Forging the Sacred

The Rise and Reimaging of Mount Jizu 雞足山 in Ming-Qing Buddhist Geography

Bibliographic Data

ID3585562
AuthorsDewei Zhang (0000-0002-5535-3431, Jinan University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume16
Issue7
Pages851
Publication date2025-06-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel16070851
OpenAlexW4411961908
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited23

From the mid-Ming to early Qing dynasties, Mount Jizu 雞足山 in Yunnan achieved unexpected prominence within China's Buddhist sacred landscape-an event of regional, national, and transnational significance. Employing an explicit comparative lens that juxtaposes Jizu with China's core-region sacred sites like Mount Wutai and Emei, this study investigates the timing, regional dynamics, institutional mechanisms, and causal drivers behind the rapid ascent. Rejecting teleological narratives, it traces the mountain's trajectory through four developmental phases to address critical historiographical questions: how did a peripheral Yunnan site achieve national prominence within a remarkably compressed timeframe? By what mechanisms could its sacred authority be constructed to inspire pilgrimages even across vast distances? Which historical agents and processes orchestrated these transformations, and how did the mountain's symbolic meaning shift dynamically over time? Departing from earlier scholarship that privileges regional and secular frameworks, this work not only rebalances the emphasis on religious dimensions but also expands the analytical scope beyond regional confines to situate Mount Jizu within national and transnational frameworks. Eventually, by analyzing the structural, institutional, and agential dynamics-spanning local, imperial, and transnational dimensions-this study reveals how the mountain's sacralization emerged from the convergence of local agency, acculturative pressures, state-building imperatives, late-Ming Buddhist revival, literati networks, and the strategic mobilization of symbolic capital. It also reveals that Mount Jizu was not a static sacred site but a dynamic arena of contestation and negotiation, where competing claims to spiritual authority and cultural identity were perpetually redefined

Ancient history · Archaeology · Buddhism · Geography · Mount · Chinese history and philosophy · Engineering · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Mechanical Engineering

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