Mount Heng (Hengshan, Southern Peak)南岳衡山
- Type
- Daoist Sacred Mountains
- Location
- China · Hunan · Hengyang · Nanyue District, Hengyang; the main peak, Zhurong Peak, rises to 1,300.2 meters
- Coordinates
- 27.2545, 112.656 Map ↗
- School
- Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School, Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism, Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoism
- First built
- Han–Wei · Wei Huacun of the Eastern Jin cultivated the Dao here; Daoist temples flourished most in the Tang; the "Zhuling Grotto-Heaven" among the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens
- Heritage status
- Nanyue Temple: Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (2006)National Scenic Area (1982)
Overview
Mount Heng is the Southern Peak, its ridges extending across seventy-two summits; Buddhism and Daoism coexist there, and it is honored by all Three Teachings, earning it the epithet "Foremost in Beauty among the Five Marchmounts." Daoist tradition holds that Wei Huacun, patriarch of the Shangqing School, once withdrew to cultivate the Dao at Huangting Temple on Mount Heng; in the Tang, Sima Chengzhen and Xue Jichang established altars here to transmit the teaching, and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang once built a temple on the mountain. Daoist historical sites on the mountain include Huangting Temple, Xuandu Temple, Zhurong Hall, Nantai Temple (Buddhist), and the Purple Bamboo Grove; at the foot of the mountain, Nanyue Great Temple is vast in scale, the site for sacrifice to the Sage Emperor of the Southern Peak, with a distinctive layout in which the eight temples on its east side belong to Daoism and the eight monasteries on its west side to Buddhism. Mount Heng is listed as the third of the Daoist Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, the "Zhuling Grotto-Heaven"; among the Seventy-two Blessed Lands, three — Qingyu Altar, Guangtian Altar, and Dongling Source — are also located on Mount Heng. The Hunan Taoist Association is presently based at Nanyue.
Highlights
- Nanyue Great Temple
- Huangting Temple
- Zhurong Hall
- Sutra Repository Hall
- Water-Curtain Cave, Zhuling Grotto-Heaven