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116-464: Mount Tai is known as the eastern mountain of the Sacred Mountains of China . It is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal, and is often regarded the foremost of the five. Mount Tai has been a place of worship for at least 3,000 years and served as one of the most important ceremonial centers of China during large portions of this period. Because of its sacred importance and dramatic landscape, it

232-648: A Jesuit missionary in China, wrote the first book that used the Latin alphabet to write Chinese, entitled Xizi Qiji ( 西字奇蹟 ; 'Miracle of Western Letters') and published in Beijing in 1605. Twenty years later, fellow Jesuit Nicolas Trigault published 'Aid to the Eyes and Ears of Western Literati' ( 西儒耳目資 ; Xīrú ěrmù zī )) in Hangzhou. Neither book had any influence among

348-426: A bodhisattva and protector of beings in hell realms . " Mount Potalaka (Sanskrit)" ( 普陀山 ), Zhejiang, 284 m (932 ft) 30°00′35″N 122°23′06″E  /  30.00972°N 122.38500°E  / 30.00972; 122.38500 This mountain is considered the bodhimanda of Avalokitesvara ( Guan Yin ), bodhisattva of compassion. It became a popular pilgrimage site and received imperial support in

464-404: A tone number at the end of individual syllables. For example, tóng is written tong . Each tone can be denoted with its numeral the order listed above. The neutral tone can either be denoted with no numeral, with 0, or with 5. Briefly, tone marks should always be placed in the order a, e, i, o, u, ü , with the only exceptions being iu and io where the tone mark is placed on

580-609: A GB recommendation in 1996, and were last updated in 2012. In practice, however, published materials in China now often space pinyin syllable by syllable. According to Victor H. Mair , this practice became widespread after the Script Reform Committee, previously under direct control of the State Council , had its power greatly weakened in 1985 when it was renamed the State Language Commission and placed under

696-650: A Temple of Confucius ( Chinese : 孔 子 庙 ; pinyin : Kǒngzi Miào ), a Temple of Doumu ( Chinese : 斗 母 宫 ; pinyin : Dòumǔ Gōng ) and the Puzhao Buddhist Temple ( Chinese : 普 照 寺 ; pinyin : Pǔzhào Sì ). Among the tablets and inscriptions on the top of Mount Tai, the inscription that declares Mount Tai the "Most Revered of the Five Sacred Mountains" ( simplified Chinese : 五 岳 独 尊 ; traditional Chinese : 五 嶽 獨 尊 ; pinyin : Wǔyuè Dúzūn ) on

812-400: A common practice in some sub-dialects, is rarely used in official publications. Even though most initials contain a consonant, finals are not always simple vowels, especially in compound finals ( 复韵母 ; 複韻母 ; fùyùnmǔ ), i.e. when a "medial" is placed in front of the final. For example, the medials [ i ] and [ u ] are pronounced with such tight openings at the beginning of

928-498: A final that some native Chinese speakers (especially when singing) pronounce yī ( 衣 ; 'clothes'), officially pronounced /í/ , as /jí/ and wéi ( 围 ; 圍 ; 'to enclose'), officially pronounced /uěi/ , as /wěi/ or /wuěi/ . Often these medials are treated as separate from the finals rather than as part of them; this convention is followed in the chart of finals below. The conventional lexicographical order derived from bopomofo is: In each cell below,

1044-473: A front high rounded vowel, namely after the letters j , q , x , and y . For example, the sound of the word for 'fish' ( 鱼 ; 魚 ) is transcribed in pinyin simply as yú , not as * yǘ . This practice is opposed to Wade–Giles, which always uses ü , and Tongyong Pinyin , which always uses yu . Whereas Wade–Giles needs the umlaut to distinguish between chü (pinyin ju ) and chu (pinyin zhu ), this ambiguity does not arise with pinyin, so

1160-418: A huge subsiding belt or sea canal. The orogeny made the rock layers on the subsidence zone folded and uplifted into ancient land, forming a huge mountain system, which has experienced 2 billion years of weathering and denudation, and the terrain has gradually become flat. About 600 million years ago, Mount Tai sank into the sea again. After more than 100 million years, the entire area rose to land again, and

1276-505: A means of communication between heaven and earth and as the place where immortality can be found. The sanctity of the Five Great Mountains is the reason why even today these mountains still host an exceptional diversity of plants, trees and animal species. "Tranquil Mountain" ( 泰山 ) Shandong , 1,545 m (5,069 ft) 36°15′N 117°06′E  /  36.250°N 117.100°E  / 36.250; 117.100 This mountain

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1392-723: A number of interruptions, this imperial custom was preserved until the end of the last dynasty, when, after the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Yuan Shikai had himself crowned as emperor at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing . But just to be safe, he also made an offer to the god of the northern Mount Heng . In the 2000s formal sacrifices both in Confucian and Taoist styles have been resumed. The Five Great Mountains have become places of pilgrimage where hundreds of pilgrims gather in temples and caves. Although

1508-641: A replica of the imperial palace, which makes it one out of three extant structures in China with the features of an imperial palace (the other two are the Forbidden City and the Confucius Temple in Qufu ). The temple has five major halls and many small buildings. The centerpiece is the Palace of Heavenly Blessings (Tian Kuang), built in 1008, during the reign of the last Northern Song emperor, Huizong . The hall houses

1624-757: A transliteration system for Chinese, his discussion ultimately led to a proliferation of proposed schemes. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and further improved by Herbert Giles , presented in Chinese–English Dictionary (1892). It was popular, and was used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. In 1943, the US military tapped Yale University to develop another romanization system for Mandarin Chinese intended for pilots flying over China—much more than previous systems,

1740-499: Is Samantabhadra , known in Chinese as Puxian ( 普贤菩萨 ). "Nine Glories Mountain" ( 九华山 ; 九華山 ), Anhui , 1,341 m (4,400 ft), 30°28′56″N 117°48′16″E  /  30.48222°N 117.80444°E  / 30.48222; 117.80444 Many of the mountain's shrines and temples are dedicated to Ksitigarbha (known in Chinese as Dìzàng, 地藏 , in Japanese as Jizō ), who is

