Saint Aunt Reef

Saint Aunt Reef has a beautiful legend. It is said that in ancient times, three beautiful maidens came to Yangshan with a dog and a treasure chest and rested here. The Saint Aunt Reef Palace on the reef was built during the Qing Dynasty and has a history of over 170 years. Moreover, in the 14th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty, which is 1880 (Note: 1860 is likely an error as Guangxu 14 is 1888, but 1880 is Guangxu 6), Lei Yuchun from Xiangtan, along with Generals such as Liu Changchun, patrolled the sea to Dayang Island. Moved by the ocean’s grandeur, he inscribed four upright regular-script characters: “群贤毕至” (Gathering of the Wise). Each character is 0.36 meters tall and 0.28 meters wide, with a 12-character left signature and a 32-character right signature. Nearby, there are also inscriptions “海宇澄清” (The Sea and Sky Are Clear) and “泛波” (Waves Across), each character about 0.5 meters tall and 0.4 meters wide. The right signature of the latter, by the year 1900 (Guangxu 26), has faded due to natural weathering, making its specific content unverifiable. These three cliff inscriptions are all listed as county-level cultural relics. During the Southern Song Dynasty, beacon towers appeared in the Shengsi Archipelago. In the 6th year of the Baoyou era of the Southern Song (1258), along the long maritime route from Zhenhai's Zhaobao Mountain in Ningbo to the Shengsi Archipelago, there were 12 beacon fires, 8 of which were within the territory of the Shengsi Archipelago, and the one on Yangshan was located on Saint Aunt Reef.