Famous as a city in Jiang'Nan or the region south of the Yangtse, Wuxi has a history that can be traced back to over 3100 years ago when the Kingdom of Wu was founded by Tai Bo, the eldest son of King Gai of the Zhou Dynasty (C.11th B.C.-256B.C.)
Legend has it that King Tai wanted his youngest son Ji Li to succeed to the throne. When Tai bo learnt of his father's intentions, he did not want to put his father in a difficult position and so moved to Jiang'Nan with his second brother Zhong Yong, settling down somewhere in today's Meili Village in Wuxi County. As they had brought with them the more advanced culture and production skills of the Central Plains and also as they were ready to share the life of the local inhabitants, it was not long anyway before Tai Bo won the latter's support and became their leader. He then started building his capital which in the Period of the Warring States(475B.C.-2214B.C.) was moved to Suzhou. At Meili Village the temple dedicated to Tai Bo and his tomb have been preserved to this day.

Densely wooded and dotted here and there with beautiful pavilions and towers, Mount Xi and Mount Hui are both rivals to Hu'Qiu'Shan(Tiger Hill) of Suzhou in respect of scenic charm and historical interest. In the Qin and Han Dynasties when prefectures and counties were established in the country, a county was instituted in this region which was given the name You'Xi or having in. when later the tin mine was exhausted, the name You'Xi was changed to Wu'Xi or without tin. At the time of Wang Mang who took over the throne of Han for a time in the early days of our era(9-23) tin deposits were once again found and the name was changed back to You'Xi. Then again the tin mines were exhausted and the name Wu'Xi was restored. This time the name stuck and has been in use until today. But this is the official story of the historical changes in the name of the place as recorded in relevant documents while ordinary people may persist in their own version.

According to a folk tale, once upon a time there falls from the sky one night a surprisingly huge tin ball. After this the once calm and peaceful Tai Lake becomes every night a scene of terrible gales which churn up violent waves. In the midst of all this nine moustrous dragons become faintly discernible, romoing and rollicking around the tin ball until the break of dawn. The local people find this very annoying. Just then an old man appears before them, saying that the tin ball once belonged to the dragon king's palace where the nine sons of the dragon king all like to play with it, jostling against each other and pouncing at it for fun. While it is not known when and how the tin ball got to this place, the old man adds, "With tin there will only be strife; without it there will be peace. Destroy the tin balll and the dragons will never come again." With this said, the old man vanishes out of sight.

The local people set to straightaway to destroy the tin ball. To their surprise, the ball is only incrusted with tin and inside is a huge rock. Quickly they have the tin stripped away. That night the nine dragons come again. Failing to see the tin ball, they tumble about all night in Tai Lake in a frantic search for it, but to no avail. However, they are not reconciled to their failure and continue their search like crazy in the lake. Thus they are caught unawares by the break of dawn and with the cock crowing the nine dragons find themselves helpless beings, unable to fly away even if they wish to. Presently they have turned into nine ranges of hills lying on the shores of Tai Lake. This is today's Jiu'Long'Shan or Nine Dragon Hill and the huge rock inside the tin ball has become today's Xishan or Mount Xi. As the local people do not want to be disturbed again by the nine dragons, they ave agreed among themselves to tell outsiders that there is no tin in this place. In this way ,the name Wuxi or without tin has become established and has been handed down from generation to generation.

Years later, the Nine Dragon Hill is visited by a severe drought which causes all the crops to wither. The local people are worried to death. For the good of the community, one yong man living nearby roves all over the hill every day under the blazing sun looking for springs. One day he trudges ad trudges until he feels very weak with hunger and thirst. Just then he comes upon a pit at the foot of the hill in which there is still some water left. He is just about to bend down for a drink when he hears a little frog croaking. Instantly he realizes that if he should drink up the water, the frog is going to die from thirst. So he starts dragging himself forward in spite of his thirst. Presently he hears someone calling him from behind. Ti is a yonjg lady dressed in green who says to him that she is the daughter of the mountain god and is there for the express purpose of helping him find a spring for his people. Filled with excitement and joy, he follows the girl to where the mountain god is. The latter discloses to him that once the dragon mouth of the Nine Dragon Hill is cut open, and inexhaustible supply of cool and fresh water will come gushing out. The young man hurries back to his people with the news. The people fall to at once and before long the dragon mouth is cut open. Indeed, water pure and clear comes gushing out from nine holes.

