WATER ORAL HISTORY SERIES MY HOME AND WATER: A PEOPLE’S ACCOUNT The Xishan ’s Spring Runs Dry

By An He and Translation by Madeleine Ross and Fang Li

Below is the tenth in a series of oral histories about Beijing water, as told to An He and Wang Jian by Guan Zhanxiu, a forestry specialist at the Xishan Dajue Temple (Great Awakening Temple, or Temple of Enlightenment) in Beijing’s .

GUAN ZHANXIU (MALE, 48 YEARS OLD) tribute to the springs. In the Liao Period, a philanthropist by the of Deng paid to have ou’ve probably heard of the “Three the temple reconstructed, and a stone tablet hundred temples in the .” Of was placed on the east side of the pool in the Ythese 300, one is the “Enormous Buddhist courtyard. This is the ancient stone tablet you Temple.” It is also known as ‘one of Emperor have just seen, sitting northwest of the Dabei Jinzhang’s eight temples in the Western Hills.’ Hall. It dates from the Liao and is This temple – the Great Awakening Dajue engraved with four characters, ‘Da Jue Chan Si’ Temple – is the subject of our discussion.1 (Great Enlightenment Buddhist Temple), so the name Dajue Temple was settled upon thereafter. One gets the feeling there is something unusual It is also said that the stone tablet was erected by about this temple, and there is – the front faces of the Emperor Daozong and Empress Xiao east and its back is turned to the west. It was built in the Wushen year (45th year) of the sixty-year this way by the Khitans in the fourth year of the cycle (in 1068 AD). reign of Xianyong (1068 AD) during the (916-1125 AD). The temple’s orientation In earlier times the temple took its name from reflects the Khitan custom of worshipping the the water close by. The whole of the ancient rising sun in the east. temple complex rests on granite, which is very strong, hard and unable to hold water. When it was first named, there were two crystal Fortunately however, a creviced limestone clear springs inside the temple, one flowing in mountain enclosing the temple’s back allowed from the south and one from the north. These water to seep through. The water gathered into inspired the temple’s name – Qingshui Yuan or little streams that flowed crystal clear down to Clear Water Garden. During the the granite on which the temple was built. It was (1115-1234 AD) it was renamed Lingquan said that the temple had two advantages: one, Temple (Magic Spring Temple), again, in that it had a solid granite foundation and, two that it was placed adjacent to limestone and had access to water. 1 There are 300 temples in the Western Hills, eight of which are big and well known. The The formal name for the Dajue Temple is Dajue Temple is one of these eight. The Xishan Dajue Temple’s Spring Runs Dry | Beijing Water Oral History No. 10 | June 2010

the ‘Dajue Buddhist Temple built by Imperial Dragon Pool or Dragon King Pool, behind the Decree,’ a name which tells us three things. First, temple. Then it was drawn out on both sides “imperial decree” means it was built by order of the central axis, splitting into northern and of the Emperor, with national funding and in southern branches that flowed through the compliance with a national plan. Second, “Dajue” entire temple. There were many courtyards in was its original name, chosen after the Ming the temple – they all had spring water flowing Dynasty reconstruction. And third, Buddhist through them. The two branches eventually Temple (chansi) means it was a place where the met in the Merit and Virtue Pool in front of the emperor made sacrificial offerings to Heaven temple. An overflow spout allowed water to flow and Earth, and not a site where ordinary Chan out of the pool when it was full. Buddhist rites were performed, in which case it would have used the usual meaning of the word Twenty years ago, the northern branch inside Chan (chanzong). the temple still had water in it, but the southern branch stopped flowing before 1912, when the Looking at historical documents we can see that Republic of was established. In recent the Dajue Temple used to enjoy a lot of water. years the southern branch has been restored to Photos taken by a German envoy in the 1930s, look like it did in the past when water flowed show a free-flowing small waterfall built into an through it. But now it can only be considered an artificial hill made of stones. But the amount of artificial landscape. water has gradually diminished. The weather in Beijing has been quite dry since 1949. There is a saying that water is as high as the mountain – meaning that there are springs Do you remember the chant that goes like this? on the mountain that provide surface water.3 Now, the temple relies on water replenished We’ve been liberated, from deep wells,4 but before that, all the water The communist party is here, at the Dajue Temple was surface water from There are no spirits where there used to be2 mountain springs. This fresh surface water There’s no water where there used to be. is created when rain falls onto the vegetation covering the mountain, and then soaks into the Water in the Dajue Temple flowed for a thousand years, as far back as records are kept, but in the last fifty years there has been a significant decrease.

