The Feiyun River traverses Rui’an, a county-level city in Wenzhou in the southeast of Zhejiang. It is the fourth longest river of the province and the second longest river of Wenzhou. Feiyun Ferry used to be the most important ferry on the river and was named after the river.

The Feiyun Ferry is very important in the history of poetry of Zhejiang. According to a book of geography written in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the ferry, about 3.5 kilometers from the capital of Rui’an County, was a key spot on the road system between Zhejiang and Fujian to the south. There was a Feiyun Fortress that guarded the ferry. For more than a thousand years, people traveled across the river from and to the ferry.

Scholars among these travelers wrote memorable poems inspired by the ferry, by the crossing from one side to the other, by the scenery on the river, and by the comings and goings, fate, things which people valued and wanted to sing of, felt sorry about, and inspired by. Lu Shun, a scholar who came out of the imperial examination as Jinshi in 1664 and afterwards served as a government official in the education department, wrote a short poem in memory of his crossing the river from the ferry.

Liang Zhangju, a scholar who came out of the imperial examination as Jinshi in 1802, crossed the river from the ferry many times. He once served as one of the nine top provincial governors of the Qing Dynasty. The Feiyun River was on his way of visiting his son, governor of Wenzhou. In all probability, he might have been the highest-ranking official who wrote a poem about the Feiyun Ferry in ancient China.

Lin Jingxi, a scholar who was Jinshi in 1271 in the Southern Song (1127-1279), was a native of Pingyang, a county next to Rui’an. He traveled frequently between the two counties. A poem titled Feiyun Ferry he wrote is often seen printed on publicity brochures issued by the tourism authorities of Rui’an nowadays. The poem is all about the scenery on the river, with a very vague touch of nostalgia from a poet who lived to see the fall of the dynasty that honored him as a scholar and the rise of another dynasty. Those who lived in Rui’an also wrote poems about the ferry even though they were not travelers and they were not in the mood of traveling.

Lin Ting, a poet of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and native of Rui’an, wrote a poem about the ferry. Ambivalent in emotions, it depicts the sorrows of travelers facing the river that separate them from their destination no matter it is home or away from home and it praises the beauty of the country reunified after the fall of the Northern and the Southern Song. In their poetic works, local poets of the Rui’an imagined the majesty and splendor of the world symbolized by the river, depicted the infinity of natural beauty seen on the river, and explored the meaning of life seen from the ferry. 

Some wrote poems about the ferry even though they were far away from the river and had never visited Rui’an. Liang Youyu, a Jinshi of the Ming Dynasty, wrote a long poem to say goodbye to a friend who was going to take office in Rui’an. The poem’s depiction of the scenery along the shores of the river is considered almost faultless in terms of poetics. The ferry is no more. Near the ferry is now a bridge that spans the river. People of today just go from one side of the river to the other by the bridge. They don’t have time to stand there waiting for a boat, to ponder the meanings of journeys and destinations, or to enjoy viewing the beauty of nature, or to think about the poems about the ferry that existed only in the past.