Mount Gezao阁皂山
- Type
- Daoist Sacred Mountains
- Location
- China · Jiangxi · Zhangshu, Yichun · About 20 km southeast of Zhangshu City; the main peak, Lingyun Peak, is 802 m above sea level
- Coordinates
- 27.96, 115.63 Map ↗
- School
- Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) School, Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoism
- First built
- Three Kingdoms Wu (tradition: Ge Xuan practised alchemy here) · The Gezao Temple was built in the Tang; granted the name Chongzhen Palace in the Song; ranked alongside Mount Longhu and Mount Mao as the 'Three Mountains of Registers'; the thirty-third of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, the 'Gezao Shan Grotto-Heaven'
- Heritage status
- Mingshui Bridge, Mount Gezao, Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (2013)National Forest Park
Overview
Mount Gezao is the ancestral court of the Lingbao school. Tradition holds that Ge Xuan (the Transcendent Elder Ge) of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period cultivated the Dao and refined elixirs here, receiving the Lingbao scriptures and registers, and that his grand-nephew Ge Hong also once resided here. The Gezao Temple was built by imperial order under Emperor Gaozong of Tang; in the Song it was successively granted the titles Jingde Temple and Chongzhen Palace, and was ranked, alongside Mount Longhu and Mount Mao, among the 'Three Mountains of Registers,' overseeing the transmission of the Lingbao registers and forming one of the three great centers of Daoism in Jiangnan during the Song and Yuan. After the Yuan it was absorbed into Zhengyi Daoism along with Mount Mao, and it gradually declined in the Ming and Qing. The mountain is listed as the thirty-third of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, the 'Gezao Shan Grotto-Heaven.' Surviving today are the Great Wanshou Chongzhen Palace (rebuilt in the Qing and recently restored), the Mingshui Bridge (built in the first year of the Zhenghe era of the Northern Song, 1111, and designated a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level), Ge Xuan's Elixir-Refining Well, the Medicine-Washing Pool, and the Danxia Cave. The town of Zhangshu is known as the 'Capital of Medicine' because of the tradition of Ge Xuan's elixir-refining and herb-gathering there, and Daoism on Mount Gezao is closely tied to the culture of Chinese medicine.
Highlights
- Great Wanshou Chongzhen Palace
- Mingshui Bridge
- Shrine of Immortal Ge
- Elixir-Refining Well
- Zhangshu, the Capital of Medicine