1856-583: Is a tilted fault-block mountain, higher to the south than north, and is the oldest and most important example of the paleo-metamorphic system representative of the Cambrian Period in eastern China. Referred to as the Taishan Complex, it comprises magnetized, metamorphic, sedimentary rock and an intrusive mass of various origins that were formed in the Archean Era 1700-2000 million years ago. Subsequently, in

1972-747: Is associated with Feng Shan and by extension the Mandate of Heaven and life or death, being the most important of all the mountains "Splendid Mountain" ( 华山 ; 華山 ), Shaanxi , 2,154 m (7,067 ft) 34°29′N 110°05′E  /  34.483°N 110.083°E  / 34.483; 110.083 "Balancing Mountain" ( 衡山 ), Hunan , 1,290 m (4,230 ft) 27°15′17″N 112°39′21″E  /  27.254798°N 112.655743°E  / 27.254798; 112.655743 "Permanent Mountain" ( 恒山 ; 恆山 ), Shanxi, 2,017 m (6,617 ft) 39°40′26″N 113°44′08″E  /  39.67389°N 113.73556°E  / 39.67389; 113.73556 In

2088-656: Is based on the phonological system of Beijing Mandarin. Other romanization schemes have been devised to transcribe those other Chinese varieties, such as Jyutping for Cantonese and Pe̍h-ōe-jī for Hokkien . Based on the "Chinese Romanization" section of ISO 7098:2015, pinyin tone marks should use the symbols from Combining Diacritical Marks , as opposed by the use of Spacing Modifier Letters in bopomofo. Lowercase letters with tone marks are included in GB 2312 and their uppercase counterparts are included in JIS X 0212 ; thus Unicode includes all

2204-493: Is both a medial and a coda, the nucleus may be dropped from writing. In this case, when the coda is a consonant n or ng , the only vowel left is the medial i, u , or ü , and so this takes the diacritic. However, when the coda is a vowel, it is the coda rather than the medial which takes the diacritic in the absence of a written nucleus. This occurs with syllables ending in -ui (from wei : wèi → -uì ) and in -iu (from you : yòu → -iù ). That is, in

2320-465: Is distinct from the concept of consonant and vowel sounds as basic units in traditional (and most other phonetic systems used to describe the Chinese language). Every syllable in Standard Chinese can be described as a pair of one initial and one final, except for the special syllable er or when a trailing -r is considered part of a syllable (a phenomenon known as erhua ). The latter case, though

2436-633: Is famous for being one of the birthplaces of Taoism and particularly important to the Zhengyi Dao , with many Taoist temples built upon the mountainside. Literally "Neat Clouds" ( 齐云山 ; 齊雲山 ), Anhui . Main peak: 585 m (1,919 ft). 29°48′29.9988″N 118°01′56.9994″E  /  29.808333000°N 118.032499833°E  / 29.808333000; 118.032499833 Literally "Misty Green City Wall" ( 青城山 ); (Nearby city: Dujiangyan, Sichuan . Main peak: 1,260 m (4,130 ft) (surveyed in 2007). In ancient Chinese history, Mount Qingcheng area

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2552-454: Is found in running water at 300–800 m. Mount Tai is of key importance in Chinese religion , being the eastern one of the five Sacred Mountains of China . According to historical records, Mount Tai became a sacred place visited by emperors to offer sacrifices and meditate in the Zhou dynasty before 1000 BC . A total of 72 emperors were recorded as visiting it. Legend holds that Emperor Shun began

2668-648: Is less ubiquitous in Taiwan. It is used to teach Standard Chinese, normally written with Chinese characters , to students already familiar with the Latin alphabet . Pinyin is also used by various input methods on computers and to categorize entries in some Chinese dictionaries . In pinyin, each Chinese syllable is spelled in terms of an optional initial and a final , each of which is represented by one or more letters. Initials are initial consonants, whereas finals are all possible combinations of medials ( semivowels coming before

2784-462: Is located at 36° 16′N and 117° 6′E. Mount Tai was formed in the middle of the Cenozoic about 30 million years ago. The stratum of Mount Tai is ancient, mainly composed of several ancient rocks such as mixed rock, mixed granite and various gneiss . The government prevented exploration of the caves, for they are unassessed and potentially dangerous. The Luxi region (including Mount Tai) used to be

2900-519: Is not limited only to pinyin, since many languages that use the Latin alphabet natively also assign different values to the same letters. A recent study on Chinese writing and literacy concluded, "By and large, pinyin represents the Chinese sounds better than the Wade–Giles system, and does so with fewer extra marks." As pinyin is a phonetic writing system for modern Standard Chinese , it is not designed to replace characters for writing Literary Chinese ,

3016-590: Is not ordinarily reflected in pinyin spelling. Standard Chinese has many polysyllabic words. Like in other writing systems using the Latin alphabet, spacing in pinyin is officially based on word boundaries. However, there are often ambiguities in partitioning a word. The Basic Rules of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Orthography were put into effect in 1988 by the National Educational and National Language commissions. These rules became

3132-531: Is seen as a goddess of fertility, like Yanguang Nainai, she is often portrayed as an attendant to Bixia Yuanjun. Shi Gandang ( Chinese : 石 敢 当 ; pinyin : Shígǎndāng ) is a spirit sent down from Mount Tai by Bixia Yuanjun to protect ordinary people from evil spirits. As part of cultural tradition, there will also often be Taishan Shi Gandang stones set up near buildings and other places, in order to protect those place from evil spirits. These are not to be confused with spirit tablets . The Temple of

3248-460: Is sometimes used instead by convention. For example, it is common for cellphones to use v instead of ü . Additionally, some stores in China use v instead of ü in the transliteration of their names. The drawback is a lack of precomposed characters and limited font support for combining accents on the letter v , ( v̄ v́ v̌ v̀ ). This also presents a problem in transcribing names for use on passports, affecting people with names that consist of

