Chapter 19 Section 5 Ascend

There are countless majestic mountains, strange peaks and dangerous rocks in the land of China, which attract people with magnificent and colorful scenery.Mountaineering has long been a traditional national sport in China.Confucius, a great educator, liked mountain climbing very much. He climbed Dongshan Mountain to look down on the State of Lu, and climbed Mount Tai to look down on the world ("Mencius · Dedicated Chapters 1").The best season for mountaineering is autumn, especially late autumn. The busy harvest is over, the rare leisure, the joyful mood, the golden wind is refreshing, the sky is high and the clouds are clear, and the autumn wind is blowing. The flowers and trees of nature, Presenting the richest colors of the year, a beautiful autumn landscape.The climate is pleasant and the roads are accessible. At this time, when you climb up and look far away, you can have a panoramic view of thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, which is refreshing.Therefore, climbing in autumn is a natural thing.

The ninth day of the ninth lunar month is the Double Ninth Festival, and our country has a tradition of climbing high on the Double Ninth Festival since ancient times.Tang Dynasty poets Li Bai, Wang Wei, Cen Shen (approximately AD 714-770), Du Fu and Liu Yuxi (AD 772-842) all left poems about climbing the heights on the Double Ninth Festival.But why people must climb high on the day of Double Ninth Festival is related to a myth and legend.It is said that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, in the place of Runan, there was a man named Huan Jing who studied with Taoist Fei Changfang.One day Fei Changfang said to Huan Jing, you must be careful on the day of the Double Ninth Festival on September 9, because there will be a disaster in Runan.There is only one way to escape the disaster, and that is to ask your family to tie a small cloth bag with dogwood (a medicinal plant) on your arm, climb a high mountain, and then drink chrysanthemum wine.Huan Jing followed Fei Changfang's instructions one by one, and led the whole family up the mountain.In the evening, when I went down the mountain and went home, I saw that the chickens and dogs raised at home were all dead ("Jingchu Sui Shi Ji").From then on, in order to avoid evil spirits, people climbed high every Double Ninth Festival.Of course, this is just a superstitious statement.In fact, people take dogwood, climb high, and drink chrysanthemum wine to avoid the interference of poisonous insects and mosquitoes on the way to the mountain. It is good for fitness and has nothing to do with avoiding evil.

Climbing is a very popular ancient sports activity, loved by people from all walks of life.Xie Lingyun, a great poet in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, also designed and manufactured a kind of wooden clogs with front and rear teeth, which are specially used for mountain climbing.The front teeth of the clogs are removed when going up the mountain, and the back teeth are removed when going down the mountain ("Southern History · Xie Lingyun Biography").People call this kind of clogs "Xie Gong clogs".Li Bai in the Tang Dynasty also liked mountaineering very much. He once "went up the Qingyun Ladder with Xie Gong's clogs on his feet".On the Double Ninth Festival, Li Bai climbed up the high mountain beside Dongting Lake with great enthusiasm, while drinking and watching the drill of the water army in the lake while singing the poem "The weather is clear on the ninth day, and there are no autumn clouds when climbing the mountain" Look at the Dongting Water Army").

Although it is best to climb high mountains with verdant trees and fresh air, in some places without mountains, or for some people who are not suitable for mountain climbing due to old age and infirmity, the high platforms, pagodas, temples, High pavilions can be used as climbing places. For example, the emperors of the Tang Dynasty climbed the Big Wild Goose Pagoda every nine times, which became a practice (Fan Deng's "Recalling Chang'an·September").