Inside Miaohua Rock

Miaohua Rock was highly accomplished during the Yuan Dynasty. Many reclusive scholars practiced Daoism here and wrote and published classic books on Qingwei Daoism. It once became the center of Chinese Daoism. The external buildings of Miaohua Rock were damaged in the early years. Here, we have taken pictures of the ancient sites inside the brick and stone halls of Miaohua Rock to have a more intuitive understanding of them. The brick and stone hall of Miaoshao Rock has a hard mountain-style wall, with a stone-carved Sumeru pedestal at the bottom. A hall is formed within the cave through the walls. There are still three stone-carved elixir beds in the cave. They are large in size and have unique carvings. They have Sumeru bases, handrails and backrests. It is said that they were elixir beds used by Taoists to practice meditation. Careful people will notice that the Sumeru pedestal on the central red bed is obviously different in shape from the red beds on both sides. Relevant experts believe that it is a relic from before the Ming Dynasty. The two sides of the red beds and the Sumeru pedestals have a relatively distinct carved form from the Ming Dynasty, which is very likely to have been added during the Great Military Overhaul in the tenth year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty. Behind the Dan bed in the middle of Miaohua Rock, there is a small door opening, leading to a square pool that has been artificially excavated inside. Legend has it that during the Great Repair of the Ming Dynasty, oil flowed out of this pool and was inexhaustible. Therefore, later generations called it the Oil tank. Over time, because of this pool and the legend, people also called Miaohua Rock the Oil tank.