注:《瑞鹤图》作者宋徽宗赵佶(1082-1135年)
设色绢本（25 cm×42 cm）1112年

很难想像他是怎样跌入祥云飘散的天地里。最初他在后宫西边最尽头的回廊向前走；这个回廊他记得可以通向鹭鸶花园，一个由他设计的花园；回廊一路缓慢地上升，而且始终不断延绵着。他步履飘忽地不由自主往前走去，使他隐隐地听见潺潺清泉的流动声，这让他清心寡欲的渴望得到满足。但是不久回廊在不知不觉中消逝了；廊柱是在开始的五步一个接连着一个，不过慢慢地柱与柱之间加宽了距离。眼睛看时，它们的距离是相同的，然而柱与柱的距离越拉越宽，渐渐它们迷失在他的视线里，并且接着以一棵棵石笋所代替。石笋同样以眼睛难以觉察的距离逐渐由疏到密，最后组成了两堵石墙夹成的通道。他开始有点害怕这次旅行的结果，因为这样冷酷的通道，很像他十三年后在鞑靼人的囚车看到的景致一样。他还是不自主地住前走去。北风呼啸，吹得石壁上的缝隙奏出呜鸣声，他看见石墙壁上镶嵌的金色面具跳着斑驳的舞蹈，编织着波光粼粼的湖面，他意识到这是那种迷路的感觉，而且这种感觉始终伴随着他。后来他似乎觉得看不见石墙岩壁了。有一次，他乘上一叶花梨木小舟，他在这个小舟上游历了许多奇异的景色。他看见一座雕像立于岸埠水中，散发着檀香气味，雕像镂刻精致得瞬息消失了。他还看见玫瑰色森林，在金黄色银杏树叶丛中漫游，相互迭映，觉得自己果然迷失在这个湖淖里了。实际上他漂荡湖面的行旅不过是在湖淖里转圈。他对自己说，真像在做一个梦，而且不像是自己做的梦，而是某一个还没有诞生的人做的梦。这个人在882年后，在另一个被摧毁的王朝皇家的荒凉花园森林里做的梦。到了晚上，他便凭借湖水映出的星象，由一只闪着光亮的银龟游移引导，才得以从这个迷弥湖淖脱身。于是，他得到了一轴长卷画，他展阅着无尽的画幅却始终读不到画的尽头，然而当他不得不回卷再看时，看到的却是从未读过的画面，而且同样寻不到开头。
到了黎明湿润的风透进襟衫的时候，他铺展丝绢，用金瘦的笔开始描摹。这帧画是在他的贵妃酣睡中均匀呼出的香喷喷的气息里完成的。这帧画，今天我们发现，是和他的名字和他的皇位不可分割地连在一起。有美术史学家说，这帧画已经丧失了昔日的光彩，但仍是一件稀世珍品。这帧画，完完整整地描摹着他荒芜的梦幻景象，包含着他全部迷离的思想和理想，只不过他竭力回避那轴永远不能解读完的长卷过程，但是他又重新走失在另一片祥云飘散的湖淖里。这帧画，画得金光灿烂，第二天在他开设的画院里，被画家们争相仿效，今天同样迷失在纷繁浩瀚的《睿览集》里。他在一旁偷偷地流了一些泪。他想现实只是梦幻的一个外形，而自己所履历的不幸和快乐，以及这个光辉朝代，花园、湖淖、宫殿不过是脆弱的形状。
后来他写了一篇题为《天真降临市现记》，为了更加明晰地诉说，他把这次迷失的游历添加了许多神圣的典故。但是，他的这帧画已经显现于世，像是一阵狂风把他的皇宫撕裂成一堆碎片。他的后代总想追思这个金色的梦想，在他们逃亡南方的二百年后建造了许多迷宫，今天在苏州可以随时走入这样的迷宫，但是人们永远难以找寻他的迷弥湖掉。
Painting of Auspicious Cranes

By Hong Lei

Note: Painting of Auspicious Cranes, by Emperor Song Huizong Zhao Ji(1082-1135)
Painting on silk (25×42cm), 1112

It' s very difficult to imagine how he fell into the world of prosperity. Initially he was walking ahead along the corridor at the end of the west side of the inner palace. He remembered that this corridor led to the Bittern Garden, a garden he had designed. The corridor was rising up slowly, and kept on stretching indefinitely. Involuntarily, he walked staggeringly ahead, so that he could hear the purling flow of the clear spring, which satisfied his undemanding longing. But before long, the corridor disappeared imperceptibly. The columns of the corridor were initially positioned at an interval of five steps, but gradually the distance between columns grew wider. They appeared to be of the same gap. But the distance between two columns was getting wider and wider, so that they became lost in his view, until they were replaced by stalagmites, lining up one after another. The gaps between stalagmites equally grew from sparse to dense, which was hard to detect in the eyes, until eventually they formed a passageway lined by two stonewalls. He began to fear the result of this trip because such a cold passageway was similar to what he saw in the Tatar prisoner' s car. He still couldn' t stop marching ahead. The wind was blowing, so much that the cracks on the rock were chiming. He saw the golden masks inlaid on the rock dancing a blocky dance, shining on the shimmering surface of the lake. He realized that it was a feeling of being lost and the feeling stayed with him. Then he seemed to have lost sight of the rock. Once he got on a small boat made of Sandalwood. He traveled to see a lot of bizarre scenes on this boat. He saw a sculpture standing by the dock, giving out the flavor of sandal. The sculpture was so delicately sculpted that it vanished within a moment.
He also saw the rose-colored forest, wandering among the golden Ginkgo Tree. He felt that unsurprisingly he was lost in this lake. Actually his travel on the lake was no more than making circles on it. He said to himself that it felt really like a dream, and it was not a dream of his own, but a dream of someone who had not been born yet. This person was dreaming in the forest of a desolate garden of a destroyed dynastic royal family 882 years later.
By night, he was only able to escape the baffling lake by relying on the reflection of stars on the lake and following the guidance of a glittering silver turtle. Thus, he received a long roll of painting. As he unfolded the endless painting, he still couldn' t reach the end of the painting. When he had to look back to the part of the painting that he had seen, there were however images that he had not seen before. Therefore, he was not able to find the beginning of the painting either.
By dawn when moist wind blew into his shirt, he spread out a piece of silk, and began to outline and imitate with powerful brushstrokes. This painting was completed while his concubine was in sound sleep. This painting, we have discovered today, is inseparable to his name and his position as the emperor. Some art historians say that this painting has lost its past splendor but is still a rare treasure. This painting fully portrays his run-down illusions, including all of his blurred thoughts and ideals. But he tried to avoid the process in which he couldn' t finish reading the long roll of painting. He was lost again in another lake with drifting auspicious cloud. This painting was clinquant. On the second day, in the painting academy that he opened, painters all tried to copy it. Today, it was equally lost in the numerous, complicated and vast A Collection of Ancient Paintings. He was shedding some tears secretly by the side. He realized that the reality was simply a shell of illusions, but the unhappiness and joy that he' d experienced, as well as this glorious dynasty, the garden, the lake and the palace were simply fragile forms.
Afterwards he wrote an essay entitled “Stories of the Manifestations of the Truth of the Heaven,”in which to state more clearly, he supplemented this experience of getting lost with many holy stories. But his painting had been introduced to the world, like a fierce wind that torn apart his royal palace into a pile of fragments. His descendants always wanted to memorize this golden dream. They built a lot of mazes in the south to which they escaped two hundred years later. Today in Suzhou, you can walk into such a maze at any moment, but people can never find the mysterious lake again.

Translated by Carol Lu