The "First Mountain" of Travelers from All Directions

The "First Mountain" of Travelers from All Directions

On the right side of the stone path leading to the Mituo Rock of Qingyuan Mountain, also the first mid-mountain platform, stands a stele inscribed with the words "First Mountain," written in the calligraphy of Mi Fu, a great calligrapher of the Song Dynasty.

This "First Mountain" stele was originally erected under Miaojue Rock at Qifeng, and it has a winding history of travel between distant places. Some know it was copied from elsewhere, but they do not know who wrote it or how the calligraphy was brought to Qingyuan Mountain.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a painter and calligrapher named Mi Fu (1051–1107), also known as Yuanzhang, styled himself as a scholar of Xiangyang and as the Hermit of Haiyue. He lived in Taiyuan, Shanxi, later moved to Xiangyang, Hubei, and spent his later years in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu. He once served as a Doctor of Painting and Calligraphy and rose to the position of Vice Minister of Rites. He was called Mi Nangong, and due to his eccentric behavior, he was also nicknamed Mi Dian. He loved stones so much that he would bow to them upon seeing them — the tale of "Mi Dian Bowing to a Stone" has been passed down as a famous story. He is grouped with Cai Xiang, Su Dongpo, and Huang Tingjian as one of the "Four Great Calligraphers of the Northern Song Dynasty." In the fourth year of Shaosheng (1097), he traveled south by boat from Bianjing to take up a post in Yangzhou. The landscape along the river was flat, but when he reached Xuyi County, he saw a mountain to the east of the city called Nanshan, so he disembarked and climbed the mountain to take in the view. As soon as he ascended, he felt refreshed and repeatedly praised the scenery, exclaiming spontaneously: “After a thousand-li journey through the dust of the capital, the emerald clouds emerge from the bow of my boat. Forget about Wei and Hu reaching for the stars — this is the foremost mountain of the southeast.” The monks of the mountain quickly presented writing materials and asked him to leave his inscription. In high spirits, Mi Fu wielded his brush and wrote the three characters "第一山" (First Mountain). Later, the monks carved the characters into a stone stele and erected it beside the Glass Spring on the mountainside.

Later, during the Shaoxing era, the Minister of War Li Bing had a deep love for paintings and calligraphy. After some twists and turns, he preserved this piece of calligraphy. Later, after Li Bing was dismissed from office, he took up residence in Quanzhou and built a hermitage at Zuiyue Rock under Guishan Mountain of Qingyuan Mountain. Seeing the majestic beauty of Qingyuan Mountain, he had the characters "First Mountain" engraved on a stele and erected it under Miaojue Rock. During the late Ming Dynasty, amid warfare, the "First Mountain" stele on Nanshan was destroyed. It was not until the Qing Dynasty that a man surnamed Guo from Quanzhou, who became the magistrate of Xuyi County, brought back a rubbing of the "First Mountain" stele from Qingyuan Mountain to Xuyi and had it carved into stone and erected in its original location. Therefore, the "First Mountain" stele seen today on Nanshan is exactly the same as the one on Qingyuan Mountain.

Source: Quanzhou Municipal People's Government Public Information Website