Bafeng Cliff

　　Bafeng Cliff is located 32 kilometers southeast of Xihe County, on the western side of Shixia Town, and stands facing Quchishan Mountain from afar. On the mountainside of the main peak, there is a rare natural grotto. The great Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu visited this spectacular site while traveling from Qinzhou through Xihe to Tonggu (modern-day Cheng County), and wrote the poem "Stone Niche":

　　Bears roar to my east, tigers and leopards howl to my west.

　　Ghosts wail behind me, monkeys cry in front.

　　The sky is cold, the sun dimmed, and the mountain roads lost in haze.

　　I drove down to the stone niche, and saw a rainbow in midwinter.

　　Who is that felling bamboo, singing a sorrowful tune as he climbs the cloud ladder?

　　Gathering fine arrows for the officials, supplying Liang and Qi for five long years.

　　They lamented the straight, tall timber couldn’t be carried away.

　　Alas, the cavalry of Yuyang, their thunderous charge terrifying the common folk.

　　Bafeng Cliff is a beautiful scenic area described as “bordered by the lofty Xigao Mountain to the south, backed by Tianziping to the north, with eight peaks touching the sky, towering and steep, shrouded in layers of mist, adorned with lush grass before the cliffs, exuding a faint fragrance, ancient caves shaded by pines, mountain streams babbling, variegated pines vying in splendor, green willows competing in beauty, deep forests gathering myriad beasts, and sacred beings singing in the sunlight.” Here, eight soaring stone peaks stand proudly toward the sky, each reaching into the clouds and standing gracefully like stars in the heavens or immortals gathered in meeting. The main peak is the West Peak, at a height of 160 meters above the ground where there is a natural rock cave approximately 15 meters high and 60 meters long. There is no access from above, below, left, or right—only a hanging plank path connects to it. Originally, 14 shrine halls were built inside the cave, housing over 200 statues, but unfortunately, a fire in 1960 destroyed the wooden structures. Now, only about 90 clay statues and some murals remain, along with one stone stele from the Ming Dynasty's Wanli era and five from the Qing Dynasty. The cave features a total of 14 niches, divided into upper and lower levels: ten on the upper level and four on the lower. Among the existing statues are Song Dynasty bodhisattvas, Yuan Dynasty Trikaya Buddhas, Ming Dynasty Maitreya Buddha, and Qing Dynasty Samantabhadra. The statues from various dynasties feature vivid expressions and lifelike appearances, possessing high artistic value.

　　Who quietly created this artistic miracle in these towering mountains? It remains a mystery to this day. Based on local legends, it is inferred that the grottoes were first built when the king of the Chouchi Kingdom, a devout Buddhist, commissioned their construction during the Yuankang era of the Western Jin Dynasty. At that time, Chouchi suffered a severe drought. The Di ruler Yang Maosou built a temple in Siwan at the foot of what is now Bafeng Cliff and invited monks to pray for rain. When torrential rains poured and mountain torrents surged, the temple was completely washed away overnight. Later, people discovered that the temple buildings had mysteriously been moved intact to a cliff hundreds of feet above the ground—thus forming the Bafeng Cliff Grottoes. According to experts, the Bafeng Cliff Grottoes were constructed around the same time as the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang and the Yungang Grottoes in Datong. Xihe County is a treasure trove of grotto art in Longnan. To the south lies the Bafeng Cliff Grottoes, and to the north the Fajing Temple Grottoes, both representing grotto art from the Two Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties periods. These exquisite grotto artworks tell us that Xihe was among the earliest regions in Longnan to spread Buddhism and also the earliest to develop grotto statuary.