龐居洞

Pangju Cave

Useful Information

Location:	Yicheng, Xiangyang, Hubei 441418. (31.853923, 112.227458)
Open:	no restrictions. [2025]
Fee:	free. [2025]
Classification:	Cave House Cave Church
Light:	bring torch
Dimension:	Ar=80 m².
Guided tours:	self guided, D=30 min.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Pangju Cave, Yicheng, Xiangyang, Hubei 441418.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

Description

龐居洞 (Pángjūdòng, Pangju Cave) is a hermits cave or cave house, depending on the point of view. The cave was named after the hermit Pang Yun from the Tang Dynasty, during the Yuanhe period of Emperor Xianzong. He lived in this cave with his wife and daughter. The whole family practiced Taoism and became enlightened and ascended to heaven.

The autumn wind drives the wanderer to the hibiscus fence, and he first looks for the teeth of He’s clogs at Lumen.
Pang Gong is also a family man, with a cold lamp in the deep cave and old autumn water.
The loving team is bright and clear, and the flat sand in Gutian is covered with white clouds.
They shaved their heads and dyed their hair to become monks, and gathered together to chant the ritual bells.
Originally, no one knew this mountain was so deep that later generations trampled upon its empty beauty.
Red pomegranates hang down from the eaves, and thin bamboos are newly planted.
Pomegranates hang from the eaves, bamboos cover the paths, and the Lumen landscape is attributed to the Pang family.
One cave is covered with rain marks (or moss), the other two caves are deserted. If you don't say anything, Zen is the end.

Song of Pangju Cave, late Ming and early Qing Dynasty, Tan Yuanchun

This site is not really a tourist site, it is an ancient Taoist hermit cave and more or less left alone. Its also pretty hard to find, although most pages on the web give a location about where we located the most likely spot. However, Chinese maps are extremely poor and the site is not shown on any online map, including Baidu. The typical way to get there is follow S217 along the eastern bank of the Han River, more than 20 kilometers southeast of Xiangyang City. The next village is Pangjucun, which is located in the plain along the river. The cave is in the hillside east of this plain, about 250 m from the road.

From the plain a long stone staircase leads up the hillside to a small artificial plateau, the facade of the house is part of the cliff, with walls, engravings in the rock and the walls. There is a door, 2 m high and 1.7 m wide, with the pictures of the Pangju family. An inscription says 隐士居 (Hermit Residence). Inside is a single rectangular room with a barrel vault ceiling. Right behind the entrance is a sort of altar, so the cave is used by the locals as a sort of chapel. The sculptures on the altar seem to depict Pang Yun and his wife flanked by a Taoist master on both sides. According to local lore, a temple called "Pangju Temple" was built by Liang Jing, a native of Yicheng, during the Ming Dynasty. The temple was expanded during the Qing Dynasty. It was destroyed in the late 1950s.

Right in front of the cave entrance is a two-story wooden building named the 文昌楼 (Wenchang Building). It has three rooms and contains dozens of Buddha statues and stone tablets with inscriptions written by Wang Wanfang, a university scholar during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty.

There are numerous local legends about the cave. There is the story that the temple was so popular that the visitors who came by foot or carriage formed a ten-mile-long line. Another legend says that there was a cave branch on the northern side which led to Lumen Temple, but it was later filled up. That’s more than 8 km, so this is obviously a Smile Far Connection Legend.