A Study on the Establishment of Wudang Guard and Its Context of Geographical and Environmental Fengshui Survey

LIU Zhixiong, YAN Rong

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the real institutional attribute of the Wudang Guard, reveal the integration mechanism between military survey techniques of the Ming Dynasty and Taoist geographical and environmental fengshui craftsmanship of Wudang, and reconstruct the collaborative operation mode of imperial mountain construction. Based on first‑hand historical materials such as Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty, Taiyue Taihe Mountain Gazetteer and stone inscriptions, it examines the institutional origin, power responsibility boundary of the Wudang Guard, sorts out its engineering practices in mountain site survey, Taoist temple site selection and water system regulation, and traces the inheritance chain of the craftsmanship from the Ming Dynasty to contemporary times. The Wudang Guard was not a statutorily independent military unit, but a supporting garrison force detached from the Junzhou Defense Battalion and stationed in Wudang Mountain. It formed a three‑in‑one mountain construction paradigm of “Taoist pattern judgment field survey by garrison troops‑project implementation”. Refined over the Ming and Qing dynasties and sustained by Xu Benshan in the Republican era, this craftsmanship has been fully restored and passed on by the contemporary core inheritor Liu Kaifu, with Yan Tianrong and Yin Tianfu among his successors. The practical survey methods introduced by the Wudang Guard make up for the deficiency of traditional fengshui which overemphasizes theoretical deduction. This composite mountain construction craftsmanship possesses important historical documentary and living cultural research value.

Keywords

Wudang GuardWei-Suo System of the Ming DynastyGeographical and environmental fengshui surveyTaiyue Taihe MountainMountain constructionCraftsmanship inheritance

References

  1. Hu G, et al. Veritable Records of the Ming Taizong [M]. Taipei: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 1962.
  2. Ren Z. Taiyue Taihe Mountain Gazetteer [M]. Wuhan: Hubei People’s Press, 2017.
  3. Zhang T. History of the Ming Dynasty [M]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1974.
  4. Yang L. A Brief History of Wudang Taoism [M]. Beijing: Religious Culture Press, 2006.
  5. Local Chronicles Compilation Office. Huguang Provincial Records of the Jiajing Reign [M]. Wuhan: Photocopied Ancient‑Book Collection of Hubei Provincial Library, 1952.
  6. Gao D. The Historical Experience and Contemporary Enlightenment of Xu Benshan, the Chief Taoist of Wudang Mountain, in Formulating the Rules and Regulations Notice [J]. China Taoism, 2025(1):65-68.
  7. Compilation Committee of Wudang Mountain Local Chronicles. Wudang Mountain Chronicles [M]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1994.