Sikong Mountain

Sikong Mountain

Sikong Mountain is a national AAA-level tourist attraction.

Sikong Mountain spans seventy square li, with its main peak rising 1,227 meters above sea level. From a distance, it resembles a massive entity standing upright in the clouds. The county annals describe Sikong Mountain as “a solitary peak standing like jade, with vermilion cliffs crafted by supernatural hands. Gazing upward at its sheer cliffs, it’s like a painted screen reflecting the sea. Looking westward, its towering presence is like an upright brush piercing the sky. To the east and north, the landscape shifts with every step, ever-changing and unpredictable.” During the Sui and Tang periods, it housed over 1,800 temple buildings, most of which were later destroyed in wars, though the stone archways and stone troughs survived the devastation.

Sikong Mountain is located at the border of Dianqian and Yexi towns, forty kilometers west of Yuexi County, Anhui. According to the *Taihu County Annals*, legend has it that “Chunyu Sikong of the Zhou Dynasty once lived here,” hence the mountain’s name. On the mountain lies Chuan Yi Stone, where the second patriarch of Buddhism, Huikuo, is said to have passed on his robe, and there is also the “Second Patriarch Zen Hall.” The Second Patriarch Huikuo of Sikong Mountain passed on his robe and bowl to the Third Patriarch, Master Can of Tianzhu Mountain. According to Buddhist Zen teachings: “Tianzhu Mountain in Qianshan is the place where the Third Patriarch Can ‘entered nirvana with folded palms,’ while Sikong Mountain in Yuexi is where the Second Patriarch Huikuo ‘secluded himself to practice Zen.’” This shows that in the eyes of Buddhists, Sikong Mountain holds a status even higher than the towering Tianzhu Mountain facing it across the valley.

Since the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Sikong Mountain has been a favored retreat for eminent monks and scholars. The Tang Dynasty’s poetic immortal Li Bai, when choosing to reside on Sikong Mountain, composed a poem praising it: “Cleaved cliffs like sliced melons, scenery bursts green through the cliffs. The Heavenly River flows from within, white clouds swell the valleys.” Historical records reveal that in the second year of the Zhide era of the Tang Dynasty (757 AD), after Li Bai was implicated and punished for following Prince Yong Li Lin in a failed eastern campaign, he sought refuge here, partly to avoid danger and partly out of long admiration for Sikong Mountain’s splendor, and thus went into seclusion on the mountain. Later generations honored Li Bai by building the “Taibai Study Hall.” Today, by the secluded stream in the valley on the left side of Sikong Mountain lies the former site of the study hall. Nearby cliff faces bear inscriptions of Li Bai’s poem *Exiled to Sikong Plain: Expressing My Feelings*, as well as the bold characters “Taibai’s Immortal Trail” carved by the Ming scholar Luo Rufang, along with his admonitory phrase “Do not inscribe poems.” In the second year of the Jingyan era of the Southern Song Dynasty’s Emperor Duanzong (1277 AD), pacification commissioner Zhang Dexing and Liu Yuan, leader of the peasant rebellion army at Ye Renzhai in Qianshan, gathered at Sikong Mountain to jointly resist the Yuan forces and built the “Chaotian Palace.” The distinguished Taiping Rebellion general Chen Yucheng also led troops to train and camp at Sikong Mountain. The history of Sikong Mountain as the “Mountain of Heroes” will be passed down for generations. Despite the vicissitudes of time, relics from the past such as the “Horse-Washing Pool,” “Sword and Spear Cave,” “Zhang Dexing Stone Carvings,” and the “Stone Fortress” built on Sikong Mountain at the end of the Song Dynasty still remain.

The Tang and Song Dynasty relics of Sikong Mountain are renowned far and wide. The ancient Eight Scenic Spots—“Taibai Study Hall,” “Milky Way Moonlit Night,” “South Cliff Waterfall,” “Red Cliffs and Cinnabar,” “North Ridge Pine Winds,” “Second Patriarch Zen Temple,” “Black Ox Ancient Rock,” and “Horse-Washing Spring Pool”—showcase the vivid and dynamic scenery of Sikong Mountain. An ancient poem praises: “A stone ox on the immortal mountain of Sikong, passed down by immortals for thousands of autumns. Fierce storms rage but its fur does not stir, light rain drifts as cold waters flow. Glancing back, it gazes at the moonlit night, sipping by the lotus pool, thoughts unceasing. Green grass covers its hooves, hard to graze, the heavens and earth keep it company, never letting it go at night.”

