peak: "Among mountains and peaks, Lesser Room is the embodiment of divine elegance. According to the Luo River Chart and the Kuodizhi, armor and bucklers were used to open up the mountains. The peak gives expression to the universe; spurting forth and gathering yin and yang essences….Carved and angular, they stand bolt upright, eight thousand feet."少室山者，山岳之神秀者也。凭河图而括地，用遁甲以开山。发挥宇宙之精，喷薄阴阳之气。壁立而千仞。Thus, even before Wu Zhao became Grand Dowager in 684, propagandists both associated her with female exemplars of distant antiquity like the Tushan sisters and sought to elevate greater Luoyang, particularly Mount Song. During her reign, Mount Song, so proximate to her Divine Capital Luoyang, emerged as the preeminent marchmount, a national center of ritual.Another stele inscription, written by Cui Rong in 680 when Gaozong and Wu Zhao ordered the erection of steles at the Temple of Qi's Mother on their equinoctial outing to Mount Song, similarly exalted the female emperor. In Taoism under the T'ang, Timothy Barrett looked at the commemorative stele composed for the mother of Qi by Wu Zhao's "chief encomiast" Cui Rong in 680, as a tour de force of female power vested in Daoist lore, "a virtuoso demonstration of the amount of female imagery available in the less Confucian reaches of the Chinese tradition." He remarked that Tang Daoism (particularly the Shangqing school) had absorbed female deities from antiquity-divinities such as NüWa, The Queen Mother of the West, the Mysterious and Marvelous Jade Girl, the Mother of Laozi, and the Mother of Qi.[33]（[33] Barrett, Taoism under the T'ang (London: Wellsweep, 1986), 40-1）Though in 680 Wu Zhao still shared political authority with Gaozong, Stephen Bokenkamp describes Cui Rong's composition as a manifest effort to frame Wu Zhao as "mother of gods." The language of the inscription was "couched in elegant parallel prose and studded with classical allusions…while nominally dedicated to the ancient goddesses…[the] comparison is being drawn to Wu Zhao as mother and creator of a new heaven and earth."[34]（[34] Bokenkamp, "A Medieval Feminist Critique of the Chinese World Order: The Case of Wu Zhao (r. 690-705)," Religion 28 (1998): 387.）These figures offered Wu Zhao a great deal of political currency, and often appeared in her political propaganda. She took full advantage of this currency, reshaping these figures and the nature of their power to suit her needs.The following passage from Cui Rong's inscription for the showcases the compelling rhetoric of this gifted "encomiast" mustered on behalf of Wu Zhao: Your humble servant has carefully looked into the Temple of Qi's Mother. This means the mother of Lord of Xia, Qi. In the Han dynasty, to avoid the taboo name of Jingdi (r. 156-140), 'Qi' was changed to 'Kai.' Resultantly the name circulated, and some records call her 'Kai's mother.' And yet neither Gu Yewang's Yudizhi[35]（[35] Gu Yewang (519-583) was a writer and commentator of the Northern dynasties.）or Lu Yuanming's Records of Mount Songgao followed the taboo order. Both referred to her as the Lady of Yangdi.[36]（[36] The commentary of Tongdian (179.4737) indicates that "some people claim that capital of Yu of Xia was established in Henan's Yangdi. The "Treatise on Geography" in the Hanshu (chapter 28) corroborates the claim that Yangdi was the location of the state of Yu of Xia. Following the Chinese Historical Atlas (Zhongguo lishi dituji), volume 2 Tan Qixiang ed. (Beijing: Zhongguo ditu chubanshe, 1996), vol. 2, 44-5, Yangdi, set along the Ying River, is about 35 km southeast of Mount Song. Tellingly, Yangdi is situated in Yu County-the Yu of Yu the Great.）This name was not drawn from the classics and apparently comes from nowhere. Examining the Northern Dipper with the armillary sphere, the residence of the Mother of Li[37]（[37] This is likely a reference to the mother of Laozi.）is near the Northern Culmen[38]（[38] Translation of Beiji as "Northern Culmen" is drawn from Schafer, Pacing the Void (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 44）; in the Stone Chamber of the Golden Terrace[39]（[39] The Golden Terrace (jin tai) is associated with the Queen Mother of the West and Mount Kunlun. According to the Tang huiyao (50.869), in the third year of Chuigong (687), Wu Zhao as Grand Dowager changed the Longxing Observatory to Golden Terrace Observatory. According to Taiping yulan 1.1 and 38.182, citing Records of the Ten Continents (Shizhou ji) atop Mount Kunlun there are "Golden Terrace and the Jade Pillars, where the primal pneumas are harmonized-this is the locale from which the Heavenly Emperor ruled." Taiping Yulan 811.3605, citing the Guanling neizhuan, in which Laozi himself climbs Mount Kunlun and ascends the Golden Terrace.）, the residence of the Queen Mother is on the Western Mount.[40]（[40] The Western Mount is Kunlun.）
