Why did the ancient emperors seal The Zen of Taishan: What is the source of Taishan worship?

In the eyes of the ancients, Mount Tai was the tallest and largest mountain. The original meaning of the name "Taishan" is dashan. If there is one word to express the characteristics of Tarzan, it is "big". This first comes from the size of Taishan's external mountain, and more importantly, the size of its inner culture, which has achieved the lofty status of Taishan as a "mountain in the mountains" in a national psychology. The carved stone of "Five Mountains Alone" under the top of the Jade Emperor reflects the ancient people's respect for Mount Taishan, and is one of the four iconic landscapes of Mount Tai.

The size of Mount Tai is related to the worship of mountains, and the worship of mountains is a cultural phenomenon that was common in the early days of mankind. In the eyes of the ancients, mountains have the attributes of gods, and if they are not sacrificed and worshipped, they will bring natural disasters and social disasters. The rich breeding characteristics of mountains are the material needs on which people depend for their survival. The divinity of the mountains and the inextricable dependence on nature together form the basis of the understanding of mountain worship. Mount Taishan is one of the earliest famous mountains in China to enter the field of human vision. Archaeological data show that the Taishan area has become an important birthplace of Oriental culture as early as ancient times. By 400,000 years ago, ancient humans represented by the "Yiyuan people" had multiplied in this area. The discovery of the Xintai "Wuzhutai people" in the late Old Age 20,000-50,000 years ago in the southeast of Mount Taishan, and the discovery of mesolithic fine stone tools around Mount Taishan dating back to 10,000 years ago, all show that in hundreds of thousands of years, the history of this area has been uninterrupted, and the existence of early human practice activities has provided the possibility for the emergence of Taishan worship.

The Dawenkou culture around Mount Taishan is the most influential of China's many Neolithic cultures. The Dawenkou culture dates back about 6300-4600 years and lasted about 1700 years. Archaeological data show that after the middle period of the Dawenkou culture, it gradually gained advantages over other Neolithic cultures and was in a leading position in many aspects. Taishan is the central area of Dawenkou culture, and the name of Dawenkou culture- Dawenkou is at the foot of Mount Tai, with an existing area of 8.25 million square meters. In terms of the continuity of time, the richness of the content display, and the scale of the site area, the Dawenkou site has a very big advantage over other sites, showing the status of a cultural center.

The ancestors of the Dawenkou culture period migrated west with a strong cultural force, forming a strong infiltration of the culture of the middle reaches of the Yellow River, and also expeditioned to the Yangtze River Basin to develop their own power into other Neolithic cultures, following the development of the Dawenkou culture of the typical Longshan culture, as well as henan Longshan culture, Erlitou culture (Xia culture) and Shang culture, you can also see the influence from the Dawenkou culture. From this, it is not difficult to understand the reason why the ancients worshipped Mount Tai as the center of heaven and earth.

Tarzan worship was formed no later than the Neolithic period. In the Dawenkou site, more than 20 pictorial characters have been found, about 8 kinds of individuals, the most typical and meaningful of which is an pictorial script engraved on a large pottery bottle found in the Dawenkou cultural site of Lingyang River in LüXian, east of Taishan. It is composed of three parts: the sun, fire, and mountain, with the sun in the upper part, the fire in the middle, and the mountain in the lower part, which shows the situation of burning fire on the mountain to sacrifice the heavens. This is also the earliest form of celestial sacrifice found in China. Here the mountain undoubtedly became the medium of communication between man and the heavens. The mountain and the sun are the same theme, and the worship of the mountain is clear. In the Shang Shu Shun Classic, the account of Shun's "Eastern Patrol Hunting, as for Daizong", interprets the content expressed in the above-mentioned pictorial text. It can be said that in the Neolithic period, it has become the object of worship of the Dawenkou people. The ancestors of the Dawenkou period can be regarded as the masters of Mount Tai. The Dawenkou culture laid a solid social foundation for the rise of Taishan worship.

In ancient Chinese literature, Taishan is revered as "Daizong", is the head of the mountain, only the Son of Heaven is eligible to sacrifice, this is the "Zhou Li" so-called "Tianzi sacrifice the world's famous mountains", the right to sacrifice is the supreme ruler exclusive, in this social background, Taishan has become a country's mountain of faith. Therefore, when the Feng Zen doctrine appeared, Taishan naturally became the only mountain among the many mountains that could talk to heaven and earth.

Feng Zen evolved from the "hunting" system of the Heavenly Son's inspection of the princes of the four directions. The biggest difference between the two is that the sealing of Zen has the meaning of "telling the heavens" and can only be held on Mount Tai, and the sacrifice of Mount Tai thus becomes the highest ceremony of heaven and earth, and is a symbol of fulfilling the highest power of the state. Because of this, With its majestic natural characteristics and rich history and culture, Taishan has gradually embarked on the altar of a national soul and become a well-deserved sacred mountain and holy mountain.

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