Beijing attractions

 

 

At the four corners of Siheyuan or large residences in Bejing, usually four one-meter blue stones with five Chinese characters “泰山石敢当”(Shi Gandang of Taishan Mountain) were erected for suppressing the evils, but why people call this blue stone Shi Gandang? The reason is like this:

In the legend, Shi Gandang was a man from Shandong province. He was honest and unbeatably brave, and during the dangerous time or wartime, he always could turn ill luck into good. Latterly, people respectably took him as the god of suppressing the evil. The evils could not go further when they saw the stone with five Chinese characters "泰山石敢当". Hence afterwards, Shi Gandang was considered to be the special stone erected in Siheyuan to protect residence.