Jiangxi Jiujiang Smoking Water Pavilion in Gantang Lake, China

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Smoking Water Pavilion in Gantang Lake

The Smoking Water Pavilion in Gantang Lake is located in the center of Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province. It is a historic site full of poem and painting feelings in Jiujiang.

The Smoking Water Pavilion was called the Jinyue Pavilion before, situated in the center of the Gantang Lake.

Near the lake there are beautiful flowers with dense leafy shade, while in the center of the lake there are pavilions, plats, buildings with red walls and green tiles, the green water is rippling in brilliant and bright waves. The pavilion and the lake are brilliant with each other, forming a graceful and beautiful picture.

The Smoking Water Pavilion in Gantang Lake was built in Yuanhe Year of Tang Dynasty, as to this it really had an origin. At that time about in 816, the famous poet named Bai Juyi offended the imperial court, so he was relegated to Jiangzhou to take up the post of the Minister of War.

In Tang Dynasty, Jiujiang was called Jiangzhou at that time. But the Minister of War was a sinecure only with name but not in reality. So Bai Juyi often made a sightseeing tour, drank wine and composed poems to eliminate worry.

In order to provide convenience for friends' meeting, Bai Juyi had a pavilion above water built in the center of the Gantang Lake. The front hall of the pavilion was the place that he entertained relatives and friends, recited poems and drew pictures, while the back hall was the bedroom.

After finishing the pavilion, someone proposed to call the pavilion "the Jinyue Pavilion" according to Bai Juyi's famous poem "Pipa Xing" that he wrote in the second autumn in Jiangzhou.

To the Xining Year of North Song Dynasty, the famous philosopher Zhou Dunyi came to Jiangzhou to spread knowledge, when he appreciated the Gantang Lake with his son Zhou Shou, he found the lake water and far mountains had a dim beauty, so he wrote a poem, one verse was: "smoke cover the hilltop and water", very apt with feelings of poem and drawing. So people changed this Jinyue Pavilion into the Smoking Water Pavilion till now.