XIII LAMA AND CONFUCIAN TEMPLES

ONE of the favourite sights of Peking is the little group of buildings known to travellers as the Lama Temple, the Confucian Temple, and the Hall of the Classics. They lie all together at one end of the Hatamen Street, one of the greatest thoroughfares in Peking. The little lane in which our garden was situated led into this street, and one of my favourite wanderings was round the great Yung-ho Kung, which is but one of the many Lama Temples in Peking. In old days it was almost impossible to enter it, and yet harder to get out. One Russian gentleman had visited it several times, and occasionally conducted friends, using as a passport, amongst other things, a box of Huntley and Palmer's sugared biscuits, of which the living Buddha, then resident there, seems to have been specially fond. But even he had had gate beyond gate shut in his face as he tried to come out, whilst fierce Mongol Lamas jeeringly asked how much he would pay to get them opened, so that when we visited Peking for the first time he had decided never to venture again to expose himself to such treatment. Endless stories were told of the brutality and effrontery of the monks, some of which form the basis of that very thrilling romance, "The Swallow's Wing," by Mr. Hannan, which sometimes I can hardly help thinking of as true it reads so very like truth to those who penetrated within the Yung-ho Kung in the early days of 1901, when first it was thrown open to the world by the armies of eight nations. Now pictures and images, that then so painfully impressed me, have been removed or curtained. But enough remains to make the tales one used to hear sound credible, although, now that foreigners can go freely in and out, it is hard for them to realise the extraordinary interest with which this Temple was regarded but a few years ago. We must make the most of the few forbidden places left to us, they are so few, and the world promises to be so much less alluring when all freely open to the general public. The charm of the forbidden, that leads to so much devouring of unripe apples in early youth, still holds good for later years. And to the end of time the sight we may not see will probably be the sight that haunts our dreams.

喇嘛寺与孔庙

北京的著名景点之一是被旅行者称为喇嘛寺、孔庙和国子监的一小组建筑群。它们位于北京最繁华的大街之一——哈德门大街的一端。我家的小巷通向这条街，而我最喜欢的散步地点之一就是绕着雍和宫转一圈，雍和宫只是北京众多喇嘛庙中的一座。在过去，进入这座庙宇几乎是不可能的，而更难的是出来。一位俄罗斯绅士曾多次访问此地，并偶尔带领朋友们参观，他使用的通行证之一是亨利和帕尔默的糖霜饼干盒，据说当时居住在这里的活佛特别喜欢这些饼干。然而，即便是他，每次试图出来时也会被一道又一道的大门挡住，而凶猛的蒙古喇嘛们嘲笑着问他愿意出多少钱才能让他们打开大门。因此，当我们第一次访问北京时，他已经决定再也不敢冒险去暴露自己于这种待遇之下了。

关于这些僧侣的残暴和厚颜无耻，有无数的故事流传，其中一些构成了哈南先生那部非常惊险的小说《燕子的翅膀》的基础。有时我几乎忍不住认为那是真的，因为对于那些在1901年初进入雍和宫的人来说，那些故事读起来确实像是真的，当时八国联军第一次将其对外开放。如今，那些曾让我痛苦不已的画作和雕像已经被移除或遮盖，但仍有足够的遗迹让人觉得那些传闻可信。尽管现在外国人可以自由进出，但几年前这座寺庙所引起的极大兴趣仍然让人难以想象。我们必须珍惜留给我们的少数禁地，因为它们真的所剩无几。当世界对公众完全开放时，它将不再那么具有吸引力。对禁忌之物的渴望，就像童年早期对未熟苹果的贪食一样，依然适用于后来的岁月。而直到时间的尽头，我们无法看到的景象可能仍然会在我们的梦中萦绕。

