To appreciate Song Dynasty steles, one must look to Guilin, where not a single stone on the inner walls of Longyin Cave remains uncarved!

"For Han Dynasty steles, see Shandong; for Tang Dynasty steles, see Xi'an; for Song Dynasty steles, look to Guilin." As the most concentrated and typical place for Guilin stone inscriptions, the Guihai Stele Forest located within Seven-Star Park naturally comes to mind. Longyin Cave and Longyin Grotto have been famous scenic spots since ancient times, where officials and literati throughout the dynasties have lingered and been inspired to write poetry and make inscriptions. With styles including regular, cursive, clerical, and seal scripts all present, they form the spectacular sight of the stele forest in and around the two caves, where 'almost every cliff has been carved, leaving no stone unengraved.' The 'Prodigal Prime Minister' Li Bangyan (Li Shimei), who was demoted to Xunzhou (today's Guiping, Guangxi) for kneeling and begging for peace, inscribed 'Longyin Cave'. The male Guanyin from 1665, which uses the yangwen line engraving technique, is a masterpiece that perfectly combines the art of painting with the skill of stone carving. The tradition of floating cups along a winding stream, also known as 'Nine Bends Floating Cups', takes place every year on the Shangsi Festival (the third day of the third lunar month). People sit in rows by the winding stream, place wine cups on the water, and let them drift with the current. Whoever's front the cup stops in front of, that person must compose a poem or take a drink. The custom of floating cups along a winding stream originated in the Zhou Dynasty, and the Eastern Jin calligrapher Wang Xizhi's 'Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion' records a grand gathering of this tradition. The stone carvings of the floating cups along a winding stream in the Guihai Stele Forest are relics from the Song Dynasty and are currently the largest and most complete stone carvings of this tradition found. The earliest of these is the 'Azalea Flowers Chanting Poems' by Zhang Jun and Liu Chonggui from the first year of the Qian Ning era of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang (894 AD). Zhang Jun, while serving as a military staff officer in Xiu State (today's Guiping City), once stayed briefly on the banks of the Xiao Dong River in front of Longyin Grotto.