Water in the Dajue Temple flowed for a thousand years, as far back as records are kept, but in 3 The narrator means that springs could be the last fifty years there has been a significant considered a form of “surface water,” i.e. water in decrease. Spring water from the mountain first a river or lake. accumulated in a small square pool called the 4 The narrator is drawing a distinction from the spring water or surface water by saying 2 Meaning, the kinds of religious that the temple must now pump its water from activities where people go into trances and sing “groundwater” supplies through wells because incantations. the springs have dried up.

2 The Xishan Dajue Temple’s Spring Runs Dry | Beijing Water Oral History No. 10 | June 2010

ground, permeating the rock layers. Later on it a typical meal, feels “distinctly” hungry before dribbles out of tiny crevices in the rock and flows the next meal, it means that selenium has had a naturally downward. People at the Water Bureau beneficial effect on digestion. have told me that what we drink now from the When we promote our tea and call it ‘Dajue well is crevice water that has seeped into the rock Culture,’ water is one of the most important layers formed deep below the surface during the factors. Along with the Minghui Tea House in the Cretaceous period. It is pumped from wells a Dajue Temple, which has become fashionable in thousand meters deep. Some think that, provided modern times, a traditional Buddhist tea service there is enough rainwater, the groundwater we is also served in the temple. With Buddhist tea, have extracted will be able to replenish itself, the tealeaves have an added Buddhist element: but this simply demonstrates a lack of general the tea has been consecrated. Drinking this knowledge. It doesn’t matter how much it rains, kind of tea is seen as an enlightenment practice. the water table level in the deep layers of rock Water is the priority but the leaves must also won’t rise for quite sometime – unless the water be consecrated. Vulgar speech is not permitted pours straight in.5 while drinking and it is wisest to discuss philosophy, life, or Buddhist practices. Drinking The water in the Dajue Temple was clean Buddhist tea is different to drinking black, green and sweet because the rain fell on the dense or flower teas – it can’t be summed up in a few vegetation on the mountain behind the temple words. We have just made a batch of Pu’er tea, and this surface water was constantly filtered called Dajue Buddhist Tea. Though I have to be as it percolated through the rock. The temple’s honest, this batch wasn’t consecrated at the Dajue tea gardens, known as ‘Dajue Tea Culture,’ Temple because there weren’t any monks there. had already gained a modest reputation, but It was done at the . the key to this tea culture was the water. The spring water was tested in the 1990s and found Water has its own culture. The different to contain three elements, one of which was cultures of the north and the south are linked Water has its own culture. The different cultures of the north and the south are linked to differences in their water.

selenium. The effect of drinking this water was to differences in their water. The character of not immediate but would be felt twenty-four northerners is like the northern river. The Yellow hours later. If you stayed at the Dajue Temple river, with all its sand, is surging and turbulent, and drank the spring water, by about four or carrying the good with the bad, changing course five o’ clock in the afternoon the following day without following any rules. Don’t you think – before it was time for the evening meal – you that is just like the rough and straightforward would already be hungry. If a person, after eating northerners? They don’t fuss about small things in their daily life and they handle matters according to how they feel at the time, without 5 By this the narrator means current any particular strategy. They may seem simple rainfall doesn’t have an immediate impact on the and muddleheaded, like the water in the Yellow water level deep in the aquifers. If one expects River, but they are generous and warm-hearted. the water level deep underground to rise quite rapidly, you have to pour water directly into these As for southerners, just look at the Yangtze areas – which is impossible.

