Sites of the official religion of imperial China, foremost the Temple of Heaven in Beijing and the sacred peaks where the emperor performed the great sacrifices to Heaven and earth.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingAltars and mountains of the imperial cult, at which the emperor as Son of Heaven made the sacrifices held to keep cosmic and political order. The grouping is defined by the sacrificer and the office, not by a doctrine: several of the same mountains also carry Taoist and Buddhist establishments, which the atlas records separately. 2 Size of the Traditional SetFive: the Marchmounts - the eastern, southern, western, northern and central peaks of the imperial cult. The number is fixed at five; which mountains fill the southern and northern places was moved more than once by imperial decision. 2 Origins
Whose Classification This IsThe five-peak scheme is the state's, not a folk category. It took its canonical form under Emperor Wu of the Han (reigned 141-87 BCE) and was maintained, argued over and occasionally reassigned by later dynasties as the empire's own borders moved. 2 Learn More
Sites of Chinese state religion
This group holds sacred sites of the Chinese state religion, the altars and temples of the imperial cult, where the emperor, as Son of Heaven, performed the great sacrifices to Heaven, Earth and the ancestors that maintained cosmic and political order.
The browser will find the imperial altars and ritual complexes the atlas gathers. The entries describe each site's role in the state cult and its history.
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Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Power of Place: The Religious Landscape of the Southern Sacred Peak (Nanyue) in Medieval China
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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