Qianshan: Pines, Stone and the Shape of a Mountain
A rock cleft, a named pine and a terrace beneath a temple roof offer three scales for reading Qianshan. The pear-growing country adds a fourth: a mountain landscape that also produces a harvest.
Qianshan, in Anshan, gathers several landscapes into one name: exposed rock, pine-lined ridges, temple compounds and the pear-growing country around the mountain. Its Buddhist monasteries and Daoist establishments occupy particular slopes and ledges rather than a single, unified sacred precinct. A slit of sky inside a rock cleft, a hall fitted to a terrace and a succession of ridges each reveal a different scale of the mountain. Religious communities have fitted their buildings and practices to this varied terrain.
A rock cleft, a named pine and a terrace beneath a temple roof offer three scales for reading Qianshan. The pear-growing country adds a fourth: a mountain landscape that also produces a harvest.