Record of Grotto-Heavens, Blessed Lands, Marchmounts, Rivers and Famous Mountains洞天福地岳渎名山记

Also known as

Record of Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands

Author / transmission

Du Guangting

Period

Late Tang and Five Dynasties · Composed by Du Guangting; his own preface is dated to the first year of Tianfu (901); one juan.

Canon division

Dongxuan Section, Jizhuan Category

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Dongxuan Section, Records and Biographies category

Category

Mountain Gazetteers

Fascicles

One Fascicle (Juan)

Synopsis

The Dongtian Fudi Yuedu Mingshan Ji (Record of Grotto-Heavens, Blessed Lands, Marchmounts, Rivers and Famous Mountains) is the definitive text of Daoist sacred geography. Du Guangting organized and expanded upon Sima Chengzhen's Chart of the Palaces and Bureaus of Heaven and Earth, systematically listing the Five Marchmounts, the Four Waterways, the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens, the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, the Seventy-two Blessed Lands, and the various meditation lodges (jinglu) and sites of numinous transformation (linghua), noting for each its location by prefecture and county, its circumference in li, and its presiding immortal official. The work incorporates China's famous mountains and rivers into a hierarchical system of sacred space: Grotto-Heavens are subterranean realms of the immortals connected to one another, and Blessed Lands are places where cultivation and attainment of the Dao are possible, each governed by a Perfected being — thereby binding cultivation, pilgrimage and reclusion to specific geography. Its influence has been extremely far-reaching: the siting of later Daoist temples, the compilation of mountain gazetteers, pilgrimage practice, and even literati landscape writing have largely taken this list as their basis; the titles 'Grotto-Heaven' and 'Blessed Land' attached to many of today's famous Daoist mountains in China all derive from this text. Because most of the prefecture and county names recorded reflect the Tang administrative system, the work also provides a chronological reference point for historical geography.

Key Ideas

• The definitive text of Daoist sacred geography
• The Ten Great Grotto-Heavens, the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, and the Seventy-two Blessed Lands
• The Five Marchmounts, the Four Waterways, and the meditation lodges and sites of numinous transformation
• A vision of the Grotto-Heavens as an interconnected subterranean realm of immortals
• The basis for later temple siting and mountain gazetteers

Structure

One juan, listing names by category, each annotated with location, circumference in li, and presiding immortal official.

Editions

• Zhengtong Daozang edition
• Relevant juan of the Yunji Qiqian may also be consulted
• Zhonghua Daozang edition

Translations

• Franciscus Verellen's studies of the Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands; see also the related articles of Thomas Hahn

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikisource: Dongtian Fudi Yuedu Mingshan Ji
• Wikipedia: Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands

Related scriptures

Related figures