Mount Qingcheng青城山
- Type
- Daoist Sacred Mountains
- Location
- China · Sichuan · Dujiangyan, Chengdu · About 15 km southwest of Dujiangyan; its main peak, Laoxiao Peak, rises to 1,260 meters.
- Coordinates
- 30.901, 103.568 Map ↗
- School
- Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Dao), Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism, Longmen (Dragon Gate) Lineage of Quanzhen
- First built
- Eastern Han (tradition holds that Zhang Daoling taught the Dao here in his later years) · Flourished during the Tang; Du Guangting resided here in his later years; the fifth of the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens, the ‘Grotto-Heaven of the Nine Chambers of Treasured Transcendents’; inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with Dujiangyan in 2000.
- Heritage status
- UNESCO World Heritage Site: Mount Qingcheng and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System (2000)Ancient Building Complex of Mount Qingcheng — Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (2006)
Overview
Mount Qingcheng is one of the birthplaces of Daoism. Tradition holds that Zhang Daoling built a thatched hermitage here in his later years, taught the Dao, and ascended to immortality here; it is listed as the fifth of the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens, the ‘Heaven of the Nine Chambers of Treasured Transcendents.’ Fan Changsheng of the Jin, Du Guangting of the Tang, and various eminent Daoists of the Five Dynasties and early Song all resided at Qingcheng; Emperor Xuanzong of Tang once decreed a boundary between Buddhist and Daoist establishments on the mountain, attested by the ‘Stele Inscribed by the Divine and Martial Emperor of the Kaiyuan Era of the Great Tang.’ Mount Qingcheng is famed for its ‘seclusion,’ and its front slopes are dense with temple complexes: Jianfu Palace (at the mountain gate), Tianshi Cave (the ancient Changdao Temple, the mountain's principal temple, built in the Tang), the Hall of the Founding Patriarch, Shangqing Palace (at the summit, built in the Ming and Qing), Chaoyang Cave, Yuanming Palace, and Yuqing Palace, among others; the mountain's rear slopes contain the old town of Tai'an and clusters of ancient Baiyun temples. Since the late Ming and early Qing, most Daoists on the mountain have belonged to the Bidong branch of the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen, and the Qingcheng school of martial arts and health cultivation has also been influential. Both Qingcheng Daoist music and Qingcheng Daoist health practices are provincial-level Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Highlights
- Tianshi Cave (Changdao Temple)
- Jianfu Palace
- Shangqing Palace
- Hall of the Founding Patriarch
- Stele of Emperor Xuanzong's Decree
- The ‘Seclusion’ of Qingcheng