Translation of Bell and Drum Around Tai 'an City

The bell and drum around Tai 'an are translated as follows:

South of Mount Tai, Wenshui flows west; To its north, Jishui flows eastward. All the water in the southern valley flows into Wenshui, and all the water in the northern valley flows into Jishui. The boundary between the north and south valleys is the ancient Great Wall. The highest mountain, Sun Guanfeng, is located 15 miles south of the ancient Great Wall. In December of the thirty-ninth year of Qianlong, I started from Beijing in the heavy snow and passed through Qihe and Changqing counties.

Through the valley in the northwest of Mount Tai, across the wall of the Great Wall, to Tai 'an. On the last day of this month, the county magistrate Zhu and I went up the mountain from the foot of the mountain on the south side. This 45-mile-long road is covered with more than 7000 stone steps. There are three valleys to the south of Mount Tai. The water in the middle valley surrounds Taian city, which is what Li Daoyuan said in his book.

At first, I entered the mountain along the middle valley, walked less than half, crossed the middle ridge, walked along the west valley and reached the top of the mountain. In ancient times, I climbed Mount Tai and went in along the valley in the east. There was a Tianmen on the road. This valley in the east was called "Tianmenxi" in ancient times, and I have never been there. Now (I) pass through the middle ridge and the top of the mountain, and there are cliffs across the road like thresholds.

People call it Tianmen. The road is foggy and icy, and the stone steps are almost impossible to climb. When I reached the top of the mountain, I saw the green hills covered with snow, and the lights lit up the southern sky. Looking at the sunset from a distance, Tai 'an City is reflected. Wenshui and Culai Mountain are like a beautiful landscape painting, and the clouds staying halfway up the mountain are like a dancing ribbon.

The day of Wushen is the end of the month. At five o'clock, Ziying and I sat in the pavilion, waiting for the sunrise. At this time, the snowflake raised by the strong wind hit my face. To the east of the pavilion, there is a cloud rising from the soles of your feet, and dozens of white dice-shaped things are faintly visible in the cloud, which is a mountain peak. The clouds on the horizon form a line with strange colors and then become colorful.

The sun has risen, red as vermilion, and there is red light swaying below to hold it. Some people say this is the East China Sea. Looking back at the peaks to the west of Riguan Peak, some are illuminated by sunlight, some are not illuminated, or red or white, and the colors are mixed, all of which are like bowing.

There are Dai Temple and Yuan Jun Temple in the west of Riguan Pavilion. The emperor's palace is in the east of Yuan Jun Temple in Bi Xia. On this day, I saw the stone carvings on the road, all of which belonged to the Tang Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. Those old stone tablets were blurred or missing. Those remote stone carvings that don't face the road can't catch up.