Sanyu Cave lies near the eastern mouth of Xiling Gorge, in the cliffs northwest of Yichang. Its limestone chamber opens onto a landscape of steep rock and water. Paths, inscriptions and memorial features turn the approach into a meeting of natural form and human marks. The cave’s age as a rock formation and the dates of its inscriptions are different histories.
From the journal
The Writers Who Gave a Cave Its Name
At Sanyu Cave near Yichang, a Tang outing and the later memory of the Su family turn a cliffside chamber into a literary place.
In the same city · Yichang ↗
A chamber near the gorge mouth
Three Tang visitors
In 819, Bai Juyi, his younger brother Bai Xingjian and Yuan Zhen visited the cave. Bai Juyi wrote an account, and their outing became the explanation for the name Sanyu, “Three Visitors”. The name refers to those people, not simply to three repeated visits by one traveller. Poetry and the record of an excursion gave an existing cave a lasting literary identity.
The Su family and later inscriptions
Su Xun and his sons Su Shi and Su Zhe are associated with a later visit, traditionally called the later Three Visitors. Their memory joins inscriptions and writings connected with other literary figures, including Ouyang Xiu. Later carving and recarving added to the record. A natural chamber became a place in which successive generations left words, preserved earlier ones and found their own company among the names on the rock.