Mount Tai (Taishan)泰山
- Type
- Daoist Sacred Mountains
- Location
- China · Shandong · Tai'an · Taishan District, Tai'an; the main peak, Yuhuang Summit, rises to 1,532.7 meters
- Coordinates
- 36.2555, 117.1015 Map ↗
- School
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism, Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Daoism
- First built
- A mountain of sacrificial worship since pre-Qin times · Feng and Shan sacrifices performed by the First Emperor of Qin and Emperor Wu of Han; Daoist temples built successively from the Wei–Jin period onward
- Heritage status
- UNESCO World Heritage Site (Mixed Cultural and Natural, 1987)Dai Temple: Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (1988)Ancient Architectural Complex of Mount Tai — Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (2006)
Overview
Mount Tai is foremost among the Five Marchmounts, anciently called Daizong or the Eastern Peak, and the site where successive emperors performed the Feng and Shan sacrifices to report to Heaven; pre-Qin texts already regarded it as a mountain that communicates with Heaven. Daoism holds the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak to be the deity who governs life, death, and rank in the human world, and worship of the Mount Tai goddess Bixia Yuanjun spread throughout the north from the Song dynasty onward. Temples are linked up and down the mountain: at its foot, Dai Temple is the principal shrine of the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak; along the middle route are Doumu Palace, Wangmu Pool, Hongmen Palace, and Zhongtian Gate; at the summit are Bixia Temple, Yuhuang Summit, and Qingdi Palace, among others. From the Jin and Yuan onward, Quanzhen priests long held the abbacy of Dai Temple and the various temples on the mountain. Mount Tai is also held by one tradition to be the site of "Pengxuan Grotto-Heaven," one of the Daoist Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens. In 1987 Mount Tai was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a mixed cultural and natural site, China's first dual World Heritage Site.
Highlights
- Song-Dynasty Mural of the Mount Tai God's Procession, Tiankuang Hall, Dai Temple
- Bronze-Tiled Roof and Bronze Stele, Bixia Temple
- Yuhuang Temple at the Summit
- Surviving Fragments of the Qin Mount Tai Inscription Stone
- Tang-Dynasty Cliff Inscription Record of Mount Tai