What Myths and Legends Are Associated with Baishuiyang?

Beautiful mountains and rivers always nurture numerous wonderful myths and folktales. The legends of Baishuiyang are interesting, distinctive and deeply rooted in local customs.

According to the tale, Cheng Huize accidentally swallowed a dragon pearl and turned into a dragon. Before flying off to the East China Sea, he created three hundred plots of farmland for Sanfeng Village. Eager to do more good deeds for the villagers but running out of time, he wielded his divine power and swept his dragon tail across the mountains, carving out another stretch of fertile farmland where local people could live and work in peace and contentment.

However, a tyrant named Guo had long coveted this fertile land. He claimed the mountain area was his ancestral property and colluded with the county magistrate to seize the farmland.

Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, who was cultivating immortality in Shuilian Cave downstream, learned about this injustice overnight. Using his magic power to shift mountains and divert seas, he moved all the farmland to the hills near the cave. A new village came into being, which the locals named Yiyang, meaning "Moved Land".

Nothing was left behind except a smooth flat stone bed beside the clear stream. As the folk ballad goes: Legends live on through endless years, Huize made farmlands with his power. The Sage moved the land for common folks, Leaving only great stones by the clear brook.