Blessing Us in Southern Li

Blessing Us in Southern Li

At the southern foot of Longfeng and Hufeng in Xiangshan Mountain, there is an ancient temple called Xiantong Temple. The locals commonly refer to it as "Xiangshan Temple." In the main hall on the east side of the temple, there is an Imperial Calligraphy Pavilion. Inside the pavilion stands a huge stone stele inscribed with four large characters personally written by Emperor Qianlong: “惠我南黎” (Blessing Us in Southern Li).

It turns out that during the Qianlong era, the Sui River, which flowed from the northwest to the southeast of Xiangshan Mountain, often flooded during the rainy season due to years of silt buildup in its riverbed. Gao Jin, the governor of Anhui Province, was ordered to survey the river and oversee its restoration. After arriving in Suixi, he also paid a visit to Xiantong Temple on Xiangshan. He found the temple nestled between two mountains, surrounded by ancient trees and set in beautiful scenery, but the temple itself was dilapidated. So Governor Gao Jin completely ignored his primary mission of river management and instead petitioned Emperor Qianlong — under the pretense of seeking divine protection for the people against floods — to renovate the temple. After reading Gao Jin’s memorial, Emperor Qianlong ordered him not only to carry out initial repairs on the temple but also to build an 18-li (approximately 9 km) long shaded corridor. However, Gao Jin embezzled the funds allocated for the river project and enriched himself, merely making superficial repairs to the temple and failing to construct the long corridor as instructed.

Later, when Emperor Qianlong traveled to the south of the Yangtze River and passed through Pengcheng (present-day Xuzhou), he set up a temporary palace at Yunlong Mountain. Suddenly, he remembered that he wanted to visit the 18-li corridor on Xiangshan to enjoy the scenery, so he commanded Gao Jin to accompany him on the imperial trip to Xiangshan. Upon receiving the order, Gao Jin was terrified and panicked like an ant on a hot pan. At this life-or-death moment, he falsely reported: “Xiangshan is a place of ‘barren mountains and treacherous waters inhabited by unruly people’ — it is not suitable for Your Majesty to visit.” In order to save his own life, Gao Jin slandered the naturally beautiful Xiangshan and its impoverished people as “barren mountains and treacherous waters” and “unruly people.” Emperor Qianlong, being rather timid, indeed dared not go to Xiangshan. But to win people’s hearts and appease the local populace, he personally wrote the four characters “惠我南黎” (Blessing Us in Southern Li). Later, they were engraved on stone by Zhang Kaishi, the prefect of Suzhou under Fengyang Prefecture in southern Jiangnan, and preserved to this day.