In the fourth year of Northern Song Dynasty (A.D. 1044), Minister Teng was relegated to Yuezhou and rebuilt Yueyang Tower. After the completion, Teng asked Fan Zhongyan, a famous minister and great writer at that time, to write a well-known "Yueyang Tower", in which "Worry about the world first, then enjoy the world" has been widely read at home and abroad, and it has not changed so far. Yueyang Tower is also famous for Fan Zhongyan's The Story of Yueyang Tower.
Speaking of this Yueyang Tower, there is another story. Now the first and second floors of Yueyang Tower are inlaid with a piece of "Yueyang Tower" carved with rosewood. But why put two inscriptions of the same article in one building? It is said that Yueyang Tower was written by Zhang Zhao, a great calligrapher during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Its calligraphy and sculpture, together with excellent wood, are among the best in the world. Later, there was a county magistrate, and his calligraphy was very good. In order to show himself, he made a name for himself by this article of Yueyang Tower and Fan Zhongyan. He imitated Zhang Zhao's handwriting, copied a record of Yueyang Tower, and carved it on the same wooden board. Even the font size and shape are exactly the same as Zhang Zhao's Yueyang Tower. However, the sculptor was dissatisfied with the behavior of the county magistrate, but did not dare to disobey, so he deliberately carved a "living in the height of the temple" on the word "living" to distinguish it from the normal word. The ambitious county magistrate took Zhang Zhao's "Yueyang Tower" down and put it on his body, and then put Zhang Zhao's calligraphy on the boat to try to transport it to other places. Unexpectedly, when the boat arrived at Dongting Lake, it was stormy and the boat overturned in the lake. The Yueyang Tower inscribed by the county magistrate and Zhang Zhao fell into the water, and the ambitious county magistrate drowned. In the future dredging of Dongting Lake, Zhang Zhao's Yueyang Tower was salvaged. Because it is carved on good wood, Zhang Zhao's calligraphy has not been greatly damaged by blisters. Because the handwriting of the two Yueyang towers written by the county magistrate and Zhang Zhao is too similar, both of them are calligraphy treasures, so the true and false inscriptions of Yueyang Tower are hung on the first and second floors of Yueyang Tower at the same time.
The Yueyang Tower we see now is the only wooden structure among the three famous buildings in the south of the Yangtze River. After the reconstruction of the Qing Dynasty, it has not been destroyed after more than a hundred years and decades of war. Although the height of the building is only19.72m, which is much smaller than the scale of Wang Teng Pavilion and Yellow Crane Tower, this ancient building standing beside Dongting Lake can be said to be the only one among the three famous buildings in the south of the Yangtze River that has not been rebuilt after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it is a well-preserved pavilion with ancient traditional architectural style in China.