Legend of Xie Shan

In Poyang Lake, nine kilometers south of Shi Zhongshan in Hukou, Jiangxi Province, there is a solitary mountain peak at the foot of Lushan Mountain, which stands on the water and looks like a shoe. This is the Shoe Mountain, which is called the Fairy Island of Poyang Lake. Li Sixun, a painter in the Tang Dynasty, and Su Dongpo, a poet, called it Dagushan, which is far away in Xiaogushan, Pengze.

The shape of the shoe hill is like a shoe, with the front low and the back high. Xieshan is about 500 meters long and 200 meters wide, and its highest point is more than 90 meters above sea level. Legend has it that the fairy fell into the embroidered shoes in the lake, hence the name Xieshan. The mountain is blue on three sides, with cliffs and only the northwest corner, which can be parked.

Go to the island, see the peaks of Lushan Mountain in the west and the stone clock in the north. The island is lush with green trees, the lake is soaring in the distance, and the smoke and waves are sailing. It is a world with high water and wide sky.

Beautiful legend

The island has a long and rich cultural landscape. According to legend, the Dayu water control stone carving here has been lost, and the word "Sleeping Cloud" written by Mi Fei in the Song Dynasty and the stone carving "Ling Bo is the first, brocade socks are unparalleled" in the Qing Dynasty are all there. There are fairy temples, Tianhou Palace, dressing tables, seven floors and other buildings on the island. Don came at the right time. After Xu Jingye's defeat, he cut his hair and became a monk, living in seclusion here.

In addition to the unique scenery and numerous historical sites, Xieshan is also inhabited by some herons-herons and egrets. The heron is very tall, and its wings can stretch to more than one meter. Heron birds are especially good at flying all year round, capturing and attacking the airflow hovering north and south over Poyang Lake. Travelers and sailors on board can feed them accurately, no matter how high or low, so the history books call them "begging birds". This miracle greatly increased the mystery of Dagu Mountain.

There are many touching stories about Xie Shan. Apart from the myth that the fairy lost her shoes and became an island, the most famous story is the story described in Jin's Seeking God. The story says: One day, a businessman passed by a boat and met two young girls and asked him if he was going to town. Please buy us two pairs of shoes. The merchant thought these two women were goddesses, so he bought shoes as soon as he arrived in the city. When he came back, he stopped at Xieshan, put the shoes he bought in a bamboo shed, and piously sent the shed with shoes (a square bamboo utensil) to the temple statue at the top of the mountain. After boarding the ship, he was about to leave. Suddenly, a big carp jumped into the cabin from the water and cut it open. There are books and knives in the belly of the fish he left behind.

These beautiful and moving stories are of course made up by people. In fact, the appearance of Xieshan is by no means the lost embroidered shoes of fairies, but the masterpiece of Quaternary glaciers. When the glacier army marched into Poyang Lake, this huge stone lay across the lake, blocking the glacier's way. The glacier has no choice but to brush from its left and right sides. After thousands of years of polishing, the boulder has become today's narrow front and wide back, shaped like a shoe.

The battlefield of military strategists

Xieshan is located at the intersection of Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River, and it is the only big island on the lake for hundreds of miles from south to north. Of course, it is a battleground for military strategists in past dynasties. As early as the Three Kingdoms period, Zhou Yu of Wu practiced the water army here, then went out to Hukou and defeated Cao Jun at Chibi. At the end of Yuan Dynasty, Chen Youliang lost in the battle of Kang Langshan, retreated to Xieshan, built a city construction base on the island, and then started a war with Zhu Yuanzhang in the waters of Xieshan. In the Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Army launched an influential Poyang Lake water war based on Xieshan Mountain, and Zeng Guofan was beaten to death by diving. ...

Numerous historical events have left many cultural landscapes such as "Great Wall" and "Battery" to Xiedao. In addition, temples, pagodas, theaters and other ancient buildings, as well as poems and paintings left by poets such as Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Mi, etc., Xie Shan really gives people a beautiful feeling, which is really a great concentration of Poyang Lake. Among many native products, the most famous is Xieshan water-absorbing stone. Xieshan water-absorbing stone is a rare natural ore, which has been sleeping in caves in the mountains for a long time and gradually grows into a special stone. This kind of stone looks like stalactite, but it is different from stalactite when you look closely. This kind of stone is full of holes and has strong water absorption. Therefore, the bonsai and Pan Jing made of Xieshan water-absorbing stone are not only beautiful in appearance, but also can plant flowers and grass on the stone. In particular, the monks on the mountain dug a big hole in the boulder, which was dry on sunny days and foggy on cloudy days, making it an accurate weather forecast on the mountain. Known as the "first shoe" in A Chinese Odyssey, Xieshan Island has been listed as a world cultural heritage by UNESCO.