Legend of Lesser Three Gorges

Lesser Three Gorges, which totally stretches 60 kilometers, is composed of Longmen Gorge, Bawu Goege and Dicui Gorge. And there is a beautiful love legend about the Dicui Gorge.

Long long ago, there was a couple together with their only son named Huxia living in the Shuanglong Village of Dachang Town. The three-membered family made a living by cutting trees and gathering firewood. Although they lived on cutting wood, they did not cut the lumber trees which were high and thick. Instead, they cut the low shrubs which can not grow into a lumber. So they were one hand cutting the trees and on the other hand they were protecting the forests. Day after day, they got familiar with the animals in the mountain. The monkeys even helped them gather the firewood and picked the wild fruits for them.

As time went on, Huxia grew up and became a young man. He made a lot of friends with the birds and animals in the forest. He wanted to find a wife but he was too shy to tell his parents. So he sang it out to the animals. His parents happened to hear his song and realized that their son had grown up and should get married. But what puzzled them was that there was no girls in the mountain and no girls would like to come to the mountain where the living conditions were difficult.

To their surprise, the couple Birds and magpie helped them and found a good girl for Huxia. But this girl was from a rich family in the town and it was impossible for those who had different family backgrounds to marry each other. Huxia knew this and he only went to the outside of the girl's house and sang for her.

The girl was touched by his songs and fell in love with Huxia. She gave Huxia a handkerchief which was embroidered with a couple of mandarin ducks (in China, the mandarin ducks are the symbol of love). From then on, Huxia was totally fascinated by the girl and was lovesick. His parents were very anxious and built up their courage to go to the girl's home and proposed to the girl.

But the girl's father thought that Huxia was too poor, so he deliberately put forward a demand which was impossible to meet. He wanted Huxia to bring three treasures: the liver of a dragon, the gall of a tiger and the legendary luminous pearl to him as the bride-price. The three articles were all hardly to get, so the parents were despaired. But Huxia made the determination to find them whatever the hardships were.

The animals in the forest decided to help Huxia. They told him that to find the three treasures, he must turn to the Goddess of Wu Mountain. Then they sent the three Kings: King of Monkeys, King of Trees and King of Eagles to go together with Huxia and protect Huxia. They went through 27 days and overcame unimaginable difficulties on the way. Eventually they came to the Wu Mountain and found the Goddess of Wu Mountain.

Huxia told the Goddess of the Wu Mountain the causes and effects of the matter and begged her to help him get the three treasures. To test if Huxia was sincere, Goddess of Wu Mountain lured him by fame and fortune, lust and long life, yet Huxia was neither distracted nor attracted. Moved by his sincerity, Goddess of Wu Mountain decided to help Huxia. She gave him a sword and told him the method to get the three treasures. Huxia finally got the treasures and went to the girl's father to propose.

Touched by Huxia's bravery and will power, the girl's father eventually consented to the marriage. The girl went to Huxia's home and lived a happy life with Huxia. They protected the gorge so well that the green color of the gorge was almost running out, so the gorge was called Dicui Gorge.