LAMA AND CONFUCIAN TEMPLES 181

Notwithstanding, however, that I was quite free to do so, I used greatly to delight in taking a little jinricksha from our garden down the dusty, crowded thoroughfare, and then, having run the gauntlet of the noisy, impudent boys, who still make the entrance disagreeable as the villainous-faced, rowdy monks used to do, wandering hither and thither through the grand courtyards and in and out of the Temples. That which I generally avoided, but which every traveller has to see, is the Temple where a colossal Buddha (Maitreya, the coming Buddha) towers up through three storeys. He is seventy feet high, and of very evil countenance, such as it can do the soul no good to gaze upon. Ascending a crooked, rickety staircase it is amazing how many people do not care to mount -it one comes upon gigantic prayer-wheels, or rather closets full of prayers, one turn of which must surely put innumerable petitions into motion. The horror of relying upon such mechanical, meaningless supplication overwhelms one as one does so, yet in a long lifetime how many prayers has one oneself not uttered which were quite as little accompanied by the devotion of the heart! We only realise the enormity of our own sins when we see them in others. And here they certainly appear magnified before us as we go out on to the balcony to look at the prospect, and gain some solace for our wounded self-esteem. Who could fail to find solace contemplating that prospect ? When an architect achieves a building all the proportions of which are in perfect harmony, it is as if some grand tune had been solidified in stone to soothe and to exalt throughout the ages. The Chinese instinctively seized from the first the beauty of proportion as the ground root of all beauty iq architecture. Confused by multiplicity of details, modern architects seem to have lost their grip of this. Chinese also particularly excel in roofs, and from this balcony we look out not only upon the grand courtyard, but upon the exceptionally beautiful roof, with dormer windows diversifying its lines, of the real Yung-ho Kung, built for the son of Kanghi, and transformed by his son again into a magnificent Temple served by three is all unusually fine, and if one can once reconcile the eye to the Indian form to some eyes sinning against every canon of art this must be pronounced the most beautiful monument in the environs of Peking. The Mongols, who come in winter, make offerings of small silk handkerchiefs, which may be sometimes found on different parts of the monument, tied on by strings or held by a small stone from blowing away.

尽管我完全可以自由地参观，我还是非常喜欢从我们花园乘坐一辆小黄包车，沿着尘土飞扬、人潮拥挤的大街前行。然后，穿过那些吵闹无礼的男孩，他们依然像过去那些面目狰狞、粗暴的僧侣一样，使入口处变得令人不悦。之后，我便可以在宏伟的庭院中四处游走，进出各个寺庙。有一个地方我通常会避开，但每个旅行者都必须去看看，那就是供奉一尊巨大佛像（弥勒佛，未来佛）的寺庙。这个佛像高达七十英尺，面容凶恶，凝视它对心灵毫无益处。

沿着一条弯曲、摇摇欲坠的楼梯往上攀登，令人惊讶的是，许多人不愿意登上这条楼梯。在楼梯的顶端，有巨大的转经轮，或者更确切地说，是满满祈祷文的柜子，只要转动一下，必定能发动无数的祈愿。然而，当你这样做时，那种依赖于机械而毫无意义的祈祷所带来的恐惧感会席卷而来。可是在漫长的人生中，我们自己有多少祈祷也同样缺乏内心的虔诚呢？我们只有在他人身上看到这些问题时，才会真正意识到自身罪恶的严重性。而在这里，当我们走出阳台眺望景色，寻求安慰时，这些罪恶似乎在我们面前被放大了。

谁能在凝视这美景时不感到安慰呢？当一位建筑师设计出一座各比例完美和谐的建筑时，就如同一首宏伟的乐曲被固化在石头中，可以在漫长岁月里抚慰和升华人们的心灵。中国人自古以来就本能地认识到，比例之美是建筑美的根本所在。而被众多细节弄得眼花缭乱的现代建筑师，似乎已经失去了对这一点的把握。中国人在屋顶设计上尤为擅长，从这个阳台我们不仅可以俯瞰宏伟的庭院，还可以欣赏到真正的雍和宫的异常美丽的屋顶，其线条因老虎窗而丰富多样。雍和宫最初是为康熙的儿子所建，后来被他的儿子改造成了一座宏伟的寺庙，由三千喇嘛供奉。这一切都极其精美，如果你能习惯那种对于某些眼光来说违背所有艺术法则的印度风格，那么这无疑可以被称为北京周边最美的纪念碑。蒙古人在冬季前来，献上小丝绸手帕，这些手帕有时会被系在纪念碑的不同部位，用绳子绑住或用小石头压住，以防被风吹走。

