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The gorgeous mountains gather the rice-pattern decorated cave, also known as the renowned Returned Pearl Cave. As one walks up the flagged path after entering into the cave, and walked on after several maze of narrow alleys in the gloom of this dark forest, one was lucky to see the Sword Testing Stone.
Just as you were turning to it, the view before you suddenly broadened and brightened, and you only saw one huge stalactite and stalagmite standing straightly in the caves when you had nearly reached the water edge of the Lijiang River. The huge stone looking like a stone column upholding the roof of the cave and carrying the strain of the huge mountains has risen out of the ground which today is known as Sword Testing Stone.
As a matter of fact, there are a great many of inscriptions in Huanzhu Cave describing the folklore of Shijian Stone. Amongst its more notable story is that the gap was cut by the Fubo Geveral Ma Yuan with his sword. In former times, people had a theory that the rock was capable of expansion and contraction, which mean that it could stretch out and draw back at ease.
People used to conceive of the fact that every time the rock linked with the ground there would be a Champion that is also known as the bitter and even cruel competition of imperial examination. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the chief procurator of Guilin gave a grand banquet in honor of these students at the Stone to commemorate the students who had got through the local examination with comparative ease.
This view has been confirmed to be true many times, since that a growing number of Guilin students have successfully passed the imperial examination. Because of this, the rock was also referred to as "Champion Rock." More than this, the stone was also depicted as one "Trunk Rock" in one of the poems and inscriptions in its praise left behind by many men of literature and writings in Song Dynasty. With the continuous water and the endless calcium carbonate deposition, it must connect naturally with the rock in the bottom of the valley some day.
Rationally speaking, the gap is a narrow crevice eroded by water. The total column is just nothing but a natural product of erosion. It is almost impossible for it to gradually form a stalactite connected with the earth. Whatever changes are brought as the result of time passing, it will always remain a suspended rock. Despite the fact that the prediction of the "Champion Rock" could never be materialized, the tale of the genuinely popular variety will remain just as powerful.