白帝城，一座詩化的山峰 （散文）
作者 王永利
提起白帝城，幾乎無人不知無人不曉。就連三歲呀呀學語的小孩子，也在大人的教導下，背誦著唐代大詩人李白那首著名的《早發(fā)白帝城》：“朝辭白帝彩云間，千里江陵一日還，兩岸猿聲啼不住，輕舟已過萬重山?！卑椎鄢巧钌畹赜】淘谥腥A民族的心中，白帝城是一座詩化的山峰。
船逆流而上經(jīng)過夔門，就到了白帝城。白帝城位于長江北岸，是草堂溪和長江的匯合處，與瞿塘峽峽口夔門隔江相對。白帝城山頭高聳，是扼控長江的一個戰(zhàn)略要地。如今的白帝城已經(jīng)成為一座孤島，三峽大壩建成后，高升的水位，淹沒了白帝城連接北岸的山崗，使原來三面環(huán)水的山峰，成為四面環(huán)水。在這里，是觀賞長江入夔門最佳景點，杜甫當年站在白帝城的峰頂，目睹激流拍岸爭入夔門的壯觀景象，寫出了“眾水會涪萬，瞿塘爭一門”的詩句，把夔門的水勢活畫出來。白居易在此留下“上有萬仞山，下有千丈水，蒼蒼兩崖間，闊峽容一葦。瞿塘呀直瀉，滟滪屹中峙。大石如刀劍，小石如牙齒，一步不可行，況千三百里?！标愐銓④娏粼姡骸吧酱▔邀愋乐囟茫f夢依稀認血痕。千萬險灘皆穩(wěn)渡，水頭如劍入夔門?！?這里的江心之中，原有一龐然巨石，砥柱中流，名為滟滪堆。冬秋水枯，顯露江心，長約30米，寬20米，高40米，好似一頭巨獸橫街江流。夏季洪水暴發(fā)，狂瀾在這里騰空而起，旋渦千回百轉(zhuǎn)，形成“滟滪回瀾”的奇觀。使來往船只經(jīng)常觸礁沉沒。有民謠云，“滟滪大如馬，瞿塘不可下?！倍鸥懙溃骸熬奘醒?，江寒出水長。沉牛答云雨，如馬戒舟航?！北彼卧娙朔冻纱笤孟胗幸惶欤骸安恢贉诖?，但覺瞿塘如鏡平?！边@一“瞿塘如鏡”的夢想，持續(xù)了近千年。直到解放后，滟滪巨石被炸除，郭沫若欣喜題詩：“滟滪已無堆，瞿塘仍可危。岸崖雙璧立，峽道九腸回。云彩留軍帽，江聲隱霧帷。若言風景異，三峽此為魁?！?而三峽大壩建成后，“瞿塘如鏡”這一夢想更成為現(xiàn)實，“高峽出平湖”，白帝城下已成為天然的避風港，瞿塘如鏡，再已沒有危險可言。
走進白帝城，閱讀毛澤東、周恩來和江澤民同志手書的李白的《早發(fā)白帝城》，別有一番感慨。領(lǐng)袖們對祖國河山的熱愛，都濃縮在這首千古流傳的優(yōu)美詩歌之中。他們的書法也為白帝城這座山峰，增添了詩化中濃墨重彩的一筆。白帝城到處都有鐫刻著詩歌的碑文石刻，這里珍藏著隋、元、明、清各代的碑刻百余塊，而詩文、楹聯(lián)、繪畫、書法作品琳瑯滿目。可以說是三峽文物的薈萃之地和博物館。其中康熙皇帝的六言詩很有意思：“危石才通鳥道，青山更有人家。桃園定在深處，澗水浮來落花?！倍宕绲滤痰闹袢~碑更是有趣，乍看上去，是三支翠竹。構(gòu)圖嚴謹，疏密有致；婆娑的竹影，生動優(yōu)美。而細品讀，發(fā)現(xiàn)卻是一首五言詩：“不謝東篁意，丹青獨自名。莫嫌孤葉淡，終久不凋零?！?
