Page 644 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

602 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM A-L

the emperor underwent Taoist investiture rites and changed the reign title to
Perfected Lord of Great Peace (Taiping zhenjun :;t -+~tn·
Thereafter Cui began to exploit his power by railing against the Buddhist
clergy and, in 446, organized a large-scale persecution of all sorts of popular
practitioners and especially Buddhists, who were believed to be cooperating
with various rebellious forces (Eberhard 1949, 229). After Kou's death in 448,
Cui became even more megalomaniac and turned to actively insulting the
Toba rulers. Not standing for any more of this, they had him executed in 450,
and the Taoist theocracy thus came to a swift and unceremonious end.
LiviaKOHN

m Mather 1979; Mather 1987; Ozaki Masaharu 1979; Qing Xitai 1988-95, I:
401-15; Robinet 1997b, 74-76; Sunayama Minoru 1990, 69-92; Tang Yongtong
and Tang Yijie 1961; Yamada Toshiaki 1995b

* Laojun yinsongjiejing; Tianshi dao

Kunlun

Kunlun (also called Kunling ~ ~, Kunqiu ~ li, Kunlun xu ~ ~ ~jt ete.), an
axis mundi in traditional Chinese cosmology, is a mythical mountain located
in the distant West, the abode of the goddess *Xiwang mu (Queen Mother
of the West), and a counterpart to the three isles of the transcendents in the
eastern seas (see *Penglai). In Eastern Zhou textual sources, such as Mu tianzi
zhuan f~ AT 1. (Biography of Mu, Son of Heaven; ca. 350 BCE; trans. Mathieu
1978) and the earlier chapters of Shanhai jing ill #if: ~M (Scripture of Mountains
and Seas; fourth/third century BCE?; trans. Mathieu 1983), Kunlun appears
as just one among many fabulous mountains in the West. Only the "ancient
text" version of the Zhushu jinian t'J. f:;c fr (Bamboo Annals; originally ca.
300 BCE), makes an explicit link between Xiwang mu and Mount Kunlun. The
idea that Xiwang mu resided on Kunlun become prevalent during the second
century CE (Wu Hung 1987, II9), by which time the mountain's status had
increased accordingly.
The Shanhaijing's descriptions center on the mountain's fabulous flora and
fauna, with a growing emphasis on their immortality-bestowing properties
in the later chapters. Besides describing Xiwang mu and her attendants, the
text mentions a Xuanyuan tai Ilq IP¥ r$: (Terrace of Xuanyuan, i.e., *Huangdi),
surrounding mountains and streams, and a nearby country called Wo 1)( (Fer-