ox (19 March 680), they visited Songyang monastery and the Temple of Qi's Mother, and ordered steles erected on both sites.[31]（[31] JTS 5.105-6）This outing marked the beginning of the elevation of the Tushan sisters.In his "Preface to the Stele Inscription for Little Auntie Temple of the Lesser Room," likely written at this juncture, Yang Jiong (650-693) cleverly crafted rhetoric that both connected Wu Zhao to the Tushan sisters and established greater Mount Song as part of her sacred geography. The talented young propagandist described the connection between the Spirit of Lesser Room and the culture hero, flood-queller Yu:Lesser Auntie Temple, according to the "Treatise on Geography" in the History of the Han Dynasty, is Lesser Room Temple of Mount Song. The temple idol is the image of a woman. Following the lore of antiquity, she is the younger sister of the Mother of Qi, the Tushan Girl--she who in antiquity gave birth through a stone fissure so that water and earth therefore brought forth her achievement.[32]（[32] QTW 192.1944. It is very difficult to know precisely when Yang Jiong wrote this inscription. The most plausible guess would be between 680 and 683, during Gaozong's final years, when temples to the Mother of Qi and other divinities in the vicinity of Greater Mount Song were established.）
臣谨按少姨庙者，则《汉书·地理志》：'嵩高少室之庙也。其神为妇人像者，则古老相传，云启母涂山之妹也。'昔者生于石纽，水土所以致其功；娶于涂山，家室所以成其德。
Yang Jiong's inscription can also be understood as part of Wu Zhao's effort to exalt and sanctify greater Luoyang. As Chang'an was closely tied to the House of Tang (the Li family), Wu Zhao sought to create a separate sphere of power outside the political ambit of Li-Tang authority. In the Lesser Room inscription, he cited Qin Shihuang's act of engraving his name on Mount Tai, indicating that a ruler's connection with sacred marchmounts was an important part of fixing the boundaries and establishing his empire. He then exalted the peak:
【打 印】 【来源：读书之家-dushuzhijia.com】
