Sacred 5 Of China

First published in 2007. Geil argues in this book that five is a number most remarkable to the man of the Central Kingdom. Crafted to the rule of fifths, the author discusses aspects of the world, mountains and religion which lead to the analysis of five. These include the ascent of five key figures: Tai Shan, Nan Yo, Sung Shan, Hua Shan and Heng Shan. This title includes illustrations throughout with a comprehensive index.

The ancient Chinese developed building techniques that are astounding in their ability to match nature and endure for centuries. China's Sacred Sites presents a vision of architecture as a harmonious interaction of human culture and the natural world. Over 300 color photos and architectural drawings document some of the most remarkable achievements of mountainscape feng shui. The wisdom of these ancient builders is particularly relevant today as sustainable building practices and green design take architecture in new directions.

China is a mountainous country. According to statistics, the area of ​​mountains, hills and plateaus accounts for 69% of the total land area of ​​the country. There are so many mountains in China. In particular, the sacred mountains have all been important destinations for pilgrimage. The Five Sacred Mountains in China (五岳, Wuyue) is the collective name of the five famous mountains in Chinese culture. Specifically, Wuyue refers to Taishan (泰山), Huashan (华山), Hengshan (衡山), Songshan (嵩山), and Hengshan (恒山). Wuyue is a place of prosperity in Chinese culture. The four famous mountains of Chinese Buddhism are Wutai Mountain (五台山), Putuo Mountain (普陀山), Emei Mountain (峨眉山), and Jiuhua Mountain (九华山). With the introduction of Indian Buddhism, the four famous mountains have continued to build temples and monasteries since the Han Dynasty in China. The book has 14 chapters in the following order: Chapter 1: The Five Sacred Mountains in China (第一章：五岳) Chapter 2: Tai Mountain/Taishan (第二章：泰山) Chapter 3: Hengshan (第三章：衡山) Chapter 4: Huashan (第四章：华山) Chapter 5: Hengshan (第五章：恒山) Chapter 6: Songshan (第六章：嵩山) Chapter 7: The Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism (第七章：中国佛教四大名山) Chapter 8: Wutai Mountain (第八章：五台山) Chapter 9: Emei Mountain (第九章：峨眉山) Chapter 10: Putuo Mountain (第十章：普陀山) Chapter 11: Jiuhua Mountain (第十一章：九华山) Chapter 12: Yellow Mountain/Huangshan (第十二章：黄山) Chapter 13: Yulong Snow Mountain/Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (第十三章：玉龙雪山) Chapter 14: Lushan (第十四章：庐山) The current book volume, Chinese Mountains (中国山脉), is a Chinese reading practice book. It would introduce you to the most important mountains in China (such as the Yellow Mountain, Wuyue, Taishan, Wutai Mountain, etc.). The 3rd volume in the Introduction to Chinese Geography Series (中国地理百科全知道) includes both the Chinese text (simplified characters) and pinyin Romanization. With about over 1000 unique Chinese characters, the volume would be suitable for the beginners, lower intermediate and advanced level Chinese language learners (HSK 1-6). Overall, the reading series offers you a variety of elementary level books (Level 1/2/3/4) to understand China as well as practice Chinese reading fast.

Excerpt from Sacred Places in China The chief reason for producing this little volume is to give to the thoughtful reader of China and the Chinese a clearer conception of the readiness of the people to accept, with full credence, such whimsical and mythological stories as are here related, of their susceptibility of spiritual influences, and of the decay of intellectual vigor among the Buddhist and Taoist priests, as the inevitable result of monasticism. The intellectual vigor of the Chinese is found among the Confucianists, who hold the controlling power in the government, while Buddhism and Taoism seem past any hope of resurrection to real life. They have had their age of faith. But no one need to doubt the spiritual susceptibility, nor despair of the intellectual progress of all classes. Christianity fosters mental growth and science stimulates thought and is eminently fitted to drive out all fear and superstition. Christian education is not failing in accomplishing this. The response is abundantly gratifying. However, the struggle with Buddhism and Taoism is not yet ended, it has scarcely begun. The reader finds himself here in the midst of the Asiatic world of nearly two thousand years ago, when Buddhist priests had entered actively upon their pilgrim life. To this day all foot-worn mountain paths lead to some monastery or sacred shrine. The information recorded in this little volume is the fruit of hard labor. The writer traveled to distant mountains in the Mid-China hot summer months, visiting monasteries, and living with monks in the hope of gaining some knowledge of their inner life and hope of the future. Most of this information was obtained verbally, some through Chinese reading. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Buddhist monasteries in medieval China employed a variety of practices to ensure their ascendancy and survival. Most successful was the exchange of material goods for salvation, as in the donation of land, which allowed monks to spread their teachings throughout China. By investigating a variety of socioeconomic spaces produced and perpetuated by Chinese monasteries, Michael J. Walsh reveals the "sacred economies" that shaped early Buddhism and its relationship with consumption and salvation. Centering his study on Tiantong, a Buddhist monastery that has thrived for close to seventeen centuries in southeast China, Walsh follows three main topics: the spaces monks produced, within and around which a community could pursue a meaningful existence; the social and economic avenues through which monasteries provided diverse sacred resources and secured the primacy of Buddhist teachings within an agrarian culture; and the nature of "transactive" participation within monastic spaces, which later became a fundamental component of a broader Chinese religiosity. Unpacking these sacred economies and repositioning them within the history of religion in China, Walsh encourages a different approach to the study of Chinese religion, emphasizing the critical link between religious exchange and the production of material culture.

This book analyses the magnificent imperial necropolises of ancient China from the perspective of Archaeoastronomy, a science which takes into account the landscape in which ancient monuments are placed, focusing especially but not exclusively on the celestial aspects. The power of the Chinese emperors was based on the so-called Mandate of Heaven: the rulers were believed to act as intermediaries between the sky gods and the Earth, and consequently, the architecture of their tombs, starting from the world-famous mausoleum of the first emperor, was closely linked to the celestial cycles and to the cosmos. This relationship, however, also had to take into account various other factors and doctrines, first the Zhao-Mu doctrine in the Han period and later the various forms of Feng Shui. As a result, over the centuries, diverse sacred landscapes were constructed. Among the sites analysed in the book are the “pyramids” of Xi’an from the Han dynasty, the mountain tombs of the Tang dynasty, and the Ming and Qing imperial tombs. The book explains how considerations such as astronomical orientation and topographical orientation according to the principles of Feng Shui played a fundamental role at these sites.