[VOL I] THE TSEIH-SING-YEN, OR, SEVEN-STAR HILLS

THE TSEIH-SING-YEN, OR, SEVEN-STAR HILLS

Cover Image: Tseih-Sing-Yen, or “The Seven-star Mountains / ZhaoQing GuangDong China / Karst karst rock / Drawn by T.Allom Engraved by T.A.Prior – ALAMY Image ID:2X2MWBP

*“Seven Star Crags” is located in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province and is composed of seven limestone peaks: Langfeng Rock, Yuping Rock, Shishi Rock, Tianzhu Rock, Chanchu Rock, Xianzhang Rock, and Apo Rock.

Say, stony Seven, why start ye from the plain,
Fix’d and eternal as Orion’s stars,
And kindred-titled? Doth your group remain
The cloud-dropt monument of giants’ wars,
Torn from yon heights, upflung, and backward driven,
Each its own fiend to crush, the falling stars of Heaven?

C. J. C.

IN all the romantic region of the seventy-two peaks that occupy the western district of Quang-tong, the locality of “The Seven-star mountains” is not merely the most extraordinary, but also the most illustrative of provincial scenery and agrarian habits. Its geological structure must strike the most cursory observer, its broken and varied forms gratify the eye of fancy, and no single scene in Quang-tong gives a more comprehensive and revolution of events, the low lands, that now lie between these isolated rocks, were probably beneath the waters of the sea, and the alluvial character of the soil favours the idea of their aqueous origin. The detached masses, that rise up so abruptly in the middle distance, and give a name and peculiarity to the landscape, are of secondary limestone, worn into grotesque and cavernous forms, either by the abrasion of the weather, or former action of the waves. In the distance stands the Woo-fung-shih, or five-peaked mountain, attaining a height of five thousand feet, and solely of granitic formation. Every ledge and rock-terrace, and crowning summit of these insulated hills, is reduced by industry to complete submission, and has exchanged a surface once as sterile as their aspect, for a productive and remunerating soil. In some places the disintegrated rock has supplied a meagre soil, in which the tea-plant flourishes with an exuberance superior to that which richer loam imparts; in other cases, the deep clay from the valley has been carried up and laid on the bare rock, in depth sufficient for the purposes of cultivation. There cannot be a more interesting evidence of the dense occupation of the surface, and the indefatigable industry of its cultivators, than the happy cottages that adorn the steep sides and summits of “The Seven Stars,” and the mulberry-trees and tea-plantations that luxuriate around them. The poorer portion, and the latest candidates for existence, being pushed from the crowded area of the plain, were obliged to seek independence amidst the mountains; and the lessons of labour learned from their ancestors were instrumental in securing for them homes as enviable and happy.

The conical mountains that rise so majestically above the rich plain of the Tseih-sing-yen, include numerous scenes, celebrated amongst the Chinese for their beauty and sublimity. From the Five Peaks a cascade descends so majestically, that at the interval of a mile the fall resembles one vast curtain of glass, while the thundering sound with which it reaches the bed of the river is heard at the distance of several leagues. The source of this picturesque torrent is situated in a circular hollow, entirely surrounded and overhung by four lofty mountains, densely clothed with wood to their highest peaks. The inhabitants call it “The Hollow of the rich Grove,” and the peaks above it are distinguished, more patria, by the most fanciful, quaint, and significant epithets. One is, the Phoenix Eyrie; another, the Jasper Stand; a third, the Terrace of Smoke and Vapour, while the sylphs of the mountain frequent “the Cloudy Road.” A singular cataract rolls down the front of the Cloudy Mountain, conspicuous as well for its loud and awful sounds in falling, as for the triple tides in which it tumbles. Rushing impetuously from amidst the vapours that wrap the summit of the mountain, it suddenly separates into three distinct volumes, each of considerable magnitude, and passes close by the Mill-stone Rock; after which the three branches becoming again united, fall into the Jasper Lake.

The instruction conveyed by the accompanying illustration is not limited to mere picturesque, although faithful delineation; it comprehends, also, some interesting representations of the rural occupations of the people. Much attention is evidently bestowed on the culture of the calabash, which is induced to creep along a horizontal trellis, supported by rude pillars about seven feet in height, rendering both the blossoms and the fruit easily tended by the cultivator. This plant, the lagenia vulgaris of botanists, is held in much estimation by the Chinese; the pulp being edible, is extracted, boiled in vinegar, mixed with rice and flesh, and formed into a pudding. The domestic usefulness of the gourd does not cease here, the shell generally serving as a pudding-dish for the favourite mixture, after which it is laid up amongst the household-utensils to serve as a drinking-cup. There are other uses also to which the calabash husk is applied, less valuable but equally ingenious, such as to disguise the fowler’s head while engaged in catching aquatic birds. Beyond the gourd-frame, numbers are seen actively employed in the watery rice-grounds, and farther still appear two branches of the Pearl Canal, whose waters answer the double purpose of transport and irrigation.

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