Nanfeng County 南丰县

History

In 257, under the Wu state of the Three Kingdoms, the southern part of Nancheng (南城) was split off as Feng County; the prefix Nan ('south') was added to tell it apart from Feng County in Xuzhou (徐州). The Yuan raised it to Nanfeng Prefecture (南丰州) in 1282, and in 1370 the Ming made it a county again under Jianchang Prefecture (建昌府). The county's memorial hall presents the writer Zeng Gong (曾巩) under the name Master Nanfeng (南丰先生).

Nanfeng nuo dance (南丰跳傩), a masked ritual dance once performed to drive out pestilence, entered the first national intangible-heritage list in 2006. The national heritage register says it survives in 180 villages of the county and keeps 82 dance forms, from solo pieces such as Zhong Kui (钟馗) to group dances such as the Nuo Old Man and Old Woman (傩公傩婆).

What to see

The Zeng Gong Memorial Hall (曾巩纪念馆) was first built in May 1984 on the site of the rock where Zeng Gong studied. A new hall in the Zeng Gong Cultural Park opened in August 2019 to mark the thousandth anniversary of his birth; its five sections cover his family, studies, official career, writing and legacy. Mount Junfeng (军峰山) is the highest peak in Fuzhou, at 1,761 m, and is called the roof of eastern Jiangxi. It has more than 50,000 mu of old-growth forest and granite peaks, is a national forest park, and is a noted mountain of the Shenxiao (神霄) talisman school of Taoism. Baihua Bridge (百花桥), Hengshi Mountain (横石山), Dishui Cliff (滴水岩) and the Zixiao Taoist temple (紫霄观) are Danxia landform sights, and the county has the Wangxian Bridge (望仙桥) and Pangui Fang (攀桂坊) historic districts.

Food and local products

Nanfeng tangerines (南丰蜜桔) are a national geographical-indication product. By the Kaiyuan era of the Tang the county was already a major citrus area whose fruit went to the imperial court. The fruit is thin-skinned and sweet, with few or no seeds, and its small size earned it the name 'coin tangerine' (金钱蜜桔); in 1995 the Ministry of Agriculture named Nanfeng the home of Nanfeng tangerines. Nanfeng clay stoves (南丰泥炉) have been made since 1887 from sticky clay, milky white and resistant to cracking under heat. Nanfeng pickled greens (南丰腌菜), also called nuo greens, are cured heading mustard.

Highlights

• Zeng Gong Memorial Hall 曾巩纪念馆: Hall for the writer Zeng Gong; the new building opened in 2019 for his thousandth birth anniversary.
• Mount Junfeng 军峰山: Highest peak in Fuzhou at 1,761 m; national forest park and Shenxiao Taoist mountain.
• Nanfeng nuo dance 南丰跳傩: Masked ritual dance in 180 villages; national intangible heritage since 2006.
• Nanfeng tangerines 南丰蜜桔: Small, sweet, near-seedless tangerines sent to the Tang court; a geographical-indication product.