Taibao Luming Pass

Taibao Luming Pass

Luming Pass, located east of Taibao Town in Lianshan, has historically been the strategic throat of eastern Lianshan.

It is said that when Zheng Zhilong, father of Zheng Chenggong, led troops from Lianzhou into Lianshan, he opened up roads through the mountains in what is now the Luming Pass area. By the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, Liu Yunyuan, the magistrate of Lianshan, entered the county via Huangshui to assume his post and lamented in a poem: “Who doesn’t feel ill when approaching Huangshui? The road into Lianshan is never smooth.” Yet, this discontented magistrate was deeply committed to developing Lianshan. In the 19th year of Kangxi’s reign (1680), he built a stone pass at the site where Zheng Zhilong had opened the mountain roads, naming it “Jilong Pass.”

During the Qing Dynasty, the area east of Taibao, the county seat of Lianshan, was sparsely populated. To the west of Jilong Pass lay Lianshan, and to the east lay Sanjiang in Lianzhou. When merchants traveling from Lianshan to Lianzhou approached the pass, they could faintly hear the crowing of roosters in Sanjiang, so the name was changed from “Jilong Pass” to “Jiming Pass.” In the 22nd year of the Jiaqing reign (1817), Xu Weiqing, the intendant of Lianshan Hall, renovated “Jiming Pass” and renamed it “Luming Pass,” inspired by the literary banquet “Deer Cry.”

In the imperial examination system, the Luming Banquet was a literary feast held in honor of newly successful candidates, originating in the Tang Dynasty. When the results of the provincial examinations were announced, local officials would host a banquet for the successful scholars. Since the banquet featured the recitation of the “Deer Cry” poem from the “Book of Songs · Minor Odes,” it was called the Luming Banquet. Naming the pass “Luming” reflected the deep hopes of the people of Lianshan for their scholars to pass through this pass, travel to the prefectural capital for the exams, and achieve success.

Corresponding to the Luming Banquet, the Yingyang Banquet was a feast attended by examiners and successful candidates of the military examinations. Thus, Luming Pass and Yingyang Pass in western Lianshan, representing civil and military prowess respectively, stand in symbolic opposition—east and west—showcasing the historical depth and enduring charm of the ancient town of Lianshan.

In 1955, when the section of the Lianhe Highway passing through Luming Pass was repaired, the renowned poet Lu Di passed by the pass by car and spontaneously composed a poem: “Amid thousands of mountains / The road twists sharply / With a blast of the horn / We fly past Luming Pass.”

Today, the old Lianhe Highway has long become National Highway 323, which is currently under upgrade and renovation. Once the renovation of National Highway 323 is completed, flying past Luming Pass will no longer involve “twisting roads.”

Luming will no longer be a pass.