3364-551: Is the daughter or the consort of the Great Deity of Mount Tai. Statues of Bixia Yuanjun often depict her holding a tablet with the Big Dipper as a symbol of her authority. Yanguang Niangniang ( Chinese : 眼 光 奶 奶 ; pinyin : Yǎnguāng Nǎinǎi ) is venerated as goddess of eyesight and often portrayed as an attendant to Bixia Yuanjun. Songzi Niangniang ( Chinese : 送 子 娘 娘 ; pinyin : Sòngzi Niangniang )

3480-641: Is the eastern one of the Five Manifestations of the Highest Deity ( Wufang Shangdi ). Bixia Yuanjun ( Chinese : 碧 霞 元 君 ; pinyin : Bìxiá Yuánjūn ), literally the "Goddess of the Blue Dawn", also known as the "Heavenly Immortal Lady of Jade" ( Chinese : 天 仙 玉 女 ; pinyin : Tiānxian Yùnǚ ) or the "Lady of Mount Tai" ( Chinese : 泰 山 娘 娘 ; pinyin : Tàishān Niangniang ). According to some mythological accounts, she

3596-516: Is the home to a complex of Taoist temples and monasteries associated with the Lord of the North, Xuantian Shangdi . It is also renowned as being the place of origin for Tai chi . Literally "Dragon and Tiger" ( 龙虎山 ; 龍虎山 ), Jiangxi . Main peak: 247.4 m (812 ft). 28°06′48.999″N 116°57′29.998″E  /  28.11361083°N 116.95833278°E  / 28.11361083; 116.95833278 It

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3712-606: Is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese . In official documents, it is referred to as the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet . Hanyu ( 汉语 ; 漢語 ) literally means ' Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while pinyin literally means 'spelled sounds'. Pinyin is the official romanisation system used in China, Singapore, Taiwan, and by the United Nations . Its use has become common when transliterating Standard Chinese mostly regardless of region, though it

3828-513: Is written over an i , then it replaces the tittle, as in yī . In dictionaries, neutral tone may be indicated by a dot preceding the syllable—e.g. ·ma . When a neutral tone syllable has an alternative pronunciation in another tone, a combination of tone marks may be used: zhī·dào ( 知道 ) may be pronounced either zhīdào or zhīdao . Before the advent of computers, many typewriter fonts did not contain vowels with macron or caron diacritics. Tones were thus represented by placing

3944-536: The Bamboo Annals , and at present, it is recognized by most scholars as the first recorded earthquake in Chinese history . Mount Tai is located in western Shandong , just north of the city of Tai'an and to the south of the provincial capital Jinan . It extends from 150–1,545 meters (492–5,069 ft) above sea level and covers an area of 426 km (164 sq mi) at its base. The Jade Emperor Peak, which rises 1,532.7 meters (5,029 ft)} above sea level,

4060-808: The Han Dynasty Cypresses , which were planted by the Emperor Wu Di , the Tang Chinese Scholartree (about 1,300 years old), the Welcoming-Guest Pine (500 years old) and the Fifth-Rank Pine , which was named originally by the Emperor Qin Shi Huang, but was replanted about 250 years ago. Mount Tai rises abruptly from the vast plain of central Shandong, and is naturally endowed with many scenic sites. Geologically, it

4176-472: The Ministry of Education . Mair claims that proponents of Chinese characters in the educational bureaucracy "became alarmed that word-based pinyin was becoming a de facto alternative to Chinese characters as a script for writing Mandarin and demanded that all pinyin syllables be written separately." Pinyin superseded older romanization systems such as Wade–Giles and postal romanization , and replaced bopomofo as

4292-475: The Northern Wei dynasty . The west route, taken by fewer tourists, is more scenic, but has less cultural heritage. Sacred Mountains of China The Sacred Mountains of China are divided into several groups. The Five Great Mountains ( simplified Chinese : 五岳 ; traditional Chinese : 五嶽 ; pinyin : Wǔyuè ) refers to five of the most renowned mountains in Chinese history, which have been

4408-611: The Paleolithic period. Evidence of human settlement of the area can be proven from the neolithic period onwards. During this time, two cultures had emerged near the mountain, the Dawenkou culture to the south and the Longshan culture to the north. During the Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BC) the mountain was known as Mount Dai ( Chinese : 岱山 ; pinyin : Dài Shān ) and lay within

4524-697: The Proterozoic Era, the Taishan region began to rise, becoming part of the continent by the end of the era. Uplift continued until the middle of the Cenozoic Era . The gneiss which emerged in the Taishan region is the foundation for all of North China. Cambrian strata, fully emerged in the north, are rich in fossils. Six streams flow from the summit, their water renowned for its extremely low mineral content, slight acidity (pH = 6.3) and relatively high oxygen content (6.4 milligrams per liter (mg/L)). The area falls within

4640-558: The Warring States period (475 BC – 221 BC), and the term Wuyue ("Five Summits") was made popular during the reign of Emperor Wudi of the Western Han dynasty 140-87 BC. In Chinese traditional religion they have cosmological and theological significance as the representation, on the physical plane of earth, of the ordered world emanating from the God of Heaven ( Tian – Shangdi ), inscribing

4756-413: The vassal states of Qi and Lu bordered Mount Tai to the north and south respectively, from where their feudal lords both made independent sacrifices on Mount Tai. According to Zhou ritual belief, the spirit of Mount Tai would only accept sacrifices offered by a feudal lord, leading Confucius (in his Analects 3.6) to criticize the ministers who offered state sacrifices here after usurping power. In

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4872-572: The "Lu-Viewing Platform" ( Chinese : 瞻 鲁 台 ; pinyin : Zhānlǔ tái ) from which Confucius took in the view over his home state of Lu and then pronounced "The world is small". The Wordless Stele ( Chinese : 无 字 碑 ; pinyin : Wúzì Bēi ) stands in front of the Jade Emperor Temple. Legend has it that the emperor who commissioned the stele was dissatisfied with the inscription suggested by his scribes and decided to leave it blank instead to leave its meaning to be imagined by

