The Red Sandstone King
Many，many years ago，there was a 99-year-old grandmother in Nanmei Village on the east bank of Heihui River in Shaxi，Jianchuan County.One day，she went to Dongshan Mountain to collect mushrooms and found a square red sandstone with the size of a palm.This sandstone，glowing out gold-light and silver-light for a while alternatively，became red and bright with a closer look.The grandmother thought：I will be a hundred years old，but I have never seen such a peculiar stone.I'd better take it back and put it in the family hall.It is more beautiful than a flower bottle.And my grandchildren will like it！So she placed the sandstone in the back basket and gently covered it with the mushrooms.After that，she went home happily.
But the more steps she walked towards the village，the heavier the sandstone became.The granny said to herself，“I have carried all kinds of goods on my back in my life.Why is the small sandstone so heavy？Is this the stuff of the immortals with divine power？”
Step by step，she labored down the hill towards Nanmei Village.When she reached a high slope behind the village，she couldn't carry it any more，so she put the basket on a stone to take a rest.She took out mushrooms first，and then the red sandstone.To her surprise，the stone had grown up and was big enough to fill the basket.Only the man with great strength could take it out.The granny had to carry mushrooms with her apron to go home，leaving the basket with the red sandstone on the stone.
She told villagers about this strange thing.The following day，all villagers went to see the red sandstone and said，“This is a peculiar stone indeed.”Then，several strong men took the red sandstone from the basket and put it on the stone.They made it the Village God and built a temple for it，revered it as“Red Sandstone King”.From then on，Nanmei Village in the south of the temple was renamed Nanmen Village and Ximei Village in the west of the temple was renamed Ximen Village.
Since then，people in the two villages became happier and happier year by year.The news blew through the towns and villages around like the wind and flew in all directions like clouds.The nearby villages all envy“the happiness stone”that the grandmother brought back to the two villages.
The news spread to a village on the other side of the mountain，and eight young men secretly had a plot：to steal the red sandstone back to their village and to worship it，then their days will surely be better.They climbed over the mountain overnight and quietly carried the red sandstone back to their village.
Early in the following day，the villagers in Ximen Village and Nanmen Village went to worship incense，only found that“the Red Sandstone King”had been stolen.All the villagers，the old and the young，went out together to search for the whereabouts of the red sandstone.
When people came to the village in the east of the mountain，the young men felt that they could not hide the red sandstone any more，so they hurriedly threw it into the sea.But the red sandstone became as light as a leaf，floating on the surface of the water.They pushed it down but it floated up again.The villagers of Ximen Village and Nanmen Village recognized that the red sandstone floating on the water was the Village God of the two villages.Then they went down into the water，fished it out，and carried it back to the main temple in the village to worship it.Later，they asked a stonemason to carve an image of the dragon king and said that only the dragon king stone would rise above the water.
After this event，“the Red Sandstone King”is no longer as magical as before，and the crops are not as good as before.It is in Shaxi Bazi and the western hills that the stones have changed into the same color of the red sandstone，which is easy to carve and chisel，but hard to inlay.And the stones become the suitable materials for local construction in Shaxi.The famous Shibaoshan Grottoes in Jianchuan were carved out of this red sandstone more than 1,000 years ago.