Mount Emei (Daoist heritage, appendix)峨眉山（道教遗迹，附）
- Type
- Daoist Sacred Mountains
- Location
- China · Sichuan · Mount Emei, Leshan · Southwest of Emeishan City; the main peak, Wanfo Ding (Ten-thousand Buddhas Summit), rises 3,099 meters
- Coordinates
- 29.52, 103.33 Map ↗
- School
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- First built
- Han–Wei · Chiefly Daoist before the Tang; seventh of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, the Xuling Grotto-Heaven; gradually became a site of Buddhist Samantabhadra worship from the Song onward
- Heritage status
- UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage Site: Mount Emei and Leshan Giant Buddha (1996)
Overview
Mount Emei is today counted among the Four Great Buddhist Mountains of China, but from the Han–Wei period through the Tang it was chiefly a center of Daoism. The Baopuzi lists Emei among the mountains suitable for compounding the divine elixir, and Daoism ranks Emei as the seventh of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, the "Xuling Grotto-Heaven." Tradition holds that Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, once came to Emei to inquire about the Dao from the Perfected Being, Sovereign of Heaven; the Qianming Temple of the Jin and the Zhongfeng Temple of the Tang were originally Daoist temples. From the Song onward the cult of Samantabhadra (Puxian) rose to prominence, and most of the mountain's Daoist temples were converted into Buddhist ones; by the Ming and Qing the mountain had become almost entirely Buddhist, though sites such as the Chunyang Hall (originally the Lüxian Shrine) still preserve traces of their Daoist past, and at the foot of the mountain the Jiulao Cave (Cave of the Nine Elders) is traditionally said to be where Lü Dongbin cultivated the Dao. The martial arts of Emei also carry a legendary connection between the "Emei School" and Daoism. In 1996 Mount Emei, together with the Leshan Giant Buddha, was inscribed as a UNESCO mixed cultural and natural World Heritage Site. This entry is included as an appendix, to illustrate the rise and decline of Daoism and Buddhism on the mountain.
Highlights
- Jiulao Cave
- Chunyang Hall
- Ruins of Qianming Temple
- Xuling Grotto-Heaven