mircea Eliade, in the chapter on Shamanism in the *Encyclopedia of Religion*, wrote: 'In the vast area including Central and North Asia, the society's magical and religious life centers on the shaman.' (Vol. 13, p. 202) Eliade stated that in such societies, states of ecstasy or possession are considered the highest religious experience, and shamans are the experts in this religious experience. In a state of ecstasy, the shaman leaves his body, passes through a series of heavens, interacts with various spirits, and searches for and accumulates knowledge for the welfare of his group. He helps his group resist darkness by providing connection to the spiritual world and bringing back knowledge acquired there. Yet at the same time, he lives outside the group he protects. 

 According to Eliade, a person known as a shaman 'seeks solitude, becomes absent-minded, likes to wander in forests or places where few people tread, has hallucinations, and sings songs in sleep' (ibid.). If this passage does not describe the ecstatic state of a shaman apprentice during initiation, it certainly applies to those following the hermit tradition. In ancient China, the two were closely linked. 

 In tracing their origins, there is one of the earliest and most important texts, which records the story of Emperor Qi of the Xia Dynasty, who was also a shaman, entering the Kunlun-Zhongnan mountain range and flying away on twin dragons. Qi also learned elegiac poetry from heaven, a genre that later shaman poets consistently used in works such as *Chu Ci* (Songs of Chu). 

 Qi was the successor of another great shaman, Yu. Around 2200 BC, when Yu established the Xia Dynasty, he ordered his officials to compile a guide to the kingdom, resulting in the *Classic of Mountains and Seas* (Shan Hai Jing). Later, as the mysterious affairs of the state increased, successive emperors added to it. Scholars doubt how ancient the book truly is and are unwilling to date any chapter to before the 4th century BC. But regardless of scholars' views on the book's date of composition and authenticity, this spirit geography is a treasure trove of shamanic knowledge. Long before this knowledge was recorded, it must have been passed down orally for a long time.