Kunming Black Dragon Pool

Heilongran (the Black Dragon Pool), also known as the Dragon Fountain Temple, is situated at the foot of Longquan Hill in the northern outskirts of Kunming, seven kilometres from the downtown area. It is surrounded by towering old trees and bamboo groves. The pool is deep the water is clear. The pool has never got dry even in the years of drought. As the legend goes, long, long ago there were ten flood dragons doing great harm to the people. Nine of the ten dragons were subdued and buried under an ancient pagoda in Guzhuang (Dhvaja) Temple by Lu Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals in Chinese legend. Only a small black dragon was left in the pool and was commanded to do good to the people. Hence the name "the mack Dragon Pool."

The scenic spot here is composed of two groups of buildings, the Lower Temple and the Upper Temple. The lower one, also named the Black Dragon Palace, stands near the deep and clear pool. The upper one, also named the Dragon Fountain Temple, is hidden among ancient trees. There are plum trees planted in the Tang Dynasty, cypress trees in the Song Dynasty, camellia trees in the Ming Dynasty and a plum garden which is the largest of its kind in southwestern China.

The construction of the Black Dragon palace began in the 27th year in the reign of Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty (1394) and it was rebuilt by a hereditary Duke by the name of Mu in the 4th year of the reign of Emperor Jingtai in the same Dynasty (1454). The palace with three rows of houses and two courtyards is surrounded by old trees. Its unsophisticated and elegant style provides a quiet and tastefully laid out place for relaxation. On the wall of the main hall there is a stone tablet written in praise of the temple by Fan Chengxun, the governor of Yunnan in the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty.

Sauntering along the stone steps in the woods, visitors come directly to the memorial archway of the Upper Temple - the Dragon Fountain Temple. This archway is in fact a pavilion for worshipping the Jade Emperor (the Supreme Deity of Daoism), and other high-ranking Daoist deities, such as Sanqing, the North Pole Deity and others. The main buildings of the Upper Temple include the Thunder-Lightning-Deity Hall, the Hall of the North Pole, the Sanqing Hall, the Hall of the Jade Emperor and some other halls for worshipping Daoist immortals.

A tablet with engraved inscription of four Chinese characters, "wan wu zi sheng" (all things multiply and propagate) kept in the Upper Temple was a Daoist incantation written by Liu Yuanran. Written in one continuous stroke, the Chinese characters of the whole inscription are in lively and vigorous flourishes, lookingjust like dragons flying and phoenixes dancing. Owing to the reflection of light, if you look at them fixedly for a moment, the actually concave inscriptions may seem to be convex instead. Therefore the stone tablet is generally called "guzibei" or a tablet with convex inscriptions. According to textual research, a memorial temple (the Black Water Temple) was once built here in the Han Dynasty, which was known as "the Number One Ancient Temple in Yunnan." Later temples were built on the same site in the Tang Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty but were all destroyed in war. A Daoist Dragon Fountain Temple was built in the same place between 1394-1395 (in the reign of Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty), and went through several renovations in the Qing Dynasty. It has existed for more than 570 years. In the reign of Emperor Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty, Shuo Qing, a Man poet, wrote a couplet which reads: "Two graceful plum trees stand by a pool of limpid water; Seasonal misty rains and drizzles cloak half the mountain." The first half of the couplet describes the pool itself and the second half the natural beauty around it. It is generally agreed that the feature of this scenic spot is best shown in this couplet.

The Dragon Pool is divided by a bridge into two, one deep and the other shallow. Surrounded by stone embankment and balustrades, the deep one, known as the Black Dragon Pool, is a circular pond covering an area of 600 square metres, 11 metres deep. By the side of the pool stands a pavilion for watching fish. As far back as the period of Nanzhao Kingdom under the reign of the Tang Dynasty, people began to channel water from the pool into the fields. The shallow one, which covers an area of 2,600 square metres, is 50 centimetres in depth. The dividing line of the two ponds is the bridge. The water in the two ponds is connected, but the fish in one pond never goes to the other. The park is clothed with a great variety of multicoloured flowers and rare trees, among which the Tang Plum (a plum tree believed to have been planted in the Tang Dynasty), the Song Cypress (believed to have been planted in the Song Dynasty) and the Ming Camellia (believed to have been planted in the Ming Dynasty) are the most well-known. The Tang Plum standing in front of Sanqing Hall of the Dragon Fountain Temple is said to have been planted by Dao An, a monk in the Tang Dynasty, in the time between the Kaiyuan reign and Tianbao reign of the Tang Dynasty. The main branch died because of old age, but the remaining branches growing sideward in the shape of a sleeping dragon are still full of life and vigour. The tree still blossoms and bears fragrant flowers on the eve of the Spring Festival. though it is more than one thousand years old. One of the two Song cypress trees is 25 metres high, and its thick trunk takes four or five people to encircle with linked arms. The two giant trees give a shade with their thick branches and leaves to visitors as a nice place for relaxation and the enjoyment of the cool in hot days. In the same courtyard where the Tang Plum stands, there is a camellia tree called "Zaotaohong" (early blooming peach-pink camellia). It is believed to have been planted in the Ming Dynasty, having a history of three to four hundred years. It always blooms before other camellias. A verse singing its praise reads: "Ah, what a camellia tree in full blossom! Like hundreds of red clouds proudly hovering in the sky." Itjust stands opposite awhite magnolia planted in the Qing Dynasty, adding grandeur to the park.

In addition to these sights, there is the tomb of Xue Erwang, a scholar in the last days of the Ming Dynsaty, who drowned himself, together with his family, as a martyr to show his loyalty to the Ming court when the Qing soldiers marched into Yunnan.