4988-475: The "Northern Great Mountain" ( 北岳 ; 北嶽 ; Běi Yuè ), "Southern Great Mountain" ( 南岳 ; 南嶽 ; Nán Yuè ), "Eastern Great Mountain" ( 东岳 ; 東嶽 ; Dōng Yuè ), "Western Great Mountain" ( 西岳 ; 西嶽 ; Xī Yuè ), and "Central Great Mountain" ( 中岳 ; 中嶽 ; Zhōng Yuè ). According to Chinese mythology, the Five Great Mountains originated from the body of Pangu ( 盘古 ; 盤古 ; Pángǔ ), the first being and

5104-459: The "Sun Viewing Peak" ( Chinese : 日 观 峰 ; pinyin : Rìguān Fēng ) is of particular renown. It was written by a member of the Aisin Gioro clan ( Chinese : 爱 新 觉 罗 玉 构 ; pinyin : Àixīn Juéluō Yùgòu ) in 1907 and is featured on the reverse side of the five yuan bill of the 5th series renminbi banknotes and page 26 of PRC biometric passport. Another inscription marks

5220-624: The "father of pinyin". They based their work in part on earlier romanization systems . The system was originally promulgated at the Fifth Session of the 1st National People's Congress in 1958, and has seen several rounds of revisions since. The International Organization for Standardization propagated Hanyu Pinyin as ISO 7098 in 1982, and the United Nations began using it in 1986. Taiwan adopted Hanyu Pinyin as its official romanization system in 2009, replacing Tongyong Pinyin . Matteo Ricci ,

5336-436: The 180 precepts of Lord Lao for how to live a good and honest life. Twenty of these precepts focused explicitly on the conservation of nature, while many other precepts were indirectly aimed at preventing the destruction of nature. Respect for nature has been a key component of Taoism from the very outset and, in its own right, explains why the Five Great Mountains are considered sacred. In addition, Taoists consider mountains as

5452-580: The Blue Dawn ( Chinese : 碧 霞 祠 ; pinyin : Bìxiá Cí ), near the top of the mountain is another grand building complex, a special combination of metal components, wood, and bricks and stone structures. It is dedicated to the goddess Bixia (Blue Dawn). From the Taishan Temple to the Blue Dawn Temple there are numerous stone tablets and inscriptions and ancient buildings on the way. Visitors derive much pleasure from climbing Mount Taishan. From

5568-405: The Chinese term for pilgrimage ( 朝圣 ; 朝聖 ; cháoshèng ) being a shortened version of an expression which means "paying respect to a holy mountain" ( 朝拜圣山 ; 朝拜聖山 ; cháobài shèng shān ). The Five Great Mountains or Wuyue are arranged according to the five cardinal directions of Chinese geomancy , which includes the center as a direction. The grouping of the five mountains appeared during

5684-467: The Chinese territory as a tán ( 壇 ; 'altar'), the Chinese concept equivalent of the Indian mandala . The five mountains are among the best-known natural landmarks in Chinese history, and since the early periods in Chinese history, they have been the ritual sites of imperial worship and sacrifice by various emperors. The first legendary sovereigns of China went on excursions or formed processions to

5800-585: The East Peak of Mount Tai, along its course, there are 11 gates, 14 archways, 14 kiosks, and four pavilions. In total, there are 22 temples, 97 ruins, 819 stone tablets, and 1,018 cliff-side and stone inscriptions located on Mount Tai. These include a Temple of the Jade King ( Chinese : 玉 皇 庙 ; pinyin : Yùhuáng Miào ), a Temple of the Blue Deity ( Chinese : 青 帝 宫 ; pinyin : Qīngdì Gōng ),

5916-608: The Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the United States and China in 1979. In 2001, the Chinese government issued the National Common Language Law , providing a legal basis for applying pinyin. The current specification of the orthography is GB/T 16159–2012. Chinese phonology is generally described in terms of sound pairs of two initials ( 声母 ; 聲母 ; shēngmǔ ) and finals ( 韵母 ; 韻母 ; yùnmǔ ). This

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6032-537: The Fifth Session of the 1st National People's Congress on 11 February 1958. It was then introduced to primary schools as a way to teach Standard Chinese pronunciation and used to improve the literacy rate among adults. Despite its formal promulgation, pinyin did not become widely used until after the tumult of the Cultural Revolution . In the 1980s, students were trained in pinyin from an early age, learning it in tandem with characters or even before. During

6148-416: The Five Great Mountains are not traditionally canonized as having any exclusive religious affiliations, many of them have a strong Taoist presence, thus the five mountains are also grouped by some as part of "Sacred Taoist Mountains". There are also various Buddhist temples and Confucian academies built on these mountains. Alternatively, these mountains are sometimes referred to by the respective directions:

6264-545: The Four "Sacred Mountains of China" are: "Five-Platform Mountain" ( 五台山 ), Shanxi, 3,058 m (10,033 ft), 39°04′45″N 113°33′53″E  /  39.07917°N 113.56472°E  / 39.07917; 113.56472 Wutai is the home of the Bodhisattva of wisdom, Manjusri or Wenshu ( 文殊 ) in Chinese. "High and Lofty Mountain" ( 峨嵋山 ), Sichuan , 3,099 m (10,167 ft) The patron bodhisattva of Emei

6380-548: The God of Mount Tai, known as the Dai Temple ( Chinese : 岱 庙 ; pinyin : Dàimiào ), is the largest and most complete ancient building complex in the area. It is located at the foot of Mount Tai in the city of Tai'an and covers an area of 96,000 square meters. The temple was first built during the Qin dynasty . Since the time of the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), its design has been

6496-603: The Midway Gate to Heaven or all the way up from the foot of the mountain. To climb up the mountain, one can take one of two routes. The more popular east route starts from Taishan Arch. On the way up the 7,200 stone steps, the climber first passes the Ten Thousand Immortals Tower (Wanxianlou), Arhat Cliff (Luohanya), and Palace to Goddess Dou Mu (Doumugong). The climbing from the First Gate to Heaven (yi1 tian1 men2),

