Chilan Bridge

Chilan Bridge

Chilan Bridge is the name of a bridge located in the southern part of Hefei. It is also associated with the renowned poet and musician Jiang Kui, who had a little-known story here, often celebrated in the poetry of contemporary poets.

Jiang Kui was a famous poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, with the courtesy name Yaozhang and the self-styled sobriquet "White Stone Taoist." He was from Poyang, Jiangxi. Dozens of his poems and lyrics are related to Hefei; his connection to the city, however, stems from his relationship with two sisters who were singing girls. Jiang Kui, who loved nature and enjoyed the landscape, is known to have visited Hefei at least three times during his middle and young adult years, staying near Chilan Bridge in the southern part of the city. On his first visit, he fell in love with a pipa-playing girl by the bridge. In his lyrics, she is described as having a figure that was “as graceful as a swallow” and a voice that was “as tender as an oriole’s,” exuding endless charm and allure. She showed him tender care, sewing for him when he left and sending him letters afterward, leaving a lasting impression. Moreover, the pipa-playing girl had a younger sister who played the guzheng. The two sisters accompanied Jiang Kui on trips to Chaohu Lake, climbs up Mount Lao, and often boated along the moat, performing and singing Jiang’s own lyrics, adding brilliance to his music and bringing great joy to the musically gifted and lyric-composing Jiang Kui. Even when they were temporarily apart, he would often dream of the sisters. In his writings, there are poignant and lingering lines such as, “The Fei River flows eastward without end; I shouldn’t have planted the seeds of longing back then.”

Jiang Kui was a famous poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, with the courtesy name Yaozhang and the self-styled sobriquet "White Stone Taoist." He was from Poyang, Jiangxi. Dozens of his poems and lyrics are related to Hefei; his connection to the city, however, stems from his relationship with two sisters who were singing girls. Jiang Kui, who loved nature and enjoyed the landscape, is known to have visited Hefei at least three times during his middle and young adult years, staying near Chilan Bridge in the southern part of the city.

On his first visit, he fell in love with a pipa-playing girl by the bridge. In his lyrics, she is described as having a figure that was “as graceful as a swallow” and a voice that was “as tender as an oriole’s,” exuding endless charm and allure. She showed him tender care, sewing for him when he left and sending him letters afterward, leaving a lasting impression. Moreover, the pipa-playing girl had a younger sister who played the guzheng. The two sisters accompanied Jiang Kui on trips to Chaohu Lake, climbs up Mount Lao, and often boated along the moat, performing and singing Jiang’s own lyrics, adding brilliance to his music and bringing great joy to the musically gifted and lyric-composing Jiang Kui. Even when they were temporarily apart, he would often dream of the sisters. In his writings, there are poignant and lingering lines such as, “The Fei River flows eastward without end; I shouldn’t have planted the seeds of longing back then.”

At times, Jiang Kui was weighed down by “romantic entanglements,” even drawing criticism from the two Hefei sisters. Legend has it that when the Jin general Wuzhu captured Hefei, Jiang Kui was at his home in Jiangxi. He immediately rushed to Hefei to visit the sisters by Chilan Bridge. Unexpectedly, he was met with disdain from the elder sister. The pipa player believed that with the nation in peril and the enemy at the gates, a man of Jiang Kui’s stature should be joining the army to serve his country loyally—what was he doing coming to see them? She wrote hastily on plain paper: “Wine fuels ambition, flowers dull valor. With the nation in crisis, how can we turn a blind eye?” Ashamed, Jiang Kui bid a temporary farewell to Chilan Bridge and joined the anti-Jin general Liu Qi. After Liu Qi defeated the Jin forces at Zhazhou and reclaimed Hefei, Jiang Kui returned to Chilan Bridge only to find the bridge destroyed and the buildings empty—the two sisters had vanished without a trace. After extensive inquiries, he learned that the elder sister, unable to bear the humiliation by the Jin forces, had killed a minor officer and then jumped into the river to take her own life. Jiang Kui wept bitterly and later composed many heartfelt poems in their memory.

Jiang Kui was “a leading literary master of his generation, as well as an accomplished musician, calligrapher, and connoisseur.” Among his more than 80 surviving poems and lyrics, research indicates that 25 were written for the pipa-playing girl or inspired by thoughts of her, accounting for nearly one-third of his total works.

To commemorate Jiang Kui, Hefei has undertaken several initiatives: (1) Renaming the Tongcheng Road Bridge, which spans the Yinhe River, to Chilan Bridge; (2) Publishing the book Jiang Kui and Hefei; (3) Planning the “Bai Shi Zhi Yin Scenic Spot” on the southwestern slope of Chilan Bridge. Once completed, it will become a beautiful cultural landmark in Hefei.