It is said that during the Zhou Dynasty, this place in Guangzhou was still called "Chu Ting". One year there was a drought and no crops were harvested. The people had nothing to do, so they had to pray to the gods day and night for blessings. Their piety finally moved the five immortals. Immortals rode five fairy sheep of different colors, holding ears of grain in their hands, and descended into Chu Ting. They gave ears of grain to people, wishing that "there would never be famine" here. After saying that, he flew away into the sky, and the five fairy sheep turned into stones and stayed in the world. From then on, the weather here has been good and the grain has been abundant every year. In order to commemorate these five immortals, later generations built the Five Immortals Temple at the place where they descended. In the Five Immortals Temple, where the immortals settled, there is also a one-meter-long footprint. Because of this magical legend, Guangzhou is called "Sheep City", "Fairy City" and "Suicheng City". There is a statue of the Five Rams in Yuexiu Park, which is regarded as the city symbol of Guangzhou.

Since then, Guangzhou has become the richest place in Lingnan, and the "Sheep City" has also begun to appear. It is also known as "Wuyang City" and "Suicheng City". Later, the people of Guangzhou also built the "Five Immortals Temple" on Huifu West Road to commemorate these five immortals who benefited Guangzhou. If you don't believe it, you can go to the east side of the Five Immortals Temple and take a look. There is still a huge red sandstone footprint-shaped depression there, which is the "immortal's thumb mark". If you still don’t believe it, go to the foothills of Yuexiu Mountain. There is a famous archway of "Ancient Chu Ting" there, which tells people that the oldest name in Guangzhou is "Chu Ting".

People who like to use their brains and are good at thinking may wonder: In this myth and legend, why do the immortals ride sheep instead of other animals? Why are the clothes of the five immortals in five colors, and the clothes of the sheep are also in five colors? Is there any mystery here?

Yes, behind this myth and legend, there is also a very rich historical, cultural and ideological connotation. In other words, it is not accidental that the immortal comes riding a sheep, that the immortal has five numbers, his clothes are five colors, and that the sheep is also five colors. First let’s talk about why it is sheep. Here I will tell you a basic fact. Animal husbandry scientists have proven that the sheep in Guangdong come from the north. This shows that the Five Sheep Myth is a prehistoric colonization myth. The people of the Central Plains were as early as the Zhou Dynasty in the 9th century BC. They began to move southward and brought northern culture and civilization to Lingnan people. It also proved that Guangzhou was an immigrant city very early. Some people may also ask, the ancestors who moved to Yangcheng could also keep dogs. You brought pigs and so on, why did you just bring sheep? This may be due to the long distance. Pigs move slowly and are inconvenient to drive in groups. In addition, pigs have a bad image in ancient legends. Dogs, in ancient times, were the totems and ancestral gods of many ethnic groups and were rarely raised as livestock with economic value. Compared with dogs and pigs, sheep have strong reproductive capacity, strong adaptability, and high economic value. To this day, there are still sayings in Guangdong that "raising ginger and raising sheep will save you money but make a profit" and "sheep never leave the womb." . In addition, it moves quickly and is easy to drive away. It can be seen that the immortal riding the sheep in the Wuyang myth not only symbolizes its coming from the north, but also has psychological, moral and economic considerations. There is a certain scientific reason why sheep became the ideal livestock carried by the ancestors who migrated south.

Today. Wuyang has become the city emblem of Guangzhou. Careful tourists will find that the nickname "Yangcheng" has penetrated into all aspects of life in Guangzhou: the book "Yangcheng Ancient Banknotes", the publication "Yangcheng Ancient and Modern", the newspaper "Yangcheng Evening News", and the "Eight Scenes of Yangcheng" ; Even many building trademarks, companies, associations, and places of interest are named after "Yangcheng"; the "Five Immortals Temple" still exists today, and the "immortal thumb traces" can still be seen; Xianhu Street, Xianlin Lane, Wuxianmen, etc. are still there. There is a bit of "immortality" in it - the myth of the "Five Sheep Immortal" has a profound influence.