Mount Tai

Overview

Mount Tai, located in Shandong Province, eastern China, is traditionally ranked first among the country's Five Great Mountains. It has been the site of imperial sacrifices to Heaven and Earth for more than two thousand years, and is an active centre of Daoist pilgrimage today, with temples set along a stone stairway that climbs to the 1,545-metre summit. Mount Tai is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Present

Mount Tai is managed by the Management Committee of the Mount Tai Scenic Area under the Tai'an city government. The mountain's temples are active places of worship. The main temples are the Bixia Temple near the summit and the Dai Temple at the foot of the mountain in the city of Tai'an. Visitors climb the mountain through the night to reach the summit for sunrise.

Religious Significance

Mount Tai is traditionally regarded as the foremost of China's Five Great Mountains: Mount Tai is located in the east, Mount Hua in the west, Mount Heng in the south in Hunan province, Mount Heng in the north in Shanxi province, and Mount Song in central China. Mount Tai is associated with birth, renewal, and the yang principle, the active, life-giving force in Daoist tradition. It is also regarded as the point where Heaven and Earth meet. Emperors performed paired offerings to Heaven on the summit and to Earth at the foot, the so-called Feng and Shan sacrifices, confirming the Mandate of Heaven, the belief that a just ruler governs with Heaven's approval. According to Daoist tradition the mountain also holds power over life and death, the god of the mountain, Dongyue Dadi, determines the span of human life, and receives the souls of the dead who return to Mount Tai for judgment. At the Bixia Temple near the summit pilgrims worship Bixia Yuanjun (Goddess of the Azure Clouds), a deity of childbirth, dawn, and destiny and pray to seek blessings for their children.

History & Structure

Mount Tai has been a place of worship from the Shang dynasty (about 1600 to 1046 BCE) through to the Qing, the last imperial dynasty, which ended in 1912. A stone stairway of roughly seven thousand steps runs about nine kilometres from the foot of the mountain to the summit, passing through a series of gates, among them the South Gate to Heaven near the top. The mountain holds twenty-two temples. The principal temple is the Dai Temple, dedicated to Dongyue Dadi, the god of Mount Tai. The highest point of the mountain is Jade Emperor Peak at about 1,545 metres. Emperors recorded the ceremonies they performed on the mountain in carved inscriptions, and over the centuries more than a thousand inscriptions were left on the mountain, cut into the cliffs along the climbing route and onto stone tablets standing at the temples and beside the stairways. Mount Tai was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Resources

• UNESCO: Mount Taishan