At first, I simply thought that the love for trees are natural-born. In the gardens, people lean on trees and take pictures; in the yard, people plant trees to beautify the environment; along the road, trees are plant to provide a shelter for passersby; even in the houses, people adopt tree stump to make bonsai.
When I traveled among the Taibai Mountain, the first time in my life, I saw the stunning primeval forest. Cuddled by mother nature, through the senses of my feet, my hands, my eyes and my body, I formed a solid understanding of trees.
Taibai Mountain is rich in vegetation resources, many trees are national key protected wild plants, including the national first-class protected tree specie-Taibai Davidia involucrata (also called dove tree). Taibai trees are gorgeous and breath-taking, varying as the altitude changes. At an altitude of 800 meters to 1200 meters, broad leaved forest can be seen and shrubs are everywhere; 1200 meters to 2800 meters, coniferous forests prevails and tall arbor trees are typical; above 2800 meters, the typical specie is fir forest (Taibai Taxus chinensis ); above 3500 meters, the Taibai Rhododendron is widespread.
Upon entering the southern foot of Taibai Mountain, there stood a big tree with the diameter of about one meter, which was called “Steel-clad Tree”. The forestry expert who traveled with us explained that the steel-clad tree was actually quercus spinosa, which grew very slowly. As the tree was very hard and couldn’t be chopped off even with knife or ax, it got the name of “Steel-clad Tree”. The tree we saw bear an age of more than 2000 years, with mosses all over its trunk and exuberant foliage growing. We gathered around and measured its perimeter, amazed by its stature. To appreciate the tree was like reading a “book of tree”, gazing at a period of history or visiting an sophisticated philosopher. The tree abandoned the worldly hustle and bustle, escaped the doom of being cut down, penetrated the noises of the wild birds and engraved its staunch, bravery & devotion into the crevices of the stones.
Saying goodbye to the “Steel-clad Tree”, we explored into the primitive forest. Raising our head, the trees were tall enough to cove the sun and the sky; looking downward, the foliage of the trees stretched meters long; on the ground, roots twisted and hugged with the stones nearby. Pine trees were everywhere, most of which grew in stone crevices or rooted foliage. As long as there was one crack or one layer of soil, the pine trees could take it root and grew up. They could stretched to different directions and formed different shapes: the stout“Towering Pine”, the hand-waving “Greeting Pine”, the meandering “Black- dragon Pine”, the kinked “Twinned Pine”and the “Swear Pines”who shared the same roots.
Liangshui Jing, with an altitude of 1800 meters, owned the largest pine forest. It was the world of pines: roads were built across the pine forest; temples were set up among the pine forest; birds sang and snub-nosed monkey swing in the pine forest ... The sunlight penetrated through the trees, changing into lines of “lights”. The forest was in total silent, one could in cold sweat if walked alone in the forest. The friends traveled with us make an connotation of the character “Song” (pine in English): it could be divided into “Mu” (means Trees)and “Gong”(means Fairness), so the pine tree was like its character-upright and fair.
Climbing up, we could see miles of loquat forest. Entering the loquat forest was like stepping into a world of flowers. Looking around, the white flowers blossomed like the snow lotus; the red flowers were as beautiful as the morning glows; some flowers were so close that they liked couples of lovers addicted in love; some flowers grew on the verge of the cliffs, as if they wanted to jump. The gorgeous loquat flowers was the feast to the eye and we were intoxicated by its beauty. When taking pictures among the loquat flowers, a friend sighed with emotion: seeing the trees, we will love nature more; facing nature, we will cherish innocence more; possessing innocence, we will ponder more deeply; facing ourselves, we become more energetic. The trees can let us more real, more pure in emotions and more steady in life...
The company of the trees were mountains of sinomenium acutum (ivy). Tree and ivy were intimate and in harmony with each other. Many people despised ivy, as it “attached to others”, “as weak as dish water”, “slavishly dependent”, or “has no personality”. If we observed the harmonious relationship between tree and ivy, we could conclude that it attributed a lot to tree’s noble moral principle: the tree supported the development of ivy, shared its space with ivy, helped the weak and was kind to others. Ivy actually benefited a lot from tree: the tree didn’t bully ivy; bore no hate when the ivy entangled it; didn’t despise ivy as the human beings did; didn’t slander ivy when itself suffered from natural disasters and insect pest ... The world was colorful, with diversified components. When we human beings got along with each other, we should took tree and ivy as an example, sharing sorrows and pains. When compared with trees, were our human beings more decent? More reasonable? More kind?-- in my opinion, as long as we could read the inner qualities of trees, we could get a clear answer.
I couldn’t helping the fate of trees and human beings after returning: trees can live where there is no human beings, but as long as there are people, we could see trees. Human society is like a huge forest, where many trees grow, sharing the same sun and soil and deriving the same nutrition and water, but we grow into different shapes. The taller ones are striking and shining, while most of the trees survives not for becoming the supporting pillars.
Whoever reads through the quality and manner of trees will recognize the meaning and value of life.
As a matter of fact, a tree is a tree. Small may it be, it has the quality and manner of a tree. How about human beings? We are the same.
(Written by: Zhang Changhuai)
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