Dan Mountain Well

Dan Mountain Well

Dan Mountain Well is a cultural relic protection unit of Xiangshan County.

This well is said to have been dug by Xu Fu, a Qin Dynasty alchemist. During the Liang Dynasty, Tao Hongjing refined elixirs here and threw his pills into the well, hence the name "Elixir Well," commonly known as Dan Mountain Well. It is also nicknamed "Through-the-Bottle Spring" because of its "crystal-clear and sweet water"—when stored in a clay jar, droplets were said to seep through the vessel. The well is built of stone and round in shape. Historical records indicate that the original stone well curb was constructed during the Dazhong Xiangfu era of the Song Dynasty (1008–1016 AD), carved by Wu Chushi from Puyang. But the existing stone well curb is not the original one; it is a hexagonal bluestone well curb. All six sides of the curb are inscribed. The characters "Dan Well" on the eastern face are still clearly visible, while most of the others are blurred. Among them, "On the auspicious day of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in the renwu year of the Jiaking first year" can be vaguely made out. It can thus be inferred that this stone well curb is a relic from the Ming Dynasty.