Mount Longhu 龙虎山

Overview

Chinese Name: 龙虎山
English Name: Mount Longhu;Dragon Tiger Mountain;Long Hu Shan
Location: Yingtan, Jiangxi
Type: Ancient culture and art
Rating Level: AAAAA (5A)
Website: https://www.longhushan.com.cn/

Brief Introduction

Mount Longhu is located 20 kilometers southwest of Yingtan City, Jiangxi Province. In the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Daoling 张道陵, the founder of Zhengyi正一道, used to refine Dan medicine here, and the legend says that “Dan refining is made and the dragon and tiger are present”, and the mountain is named after it.

Among them, Tianmen Mountain is the highest, with an altitude of 1300 meters. Mount Longhu is the eighth World Natural Heritage Site in China, a Global Geopark, a National Natural and Cultural Dual Heritage Site, a National AAAAA-level Tourist Attraction, and a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Longhu Mountain is a typical Danxia landform landscape in China and the birthplace of Taoism in China, and joined the Global Geopark Network in 2007. The Danxia landform of Longhu Mountain is a two Danxia mountain composed of late Cretaceous continental foothills and alluvial fan-like red sand boulders at the southern edge of the middle section of the Xinjiang Basin in southeast China.

According to Taoist texts, Zhang Sheng 张盛, the fourth grandson of Zhang Ling 张凌, settled in Longhu Mountain during the Three Kingdoms or western Jin Dynasty, and after that, Zhang Tianshi’s descendants lived in Mount Longhu, which has been inherited for 63 generations and lasted for more than 1,900 years.

What are worth visiting and seeing？

Geographical environment

Mount Longhu contains important morphological types of Danxia monomers and groups in the humid subtropical region of China, and the diversity of morphological types has created the uniqueness of the Danxia Peak forest landform combination and pictographic Danxia landscape.

The four seasons are roughly divided into 67 days in the spring when the average daily temperature in mid-to-late March is stable between 10°C and late May; From the end of May, when the average daily temperature is stable through 22 °C to the end of September, it is about 122 days in summer; Autumn from the end of September when the average daily temperature is stable below 22 °C to the end of November, about 62 days; From the date when the average daily temperature stabilizes below 10°C in late November to mid-to-late March of the following year, winter is about 114 days.

History

Longhu Mountain is one of the Seventy-Two Blessed places of Taoism, in Guixi County, Yingtan. Longhu Mountain is the “ancestral court” of the Taoist Tianshi Sect, Zhang Daoling was successful in refining Dan medicine in the Longhu Mountain, starting from the fourth generation of Heavenly Master Zhang Sheng at the end of the Han Dynasty, and successive generations of Heavenly Masters Hua lived here, guarded the Dragon and Tiger Mountain to find immortals, lived in the Tianshi Mansion for self-cultivation, hereditary 63 generations and 1800 years.

They were all revered and canonized by successive feudal dynasties, and they were highly regarded as officials and subjects, forming two major families of hereditary “Southern Zhang and Northern Kong(Confucius)” in the history of Chinese culture.

The Shangqing Palace 上清宫 and the Sihan Tianshi Mansion 嗣汉天师府 have been given silver countless times by successive dynasties, and countless expansions and repairs have been carried out, and the building area, scale, layout, quantity and specifications of the palace have created the largest in the history of Taoist architecture. In its heyday, Longhu Mountain had more than 80 Taoist temples, 36 Taoist temples, and several Taoist palaces, which was a veritable “Daodu 道都” and the world kingdom of Taoists.

Starting from Zhang Sheng, the fourth generation of Heavenly Masters at the end of the Han Dynasty, Zhengyi successive generations of Heavenly Masters have lived here, and the hereditary Daoist system has been ruled for sixty-three generations and has been guarded for more than 1900 years. They were repeatedly revered and canonized by feudal dynasties.

The fourth generation of Heavenly Master Zhang Sheng also returned to Longhu Mountain, and during this period, Mount Longhu was in a stage of living in seclusion in the mountains, concentrating on cultivation, and enriching and transforming doctrinal ideas, and did not have a wide impact on society, especially did not gain the belief and affirmation of the upper class.

After a long period of reform and reform of doctrinal thinking, Zhengyi Taoism 正一道教 completed the historic transformation from folk Taoism to official Taoism, and its influence began to be revealed from the Tang Dynasty. The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty promoted Taoism, claimed to be a descendant of Daozu Laozi, and established the status of Daoism as the emperor, and in this context, Longhushan Zhengyi was supported by imperial power.

The main scenic areas of Longhu Mountain are Shangqing Palace Scenic Area, Tianshifu Scenic Area, Longhu Mountain Scenic Area, Xianyan Water Rock Scenic Area, and so on.

Tianshifu 天师府, full name “Qing Si Han Tianshifu”, covers an area of more than 30,000 square meters, with magnificent architecture and more than 6,000 square meters of ancient buildings.
The Great Shangqing Palace, founded in the Eastern Han Dynasty, is the place where the ancestral master Zhang Daoling practiced, referred to as the Shangqing Palace.