Wanzi Mountain

Wanzi Mountain

Wanzi Mountain is located in the northwest corner of Beizhen City and is a small hill that is part of the Lüshan Mountain range. It was anciently known as “Wanzi Mountain” (meaning “Ten-Thousand Character Mountain”). The mountain is covered with dense lush pines and cypresses that block out the sun, and it was later renamed “Wancui Mountain” (meaning “Ten-Thousand Emerald Mountain”). Legend has it that Emperor Shengzong of the Liao Dynasty, Yelü Longxu, once visited this mountain for leisure and to escape the summer heat, and thus it was renamed “Wansui Mountain” (meaning “Ten-Thousand-Year Mountain”). In the 25th year of the Hongwu era (1392 AD) during the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang appointed his son Zhu Zhi as the Prince of Liaoning and enfeoffed him as the Prince of Liaoning to guard Liaodong. A princely palace was constructed on “Wansui Mountain,” but to avoid the use of the phrase “wansui” (ten-thousand-year), it was renamed once more to “Wancui Mountain” (Ten-Thousand Emerald Mountain). During the Qing Dynasty’s Qianlong era, due to the abundant resources of Guangning and the breathtaking scenery visible from the mountain — with plains stretching out before it, the city’s mist behind, twin pagodas to the left, and Lüshan Mountain to the right — the name was changed to “Wanzi Mountain” (Ten-Thousand Purple Mountain), inspired by the meaning of “myriad purples and reds,” symbolizing a vibrant landscape.

Like other scenic spots, Wanzi Mountain also has many legends: Emperor Shengzong of the Liao Dynasty visited and admired the mountain scenery, singing its praises. He stayed overnight on the mountain and had a dream in which he saw a group of fairies dressed in cloud-like hats and feathered robes descending from the sky, accompanied by the music of sheng, pipes, and flutes, as they sang and danced gracefully. Behind them was a grand Buddhist palace with a tower every five steps and a pavilion every ten, bearing a plaque that read “Palace of the Goddess Bixia Yuanjun,” radiating beams of auspicious light and a myriad of propitious vapors, before suddenly vanishing. The emperor awoke to realize it had been a dream. The next day, he had the “Palace of the Goddess Bixia Yuanjun” built on the mountain according to what he had seen in the dream.

According to inscriptions on stelae, there were dozens of main and side halls, three incense towers, three bell towers, and dozens of corridors on the left and right at that time. In the late Liao Dynasty, these temples were burned down by Jin troops. During the Ming Dynasty’s Wanli era, the “Tianyuan Taoist Temple” was reconstructed on the site of the former princely palace, and new structures such as the “Chongquan Temple” and “Ancestral Master Temple” were also built. After the liberation, a Revolutionary Martyrs’ Monument for the Liberation War was erected on the ruins of these temples.

In the past, there were two springs on “Wanzi Mountain” that flowed year-round. A well was built over the springs, called the “Eight-Treasure Glazed Well.” Later, a temple named “Chongquan Temple” was built. Old tales say: “Chongquan Temple, with its emerald rocks and overlapping ridges, offers boundless views, and every morning is veiled in light mist, which is why ancient poets found the ‘Morning Mist at Chongquan’ the hardest to describe, calling it one of the scenic highlights of the region” (from *Liaohai Series · Guangning County Annals*). As a result, it was listed as one of the Eight Scenic Spots of Guangning, known as “Morning Mist at Chongquan.”

A Qing Dynasty poet, Sun Cheng, wrote a poem about the Morning Mist at Chongquan: “At dawn, the mist at Chongquan shrouds the peaks in gray; / On Wanzi’s head, all sides are veiled the same way. / As dawn breaks slowly, the city’s shape appears, / While cold still lingers 'midst the rain and clearing air. / Misty light drips with dew through morning haze, / Sea vapors breathe clouds into the far-flung skies. / They say in olden days the smoke rose thick and bright, / Still swirling faintly 'round the Buddha’s palace light.” Based on the poem and historical records, the “Morning Mist at Chongquan” is a natural phenomenon formed when the cooking smoke from thousands of households in the valley below or the morning mist envelops the entire mountain every dawn.