Researcher Yu Songxiang discovered that when viewed from the due south of Sikong Mountain, the mountain takes the form of a 12-kilometer-long, 1,000-meter-high, southeast-to-northwest-facing, armless seated Buddha clad in robes, meditating while facing the Buddha in the west. The Buddha’s shoulders, from the west—the western gate of the Sikong Mountain Fortress built by the Southern Song national hero General Zhang Dexing—to the east—the Lapi Slope in Sikong Village, Dianqian Town, spanning approximately 1,000 meters in length and around 1,000 meters in elevation—are locally called the Two-Li Horizontal Row. The southern Zouma Gang forms the left shoulder, while the cervical vertebrae’s center is the Black Ox Ancient Rock, one of the Eight Scenic Spots of Sikong Mountain. The right shoulder extends from Lapi Slope to the Black Ox Ancient Rock, with symmetrical undulations resembling human shoulders. The left arm extends westward seven or eight li to Guanyin Peak, while the right arm is severed by towering cliffs, transforming into a seven-tiered pagoda. The left foot stretches southwest to Chongbao Temple by the Baisha River, and the right foot extends northeast to Lion’s Mouth in Dianqian, with a straight-line distance of over 12 kilometers. The shoulders up to the 200-meter-high cliffs at the summit of Sikong Mountain form the head, with the back of the neck and skull contours clearly and symmetrically defined, spanning about 300 meters in width. Among them, the high point on the western side of the summit, an 80-meter-high, dozen-meter-wide moth clinging to the cliff, strikingly resembles a large ear opened westward, silently listening to the Buddhist scriptures and Sanskrit chants of the Western Buddha. From the shoulders downward to the Sikong River forms the seated Buddha’s back. Below 350 meters in elevation is a gentle slope, while from 350 to 1,000 meters is a steep cliff face, dotted with small shrubs among the rocks, dividing the entire back into varying-sized rock walls. The left and right shoulder blades protrude symmetrically, resembling from afar a robe patched together from fragments, with the back reaching nearly 800 meters in height. The southern side of Sikong Mountain meets the Sikong River, originating from Mayu’ao and Sikong Mountain, where the riverbed near the Old Oil Mill is about 230 meters in elevation (with a maximum error of ±5 meters), and the summit of Sikong Mountain is 1,227.8 meters above sea level. Based on this, the relative height of the Sikong Mountain seated Buddha is 1,000 meters, making it the world’s tallest natural giant Buddha.

Today, Sikong Mountain, revered as a sacred site of Chinese Zen Buddhism, has garnered attention from the government and relevant departments. Temples and monastic quarters have been restored to their former glory. Incense burns abundantly, and the sounds of bells and drums resonate, making the “Sikong Scenic Realm” even more deserving of its name. Since the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Sikong Mountain has been a gathering place for eminent monks to preach and for literati to seek out secluded beauty. An ancient poem reads: “A slanted peak of Sikong pierces the sky, dwarfing myriad mountains. If you ask where the immortal realm lies, listen for the crowing of roosters and barking of dogs amid the white clouds.”

Dianqian Town: Located at the junction of Yuexi, Taihu, and Yingshan counties in Anhui and Hubei provinces, Dianqian Town is home to Sikong Mountain, the famed First Mountain of Chinese Zen Buddhism and a national A-level scenic tourist attraction. Dianqian Town is a pilot township for comprehensive reform in Anqing City and one of Anhui Province’s 63 key towns and a model town in the province’s “Hundred Towns, Thousand Villages” new rural construction initiative. The town administers 11 administrative villages, 35 directly affiliated units, and 8 central units, covering a total area of 183 square kilometers, including 200,000 mu of mountainous land and 851 hectares of arable land. By the end of 2005, the town had a total population of 24,391... Detailed information on Dianqian Town++