Gao Shan- the middle mountain of the five Taoist peaks in some older Taoist traditions. It is in Deng Feng county in Honan.  Gao Shan has two small mountains that join together and rise straight up out of the plain so they seem bigger. They are called Tai Shi and Shao Shi. To the north the view looks over the Yellow River and to the east is the Yi river. In ancient times the Emperor prayed at Tai Shan, but the Empress prayed at Gao Shan. Wu, tze tien, Wu Zetian in pin yin, [died A.D.705] is one of the most important female figures in any history of the ancient world. She gave it the name Tien Chong Hwang, Emperor of Heaven.

Wu Zetian started as a concubine and rose to wife of the first two Tang emperors and eventually took over by A.D.674. By 690 she had declared herself “emperor.” She dreamed of ruling the entire known world and all seventeen remaining emperors in the Tang lineage were her descendants. 

In 1982 in a crack in the rock of a very steep peak on Gao Shan was found a gold sheet with characters carved on it with prayers from Wu Zetian to the heavens. It weighs 247 grams and has 63 characters on it praying to the gods. Imagine finding an intact artifact, in situe, from the time of Arthurian legend! This is almost unheard of in modern western archeology.

During the Chao dynasty prince Jin was brought to Gao Shan by the Taoist monk Fu Chiu Kung and today Fu Chiu peak is to the east of Tai Shi and to the west is Tze Jin peak.

During the Han dynasty Chang Ling and Tsou Tze, and Bao Tsien of the Wei dynasty, all went to practice Taoism on Gao Shan. During the Bei Wei period a monk named Ko, Chian Tse lived in seclusion on Gao Shan for seven years.

Another monk, whose name comes down to us as Tai Sheng Lao Jun, moved to Gao Shan and an immortal came down to the mountain and gave him the new name of Tien Hsu and twenty volumes titled Prohibitions from the Clouds. The immortal asked this monk to use these as the new textbook for Taoism and to clean up religious Taoism. Tien Hsu came down off of the mountain and with a referral by Tsui Hao, an official of the Imperial court, he met with the Emperor. The Emperor was receptive to the idea of reforming Taoism and respectfully began the process.

During the Sui Tang period Taoism flourished on Gao Shan and many famous monks practiced Taoism there. During the Song/Yuan dynasties period the old masters of the Hsang Ching branch of Taoism lived on Gao Shan. They were Pan, Shi Jeng, Sima Cheng Jen, and later Li Han Guang. During the Ming/Ching period Taoism on Gao Shan deteriorated and where there used to be many palaces and monasteries today there is only one, the Chong Yua Temple.

 

Send mail to Admin@SacredPeaks.net with questions or comments about this web site.