Hometown of Dong Yong

On the west bank of Suya Lake Reservoir in Runan County lie two villages named Qian Donghui and Hou Donghui. The villagers were relocated from the reservoir area when the reservoir was built in 1958. The villages got their names because Dong Yong once met the Seventh Fairy here.

East of Donghui Village runs an ancient long river, the historic Lian River, now known as Lianjiang River. According to legend, there was no bridge across the river. Travellers had to cross by ferry or wade through the water, which caused great inconvenience.

Villagers raised funds several times to build a bridge, yet the money was embezzled by the greedy squire Ge, so the bridge was never finished. The Seventh Fairy took pity on the locals and resolved to build a stone bridge across the river.

She asked her sisters from heaven for help. Secretly, they carried stones from the rock mountain in the imperial garden of the celestial palace. Before long, a stone bridge was completed. At the first crow of the rooster, the fairies hurried to leave. In their haste, they stepped firmly on the bridge, leaving deep footprints. The stone bearing the footprints has been known as the "Fairy Footprint Stone" ever since.

There is a village called Dashigunzhuang in Luodian Township on the west bank of Suya Lake. The name is closely related to the fairy bridge tale. The legend goes that the Weaver Girl planned to build a bridge for the villagers. She went to borrow stones from an immortal elder in the western mountains under the cover of night.

How could she transport the heavy stones? The Weaver Girl said, "I will turn them into sheep and drive them home." She herded nine sheep and set off. When crossing a bridge, one sheep twisted its leg and could not move on. The bridge was then named "Bieqiao", meaning the Bridge of the Stuck Sheep.

Seeing dawn drawing near, she hurried forward with the rest of the sheep and finished building the bridge just before the rooster crowed. However, one bridge pier was missing. The sheep left behind on Bieqiao instantly turned into a huge stone roller at daybreak, far too heavy for anyone to move.

It has remained there ever since. The village became famous for this giant stone roller and was renamed Dashigunzhuang, the Village of the Big Stone Roller. Even today, a mark that looks just like a sheep’s tail can still be seen on the roller.

The Records of Runing Prefecture, compiled in the first year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty, records the story of Dong Yong and the Seventh Fairy: "Dong Yong was a native of Qiansheng. He lost his mother at an early age. At the end of the Han Dynasty, he took his father to flee warfare and settled in Runan. His family was poor, and he worked as a farm labourer. When his father passed away, he had no money for the funeral.

He borrowed ten thousand coins from a creditor and promised: 'If I cannot repay the money later, I will work as your slave.' After burying his father, he suddenly met a woman on the road who asked to become his wife. Dong Yong took her to the creditor, who ordered her to weave three hundred bolts of fine silk to pay off the debt. She finished the work within one month and then bid Dong Yong farewell.

She said: 'I am the Weaver Girl from heaven. Because of your extraordinary filial piety, the Heavenly Emperor sent me to help you clear your debt.' With these words, she rose into the sky and vanished."

The same chronicle also states that later generations built a bridge named the "Fairy Meeting Bridge" right where Dong Yong encountered the fairy, together with a temple called the Fairy Temple. Both sites became well-known tourist attractions in Runan.

In 2003, cultural relic administrators of Runan County unearthed a stone tablet at Shilipu Village (now by Suya Lake) in Sanlidian Township (present-day Guta Sub-district).

The horizontal inscription reads "Fairy Bridge". The vertical line is partially damaged: "The place where Dong Yong of the Han Dynasty met the fairy". In the upper right corner are the characters "the Dingwei year of the Daoguang reign". The tablet is now preserved in the Runan County Cultural Relics Management Institute.

In 2005, the People’s Government of Runan County built the Dong Yong Fairy Meeting Pavilion west of Hudong Village, Shilipu Township, on the lakeshore of Suya Lake. The stele pavilion tells the touching love story, showcases Dong Yong’s profound filial devotion to his father, and embodies people’s eternal longing for true love.

In 2007, the legend of Dong Yong and the Seventh Fairy was included in the first batch of Henan Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage List.