Mount Jue stands on the south bank of the Dan River in Zezhou county, thirteen kilometres from the centre of Jincheng, and it is named for a pair. The character used for it now is written with the sign for jade doubled, and reads as two pieces of jade held together; an older spelling of the name is a different character altogether. Two summits stand side by side above the river. Old descriptions gave the mountain a large name, the first wonder of the mountains and rivers of Jin and Wei, and the phrase has outlasted whatever view it was coined for.
From the journal
Jue Mountain: Two Peaks Side by Side
Thirteen kilometres from Jincheng, two summits above the Dan River carry a name built from paired jade and a local sight described as the moon being released between them.
In the same city · Jincheng ↗Two peaks, one name
The path up
The city is close, thirteen kilometres off, so the mountain is an afternoon rather than a journey. What people come up for is a piece of timing. Jue Mountain spits the moon is counted among the four famous sights of Jincheng, and the phrase describes the moment when the moon comes up between the two peaks and seems to be released by them. The name is a description of an event rather than of a view, which makes a visit a matter of choosing a date rather than an hour, and explains why the mountain is talked about in terms of evenings.
The valley below
From the summits the Dan River organises the view: it runs below the mountain's south side, and the ground falls away from the peaks towards it. A mountain of this size holds its reputation through lists rather than through height. To be counted as one of four named sights of a city is to be given a season, a phrase and an evening in the year, and that naming does more for the place than any measurement of its peaks could. The city lies thirteen kilometres off: near enough that the mountain is a habit rather than an expedition, far enough that the river, when you look down, is quiet.