走进剑门关

1 General Introduction to Jianmen Pass

剑门关位于四川盆地北部，自古以来其地理位置就有：“星分参井、地势属坤”之说。意思就是：按照古代的“分野”，剑门关在天上对应西南边的参星和井星，在地上处于西南方向的坤卦位置。从经纬度看，剑门关处于东经105°3′，北纬31°11′。近年美国作家詹姆士•伯斯特出了一本书，叫做《神秘的北纬30度》，书上归纳出包括埃及金字塔、中东北海、百慕大三角、雅鲁藏布大峡谷、喜马拉雅山等让数以万计的专家学者都百思不得其解的秘密,都集中在北纬30°这条神秘线上。按照这本书关于“北纬30°（也写作Latitude-30°N）上下波动5°所覆盖的范围均属于北纬30°神秘区”的定义，剑门关正处于这个神秘区的中心地带，所以剑门关有许多神奇现象有待我们去认识、研究、破解！

剑门山地处四川盆地北部边缘断褶带。在侏罗纪时期（距今约2－1.4亿年），四川周围隆起成山，盆地积水成湖，因受强烈风化侵蚀作用，山地为湖盆提供了丰富的沉积物。形成南北巴湖和蜀湖。白垩纪时期（距今1.4－0.65亿年）剑门山脉正处在蜀湖北部边缘龙门山前山带，当龙门山强烈上升时，形成巨厚砾岩，出露地表，形成剑门洪积堆与剑门砾岩。在喜马拉雅运动中，龙门山再次强烈上升，剑门山再被凸显，岩层向东南呈不均匀倾斜的单斜构造，北坡陡峭，南坡渐缓，这些地质特点，铸造了剑门山的奇险。

剑门山脉为龙门山支脉，其横亘于广元市元坝区和剑阁县北境，东南延伸绵延数百里，这里群峰突兀，山涛云海。地势西北高东南低，平面略呈椭圆形，以低山地貌为主，山岭密布，沟壑交错，连山绝险，峻岭横空。 剑门山以天险形胜之地构成川北屏障，关隘险绝，兵家必争。从昭化西北的天雄关起，北侧有白卫岭、云台山、毛家寨、摩天岭、土地关。南侧有：东山寨、剑门关、苦竹寨、小吊岩、研石寨、青强岭。构成古蜀道著名险隘。所谓“蜀道之难难于上青天”，“畏途巉岩不可攀”即指此地。

这样的地理位置就决定了剑门关的军事、政治意义。凡是天下争锋者，必须将四川作为粮仓，才能进取中原，称雄华夏。2000多年来，围绕着占领四川、逐鹿中原，斗智斗勇、发扬蹈励，才有了秦诈金牛、张仪伐蜀、孔明“垒石为关”、姜维“列营守险”、张载提出以德治关思想、红军奇兵智取剑门……演绎出一幕幕伐交、伐谋、伐兵的英雄史诗。据《剑州志》记载，剑阁历史上发生过90多次战争，仅剑门关就打了75次，大约每20几年就有一次激烈的鏖战。所以自古就有 “拿下剑门关，尤如取四川”之说。

纵观剑门历史，这里就是雄风万里的蜀北屏障，这里就是铁马秋风的战场，这里成就了多少风流人物的梦想，这里诉说了多少英雄豪杰的成功与悲凉……这里凝结出剑门关隘文化的主题——英雄与坚强！

 

Located in the north of the Sichuan Basin, Jianmen Pass is said to be at a special geographical position according to the Chinese Eight Diagrams (the fengshui “bagua”), that is to say Jianmen Pass represents stands for the position of Can constellation and Jing constellation in the south-west of the heavens, and on the earth it is located at where the Kun Diagram is. In terms of position on the planet, Jianmen Pass is located at 105.3 degrees east longitude and 31.11 degrees north latitude. Recently, a book, by the American writer James Buster collected millions of magical phenomena such as the pyramids in Egypt, the North Sea in Mid-East, the Bermuda Triangle, the Yarlung Zangbu Grand Canyon, and the Himalayas etc. all of which center around the 30 degrees north latitude, this magical line. As the writer writes in the book, those regions range from 25-35 degrees north latitude are within this magical area. And, Jianmen Pass happens to be at the center of the “magical Latitude-30。N” There are a lot of magical phenomena for us to recognize and explore.

Jianmen Pass is situated in a fault-folded zone of the north Sichuan Basin. In the Jurassic period (about 14—20 million years ago), the Ba Lake and Shu Lake were formed through geographical transformations. In the Cretaceous period (about 6.5—14million years ago), the great proluvial deposits and conglomerate rocks were formed by the Longmen Mountain’s dramatic rising up. Later, the Longmen Mountain rose up again in the Himalayan movement, which caused the bulging of Jianmen Mountain with its stratum forming a slant line to the south-east. Today, we can see that the northern side of the mountain looks steeper than the southern side, and this has led to the wonder of Jianmen Pass.

