Dayou Cave

　　The ceiling of Dayou Cave is domed while the floor is flat, making it warm in winter and cool in summer. From the cave ceiling hang stalactites arranged in an orderly fashion. Water droplets fall from them like pearls, producing a pleasant tinkling sound. The stalactites come in various shapes—some resembling humans or objects, others birds or beasts. Visitors can name them as they please based on their imagination. The stone walls on both sides feature many seal script inscriptions and poems, but due to the passage of time, most have been eroded and are now illegible. Only on the left wall at the back of the cave can one still clearly see four large regular-script characters, “Ancient Hidden Books,” handwritten by Luo Shengwu, the magistrate of Youyang in the Qing Dynasty. Regarding the hidden books, the Qing Dynasty’s Youyang Prefecture Records contains a poem that says when Emperor Qin Shi Huang burned books and buried Confucian scholars alive, a scholar from Xianyang fled into the Wuling mountain area carrying books and hid all of them in this cave.

　　Before 1936, when the Sichuan-Hunan Highway had not yet been built, the official road passed about half a li from the cave entrance, crossing a stone bridge over the small stream that flows out of the cave. There were many peach trees along the stream, and in spring, when the peach blossoms bloomed and petals fell like rain, the stream flowed red with petals. An anonymous Ming Dynasty poet inscribed a quatrain on the cave wall: “The stream before the cave flows vast and wide, / The peach blossoms inside gradually fade. / Han Xian doesn’t come, the fisherman departs, / A Taoist priest leans idly on the stone rail.” In the Ming Dynasty, Yan Tianyu, the Youyang Pacification Commissioner, also composed poetry about the “Eight Scenic Spots” of Dayou Cave, including: “Amid rugged mountains lies a secluded cave heaven, / Where visitors gather for joyful outings. / Pine winds drift in the hazy high sky, / And peach petals drift gently by the cave waters…” Both describe the beautiful scene of “Peach Blossoms Flowing Red in the Stream.” The current Youyang County government is working on developing the Dayou Cave scenic area, restoring its former appearance according to the records in the Prefecture Records, and equipping it with modern tourism facilities based on visitor needs, offering a place for people to enjoy and explore.