Línglíng

Lingling stands where the Xiao and Xiang rivers meet, a historic centre of southern Hunan. It was the seat of Yongzhou through successive dynasties. The Tang writer Liu Zongyuan spent ten years in exile here, finding inspiration in its streams and hills and recording them in his celebrated essays on Yongzhou.

Later generations honoured Liu at a shrine beside the stream he called Yuxi. A Ming prefect recorded its repair in 1513; by the early nineteenth century, officials offered sacrifices there in spring and autumn, while local residents maintained funds for the shrine. The county's Confucian temple, founded under the Southern Song, was rebuilt and repaired repeatedly, including a major restoration in 1803.