Jianmen Mountain is one of the branches of Longmen Mountain. It runs across Yuanba District of Guangyuan City and the north of Jiange County. There are lots of mountains around which clouds are floating every day. The north-west of this region is higher than the south-east in terms of geographical level, and looking from the above, it looks like an oval. Low hills as the main landform can be seen everywhere here, and with these hills are many deep valleys. Due to the special position of Jianmen Pass, it used to be athe critical strategic place in history. Jianmen Pass was one of the famous strategic passes in ancient times, some of which were Baiwei Mountain, Yuntai Mountain, Maojiazhai, and Motian Mounatin etc. As the old saying goes, “Taking the path through Shu is harder than reaching the blue sky,” and “people are frightened back by the dangerous mountains ahead.”

Its position decided its military and political importance. All the country leaders in history, who wanted to occupy the center of China, would have to occupy Sichuan as their food supplying base. There were 2000 years in Chinese history that witnessed hundreds of battles here in order to take possession of Sichuan. The men of minds competed against each other to win this critical place and a lot of their stories have been passed down through generations. More than 90 battles have been recorded in the History of Jianzhou, among which 75 battles took place at Jianmen Pass, that was about once every 20 years. Therefore, people often said, “taking Jianmen Pass is taking the whole Sichuan.”

The history of Jianmen Pass is characterized with its safeguarding position at the north Sichuan, the great battles and the strategic ambitions of personages in history. So many heroes have left their unforgettable stories and ineffaceable traces here. Its history has created its modern cultural theme, that is “heroism and persistence”.

2 剑门关交通以及称号

2 The Transportation of Jianmen Pass

剑门关，位于川陕甘结合部的四川省剑阁县境内，成（都）绵（阳）广（元）高速公路、宝（鸡）成（都）铁路以及西（安）成（都）高铁穿境而过，兰（州）渝（重庆）高速公路和铁路与之相邻，更有嘉陵江流域与长江沿线城市舟楫相通。向北距十三朝古都西安480公里，向东至重庆约400公里，西南至成都约250公里，西北至九寨沟约350公里。到广元飞机场仅21公里车程，交通非常便利。

剑门关世称天险，古蜀道历尽沧桑。蜀道始于西周，迄今有2400多年的历史，而剑门蜀道则是其中的重要组成部分和精华所在，沿线较为完整地保留了道路、驿铺、栈阁、关隘、古柏、古镇、古遗址、名人古墓等古文化遗存。剑门关的景点个数大大小小加起来80多个，而重要景点就有50个之多。2010年剑门关景区荣获“国家自然与文化双遗产”、“中国知名旅游目的地”、“四川省文化产业示范基地”荣誉称号。

Jianmen Pass is in Jiange County, a place marking the combination of Sichuan province, Shanxi province and Gansu province. It enjoys convenient transportation with Cheng mian guang Highway, Bao cheng railway and Xi cheng high-speed rail running across its region and not very far from it runs the Lan yu high-speed railway. Also, Jialing River and Yangtze River have greatly contributed to its connection with other cities along the river side. To the north, it is only 480 kilometers far from Xi’an; to the east, about 400 kilometers far from Chongqing; to the south-west, 250 kilometers far from Chengdu; and the beautiful Jiuzhaigou Valley is just about 350 kilometers away from Jianmen Pass. Furthermore, only 21 kilometer’s driving can take you to Guangyuan Airport.

Jianmen Pass is said to be a natural barrier, but the ancient roads, also known as “Shu Dao”, have withstood gone through the test of time. Shu dao with a long history of about 2400 years was first built in the Western Zhou Dynasty (11—771 B.C.). Jianmen Shu dao is a major part of the whole Shu dao. The historical sites and relics such as the ancient roads, stores, inns, passes, pine trees, towns, and graves of historical celebrities are well preserved. The total scenic spots amount to over 80 and among them 50 are essential ones. In 2010, Jianmen Pass was granted the honorary titles, “the national heritage of nature and culture”, “the most visited place in China” and “the role model of the culture industry of Sichuan province”.