3 The Xishan Dajue Temple’s Spring Runs Dry | Beijing Water Oral History No. 10 | June 2010

River, it comes from different rivulets of water groundwater to the village, and the spring water high up in the densely forested mountains to the Dajue Temple was officially cut off on the that join up one by one. The Yangtze has two first of July in 2008. The spring water above the layers of water. On the surface the river looks Dragon Pool hasn’t disappeared completely, it’s placid and the top layer of water moves slowly, just changed course. Instead of going through giving the appearance of being gentle and easy- the temple it goes straight to the village. All going. But underneath, 30 centimeters below the water villagers use for eating, drinking, the surface, the undercurrent is extremely bathing and irrigation comes from this spring. strong. Southerners appear to be gentle, quiet The flow of water has changed to the point that and amiable – outwardly they smile – but really, the water that originally flowed to the temple underneath they are calculating, figuring out has been diverted underground by the well dug how much they can benefit from one another, by the villagers. The problem is that, even if the down to the last cent, so that in the end no one well were blocked or filled in, the spring water owes anything to anyone else. Might this have wouldn’t return to the temple – it might flow anything to do with water? anywhere, one or two hundred meters lower down because its path has been changed by the There has been a drought in the area around well. There would still be no water available for Beijing for many years now. Low rainfall means the temple. there has been little surface water, which in turn has meant little evaporation. And because there In fact, before 2008, an older, original well in has been very little evaporation there have been the village still had water in it. Then, when fewer clouds. With ever fewer clouds there can’t everything had to be spruced up for the be any rain. On top of this, the level of water in Olympics – and there was such a fuss about the water table has fallen – it’s a vicious circle. it – the ground water was extracted to such an The Dajue Temple has no real springs any more. excessive degree that the water level across What we are drinking is mainly well water, which Beijing fell very rapidly. Last year there was a The Dajue Temple has no real springs any more. What we are drinking is mainly well water, which leaves lime scale when it’s boiled. leaves lime scale when it’s boiled. lot of rain, but an even larger volume of water was used – which only became known as a result And what about spring water? You can see that in of meetings among Beijing’s water authorities. the courtyard there are still water channels, but The issue was discussed for a long time at these the spring water has already dried up because high level meetings, but no one in the village the village down the hill has dug a well in front spoke out about the fact that the problem was of the water channels that run into the Dajue straightforward – too much water was extracted Temple. Now all the water from the channels because of the Olympics. The water table in has been diverted away. The village only has a many places dropped and in areas at a higher hundred or so households and isn’t very big. We elevation, such as the Dajue Temple, it dropped aren’t going to mention it by name because the the most. The Dajue Temple is about 140 meters local government doesn’t want it revealed. above sea level, so it was more severely affected than the city of Beijing. The villagers dug the well last year to supply Wells belonging to the ordinary people of

4 The Xishan Dajue Temple’s Spring Runs Dry | Beijing Water Oral History No. 10 | June 2010

Beijing have no water in them anymore. When the temple. It would be a small matter for the there is no water they look for other places to Minghui Tea House in the temple to shut down dig. In the past, at least in theory, government if the temple no longer had spring water. But the

Wells belonging to the ordinary people of Beijing have no water in them anymore.

