On July 11-12, a regional heavy precipitation process hit the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from southwest to northeast, which is also the strongest precipitation process in the above areas since the flood this year, and the large value area of rainfall is in the mountain front of the Taihang Mountains and Yanshan Mountains. When I recently read the "Fengshen Yanyi", I found that it also seems to describe a torrential rain that occurred in the Yanshan area.
The origin of the story is like this, the King of Shang ordered to summon the princes of the four towns into chaoge, and the Marquis Ji Chang of Xibo and his party set out from Xiqi, and when they passed through Yanshan, they suddenly encountered a heavy rainfall process. The original text is as follows:
On that day, when he reached Yanshan Mountain, Ji Bo said on his horse: "There can be a village house in front of you, and you can avoid the rain, and there will be heavy rain within a few feet." The follower was discussing: "The sky is clear, the clouds are empty, the red sun is shining, where does the rain come from?" "Before I could speak, I saw clouds and mist. Ji Chang beat his horse and told him to go into the Mao forest to avoid the rain. The crowd came into the forest... (The Tenth Episode of the Fengshen Yanyi)
Ji Chang is a person who can pinch and calculate, not only that, but also proficient in meteorology, when the sun is shining and the sky is clear, he can predict the arrival of heavy rain. It was difficult for the crowd to understand his reasoning, but it was not long before the clouds and mist came together, and the omen of rain was highlighted. While lamenting Ji Chang's calculations, the crowd quickly ran into the woods to avoid the rain.
How much rain did it rain this time? The original text reads:
The clouds grow to the southeast, and the fog rises to the northwest. Suddenly, the wind is fiercely cold, and the rain in the beard can invade people. There was a slight drizzle at the beginning, and then a dense layer later. Nourishing the grass and running crops, the flowers and branches hang obliquely on the jade linglong; the fertile field is strong, and the grass tips are dripping pearls. The mountains turn over a thousand heavy waves, and the low concave flats add white water. Grass is poured all over the place to the top of the duck, and the mountain is full of stones to wash the Buddha's head blue. Push down the Jinjiang River flowers all over the world, good rain, down the Tianhe River and fall down. (The Tenth Episode of the Fengshen Yanyi)
From an meteorological point of view, it was a convective rain. The first sentence describes the distribution of clouds and fog, and the second sentence writes about the feelings of the people when the cold air arrives. In fact, there is no essential difference between clouds and fog, both are polymers floating in the air by water vapor in the atmosphere when they are condensed into small water droplets (or Xiaoice crystals), and the difference is only the height.
Those who are "high above" are clouds, and those who touch the ground are fog, that is to say, fog is more "grounded" than clouds. The author also vividly depicts the process of rain from small to large through the description of crops, flowers, fields, grasses and trees. The torrential rain rained like a scoop for about half an hour (about 1 hour). So, what magnitude of rain is this?
In the folk, people usually use urgency to determine the size of the rain. The word "storm" in "rainstorm" means "powerful and sudden, fierce and urgent". A sudden, short-term heavy rainfall, often referred to as "heavy rain". The classification of rainfall in modern meteorological observations is slightly different from the folk perception.
In meteorological operations, the "yardstick" for measuring the magnitude of rainfall is "rainfall". It refers to the depth of accumulation on the horizontal plane in the case of no evaporation, no infiltration and no loss of rainwater from the air for a period of time, which can be divided into 7 grades according to size, such as trace rainfall, light rain, moderate rain, heavy rain, heavy rain, heavy rain, heavy rain, and exceptionally heavy rain. Among them, the conditions of heavy rain are rainfall of more than 30 mm in 12 hours or more than 50 mm in 24 hours.
It is a pity to tell you that according to this standard, the so-called "heavy rain" (although it rains more urgently, but it only rains for about 20 minutes) most of them do not reach the order of magnitude of "heavy rain". Looking at the description in the book, the original text said that it rained heavily for half an hour (1 hour).
According to this description, the rainfall is probably more than three or four hundred millimeters, and according to the standard of precipitation level, it has reached the order of "exceptionally heavy rainfall". Such extreme precipitation is relatively rare, if it really happens, Ji Chang and others in the mountains to avoid rain, will encounter flash floods or mudslides, it is estimated that life is difficult to protect. According to this point of view, "pouring rain" is not realistic but uses exaggerated techniques like "pulling down the heavenly river and falling down".
Finally, let's talk about the place name Yanshan. Today we usually say that Yanshan mountain is located in north China, from the Yanghe River in Zhangjiakou in the west, to Shanhaiguan in the east, to the Bashang Plateau in the north, and to the Taihang Mountains in the southwest. It is about 420 kilometers long from east to west, nearly 200 kilometers at its widest point from north to south, and has an altitude of 600 to 1500 meters. Among them, the southern foothills of Yanshan Mountain are a famous rainstorm-prone area in North China.
So, is the Yanshan Mountain mentioned in the "Fengshen Yanyi" the Yanshan Mountain in North China? According to the book, Yanshan is located between Xiqi and Wuguan, of which Wuguan refers to Lintong Pass, Tong Pass, Chuanyun Pass, Jiepai Pass, and Fenshui Pass. According to this statement, it seems that Yanshan Mountain should be in the territory of today's Shaanxi, but the author did not find the mountain range of the same name in Shaanxi. Was it the author who wrote it wrong or was it intentional?
According to statistics, the word "Yanshan" appears more than 20 times in the book, which excludes the possibility of the author's clerical error. In the Yuan Dynasty's "Wu Wang Fa Shu Ping Dialect", there is also a plot of Ji Chang encountering rain, but the place of occurrence is in the Tongguan Yin Rune Realm. It can be seen that it is the author of the yanyi who deliberately changed the place of occurrence to Yanshan. Was it changed because of the frequent rainstorms in Yanshan? It is not excluded that the author deliberately borrowed the rain of Yanshan Mountain to warm up the appearance of Lei Zhenzi. Expect the fangjia to criticize and correct.
Author: Liu Hao, this article is to read less of the original works of the Red Chamber. Welcome to my headline number: Read less about the Red Chamber and tell you a different story of famous books.