Sheshan

Sheshan is not a large hill. It is under a hundred metres, and in most countries nobody would call it a mountain. But two things were put on top of it that are out of all proportion to its size, and both were put there by the same organisation. On the western summit stands the largest Catholic church in the Shanghai region, and just below it, an observatory¹ that was for decades the most important in the country.

佘山不高。不到一百米，在多数国家没人会管它叫山。可山顶上摆了两样跟它的尺寸完全不相称的东西，而且是同一个机构摆上去的。西佘山顶立着上海地区最大的天主教堂，教堂下面一点，是一座曾经几十年里全国最重要的天文台。

The church is the Basilica of Our Lady of Sheshan. The present building went up between 1925 and 1935, replacing a smaller chapel, and it was designed so that the plan is the shape of a cross with the bell tower at the west end. In 1942 the Vatican gave it the rank of minor basilica², and it remains the only church in China to hold that title. Every May it draws pilgrims³ from across the country, and on those days the path up the hill is full from bottom to top.

教堂叫佘山进教之佑圣母大殿。现在这座 1925 年动工，1935 年建成，取代了原先一座小堂，平面设计成十字形，钟楼在西端。1942 年梵蒂冈把它升为乙级宗座圣殿，这个头衔至今在中国仅此一处。每年五月它吸引全国各地的朝圣者，那些日子里，上山的路从山脚满到山顶。

There is a reason it sits on a summit rather than in a town. Pilgrimage churches were built to be walked to, and the walk is part of the observance. The stone way up the southern slope has fourteen stations set along it, one for each stage of the Passion, so the climb is timed and paced by them. Whatever you believe, that is a piece of deliberate⁴ design worth noticing: the architecture starts at the bottom of the hill, not at the door.

它建在山顶而不是镇上，是有道理的。朝圣的教堂本来就是让人走上去的，走这段路本身就是仪式的一部分。南坡的石阶路上分设十四处苦路亭，一处对应一段受难，登山的节奏就被它们量好了。不论你信什么，这都是一处值得留意的刻意设计，建筑是从山脚开始的，不是从大门开始的。

The observatory below the church was founded in 1900 by the same French Jesuits. Its forty centimetre double telescope⁵ was the largest in Asia when it arrived, and it stayed in scientific use for most of the twentieth century. It is a museum now, and the instrument is still in its dome, still on its original mounting. The hill is quiet on a weekday and the bamboo on the north slope is worth the detour. It is about twenty minutes up on foot, or you can take the cable car. We meet at the foot of the steps in two hours.

教堂下面那座天文台，1900 年由同一批法国耶稣会士建立。它那台四十厘米的双筒望远镜运到时是亚洲最大的，在二十世纪的大部分时间里一直用于科研。现在它是博物馆，仪器还在圆顶下面，还架在原来的机座上。工作日山上很安静，北坡的竹林值得绕一段。步行上山约二十分钟，也可以坐缆车。两小时后我们在台阶下集合。

词条