Mount Heming

Mount Heming

Mount Heming, also known as Tazi Mountain, is located on the outskirts of Jiange County along the Sichuan-Shaanxi Highway. Legend has it that cranes often perched and called here in ancient times, and the mountain was named after Zhang Ling, the founder of Taoism, who is said to have ridden a crane to ascend to immortality here. In recent years, some scholars have suggested that this is the birthplace of the Five Pecks of Rice Taoism sect initiated by Zhang Ling, making it the foremost among Taoist sacred sites—referred to as the "Celestial Capital of the Taoist Realm." The mountain now features Heming Mountain Park, where ancient-architectural-style pavilions, terraces, towers, and towers have been reconstructed with modern artistic elements, making it a major scenic attraction in northern Sichuan.

The Wenfeng White Pagoda at the northern end of the mountaintop stands 21.7

meters tall and has six stories with eight sides. The outer columns of the first story are carved with coiled dragon designs, and at the center of the inner core is a bluestone slab engraved with the Taiji Bagua (Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams) pattern—it is the only brick-and-stone pagoda in northern Sichuan associated with Taoism. At the mountaintop, there are dozens of stone carvings from various dynasties including the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing. Among the most notable are the Taoist statue carvings, the “Jianzhou Chongyang Pavilion Inscription and Preface” stele, and the “Praise for the Prosperity of the Great Tang” stone carving, which are recognized as the “Three Masterpieces” of the mountain’s stone carvings—masterworks of ancient culture left by the Tang people.

First Masterpiece: The “Jianzhou Chongyang Pavilion Inscription” Stele authored by Li Shangyin. The Chongyang Pavilion was initially built in the ninth month of the eighth year of the Dazhong era during the Tang Dynasty (854 AD), under the supervision of Jiang Yu, the prefect of Jianzhou. Keen to leverage Li Shangyin’s fame to elevate his own political achievements and secure posthumous renown, Jiang invited the then-official Li Shangyin, serving in Zizhou, to compose an inscription for the Chongyang Pavilion. For over a thousand years, the pavilion has been protected by the stele, and the stele has gained fame because of the pavilion. Although the pavilion has suffered damage and reconstruction over time, the Tang Dynasty stele has survived to this day. According to the record of the pavilion’s reconstruction, it was built in the ninth month on the eastern hill, facing south, serving as a spot for enjoying the distant view during the Double Ninth Festival, hence its name “Chongyang” (Double Ninth). During the Northern Song's Zhiping era, the pavilion collapsed and the stele fell. Over the subsequent Song, Ming, Qing dynasties and early Republican period, it underwent cycles of repair and collapse. The current Chongyang Pavilion is built in the Tang architectural style, covering an area of 18.5 square meters, standing 4.4 meters tall with a grey, curled ridge roof. The four Song Dynasty characters “Gu Chongyang Ting” (Ancient Chongyang Pavilion) are inscribed deeply and powerfully on the central back wall of the pavilion. The Tang Dynasty stele of Li Shangyin's “Jianzhou Chongyang Pavilion Inscription,” currently housed within a statue niche beside the pavilion, measures 1.88 meters in height and 0.85 meters in width. It’s inscribed in small seal script relief and is a valuable cultural relic for the study of Tang Dynasty culture.