Longtang Cave in Yezhu Gully

Longtang Cave in Yezhu Gully

Longtang Cave in Yezhu Gully is located 4 kilometers north of Yezhu Village, Yezhu Gully, Shuiyuguan Town, Jiaocheng County. The elevation within the area ranges from 1,032 meters to 1,660 meters. Geographic coordinates: 36°36′ – 37°37′ N, 110°58′ – 111°53′ E. The soil type is coarse skeletal brown earth, and the vegetation mainly includes Chinese pine and oriental arborvitae. In ancient times, the area was named Yezhu Gully (Wild Boar Gully) due to the frequent presence of wild boars. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, it was officially designated as Yezhu Gully. It is also called Yezhu East Gully because there is a Yezhu West Gully. The cave is situated on the northeastern side of the central part of Yezhu Village and is named “Longtang Cave” (Dragon Hall Cave). The cave entrance is 4 meters high, while the interior is 10 meters high, 30 meters wide, and over 20 meters deep. According to records, there are two smaller caves inside, one to the south and one to the north, each extending several li in depth. It is said that the northern cave connects to the Qinglong Cave in Yujun Gully. The 1882 edition of the Jiaocheng County Annals from the Qing Dynasty’s Guangxu reign states: “Longtang Rock is located seventy li northwest of the county in Shuibei District, also known as Woluyan (Reclining Cloud Hermitage). The rock is three zhang high and five chi four cun deep, with layered stones protruding like clouds. In the center, there is a stone hanging downward with its head bowed, resembling a swimming dragon — hence the name. Inside the rock, there are caves to the north and south, both unfathomably deep, with water flowing out and gathering into a pool. Water dripping from the rock below forms cold-rise stones. When thunder is about to strike, the cave makes sounds one day in advance, a phenomenon that has never failed to occur. During the Ming Dynasty’s Jiajing era, a monk named ?Lu Pu Ji Ping ? came here to practice and built a hermitage. He established rules, expanded the site, and installed all necessary ritual implements. Magistrate Xue Guozhu personally composed an inscription for the hermitage. In the early Qing Dynasty, the hermitage’s mountain forests spanned the entire Xiyechuan area. By the mid-Qing Dynasty, it was abandoned due to reasons such as water scarcity.”

Initially, the cave housed a Dragon King Hall dedicated to the worship of the Dragon God. In the early years of the Ming Zhengde era (1506), Caodong school monks Zhengcai, Zhenghang, and Zheng?? established Woluyan Hermitage here. By the Jiajing era, monk ?Lu Pu Ji Ping ? came to the area, practiced here, and expanded the site. At that time, there were over 30 monks, hundreds of volumes of scriptures were collected, and all ritual instruments used at the site were readily available. Magistrate Xue Guozhu personally composed an inscription for the hermitage. In the early Qing Dynasty, the hermitage’s mountain forests covered much of Xiyechuan. By the mid-Qing Dynasty, it fell into disrepair due to reasons such as water shortages.

The current site spans approximately 2,400 square meters, with only the hermitage wall beneath Longtang Cliff remaining relatively intact. The wall, constructed from neatly cut long stones, stands over ten meters high and is quite spectacular. The hermitage was originally divided into front and rear courtyards. The front courtyard buildings have turned into rubble, covering an area of about 400 square meters. On the western side of the rear courtyard, there are four east-side rooms, along with six brick-arched cave dwellings built against the southern rocky cliff, covering an area of about 2,000 square meters. To the west of the courtyard lies a wooded area with three Ming Dynasty tomb pagodas, two of which have collapsed. Inside Longtang Cave, there were originally five wooden statues from the Ming Dynasty — two larger ones over one meter tall, and three smaller ones around 0.6 meters tall. Their painted surfaces have peeled off, and their facial features are no longer clear.