Yutai County 鱼台县

Setting and landscape

Feng (丰县) and Pei (沛县) counties of Jiangsu lie to the south and Jinxiang (金乡) to the west. The land is low beside the lakes and was long prone to waterlogging. The Grand Canal (京杭大运河) crosses the county for 32 kilometres, and 17 rivers run through it.

History

In the Spring and Autumn period this was Tang (棠邑), a town of Lu, and the name Yutai was adopted in 762. After Confucius died, three of his disciples, Min Ziqian (闵子骞), Fan Chi (樊迟) and Fu Zijian (宓子贱), taught here in homes no more than five li apart, remembered as the 'three worthies within five li' (五里三贤). The county seat moved in 809 to a town now in Wangmiao (王庙); in 1756 a Yellow River breach flooded it, the town became a lake, and the seat moved to present-day Yucheng (鱼城). In December 1964 the county began turning dry fields into rice paddies to cope with the floods, digging 7,396 irrigation channels over more than 150 days.

What to see

The Wutang Pavilion site (武棠亭遗址) at Wutai (武台) village, the seat of ancient Tang, keeps a stele carved in 1636 marking where Duke Yin watched the fish, and, on top of the site, Chaohua Temple (超化寺), founded in 864. Fan Chi's tomb, a 3-metre earth mound near the village, is a provincial heritage site. The Min Ziqian Shrine (闵子祠) at Damin (大闵) village, rebuilt in 1721, honours the disciple known for filial devotion through the story of the coat padded with reed flowers. The main hall of the Confucian Temple (孔庙大殿) in Yucheng dates from 1757, and the Qixia mound (栖霞堌堆), 14 metres high, holds Longshan culture layers beneath Shang and Zhou ones.

Food and local products

Yutai rice (鱼台大米) has short, oval, translucent grains and has been a protected geographical-indication product since 2008. Yutai crayfish (鱼台龙虾) gained the same status in 2011, and the county has held a crayfish festival every year since 2017. It also grows hairy wood ear fungus (毛木耳) on a large scale. Yutai woodblock New Year prints (鱼台木版年画) use red grounds, with the patterns on figures' clothing picked out in gold and silver; only the Tao family of Chenji (陈集) village in Lige (李阁) still makes them.

Highlights

• Wutang Pavilion site 武棠亭遗址: Where Duke Yin of Lu watched fishing in 718 BC; stele of 1636 and a temple founded in 864.
• Min Ziqian Shrine 闵子祠: Provincially protected shrine to Confucius's filial disciple, rebuilt in 1721.
• Fan Chi's tomb 樊迟墓: Earth mound of a disciple of Confucius; provincial heritage site since 2006.
• Yutai rice 鱼台大米: Short-grain translucent rice, a geographical-indication product since 2008.
• Yutai crayfish 鱼台龙虾: Geographical-indication crayfish registered in 2011.