Yuexiu District is the applicant of Wuyang Legend to declare the national intangible cultural heritage

Wuyang Legend

The earliest record of Wuyang Legend is Gu Wei's "Guangzhou Ji" in Jin Dynasty: "In the Warring States Period, Guangzhou belonged to Chu, Gao Gu was the Chu phase, and Wuyang came to its court with a valley, which was considered auspicious, because it was named after Wuyang.

"According to Huang Hangang, a cultural worker, the" Five Sheep "were probably just a few sheep feeding on grass and rice stalks. They accidentally walked into the residence of Chu Xiang Gao Gu with rice stalks in their mouths, and it was just that the later generations spread the word more and more.

Although it is absurd, this story truly reflects the process that the ancestors of South Guangdong regarded sheep as mascots in the process of expanding their territory.

According to historical records, in the 9th century BC, people from the Central Plains moved south, and the earliest animal brought to Guangzhou was sheep. Compared with other domestic animals, sheep are more fertile and more convenient to exchange.

In some pottery houses unearthed in the Han Dynasty in Guangzhou, there are many sheepfold fences, which shows that Cantonese people really raised sheep at that time.

There are similar records in the history of music in the Song Dynasty, Taiping Universe, and Southern Song Dynasty Fang Xinru's Poems on the South China Sea.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Qu Dajun also accurately dated the myth to the Zhou Yiwang period more than 8 years before BC in his Guangdong New Talk.

During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty (1377), in order to commemorate this legend, the court built the Five Immortals Temple at the Poshan site (now Huifu West Road).

It is said that the footprint-shaped stone pit "Fairy's Thumb", where the Five Immortals sheep descended from the earth in those days, was left by the immortal when he jumped into the air.

why did the immortal leave alone? According to legend, after the five-color sheep came to Guangzhou, they missed the lush water plants in Lingnan and decided to stay here.

The immortal was helpless. He stamped his foot in anger and flew away, leaving immortal footprints.

And the five immortal sheep were instantly turned into stone statues and remained in the world forever.

Legend is a legend after all, but when Qu Dajun visited Wuxian Temple, he did see Wuyang Stone. According to Guangdong Xinyu Shiyu Wuyang Stone, Wuyang Stone is blue in color and contains the light from people's palms.

At that time, because the Five Immortals Temple was located in a foreigner's area next to the port along the Yangtze River, many foreigners came here.

The incident of foreigners stealing sheep stones was recorded for the first time.

It is said that a "Jia Hu" hired a thief to discredit and sneak into the Taoist temple, packed the stone sheep in wooden boxes and shipped them away.

In order to rebuild the Wuyang stone statue, in 1959, the famous sculptor Yin Jichang and others created the Wuyang Statue in Mukegang, Yuexiu Mountain, according to the legend of Wuyang.

The stone statue is 11 meters high with its base, and it is carved from more than 13 pieces of granite.

Five sheep are of different sizes, with the leader's neck standing high and ears in his mouth. The other four sheep are around, playing or eating grass, and lambs are sucking the milk of ewes.

Since then, the Statue of Wuyang has become the emblem of Guangzhou, and enterprises and merchants have used the emblem of Wuyang City as the trademark of their products.