8th Grotto-Heaven: Mount Gouqu (Maoshan)第八 句曲山洞（金坛华阳之天）
- Type
- Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands
- Location
- China · Jiangsu · Jurong, Zhenjiang · The Huayang Cave, Mount Mao
- Coordinates
- 31.79, 119.33 Map ↗
- School
- Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School
- First built
- Sima Chengzhen, Chart of the Palaces and Bureaus of Heaven and Earth (during the Kaiyuan era of the Tang); Du Guangting, Record of Grotto-Heavens, Blessed Lands, Marchmounts, Rivers and Famous Mountains (end of the Tang) · The Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands system took shape in the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties; the roster of names was fixed in the Tang by Sima Chengzhen and Du Guangting. Present-day identifications are conjectural.
Overview
The eighth of the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens, one hundred and fifty li in circumference and titled the "Heaven of the Golden Altar and Splendid Yang," governed by the Perfected of Purple Yang (Zhou Yishan) — this is the Huayang Grotto-Heaven of Maoshan, whose subterranean geography Tao Hongjing describes in detail in his Zhengao. Today it is Mount Mao in Jurong, Jiangsu, the ancestral seat of the Shangqing school. See the entry "Mount Mao" for further detail.