Yihuang County 宜黄县

Setting and landscape

Five rivers, the Yi, Huang, Cao (曹水), Li (梨水) and Lan (蓝水), run through the county, and forest covers about three quarters of it. Within its borders are the Taiji Cliff (太极岩) scenic area with typical Danxia landforms, Mount Junfeng (军峰山), the highest peak in Fuzhou, a provincial South China tiger nature reserve and a provincial reserve for the scaly-sided merganser (中华秋沙鸭).

History

The county was founded in 257, under the Wu state of the Three Kingdoms. In the mid and late Tang, Chan Buddhism flourished here, and the Caodong school's teaching of the Five Ranks took shape in Yihuang. In the Song the young Wang Anshi (王安石) came to study, and Zeng Gong (曾巩) wrote his essay 'Record of the Yihuang County School' (宜黄县学记). The Ming general Tan Lun (谭纶), who fought the Japanese pirates, and the Qing official Huang Juezi (黄爵滋), who campaigned against opium, came from the county. During the Land Revolution Yihuang was the northern gate of the Central Soviet Area and the main battlefield of the fourth counter-encirclement campaign, with victories at Huangpi (黄陂) and Dongpi (东陂).

What to see

Caoshan Temple (曹山寺), formally Caoshan Baoji Temple (曹山宝积寺), was founded between 870 and 873 by the Chan master Benji (本寂) and is the ancestral temple of the Caodong school. It stands among the lotus-shaped Cao Mountains 13 km west of the county town; nearby are Benji's tomb pagoda, Yuhua Cliff (雨花岩) and an old ginkgo. It was rebuilt from 2004 and reconsecrated in November 2009. The Caoshan area is a national 4A scenic area. Shigong Temple (石巩寺) is known as the first practice site of Mazu (马祖). The old town of Tangyin (棠阴古镇) is called a museum of Ming and Qing architecture; in those centuries it was one of China's three main centres for making and trading ramie cloth (夏布).

Opera and dance

Yihuang opera (宜黄戏) sings mainly in the Yihuang tune, which grew out of the late-Ming Xiqin tune, and scholars trace the erhuang melodies of Peking opera to it. Some plays still show a rider with a horse figure tied to the actor's body, dancing to the gong beat as in Yuan and Ming drama. It entered the first national intangible-heritage list in 2006. The Yihuang rice-pole dance (宜黄禾杠舞), listed in 2014, grew from woodcutters beating sickles on bamboo carrying poles to call each other up the mountain; its songs are sung to improvised words.

Highlights

• Caoshan Temple 曹山寺: Ancestral temple of the Caodong school, founded 870–873, 13 km west of the county town.
• Tangyin old town 棠阴古镇: Ming and Qing buildings; once a leading centre of the ramie-cloth trade.
• Yihuang opera 宜黄戏: Opera whose Yihuang tune is traced as the source of erhuang; national intangible heritage since 2006.
• Yihuang rice-pole dance 宜黄禾杠舞: Woodcutters' dance beaten out with sickles on carrying poles; national intangible heritage since 2014.