武当山

Ancient building Complex in the Wudang Mountains

The Wudang Mountains are also called Taihe(Supreme Harmony)Mountains and were titled ¨Dayue¨(Gigantic Mountains)and ¨Xuanyue¨(Mysterious Mountains) by Ming emperors. The Ming trayeller Xu Xiake praised them highly for their ¨beautiful peaks and wonderful landscapes¨ and held them to be ¨above the Five Great Mountains.¨
Clustered Peaks and Magnincent Taoist Buildings

The Wudang Mountains are 400 km in circumferrence.The
highest peak,Tianzhu(Sky Pillar),with an elevation of l,6l2
m is surrounded by 72 other peaks and 24 streams and possesses varlous precipitous cliffs and grotesque caves.
Abounding with luxuriant forests and standing against white
clouds,they afford a splendid landscape.
The Wudang Mountains Taoist buildings were first constructed in the Zhenguan reign(627～649 AD)of the Tang Dynasty, extended in the Song period and further enlarged
in Yuan times.During the Ming period,hundreds of thousands of soldiers and laborers were sent there and large-scale
construction was carried out for l2 years according to several edicts of Emperor Yongle and under the direction of
his ministers.The work resulted in the completion of a huge
Taoist building complex including nine palaces,nine temples,
36 nunneries and 72 cave-temples,which furnished the imperial house with an important place for maintaining its ideological control by means of religion.

Strict Planning and Superb Skill

The large-scale construction of the Taoist building complex in the Wudang Mountains,as mentioned above,was initiated by the Ming emperor Yongle and carried out under the direction and management of the officias he appointed.As seen today, the buildings are so huge in size,high ingrade,perfect in structure and exquisite in decoration that their equals can never be found among the Taoist buildings elsewhere in China and seldom in the world.They are designed strictly and arranged in good order. Their locations were selected with attention paid to natural environments and emphasis put on choosing places with the mountain terrain and stream trend favorable for gathering the elements Hidden in deep cols or standing by precipitous cliffs,the buildings emerge in a high harmony with nature.The extantTaihe (Supreme Harmony),Nanyan(Southem Cliff),Zixiao(Purple Heaven)and Yuzhen(Meeting with Perfect Beings)palaces, the remains of the Yuxu(Heaven),Wulong(FiveDragons)and other palaces,and numerous nunneries,temples and cave-temples embrace well over 200 ancient
buildings,which total about 50,000 sq m in area. The Zixiao Place,largest in size and perfect in condition,comprises 29 buildings arranged on a five-tier terrace and covering 6,854 sq m in total. Among them the Zixiao Hall has a double-eaved, hip-and-gable roof and measures l8.3 m in height,

29.9 m in width and l2 m in depth,occupying 358.8 sq m and having consumed a large amount of structural material A wide variety of materials were used for the numerous buildings and wrought with diverse techniques,including carpentry,brass foundry, stone cutting and wood carving,all displaying remarkable skill.The Golden Hall is apalace-like-brass-cast building erected in the Ming period in imitation of a wooden structure. It is situated in the center of a stone platform with an area of 160 sq m built on the summit of Sky-Pillar Peak,the highest mount in the Wudang Mountains.Its structural members were all cast in Beijing and then in the 14th year of the Yongle reign(l416AD)conveyed to the Wudang Mountains by the Grand Canal-Yangtze river-Hanshui River and assembled up on Sky-Pillar Peak Standing 5.5 m high,4.4 m wide and 3.l5 m deep and all gilt,it remains as new as ever despite exposure to the elements for hundreds of years.
In addition,there are preserved in the temples in the mountains 1,486 brass,iron,wooden and stone images(including nearly l,000pre. Mingworks), 409 inscribed stelae and a number of classical works and other books, all of immense value, constituting a great treasure-trove of important cultural heritage of China.