Lotus Cave Site

Lotus Cave Site

The Lotus Cave Site is a protected cultural heritage site of Jiangsu Province.

Lotus Cave, located on the northern slope of Bailonggang, is a rock cave formed by the dissolution of fissures in the Triassic Qinglong limestone. Surrounded by mountains and dotted with rocky crevices, the cave was once called White Dragon Cave after a monk discovered several hu of dragon bones inside. A stone in front of the cave, naturally shaped like a lotus bud, gave it its current name. The Qing Dynasty poet Wang Maolin wrote, “Exploring ancient caves in search of wonder, exquisitely crafted as if by heaven.” The main chamber inside is fairly spacious, measuring 12 meters in length, about 6 meters at its widest point, and less than 3 meters at its narrowest. The cave twists and turns, growing narrower the deeper one goes. There are also three branch caves extending east, west, and center, their depths immeasurable. Lotus Cave features twin cavities with perennial dripping springs, and the lotus-shaped stone Buddha is also naturally formed, created over tens of thousands of years by mineral deposits. The wonder of the lotus extends beyond the cave itself. The entrance to Lotus Cave is uniquely situated atop a massive cliff. An ancient Buddhist temple once stood here but was destroyed during the Xianfeng era, leaving behind scattered debris of bricks and tiles at the cave entrance and at the mountain foot as evidence.

According to the *Zhenjiang Annals*, on the south side of the lotus-petal-shaped stone, the two central characters “云峰” (“Cloud Peak”) are inscribed in running script, with signatures “Jingdu Wang Wei” and “Zhuyin Shangren Title.” Though you can still make out the two characters “云峰” quite clearly, the accompanying signatures have faded and their meanings remain unknown. “云峰” was the courtesy name of Yuan Heng, a local from the Qing Dynasty who also wrote poetry here—coincidence? However, little is known about “Jingdu Wang Wei.” “Zhuyin Shangren” was a monk from the Lotus Cave Temple during the Qing Dynasty, mentioned in the poem “Presented to Zhuyin at Lotus Cave” by Mao Runzhi, a local poet.

Following the mountain path northward from Lotus Cave down to the base of the mountain, you’ll find a spring by the roadside named “Niliu Spring” (Backflow Spring). Clear springs gurgle slowly from underground, the water pristine and transparent. Legend has it that during the Spring and Autumn Period, Qing Feng, a nobleman from the Qi Kingdom, escaped to the Wu Kingdom and settled here, digging this spring. The spring flows from east to west into lush farmland, hence the name “Backflow.”

In 1981, 2001, and 2010, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Nanjing Museum, and other institutions conducted several archaeological excavations in Lotus Cave. They unearthed a number of ancient mammalian fossils, stone artifacts, and stone cores, providing important insights into the distribution of ancient humans in China and the classification, migration, and evolution of animal groups in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, while adding to the mystique of Lotus Cave.

On December 19, 2011, the People's Government of Jiangsu Province designated it as a cultural heritage site under the seventh batch of provincial-level protection.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of Provincial-Level Cultural Heritage Protection Units in Jiangsu Province