3 北面观看七十二峰

3 The Seventy-two Mountain Peaks

现在请看我们前面正对着的悬崖峭壁，就是世人称道的“剑门七十二峰”。

其实七十二峰只是概数，泛指横亘绵延百余里的剑门诸峰，山峰海拔均在千米以上。我国以“七十二”命名的事物到处都有。如江苏太湖有“七十二岛”，河北避暑山庄有“七十二景”，延安的延河有“七十二湾”，唐古拉山有“七十二盘”，社会上有“七十二行”，神话故事孙怪空有“七十二变”，佛经有“七十二卷”等等，都是言其众多的意思，并非确数。

剑门七十二峰，姿态各异，从关外仰望，诸峰左右排列，固若金汤。凭高俯瞰，岭翻重浪，峰跃惊涛。朝霞、晨雾、云海、松涛把剑门群山装点得多姿多彩。它既有北国山岳雄浑的壮丽景观，又具南国山水旖旎的风光情趣，刚柔兼备，韵味别具。

剑门雄关的七十二峰，东起嘉陵江滨的滥泥渠石人嘴峰，顺西伸展，峰谷分明，以照壁峰至东山寨、老爷寨各峰较高。继经梁山寺折转西南，峰峰相联，及至石笋峰侧的方墩石峰，断裂成谷与营盘嘴峰构成后关门。营盘嘴峰与金城山峰劈裂中断为长500多米的峡槽隘口，即“一夫怒临关，百万未可傍”的天堑剑门雄关，它雄踞蜀北陆路入川之门户，是历史上兵家必争的战略重地。

请看：隘口的右边绝顶，仙峰观海拔1235米。峰峰青翠挺拔，似与隔关相对的梁山寺逍遥峰等争奇媲美。自仙峰观再向西南及至大小吊崖，剑门七十二雄峰就大体到此为止，这里与神奇秀丽的五子山群峰遥遥相望，又似与之衣襟相连。

再看：左边与天相接处是营盘嘴（即姜维城），营盘嘴至嘉陵江烂泥渠、石人嘴有38峰。西向一列，金城山至凉山沟、晾衣岩有36峰，再西于五子山群峰相连。合计74峰。从东到西环崖长达百余里，状若城郭，易守难攻，形成四川北大门的天然屏障，由此可见，人们习惯称“剑门七十二峰”，即意味横亘的联峰众多之意了。

 

Now, look at the steep cliffs in front of you. These are the well-known “Seventy-two Mountain Peaks”.

In fact, it doesn’t really mean that there are seventy-two peaks; because seventy-two is just a number used for the expression of many. The Jianmen Mountain rolls a hundred miles, with peaks of all heights soaring up into the air, each of them higher than 1,000 meters. The number seventy-two has been commonly used in naming things, such as “the seventy-two islands” in Lake Taihu of Jiangsu province, “the seventy-two sites” in Hebei Summer Resort, and “the seventy-two curves” of Yanhe River in Yan’an and so on. Likewise, in the Chinese mythological stories, the great Sun Wukong is said to be able to transform himself into seventy-two different forms, and it’s a beautiful coincidence that there exists seventy-two volumes of Buddhist scriptures as well. In all of the cases above, “seventy-two” is equal to “numerous”, not just a number.

The seventy-two peaks display in different shapes. When seen from the foot, the peaks range in a line, which looks like a solid wall. If you are high above, for example in the air, you can see the mountain peaks rising like the waves of the sea. All of these fantastic scenes, the rosy dawn, the misty morning, the sea-like clouds and pine trees, make Jianmen Mountain a desirable place to visit. Furthermore, what makes Jianmen mountain special is that it coordinates the masculine features of the mountains in the north of China with the gracefulness of those in the south.

Starting from Stoned-man Peak at the bank of Jialing River, the Seventy-two Peaks stretch themselves westward all the way to Liangshan Temple from which it turns to the direction of south-west. Among the peaks, the Zhaobi peak, Dongshanzhai and Laoyezhai stand higher than the others. Every peak is connected with one another, but there is a cut between Fangdunshi peak and Yingpanzui peak, which forms the gear gate of the Pass. And still, another cut of over 500 meters width separating Yingpanzui peak and Jincheng peak is the well-known work of nature called Xiong Pass. Its advantageous position in military strategy as the gateway to Sichuan from the north once led to a lot of battles here.  

Now, on your right side, there is a peak called Xianfengguan with its altitude of 1,235 meters standing upright there. It seems to compete with its facing peak, Xiaoyao peak, for more attention. And from here, you can also see the faraway Wuzishan peaks in distance. The major body of Seventy-two Peaks ends when reaching the cliffs to the south-west of Xianfengguan. 

Now, let’s look at the left side. Not very far ahead is Yingpanzui peak also known as Jiangwei city. There are thirty-eight peaks from Yingpanzui peak to Stoned-man peak. Thirty-six of them go westward from Jincheng Mountain to Liangyiyan, and then they go on to the west to connect with Wuzishan peaks. From the east to the west, they cover hundreds of thousands of miles. Together they look so much like a solid great wall that they serve as the fortress of Sichuan province. Given the facts mentioned above, we can see that seventy-two means being numerous and so people call them the “Seventy-two Peaks of Jianmen”.