Cliff Inscriptions in Taoyuan Gully

Cliff Inscriptions in Taoyuan Gully

The Cliff Inscriptions in Taoyuan Gully are a Suzhou Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Cliff Inscriptions in Taoyuan Gully

Located at the northern foot of Mount Yu, the Taoyuan Gully is over a hundred meters long, with steep cliffs lining its sides. The rock surfaces feature seven or eight inscriptions created between the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty and 1927. Among the more notable are the two characters “Fei Han” (Flying Cold), inscribed by the Ming Dynasty painter Sun Kehong during the Wanli era. Each character is 0.42 meters square and rendered in clerical script. There is also an inscription from the 17th year of the Daoguang reign in the Qing Dynasty, showing the names of those who toured the site together — including Wang Menglin, Prefect of Suzhou; Lan Weiwen, Magistrate of Changshu; and Jin Xian, Magistrate of Zhaowen — inscribed in two locations. One of these features ten lines of text, each line containing ten characters, written in regular script. Another notable inscription is from the 16th year of the Guangxu reign in the Qing Dynasty, where Yang Jingchuan, Provincial Administration Commissioner of Jiangsu, wrote “Han Quan Gu Yue” (Cold Spring and Ancient Moon) in running script, as well as the calligrapher Tao Junxuan’s inscription “Taoyuan Gully” in Wei stele script during the Guangxu period. These inscriptions were designated as a municipal cultural relics protection unit on November 17, 1982.