Iron Ox of Shaobo

Iron Ox of Shaobo

Iron Ox of Shaobo

During the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, the Huai River suffered from severe flooding. The southern watchtower embankment at Shaobo Town breached, with the gap stretching 180 meters long and the water depth exceeding 13 meters. Upon reading the report, Emperor Kangxi was greatly alarmed and ordered the Grand Canal Governor Zhang Penghe to swiftly seal the breach. However, due to the extreme depth of the breach, it was difficult to block it immediately. Therefore, they bypassed the breach and dug a bypass channel starting from Cangxiangkou heading west, then turning south to connect with the South King Temple and joining the canal, and also built two dams, one north and one south. In the 40th year of Emperor Kangxi’s reign, the imperial court placed twelve animal statues — namely “nine oxen, two tigers, and one chicken” — along the lower reaches of the Huai River down to where it meets the Yangtze, positioning them at key points of strong water flow to suppress the floodwaters. Today, the “chicken has flown and the tigers have run off,” leaving only a few iron oxen scattered along the riverbanks. The Iron Ox of Shaobo is one of the better-preserved ones. It is 1.98 meters long, 1.10 meters tall, hollow inside, and lies horizontally on a thick, approximately 10-centimeter, cast-iron base. Its casting is exquisite, the shape vivid, and it weighs about 2 tons. In the second year of the Xianfeng reign, Dong Xun, author of *The Brief Chronicles of Gantang*, was ordered to oversee the transport of grain from southern Chu and passed through Shaobo. Noticing that the Shaobo Iron Ox remained intact but lacked an inscription, he specially composed one that read: “From the north flows the mighty Huai, the long dike stands firm as a rainbow. Cast in iron is the ox to guard Gantang, using the yielding to conquer the hard. Embracing the people and livestock, it ensures boundless peace, to be praised for peace and prosperity across millions of years.”