Second Spring under Heaven

Second Spring under Heaven 天下第二泉 Tiānxià Dìèr Quán
The Second Spring
Location	Xihui Park in Wuxi, Jiangsu, in China

The Second Spring or Second-best Spring under Heaven (Chinese: 天下第二泉, Tiānxià Dìèr Quán) is the name of a spring in Xihui Park at the foot of Mount Hui. The park is located in western Wuxi in eastern China's Jiangsu province.

There are more than thirty springs located around Mount Hui. During the Tang dynasty, the mountain was considered holy. Jing Cheng (styled Yuan Shen), a county magistrate for Wuxi, constructed improvements around its springs. The present-day Second Spring was one of those he improved, under the name Huishan Spring (惠山泉).

The present name derives from the Classic of Tea written by Lu Yu. In it, he divided all waters into 20 classes, ranking Huishan Spring's second in the world. The Song emperor Gaozong erected a pavilion over the spring after visiting to drink water from it. The placards proclaimed it the "Second Spring Pavilion" and "Source of Running Water". Su Shi, a famous Song-era poet, wrote several poems for the spring. Even after he moved to Hangzhou, he would write his friend in Wuxi to send him water for tea. The present name featured on the pavilion was engraved by the celebrated Yuan-era calligrapher Zhao Mengfu.