Chujian Lock Key: Banbishan

Chujian Lock Key: Banbishan

Banbishan is situated by the Fuchi River. Its towering peak rises abruptly from the ground, standing on the southern bank of the Yangtze River and thrusting towards the river’s midstream, facing the important eastern Hubei town of Tianjia across the water. Legend has it that Emperor Qin Shi Huang wielded his legendary mountain-moving whip to split apart a mountain on the riverbank upstream in Huangshi City. One half of the mountain remained in place, becoming today’s Xisai Mountain; the other half floated downstream along the river until it reached the shores of Fuchi, and thus was named Banbishan. Hence, Banbishan and Xisai Mountain share the beautiful titles of “Upper Cliff” and “Lower Cliff.” Banbishan has one side facing the river, with cliffs over a hundred meters high, presenting a spectacular sight. The Yangtze River suddenly narrows here, measuring just over 500 meters wide in normal water conditions, making it the narrowest point below the Three Gorges of the Yangtze, akin to a throat gateway. Beneath the cliffs, the river flows swiftly, with waves crashing against the shore, both awe-inspiring and terrifying. An ancient poem reads: “Lofty and rugged stands Banbishan, the Yangtze’s lock key tames the raging waves; Majestically guarding the gateway of the Chu realm, it defies storms and dangers at the perilous pass.”

Banbishan, located at the strategic junction of Hubei and Jiangxi, commands the upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and serves as the eastern gateway to Wuhan, the hub of nine provinces. Since ancient times, it has been a fiercely contested military site. From the late Han Dynasty onwards, generals such as Gan Ning of the Eastern Wu, Tang Dynasty military governor Yang Xingmi, Southern Song folk hero Yue Fei, Red Turban leader Xu Shouhui of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang who vied for supremacy at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and Li Zicheng’s rebel forces during the late Ming and early Qing periods have all waged battles in this area.

In the spring of 1853, to suppress the Taiping Rebellion, the Qing court dispatched Anhui Governor Jiang Zhongyuan to lead both naval and land forces to garrison Banbishan. In October, the Taiping Western Expeditionary Army captured Jiujiang and then sailed upstream straight for the Banbishan fortress, defeating Jiang Zhongyuan’s forces and seizing all their warships. The Taiping Army then established five camps on the mountain and stretched three iron chains and seven bamboo cables across the river to block the Qing army from advancing eastward toward Tianjing. In October 1854, the Xiang Army leader Zeng Guofan sent troops eastward, with the Taiping defenses along the Banbishan river section bearing the brunt. The Taiping forces led by Shi Zhencang and Wei Yide engaged in fierce and bloody battles with the Xiang Army’s central forces under Peng Yulin, holding out for half a month.

In November, the Xiang Army’s southern forces under Luo Zhenyu joined forces with Peng’s troops for another battle against the Taiping defenders. Outnumbered, Shi and Wei’s troops suffered heavy casualties—over a thousand were killed, another thousand drowned when boats capsized, and several thousand fell to their deaths from the cliffs into the river, leaving the battlefield “drenched in blood, cliffs stained red, and the southern riverbanks crimson with gore.” After losing Banbishan, the Taiping quickly reestablished fortifications at the mountain’s base, keeping the river chains in place, preventing the Xiang naval forces from advancing eastward. On December 20, Zeng Guofan personally directed a combined land and water assault on the Taiping forces, bombarding the Niuganji Fort and Wuwangmiao positions with modern Western artillery and using furnaces and axes to cut through the iron chains. Besieged from all sides and without reinforcements, the Taiping forces suffered nearly ten thousand casualties in the bloody battle, with bodies floating on the river and their warships destroyed. The iron chains sank into the river. The Xiang Army also sustained heavy losses, with many officers killed. This battle significantly influenced the course of the war. Thirty years later, in 1884, during the Sino-French War, Viceroy Zhang Zhidong, acting on orders from the Qing court, dispatched personnel to Banbishan to construct artillery fortifications.

In 1927, the 19th Regiment of the 6th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, led by Zhang Zhen, decisively defeated the 2nd Division of Warlord Sun Chuanfang’s 8th Army at Banbishan, capturing the artillery positions and Ma’anshan strongholds. In the history of China’s resistance against aggression, Banbishan holds an even more renowned place. During the Anti-Japanese War in April 1938, the 8th, 10th, and 14th Artillery Regiments of the Nationalist Government’s Ninth War Zone’s Second Corps, along with the Banbishan Fortress Garrison, deployed 40 artillery pieces along the Banbishan line, with heavy artillery positioned on the western side of the mountain to control Tianjia Town. In early June, the Wuhan Defense Headquarters dispatched a reinforced brigade of 7,200 troops to garrison Banbishan, defending the eastern gateway to Wuhan. The entire brigade pledged in unity, signing an oath to “stand or fall with Banbishan.” In September, the Japanese launched a ferocious combined land, sea, and air assault on the Banbishan Fortress. Chinese defenders put up a stubborn resistance, fighting intensely for over half a month and inflicting heavy damage on the Japanese forces. Ultimately, with all positions destroyed, Banbishan fell. The battle claimed the lives of 824 Chinese soldiers, wounded 278, and once again stained this land with the blood of heroes.

Ancient battlefield relics abound around Banbishan. On the southeast riverside, the ruins of an ancient artillery battery are well-preserved, built from a mixture of lime and glutinous rice. By boat on the river, one can view three cliff inscriptions on the riverside precipices: “Iron Chains Sink into the River,” a vertical inscription on a 3.5-meter-high, 1.5-meter-wide cliff face, written in 1854 by Peng Yulin, commander of the Xiang Army navy; “Southeast Half Cliff,” a horizontal inscription on a 1.5-meter-high, 2.5-meter-wide cliff face, written in 1864 by General Ding Sibin; and “Chujiang Lock Key,” a horizontal inscription on a 1.4-meter-high, 4.5-meter-wide cliff face, written in 1884 by Qing general Yang Yuebin. The “Tomb of a Thousand Men,” located in Shengjiawan on the western side of the mountain, was built in 1854 and contains the remains of countless fallen Taiping soldiers. A stele erected and inscribed with 468 characters by Wang Wenming, then the head of the Banbishan ferry outpost, now resides in the provincial museum.

Banbishan and its surrounding areas are rich in cultural relics and historic sites. In 1981, a Neolithic to Eastern Zhou site was discovered on Banbishan, and in 1984, artifacts from the Warring States period such as pottery tripods and dragon-phoenix bronze mirrors were excavated. Also found that year were the Xiaopao’er Mountain Chu tombs, where the burial of an aristocratic woman included numerous grave goods. Within 5–10 kilometers to the southeast are the graves of the Three Kingdoms-era general Gan Ning, the ancient mining site at Gangxia, and the ancient golden osmanthus and peony trees of the Huang family at Shangchaohu. Within 3–10 kilometers to the northwest lie the vast and deep underground Yuanguang Cave, the Song Dynasty “Meishan” cliff inscription written by Prefect Fan Zhongxuan, as well as historic river crossings used by the Red Army, New Fourth Army, Eighth Route Army’s 359th Brigade Southbound Detachment, and the People’s Liberation Army during the crossing of the Yangtze.