Outside the Scripture Crag for Happiness stands a solid castle-like stonewall of over 7m high. Entering through a wooden door up to 10cm in thickness, there is a long and narrow “courtyard” with a waste well on the right side and “Guanlan” (the genteel name for washroom in ancient times) on the left side. The mounds lie by the stone wall, with flowers and trees on them. The crag on the opposite side is carved with words from the top to bottom. Looking up in the courtyard, you can see four or five holes with wooden boards on the crag concealed behind green trees. The two grottoes in the right-most hole were cut at the earliest stage. It is recorded that the grottoes were cut in order to escape from the war between Qing forces and White Lotus Sect, and people should get in and out the grottoes by rope ladder and other tools. Near the “Guanlan”, there is another door with the words of “Scripture Crag for Happiness” above the lintel. The door itself is painted with color drawing with Kylin and phoenix flying in clouds. Entering through the door, you are at the biggest cavern of the seven in “Scripture Crag for Happiness”, which is the main hall. It is 3 meters in height and covers an area of nearly 200m2 with the capacity for more than 100 people. Stone table and benches are in the middle of the cavern. The middle stonewall is decorated with colored statues, and walls on both sides were carved with words mainly excerpted from the “Four Books” and “Five Classics”.

The old door of Scripture Crag for Happiness

There is a wide wooden ladder on the right wall of the main hall, which led by a man-made secret way to the cavern of the third level named “Hui An Dong Tian”. The cave looks like a calligraphy exhibition hall with a variety of calligraphy works in different character styles in it. The wall across the window is carved with the inscription of “Hui An Dong Tian” given by Li Jiaxiu, a famous Sichuan Confucian who was once a teacher of Emperor Daoguang in Qing Dynasty. The inscription is finely carved in intaglio with the strokes thick enough for a fist. Under the inscription, there are vivid carved calligraphies copies of Zheng Banqiao and Su Dongpo. On the right side of the inscription there is a wooden door leading to the cavern at the second level, which is the finest place of the whole cave and decorated with stone sculptures and paintings. The winding Great Wall in the colored picture on the right looks quite realistic.

The inscription of “Hui An Dong Tian” by Li Jiangxiu