﻿126 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 78 



southward, it cuts through the Ho-shan range for about 40 miles, 

 after which it flows through the plain again. For a whole day, the 

 23d, after leaving Chieh-hsiu. we wormed our way through the Ho- 

 shan along the river bed. About noon we reached Hsia-men Ts'un 

 which is one of the most beautiful villages I have seen in this province : 

 the buildings of brick and limestone, the windows and doors arched. 



b^rom there southward, the mountains on both sides rise steeply, 

 and in them are many limestone caves, some of which I explored, 

 Init found only traces of modern habitation. We stopped at Ho-chou, 

 between which place and Lin-feng Hsien there are many historic 

 places ; but as I did not intend to make any intensive study north 

 of the latter, we passed this region rather hurriedly and reached 

 Lin-feng Hsien on the 25th. 



Lin-feng Hsien ( or P'ing-yang Fu ) , a city that has aroused imagi- 

 nation in the past — the ancient ca])ital of the Emperor Yao ! \\^hat 

 Chinese scholars are not acquainted with the list of virtues of this 

 august monarch? Did he, however, also create a model city? Since 

 he was, perhaps, the most self-denying emperor that the world has 

 ever known, it would not be in harmony with his ethical principles 

 if he should have used the national wealth to build luxurious palaces 

 like those found in Troy and Knossos ; but whatever he might have 

 done in this respect, it is a fact that there is not even a tradition as to 

 the exact location of his capital. The modern city of Lin-feng Hsien 

 is, like every other city in inland China, surrounded by machicolated 

 walls. About a mile west of the city flows the Feng River, and west 

 of the Feng is the famous Ku-i-shan where, according to the mythical 

 tales of Chuang-tzii, resided many fairies. 



We rested in Lin-feng Hsien for a day, and on the morning of 

 the 27th started to explore Ku-i-shan in the western part of the dis- 

 trict, the place being popularly known as Hsien-tung (Fairies' Caves). 

 A mile out of the western gate of the city, we crossed the Feng River. 

 Between the river and the foot of the mountain there is a series of 

 loess terraces ascending higher and higher towards the mountain 

 and dotted here and there by villages, some of which are merely a 

 collection of cave dwellings. It took us more than half a day to reach 

 the Northern Fairy Cave, where we were received by a monk — an 

 old man, widely travelled, and evidently knowing something about his 

 profession. 



The temples in this mountain are for the Buddhists. They were 

 originally built in the early part of the T'ang Dynasty ; but in later 

 periods they were repeatedly ruined and rebuilt. For some time in the 



