闕瑜夢
天目山,古名浮玉山,位于浙江省西北部,主體由東、西兩山組成。東天目山主峰大仙峰,海拔1479.7米,西天目山主峰仙人頂,海拔1505.7米,均在杭州臨安。
選擇進(jìn)山
如何介紹一座山?我想不出什么好的開頭。
如何表達(dá)對(duì)一座山的熱愛?——我想留下來。
大學(xué)畢業(yè)后,我留在了西天目山,留在了一個(gè)叫“大地之野”的自然學(xué)校,起因很簡單,爬了一次山脊線,撿了兩包垃圾,從此過上了與森林四季相伴,看遍春耕夏耘秋收冬藏的生活。
關(guān)于天目山的標(biāo)簽有很多,比如國家級(jí)自然保護(hù)區(qū)、全國科普教育基地、全國青少年科技教育基地……
在這里,有“活化石”野生銀杏,有“地球獨(dú)生子”天目鐵木,有“會(huì)飛的鴿子樹”珙桐……在這里,你可以在樹下蹲一整天,觀察春天枝頭上的新芽;你可以手腳并用,攀爬于夏日的怪石林中;你可以撿一片紅楓,在手絹上拓印出秋天……而滿地的絡(luò)石種子則預(yù)告了冬的風(fēng)雪,也吹來了蒲公英般的浪漫。
我在冬天來到這里,所以,也想跟你說說冬天這里最有意思的故事。
跨越千年有共鳴
北魏景明元年(500)前后,北魏地理學(xué)家酈道元在撰寫地理學(xué)巨著《水經(jīng)注》時(shí)涉足西天目山,考察山川地理,詳載著述,率先發(fā)現(xiàn)“山上有霜木,皆是數(shù)百年樹,謂之翔鳳林”。
上面這段話,出自《西天目山志》,初讀時(shí),閉上眼睛想象了一番。一千五百年前的一個(gè)冬天,酈道元先生徒步于山間,山上的氣溫要比山下低得多,這令他瑟瑟發(fā)抖,哈出的熱氣在空氣中飄散,身邊已是白茫茫一片,山上的樹木都長滿了白色的冰霜,又高又大。不知道是不是鳳凰飛過,引得樹枝拼命搖擺歡迎,發(fā)出了咯吱咯吱的聲音。偶爾落下幾顆冰霜,配上老木椅般的咯吱聲,才叫人感慨——這竟是真實(shí)人間。
后來,在某個(gè)雨后極寒的冬天,我也爬上了仙人頂,臉頰被凍得通紅,呼出的熱氣在發(fā)絲上結(jié)了冰,抬頭透過霧凇看到了藍(lán)藍(lán)的天空,偶爾飄來的幾片云朵像是粘在霧凇枝頭的棉花糖,真怕自己的腳印驚擾了這純白的人間仙境。
霧凇山林有奇觀
春花秋月,夏蟬冬雪。雪可以說是冬季最具代表性的自然物了。身處南方的我們常常會(huì)因?yàn)閹灼┗ň团d奮不已。
小時(shí)候,特別想去北方看看哈爾濱的冰雕、吉林的霧凇。長大后才知道,原來在南方也能看到滿山的霧凇,仿佛置身于冰雪世界。
關(guān)于“霧凇”一詞,最早出現(xiàn)于西晉呂忱所編的《字林》里,其解釋為:“寒氣結(jié)冰如珠見日光乃消,齊魯謂之霧凇?!边@是最早見于文獻(xiàn)記載的“霧凇”一詞。而在現(xiàn)代,人們也賦予了它很多有趣又好聽的名字:
它潔白無瑕,走近一看又毛茸茸的十分可愛,像是怒放在冬天的白色花朵,故稱“冰花”;
在萬物凋零衰敗之時(shí),唯它與風(fēng)雪戰(zhàn)斗,像那高山上的雪蓮,凄冷中獨(dú)自美麗,故稱“傲霜花”;
掛在樹上的白色松散冰晶,俗稱“樹掛”,是冰雪掛在了樹梢,還是樹梢留住了冰雪,光看“樹掛”兩字,便有了無限的遐想。
霧凇形狀主要有兩種。一種是霧滴碰到冷的地面物體后迅速凍結(jié)成粒狀的小冰塊,叫粒狀霧凇(硬?。?,它的結(jié)構(gòu)較為緊密,通常出現(xiàn)在云霧很低的冬季山頂或山谷樹木上。另一種是由霧滴蒸發(fā)時(shí)產(chǎn)生的水汽凝華而形成的晶狀霧?。ㄜ涄。?,結(jié)構(gòu)較松散,稍有震動(dòng)就會(huì)脫落。于是,遇到軟凇時(shí),我會(huì)蹲在樹下,等風(fēng)來,落下幾朵,好似下雪。
霧凇,非冰非雪,是水汽遇冷凝華而成的自然景觀。其形成需要很低的氣溫加上充足的水汽,因條件苛刻,所以不是什么地方都能見得到。
而天目山正好符合這些條件,1500米海拔,冬季氣溫低,常年水汽充沛,讓這里成為一座極美的霧凇山林。冰凇環(huán)繞一眼千里,蜿蜒的山脊線,勾勒出冬季最美的景色。
自然會(huì)開花
