Zhongnan Mountains终南山
- Type
- Daoist Sacred Mountains
- Location
- China · Shaanxi · Xi'an · In the central Qinling range, south of Xi'an, extending about 200 kilometers from east to west
- Coordinates
- 33.95, 108.9 Map ↗
- School
- Louguan School, Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- First built
- Pre-Qin (Yin Xi's Star-Watching Tower) · The Louguan School flourished from the Northern Dynasties through the Sui and Tang; in the early Jin, Wang Chongyang cultivated the Dao at the Tomb of the Living Dead in the Zhongnan Mountains and founded Quanzhen there
- Heritage status
- Louguantai — Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (2013)Stele Forest at Chongyang Palace (Zu'an) — Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (2001)
Overview
The Zhongnan Mountains are one of the birthplaces of Daoism and one of its sacred sites of eremitic cultivation, anciently called Nanshan, Taiyi Shan, or Zhongnan Shan, encompassing many peaks including Louguantai, Cuihua Mountain, Nanwutai, Guifeng Mountain, and Mount Taibai. Tradition holds that Laozi, traveling west, expounded his teaching to Yin Xi, the keeper of Hangu Pass, and that Yin Xi afterward built a thatched tower on the Zhongnan Mountains to observe the stars — this is Louguantai, revered by Daoism as 'the foremost Blessed Land under Heaven'; from the Northern Dynasties through the Sui and Tang, the Louguan School flourished greatly, the Tang imperial house honored Laozi as its ancestor, and temples proliferated throughout the Zhongnan Mountains. In the fourth year of the Zhenglong reign of the Jin (1159), Wang Chongyang encountered immortals at Ganhe Town in the Zhongnan Mountains, and at Nanshi Village (present-day Liujiang Village) he dug the 'Tomb of the Living Dead' in which he cultivated the Dao; he later went east to Shandong to found Quanzhen Daoism, and his burial site, Chongyang Palace at Zu'an, became the ancestral court of Quanzhen. The Zhongnan Mountains retain a tradition of eremitic cultivation to this day, and the phenomenon of 'Zhongnan hermits' has attracted attention both in China and abroad.
Highlights
- Shuojingtai at Louguantai
- Chongyang Palace
- The Tomb of the Living Dead
- Taiyi Palace
- Nanwutai
- Cuihua Mountain