The Cultural Transformation of Mountains during the Six Dynasties

Wei Bin (School of History, Wuhan University; HYI Visiting Scholar)

Chair/Discussant: James Robson (Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University)

Co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

Mountains, originally places for mountain-god worship, attracted the explorative interest of Buddhism, Taoism and other cultural forces during the Six Dynasties, as a result becoming geographic sites for the convergence of Taoist abbeys, transcendents’ relics, Buddhist temples, hermits’ abodes and cultic shrines. This formed a new cultural and living space, while maintaining close contact with the outside world of power beyond the mountains. This new cultural landscape provides essential clues for comprehending historical transformations between the Han and Tang Dynasties. This talk will discuss the topic from the following four aspects: 1) Sacrifices in mountains; 2) The formation of Buddhist and Daoist landscapes in mountains; 3) Knowledge, writings and literature about mountains; 4) The relationship between mountains and the outside world of power.