When the pneumas act as mother, the myriad things all sprout forth. When the moon acts as mother, her glowing countenance shines down on all. When the Earth element acts as mother, above and below will merge and produce greatness. When the Empress acts as mother, state and family are successfully formed.[41]（[41] Translation of this paragraph draws heavily on Bokenkamp's translation in "A Medieval Feminist Critique of the Chinese World Order: The Case of Wu Zhao (r. 690-705)," Religion 28 (1998): 388）
Formerly Huaxu trod in a footprint and became pregnant with a male child. Nu Deng responded to numinous spirits and the Red Emperor was made. Comet passed by Huazhu and the White Emperor was birthed. The moon penetrated Youfang and the Black Spirit descended.[42]（[42] Following Cefu yuangui 2, Huaxu is both the birthplace of Fuxi's mother and the name by which she is known. Nu Deng is the mother of Divine Farmer, Shen Nong. Youfang is the mother of Zhuanxu.）
So scintillating the Xia! So marvelous the Tushan Girl! She married Yu on the very morn he began make the survey of the earth. She was joined in matrimony at Mulberry Terrace….The stone split open on the northern side, a sign of his birth. This is what Guo Pu referred to as the "Stone of Qi's mother to the west of Yangcheng." This is what Li Rong called the "Shrine of Qi's Mother on the southern slope of Mount Song."臣谨按启母庙者，盖夏后启之母也。汉避景帝讳，改启之字曰开，厥后相传，或为开母。而顾野王《舆地志》，卢元明《嵩高记》，并不寻避讳之旨，以为阳翟妇人，事不经见，谅无所取。粤若玉斗璇玑，李母之居邻北极；金台石室，王母之宅在西山。气为母则群物以萌，月为母则容光必照，坤为母则上下交泰，后为母则邦家有成。故华胥履迹而雄氏孕，女登感神而炎运作，星流华渚而白帝生，月贯幽房而黑精降。明明有夏，穆穆涂山，予娶于度土之辰，女婚于台桑之地。……石破北方，终见生余之兆。则郭璞所谓阳城西启母石，李肜所谓嵩山南启母祠。
Though Gaozong was still alive, Cui Rong's inscription clearly was crafted to honor Wu Zhao, affiliating her with an array of female divinities from antiquity. In both Tang histories it is recorded that almost two decades later when Wu Zhao, as Emperor, visited the Temple of Qi's mother on an imperial progress to Mount Song, she beheld the stele that she and Gaozong had ordered erected back in 680, with Cui Rong's marvelous inscription. Deeply admiring the elegance of his prose, she ordered him to compose a commemorative inscription for her feng and shan rites.[43]（[43] XTS 114.4195, JTS 94.2996. The timing of the progress in question is unclear. In the Old Tang History, it is recorded that it was "during the Shengli era" (Shengli zhong), 20 December 697-28 May 700. In both histories, it is recorded that when the feng and shan rites were completed, Cui Rong was commissioned to write the inscription for the Altar of Audiences (Chaojin), the closing ceremony of the grand rites held at Mount Song performed on 25 January 696. Cui Rong's biography in the Old Tang History indicates that Wu Zhao heaped praise upon the inscription when she visited Mount Song during the Shengli era (20 December 697-27 May 700).）
In the first lunar month of 683, on an outing to their mountain retreat Fengtian Palace on Mount Song, Wu Zhao and Gaozong sent emissaries to perform sacrifices at shrines for the various divinities of the Central Peak, including the Temple of Qi's Mother.[44]（[44] JTS 5.110; THY 7.102, TPYL 110.529. A Daoist observatory was established inside of Fengtian palace in 684, see THY 50.878）Shortly after Gaozong's death, in the ninth month of 684, when Wu Zhao, as Grand Dowager, made Luoyang her Divine Capital, changed titles, colors of court banners, names of offices, and inaugurated a new reign era,[45]（[45] ZZTJ 203.6421. In the ninth lunar month of 684, at the outset of Wu Zhao's regency, the official designation of Luoyang was changed from "Eastern Capital" to "Divine Capital."）she also designated Laozi's mother as Grand Dowager of Anterior Heaven (xiantian taihou).[46]（[46] Barrett, 41-2. THY 50.878, perhaps erroneously, records that the female divinity honored is Laozi's wife, rather than Laozi's mother. This is repeated in Cambridge History of China, Vol. 3, p. 292）
There were no further activities on Mount Song related to the Tushan sisters for more than a decade. The nature and timing of this ceremony to honor the mother of Qi and the various regional tutelary deities of Mount Song is detailed further in the "Treatise on Rites and Ceremonies" in the Old Tang History:[47]（[47] JTS 23.891）
In 695 (Zhengsheng 1), Zetian [Wu Zhao] was about to stage an event on Mount Song.[48]（[48] The above-mentioned feng and shan sacrifices.）Previously, she had sent emissaries to perform sacrifices [to mountain deities] in order to pray for blessings and assistance. She issued an edict designating Mount Song as Spirit Peak, honoring the spirit of Mount
【打 印】 【来源：读书之家-dushuzhijia.com】
