Mount Wangwu王屋山
- Type
- Daoist Sacred Mountains
- Location
- China · Henan · Jiyuan · Northwest of Jiyuan City; the main peak, Tiantan Mountain, is 1,715 m above sea level
- Coordinates
- 35.15, 112.26 Map ↗
- School
- Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School, Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- First built
- Pre-Qin legend · Foremost of the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens, the 'Heaven of Lesser Existence and Clear Emptiness'; during the Kaiyuan era of the Tang, Sima Chengzhen dwelt here by imperial order and built the Yangtai Temple
- Heritage status
- Yangtai Palace, Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (2006)Jidu Temple, Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (1996)UNESCO Global Geopark (2006)
Overview
Mount Wangwu is the foremost of the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens of Daoism, the 'Heaven of Lesser Existence and Clear Emptiness.' Tradition holds that the Yellow Emperor once set up an altar on Tiantan Peak here to sacrifice to Heaven, and the story of 'Yugong Moves the Mountain' in the Liezi is also set at this mountain. In the twelfth year of the Kaiyuan era of the Tang (724), Emperor Xuanzong ordered the Shangqing patriarch Sima Chengzhen to select an auspicious site on Mount Wangwu and build the Yangtai Temple to dwell in; Princess Yuzhen also entered the mountain to receive Daoist registers, and Mount Wangwu thereby became the center of the Shangqing school in the Tang dynasty. Sima Chengzhen composed the Zuowang lun (Treatise on Sitting in Oblivion), the Tianyinzi (Master of Heavenly Seclusion) and other works here, and was buried in the mountain upon his death. Daoist remains on the mountain include the Yangtai Palace, the Ziwei Palace, the Qingxu Palace, the Yingen Palace, the site of the Lingdu Temple, and Tiantan Peak; the Yangtai Palace preserves a Ming-dynasty main hall and Yuan- and Ming-dynasty steles, and is designated, as 'Mount Wangwu–Yangtai Palace,' a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level. At the foot of the mountain, the Jidu Temple in Jiyuan is an official sacrificial temple to the spirit of the Ji River, one of the Four Rivers. It is today a National Scenic Area and a UNESCO Global Geopark.
Highlights
- Yangtai Palace
- Tiantan Peak
- Ziwei Palace
- Jidu Temple
- Legendary site of 'Yugong Moves the Mountain'