Mount Tai
Mount Tai is a mountain of historical and cultural significance located north of the city of Tai'an. It is the highest point in Shandong province, China. The tallest peak is the Jade Emperor Peak, which is commonly reported as being tall.
Mount Tai is known as the eastern mountain of the Sacred Mountains of China. It is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal, and is often regarded the foremost of the five. Mount Tai has been a place of worship for at least 3,000 years and served as one of the most important ceremonial centers of China during large portions of this period. Because of its sacred importance and dramatic landscape, it was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It meets 7 of the 10 evaluation standards for World Heritage sites, and is listed as a World Heritage site that meets the most of the standards, along with the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area in Australia.
An earthquake or thunderstorm occurred around Mount Tai in 1831 BC or 1652 BC, also known as the Mount Tai earthquake. This event was first recorded in the Bamboo Annals, and at present, it is recognized by most scholars as the first recorded earthquake in Chinese history.
Location
Mount Tai is located in western Shandong, just north of the city of Tai'an and to the south of the provincial capital Jinan. It extends from above sea level and covers an area of at its base. The Jade Emperor Peak, which rises above sea level, is located at 36° 16′N and 117° 6′E.Geological origin speculation
Mount Tai was formed in the middle of the Cenozoic about 30 million years ago. The stratum of Mount Tai is ancient, mainly composed of several ancient rocks such as mixed rock, mixed granite and various gneiss.The government prevents exploration of the caves, for they are unassessed and potentially dangerous.
The Luxi region used to be a huge subsiding belt or sea canal. The orogeny made the rock layers on the subsidence zone folded and uplifted into ancient land, forming a huge mountain system, which has experienced 2 billion years of weathering and denudation, and the terrain has gradually become flat. About 600 million years ago, Mount Tai sank into the sea again. After more than 100 million years, the entire area rose to land again, and the ancient Mount Tai uplifted into a relatively low barren hill. In the late Mesozoic period about 100 million years ago, due to the extrusion and subduction of the Pacific plate to the Eurasian Plate, the Taishan stratum experienced extensive folds and fractures under the influence of the Yanshanian. During the crustal movement above, Mount Tai was rapidly uplifted. In the mid-Cenozoic period about 30 million years ago, the outline of Mount Tai as it is known today was formed.
Climatic vegetation
Due to its height, Mount Tai has a vertical climate gradient. The lower part of the mountain is a warm temperate zone and the top of the mountain is a medium temperate zone. The mountain is cloudy and foggy, with an average annual precipitation of 1132mm, while the surrounding area receives only 750mm. Taishan scattering coverage rate reaches 80%. On the foothills, deciduous forests, broad-leaved coniferous mixed forests, Coniferous forest, alpine shrubs and grass can be seen in sequence. The vertical boundaries of the forest belts are distinct and the vegetation landscapes are different. There are 989 species of seed plants in 144 families, including 433 species of woody plants in 72 families, 556 species of herbaceous plants in 72 families, and 462 species of medicinal plants in 111 families.History
Traces of human presence at Mount Tai date back to the Paleolithic period. Evidence of human settlement of the area can be proven from the Neolithic period onwards. During this time, two cultures had emerged near the mountain, the Dawenkou culture to the south and the Longshan culture to the north.During the Xia dynasty the mountain was known as Mount Dai and lay within the borders of Qingzhou, one of the Nine Provinces of ancient China.
Religious worship of Mount Tai has a tradition dating back 3,000 years, from the time of the Shang to the Qing dynasty. Over time, this worship evolved into the Feng and Shan sacrifices or Fengshan. The sacrifices were an official imperial rite and Mount Tai became one of the principal places where the emperor would carry out the sacrifices to pay homage to Heaven on the summit and Earth at the foot of the mountain. Carving of an inscription as part of the sacrifices marked the attainment of the "great peace".
By the time of the Zhou dynasty sacrifices at Mount Tai had become highly ritualized ceremonies in which a local feudal lord would travel there to make sacrifices of food and jade ritual items. These would then be arranged in a ritually correct pattern before being buried on the mountain. In the Spring and Autumn period the vassal states of Qi and Lu bordered Mount Tai to the north and south respectively, from where their feudal lords both made independent sacrifices on Mount Tai. According to Zhou ritual belief, the spirit of Mount Tai would only accept sacrifices offered by a feudal lord, leading Confucius to criticize the ministers who offered state sacrifices here after usurping power. In the ensuing Warring States period, to protect itself against invasion, the State of Qi erected a -long wall, the ruins of which are still present today. The name Tai'an of the neighboring city is attributed to the saying "If Mount Tai is stable, so is the entire country".
In 219 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, held a ceremony on the summit and proclaimed the unity of his empire in a well-known inscription. During the Han dynasty, the Feng and Shan sacrifices were considered the highest of all sacrifices.
Rituals and sacrifices were conducted by the Sui.
The emperors of past dynasties went to Mount Tai to worship the heavens and tell the earth. Confucian Buddhism, preaching, and experience, and cultural figures climbed the mountain, leaving behind a dazzling array of stone inscriptions, cliffs, and couplet stone carvings. The cliff carvings on Mount Tai are also the most famous mountains. There are more than 1,800 stone inscriptions in Mount Tai, including more than 800 steles and 1,000 cliff stone inscriptions, distributed in 157 at Daimiao, 215 at Dailu, 576 at Shantou East Road, 258 at Daiding, more than 80 at Daixi, 44 at Daiyin, more than 400 locations in Lingyan Temple, and more than 100 locations in Shentong Temple. It mainly includes 5 types of sacrificial ceremonies of the emperors of the past dynasties, the creation and restoration of temples, the tomb inscriptions of the stone scriptures, the poems of chants, the scenery and the couplets, most of which are natural stone inscriptions.
Japan, India, the Persian court in exile, Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla, the Turks, Khotan, the Khmer, and the Umayyad Caliphate all had representatives attending the Feng and Shan sacrifices held by Emperor Gaozong of Tang in 666 at Mount Tai.
Also, Chinese worshippers of the mountain who were not nobles have also played an important role in the history of communities near the mountain and pilgrimage across China.
In 2003, Mount Tai attracted around six million visitors. A renovation project was completed in late October 2005, which was aimed at restoring cultural relics and renovating damaged buildings of cultural significance. Widely known for its special ceremonies and sacrifices, Mount Tai has seen visits by many poets and literary scholars who have traveled there seeking inspiration. There are grandiose temples, many stone inscriptions and stone tablets with the mountain playing an important role in the development of both Buddhism and Taoism.
Natural significance
Mount Tai is a tilted fault-block mountain with height increasing from the north to the south. It is the oldest example of a paleo-metamorphic formation from the Cambrian Period in eastern China, and is known as the Taishan Complex. The uplift of the region started in the Proterozoic Era; by the end of the Proterozoic, it had become part of the continent.Besides the Jade Emperor Peak, other distinctive rock formations are the Heaven Candle Peak, the Fan Cliff, and the Rear Rock Basin.
Mount Tai lies in the zone of oriental deciduous forest; about 80% of its area is covered with vegetation. The flora is known to comprise almost 1,000 species. Some of the trees in the area are very old and have cultural significance, such as the Han Dynasty Cypresses, which were planted by the Emperor Wu Di, the Tang Chinese Scholartree, the Welcoming-Guest Pine and the Fifth-Rank Pine, which was named originally by the Emperor Qin Shi Huang, but was replanted about 250 years ago.