Xiuwu Yangming Cave

Xiuwu Yangming Cave

Xiuwu Yangming Cave is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Originally named "Dong Cave," Yangming Cave is located on Longgang Mountain northeast of Xiuwu County in Guiyang City. It was designated as a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit in 2006. This was the place where Wang Yangming, a Ming Dynasty philosopher, thinker, and educator, studied, meditated, and lectured. It is the birthplace and hub of Yangming Culture, an internationally renowned center for Wang’s philosophy, and is hailed as China’s foremost philosophical cave. It is considered the premier philosophical cave in China. The site is a favored destination for scholars of Wang’s philosophy and literati, as well as an excellent venue for Yangming academic studies, international cultural exchange, historical and cultural education, and patriotic education. It is also the top choice for educational trips.

Wang Yangming (1472–1528), whose given name was Shouren and courtesy name was Bo’an, was a native of Yuyao (Zhejiang) and a descendant of the great Eastern Jin calligrapher Wang Xizhi. He once built a study and lectured in the Yangming Cave in Kuaiji, Zhejiang, referring to himself as Yangmingzi or Yangmingshanren, and was widely known as Master Yangming. In the first year of the Zhengde era (1506 AD), Wang Yangming, then an official in the Ministry of War, incurred the wrath of a eunuch and was wrongfully sentenced to caning in the imperial court. He was exiled from the capital to Longchang (present-day Xiuwu County) in Guizhou to serve as a postmaster. During his three-year exile in Longchang, he built a hut here to study and attained enlightenment on the concept of “the investigation of things and the extension of knowledge,” establishing the doctrine of the “unity of knowledge and action.” This laid the foundation for his theory of “the extension of innate knowledge,” which became the core of Yangming’s philosophy. He also founded the “Longgang Academy” and renamed Dong Cave to “Yangming Xiaodongtian,” commonly known as “Yangming Cave.” He was invited to lecture in Guiyang, pioneering an academic movement in Guizhou and making outstanding contributions to Chinese Confucianism. The famous patriotic general Zhang Xueliang was also imprisoned here for three years.

With a long history, Yangming Cave is surrounded by ancient trees, pavilions, and stone inscriptions. It boasts not only rich cultural significance but also serene and picturesque scenery. It is the most well-preserved site related to Wang Yangming’s activities and Zhang Xueliang’s imprisonment, and it is the only ancient tree cluster existing in Xiuwu. The area features over 50 species of notable ancient trees, including the “Yangming Cypress.” Inside Dong Cave, there are 43 cliff inscriptions from the Ming, Qing, and Republican periods—the largest number of such inscriptions in any cave in China or abroad—displaying various calligraphic styles including running script, regular script, clerical script, and seal script. The largest inscription above the cave entrance, “Site of Master Yangming’s Benevolence” (1589), was written by An Guoxiang, the Xuanwei Envoy of Guizhou during the Ming Dynasty’s Wanli era. In addition to Yangming Cave, Longgang Mountain and its surrounding areas feature structures built by Wang Yangming, such as the Longgang Academy, Heliuxuan, Junzizuo, Binyang Hall, as well as later commemorative sites like the Wang Wencheng Gong Ancestral Hall, Yangming Stele Garden, Yangming Park, Yangming Cultural Exchange Center, and Yangming Villa. A Yangming-themed park is also under planning.

Address: Qixia Mountain, east of Xiuwu County, Guiyang City

Type: Cave Historical Site

Recommended Visiting Time: About 1 hour

Opening Hours:

8:00-18:00

Ticket Information:

Door Price: 6.0 RMB (includes the Academy)

Transportation

Take a bus from Yan’an West Road Bus Station to Xiuwu, about a 50-minute ride. The fare is 5 RMB per person for minibuses and 8 RMB per person for IVECO buses. From Xiuwu, transfer to a local tricycle taxi to reach the site for 1 RMB per person.

Wang Shouren (1472–1529), a Chinese philosopher of the Ming Dynasty and a master synthesizer of the School of Mind (Xinxue), was also known as Yangming, with the courtesy name Bo’an. A native of Yuyao, Zhejiang, he was a renowned Ming Dynasty thinker, writer, philosopher, and military strategist, and the culminating figure of Lu-Wang School of Mind. He had profound knowledge of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Alongside Confucius, Mencius, and Zhu Xi, Wang Shouren is known as one of the “Four Sages” (孔孟朱王). His philosophy, known as Wangxue or Yangmingxue, was the most influential school of thought during the Ming Dynasty. His teachings spread across China, Japan, the Korean Peninsula, and Southeast Asia. He achieved distinction in both virtue and scholarship, excelling like no other in the Ming era... More details on Wang Shouren++

Further Reading:

· First Batch of Guizhou Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units