The water is found to be exceptionally pure and refreshing. Every drop is a treat, as it is, so to say, the "saliva of the dragon and the mythical lizard." One can drink it as it is or brew tea with it. As water of a quality like this is not often found on earth, a sucession of magistrates of Wuxi in the Tang Dynasty, ti please the emperor, gave orders to preclude the local people from drawing water from the spring and more than that, pressed people into service to ship the water over hundreds of miles to the capital Chang'an, recommending it to the emperor as water from the First Spring Under Heaven. This was done year after year and the water carriers were in a wretched plight.

One year an old man whose surname was Hui offered to jion the others in carrying water to the capital. At his instingation, the water carriers deliberately delayed their delivery by two days. This caused the emperor to fly into a rage and he accused the carriers of disrespect for the emperor. Old man Hui appealed for mercy and pardon, saying, "I beg to let Your Majesty know that we've indeed been in the capital ofr a couple of days already buthave been hesitating to present the water to you. We know the magistrate has ben trying to deceive Your Majesty. The spring on Nine Dragon Hill is actually only the Second Spring Under Heaven. If we had presented the water to you as water from the First Spring Under Heaven, then we would indeed be cheating Your Majesty." Not fully convinced, the emperor decided to make an investigation himself. With a large retinue, he arrived at Wuxi where he heard pedlars hawking their wares as products of the Second Spring such as tea of the Second Spring, wine of the Second Spring, etx. It was only then that the emperor accepted the old man's explanation, muttering to himself, "This indeed is the Second Spring." After that, the spring on Nine Dragon Hill became officially the Second Spring Under Heaven. The emperor also dismissed the magistrate from office and stopped the practice of shipping water to the captial. The truth was that Old Man Hui had everything planned out beforehand and the pedlars hawking tea or wine were all planted there by him. To show their gratitude to the old man, the local people changed the name Nine Dragon Hill to Mount Hui and the fame of the Second Spring of Mount Hui graduly spread.

According to historical document, it is true that in the Tang Dynasty there was the practice of sending water to the capital from the Second Spring. Li Deyu the prime minister was so crazy about getting water from the Second Spring that he had the local officials ship the water at tremendous costs to the capital by state courier carts. This led Pi Rixiu the poet to compare him to Yang Guifei, the imperial concubine of Tang, who was so fond of litchi that imperial horsemen were given the job of bringing the fruit from the far south to the capital by a government horse-relay system. Pi's satiric poem runs as follows:

The prime minister often thinks of having a cup of tea brewed,
The local officials lose no time in getting their horsemen under way;
Three thousand miles lies between the frontier province of Wu and Chang'an,
Why should Lady Yang be blamed or ridiculed for her love of litchi?

It is said that in the Ming Dynasty the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang had once come to Wuxi on an official visit. He was very much displeased when he learnt that Mount Hui was also known as Nine Dragon Hill. To him, Wuxi was particularly blessed by good fengshui or the influence of the landscape on man's fortunes, facing the mist-covered limitless Tai Lake to the south and backed by the mighty Yangtse to the north. According to him, this should be a propitious place for the birth of heroes. How could he allow another man with pretensions to becoming the "dragon"to arise from this place to contest his power? So he sent for his advisor Liu Ji to see what they could do to forestall this. Liu Ji said to him, "Your Majesty can have stone masons shape nine dragon heads and have them put in place over the Nine Dragon Spring. This is proof that dragons have already appeared. Only they are dead, worthless dragons. In this way, the effect fo the landscape or fengshui will be neutralized." However, Zhu Yuanzhang did not feel completely at ease after the dragon heads were made. So he told the masons to dig lots of holes on the hill so that the speing would quickly exhaust itself. With the water gone, what fengshui, literally wind and water, could there be to speak of? That is why there are found today on Mount Hui what is known as the Ning Dragon Thirteen Springs.