6612-593: The Private Use Areas, and some input methods (e.g. Sogou Pinyin) also outputs the Private Use Areas code point instead of the original character. As the superset GB 18030 changed the mappings of ⟨ḿ⟩ and ⟨ǹ⟩ , this has caused an issue where the input methods and font files use different encoding standards, and thus the input and output of both characters are mixed up. Other symbols are used in pinyin are as follows: The spelling of Chinese geographical or personal names in pinyin has become

6728-721: The Proterozoic, it had become part of the continent. Besides the Jade Emperor Peak, other distinctive rock formations are the Heaven Candle Peak , the Fan Cliff , and the Rear Rock Basin . Mount Tai lies in the zone of oriental deciduous forest; about 80% of its area is covered with vegetation. The flora is known to comprise almost 1,000 species. Some of the trees in the area are very old and have cultural significance, such as

6844-473: The Song dynasty. Mount Xuedou has been recently promoted as a fifth sacred mountain of Chinese Buddhism. This was first advocated by Changxing (1896-1939), an associate of the famous reformer Taixu . Xuedou mountain is seen as the sacred place of bodhisattva Maitreya . It is located 8 kilometers north-west of Xikou Town, Fenghua City , Zhejiang. Mount Xuedou is home to the newly expanded Xuedou monastery, which

6960-416: The absence of a written nucleus the finals have priority for receiving the tone marker, as long as they are vowels; if not, the medial takes the diacritic. An algorithm to find the correct vowel letter (when there is more than one) is as follows: Worded differently, The above can be summarized as the following table. The vowel letter taking the tone mark is indicated by the fourth-tone mark. Tone sandhi

7076-592: The ancient Mount Tai uplifted into a relatively low barren hill. In the late Mesozoic period about 100 million years ago, due to the extrusion and subduction of the Pacific plate to the Eurasian Plate , the Taishan stratum experienced extensive folds and fractures under the influence of the Yanshanian . During the crustal movement above, Mount Tai was rapidly uplifted. In the mid- Cenozoic period about 30 million years ago,

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7192-415: The borders of Qingzhou , one of the Nine Provinces of ancient China . Religious worship of Mount Tai has a tradition dating back 3,000 years, from the time of the Shang (c. 1600–1046 BC) to the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). Over time, this worship evolved into the Feng and Shan sacrifices . The sacrifices were an official imperial rite and Mount Tai became one of the principal places where

7308-499: The common accented characters from pinyin. Other punctuation mark and symbols in Chinese are to use the equivalent symbol in English noted in to GB 15834. According to GB 16159, all accented letters are required to have both uppercase and lowercase characters as per their normal counterparts. GBK has mapped two characters ⟨ḿ⟩ and ⟨ǹ⟩ to Private Use Areas in Unicode respectively, thus some fonts (e.g. SimSun) that adhere to GBK include both characters in

7424-421: The contemporary Chinese literati, and the romanizations they introduced primarily were useful for Westerners. During the late Qing, the reformer Song Shu (1862–1910) proposed that China adopt a phonetic writing system. A student of the scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan , Song had observed the effect of the kana syllabaries and Western learning during his visits to Japan. While Song did not himself propose

7540-406: The country after the People's Republic was established. Earlier attempts to romanize Chinese writing were mostly abandoned in 1944. Zhou became an economics professor in Shanghai, and when the Ministry of Education created the Committee for the Reform of the Chinese Written Language in 1955, Premier Zhou Enlai assigned him the task of developing a new romanization system, despite the fact that he

7656-421: The country. Some trees are very old and famous, notably the Han Dynasty Cypresses (planted 2,100 years ago by Emperor Wu Di of the Han dynasty), 'Welcoming Guest Pine' (500 years old) and 'Fifth Rank Pine' (named by Emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty ). There are over 200 species of animals in addition to 122 species of birds, but precise details are lacking. Large-scaled fish Varicorhinus macrolepis

7772-419: The course of history, there had been more than one location with the designation for Mount Heng, the North Great Mountain. The Great Northern Mountain was designated on the original Mount Heng with the main peak known as Mount Damao ( 大茂山 ) today, located at the intersection of present-day Fuping County , Laiyuan County and Tang County in Hebei province. Mount Heng was renamed Mount Chang ( 常山 ) to avoid

7888-644: The creator of the world. Because of its eastern location, Mount Tài is associated with the rising sun which signifies birth and renewal. Due to this interpretation, it is often regarded as the most sacred of the Five Great Mountains . In accordance with its special position, Mount Tài is believed to have been formed out of Pangu's head. Mount Heng in Hunan is believed to be a remainder of Pangu's right arm, Mount Heng in Shanxi of his left arm, Mount Song of his belly, and Mount Hua of his feet. In ancient times mountains were places of authority and fear, ruled by dark forces and faithfully worshipped. One reason for such worship

8004-660: The earth. Confucian Buddhism, preaching, and experience, and cultural figures climbed the mountain, leaving behind a dazzling array of stone inscriptions, cliffs, and couplet stone carvings. The cliff carvings on Mount Tai are also the most famous mountains. There are more than 1,800 stone inscriptions in Mount Tai, including more than 800 steles and 1,000 cliff stone inscriptions, distributed in 157 Daimiao, 215 at Dailu, 576 at Shantou East Road, 258 at Daiding, more than 80 at Daixi, and Daiyin 44 locations, more than 400 locations in Lingyan Temple, more than 100 locations in Shentong Temple. It mainly includes 5 types of sacrificial ceremonies of

8120-431: The emperor would carry out the sacrifices to pay homage to heaven (on the summit) and earth (at the foot of the mountain) in the Feng ( Chinese : 封 ; pinyin : Fēng ) and Shan ( Chinese : 禪 ; pinyin : Shàn ) sacrifices respectively. The two sacrifices are often referred to together as the Fengshan sacrifices ( Chinese : 封 禪 ; pinyin : Fēngshàn ). Carving of an inscription as part of

8236-512: The emperors of the past dynasties, the creation and restoration of temples, the tomb inscriptions of the stone scriptures, the poems of chants, the scenery and the couplets, most of which are natural stone inscriptions. Japan , India, the Persian court in exile , Goguryeo , Baekje , Silla , the Turks , Khotan , the Khmer , and the Umayyad Caliphate all had representatives attending the Feng and Shan sacrifices held by Emperor Gaozong of Tang in 666 at Mount Tai. Also, Chinese worshippers of