permission was required to dig a well. But damage both to a heritage site like the temple, when that village got approval, it wasn’t for this and to the environment, from the loss of water particular well near the temple. They dug a bit would be hard to quantify. The old trees in the here and then dug a bit there. In some places temple depend entirely on that spring water, and they didn’t find any water, but when they dug without replenishment, trees that have lasted one near the temple, they found some. You might ask thousand years will wither and die. what had been approved. The villagers could go through the formal steps to get permission to dig Water is the trees’ lifeblood and spirit. No matter a well, and who could stop them? One of China’s how the watercourses are changed, water must characteristics is that there are no rules to speak remain here. Through the local government, we of. The local government has been helping us are negotiating with the peasants, but it would look into how we could fill in the well dug by be totally useless to say who is right and who is the villagers close to the temple. But, good grief, wrong. The peasants say that, no matter who you when we tried to do something, a score of the are, when water flows to your doorstep you would local people stood around the well and prevented die before you give it up! us from doing anything.6 In fact, history shows us that the village only Who does the water from the mountain springs began to develop because of the Dajue Temple. belong to, to the temple or to the villagers? It’s In the last few years there has been an endless the Chinese condition. There is conflict wherever stream of visitors, and the villagers have helped there are people, but resolving this conflict by to provide the tourist infrastructure and other giving the water to only one of the parties is services needed. They are the ones who ran clearly unacceptable. Although the temple is stalls outside the temple and villagers have the victim, one must still consider this principle looked after parking bicycles. Would the temple’s carefully: the Dajue Temple might be called the existence or disappearance be of no consequence Clear Water Garden but this resource, namely to them? The local people do in fact care about the spring water, cannot belong entirely to the temple; otherwise they would have let it be demolished a long time ago. But when it comes to a matter of survival, or if it comes down 6 Here the narrator is talking about a to not having water, everyone is going to put conflict between the temple and the nearby themselves first. If the temple has no water, it villagers for the water. After the villagers dug still has the government and the state to fall back a well nearby, the temple’s water supply was on, but ordinary people have no one to look after disrupted. Both parties (the temple and the them. They are a disadvantaged group. village) claimed the right to the water. The temple tried to enlist local government officials Some of the trees in the temple have already to fill in the well – but to no avail. The villagers died. Many of the Chinese pines became diseased fought for the well and prevented the temple and infested with pests in 2003, the year when from filling it in.

5 The Xishan Dajue Temple’s Spring Runs Dry | Beijing Water Oral History No. 10 | June 2010

SARS appeared. The pine tree next to the from being in a state of fervent revolution to on the hill, a tree about 400 or 500 years old, one in which they have achieved a moderately originally grew in about thirty centimeters of good standard of living. The Dajue Temple, on soil on top of the granite. But now its roots have the other hand, has gone from having water gone right down to granite, making its continued to not having water. The temple’s water is now growth difficult. Also, at the same time the trees gone. The people who come to pay reverence are getting larger, there is less and less water, and are also gradually realizing that their desire to

The Dajue Temple, on the other hand, has gone from having water to not having water. The temple’s water is now gone.

there are also large numbers of tourists stomping earn as much money as possible, hand over fist, around. It’s not that the plants simply lack water while grabbing every opportunity to consume in the ground; they also need moisture on their as much as possible and as quickly as one can, is leaves. If the leaves are dry for long periods, the futile. The whole world is beginning to share an entire plant suffers. By comparison, tree leaves understanding that being rich doesn’t necessarily are bright emerald in the south where damp air mean that one has the right to deplete the provides leaves with moisture. resources of others. Everyone is slowly beginning to feel that consuming less is better than owning The year we arrived at the temple the weeds were a lot. Consuming less has a two-fold benefit. up to my waist. It was 1992, and the country’s “opening up” policies had formally started. This In the temple we have introduced the practice of Magnolia is over three hundred years old, and meditative tea drinking as a way to help people is considered a natural treasure. That tree over control their greed. For example, realizing that there is a parasitic Buckthorn Cypress, and it one steamed bun is enough and refusing the is still beautiful. This ginkgo here is over one other half – otherwise you have to exercise to thousand years old. Another one died just over work off that extra bit of consumption. Buying there and some do-gooders put in a fake one, less property, which is a way of taking care of which makes me feel uncomfortable. A species mountains and forests, is yet another. A feeling endemic to China, the ginkgo is a living fossil. of contentment doesn’t come from owning a lot, Its demands on the natural environment are but from consuming less. few – it can survive harsh conditions and at the same time be productive and useful. Everywhere The worst enemies of the natural world are else in the world the ginkgoes died during the people; especially the nouveau rich who want fourth ice age in the Cretaceous period. The only survivors to be found were on the mainland of economic system was introduced—beginning China. with the abolishment of people’s communes and the planned economy. In its place emerged It’s been thirty years since we’ve had “opening a state-run market economy. China also began up and reform.”7 The ordinary people have gone to open itself to the global marketplace— introducing foreign capital, technology and 7 Reform and opening-up policies in China: natural resources, as well as ideological values After the death of (in 1976), a new from the West.

