The Wudang Mountains (simplified Chinese: 武当山; traditional Chinese: 武當山; pinyin: Wǔdāng Shān) consist of a mountain range in the northwestern part of Hubei, China, just south of Shiyan. They are home to a famous complex of Taoist temples and monasteries associated with the Lord of the North, Xuantian Shangdi. The Wudang Mountains are renowned for the practice of Tai chi and Taoism as the Taoist counterpart to the Shaolin Monastery,[1] which is affiliated with Chinese Chán Buddhism. The Wudang Mountains are one of the "Four Sacred Mountains of Taoism" in China, an important destination for Taoist pilgrimages. The monasteries such as the Wudang Garden[1] were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 because of their religious significance and architectural achievement.[2]

Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Location	Hubei, China
Criteria	Cultural: i, ii, vi
Reference	705
Inscription	1994 (18th Session)
Coordinates	32°24′03″N 111°00′14″E
Location of Wudang Mountains in China

Wudang Mountains
"Wudang Mountains" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese
Traditional Chinese	武當山
Simplified Chinese	武当山
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wǔdāng shān Wade–Giles Wu3-tang1 shan1 Wu Romanization Ghu入 taon平 sae平 Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Móuh-dōng Sāan Jyutping Mou5-dong1 Saan1 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Bú-tong-soaⁿ

Geography

On Chinese maps, the name "Wudangshan" (Chinese: 武当山) is applied both to the entire mountain range (which runs east-west along the southern edge of the Han River, crossing several county-level divisions of Shiyan), and to the group of peaks located within Wudangshan subdistrict of Danjiangkou, Shiyan. It is the latter specific area which is known as a Taoist center.[3]

Modern maps show the elevation of the highest of the peaks in the Wudang Shan "proper" as 1612 meters;[3][4] however, the entire Wudangshan range has somewhat higher elevations elsewhere.[3]

Some consider the Wudang Mountains to be a "branch" of the Daba Mountains range,[4] which is a major mountain system in western Hubei, Shaanxi, Chongqing and Sichuan.

History

For centuries, the mountains of Wudang have been known as an important center of Taoism, especially famous for its Taoist versions of martial arts or Taichi.[5]

The first site of worship—the Five Dragons Temple—was constructed at the behest of Emperor Taizong of Tang.[2] Further structures were added during the Song and Yuan dynasties, while the largest complex on the mountain was built during the Ming dynasty (14th–17th centuries) as the Yongle Emperor claimed to enjoy the protection of the god Beidi or Xuantian Shangdi.[2] During the Ming Dynasty, 9 palaces, 9 monasteries, 36 nunneries and 72 temples were located at the site.[2] Temples regularly had to be rebuilt, and not all survived; the oldest existing structures are the Golden Hall and the Ancient Bronze Shrine, made in 1307.[2] Other noted structures include Nanyang Palace (built in 1285–1310 and extended in 1312), the stone-walled Forbidden City of the Taihe Palace at the peak (built in 1419), and the Purple Cloud Temple (built in 1119–1126, rebuilt in 1413 and extended in 1803–1820).[2][6] Today, 53 ancient buildings still survive. [2]

On January 19, 2003, the 600-year-old Yuzhengong Palace at the Wudang Mountains burned down after accidentally being set on fire by an employee of a martial arts school.[7] A fire broke out in the hall, reducing the three rooms that covered 200 square meters to ashes. A gold-plated statue of Zhang Sanfeng, which was usually housed in Yuzhengong, was moved to another building just before the fire, and so escaped destruction in the inferno.[5]

• 
  The Purple Cloud monastery at Wudang Mountains
• 
  The Gate of Yuan Wu at Wudang Mountains
• 
• 
  Purple Heaven Palace
• 
• 

Association with martial arts

Part of a series on
Chinese martial arts (Wushu)
Styles of Chinese martial arts List of Chinese martial arts
Terms Chin Na Fa jin Kung fu (term) Neigong Neijia Qi Qigong Shifu Yin and yang
Historical locations Kunlun Mountains Mount Emei Mount Hua Shaolin Monastery Wudang Mountains
Legendary figures Guan Yu Bodhidharma Zhang Sanfeng Fong Sai-yuk Yim Wing-chun Li Ching-Yuen Eight Immortals Five Elders
Historical individuals Emperor Taizu of Song Yue Fei Hung Hei-gun Dong Haichuan Yang Luchan Chan Heung Wu Quanyou Wong Fei-hung Sun Lutang Li Shuwen Huo Yuanjia Wang Zi-Ping Chen Fake Ip Man Ten Tigers of Canton
Modern celebrities Bruce Lee Bolo Yeung Sammo Hung Jackie Chan Jet Li Donnie Yen Vincent Zhao Zhang Jin (actor) Dennis To
Related Hong Kong action cinema Kung fu film Vietnamese martial arts Wushu (sport) Wuxia
v t e

At the first national martial arts tournament organized by the Central Guoshu Institute in 1928, participants were separated into practitioners of Shaolin and Wudang styles. Styles considered to belong to the latter group—called Wudangquan—are those with a strong element of Taoist neidan exercises. Typical examples of Wudangquan are Taijiquan, Xingyiquan and Baguazhang. According to legend, Taijiquan was created by the Taoist hermit sage Zhang Sanfeng, who lived in the Wudang mountains.[8]

Wudangquan has been partly reformed to fit the PRC sport and health promotion program. The third biannual Traditional Wushu Festival was held in the Wudang Mountains from October 28 to November 2, 2008.[9]

See also

• Xuantian Shangdi
• Five Immortals Temple
• Golden Hall
• Purple Cloud Temple
• Silk reeling
• Tao yin
• Zhang Sanfeng
• Yang Luchan
• Wudang Sect
• Wudang quan
• Wu-Tang Clan

References

Bibliography

• Pierre-Henry de Bruyn, Le Wudang Shan: Histoire des récits fondateurs, Paris, Les Indes savantes, 2010, 444 pp.

External links

• Media related to Wudang Mountains at Wikimedia Commons
• UNESCO World Heritage Sites descriptions
• Wudang Mountain Kung Fu Academy (Founded by the government)
• International Wudang Federation (including training in Wudangshan) Archived 2016-07-18 at the Wayback Machine
• Wudang Global Federation

На других языках

[de] Wudang Shan

[es] Montes Wudang

[fr] Monts Wudang

[it] Monti Wudang

[ru] Уданшань