Red Gate of Mount Tai

Red Gate of Mount Tai

The Red Gate is located north of Dai Zong Fang and at the northern end of Hongmen Road, east of Zhongxi Stream and west of Dazang Ridge. The temple derives its name from a red rock on the southern cliff that resembles a gate. Its founding date is unknown, but it was renovated during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The temple complex is divided into eastern and western courtyards, with the eastern being the Maitreya Courtyard and the western the Red Gate Palace, connected by the Feiyun Pavilion. The main hall of the eastern courtyard originally enshrined a wooden statue of Maitreya, which was destroyed in 1966; to the east there is a passageway-style changing pavilion, where emperors and officials used to change clothes before ascending the mountain, now converted into a teahouse; to the south is a passageway-style corridor. The western courtyard houses the Yuanjun Temple. Its main hall originally enshrined the Goddess Yuanjun, along with the Birth-Giving Goddess and the Eye-Blessing Grandma, but now contains a bronze statue of the Nine-Lotus Bodhisattva; to the west is the Qiezi Pavilion, now an exhibition room for Mount Tai landscape photography; to the south is a passageway-style teahouse. Behind the main hall lies the meditation courtyard and side rooms to the east and west. The Feiyun Pavilion originally enshrined Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, but is now a scenic viewing platform.

In front of the temple are three tiered stone memorial archways resembling a staircase. The first is the One-Day Gate Archway, built during the Ming dynasty, with its plaque inscribed by Vice Minister Long Guang. It was rebuilt in the 56th year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty (1717) by Governor Li Shude, with flanking steles from the Ming dynasty bearing the large characters “World’s Most Spectacular Sight” and “Starting Point of the Mountain Path.” In the middle is the Confucius Ascended Here Archway, erected in the 39th year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty (1560) by Governor Zhu Heng of the Shandong Provincial Surveillance Commission, among others. The plaque and couplet were inscribed by Luo Hongxian, the top scholar of the Jiajing era: “The First Emperor walked here alone, his legacy lasting through the ages; the Sage Emperor descended from afar, his visit celebrated for ten thousand years.” The couplet was chiseled away in 1967.

To the west of the road in front of the One-Day Gate Archway is the Guan Yu Temple. Its founding date is unknown, and it originally enshrined Guan Yu, the famed general of the Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, salt merchants from Shanxi often gathered here to worship and pay homage, treating him as a patron deity, hence it was also called the Shanxi Guild Hall. It was rebuilt in 1983 and now serves as the Tai’an Training Center of the National Cultural Heritage Administration. In the eastern courtyard of the temple stands an ancient cypress tree, and outside the wall a stele reads “No. 1 Han Dynasty Cypress.”

To the east of the temple, across the stream and to the south, lies the site of the White Mule Tomb. Legend has it that when Emperor Xuanzong of Tang ascended Mount Tai, he rode a white mule. After completing the ceremony and descending, the mule died here. The emperor then posthumously honored it as “General White Mule” and ordered a coffin and stone tomb to be built. The tomb no longer exists, only a stone stele remains, said to be the White Mule Tomb Stele. During the Republican era, Zhao Zhengyin, based on remnants of characters such as “First Year of the Chuigong Era” on the stele’s edge, identified it as the Tang Emperor Gaozong’s “Xiaozifu Dengfeng Jihao Wen Stele.”

In 1988, it was re-erected in its original location, but the stele with partial inscriptions has since become a blank stele.

To the west of the temple lies Dazang Ridge, named so because its summit features a stone house capable of storing items.

Behind the temple stands a massive rock, inscribed with the words “Little Mount Tai.” Legend says it is the incarnation of the Goddess Bixia Yuanjun. There used to be a small temple dedicated to her, where pilgrims would burn incense and pray. The temple was destroyed after the founding of the People’s Republic of China and rebuilt in 1985. Slightly north along the road to the west are 26 stone steles from the Qing and Republican periods, known as the “Heshan Assembly Records,” documenting the grandeur of mountain worship in those eras. These are now referred to as the Small Stele Forest.

The Red Gate Palace serves as the gateway to Zhongxi Stream on Mount Tai, forming a semi-enclosed concave space. Coupled with the three-tiered white stone archways and steles in front of the temple, they create a group of ancient buildings of varying heights, vivid colors, and stair-like formation resembling a celestial ladder. Looking north through the Feiyun Pavilion cave, one sees shaded paths and continuous stone steps. Since ancient times, this has been known as the “Red Gate Morning Sun” view. A Qing poet, Zhao Guolin, left a verse: “At dawn I climb the Red Gate, the sky clears as the morning sun rises. Gazing down, smoke rises from myriad homes, the flat fields all fresh green.”