中国：一个“万物皆有灵”之地

I knew we were close when I saw the "breasts".

第一次拜访青藏高原时，我看到了那两座山，外形酷似女人的胸脯。

That is, a pair of mountains that Tibetan nomadshave anthropomorphized as resembling a woman’s bosom near their isolatedsettlement on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where I've run a volunteer initiativefor nearly a decade.

十年间，我一直在藏族游牧民定居的偏僻地带做志愿者活动，那对被当地人形容为“女人的胸脯”的山就坐落在那里。

It reminded me of the extreme pervasiveness of thistendency in China.

这种“拟名便是景”的情况在中国十分常见。

Indeed, nearly every land formation inside aticketed attraction at least is likened to something with a culturalconnotation.

事实上，几乎每个售票景区内的风景在形成的过程中多少都会包涵带有文化底蕴的因素。

Take the Rainbow Mountains in Gansu province'sZhangye, where the peaks take their colorful names from their ostensibleresemblance to people, animals and objects.

就拿甘肃省的张掖“彩虹山”来说，其山峰形状各异，似人似物，活灵活现，名字多多。

Like countless places in the country, geology andanthropology blend to paint the Rainbow Mountains with a vibrant allure.

张掖“彩虹山”就像中国其他数不清的风景一样，融合了地质学和人类学。山上的五彩缤纷之景象充满活力的色彩。

Landforms there take such names as Huge ScallopRock Cumulous, Returning Sail in the Sunset, Monks Worshiping Buddha, SpiritMonkey Views the Sea and Tassels of the Yugu Maiden.

那里的地貌有各种好听的名字，比如“大扇贝岩”“夕阳归航”“僧侣拜佛”“灵猴观海”和“玉女流苏”。

The lesser-known nearby Ice Valley, in turn, hostssuch formations as Toad Looking at Red Clouds, the Yin-and-Yang Pillars, CamelGreeting Guests, Goshawk Head, Three Friends, Egyptian Pharaoh, Turtle Divinginto the Sea, Peacock Stone and Colored-Glaze Palace.

冰谷附近还有鲜为人知的壮丽景象，比如“蛤观红云”“阴阳柱”“驼问游人”“苍鹰头”“三友人”“埃及法老”“海龟入海”“孔雀石”和“琉璃釉宫”。

A single 5-meter-high stone alone shares threenames — the Torch of Qilian, Red Flag and Neighing Horse.

那里还有一座高约五米的巨石，光这块石头就有三个名字——祁连火炬、红旗飘飘和萧萧马鸣。

Indeed, many of China's most iconic landforms takesuch appellations. Many are featured in the works of ancient poets, who pennedodes to them and the legends surrounding them.

事实上，中国许多代表性的地貌都有各种各样的称呼，许多名字来源于古代文人的作品，这些作品通常是赞颂此地风光或描写当地传说的诗歌。

Think Yunnan province's Tiger-Leaping Gorge,Beijing's Silver Fox Cave and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region's DragonBackbone Terraces.

诸如云南省的虎跳峡、北京的银狐洞和广西壮族自治区的龙脊梯田。

Indeed, other countries and cultures also imposecultural symbolism on natural landscapes — Mauritius' Eye of the Sahara, NewZealand’s Split Apple Rock, South Africa's Giants Castle and Norway's PulpitRock.

其实其他国家也喜欢将地方文化特色融汇进自然风光中，比如毛里求斯的“撒哈拉之眼”，新西兰南岛的“分裂苹果岩”，南非的“巨人城堡”和挪威的“纸浆岩”等等。

However, many seem more likely to name landformsafter people — Egypt's Mount Katrina, the US' Mount Washington and Australia'sAyers Rock, whose aboriginal name, Yankunytjatjara, refers to the ethnic groupwho has long dwelled there.

不过还有一些地貌景观是以人名来命名的，诸如埃及的卡特琳娜山、美国的华盛顿山和澳大利亚的艾尔斯山等等，其中艾瑞斯的土著名叫Yankunytjatjara，意为“长期居住在该地的土著群体”。

Or, they often use descriptions of the landform'scharacteristics, as with Yellowstone, the Great Barrier Reef and the RockyMountains.

此外，还有一些景观是根据其具体地貌特点来命名的，比如黄石公园、大堡礁和落基山脉等等。

And that's not to say China doesn’t do this, too,as with the Yellow River, Yellow Mountain (Huangshan) and the Yangtze, whoseChinese name, Changjiang, translates as Long River.

中国当然也不例外，诸如黄山、黄河、长江等。中国的“长江”因为长，所以就叫“长江”。

The Loess Plateau's name leaves little guessing asto exactly what it is.

再比如“黄土高原”，可以说是名副其实了。

However, China seems to demonstrate a stronger tendencyto imbue natural landscapes with supernatural, or at least mythological,identifications.

与西方不同的是，中国似乎更喜欢将自然景观与自古流传的神话传说联系在一起。

And this proclivity to anthropomorphize extendsbeyond landforms to life forms — even lawns.

除了地貌景观外，中国对自然的人化倾向，甚至在包括草坪在内的生灵万物身上都有体现。

For instance, signs that in the West would readsomething like "Please keep of the grass" read in Chinese, and are sometimesdirectly translated into English as, "The grass is smiling at you. Pleasedetour."; "Do not disturb. Tiny grass is dreaming." and "I like your smile butunlike you put your foot on my face."

西方诸如“请远离草坪”之类的标语，如果翻译成中文，就会转化为“小草在对您微笑，请绕行”，“请勿惊扰小草的美梦”或直接用第一人称口吻说“我愿意看见你的笑容，但不愿看见你把脚放在我的脸上”。

Frankly, I'd never thought about what grass thoughtabout my smile — or my footsteps. Because, well, I'd never thought about grassthinking at all — let alone feeling... let alone feeling particular feelingsabout me, in particular.

坦诚地说，我从没想过小草还会在意我的微笑或者脚步声，因为我不觉得小草会像人一样思考，更不会想到小草还会在意我的感受了。

Humans have projected our collective psyches ontothe shapes of clouds, constellations and landforms for as long as we know of.

自古以来，人类就习惯将了解到的集体心理投射到云形、星座或地貌上去。

These have served as cultural Rorschach tests formillennia before the test was invented. And it was developed as an analysis ofthis exact human propensity, albeit on an individual, rather thancivilizational, level.

几千年来，人类用这种方式投射人格特征，后来演变成现在的罗夏墨迹测验。该测验是为分析确切的人类行为倾向而逐渐发展完善起来的，因此其发展是基于个人层面，而非文明层面。

And many earlier societies attributed consciousness— even souls — to not only plants and animals but also mountains and rivers.

许多早期人类社会都将意识乃至灵魂归因于动植物和山川湖海。

As such, contemporary China is a place wherenatural landforms blend with landscapes of the mind, where imagination isprojected onto the rock that projects toward the sky, and where stone andculture show their colors, in every sense.

这样看来，中国可以说是一个“天人合一”之地，一个自然与心灵交融的地方，这里的海天石山无不体现出了中国人的想象力，这里的每一寸风景无不闪烁着人文色彩。

Oh … and you may offend the seemingly friendlygrass.

对了，在中国还要留心不要冒犯到友善的小草哦。