The paths up Hengshan are as much a pilgrimage as a hike. For centuries the mountain has been climbed by people coming to burn incense and worship, and every year large numbers still arrive from East and Southeast Asia and from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The routes pass temple after temple, because Hengshan is where the southern Chan school and the Tiantai and Caodong schools took root, and where Daoism keeps its third grotto-heaven, the Zhuling, among the thirty-six of its tradition, along with three of its blessed grounds. The monk Huihai is said to have brought Buddhism to the mountain in 503, and the monk Huisi founded the Prajna and Small Prajna monasteries in 568, the buildings now known as Fuyan and the sutra hall; a Sui emperor later ordered a temple built here. Hu Anguo and his son, together with Zhu Xi and Zhang Shi, once taught in a hall on the mountain and founded the Huxiang school of learning. The way to the top, then, is lined with the marks of that long history, and the modern pilgrim climbs past shrines that earlier generations of monks and masters raised.
From the journal
The mountain behind Hengyang
Hengshan rises from the Xiang River plain north of Hengyang, its granite flanks covered in temples and walked for centuries. The paths climb to Zhurong Peak, where a Ming shrine to the fire god crowns the summit, and pilgrims still come to burn incense.
In the same city · Hengyang ↗The four paths up the mountain
The summit and the view
Zhurong Peak is the highest of Hengshan's seventy-two peaks, at just over 1,300 metres above the Xiang River plain. The peak takes its name from Zhurong, the fire god, who is said to have roamed here, and it carries a shrine to him that was built in the Ming dynasty. From the top the eye runs out over the basin that Hengyang occupies, the plain broken by the red hills and the river bending through it. The summit is also the vantage point for the mountain's weather: a sea of cloud that forms after rain, and the ring of coloured light the sources call Buddha's halo. Before dawn people gather on the viewing platform to watch the sun rise, and on clear nights the high peak is used for watching the stars, with a festival held for the Orionid meteor shower. To reach it, generations of famous visitors, Han Yu, Tan Sitong, Zhang Daqian and Ye Jianying among them, made the climb and left verse behind, so the summit is as much a written place as a physical one.
The mountain in the present
The mountain today is a managed scenic area and a national nature reserve, and its winter has become one of its seasons. Because Hengshan stands high, rime ice and frost form on the trees in winter, a sight the local tourist office turns into a festival and a photography contest. New Year climbers come in large numbers to climb for good fortune, the spring festivals such as the Guanyin's birthday and the Shengdi festival draw crowds large enough that the authorities must control traffic, and before the university examinations students and parents climb to pray for success. A visitor service centre below the peak, opened in 2010, funnels people onto the paths, and the whole site holds the country's 5A rating. The mountain is also a place of repair and argument: the smoke of incense has pressed the authorities to write a standard for ritual incense, and private temples have been taken back into public and religious hands. Through it all the mountain keeps its older work, the receiving of pilgrims who climb its paths to burn incense and worship as they have for centuries.