Sanyuan Bridge in Mao County

Sanyuan Bridge in Mao County

Sanyuan Bridge in Mao County is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Sanyuan Bridge is located in Tumen Township, Mao County, and consists of three single-arch stone bridges spanning the Taian, Tumen, and Shicao rivers. The three bridges form an isosceles triangle and were once essential crossings on the ancient routes leading to Mianzhu, Anxian, and Beichuan. The bridge over the Taian River was demolished in the 1960s during the construction of the Mao (County)–Beichuan (County) Highway. Currently, only the “Deyuan Bridge” over the Shicao River and the large arch bridge over the Tumen River remain.

The large arch bridge was built during the Qing Dynasty. It is a single-arch stone bridge oriented from northwest to southeast, with the Tumen River flowing from west to east beneath it. The bridge is 29.4 meters long, 6.25 meters wide, 14.8 meters high, with a span of 23 meters and an arch height of 13.7 meters. The bridge’s balustrades and pillars are inscribed with slogans carved by Red Army troops that passed through. The calligraphy resembles clerical script, often featuring variant or incorrect characters.

In April 1935, when the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army crossed the Jialing River heading westward, they engaged in the Tumen Campaign in the Tumen area, successfully thwarting the Kuomintang’s plan to “defend Tumen and fully guard the Beichuan River Valley.” They then advanced victoriously toward Mao County to rendezvous with the Central Red Army marching north. At that time, the Red Army fought fierce battles near Sanyuan Bridge. Later, various passing troops engraved a large number of slogans on the bridge body, railings, and pillars—11 in total, comprising over 400 characters. These slogans exposed the treasonous acts of reactionary warlords such as Chiang Kai-shek and Hu Zongnan, who betrayed the nation’s territory and interests, and denounced them as murderers of people of all ethnicities and anti-Japanese soldiers. They called on people of all ethnic groups to unite in the struggle to eliminate the reactionary warlords, overthrow the oppressive regime, and defeat imperialism—asserting that only through this could the people be liberated. This collection represents the most well-preserved and numerous group of Red Army stone inscriptions in Aba Prefecture.

In 2006, the large arch bridge and its Red Army inscriptions were included as one of the 11 sites in the sixth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units under the designation “Aba Prefecture Red Army Long March Relics.”

In 2008, affected by the 5.12 earthquake, partial cracks appeared in the bridge piers of the large arch bridge, the bridge steps fractured and shifted, and some pillars and railings became disjointed and tilted. However, the overall structure remains intact. After the earthquake, local villagers temporarily reinforced the bridge with cement, but structural risks have not been completely eliminated.