青城方中游 — Within The Square of Qingcheng

《青城方中游》：听见不可说的节奏

“Within The Square of Qingcheng”: The Rhythm That Cannot Be Spoken

关于听觉与行走的双专辑

A double album about walking and listening

有时，往山里走一趟，只是为了回头。

《青城方中游》是一次青城前山的全天往返，没有入关、无涉后山，不需登高、也不触仙凡之间的大问题，只是一次沿途的注视 —— 可被重复、可以走完、可以迷路、可以随时中止的过程 —— 十四首作品，分为上下两辑，分别命名为《乾 · 取法》和《坤 · 无象》。

取法者，非仿效，而是化用。

无象者，非空无，而是松开轮廓。

Sometimes, the reason for going into the mountains is simply to return.

“Within The Square of Qingcheng” documents a day-long walk through Qingcheng’s front mountain range. There were no sealed borders, no esoteric rites, no summons of the immortals — just a path along the way. It could be repeated, completed, abandoned. The fourteen tracks are split into two parts — “First · Embodying” and “Last · Unmanifest.”

“Embodying” is not imitation, but transformation.

“Unmanifest” is not emptiness, but the loosening of contour.

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一条完整但非神圣的山路

A complete but unsanctified trail

这些曲子，是在两年里数次上山、独自游走、无意之间所累积下的灵感碎片：

记得有一次冬天，我下山太晚，错过了最后一班索道，只能在渐渐昏暗的天色里循步道下山。四野寂静，道士早已归寮，松鼠在山亭翻捡游客落下的食物，一只白猫穿过菜园巡视它的领地，山鹧鸪的叫声越来越近，还有长尾雉在人面前穿过步道。

还有一回，在雨天走到朝阳洞，一位戴庄子巾的道长站在洞里，一面喝着劲、练着拳，一面说着“这是青城山最早的洞天，随便参拜，随便看看”。雨滴沿着洞口的屋檐落在石板上，在供养十方寒林诸魂的香火前汇成一道小溪。

那些雨滴落在青苔上的呼吸，风吹过林间的沉吟，还有群鸟迁徙途中的鸣叫，比任何一个节奏都更可信。

These pieces were composed from fragments collected over two years of solitary walking:

I remember once descending too late in winter, having missed the last cable car. I made my way down the path as dusk thickened. The forest was silent. The Taoist monks had long retreated to their quarters. Squirrels rustled through a pavilion, scavenging food left behind by tourists. A white cat emerged to patrol its vegetable plot. A pheasant crossed the trail, and hill partridges called, echoing closer each time.

Another time, I reached Chaoyang Cave in the rain. Inside, a Taoist priest wearing a Zhuangzi scarf was training his breath and form, punching the air while calling out: “This is Qingcheng’s first cave-heaven! Come see, come worship, however you like.” Raindrops trickled off the eaves and onto stone. In front of a small shrine dedicated to unnamed souls, the water gathered into a stream.

The breath of moss, the wind threading the canopy, the call of migrating birds — they are more trustworthy than any rhythm.

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不全是音乐的事

It is not entirely about music

这些曲子的名字取自山中途中：雾雨遇仙桥、朝阳洞法舞、故椿仙行道、元辰符雷鸣、五洞天回响、月城湖中月。它们不是比喻，而是真实存在的地点。你也能走得到，甚至走一遍不会花你太多时间。

但专辑不是田野调查，也不是地理志，更不是采风笔记。它只是我记忆中的“青城”，加上一点“自由”的声音组织方式。

Track titles were drawn directly from places passed along the route: Encountering Immortals in the Mist, Ritual Dance at Chaoyang Cave, Passed Master Chunxian’s Way, Thunder in Tai Sui’s Talisman, Echoes of the Five Grotto-Heavens, Lunar Presence in the Lake of Lunar City. They are not metaphors. These are real places. You can walk to them. The journey may take less time than you think.

But this is not a field recording, nor a geographical survey, nor a travel diary. It is only the Qingcheng I remember, shaped by a method I call “free.”

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关于道教与爵士乐

On Taoism and jazz

我常常觉得，道家思想与爵士乐有某种暗合。它们都有规矩，也都有“无为”的内核。就像人们常说“爵士乐没有错音”，其实不是没有错，而是那错是否成立，要由之后的乐句决定。如同祸福相依，得失相生，在人生这段漫长的乐句中，很多被称作“错误”的瞬间，其实都还未完成。

而很多人所谓的“正确”，恰恰限制了心的可能。在这种意义上，爵士乐或许是可以协助修道的。

它不是方法，而是一种体会本心的契机。

I’ve often thought that Taoist thought and jazz improvisation mirror each other in an uncanny way. Each has rules and boundaries — but each contains, at its core, a refusal to cling. We hear it often: “There are no wrong notes in jazz.” That’s not quite true. There are mistakes. But whether they stay mistakes depends on the phrases that follow. Just as fortune and misfortune give birth to one another, gain and loss carry each other forward — so too in life’s long melodic line, there are fewer errors than we imagine. Often, it is our obsession with doing, with being useful, that limits the potential of the heart.