8352-546: The ensuing Warring States period (475–221 BC), to protect itself against invasion, the State of Qi erected a 500-kilometer (310 mi)-long wall, the ruins of which are still present today. The name Tai'an of the neighboring city is attributed to the saying "If Mount Tai is stable, so is the entire country" (both characters of Tai'an , "泰" and "安", have the independent meaning of "peace"). In 219 BC, Qin Shi Huang ,

8468-719: The fifth sacred mountain of Chinese Buddhism. Mount Lu is also an important sacred mountain in Chinese Buddhism, especially for Pure Land Buddhism . It is the site Donglin Temple , founded by the Pure Land patriarch Huiyuan . There are also sacred mountains in Tibetan Buddhism , which are considered holy sites of Tibetan Buddhism. Chan Buddhism developed the Five Mountains and Ten Temples System (五山十刹, wushan shicha ) during

8584-493: The first emperor of China , held a ceremony on the summit and proclaimed the unity of his empire in a well-known inscription. During the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), the Feng and Shan sacrifices were considered the highest of all sacrifices. Rituals and sacrifices were conducted by the Sui. The emperors of the past dynasties went to Mount Tai to worship the heavens and tell

8700-455: The following is an exhaustive table of all possible finals. The only syllable-final consonants in Standard Chinese are -n , -ng , and -r , the last of which is attached as a grammatical suffix . A Chinese syllable ending with any other consonant either is from a non-Mandarin language (a southern Chinese language such as Cantonese , reflecting final consonants in Old Chinese ), or indicates

8816-517: The foothills, deciduous forests , broad-leaved coniferous mixed forests, Coniferous forest, alpine shrubs and grass can be seen in sequence. The vertical boundaries of the forest belts are distinct and the vegetation landscapes are different. There are 989 species of seed plants in 144 families, including 433 species of woody plants in 72 families, 556 species of herbaceous plants in 72 families, and 462 species of medicinal plants in 111 families. Traces of human presence at Mount Tai date back to

8932-580: The height of the Cold War the use of pinyin system over Wade–Giles and Yale romanizations outside of China was regarded as a political statement or identification with the mainland Chinese government. Beginning in the early 1980s, Western publications addressing mainland China began using the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system instead of earlier romanization systems; this change followed the Joint Communiqué on

9048-441: The initials ⟨ l ⟩ and ⟨ n ⟩ when necessary in order to represent the sound [y] . This is necessary in order to distinguish the front high rounded vowel in lü (e.g. 驴 ; 驢 ; 'donkey') from the back high rounded vowel in lu (e.g. 炉 ; 爐 ; 'oven'). Tonal markers are placed above the umlaut, as in lǘ . However, the ü is not used in the other contexts where it could represent

9164-637: The late Southern Song (1127–1279). The five mountains where the top Chan monasteries in the empire were located were: The Four Holy Mountains of Tibetan Buddhism, located in Yunnan , Qinghai , and the Tibet Autonomous Region , are: The "Four Sacred Mountains" of Taoism are: Literally "Military Wherewithal" ( 武当山 ; 武當山 ); northwestern Hubei . Main peak: 1,612 m (5,289 ft). 32°40′0″N 111°00′4″E  /  32.66667°N 111.00111°E  / 32.66667; 111.00111 . It

9280-643: The main entrance bordering on Tai'an town, up the entire mountain can take two and a half hours for the sprinting hiker to six hours for the leisure pace. Reaching the Midway Gate to Heaven from First Gate to Heaven is one hour at a sprint up to two and a half hours leisurely. To the northeast of the Palace to Goddess Dou Mu is Sutra Rock Valley in which the Buddhist Diamond Sutra was cut in characters measuring fifty centimeters across believed to be inscribed in

9396-760: The method of Chinese phonetic instruction in mainland China . The ISO adopted pinyin as the standard romanization for modern Chinese in 1982 (ISO 7098:1982, superseded by ISO 7098:2015). The United Nations followed suit in 1986. It has also been accepted by the government of Singapore , the United States's Library of Congress , the American Library Association , and many other international institutions. Pinyin assigns some Latin letters sound values which are quite different from those of most languages. This has drawn some criticism as it may lead to confusion when uninformed speakers apply either native or English assumed pronunciations to words. However, this problem

9512-404: The more convenient form ju is used instead of jü . Genuine ambiguities only happen with nu / nü and lu / lü , which are then distinguished by an umlaut. Many fonts or output methods do not support an umlaut for ü or cannot place tone marks on top of ü . Likewise, using ü in input methods is difficult because it is not present as a simple key on many keyboard layouts. For these reasons v

9628-490: The most common way to transcribe them in English. Pinyin has also become the dominant Chinese input method in mainland China, in contrast to Taiwan, where bopomofo is most commonly used. Families outside of Taiwan who speak Mandarin as a mother tongue use pinyin to help children associate characters with spoken words which they already know. Chinese families outside of Taiwan who speak some other language as their mother tongue use

9744-518: The mountain playing an important role in the development of both Buddhism and Taoism . Mount Tai is a tilted fault-block mountain with height increasing from the north to the south. It is the oldest example of a paleo-metamorphic formation from the Cambrian Period in eastern China, and is known as the Taishan Complex . The uplift of the region started in the Proterozoic Era; by the end of

9860-600: The mountain who were not nobles have also played an important role in the history of communities near the mountain and pilgrimage across China. In 2003, Mount Tai attracted around six million visitors. A renovation project was completed in late October 2005, which aimed at restoring cultural relics and renovating damaged buildings of cultural significance. Widely known for its special ceremonies and sacrifices, Mount Tai has seen visits by many poets and literary scholars who have traveled there to gain inspiration. There are grandiose temples, many stone inscriptions and stone tablets with

9976-532: The mural painting "The God of Mount Tai Making a Journey", dated to the year 1009. The mural extends around the eastern, western and northern walls of the hall and is 3.3 meters (11 ft) high and 62 meters (203 ft) long. The theme of the painting is an inspection tour by the god. Next to the Palace of Heavenly Blessings stand the Yaocan Pavilion and the entrance archway as well as the Bronze Pavilion in