But we must go back to the Yung-ho Kung within the walls. In front of its fine hall is a large tablet standing four-square with inscribed upon it the history of Lamaism. This is in four languages Chinese, Manchu, Tibetan, and Mongol each occupying one face. Before this tablet stands a magnificent bronze incense-burner eight feet high, and on the south-west wall of the court hangs a picture of the universe, upheld by the four clawed feet of a huge sea-monster with three eyes. Of this Dr. Edkins, the late wellknown Sinologue, tells us: "The six paths to the Nirvana are here painted : Buddha at the north-west side points to the sun, and thus the sorrow and joy of life are set before the Lama, as he adjusts his robes when about to enter the chan ting-hall for service. It is called the 'wheel of Sansara,' the deceptive everchanging world of the Buddhists. 11 But it is a little difficult to see all that the good old Doctor with his loving eyes saw in this not large, very dark picture, hanging in a corner on the wall of the courtyard, and one cannot help thinking that his having been admitted to view it, when he was one of the few thus favoured, may have had something to do with his discovering so much deep meaning. The Lamas certainly do not look as if they noticed it, as they pull their robes about them, a preliminary to reciting prayers in monotone, the priest boys mostly smiling and making funny grimaces at the strangers the while. Though they all present a very impressive appearance at their evening service, when, with their long yellow gowns crossed over the breast, they wear very high yellow helmet-shaped caps, which are said to have been originally fashioned to resemble the shape of a Central Asian sacred mountain, the Chin-Shan. They then sing a kind of Gregorian chant, one or two of them accompanying it with a deep bass note in D, acquired when the voice is breaking, the while moving their hands and fingers in various mystic ways, to which one is not surprised at such poor, ignorant, brutish men attaching vast importance, but which it was surprising to find an enterprising American traveller, since then dead on the Tibetan border, had taken the pains to acquire from them. The movements are so complex that they are hardly likely to find favour at English spiritualist stances, but would probably be of interest to those who frequent them.

然而，我们还是必须回到城墙内的雍和宫。它那精美的大殿前有一块四方形的大碑，上面刻有喇嘛教的历史。这块碑文以四种语言——中文、满文、藏文和蒙文——分别占据碑文的四个面。在这块碑的前方，矗立着一个高达八英尺的华丽青铜香炉。而在庭院的西南墙上，悬挂着一幅描绘宇宙的图画，这幅图画由一个三眼巨大海怪的四只爪足支撑。已故的著名汉学家爱德金博士曾提到：“这里绘制了通往涅槃的六条路径：佛陀位于西北方，指向太阳，因此生活中的悲欢离合呈现在喇嘛面前，当他在准备进入诵经堂进行礼拜时调整他的袍子。这被称为‘轮回之轮’，是佛教徒眼中的虚幻、不断变化的世界。”

然而，要完全理解这位深情的老博士在这幅不大、且光线昏暗的图画中所看到的所有深意，确实有些困难。图画悬挂在庭院角落的墙上，不禁让人怀疑他之所以发现如此深奥的含义，可能与他是当时少数几个被允许观赏此画的人之一有关。喇嘛们显然并不注意这幅画，他们忙着整理袍子，准备以单调的音调念经，而年幼的僧侣们大多对着外来的参观者微笑并做出滑稽的鬼脸。尽管如此，他们在晚间礼拜时的形象仍然非常震撼。那时，他们身穿长长的黄色袍子，胸前交叉着，头戴据说最初设计模仿中亚圣山金山形状的高高的黄色头盔。他们唱着一种类似于格里高利圣咏的曲调，其中一两个人用低沉的D调低音伴奏，这种音调是在变声期时习得的，同时，他们的手和手指也在做各种神秘的动作。看到这样一些贫穷、无知、粗鲁的人对这些动作赋予如此大的意义，并不令人惊讶，但令人惊讶的是，一位后来死在西藏边境的美国冒险家竟然费心从他们那里学会了这些动作。这些动作非常复杂，不太可能在英国的通灵仪式上受到欢迎，但对于那些经常参加这些仪式的人来说，可能会有兴趣。

There is a very beautiful representation of the Buddhist Heaven, carved in wood very delicately, and then painted ; it is of great size and contains innumerable little groups of figures admirably executed. There is also still much very fine old Peking cloisonni, also an exceptionally fine incense-burner, and many other objects scattered about through the different Temples and courtyards so as to add fresh interest to each visit. Beautiful silken carpets, made at P6-tich&ig, beyond the wild Ordos country, used to be laid on the floors ; there were also very fine hangings on the walls. It is still difficult to know how much was carried off as loot in 1900, how much is still hidden in safe hiding-places.

這裡有一個非常美麗的佛教天堂的表現，以木材非常精緻地雕刻而成，然後上色；它的規模很大，包含無數小小的人物群像，雕刻得非常精妙。這裡還有許多保存完好的老北京掐絲珐琅（景泰藍），以及一個非常精美的香爐，還有許多其他散布在不同寺廟和庭院中的物品，使每次參觀都充滿新的興趣。曾經用“P6-tich&ig”製作的美麗絲毯鋪在地板上，這個地方位於荒涼的鄂爾多斯地區之外；牆上也曾掛有非常精美的掛毯。至今仍然難以確定有多少在1900年被掠奪，又有多少仍然藏匿在安全的隱蔽處。

One evening we strayed down the long cloisters to the east, which seem to be hardly ever visited. The weeds were growing in the pavement, a strange stillness brooded over the scene, a stillness as of long ago.

" The silence of the place was like a sleep