6 The Xishan Dajue Temple’s Spring Runs Dry | Beijing Water Oral History No. 10 | June 2010

to grab everything for themselves. Have you As old as the temple itself, the ginkgo trees noticed that wherever there are people, there will within its compound are living cultural probably be too many and that the trees will have artifacts that rely on its clear spring water. They disappeared, the water will have disappeared and ingeniously bind together the natural and the the animals will have disappeared? The Dajue manmade landscapes, passing down information Temple has gone from being the beautiful but about the past through their tenacious lives. unknown Clear Water Garden to being a place that people flock to. But in the end the water is They provide an important basis for our study all gone, the trees have withered and the temple into the history of the ancient capital’s cultural buildings are collapsing. At the present rate of development, the establishment of city parks and technological development, if human beings the rise and fall of governments. Ancient trees don’t learn to control themselves, it won’t be long are unable to speak; yet they have experienced before they will have destroyed the treasures unpredictable events and have seen great handed down by their ancestors and they won’t changes. They are witnesses to history and can even be able to guarantee their own lives. give living testimony to the and culture of ancient times. It isn’t an optimistic scenario for the Dajue Temple. I’m afraid that it is beyond the capacity The Eight Great Temples were located in of one group of people to preserve an ancient, Beijing’s Xishan area because it was abundant one thousand-year-old temple. The key to doing in spring water. The ginkgoes have been able to so will be appealing to society, and having survive for a thousand years because there was a proper understanding of what genuine water. The three hundred-year-old Magnolia civilization and culture really is. What will we denudata should be considered one of the natural be able to trust in the future…skyscrapers and wonders of Beijing. There are 160 ancient trees highways? This city of Beijing has forgotten within the Dajue Temple compound, and, in about culture. It’s nothing like the Beijing addition to the thousand year old ginkgoes, there we once knew. We’ve become accustomed to are one-hundred-year-old magnolias, sal trees pleasure seeking and are still unaware of what (Shorea robusta), ancient pines, cypresses and we should be giving back to the natural world. so on. The basis of life for this group of ancient trees is the temple’s spring water, and the Dajue COMMENTARY Temple still exists because of its interdependence with the water and trees. Beijing is surrounded by the Taihang and Yanshan mountain ranges: temples were often One by one the ancient trees are now withering located near the springs of these mountains. If because water has stopped flowing to them. water from the springs was plentiful and flowed What’s going to happen to the Eight Great steadily, it created beautiful landscapes and Temples in the Xishan area? In Beijing, uncurbed famous gardens. The limestone area in Xishan development has already caused the water table has a small number of springs that produce to drop, the river flows to be interrupted, and the a large volume of water, whereas the granite, springs to be silenced. Unless human beings can gneiss and sandstone areas have a large number control rampant development in Beijing, it won’t of springs with only a small volume of water. be long before the treasures handed down by our The Clear Water Garden located at the base of ancestors are destroyed and our very lives are put Yangtai Mountain in the Xishan area, and later at risk. renamed the Dajue Temple, the one thousand- year-old temple that became famous for its springs, belongs to the former – a limestone area. An He is a Beijing-based engineer. Wang Jian is a Beijing-based water expert.

7 The Xishan Dajue Temple’s Spring Runs Dry | Beijing Water Oral History No. 10 | June 2010

MY HOME AND WATER: A PEOPLE’S ACCOUNT

Beijing, once famous for its sweet spring water and clear-flowing rivers is now infamous for its polluted canals and dried up riverbeds. My Home and Water: A People’s Account provides a rare uncensored glimpse of life and water in the ancient capital of Beijing and surrounding areas – as told by longtime residents.

Translation, editing and online publication of the series by Chinese author Qing and Probe International has been made possible by funding from the Foundation Open Society Institute (Zug). For more information, contact Probe International at [email protected]

8