10092-564: The names of several pinyin letters using -ê finals. According to the Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet , ng can be abbreviated with the shorthand ŋ . However, this shorthand is rarely used due to difficulty of entering it on computers. (Starts with the vowel sound in f a ther and ends in the velar nasal ; like s ong in some dialects of American English) An umlaut is added to ⟨ u ⟩ when it occurs after

10208-510: The northeast corner. The Dai Temple is surrounded by 2,100‑year‑old cypresses that date back to the Han dynasty. The oldest surviving stair may be the 6,000 granite steps to the top of the mountain. The site contains a number of well-preserved steles from the Huizong reign, some of which are mounted on bixi tortoises. There is a much later, Qianlong era bixi -mounted stele as well. The Shrine of

10324-521: The original Mount Heng meant that for much of the eras of fragmentation, the region was either under non-Han rulers or a contested area. The shrines built to perform the rites were neglected and damaged from time and natural disasters. The decline was especially acute after the overthrow of the Yuan dynasty when the local population fell sharply after the wars. This created opportunities for Ming dynasty officials who were natives of Shanxi to spread rumours that

10440-412: The outline of Mount Tai was basically formed today. Due to its height, Mount Tai also has a vertical climate change. The lower part of the mountain is a warm temperate zone and the top of the mountain is a medium temperate zone. The mountain is cloudy and foggy, with an average annual precipitation of 1132mm, while the surrounding area receives only 750mm. Taishan scattering coverage rate reaches 80%. On

10556-545: The pinyin letters assigned to each initial are accompanied by their phonetic realizations in brackets, notated according to the International Phonetic Alphabet . In each cell below, the first line indicates the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcription, the second indicates pinyin for a standalone (no-initial) form, and the third indicates pinyin for a combination with an initial. Other than finals modified by an -r , which are omitted,

10672-412: The pinyin system, four main tones of Mandarin are shown by diacritics: ā, á, ǎ, and à. There is no symbol or diacritic for the neutral tone: a. The diacritic is placed over the letter that represents the syllable nucleus , unless that letter is missing. Tones are used in Hanyu Pinyin symbols, and they do not appear in Chinese characters. Tones are written on the finals of Chinese pinyin. If the tone mark

10788-411: The practice to use "LYU" and "NYU" in passports. Although nüe written as nue , and lüe written as lue are not ambiguous, nue or lue are not correct according to the rules; nüe and lüe should be used instead. However, some Chinese input methods support both nve / lve (typing v for ü ) and nue / lue . The pinyin system also uses four diacritics to mark the tones of Mandarin . In

10904-602: The red gate at the foot of the mountain to the South Heaven Gate at the top are some 6,660 stone steps, which wind their way up the mountain slopes, each step offering a different view. The "Shibapan" ( 十八盘 ) means 18 levels stairs, which is the most advantageous part of stairs in Mount Tai. A total of 1,827 stone steps, is one of the main signs Mount Tai. People always say: "Mount Tai of the majestic, all in Shibapan, Mount Tai of

11020-570: The relevant rites to continue to be performed in the historic Beiyue Temple . The movement for the change persisted after the demise of the Ming dynasty and into the Qing dynasty. Finally, Emperor Shunzhi consented to have the rites to be moved to Shanxi as well. "Lofty Mountain" ( 嵩山 ), Henan, 1,494 m (4,902 ft) 34°29′5″N 112°57′37″E  /  34.48472°N 112.96028°E  / 34.48472; 112.96028 In Chinese Buddhism ,

11136-482: The result appears very similar to modern Hanyu Pinyin. Hanyu Pinyin was designed by a group of mostly Chinese linguists, including Wang Li , Lu Zhiwei , Li Jinxi , Luo Changpei , as well as Zhou Youguang (1906–2017), an economist by trade, as part of a Chinese government project in the 1950s. Zhou, often called "the father of pinyin", worked as a banker in New York when he decided to return to China to help rebuild

11252-491: The sacrifices marked the attainment of the "great peace". By the time of the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–256 BC) sacrifices at Mount Tai had become highly ritualized ceremonies in which a local feudal lord would travel there to make sacrifices of food and jade ritual items. These would then be arranged in a ritually correct pattern before being buried on the mountain. In the Spring and Autumn period (771–476 BC)

11368-418: The second vowel instead. Pinyin tone marks appear primarily above the syllable nucleus—e.g. as in kuài , where k is the initial, u the medial, a the nucleus, and i is the coda. There is an exception for syllabic nasals like /m/ , where the nucleus of the syllable is a consonant: there, the diacritic will be carried by a written dummy vowel. When the nucleus is / ə / (written e or o ), and there

11484-443: The sound lü or nü , particularly people with the surname 吕 ( Lǚ ), a fairly common surname, particularly compared to the surnames 陆 ( Lù ), 鲁 ( Lǔ ), 卢 ( Lú ) and 路 ( Lù ). Previously, the practice varied among different passport issuing offices, with some transcribing as "LV" and "NV" while others used "LU" and "NU". On 10 July 2012, the Ministry of Public Security standardized

11600-657: The spirit of Mount Heng had abandoned the original location and settled on Xuanwu Mountain in Hunyuan County in Shanxi . Between the reigns of Emperor Hongzhi and Emperor Wanli , they kept petitioning the emperors to declare the change and decree for the rites for the Northern Great Mountain to be shifted there. In 1586, Emperor Wanli opted a compromise by re-designating the Xuanwu Mountain as Mount Heng, but ordered

11716-493: The standard written language prior to the early 1900s. In particular, Chinese characters retain semantic cues that help distinguish differently pronounced words in the ancient classical language that are now homophones in Mandarin. Thus, Chinese characters remain indispensable for recording and transmitting the corpus of Chinese writing from the past. Pinyin is not designed to transcribe varieties other than Standard Chinese, which