大地之野自然學(xué)校在每一年冬季都會(huì)開展冰雪主題的冬令營和領(lǐng)略西天目山霧凇之美的登山徒步活動(dòng),冬天帶著孩子來臨安天目山看霧凇、共度親子時(shí)光、創(chuàng)造美好回憶,這似乎成了越來越多80后、90后父母周末和假期的出行選擇。
一天中看霧淞的最佳時(shí)間是在太陽出來前——5點(diǎn)左右,但是霧凇持續(xù)時(shí)間較長,主要看當(dāng)天的風(fēng)大不大,只要風(fēng)不是特別大,就可以維持到中午。所以我們大可以在9點(diǎn)出發(fā),邊徒步山脊線看霧凇,邊做著好玩的親子小游戲,邊尋找冬季的動(dòng)物痕跡,還可帶著這些奇妙的問題:雪地上留下的那串神秘腳印到底來自什么動(dòng)物?冰天雪地里依然含苞待放的是什么花?林中那些胖得找不到北的是什么鳥?
在大地之野自然學(xué)校工作的這些年,遇見了很多有趣的孩子,常常在他們嘴里聽到浪漫的話語:“誰說石頭不開花,青苔就是它的花”“竹子,只要你抓著,它就會(huì)帶你去想去的地方”“讓種子坐一次毛衣牌公交車吧,我會(huì)帶著它去其他地方玩耍”“冰雪的世界里,我們可以用魔法消滅壞蛋”……
我們常常在大自然里奔跑,秋天當(dāng)過樹葉床的落葉堆,在冬天也蓋上了它白白的“棉被”。我們的雙手可以在空氣中飛舞,無需顧慮,從山脊高高的一處往下飛奔,有時(shí)候會(huì)摔一跤,沒關(guān)系,站起來拍拍褲子衣服,繼續(xù)向前。
我們的孩子,也可以在雨天踩水,觀察松果的開合。在天晴時(shí)種下一顆種子,在麻雀嘰嘰喳喳聲中收獲稻香。在雪天上自然課,觀察雪花的形狀,從800米海拔的天空之城徒步到1500米的仙人頂,雪落在山脊線上,我們可以大口呼氣,對(duì)著大山吶喊。
大自然是如此地公平,也如此地美妙,她帶來了春的生機(jī)盎然,也送上了冬的銀裝素裹,綠樹會(huì)成陰,草木有蕭疏。觀察一片落葉,尋找動(dòng)物的痕跡,爬樹做秋千,這些“野性童年”,會(huì)帶給人成長的力量,而在未來,也會(huì)多一份感受美好的能力,去面對(duì)生活的風(fēng)風(fēng)雨雨。
這座山的故事很多,我知道的很少。如果你來到這里,請(qǐng)盡情去感受。在呼吸間便可以獲得力量,因?yàn)樽匀粫?huì)開花。
Tianmu Mountain, a Floating Jade
By ?Que Yumeng
The Tianmu Mountain, anciently known as fuyu (floating jade), is located at Lin’An district, Hangzhou city in the northwest of Zhejiang. It is mainly made up of two parts: the West Tianmu Mountain, with the 1,497.7-meter Daxian peak as its main Peak; the East Tianmu Mountain, with the 1505.7-meter Xianren Peak as its main peak.
How to introduce a mountain? I am struggling to come up with a smart start.
But how to express my love for the mountain? I suppose the desire to stay is good enough.
So I did. I have stayed at the West Tianmu Mountain after my graduation from college, simply because I went here once for mountain climbing and conveniently picked up two bags of trash along the way. The next thing I know, I am living here accompanied by forests through changing seasons.
