八仙嶺 Pat Sin Leung

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民間傳說有云：香港曾有九龍為患，上天遂派一巨獅下凡，鎮壓九龍。今八仙嶺之八峰，即為其中八龍。餘下一龍，則降伏於獅腳之下，位於九龍城啟德舊機場一帶，名曰九龍山，今已不存。早據明朝《粵大記》，則有九龍山之紀錄。至於巨獅，則危坐於九龍以北，即今獅子山是也。
蓋八仙嶺諸峰，屹立於新界之東北，連綿山巒，綺麗秀雅，惜無古籍紀錄；唯一記戴者，則為山上一池水潭，名曰流水響，又作流水嚮。《新安縣志》云：「流水響潭發源處有數石井，天造地設，深約尋丈，春夏溺如飛瀑，秋冬則淙淙細響」，因此得名。
八仙嶺面迎吐露港，舊稱大埔海，即大步海也。古時因大埔仍森林一片，路過者猶恐猛獸襲擊，故紛紛大步而過，所以命名。八仙嶺以北，則為船灣。上世紀六十年代，港英政府於此築堤壩，作水塘。此乃全球首個海中淡水湖，以解當年缺水之困。建後，水味帶鹹，有曰因湖中尚餘海水使然，故於六七暴動時引人詬病，但箇中原委，乃湖底天然礦鹽所致。今湖不復用，但從對岸馬料水遠眺，猶見湖上大壩里許。
八仙嶺以東，馬鞍山是也。《新安縣志》識：馬鞍山在縣東八十里， 枕東洋，形如馬鞍。所謂馬鞍也者，即馬頭頂至牛押山所見之山脊。山上有昂平草原，乃香港難得高山平原之一。
時年二零一六，盛暑八月，余移居香港中文大學，鄰近馬料水，北望八仙嶺、馬鞍山諸群峰，並船灣淡水湖，山巒繚繞，起伏綿連，平淡天真，綠林蓊鬱，蒼翠如滴，仿如董源山水真跡，甚喜之。翌年，復覽圖冊得見謝稚柳八八年旅港所作《愉景灣景色圖卷》，以北苑畫本寫大嶼山景致，古法新繹，別具意趣。及後，又閱《新安縣志》，即今深圳香港地方志，細味新界、九龍等地陳跡，遂似董北苑筆法寫此，並記。
丁酉，偉邦。

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Inscriptions
It was said that Hong Kong had an upheaval caused by nine dragons and therefore a celestial lion was sent from heaven to quell it. Eight of the nine creatures was then turned into the mountain range of Pat Sin Leng while one was suppressed by the lion’s feet and became the Kowloon Hill located near the former Kai Tak airport, Kowloon City. The hill does not exist anymore, but is recorded in the ancient Canton gazetteer called Yue Da Ji early in the Ming dynasty. The lion ended up transforming into the Lion Rock Hill located in the north Kowloon.
Literally meaning the 'ridge of eight immortals', Pa Sin Leng is situated in the northeast New Territories. Covered with lust and green vegetation, it looks like an elegant screen abounding with jades and emeralds; however, there is no track record in the ancient texts except a mountain pond called Lau Shui Heung, literally meaning ‘reverberations of the waters’. In the Sing'an County Gazetteer, it was reported that the pond had a couple of natural rocky wells in depth of eight ancient feet at its source. It created a fall in spring and summer, and spent autumn and winter with delicate yet resounding reverberations. That was why it was named.
Pa Sin Leng is accompanied with the Tolo Harbour, which was also called the Sea of Tai Po, originally meaning the 'big steps'. It was called because when Tai Po was still a forest, the passengers went through the woods at quick trot due to the fear of the animal attack. In the north of Pa Sin Leng, it can reach the Plover Cove. In the 1960s, Hong Kong British government built dams there for contriving it to be a reservoir on the purpose of settling the water crisis. It was the first in the world to construct a lake from an arm of the ocean, but the water was undesirably salty at the beginning of water supple. It was allegedly that it was because the government failed to remove the seawater from the lake during the construction, so it became one of the disputes in the 1967 Leftist Riots. However, the true cause for salty taste actually lay on the mineral wealth on the lakebed. The water supple has been suspended for years, but the kilometres-wide dams are still there, and become the vista of the opposite coast Ma Liu Shui.
In the east of Pa Sin Leng, it faces Ma On Shan, literally meaning the ‘mountains of the saddle’. In the Sing'an County Gazetteer, it was detailed that the mountains featured a saddle-shaped ridge located eighty li east away from the county and by the East Sea.’ So, the ‘saddle’ actually refers to the drooping line between two summits called Ma Tau Ding and the Hunch Backs. On the mountains, there is Ngong Ping Prairie, which is one of the scarce highland meadows in Hong Kong.
I moved to The Chinese University of Hong Kong in the sizzling August of 2016. Situated near Ma Liu Shui, the residence affords the grand view of Pa Sin Leng and Ma On Shan, and the Plover Cover Reservoir. The mountains are inconspicuous yet elegant, juxtaposing each other to form a graceful sinuous contour for the ridges. They are reminiscent of the masterpieces by the Five Dynasties artist Dong Yuen. I was happy about it. Next year, I once again read a catalogue and saw the handscroll entitled Scenery of Discovery Bay by Xie Zhiliu, who produced it when he dropped by Hong Kong in 1988. After the style of Dong Yuen, the paining is a new interpretation of the old methods, shedding new light on Chinese painting. I then read the Sing'an County Gazetteer for studying few histories of Kowloon and New Territories, and made this painting after the style of Dong Yuen and ended it with the inscription.
Wai Bong

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