Manjing Spring

Manjing Spring

Manjing Spring is located in the northwest corner of the Eying Shrine courtyard within Baotu Spring Park. The spring is in the shape of a hexagonal well, five meters deep, with stone-lined walls. The pool is surrounded by granite railings, and a spring stele is embedded on the southern side. It was once listed among the Seventy-Two Famous Springs of the Jin and Ming dynasties.

Within the Eying Shrine courtyard where Manjing Spring is located, there are three simple and elegant buildings aligned from north to south. The southernmost is the “Luoyuan Hall,” which is three bays wide, two stories high, with a double-eave hip-and-gable roof and upturned eaves. To the south of the hall lies the famous Baotu Spring. In front of the hall, there is a couplet inscribed on the pillars written by the great Yuan Dynasty painter Zhao Mengfu about Baotu Spring: “Mist and clouds nourish the steam rising over Mount Huabuzhu, while waves and sounds shake Daming Lake.” The middle building is the “Eying Shrine,” a two-story structure with three bays and interlocking brackets, featuring red pillars and green tiles, dedicated to Ehuang and Nüying, the two consorts of Emperor Shun. The three main halls are simple and unadorned, enshrining Yao, Shun, and Yu.

Historically, Manjing Spring was “full year-round,” with water overflowing from the mouth of the well, clear enough to see one’s reflection—hence its name. A poem from the Ming Dynasty’s “Seventy-Two Springs Poems” describes Manjing Spring: “The stream flows ceaselessly, the spring brims full; before the Mingxiu Pavilion, the waters flow clear and still. It must be the spring rain that fell fiercely last night, raising the water three feet high and leveling the small pool.”