“The Sky-in-the-Ewer Tower” is a wonderful construction. It crouches in the middle of the way and blocks people's vision to the north. Standing in front of the tower, visitors can see nothing but the mountain ranges around them, even the way they came from seems to disappear. People look up here as if seeing the sky in the ewer and have sunk into a vast and hazy state. But this was just the intention of the ancients who built this pavilion.
The antithetical couplet at the two sides of the gate reveals the idea:“Ascending halfway you are here at the Sky-in-the-Ewer Tower. There will be happier lands when you arrive at the summit.” The meaning is that the way ahead is still very long, and only those who continue to climb hard can reach the peak and understand the artistic conception of “Come to the top and you see the world dwarfed”. The ancients had already considered the human physical and psychological factors when they made the route to the mountain and had made short intervals in the long journey, such as the Feiyun Pavilion at the Red Gate Palace, the Ten Thousand Immortals Tower and so on. People are kept in suspense, like reading the chapters in a novel, and go on climbing the mountain for the more beautiful landscapes ahead. This represents the vivid embodiment of the ancient Chinese aesthetic thought:“leaving somebody at large in order to catch him” and “a winding path leads to quiet seclusion”. Or in other words, the promise of a great achievement can lead you to make sacrifices. |
Asia Travel 
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