Fanli Lake

Fanli Lake

Located near the Second Bridge on Huancheng South Road in Jiaxing, west of Jiaxing No. 1 Middle School (now the Fanli Lake Campus of Jiaxing Experimental Junior High School). Originally a vast lake, some research suggests that Nanhu (South Lake) was once part of it. Later, due to city wall construction, it became a smaller lake. Currently, the lake is 100 meters long, 15 meters wide, and covers an area of 5,351 square meters.

Fan Li, a native of Wan (present-day Nanyang, Henan) in the State of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period, had the courtesy name Shaobo. He was a high-ranking official of the State of Yue and a renowned statesman. Fan Li served King Goujian of Yue and devoted over twenty years of effort alongside the king to devise strategies for national revival, eventually leading to the defeat of Wu and the avenging of humiliation. He then led campaigns northward against Qi and Jin, helping King Goujian become the last hegemon of the Spring and Autumn period. After returning to Yue as supreme general, Fan Li, well aware of King Goujian’s ungrateful and suspicious nature—someone who could share hardship but not prosperity—chose to leave Yue with his family.

“By morning a girl from Yue streams, by evening a concubine in Wu’s palace.” Xi Shi, of the Shi clan, was a native of Zhuluo in the State of Yue (present-day Zhuji, Zhejiang) during the late Spring and Autumn period. Her given name was Yiguang, also known as Xianshi. After King Goujian of Yue was defeated by King Fuchai of Wu, he sought to present beautiful women to the King of Wu to disrupt his governance. Thus, the beauties Xi Shi and Zheng Dan, obtained by Yue, were groomed for three years in manners, dance, song, and Wu customs, before being sent to the King of Wu by Fan Li. The king was indeed captivated by their beauty and neglected state affairs, ultimately leading to the defeat of Wu by Yue. It is said that after Yue restored its state and destroyed Wu, King Goujian claimed Xi Shi was a harbinger of misfortune and ordered her to be drowned in a river.

To achieve the goal of avenging humiliation and restoring their state, Fan Li and Xi Shi endured humiliation and hardship. After the defeat of Wu and the restoration of Yue, Fan Li, to avoid King Goujian’s suspicion, returned with Xi Shi to their former haunt and lived in seclusion by the lake. Each day after applying her makeup, Xi Shi would pour her cosmetic water into the lake, dyeing it a rouge color. The snails in the lake, having consumed the cosmetic-infused water, turned into colorful snails. Later, Fan Li and Xi Shi set forth from this place and wandered the Five Lakes. Later generations, in their remembrance, named the lake Fanli Lake and built the Xi Shi Makeup Terrace by its shore. In the early morning light or under the clear moonlight, sitting by the terrace and gazing downward, one might almost see Xi Shi’s vibrant robes swaying lightly with the lake’s ripples.

Fanli Lake is also known as Xi Shi’s Tomb, as legend says she died here and was buried in the lake. On the northwest bank of the lake stands a waterside pavilion called the Xi Shi Makeup Terrace, a hip-and-gable roof post-and-lintel structure that once housed statues of Fan Li and Xi Shi. On the north wall of the terrace is a white jade plaque inscribed with “Shao Bo Shrine,” erected in the summer of 1882 (the eighth year of the Guangxu reign in the Qing Dynasty). To the east of the terrace, on the lake, there is a stone statue of Xi Shi and the inscription “Chen Yu” (meaning “sinking fish”). Fanli Lake has a long history; during the Chunxi era of the Southern Song Dynasty (1174–1189), the top scholar Yao Ying inscribed a plaque by the lake named “Jing Fan Lu.” In the Ming Dynasty, a shrine was built here and named Fanli Lake. The lake features many stone inscriptions: on the facade of the terrace’s north side, there is a stone engraving of the two characters “Fu Bi” (Floating Green) handwritten by Wen Zhengming; the outer wall bears the inscription “Fang Sheng Chi” (Release Life Pond) by Che Darong of the Ming Dynasty, and the pool railing is inscribed with “Tao Zhu Gong Li” (Terrace of Tao Zhugong). Additionally, there is the “Reconstruction of Jinming Temple Stele Inscription” by Qian Chenqun from the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty, as well as calligraphy works by masters such as Wang Quchang, Tan Jiancheng, and Zhang Zhenwei.

Jiaxing was a main battlefield of the rivalry between the Wu and Yue states and thus was among the earliest recorded in historical texts. According to historical records, “Li, as the senior minister of Yue, exhausted his wisdom to destroy Wu and avenge the humiliation of Kuaiji. Goujian honored him as supreme general. But knowing that great fame is hard to sustain, Li set off from Lijiu Stream to roam the Five Lakes—today’s Fanli Lake.” The Qing dynasty’s Yu Yue, in *Chun Zai Tang Ji*, recorded: “An unnamed account from the Qing era states: in the 41st year of the Kangxi reign (1702), when a canal was dug in Jiaxing, a ship was unearthed beneath the New Bridge, deeply buried in the riverbed, and the excavation was halted out of fear. There is also a ship in Fanli Lake at Jinming Temple, half within the city and half outside in the interlinked Yuanyang Lake, said to be the boat of Lord Fan.”