The Yuan River is a magical river created by nature. It is one of the four major rivers in Hunan. It originates from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, passes through high mountains and canyons, flows through dozens of counties (cities) in Guizhou and Hunan, flows into Dongting Lake, and then slowly flows into the Yangtze River. There are many mythological stories circulating in the waters of the Yuan River. The legend of Panhu and Xinnu is one of the most widely circulated and influential mythological stories. This legend is not only recorded in detail in many ancient books, but also widely circulated among ethnic minorities such as Miao and Yao. The mythological story of Panhu and Xinnu originated in Luxi County and spread to various villages and Liangjiatan Township, Bashiping Township, Tanxi Town, Xixi Town and other places, and is concentrated in the Xinnu Village area of Baisha Town. Panhu and Xinnu tell the poignant love story of "God Mother and Dog Father". As the birthplace of Panhu culture, Luxi has many landform entities related to the legend, in addition to the folk oral legends. It also retains a variety of folk customs and cultural relics of Panhu worship. It is said that more than 4,000 years ago, in the ancient times, the Gao Xin era, King Gao Xin and the Quanrong Kingdom often fought. Because the Quanrong Kingdom had a general named Wu who was good at using troops and was very powerful in fighting, King Gao Xin's army fought against them and lost more than they won. For this reason, King Gao Xin recruited soldiers from all over the country and told his ministers that whoever could defeat General Wu of the Quanrong Kingdom and take his head would be willing to give his beloved daughter to him as his wife, and be promoted to a higher position and given gold and silver. The ministers were afraid of General Wu, and no one dared to agree to this. At the foot of Panhu Mountain on the west bank of the middle reaches of the Yuan River, there is a cave called Panhu Cave. In the cave lived a divine dog named Panhu that came down from the sky. When he heard the news, he shook his head and walked out of the cave, becoming a very handsome young man. Panhu joined the army under King Gao Xin, fought very bravely, defeated General Wu of the Quanrong Kingdom, and cut off his head and presented it to King Gao Xin. King Gao Xin did not break his promise and married his daughter to Panhu, a meritorious official in the war. From then on, Xin's daughter moved with Panhu to Panhu Mountain on the west bank of the middle reaches of the Yuan River. After living here for five years, King Gao Xin sent an envoy from the capital (now Luoyang area) to take their family back to the capital to live. Later, their children were not used to living in the northern plains, so they returned to live in the Panhu Mountain area in the south. King Gao Xin gave them pottery, wood, iron, grain and hemp seeds, knives, tools and weaving utensils, machine tools, etc. Along the way, they traveled through mountains and rivers, working day and night to rush back and start a new business here. When Panhu and Xinnu were together, he was a handsome young man, and occasionally he was a dog when he came out of the cave. They loved each other and gave birth to six boys and six girls. When their sons grew up, they asked their mother many times why they had never seen their father. Every time, their mother cleverly answered: Your father is a high-ranking official in your grandfather's place. He is far away from home and rarely comes back. The six sons were still kept in the dark and always regarded Panhu, who lived with them, as a hunting dog. Every time before the six brothers went up the mountain, Panhu would run out of the cave to go hunting with them. Xinnu felt sorry for Panhu's hard work. One day, Xinnu saw Panhu coming back from the mountain panting heavily. She couldn't bear it, so she called her sons aside and said, "This dog is your biological father. Don't tire it out anymore." The six sons born to Panhu and Xinnu all had bad tempers. When they learned from their mother that Panhu was their biological father, they felt very humiliated and very angry. The six brothers discussed and decided to kill Panhu. When Panhu found out about this, he tried desperately to escape. The six brothers chased him relentlessly and finally surrounded Panhu in a small mountain stream and beat him to death. When Xinnu learned the sad news that Panhu was killed, she cried bitterly and scolded her son for being so immoral and killing his own father. Her son simply wouldn't listen to his mother and lifted Panhu down with a wooden stick and threw him into the river from the mouth of Xinnu Creek. Xinnu reluctantly rushed to the river with tears in her eyes and picked up Panhu's body from the water. At this moment, the six brothers rushed over again, snatched Panhu's body from their mother's hands and threw it into the river again, letting it flow into the sea, so that their mother would never see him again and would forever forget the scandal that people had spread about her. After Panhu was killed, Xinnu was so sad that she turned into a rock and stood by the Yuanshui River. This is the Xinnu Rock that people have long admired. Panhu's body flowed down with the river, sometimes sinking and sometimes floating. When his six daughters knew that Panhu was killed, they were heartbroken and chased their father's body desperately. They chased to Shengoutan (later called Shentuotan) and cried until their tears dried up. They salvaged Panhu's body and buried it on the shore. They moved rocks and piled up soil day and night, and finally built a Panhu Tomb (later named Tuoshan) on the east bank of the old county town of Luxi. After Panhu died, they married each other and multiplied and were called Panhu Man. That is, the ancestors of the Miao, Yao, She, and Wa ethnic minorities in southern my country. They regarded Panhu as a priest and Xinnu as a goddess. Many temples and nunneries were built in successive dynasties to worship and worship him. For example, in the middle reaches of the Yuanshui River, there are Xinnu Temple, Xinnu Temple, Xinnu Palace, Xinnu Temple, Panhu Temple, etc. The myth of Panhu and Xinnu originated in the transition period from matriarchal society to patriarchal society. The poignant story has been passed down for a long time and has been passed down from generation to generation. It is an intangible cultural heritage protection project in Hunan Province and an extremely important material and precious cultural heritage in the treasure house of Chinese folk literature (oral literature). The legend of Panhu and Xinnu was first rooted in the fishing and hunting economy and primitive agricultural society of the Miao ancestors. With the development of society, it gradually developed, and then the religious sacrifice of worshipping Panhu and Xinnu appeared and derived many cultural phenomena. This myth was first recorded in the text of Ying Shao's Customs and Meanings in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Panhu, the dog of Gao Xin, defeated the Quanrong, and Gao Xin married him with a young girl and named him Panhu." After that, the "Soushen Ji" written by Gan Bao of the Jin Dynasty and the "Book of the Later Han" written by Fan Ye of the Jin Dynasty turned the myth into a plot. Li Daoyuan of the Northern Wei Dynasty not only made a detailed investigation from the perspective of geography, but also collected a lot of anecdotes and legends. In addition, historical books such as "Wuling Ji", "Manshu", "Tangshu", "Ximan Congxiao", and "Dongxi Xianzhi" are mostly records of the legend of Panhu and Xinnu. Moreover, most historical books directly write Panhu as the ancestor of the Miao people. The Miao people in Luxi have long worshipped Panhu and Xinnu. They called Panhu "gonggong" and Xinnu "niangniang", built temples, sculpted statues, and worshiped them all year round. The Miao people still have the tradition of not eating dog meat, and the concept of "the maternal uncle is the eldest" is still quite common. Panhu culture, as an ancient and dynamic cultural phenomenon, is perhaps the most special and representative in the history of Chinese culture and even the world's cultural history.