Mt. Song Shan

Songshan, the Central Peak of China's Five Sacred Mountains, has hosted sacred practice for over two millennia. It is the birthplace of Chan Buddhism, home to one of China's earliest Taoist temples, and site of one of the four great Confucian academies. The UNESCO World Heritage inscription covers eleven monument groups spanning the full breadth of Chinese religious and intellectual history.

In the ancient Chinese understanding of sacred geography, the five cardinal directions each have a guardian mountain. Songshan is the Central Peak, not merely the middle of the group but the axis around which the cosmos turns. The emperor who sacrificed at Songshan was affirming his mandate to rule from the center of the world.

Bodhidharma came from India to China and eventually to Shaolin Temple, where tradition holds he found the monks too physically weak for the rigors of meditation. He retreated to a cave on Wuru Peak and sat facing the wall for nine years, his shadow said to have been burned into the rock. His teaching was direct pointing at the mind, no dependence on words, transmission beyond scripture. This teaching became Chan Buddhism.

In 621 CE, thirteen Shaolin monks armed with staffs helped Li Shimin, later Emperor Taizong of Tang, escape captivity. Their military assistance was rewarded with imperial patronage, including permission for the monks to eat meat and drink wine, privileges unique in Chinese monastic history. This event cemented the bond between martial arts and Buddhist practice at Shaolin.