Xianyan Cave

Xianyan Cave

Xianyan Cave

Xianyan Cave is located on the southeastern coast of Sanmen County,

five kilometers from the sea. Legend has it that it was created by immortals and is known as the "Finest Seaside Scenery of Taizhou." According to the Linhai Annals, Southern Song Dynasty's Wen Tianxiang "came here to recruit soldiers," and during the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty, the "Wen Xin Guo Gong Da Zhong Shrine" was built inside the cave.

At the end of the fields, passing through a pine forest on the hillside, there are hundreds of sturdy bamboos. By the roadside, where there are some flagstones and three to five rock fragments, lies the former site of the "Zhuoyi Pavilion." During the Ming and Qing dynasties, when ceremonies were held at the Da Zhong Shrine twice a year, officials had to straighten their robes and adjust their hats here to show respect before ascending dozens of stone steps, passing through the Xianyue Cave Gate, to reach a rectangular platform of over a hundred square meters and tens of meters in height. Standing on the platform, one can see the distant mist, islets, reefs, and waves — the seascape praised by Wen Gong as “a painted scroll of all things, amid a realm of jade cliffs.” The couplet on the stone wall across the cave entrance reads: “The immortal’s cave opens into a celestial grotto, where traces of the immortals remain; the shrine of loyalty is enshrined in a blessed land, where righteousness endures forever.” This summarizes the history of Xianyan Cave. It became a Taoist cave retreat as early as the Jin Dynasty, then called "Fayun Temple," and was renamed "Baihua Qing Cave" in the Song Dynasty. The plaque inscribed with the words “First Grotto Heaven” above the cave entrance dates back to the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty.

Xianyan Cave is hundreds of zhang high and covers hundreds of acres. On the eastern wall are reliefs of the Eight Immortals and cliff inscriptions, while the western wall is covered with caves of various sizes. Below, water rises and falls with the tides; above, cliffs jut out like eaves, capable of holding ten-zhang-high flags and seating a thousand people. The Da Zhong Shrine inside the cave is newly built but stands on the original site. Within the shrine are three stone tablets from the Ming and Qing dynasties, two large plaques inscribed with the characters “Loyalty” and “Chastity,” as well as statues of the four righteous men — Du Hu, Zhang Hesun, Hu Wenke, and Lü Wu — and Wen Tianxiang, making it a sacred site for people to honor these heroic spirits. A Qing Dynasty scholar, Qin Fu, one of the “Three Outstanding Figures of Taizhou,” commented on the Da Zhong Shrine in Xianyan Cave: “Though similar shrines exist along the Ou River, in the Min Mountains, at Yashan, in Luling, and in Yanjing, none surpass this place in terms of the wonder of the cave and the beauty of the mountains and sea.” Nearby are Chuanyan Cave, Wansong Cave, Muzhao Beach, and Beikeng Stone Forest.