Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism

1. The Four Sacred Mountains of Taoism: The Wudang Mountains—Mysterious and Ethereal

A famous Taoist mountain range and the birthplace of Wudang martial arts, the Wudang Mountains are hailed as “a scenic wonder unmatched through the ages, the foremost immortal mountain under heaven,” and are a holy site dedicated to the Great Emperor Xuanwu, the Dark Warrior.

Located in Danjiangkou, Shiyan, Hubei Province, and known in ancient times as “Taiyue,” “Xuanyue,” and “Dayue” (the Great Peak, the Dark Peak), the Wudang Mountains are one of China's famous Taoist holy sites. The scenic area was said in ancient times to measure “eight hundred li around”; today it covers 312 square kilometers. It borders the historic city of Xiangyang in Hubei to the east and the urban area of Shiyan, the “City of Automobiles,” to the west; to the south lies the primeval forest of the Shennongjia Forestry District, and to the north the Danjiangkou Reservoir, a large man-made freshwater lake and the source of the middle route of the South–North Water Transfer Project.

The mountains' scenic sites feature complexes of Yuan and Ming architecture. Tianzhu Peak, foremost of the seventy-two peaks, rises 1,612 meters. Taoism calls the dwelling places of immortals “grotto-heavens and blessed lands”: there are the Ten Great Grotto-Heavens, the Thirty-Six Lesser Grotto-Heavens, and the Seventy-Two Blessed Lands. As early as the beginning of the ninth century, the Wudang Mountains were listed as the ninth of the Seventy-Two Blessed Lands.

2. The Four Sacred Mountains of Taoism: Mount Qingcheng—A Secluded Fairyland

Mount Qingcheng in Sichuan Province, one of the four immortal mountains, is one of the birthplaces of Taoism. Celestial Masters through the ages have all come to Mount Qingcheng to pay homage at this holy ancestral site. It belongs to the Longmen lineage of the Quanzhen school.

Located southwest of Dujiangyan in Sichuan Province and known in ancient times as “Mount Tiancang” and also “Mount Zhangren,” Mount Qingcheng lies 68 kilometers west of Chengdu and 10 kilometers southwest of the Dujiangyan irrigation system. Its main peak, Laoxiao Summit, rises 1,260 meters. Among Sichuan's famous mountains it is as renowned as the perilous Jianmen Pass, the graceful Mount Emei, and the majestic Kuimen Gorge, and it is hailed as “Qingcheng, the most secluded under heaven.”

The Taoist temples and monasteries of the mountain center on the Tianshi Cave (Cave of the Celestial Master) and include the Jianfu Palace, the Shangqing Palace, the Hall of the Patriarch, the Yuanming Palace, the Laojun Pavilion, the Yuqing Palace, and the Chaoyang Cave; dozens of Taoist temples survive intact to this day. It is said that the founder of Taoism, the Founding Celestial Master Zhang Ling, came here and built a thatched hut to teach the Tao, and so this gradually became a birthplace of Taoism, listed in Taoism as the “Fifth Grotto-Heaven.”

3. The Four Sacred Mountains of Taoism: Mount Longhu—Green Waters and Red Cliffs

Mount Longhu (Dragon and Tiger Mountain) in Jiangxi Province is said to be where Zhang Daoling, founder of the Zhengyi school (Orthodox Unity), refined elixirs. Legend says that “when the elixir was complete, a dragon and a tiger appeared,” hence its name. It ranks first among the famous Taoist mountains and is hailed as the foremost fairyland of Taoism.

Mount Longhu lies 20 kilometers southwest of Yingtan in Jiangxi Province; its highest point, Tianmen Mountain, reaches 1,300 meters. Mount Longhu displays China's “Danxia landform” scenery to the full.

Mount Longhu is the “ancestral court” of the Celestial Master branch of Zhengyi Taoism. As a birthplace of Chinese Taoism, it has played a pivotal role in carrying the development of Chinese Taoism forward from past to future.

Mount Longhu was originally called Mount Yunjin and is a famous mountain of the Jiangnan region. Its peaks stretch for dozens of li, formed by a western spur of Mount Xiang (Mount Yingtian); legend says that ninety-nine dragons gathered here, with dragon and tiger contending for supremacy.

4. The Four Sacred Mountains of Taoism: Mount Qiyun—The Immortal Pass of Baiyue

The Immortal Pass of Baiyue in Anhui Province, long praised in the saying “Mount Huang and Baiyue are the finest in Jiangnan,” is an immortal mountain of Taoism and a site of practice opened up by the Celestial Masters of Mount Longhu.

The Immortal Pass of Baiyue lies about 15 kilometers west of the county seat of Xiuning in Huizhou (present-day Huangshan City, Anhui). Known in ancient times as Baiyue, it faces Mount Huang across a north–south line, with enchanting scenery everywhere. It takes its name from its highest peak, Kuoya, where “a single rock pierces the sky, level with the clouds.” The Qianlong Emperor called it “a scenic wonder unmatched under heaven, the foremost famous mountain of Jiangnan.”

In fact the mountain of Baiyue is only 585 meters high; who knows whether what the emperor saw back then was just mist!

Mount Qiyun, like the Wudang Mountains, enshrines the Perfected Warrior, Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven (Zhenwu), and is hailed as the “Little Wudang of Jiangnan.” “Thirty-six wondrous peaks, each a painting; seventy-two strange rocks, each a scene.” Together with its rivers, lakes, springs, pools, and waterfalls, it forms a picture scroll of green hills and clear waters, splendid and radiant.