Sacred Mountains of China
The Sacred Mountains of China are divided into several groups. The Five Great Mountains (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ) refers to five of the most renowned mountains in Chinese history, and they were the subjects of imperial pilgrimage by emperors throughout ages. They are associated with the absolute God and the five main cosmic deities of Chinese traditional religion. The group associated with Buddhism is referred to as the Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism (Chinese: ), and the group associated with Taoism is referred to as the Four Sacred Mountains of Taoism (Chinese: ).
The sacred mountains have all been important destinations for pilgrimage, the Chinese expression for pilgrimage (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ) being a shortened version of an expression which means "paying respect to a holy mountain" (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ).
The Five Great Mountains or Wu Yue are arranged according to the five cardinal directions of Chinese geomancy, which includes the center as a direction. The grouping of the five mountains appeared during the Warring States period (475 BC - 221 BC), and the term of Wu Yue (Five Summit) was made famous during the reign of Emperor Wudi of the Western Han Dynasty 140-87 BC. In Chinese traditional religion they have cosmological and theological significance as they represent on the physical plane of earth the natural order emanating from the primordial God (Tian-Shangdi), inscribing and designing China as a tán 壇, "altar", the Chinese concept equivalent of the Indian mandala.
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