There are some huge stones and peaks
more than 10 kilometers to the northwest of Shilin. This stone forest
looks like flaunting banners with strict barriers from the overview, and blades
and swords for cavalry if taking a closer look. This place is the famous Naigu
Stone Forest.
Where do these strange peaks and stones
come from? There is a beautiful legend about it.
Long long ago, there was a cruel king
in capital. He was arrogant, vicious, and arbitrarily; and his people lived a
hard life.
A young man named Tianzhu came,
determining to kill the evil for the people. Taught by immortal, he could
spread sesame which would change into a troop. One night, he spread sesame on
the ground near Hemozhan. According to the immortal’s requirement, he needed to
close his door, read military books hard, incense, and worship inside for 100
days without opening the door. At the same time, god promised to give him three
magic arrows after 100 days - to shoot the king in the throat, chest, and lower
abdomen.
So he started to do these with his door
closed. Dozens of days later, three grasses grew from the incense burner on the
desk. Tianzhu realized that these were the three arrows after 100 days.
Time flew, 99 days had passed. There
were already endless troops near Hemozhan, and all were ready to fight.
At this moment, an old woman lived next
to Tianzhu's home. Nobody knew her name, they called her Mrs. Wang. She
kept many chicken, releasing them in the morning and collected them back in the
evening. When it came to the 99th day for Tianzhu's preparation, Mrs. Wang
found that some chicken were missing. On the morning of the 100th day, Mrs.
Wang still did not see her chicken back. So she went out, scolding. She saw that the next door had been closed more than three
months while someone was inside; she guessed that it was Tianzhu who
stole her chicken and ate them inside. She scolded chicken and dogs at first,
and Tianzhu controlled his mood. Mrs. Wang saw that her neighbor still made no
sound, thinking that he was exactly the thief. So she scolded at Tianzhu's
door.
Hearing the harsh curse, Tianzhu felt
humiliation and could not bear it. He forgot about the 100-day taboo and opened the door to explain to her.
Therefore all the previous work ended in vain. The green straight grass
withered, and strong soldiers in the wild became huge stones. And the three
pioneer generals who were Tianzhu's right-hand generals also turned into giant stones,
standing silently with hate. Later, people called these “supporting stones”.
Vigorous endeavor was ruined in this way. However, the soldiers who had become
stones still had ambition, they stood straight and grew taller
day by day. The gods in heaven felt very angry, and they whipped these giant
stones hard with magic whips so that these stones no longer dared to grow. At
present, the whip marks can still be seen on the stones.