In this sense, perhaps jazz is a kind of spiritual aid. Not a method — but a condition in which something true might arise.

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封面 · 山水之间的反照结构

Cover · A Reflective Structure Between Mountain and Water

《青城方中游》的封面使用了同一张图像。上下两辑，仅在反转之间分化出乾与坤的意味。

图中是山，也似非山 —— 它浮在水面之上，既暗示了青城山与都江堰的地理依存关系，也映照出山中湖泊月城湖的存在 —— 悬在山腰的小湖泊，隐没在雾气和树木之间，偶尔显露天光与倒影。水中倒映出的轮廓近似某种高楼。它不是实景，更像是被回忆拉长的投影 —— 依山势而建成的层层殿宇。它是人对高度的修辞，也是青城“群山为城”的地形逻辑。

《取法》为乾，画面为正片，山顶之上空悬一轮红日，象征生发、上升与热烈的运动；

《无象》为坤，画面为负片，整体结构上下颠倒，一轮银白的半月浮于上方，指向一种收敛、冷静与潜伏的势态。

这是结构的延续 —— 正 / 负、明 / 晦、显 / 隐之间，恰如两辑音乐本身的逻辑差异，也如“有法”与“无象”之间本就流动的边界。地理、音律、图像三者互为折射，仿佛一座不可命名的建筑，沉入水中，却在某个听觉瞬间浮现。

The two parts of “Within The Square of Qingcheng” share the same image.Their divergence— First and Last — emerges only through inversion.

What appears is a mountain, and also not quite. It floats above water, suggesting the interdependent geography of Qingcheng Mountain and the Ming River, while also echoing the presence of Lake of Luna City — a small body of water suspended mid-mountain, often veiled in mist and trees, occasionally revealing its reflection and sky-light.

The structure mirrored in the water resembles a tall pavilion or tower. It is not a real edifice, but a projection stretched by memory — tiered halls built along the contours of a slope. It represents not height itself, but how height is imagined, and hints at the geomorphology of Qingcheng: a castle made of mountains.

Embodying corresponds to Qian: the image is in positive. Above the mountain, a red sun hangs — symbol of emergence, ascent, and fervent energy.

Unmanifest corresponds to Kun: the image is in negative, the composition inverted. A pale silver crescent moon floats above, pointing toward a mode of withdrawal — cool, contained, and latent.

This is not decoration, but an extension of structure: positive / negative, light / dusk, manifest / withdrawn — just like the two musical logics embedded within the albums. Between “form” and “formlessness,” no clear boundary holds. Geography, tonality, and image refract through each other, like an unnamed architecture submerged in water, surfacing only in a moment of listening.

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曲目 · 记忆的结构

Tracklist · Memory as structure

上辑《乾·取法》“First - Embodying”

1. 青城入梦 Dreaming into Mt. Qingcheng

2. 山亭洗心引 Purification Prelude of the Mountain Pavilions

3. 天然二进制图画 Natural Canvas of Binary

4. 雾雨遇仙桥 Encountering Immortals in the Mist

5. 道家小卖部 Taoist Supply Shop

6. 银杏阁慢板 Adagio under Divine Ginkgo

7. 朝阳洞法舞 Ritual Dance at Chaoyang Cave

8. 夜游太清 Night Drift Through Taiqing

下辑《坤·无象》“Last - Unmanifest”

1. 五洞天回响 Echoes of the Five Grotto-Heavens

2. 天师降魔处 As the Celestial Master Subdues the Demons

3. 元辰符雷鸣 Thunder in Tai Sui’s Talisman

4. 步云廊索道 Corridor in the Clouds

5. 月城湖中月 Lunar Presence in the Lake of Lunar City

6. 故椿仙行道 Passed Master Chunxian’s Way

7. 登青城而下 Descending from Mt. Qingcheng

所有曲目均以自由爵士为主调，配器化用了钟、钹、木鱼、鼓等道教打击乐器，结构并非传统的 verse/chorus，而更接近气之流变，偶有旋律，更多是律动、断裂与复归。

Each track is rooted in free jazz — improvised structure, open phrasing — using bells, cymbals, wooden blocks, drums drawn from Taoist ritual percussion. There are no verses, no choruses. Only pulses. Fracture. Return. The arrangement follows the movement of qi, rather than meter.

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这不是山水画，也不是出世指南，只是我走过的一次山路。

This is not landscape painting. It is not a guide to transcendence. It is only a path I once walked.

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现已上线 Spotify /网易云音乐 / QQ 音乐 / Amazon Music 等平台。

你也可以走一趟，听听这些声音从哪里来。

Now streaming on Spotify / NetEase Music / QQ Music / Amazon Music and more.

You too may walk it, and hear where the sound came from.

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Music / Publish / Cover Design / Copywriting : Boren @BOREN Studio

2025, Chengdu, China

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《未完的即兴 An Unfinished Improvisation》

一段人机之间的对话，关于《青城方中游》的方外章节。

A conversation between human and machine — the lasting Outro of “Within the Square of Qingcheng.”