Cliffside Stone Carvings on Qishan Mountain

Cliffside Stone Carvings on Qishan Mountain

The Cliffside Stone Carvings on Qishan Mountain are a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Qishan Mountain is located 1.5 kilometers south of Guichi District and has long been praised as “sharing the splendor of Jiuhua Mountain while excelling in the Jiangnan region.” The mountain rises no more than 100 meters, spans approximately 5 square kilometers, and stretches from west to northeast, reaching all the way to the shore of Baisha Lake. From a distance, its overall shape resembles a crouching tiger raising its head.

Qishan is primarily characterized by karst landforms, with numerous rocks, caves, stones, ravines, springs, and gorges densely clustered across the mountain, forming a unique, profound, and richly varied karst landscape. Historical records indicate that since the late Tang Dynasty, Qishan’s diverse rock formations and mysterious caves have been highly favored by visitors. The “Cave Heaven of Qishan” was ranked first among the Ten Scenic Spots of the Prefectural Governor. By the Ming Dynasty, Qishan had become as renowned as “the splendor of Jiuhua” in the Jiangnan region. Strolling through it feels like walking through a painting, with thousands of peculiar rocks resembling natural potted landscapes, leaving all who visit in awe of nature’s miraculous craftsmanship.

With green mountains on one side and lakes on three, the fresh and elegant Qishan is formed by over ten peaks arranged in graceful succession—“uneven ranges stand like a screen, slanting down to embrace ten miles of blue lake and sky,” bringing peace to the heart and joy to the spirit. The poet Lu You praised, “The scenery of Qishan is truly exceptional.” With distant rivers and nearby lakes veiled in green and white, the landscape borrows from both, embodying the freshness, clarity, poetic charm, and painterly beauty of Jiangnan, as well as the simplicity and naturalness of southern Anhui.

The cultural heritage here is also rich and diverse. Since the early years of the Huichang era in the Tang Dynasty, Li Fangyuan, the prefect of Chizhou, pioneered the tradition of cliffside stone carvings on Qishan. Later, Du Mu, a late Tang poet and his successor, built the Cuwei Pavilion atop the western peak of Qishan in honor of Li Bai (in Li Bai’s poems about his travels around Qiupu, there is a line: “Open the curtain to face the verdant haze”). Ascending the mountain and entering the pavilion, drinking wine and composing poetry, he wrote the masterpiece “Ascending Qishan on the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month.” Since then, Qishan has gained widespread fame throughout the country, attracting visitors who come in search of historical traces, compose poetry, and admire the scenery. Over the centuries, the poets, scholars, officials, and generals who visited Qishan have left behind more than a thousand poems, essays, travelogues, and inscriptions, as recorded in the Qishan Caves and Grottoes Record. Gazing at the words “Return My Rivers and Mountains” carved on the cliff, one can’t help but think of Yue Fei’s poem “Visiting Cuwei Pavilion on Qishan” written when he passed by Qishan on his way north to resist the Jin invaders in the first year of the Shaoxing era: “Dust of the campaign year covers my battle robe, I make a special trip to seek the blooms atop Cuwei. The fine mountains and waters are such a delight I can’t get enough of them, the horse’s hooves urge me homeward under the bright moon.” The steep cliffs are dotted with numerous cliffside inscriptions, among which the most magnificent is the “Qishan” inscription by Bao Zheng in the second year of the Zhihe era during the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Protected Area:

(1) Relief Stone Carvings at Cangyu Gorge

Centered around Cangyu Gorge, extending 30 meters east to the Yuxiao Gorge stone carvings halfway up the mountain, 10 meters west to the stone archway, 5 meters south beyond the Cangyu Gorge stone carvings, and 10 meters north to the mountain hollow.

(2) Stone Carvings at Xiaojiuhua

Centered around the Xiaojiuhua stone carvings, extending 30 meters east to the mountain path, 10 meters west to Cuwei Pavilion, and to the pond cliff on both the south and north sides.

(3) Stone Carvings at Jiyinya Cliff

Centered around the “Qishan” stone carving, extending 30 meters east, to the cliff on the west, to the cliff on the south, and to the “Wanhe Yuntao” (Ten Thousand Ravines Cloud Waves) stone carving on the north.

(4) Stone Carvings at Huagai Cave

Covering an area extending 10 meters inside Huagai Cave to 3 meters outside Yan Cave.

(5) Stone Carvings at Zuoshi Cave

Within 5 meters outside the entrance and exit of Zuoshi Cave.

Construction Control Zone: The entire area of Qishan Mountain.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units