Huoshui Pavilion Bridge

Huoshui Pavilion Bridge

Huoshui Pavilion Bridge Scenic Spot

Huoshui Pavilion Bridge is located in Yuantou Village, Shangtang Town. It is a long pavilion built on a bridge, stretching like a corridor across the rice fields. The pavilion is the bridge, and the bridge is the pavilion. The bridge is 27.7 meters long, 4.6 meters wide, and 4.9 meters high, featuring three arches and two piers. A stream of flowing water passes beneath the bridge, hence the name “Huoshui Pavilion Bridge.”

According to the Nan Cheng County Annals, when Zhu Xi gave lectures here and admired the beautiful scenery of Yuantou, he wrote the famous poem “Reflections on Reading”: “A small pond opens like a mirror bright; / With sky and clouds reflected in its light. / Why so limpid and bright it appears? / For fresh water flows in from the springs here.”

Yuantou Village is an ancient village with a long history. Zhu Xi, a renowned Neo-Confucian scholar and educator of the Song Dynasty, once came here to give lectures. Upon seeing the bridge, he was inspired and inscribed the four large characters “Huoshui Pavilion Bridge,” which were then carved onto a wooden plaque and hung at the bridgehead before being destroyed later. Zhu Xi also composed his famous poem “Reflections on Reading” after admiring the beautiful scenery of Yuantou Village: “A small pond opens like a mirror bright; / With sky and clouds reflected in its light; / Why so limpid and bright it appears? / For fresh water flows in from the springs here.” The terms “source” and “living water” in the poem are a true reflection of Yuantou Village.

Huoshui Pavilion Bridge is a rare ancient Song Dynasty bridge in our city and even in our province, making it a precious historical and cultural heritage. Its discovery provides rare physical material for the study of Song Dynasty history, the history of ancient bridge construction, and especially for research on Zhu Xi.

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