The Golden Rooster Crowing at the Heavenly Gate

　　Introduction     Gaze up from before Banshan Temple at the waist of Tiandu Peak on the Old Man Peak, where there is a rock resembling a majestic rooster, its head facing the Heavenly Gate threshold, wings spread as if about to crow. On the rock wall by the path of Banshan Temple, the five characters “A Heavenly Rooster’s Cry in the Air” are inscribed.    This peculiar rock is also accompanied by a touching folk legend: In ancient times, along the banks of a small stream beneath Ziyun Rock in Huangshan, there lived two poor families—the Silver Sister and the Golden Brother. Golden Brother and Silver Sister would go up the mountain together every day to gather herbs and pick tea leaves. As time passed, the two became inseparable. One day, they came to the stream together, where Golden Brother played the bamboo flute and Silver Sister sang mountain songs. Unbeknownst to them, the Jade Emperor of Heaven was also visiting Huangshan that day and, upon hearing Silver Sister’s nightingale-like voice, thought of taking her as a concubine. After Golden Brother and Silver Sister parted and returned home, celestial soldiers sent by the Jade Emperor arrived at Silver Sister’s home and told her that the Jade Emperor wished to marry her. Silver Sister refused to comply, even at the cost of her life. The next day, just as Silver Sister and Golden Brother were about to be wed, a sudden fierce wind blew, thunder roared, and lightning flashed. The celestial soldiers descended into their home, seized Silver Sister, and took her away. Golden Brother chased them all the way to the Old Man Peak, but by then, Silver Sister had vanished without a trace. He cried out her name toward the Heavenly Gate, calling for her nonstop for forty-nine days. Suddenly, after a storm, Golden Brother transformed into a grand golden rooster, which cried out with its head raised high, its voice piercing the heavens. Its sorrowful and piercing cries shook down the Heavenly Gate, leaving only one threshold—which became what is now known as the “Heavenly Gate Threshold.” The golden rooster, in turn, turned into a peculiar rock, forever facing the Heavenly Gate that Silver Sister once walked through. This is the marvelous sight we see today: the towering golden rooster gazing eternally at the Heavenly Gate Threshold. A modern poet wrote in its praise: “Flown down from heaven, wings not yet furled, Standing by the peak for thousand years curled. Fearless of wind or rain, in noble pose, It crows daily at the Heavenly Gate, never to close.” 

　　 Huangshan City, Anhui Province