Mount Tianzhu (Qianshan)天柱山（潜山）
- Type
- Daoist Sacred Mountains
- Location
- China · Anhui · Qianshan, Anqing · Northwest of Qianshan City; the main peak, Tianzhu, rises 1,489.8 meters
- Coordinates
- 30.74, 116.45 Map ↗
- School
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- First built
- Han, fifth year of Yuanfeng under Emperor Wu (106 BCE), who on a southern tour conferred the title 'Southern Marchmount' · Southern Peak before the Sui; fourteenth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, the Tianzhu Sixuan Grotto-Heaven; Zuo Ci of the Three Kingdoms period is said to have cultivated the Dao here
- Heritage status
- Cliff Inscriptions of Shangu Liuquan, Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (2001)UNESCO Global Geopark (2011)
Overview
Mount Tianzhu, anciently called Mount Wan or Mount Qian, was ascended and worshipped by Emperor Wu of Han during his southern tour in the fifth year of Yuanfeng (106 BCE), when he conferred on it the title "Southern Peak" — a status it held for more than seven hundred years, until Emperor Wen of Sui transferred the title of Southern Peak to Mount Heng. Daoism ranks it as the fourteenth of the Thirty-six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, the "Tianzhu Sixuan Grotto-Heaven." According to tradition, the fangshi Zuo Ci compounded elixirs here at the end of the Eastern Han, and the mountain preserves relics such as the Elixir-Compounding Lake and Zuo Ci's Cave. Daoist temples flourished here in the Tang and Song; at the foot of the mountain lies the site of the Zhenyuan Palace (built in the Song, repeatedly restored in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing). The mountain is rich in stone inscriptions: the cluster of cliff inscriptions at Shangu Liuquan (Valley Stream Spring) preserves more than three hundred inscriptions from the Tang through the Republican era, including titles by Wang Anshi, Huang Tingjian, and Su Shi. It is today a National 5A Scenic Area and a UNESCO Global Geopark.
Highlights
- Tianzhu Peak
- Cliff Inscriptions of Shangu Liuquan
- Elixir-Compounding Lake
- Site of Zhenyuan Palace