After eliminating the threat of a possible dragon from Wuxi, Zhu was still afraid that this propitious place might yet cause him trouble by producing too many real capable civil officials and henerals for him to handle. So he asked for Liu Ji's advice again. Liu suggested this time that he could use the same method as in neutralizing the dragon, that is ,to have statues of officials and gnerals sculpted and placed on the streets. Zhu did not think this feasible. There were too many ministers and generals in his court. Carving was slow work and it would take an interminable time to shape so many figures in stone. Being quick-witted, Liu suggested that clay be used to make figurines in their place. When the magistrate received the imperial decree that everyone in town should join in making clay figurines, not just htose of civil and military officials but also those of maids of honour and stable boys in the palace, he still did not know for sure exactly how many should be made. When Zhu Yuanzhang was asked such a question in Liu Ji's absence, he really had no idea himself. So he said in an offhand manner,"How many sesame grains and green beans are there in three dou(peck) and three sheng(ping)? I want just that many." That is why everyone in Wuxi was a maker of clay figurines and as soon as they were made they were placed on the streets for sale. The philosophy for this was that in Wuxi only clay figurines could be a nuisance to the emperor. Fortunately these clay figurines have become famous handicraft articles. Only the people of Wuxi probably have not yet fulfilled the order of the founding emperor of Ming as they are still making clay figurines today. Of course, they are now far more efficient with the use of molds in making them.

The fact is that the spring on Mount Hui has been there from time immemorial. That is why Mount Hui is also known as Hui'Quan'Shan or Hui Spring Hill where the spring is a source of top-quality water well-known in China. The spring was originally named Yi'Lan'Quan or Rippling Sping. Since some time in the Tang Dynasty Lu Yu the tea god identified thewater there as the second best ofr making tea, it has been referred to as the Second Spring Under Heaven, or Er'Quan (Second spring) for short. The blind musician A Bing, the Chinese wiolin player, whose real name was Hua Yanjun, had once led the life of a vagrant in neighbourhood of Mount Hui. Often on a moonlit night he would start thrumming his Chinese wiolin by the side of the gurgling spring, giving vent ot the sorrow he felt deep in his heart and his desire for a better future, improvising music that was both sad and soll-awakening. In time this evolved into the musical piece entitled Er'Quan'Yin'Yue or th eMoon Mirrored in the Second Spring Pool which has become quite popular as a Chinese violin solo.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, a pond was dug between Mounti Xi and Mount Hui. Known as Yin'Shan'Hu or Lake of Reflections of Hills, the pond has put Mount Xi and Mount Hui in one big scenic spot called Park of Xi and Hui which is well known for its picturesque scenery and its rich collectiono f inscribed tablets and other relics. Inside the park is a small-size garden called Ji'Chang'Yuan or Garden of Heartfelt Delight. Through the use of what is called scenery-borrowing techniques in garden design, the full beauty of Mount Xi and Mount Hui, forming a delightful contrast, is in view in this garden inside a garden which is unique in that a lot more scenery is created than would be consided possible in such physically limited space. It is saide that the famous Xie'Qu'Yuan or Garden of Harmonious Interest in the Summer Palace in beijing is a faithful imitation of Ji'Chang'Yuan in Wuxi, although not as good as its prototype. In Wuxi are many other places of scenic charm such as Li Garden, Plum Garden, the Turtle Head Island etc., each attractive in its own way. As all these places of scenic and historical interest are not far from the ancient Grand Canal with its quiescent flow of water and its many speeding sails, the overall impression is a scenery that is both tranquil and dynamic, evoking in the visitor a deep sense of the unity of an ancient civilization and a throbbing modern life.