Mount Shan, Shan Pit and the Former Study Site of Wang Shipeng

Mount Shan is located in the urban area of Shengzhou. To its north stands towering Mount Tu, shrouded in mist all year round, while its southern side borders the fertile Shengzhou-Xinchang Plain. A graceful peak rises atop the mountain, known as Xingzi Peak. Five mountain ridges branch off from beneath the peak, stretching far and wide with rolling undulating hills that surge in magnificent momentum.

When Emperor Qin Shi Huang made his eastern inspection tour to Kuaiji Mountain, he suspected that this land harboured the aura of a future emperor. He ordered labourers to carve a thousand-zhang trench to dispel such imperial qi, hence the name Shan Pit.

The ruins of Shan Pit survive to this day, and traces of artificial chiselling can still be faintly seen on both sides of the trench. Walking along the pit up to the mountain pass summit, visitors are greeted by thick clusters of peach and plum blossoms hidden among bamboo and trees. Wang Zhi, a scholar of the Song Dynasty, wrote the poem Seeking Plum Blossoms at Shan Pit: "I tend the cold plum trees alone upon the ridge, Half the sloping mountain unfurls like a painted screen. Spring drizzle dots every blossom-laden bough, Above, an eastward stream flows gently past now."

On the northern slope of Mount Shan lie the ruins of the Former Study Site of Wang Shipeng. In the 15th year of the Shaoxing reign of the Southern Song Dynasty (1145), Wang Shipeng was invited by his close friend Zhou Rushi to teach at the private Yuan Yuan Hall School of the Zhou clan in Shengzhou. During his stay, he built a crude cottage on Mount Shan, where he read books and composed poems in his spare time between teaching duties.

After the death of Qin Hui, Wang Shipeng took the imperial examination in the 27th year of the Shaoxing reign (1157) and achieved the highest rank of Zhuangyuan (top scholar). Six of his students from Shengzhou passed the jinshi examination successively, making Shengzhou a preeminent centre of culture and scholarship in eastern Zhejiang.

After Wang Shipeng left Shengzhou, local residents revered his former study site as a shrine, commonly called the Grand King Temple. A statue of Wang Shipeng was enshrined there in memory of him.