following is what i rewrote into an english version from a story on rocks in keyan, shaoxing, zhejiang. xu huadang, a regular contributor to a magazine, wrote the original story in chinese. it is my job to write new stories in english based on the orignal ones in chinese. i am free to write my own story. this one is what i did last night. it is my first version and i will spend sometime to polish it later. hope guys here can proofread it or for fun. those who wish to know more about my home province can grab this chance for a closer look. you are welcome to comment and gimme suggestions. thanks in advance.

柯岩

Miracle of Rocks

By Xu Huadang

In sharp contrast to natural beauties of Zhejiang, the rocky landscape in Keyan, Shaoxing displays a highly unique spectacle. Twelve kilometers west of Shaoxing City, the scenic area is located in the Mount Keshan. The bluish rocky mount, though neither high nor steep, is spectacular sublimation itself.

A stony behemoth, the mount was a quarry about 2000 years ago in the Three-Kingdom Period. Stonecutters, however, were rather poets, sculptors, and architects than mere stonecutters. They did cut out stones, but they were actually creating a big stone park. Out of their artistic outlines came cliffs, ponds, and caves, all arranged and scattered in a grand pattern. Over 1000 years, generations of stonecutters worked at the breath-taking rocky miracle.

By the Song Dynasty, the quarry had become a big tourist attraction. People came to admire all the rock configurations created over centuries. Poets were inspired. Tourists were fascinated. In the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, further designs were carried out to fine-tune the stone park into a grand masterpiece.

The landmark attraction in the Keyan scenic area is a tower-like stone pillar. The solitary column towers more than 30 meters, looking like a mushroom. The lower part of the column is narrower than its top part. In a crevice near the top stands a cypress, taking roots in rock and stressing its evergreen crown out. On the west side of the column are carved two characters Cloudy Bone in red paint, their sizes larger than the height of a man.

Stonecutters in the ancient times used the stone pillar as benchmark for their cutting operations. Legend has it that Mi Fu, a top connoisseur of the Tang Dynasty, was so astonished at the sight of the huge stone pillar that he was speechless for a long time. A specialist in the art of stone appreciation, Mi had created his own four standards to evaluate stones and rocks. Under these standards, a rock must look skinny, elegant, crumpled, and thorough before it could be regarded a masterpiece of art. After he walked around the stone pillar several times with many sighs and exclamations, Mi at last decided to amend his stone appreciation standards. He added a fifth standard. He said a stone masterpiece must also look perilous.

Thirty-odd meters west of the giant pillar stands another core attraction in the stone park. Known as Stone Buddha Cliff, the 27-meter-high solitary peak towers in the middle of a large pond known as Giant Buddha Pond. On the cliff is a grotto, inside which is a 20.8-meter-tall stone Buddha sitting on a lotus pedestal. The sculpture started in the Sui Dynasty and was completed in the Tang Dynasty, worked on by artists of three generations. This statue in Keyan is one of the four giant stone Buddha statues in Zhejiang.

If the first two attractions in the stone park are ancient creations, the third stone artwork is the latest addition created by modern artists. The Garden of Historic Personages presents 29 giant stone statues that tell stories of 29 great historical figures from the immemorial times up to the 20th century, all born in Shaoxing and left their footprints in the history of China. They were kings, poets, philosophers, literary masters, educators, and revolutionary martyrs. Sculpted in different forms and styles and arranged in different positions, the statues embody different eras, personalities and historical legends.

Keyan has more than these three centerpieces. With Buddhist scenery as its theme, the sideshow is equally amazing. The Lotus plaza circling the solitary Buddha Cliff is highlighted by the China’s largest stone lotus flower, which measures 9.9 meters in diameter. On the eastern side of the plaza stands a 33-meter-long, 3-meter-tall wall, on which is engraved Diamond Sutra. Nearby is a temple sitting among the green wood in the Mount Keshan. This is by far the biggest Buddhist sanctuary rebuilt in the Tang Dynasty style. Scattered on the slope behind the temple are all kinds of Buddhist hand gestures carved on stones and eighteen sculpted Arhats.

The rock miracles and Buddhist sculptures at Keyan highlight a history of thousands of years, a history that gave birth to stonecutters, stone creations, historical personages, Buddhist images and meditations, all of which have in turn shaped history.