詠白帝城的詩歌很多，李白寫《早發(fā)白帝城》的時候，是因為流放生涯的結(jié)束。他因肅宗怕李璘爭奪皇位而捕殺李璘而受株連，流放到夜郎。途中悲愁已使58歲的他兩鬢如霜?？墒牵诖职椎鄢菚r，突然遇赦，于是李白買舟東下，折返江陵，興奮之余，寫下這首千古絕唱。唐朝詩人劉禹錫也在白帝城盤桓許久，曾寫道：“白帝城頭春草生，白鹽山下蜀江清。南人上來歌一曲，北人莫上動鄉(xiāng)情?！薄蚌奶拎朽惺?，此中道路古來難。長恨人心不如水，等閑平地起波瀾。”白居易夜宿白帝城寫道：“瞿塘峽口水煙低，白帝城頭月向西。唱到竹枝聲咽處，寒猿暗鳥一時啼。”杜甫在這里《登高》：“風急天高猿嘯哀，諸清沙白鳥飛回。無邊落木蕭蕭下，不盡長江滾滾來。萬里悲秋常作客，百年多病獨登臺。艱難苦恨繁霜鬢，潦倒新停濁酒杯。”而他的《秋興》也寫在這里：“玉露凋傷楓樹林，巫山巫峽氣蕭森。江間波浪兼天涌，塞上風云接地陰。叢菊兩開他日淚，孤舟一系故園心。寒衣處處催刀尺，白帝城高急暮砧?！碧拼娙岁愖影旱摹栋椎鄢菓压拧?，宋范成大的《赤甲山》，清代詩人張問陶的《瞿塘峽》等都描繪了旅居白帝城時的所見所聞和對人生的感慨。而這些詩作，都給白帝城增添了深厚的文化底蘊，是中華優(yōu)秀傳統(tǒng)文化的精華。
白帝城還是一段悲情的歷史見證者，漢末三國時期的蜀國皇帝劉備，因關(guān)羽在荊州遇害，張飛被蜀將暗殺，他悲憤萬分。決定親自率軍東下伐吳。不料夷陵一戰(zhàn)，被東吳大將陸遜“火燒連營七百里”，大敗而歸，只剩下殘兵百余人退守白帝城。劉備積憂成疾，病入膏盲。便急召諸葛亮前來議事，并以嗣子阿斗相托。劉備死后，諸葛亮一心輔佐阿斗，鞠躬盡瘁，死而后已，歷來傳為歷史佳話。如今的白帝城有白帝廟（傳為紀念西漢末年自號白帝的公孫述所建）、托孤堂，明良殿，武侯祠等，使白帝城充滿了歷史典故，讓游人溫習中國的歷史，感受鞠躬盡瘁，死而后已的中華文明精神。
登上白帝城，眺望夔門，馮玉祥在抗戰(zhàn)時期的題刻依然可見：“踏出夔巫，打走倭寇”。祖國的河山不容侵犯之感，油然而生。祖國的山河如此壯麗，偉大的詩歌國度如此秀美，今天，為了祖國更加繁榮富強，我們每個人不更應該以百倍的努力，為祖國的建設(shè)添磚加瓦，貢獻我們的一切嗎！即使有再大的困難，為了這美麗的祖國，為了這充滿詩歌的國度，我們要勇往直前，百折不撓！
?
White Emperor City Is A Poetic Mountain
By Wang Yongli
The City of the White Emperor, or Baidi, is well known in China and is located on the bank of the Yangtze River, near Chongqing. The White Emperor Temple is in the city, built in the late Western Han Dynasty as a memorial to remember the White Emperor named Gongsun Shu. This is when the city was named Baidi, but what made it famous is not the temple, but Li Bai’s poem “Early Departure from Baidi”. Even three year old Chinese children can recite the famous poem by the great poet of the Tang Dynasty: "I bid farewell to Baidi in the colored dawn, but my boat will cover one thousand miles to Jiangling by night-fall. Monkeys are still calling on both banks behind me, but my boat passes these ten thousand mountains away.” Through the poem the City of the White Emperor is deeply impressed into every Chinese mind, but what I find is that the City of the White Emperor in fact is a poetic mountain.