11832-595: The subjects of imperial pilgrimage by emperors throughout ages. They are associated with the supreme God of Heaven and the five main cosmic deities of traditional Chinese religion . The group associated with Buddhism is referred to as the Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism ( 四大佛教名山 ; Sì dà fójiào míngshān ), and the group associated with Taoism is referred to as the Four Sacred Mountains of Taoism ( 四大道教名山 ; Sì dà dàojiào míngshān ). The sacred mountains have all been important destinations for pilgrimage,

11948-477: The sublime, all in the climb in!" Shibapan has three parts, the "Slow Eighteens"( 慢十八 ), the "Hard Eighteens"( 紧十八 ), and the "No slow no hard Eighteens" ( 不紧不慢又十八 ). The "Slow Eighteens" means this period is easier to climb, and the "Hard Eighteens" means it is harder to climb, which is interesting. A flight of 7,200 total steps (including inner temple steps), with 6,293 Official Mountain Walkway Steps, lead up

12064-528: The summits of the Five Great Mountains. Every visit took place at the same time of the year. The excursions were hunting trips and ended in ritual offerings to the reigning god. The emperors, starting with the First Emperor of Qin , formalized these expeditions and incorporated them into state ritual as prescribed by Confucianism. With every new dynasty, the new emperor hurried to the Five Great Mountains in order to lay claim to his newly acquired domains. Barring

12180-412: The taboo of sharing the same personal name as Emperor Wen of Han . The appellations Heng and Chang were used extensively in the past to name various districts in the region, such as Changshan Prefecture ( 常山郡 ), Hengshan Prefecture ( 恒山郡 ), and Hengzhou ( 恒州 ). While it was customary of the ethnic Han emperors to order rites to be performed regularly to honour the Five Great Mountains, the location of

12296-427: The tradition of imperial visits to Mount Tai. Writers also came to acquire inspiration, to compose poems, write essays, paint and take pictures. Hence, a great many cultural relics were left on the mountain. The Dongyue Emperor ( Chinese : 東嶽大帝 ; pinyin : Dōngyuè Dàdì ) is the supreme god of Mount Tai. According to one mythological tradition, he is a descendant of Pangu. According to other theologies, he

12412-441: The use of a non-pinyin romanization system, such as one that uses final consonants to indicate tones. Technically, i, u, ü without a following vowel are finals, not medials, and therefore take the tone marks, but they are more concisely displayed as above. In addition, ê [ɛ] ( 欸 ; 誒 ) and syllabic nasals m ( 呒 , 呣 ), n ( 嗯 , 唔 ), ng ( 嗯 , 𠮾 ) are used as interjections or in neologisms ; for example, pinyin defines

12528-414: The viewer. Another theory is that weather eroded the original calligraphic inscription. Visitors can reach the peak of Mount Tai via a bus which terminates at the Midway Gate to Heaven , from there a cable car connects to the summit. Covering the same distance on foot takes from two and a half to six hours. The supplies for the many vendors along the road to the summit are carried up by porters either from

12644-435: The vowel), a nucleus vowel, and coda (final vowel or consonant). Diacritics are used to indicate the four tones found in Standard Chinese, though these are often omitted in various contexts, such as when spelling Chinese names in non-Chinese texts. Hanyu Pinyin was developed in the 1950s by a group of Chinese linguists including Wang Li , Lu Zhiwei , Li Jinxi , Luo Changpei and Zhou Youguang , who has been called

12760-527: The warm continental monsoon climate (Koppen Dwb ). Meteorological data is not available. The regular climate is molly to -2 degrees Celsius. Vegetation covers 79.9% of the area, which is densely wooded, but information about its composition is lacking. The flora is diverse and known to comprise 989 species, of which 433 species are woody and the rest herbaceous. Medicinal plants total 462 species and include multiflower knotweed, Cannabis, Taishan ginseng, Chinese gromwell and sealwort, which are renowned throughout

12876-519: Was authored in January 1956 by Ye Laishi , Lu Zhiwei and Zhou Youguang. A revised Pinyin scheme was proposed by Wang Li, Lu Zhiwei and Li Jinxi, and became the main focus of discussion among the group of Chinese linguists in June 1956, forming the basis of Pinyin standard later after incorporating a wide range of feedback and further revisions. The first edition of Hanyu Pinyin was approved and officially adopted at

12992-580: Was famous for being for "The most secluded place in China". 30°58′35.73″N 103°30′59.90″E  /  30.9765917°N 103.5166389°E  / 30.9765917; 103.5166389 . The term "Three Mountains" ( 三山 ) has varied meanings. The Three Sacred Mountains commonly refer to: The Three Famous Mountains are: The Three Holy Mountain Peaks at Yading , Daocheng County : Download coordinates as: Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin , or simply pinyin ,

13108-590: Was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It meets 7 of the 10 evaluation standards of World Heritage, and is listed as a World Heritage site that meets the most standards, along with the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area in Australia . An earthquake or thunderstorm occurred in Mount Tai in 1831 BC or 1652 BC, also known as Mount Tai earthquake . This event was first recorded in

13224-521: Was not a linguist by trade. Hanyu Pinyin incorporated different aspects from existing systems, including Gwoyeu Romatzyh (1928), Latinxua Sin Wenz (1931), and the diacritics from bopomofo (1918). "I'm not the father of pinyin", Zhou said years later; "I'm the son of pinyin. It's [the result of] a long tradition from the later years of the Qing dynasty down to today. But we restudied the problem and revisited it and made it more perfect." An initial draft

13340-552: Was originally founded during the Jin dynasty and is connected with the eccentric monk named Budai , who is considered to have been an emanation of Maitreya . Fanjingshan ( 梵净山 ; Fànjìngshān ), part of the Wuling Mountains in Tongren , Guizhou , is another sacred mountain associated with Maitreya. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Fanjing shan is also often claimed to be

13456-451: Was the value of the mountains to human existence as a spring of welfare and fertility, as the birthplace of rivers, as a place where herbs and medicinal plants grew and as a source of materials to build houses and tools. A basic element of Taoist thought was, and still is, an intuitive feeling of connectedness with nature. As early as the fourth century, the Taoists presented the high priests with

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