Sceneries of Fuling

Brief Introduction of Fuling

Situated to the south of the Yangtze River, Fuling is 120 kilometers from the central part of Chongqing. This area was known as Zhi during the Western Zhou Dynasty, and used to be the capital of the state of Ba, and therefore, "There were many tombs of earlier kings in Zhi", as some ancient records say. It became Zhi County during the Qin dynasty, renamed Fuzhou in the Tang Dynasty, and became Fuling County shortly after the 1911 Revolution. Before 1997 it was the city of Fuling of Sichuan Province, and now it is under the jurisdiction of Chongqing.

White Crane Ridge at Fuling

In the Yangtze River about one kilometer upstream of the place where the Wujiang River joins the Yangtze River at the north of the city of Fuling, there is on the riverbed a rocky ridge of about 1,600 meters long and 15 meters wide, known as Baiheliang, or the White Crane Ridge. It is usually submerged under water when the water level of the Yangtze is normal, but it will appear when the water level drops, and the lower the water level, the more of it is revealed.

On both sides of the ridge are many ancient stone carvings. The most unusual part of the carvings is the 18 fish carved in different ways on the rock. The fish usually appear once in several years, or a dozen years, sometimes dozens of years, and whenever they appear, according to the old saying, there will be a good harvest.

Besides the fish, there are 164 poems and essays engraved on the rock. Most of the poems and essays were about the authors' travels. Some of them recorded the 72 low water levels in the period of more than 1,200 years from 763 in the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. These historical records are of great scientific significance, especially to the project of the construction of the great dam of the Three Gorges. The poems and essays were engraved in different variety of styles of handwriting and are of high artistic value. The White Crane Ridge is known as "the No.1 underwater forest of steles in the world".

Dianyidong Cave at Fuling

At Beishanping on the norhtern bank of the Yangtze River near Fuling, there is the Dianyidong Cave. This is believed to be the place where Cheng Yi, a great scholar of the Song Dynasty, gave lectures to his students at a school named Goushentang, and sat in a cave to make annotations on the Yijing, or Book of Change, when he lost favor with the emperor and was sent to Fuzhou as a lower ranking official in 1095 in the school, written by Huang Tingjian, another famous scholar of the Song Dynasty, still remains at the site. There are also many carvings and inscriptions on the walls of the Beiyan Corridor of Stone Carvings, with a set of well-known couplets praising Cheng Yi the ancient scholar.