Jieling Flying Waterfall

Jieling Flying Waterfall

The Jieling Flying Waterfall in Tangxi Town offers breathtaking mountain and river views that can be admired along the way by car. With a drop of 123 meters, the waterfall descends from the heavens, sounding like thunder yet falling like cotton, scattering blossoms and splashing jade. The cliffside engraving “Lament over the Cascading Spring,” handwritten by Zhu Xi, remains intact. The Twin Pools Waterfall deep in the forest makes for an ideal spot for forest and mountain spring baths, as well as a natural oxygen bar that soothes the lungs. Locals call it “Bai Shui Shi Ji” and regard it as the most magnificent among the “Nine Springs and Eighteen Stone Waterfalls.” With cliffs a hundred feet high and the waterfall cascading ten zhang down, it looks like a white silk ribbon hanging in the sky or the Milky Way pouring downward. Zheng Guohan, a scholar-official of the Southern Song Dynasty from Liutu, Lantian, Jieyang County, resigned from his post and returned home. He built the “Lantian Book Manor” at the foot of the Flying Waterfall Ridge to teach students and erected the “Scenic Overlook Pavilion” nearby to admire the waterfall. Zhu Xi, who ranked with Zheng in the same imperial examination and was from Wuyuan, Jiangxi, once served as a Secretariat Drafter and maintained close ties with Zheng. He frequently traveled to Jieyang, staying at the Lantian Book Manor and visiting the Flying Waterfall Ridge together with Zheng. Zhu Xi inscribed the four characters “Luohan Ming Quan” (落汉鸣泉, "Cascading Spring Echoing to the Heavens"), which were later carved on the stone wall, and composed a poem: “Stone steps wind like sheep intestines through cloud-ladder paths; turning valleys send emerald waters slanting down. Along the way, spring mist is light and thin; the crowing of chickens and barking of dogs echo from mountain cottages.” For over 800 years, many scholars and literati have visited this site to reminisce about the past, leaving behind calligraphy and literary works. The Jieling Flying Waterfall boasts a variety of magnificent scenes, including the “Qin Emperor Post Station,” the “White Crane Immortal Altar,” the “Rhinoceros Gazing at the Moon” in Niuweng Stream, and the Fenghua Pavilion built by the Thai Fengshun Association...

Zhu Xi’s Poem Inscribed at “Jieling Flying Waterfall”

Zhu Xi (1130–1200), courtesy name Yuanhui, style name Huian, was a native of Wuyuan, Huizhou (now Wuyuan County, Jiangxi Province), and was born in Longxi, Fujian. In 1148, during the 18th year of the Shaoxing reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, he passed the imperial examination. He served four dynasties and held official positions up to Secretariat Drafter and Bao Wen Pavilion Attendant. Devoted to Confucian studies, he was a renowned Neo-Confucian scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty. Zheng Guohan, a fellow examinee from Lantian, Jieyang County, built the Lantian Book Manor at the foot of the Flying Waterfall Ridge to teach students. Zhu Xi once visited the manor and composed this poem on his journey. He personally wrote the words “Luohan Ming Quan” at the Scenic Overlook Pavilion, which were then engraved on the stone wall. Today, the manor and pavilion are gone, but the waterfall still flows.