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Songshan Mountain full of poetics and Zen significance

After participation in a large event in Zhengzhou, the sponsor arranged the art show of “Zen Musicals”. I first thought it was only the marital art performance and songs of pop stars and had no interest in it. But I followed the crowd there and found something different. We first reached the Immortal Staying Valley near the Shaolin Temple of Songshan Mountain. I feel puzzled why we came here to watch martial art performance and listen to Shaolin music. After the bus stopped, we went along step stones and got on the slope. There were no theatre, no seats, only near a thousand rush cushions with yellow cloth covered arranged neatly. We sat on the rush cushions according to the number. Looking forward in the spotlight, only some mountain rocks, stones, an arch bridge could be seen. Everything was hidden in deep darkness. There was one smooth place on the slope, it must be the performance yard.
The sky was very dark, only stars blinked their eyes. At the back of the performance yard was a mountain, the mountain connected to the sky. Some lights scattered on the mountain top also blinked their eyes. It’s hard to tell which were the stars or which were the lights.    It was 8:30pm, the Buddhist sound and the drum sound broke the silence of the valley. Five light spots shined on five monks in yellow cassocks and with a long ring of Buddha bead on their neck. They scattered east, west, upside or downside on the stones before the hole, as the Buddha figures of the Longmen Grottoes. The audience was in solemn silence. First the sound of a drop of water falling into a pool was heard, then the sound of the rippling stream, as if it was fleeing around the mountain and rocks. The lights turned on, a waterfall from the slope appeared. That was real, not the setting. Silver wave shined on the platform of the performance yard, a group of sramaneras played in the water and the water splashed under the light. Then the poem and Buddhism words recitation with background music appeared. On the arch bridge, a group of girls dance trippingly as if they were the fairies from Heaven. All in a sudden, the water on the platform retreated; young monks practiced martial arts on it. They ran on the mountain road, or jumped on stones or rolled on flat ground. Their liveliness made others envy.  
 It was a theatre I have never seen and it was a theatre unique in the world. It was a live-action theatre taking the advantage of natural environment of the Immortal Staying Valley of Songshan Mountain. The performance yard was a 180° arc-shaped slope with the length of 200-300m and drop height of 20-30m. there’re slopes, brooks, woods, stones, old temples, grottos and a richly decorated jade place like the sacred garden in Soul Mountain built at the half part of the mountain. Lights turned on, some fairies were dancing. Seen from afar, they were dimly discernible, as in a dream. The whole performance was the live-action. Some performers were washing clothes, some were working, some were playing instrument, some were meditating, some were carrying Buddhist texts and some were shepherding. All the animals were real ones and they made up a landscape painting of mountain life, the farming and weaving picture of the Peach Garden which demonstrated a kind of harmonious, happy and peaceful living. From the beginning to the end, the performance was full of poems of Wang Wei, verses of six ancestors, beautiful life, peaceful mountain forest and deep Zen significance to guide the spirit of people to a moderate and quiet state.
I have watched many performances including the Experimental Theatre stage of Shanghai Theatre Academy which can hold more than 100 persons to perform Shakespeare’s plays. but I have no doubt that there’s no stage in the world can outstrip the Immortal Staying Valley of the Shaolin Temple of Songshan Mountain. There were nearly 600 performers in one whole performance. The number of performers on the stage at one time was at least 200. I can say that, no one performance I have ever seen can be compared with “Zen Musical”.    It is a performance which can be used for reference of directors, lighting designers, sound stylists and it is also a performance tourists to Shaolin Temple should not miss because it is the real artistic innovation. The art of painting farfetched colors on skins or putting exquisite food on naked breasts is quite ridiculous compared with “Zen Musical”.