Sea-Viewing Temple Cliff Carvings

Sea-Viewing Temple Cliff Carvings

The Sea-Viewing Temple Cliff Carvings are a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangxi Province.

The Sea-Viewing Temple Cliff Carvings are located in Longmen Gully, Lianhua Town, Lushan District, Jiangxi Province.

The cliff carvings, discovered in the deep mountains and valleys on the left side of Longmen Gully in Lianhua Town, Lushan District, are the only well-preserved Tang Dynasty cliff carvings found on Mount Lu to date, dating back 1,312 years and also representing the earliest such discovery on the mountain. This cliff carving is a massive triangular rock, with the three large regular script characters “海会寺” (Sea-Viewing Temple) on the front, and the words “时唐证圣元年乙未岁” (In the first year of the Zhenxing era of the Tang Dynasty, the year of Yimai) interspersed among the lines. According to experts, the “Zhenxing” era name was used by Empress Wu Zetian (during the Wu Zhou period) for just one year, so “the first year of Zhenxing, the year of Yimai” refers to the year 695 AD. On the back of the huge rock, there is also a poem inscribed in the year of Wupu during the Qianlong reign (1738 AD), composed by Du Panzi and calligraphed by the Yu family: “盘旋石上绿接天，枝枝垂荫半边山，我来独坐清心火，名利两忙总不然” (Circling the stone where green meets the sky, branches cast shade over half the mountain. I sit alone here to soothe my restless heart — worldly fame and gain are all but meaningless).

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Jiangxi Province