Dayanwu in the Sunlight
On a winter morning in 2006, I and a group of friends drove to the side of Dayanwu at the border between Sangzhi and Hefeng. After getting out of the car, I looked up and suddenly saw a bare giant rock cliff about several hundred zhang high standing before my eyes, and the warm sun made the cliff shine brilliantly. At the bottom of the cliff, dozens of meters up, eight large characters were carved: "High as the mountains, long as the waters, remembered for ten thousand years." Because they were painted with red lacquer, they were made even more dazzling by the sunlight. To the right below the carved stone, there is…
On a winter morning in 2006, I and a group of friends drove to the side of Dayanwu at the border between Sangzhi and Hefeng. After getting out of the car, I looked up and suddenly saw a bare giant rock cliff about several hundred zhang high standing before my eyes, and the warm sun made the cliff shine brilliantly. At the bottom of the cliff, dozens of meters up, eight large characters were carved: "High as the mountains, long as the waters, remembered for ten thousand years." Because they were painted with red lacquer, they were made even more dazzling by the sunlight.
To the right below the carved stone, there is a natural cave. It is very large inside. It is said that long ago people lived in the cave, and the name Dayanwu also comes from this.
In front of Dayanwu, there is a flat area of several mu. Through the middle of the flat area runs a clear, emerald-green stream. This stream is one of the main branches of the northern source of the Lishui River. On the opposite bank of the stream and all around are encircling mountains. The road built along the stream connects Sangzhi at one end and Hefeng at the other, and the picturesque Wudaoshui Town sits about two or three kilometers from Dayanwu.
Dayanwu is not only beautiful in scenery, but also has a little-known historical tale of two local tusi forming an alliance here. It turns out that more than two hundred years ago, the tusi governing Sangzhi and the Rongmei tusi governing Hefeng often clashed. In the past, the tusi of the two sides had been in-laws, and in the end the two tusi kings were cousins, with a relatively harmonious relationship. But by the end of the Kangxi reign, this relationship was destroyed. In the more than ten years after Yongzheng came to power, three major rebellions occurred in succession within the Sangzhi tusi. A collateral branch of the ruling clan led by Tang Zongsheng and Tang Zongjing, brothers of the tusi king's wife, intended to depose the tusi lord Xiang Guodong. When the Rongmei tusi learned of the internal turmoil in Sangzhi, it also sent troops into Sangzhi, advancing from Wudaoshui and Shataiping all the way to Chenjiahe and the Shangxia Dongjie area. Xiang Guodong hurriedly responded to the battle. The two sides fought fiercely several times, with serious casualties on both sides and victories and defeats for each. Later, Xiang Guodong gradually put down the internal rebellion, and in a lawsuit he also recommended the son of the Sanmao tusi lord and helped him obtain hereditary succession status. Tian Minru of the Rongmei tusi believed that Xiang Guodong could uphold discipline and the right way, so he took the initiative to send envoys to Sangzhi to seek reconciliation. Xiang Guodong readily agreed, and the two sides then agreed to hold a truce and alliance ceremony beside Dayanwu in Wudaoshui.
The date was set for the sixteenth day of the eighth month in the fifty-ninth year of the Kangxi reign (1720). When the day came, the tusi of both sides each brought their officials and thousands of soldiers to Dayanwu. The two leaders first sat and talked for a while in the rock house. Tian Minru said: "In the past I mistakenly listened to gossip, which led to years of discord. Now that we restore our old friendship, from now on brothers should look after each other in times of trouble." Xiang Guodong said: "Cousin, with your sincerity, everything can be discussed. I am willing to let go of all former grievances. Today we form an alliance, so let us proceed according to the ceremony!" Thereupon, both sides held a solemn oath-taking at the altar. They also exchanged prisoners of war and hostages. After the ceremony, the two tusi each wrote four characters on the spot as a memento. Xiang Guodong wrote "High as the mountains, long as the waters," and Tian Minru wrote "Remembered for ten thousand years." These eight characters were then carved into the cliff. Why did the two tusi write these eight characters? If you are in the setting of Dayanwu, you will realize how aptly these eight characters were inscribed. The mountain where Dayanwu is located is very high, and that stream flows into the Lishui River, into Dongting Lake, into the Yangtze River, and on to the sea. Is this not "high as the mountains, long as the waters"! The phrase "remembered for ten thousand years" then served as a hint of a permanent commemoration of this alliance. In short, this alliance truly changed the long period of war and discord between the tusi of Sangzhi and Hefeng. Afterward, the two sides reconciled and never again had major conflicts.
More than two hundred years later, in the early winter of 2006, the governments of Sangzhi and Hefeng counties sent representatives. Sangzhi County Magistrate Liu Zeyou and the Hefeng county magistrate shook hands in friendship and once again held a grand friendly alliance ceremony at Dayanwu. The two sides remembered their ancestors here, erected a memorial archway, and set up an inscription, once again writing a new chapter in the fine story of the tusi alliance of that year.
Today, Dayanwu has become a beautiful scenic spot visited continuously by tourists. That afternoon, carefully observing the wonderful ruins of Dayanwu and bathing body and mind in the radiance of the bright sun, I suddenly thought: Dayanwu shines so brilliantly as a scenic place because it is filled with the harmonious sunlight of the old tusi alliance. And if our present world could all be illuminated by sunlight filled with harmony, and if there were not so many wars and conflicts, then the future of all humanity would certainly be much better!