The Tianmu Mountain has many titles, such as the National Nature Reserve, the National Popular Science Communication Base and the National Youth Science and Technology Education Base.
Here, you can find wild ginkgo trees — “the living fossil”, iron trees — “the only child of mother earth”, “flying” dove trees and so on. Here, you can spend a whole day squatting under a tree and observing new buds on the branches in spring, or crawl onto different strange big stones in summer; you can pick up a red maple leaf and print an autumn with it on your handkerchief, and learn from the white, furry fallen seeds that a windy, snowy winter as romantic as a dandelion is approaching.
I came here in a winter, so I am going to tell you some winter stories.
In the year 500 during the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534), Li Daoyuan (466 or 472-527), a geographer, set foot on the West Tianmu Mountain during the period he was working on the Zhejiang part of his masterpiece Shuijingzhu (Commentary on the Water Classic). He investigated the geographic conditions of the mountain and its waters, which were then recorded in detail. Also he was the first to discover that “the hoarfrost-covered trees on the mountain were all hundreds of years’ old, which could be collectively given the name of Xiangfeng (flying phoenix) forest”.
Reading this paragraph, I saw in my mind’s eye that on some winter day about 1,500 years ago, Mr. Li was walking in the mountain, shivering from cold as he climbed higher. With his hot breath disappearing into the air, he found himself surrounded by white frosted trees which were all huge and tall. Touched by a flying phoenix perhaps, they wiggled welcome, squeaking like an old wooden rocking chair, and dropped a few ice crystals every now and then — it was totally out of this world.
On a similar freezing winter day over a thousand years later, I also climbed to the top of the Xianren Peak, frozen with red cheeks, and watched my hot breath crystalize on my hair strings. When I looked up through the frosted trees, I saw blue sky embracing sparse white clouds, which were like marshmallows stuck to the tree branches. This was a holy world of pure white, where I dare not to step inside and leave a stain.
It is safe to say that snow is the most representative natural sign of winter. Living in South China, we are easily thrilled by a little pieces of snow flakes and always longing for the ice sculptures and the rime in Northeast China as a child. But now as a grown-up, I get to know there is also a world of ice and snow hidden up on the mountain in the warm south.
When it comes to the word wusong (rime), it first appeared in a written record of Zilin (Forest of Characters), a Chinese dictionary compiled in the Jin dynasty (265-420) by Lü Chen. Nowadays, it has also been given many lovely and interesting names, such as ice flower, lofty frost flower and icicle.
There are two major shapes of rime. One is called granular rime (or hard rime), which has a relatively compact structure and usually appears in winter on a mountain top with low clouds and fogs or on the trees grown in valleys. The other is called crystalline rime (or soft rime) which is structured loosely and tends to fall off under a slightest shake. So whenever I spot soft rime on the tree, I will squat down and wait for a wind to gently blow it off like falling snow.
Rime, neither ice nor snow, is a natural landscape formed by vapor which condenses on a cold surface. And that strictly requires a very low temperature with sufficient vapor hence not commonly seen in nature. Fortunately, the Tianmu Mountain perfectly meets all the requirements with its 1,500-meter height, extremely low temperatures in winter, and a yearly abundant supply of vapor. It boasts of a breath-takingly beautiful winter of stunning rime forests and a rolling ridge covered in ice and snow.
I work in the Wild Earth Natural School, which organizes an annual ice-and-snow-themed winter camp, and offers climbing and hiking opportunities for children to search for rime in the West Tianmu Mountain. This has become an increasingly popular choice among young parents for happy family time on weekends.
The peak time for exploring rime scenery is before sunrise — about five in the morning. But thanks to its long-lasting nature, this scenery could stay safe and sound until noon as long as it is not terribly windy. In that case, starting off at nine is also acceptable. While hiking and rime spotting, we can also play some parent-child games for fun and keep an eye for traces left by wild animals with curiosity.
I have met a lot of interesting kids while working here at the school, who often talk with romantic innocence. So I couldn’t help thinking that it is a childhood in the wilderness that fills our children with strength in their growth, cultivates their ability to search and appreciate the beauty around them and prepare them for the possible trials and hardships in the future.
The Tianmu Mountain knows many stories, of which I know only partly. If one day you have a chance to come here, please try to feel and breathe as hard as you can to taken in some power from nature.