After traveling upstream by boat through the Kui Gate, I enter into Baidi. The City of the White Emperor is located on the north shore of the Yangtze River, at the confluence of Cottage Creek and the main stream of the Yangtze River, opposite to the Qutang Gorge and the Kui Gate. The White Emperor Mountain is also a strategic point, towering tall and choking the control of the Yangtze River. But following the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, the City of the White Emperor is now an island as the water level has risen and flooded the northern part of the city that connected to the north bank. This is a good place to watch the Yangtze River flow into the Kui Gate. The famous Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu used to often stand on the peak of the White Emperor Mountain to watch the exciting spectacles, such as whitewater surf competitions at the Kui gate, and he wrote: "The water gathered and gathered in millions of tons, and rushed into the Kui Gate." The verse is a portrayal true to the scene. Another famous poet of the Tang Dynasty Bai Juyi engraved his poem in a rock as: "Ten thousand meters high above in the cliffs, and a thousand meters deep into water under my feet. Between the vast two cliffs, only one boat would be able to pass the wide gap. The current, like a waterfall rushes down into the Qutang Gorge, lashing, but there are some huge rocks in the middle of the river, and the startling breakers slap the rocks. The biggest rock is like a huge sharp sword, while the smaller reefs are like the wolf’s teeth, so they make it impossible to move one step forward, never mind forging ahead through one thousand or three hundred kilometres of waterway." General Chen Yi engraved the poem here: "I am happy to look at the magnificent mountains and rivers again, but the bloodstains are still vaguely recognized in my old dreams. We passed thousands of dangerous rapids, but the current, like arrows are flying into the Kui Gate." In past times the huge boulder, named the Surprising Heap, played an indispensable role. In winter, it looked about 30 metres long, 20 metres wide and 40 metres high, exposed above the great river, like a beast stopping the current. In summer the huge rock was flooded, but it pushed the waves into the sky, forming innumerable vortexes, twisting and turning. It made the current a surprise, so ships often sank here after crashing on the reef. A folk saying goes: “If the surprise wave is as large as a horse, no boat can go through the Kui Gate.” Du Fu wrote: "The huge rock in the middle of the river in the cold season is even more huge. In a heavy rainy season it answers the change like cattle sinking into the water, the waves, like a horse tells people not to boat through the Kui Gate." The Northern Song Dynasty poet Fan Chengda had a dream one day: "there is no surprising turn wave under my boat, the Qutang will become a peaceful mirror."
However the dream of the Qutang becoming a peaceful mirror lasted for nearly a thousand years. After the liberation, when the huge rocks were blown into pieces there was no more surprise turning wave. The famous poet Guo Moruo wrote a poem with joy: "There is no more heap or surprise turning wave, but the Qutang is still a great gorge. The vertical cliffs stand on the two banks, while the channel winds nine times like an intestine. The clouds cap the mountain peaks, the sounds of waves can be vaguely heard from the hidden fog curtain. If stating the difference in scenery now and before, I would say the biggest change that happened to the Three Gorges in the Kui Gate." To make the thing happier, after the completion of Three Gorges Dam, the dream "Qutang becomes a peaceful mirror" finally turns into reality. It is just like how Chairman Mao described, "the high channels become a calm lake." Now the City of the White Emperor is a good natural harbor and the Qutang Gorge as a mirror is not dangerous any more.
In the City of the White Emperor I find that much of the calligraphy, engraved on the stones is written by former leaders such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Jiang Zemin. The contents are Li Bai’s poem "Early Departure from the City of the White Emperor." Reading them, all sorts of feelings well up in my mind. These leaders of China love the motherland so much that they put their feelings into beautiful eternal poetry. Their calligraphy adds to the city on the White Emperor Mountain with thick and heavy colours. In the City of the White Emperor everywhere you can find poems engraved on stones. The collection contains over one hundred pieces of inscriptions, poems, couplets, paintings and calligraphy works written by poets from the Sui, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties to contemporary times. It is no more than a superb collection of beautiful things. You can say that it is a museum of relics in the Three Gorges. Among them, the most interesting one is a poem written by Emperor Kang Xi: "Only birds can pass the dangerous cliff, but in the remote green mountain there are some houses. The peach garden must be in the middle of the woods. The falling flowers are floating on the mountain stream.” The fancier thing is that the poet Ceng Chongde in the Qing Dynasty carved the words of Bamboo Tablet on a stone. At first glance, you see a rigorously composited picture in which three green bamboo branches are dense and swaying. It is so vivid and beautiful. But if you read carefully, you will find that it was to be a poem: "No thanks to the east bamboo, but a painting can be famous alone. Please never dislike the isolated leaf light, it will never wither.”
