Moya Mountain Nianzhai Site

Moya Mountain Nianzhai Site

The Moya Mountain Nianzhai Site is a cultural relic protection unit of Huaibei City.

Located on Nainai Mountain east of Houzhouwei Village in Songtuan Town, which produces whetstones, the site is associated with a legend that Fan Kuai once raised his banner here to recruit soldiers. Stone holes from flagpoles still remain, hence the name “Moya Mountain.”

In 1985, a piece of raw iron was collected, along with a stone tablet documenting the renovation of Nainai Temple. The inscription reads: “Moya Mountain formerly had the Bixia Palace, behind it the Buddha’s Bright Tower, in front the two side halls of the King of Hell, and further down the Mountain God Shrine, with the West Peak hosting the Three Officials, Fire God, Spirit Official, and Hua Zu temples. There are also the Chaoyang Two Caves, inside which are statues of the Dark Emperor and Bodhidharma, preserved from the Han and Tang dynasties up to our time for over a thousand years. They were ravaged during the Xianfeng era. Temple pillars were torn down, and divine statues toppled…” This tablet was erected during the Qing Dynasty’s Guangxu era.

According to the "Suzhou Annals" from the Qing Guangxu period, in the sixth year of the Xianfeng era (1856 AD), the Nian Army fought a major battle at Fuliji and captured Moya Mountain. After occupying the mountain, the Nian Army set up camps, stationed troops, and guarded the area, cutting off the Qing army's food supply route. In June of the first year of the Tongzhi era (1862 AD), Magistrate Ying Han led local militias to Gaohuang Mountain. He ordered the spy Zhao Kechang to infiltrate Moya Mountain, pretending to support the Nian Army in order to coordinate an internal and external attack, forcing the Nian Army to burn their stronghold and retreat westward, later operating along the borders of Xia, Suzhou, and Yong. The Moya Mountain Nianzhai Site stretches 400 meters from north to south and 60 meters from east to west. It now lies in ruins, with remnants of thin slate-built fortress walls scattered throughout, though the layout is irregular, and the surviving broken walls stand about one meter high.

Songtuan Town: With a population of 54,000, Songtuan Town administers 22 administrative villages: Shaoshan Village, Cangli Village, Maqiao Village, Gurao Village, Feizhai Village, Huangying Village, Taishan Village, Dongfeng Village, Wushan Village, Zhouwei Village, Zhaozhuang Village, Junwang Village, Wanglou Village, Huilou Village, He** Village, Machang Village, Songtuan Village, Dongwei Village, Dianzi Village, Leishan Village, Zhantan Village, and Donglou Village. … More detailed information about Songtuan Town++