Xisai Mountain in Huangshi, Hubei, stands on the Yangtze and was a military stronghold in ancient times.
Tips
history
张志和's ci 'The Fisherman's Song' opens 西塞山前白鹭飞 'before Xisai Mountain white egrets fly'. Liu Yuxi's poem 'Remembering the Past at Xisai Mountain' is about the Hubei one, where in 280 the Jin fleet broke through the iron chains of the state of Wu.
mistakes
塞 is sài here, 'frontier pass', as in 要塞 'fortress', not sāi 'to stuff'.
