Mountain Mao

Mao Mountain is located in the southeastern part of Gourong city, Jiangsu province. The Taoism has made it a famous Taoism mountain in Chinese history. There are many Taoist Temples in this mountain and the name of mountain is also linked with the Taoism. The legend goes that in the reign of Emperor Jingdi of the Han dynasty (206BC-220 AD), there are three brothers named Mao Ying, Mao Gu and Mao Zhong. They cultivated themselves at this place and treated diseases for the people and they obtained the Tao and attained immortality after that. The later generations renamed the mountain as Three Mao Brothers Mountain in memory of them. Today, people also call it Mao Mountain as a memorization of them.

The temples on Mao Mountain amounted to as many as 257, with over 5,000 rooms in the most prosperous period of the mountain. Therefore the mountain was once regarded as a "Taoist Mountain". But these temples suffered the ravages of war in the Chinese history. In September 1938, the Japanese enemies mopped up Mao Mountain and burnt down over 90% of the buildings. There are not more than 30 temples in the whole place now. However, tourists going to the mountain are still attracted by these Taoist Temples.

The most famous one is the Myriad Blessings Temple (Tianning Si). It is located at the top of Damao Peak (Damao Feng), which is the highest peak of Mao Mountain. There are five halls- the Hall of the Supreme Origin, the Hall of the Lofty Perfect One, the Hall of the Two Sages, the Hall of the Numinous Official and the Hall of the Dragon King in the temple. There are also two pavilions, namely the Library of Scriptures and the Pavilion of the Saintly Master; six houses, namely Yuxiang, Raoxiu, Yiyun, Zhongbi, Lizhen and Yihu; and about one hundred Taoist houses on both sides. The buildings were damaged by wars and man-made calamities day by day. The present buildings were mostly reconstructed in recent years. The whole temple was built against the mountain. At present there are four rows of halls. The first row is the Hall of the Numinous Official. The second row consists of the Library of Scriptures, and the Repository of Treasures to its east and the Kan-Li Palace to its west. The third row is the chief building of the temple, the Precious Hall of the Supreme Origin. In front of it, on the east side lies the Yingxu Taoist temple, and on the west the Yihu Taoist temple. The major buildings in the fourth row include the Platform for Presenting Memorials and the Hall of the Two Sages. The Platform for Presenting Memorials is also called the Flying Platform. It is believed that people who are interested in the Taoism can have a good experience in this mountain.