There are many poems that praise the City of the White Emperor. When the poet Li Bai wrote "Early Departure from the City of the White Emperor", he had just finished his punishment of exile. He was sentenced to exile as he was implicated in the crime to stop Emperor Su killing Prince Li Lin for the throne. Li Bai was exiled to a remote place named Yelang. The sorrowful and long journey made Li, fifty-eight years old, white haired. But when Li Bai arrived at the City of the White Emperor, Emperor Su in leniency forgave Li Bai. Li Bai would go home by boat, to return to Jiangling. He was so excited to write about this as a poetic masterpiece. Liu Yuxi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty visited the City of the White Emperor and lingered here for a long time and wrote: "The City of the White Emperor is full of spring grass, and under the White Salt Hill the stream of Shu is clean. The southerner sings a song, but the northerner could not bear the nostalgia." He also wrote: "The noises of the Qutang’s current are so tremendous among the twelve stone piles. The road has been very difficult for travelers from ancient times to now. The hate has been in people’s hearts for a long time, how can the calm water suddenly become a torrential current?”? Poet Bai Juyi stayed at a hotel for one night in the City of the White Emperor and wrote: “A mist covers the mouth of the Qutang, while the moon shines on the west of the City of the White Emperor. The waving bamboo sings in a hoarse mournful voice, and then in the cold dark birds and apes weep sorrowfully."
Poet Du Fu used to ascend the mountain and wrote the poem “Ascend”: "The apes weeping echoes in the windy sky, while the islets are bleak with white sand and birds fly back to nests. The boundless forest sheds its leaves shower by shower; the roaring waves of endless water roll forward. For thousands of miles I’ve roamed in autumn; in my later years I’m too ill to ascend this height alone. These harsh days, bitter life and deep hatred turn my hair pale. My weakness makes it so I can hardly drink the liquor.” He also wrote another poem “The Mood In the Autumn”: "The jade-like dew made the maple woods withered and hurt; the Wu Mountain and Gorge, full of bleak and chilly air. On the river waves surge to the sky, but on the frontier the black clouds cover the ground. A bound of chrysanthemums bloom again with tear like dew, but I am lonely on a small boat with the heart of nostalgia. The cold like a knife made my clothing small in size. The black evening dark harshly covers the high City of the White Emperor." Chen Ziang a poet of the Tang Dynasty came here and wrote a poem "Nostalgia in the City of the White Emperor". Fan Chengda of the Song Dynasty wrote his poem "Red Mountain" here, and the Qing Dynasty poet Zhang Wentao wrote his poem "Qutang Gorge", depicting what he saw, heard and felt. These poems about the City of the White Emperor add profound cultural background and are the cream of traditional Chinese culture.
The City of the White Emperor was a witness to tragic history. At the end of the Han Dynasty, especially during the period of the Three Kingdoms, Shu emperor Liu Bei could not bury his great grief after general Guan Yu was killed in Jingzhou and another of his generals Zhang Fei was assassinated in Sichuan. So he made a decision and personally led the army to attack the Eastern Wu. But in the Yiling battle, the Eastern Wu general Lu Xun defeated the Shu troops with the plot "to set fire and burn down the Shu camps for seven hundred miles". Liu Bei fled with only 100 soldiers and retreated to the City of the White Emperor. Liu Bei was ill from the constant hard battles and failures, and was at the death’s door. He ordered his Prime Minister Zhu Geliang to meet him and discuss his last arrangement. He asked Zhu to help his son ADou to be the king of Shu. After Liu Bei’s death, Prime Minister Zhu Geliang made great efforts to assist ADou to control the country of Shu. He was so loyal and devoted all he had to the country. The story passed all through the ages and became an historical anecdote. In the White Emperor Temple there is the Hall Entrusted to the Orphaned Son, the Ming-liang House and the Temple of Marquis Wu; each has its story and is full of historical allusion, letting visitors review the history of China, and making me study Chinese civilization and the spirit of loyalty and devotion.
Standing on the uppermost platform of the City of the White Emperor, I overlook the Kui Gate and I find the words that General Feng Yuxiang, in the war of resistance against Japan engraved on the cliff are still visible: "Step out of the Kui and Wu mountains, to fight off the Japanese". Sovereignty will not suffer any infringement. Wanting to protect the motherland arises spontaneously from my heart. In the motherland, mountains and rivers are so grand and great. Today, to make our country richer, stronger and more prosperous, all of us should put forth all efforts! Even if many difficulties stand in front of us, we must march forward courageously, never yield in spite of set backs, thinking of our beautiful and poetic country!
