Tao An's "Record of a Visit to Longming Mountain" and Wuxiang Mountain

The travel account and the mountain's name

Volume 17 of the Collected Works of Tao An contains "Record of a Visit to Longming Mountain", which tells how Tao An was invited by a friend to visit the mountain. The text says that Longming Mountain is Wuxiang Mountain:

即无想山也 — Collected Works of Tao An, 卷十七《游龙鸣山记》

Translated: That is Wuxiang Mountain.

It should be noted that this is the author's own identification, and that it comes from volume 17 of the Collected Works of Tao An. When it is cited here as documentary evidence, the volume and the title of the piece are given, and the mountain's history is not rewritten on the strength of it. The title of the piece uses a variant form of the character for "to visit"; the original character is retained, or a textual note is supplied.

The site recorded in the text

The piece records the site of Han Xizai's reading hall and notes that a juniper planted there still stood. Han Xizai's own historical career belongs to the character sub-site; this entry records only the mountain name and the site as given in the piece.

What the gazetteer records

The two points recorded by Tao An have a corresponding record in the old gazetteers held by this library. The "Mountains" section of volume 5 of the Kangxi Gazetteer of Lishui County, in its entry on Wuxiang Mountain, records:

無想山南一十五里。山形環抱，與杜城諸山相連。中有唐建禪寂寺及南唐韓熙載讀書台址、大士石像。古桧、銀杏皆唐宋間植。有元謝瑛招雲亭碑記。山頂有泉，下注岩石間成瀑布，明嘉靖間知縣王從善鑿石題曰「鳳泉」，構亭其側，今廢。近多遊人題詠，俱載《藝文志》。

Translated: Wuxiang Mountain lies fifteen li to the south. Its form embraces and joins with the mountains of Ducheng. Within it are the Chan Monastery founded in the Tang, the site of Han Xizai's reading terrace of the Southern Tang, and a stone image of the bodhisattva. The old cypress and the ginkgo were planted between the Tang and the Song. There is a stele inscription on the Cloud-Gathering Pavilion by Xie Ying of the Yuan. There is a spring at the summit, falling down between the rocks to form a waterfall; in the Jiajing period of the Ming the magistrate Wang Congshan cut the rock and inscribed "Fengquan", and built a pavilion beside it, now fallen into ruin. In recent years many visitors have written poems on it, all carried in the Treatise on Literature.

That entry records that within Wuxiang Mountain there were the Chan Monastery founded in the Tang and the "site of Han Xizai's reading terrace of the Southern Tang", and that "the old cypress and the ginkgo were planted between the Tang and the Song". This agrees with the travel account in two respects: the site of the reading hall is attested in an early Qing gazetteer, and the old juniper is given an age by the gazetteer.

Two layers of evidence must be kept apart. The gazetteer entry records only that the site of the reading terrace is at Wuxiang Mountain; it does not record that the mountain is also called Longming. In other words, the old gazetteer corroborates the site of the reading terrace and the old juniper, but cannot corroborate the identification of the name Longming with Wuxiang. The words "that is Wuxiang Mountain" still have only one source, Tao An's "Record of a Visit to Longming Mountain", and this entry does not rewrite that layer on the strength of the gazetteer.

It should further be noted that the "Fengquan" inscription recorded in that entry of the Kangxi gazetteer is one and the same as the cliff inscriptions discussed in this entry; see the entry on Wuxiang Mountain Cliff Inscriptions in the culture site of this library and the entry on Wuxiang Mountain in the landscape site.

Later inscriptions

Wuxiang Mountain also has three cliff inscriptions, all in seal script, which are protected at the municipal level in Nanjing. The three are titled "Fengquan", "Danding" and the "Wuzun Inscription"; the third title uses a variant character, which is reproduced as it stands. A media report says the inscriptions are nearly 500 years old; their date should rest on the inscriptions themselves and on the published heritage-list material.

Uncertainties

First, the identification of Longming Mountain with Wuxiang Mountain is Tao An's own judgement in volume 17 of the Collected Works of Tao An. The old gazetteer (volume 5 of the Kangxi gazetteer, entry on Wuxiang Mountain) corroborates the site of the reading terrace and the old junipers, but does not record that the mountain is also called Longming, so the identification of the name still has no corroborating evidence. It is cited with its source rather than asserted.

Second, the figure of nearly 500 years for the cliff inscriptions is the report's own; the date of the cutting of "Fengquan" has a direct record in the Kangxi gazetteer, while "Danding" and "Wuzun ming" have no gazetteer basis. See the entry on Wuxiang Mountain Cliff Inscriptions in the culture site of this library.

Third, the exact date of Tao An's visit to Wuxiang Mountain is not recorded in the sources used, so this entry gives no year for the writing of the piece.

Fourth, the present condition of the site of Han Xizai's reading terrace, and whether it refers to anything else, are not recorded in the sources used in this library.