Located on the northwest side of the rear peak of Beigushan, Liuma Jian is said to be the place where Sun and Liu privately competed, secretly predicting the outcome and racing horses. Nestled on the cliffs at the rear of Beigushan’s rear peak, Liuma Jian is flanked by towering cliffs with a narrow path in between, making the terrain extremely perilous. It is also known as ‘Zouma Jian’ and ‘Poma Po’.
When Liu Bei came to the Eastern Wu to propose marriage, he drank with Sun Quan at Ganlu Temple one day. Seeing the mighty river wind and white waves surging, a small boat on the wave crest was skillfully steered by the boatman as if on flat ground, Liu Bei couldn’t help but praise: ‘Southerners are good at boating, and Northerners are good at horse riding, indeed.’ Hearing this, Sun Quan thought to himself: ‘Is Liu Bei mocking me for not being able to ride a horse?’ He ordered his attendants to bring a horse, mounted it, galloped down the mountain, and then spurred the horse back to the ridge to ask Liu Bei: ‘Can Southerners really not ride horses?’ Upon hearing this, Liu Bei mounted his horse, galloped down the mountain, and returned back up. Both stopped their horses on the hillside and laughed heartily. Later generations called the place where they raced ‘Liuma Jian’, also known as ‘Zhuma Po’ and ‘Zouma Jian’. In the twelfth year of the Chongzhen era (1639), the prefect Cheng Xun slightly renovated Liuma Jian and ordered the construction of a simple brick road. The following year, Zhu Yunxi from Yilan (now Yunnan) wrote the three characters ‘Liuma Jian’ and inscribed them on the stone wall by the river, which still exists today. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, Changbai Mukedengbu inscribed the four characters ‘Gu Zouma Jian’ in seal script on stone, which serves as the horizontal beam of the round gate on the mountain. Now standing on the northwestern foot of the rear peak, one can still see the geographical feature of ‘two cliffs standing, with a single path through, leading to the mountain top’. The site is open all year round from 7:30 to 17:30.
