Page 765 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

LUOTIAN DAJIAO 7 2 3

and its temples. Although the Jinshu (History of the Jin; trans. Davis and Ch' en
1941; Sailey 1978, 521-32) claims that Ge died at Luofu shan (possibly another
Luofu shan), Ge himself mentions the mountains only once in his *Baopu zi
(within a list of places for immortality practices; trans. Ware 1966, 194), and
it is unlikely that he would have traveled so far from his native Jiangnan ili¥]
to what was then a frontier area. Taoism (and Buddhism) flourished in the
Luofu Mountains during the late Six Dynasties and the Tang, and what is still
now the main temple, the Chongxu guan * fii[ Il (Abbey for the Veneration
of Emptiness, this title granted in 1087), seems to have been founded around
the mid-seventh century.
During the Song, Yuan, and Ming periods, we find several references to
the Luofu Mountains and their Taoists (Buddhism waned there during the
premodern period), and to the Offering (*jiao) rituals organized there every
year by officials and common people alike. But the Luofu Mountains gained
prominence as a major Taoist institution only during the eighteenth century,
when they came under the management of a succession of dynamic *Quan-
zhen leaders. Since then, these mountains have been the spiritual heart and
the ordination center for a rather isolated pocket of Quanzhen monasticism in
Guangdong, with offshoot monasteries in nearby cities, such as the Xuanmiao
guan ~ ~)W!. (Abbey of Mysterious Wonder) in Huizhou and the Sanyuan
gong'=: j[ '@; (Palace of the Three Primes) in Guangzhou, which themselves
created a lay Quanzhen movement still very active in Hong Kong.
The monasteries of the Luofu Mountains, largely destroyed during the
civil wars, were rebuilt by the famous Quanzhen historian *Chen Minggui in
1865-78. Destroyed again during the Cultural Revolution, they are now being
rebuilt with massive support from the Hong Kong Quanzhen community,
which claims the Luofu Mountains as its ancestral land.

Vincent GOOSSAERT
m Soymie 1956

;:si TAOIST SACRED SITES

luotian dajiao

Great Offering of All Heaven

Luotian dajiao is one of several terms used to designate the most comprehensive
Taoist *jiao (Offering) ceremonies. It occurs already in the ritual documents